Sorry, but its time to give John Fox some credit

[Vagrant]

Look if you want to make that argument, and give Fox crap about Delhomme, thats fine. But its a different argument. To say players are the sole reason of theses blowouts. And has nothing to do with the coaching, game planning, or play calling is a little strong.

Game planning in the NFL is highly overrated. The lion's share of the work is preparing your players, individually, to produce at their position. If they take care of their business individually then the team WILL have success no matter what play is called. That is predicated on talent of course. We all know this team does not lack the talent to be an elite team. We saw it last season and this is the same group. We saw it the past two games. The play calling didn't change much. What changed was the player running the most important position on the field and when that changed, as did our fortunes.

These guys run the same plays week in and week out. These defenses run the same packages week in and week out. There was nothing special about what we did today against the Giants. What was special was the individual dedication that each player was able to muster because they had faith that the other side of the ball would take care of them in the event that they made some big plays. That mutual trust was NOT there when Jake was at the helm of this squad. That mutual trust is back.

[pantherpain]

Every season people say this. Next season Fox will learn from his mistakes. Next season we'll draft/develop/sign a #2 WR. Next season Fox will stop over ruling his coordinators. Next season Fox will manage to win back to back.

It's always going to be 1 more or next season with fox here.

[mav1234]

It's a combination. The defense has played very well all season, really giving up few points overall per game. However, the offense consistently made it tough for them, either threw Jake's INTs, untimely fumbles, or just poor play. Ultimately, the offense did NOT get it done in most of the games this season. You can blame that on Fox, and he certainly deserves some of it. But you also have to place some of the blame on the players.

The fact is the Panthers playcalling, ESPECIALLY in the Vikings game, was PHENOMENAL. You could see the defense was ready for what they tried to do on every play. The offense had the right calls dialed up and Moore made the Vikings pay with his legs & his arm. The coaches put these guys in a position to succeed and they ran with it, running over the Vikings and now the Giants.