The game I saw last night!

[Diogi]

First, It seemed the like Cardinals must have been in our offensive huddle because:

1. they shut down the run.

2. our receivers were never open, and the Cardinal DB's were jumping the

routes.

I've wondered from the time Davidson was hired why so many fans were so excited. Isn't Davidson an ex-lineman? How do you make an ex-lineman the architect of your offense? I think the offensive co-ordinator should be someone whose entire football experience was focused on moving the football into the end zone, not on knocking somebody down. Ex-linemen should be line coaches.

Second, I always seeing "with the talent we have" posts from you homers.

Get over yourself. This is the NFL, the Panthers(that I've loved from the time they got Sam Mills) are not more talent-laden then many of the other teams. Quite the contrary. The Cardinal receivers are very much better than ours. The Cardinal DB's are much, much better that ours( nobody open all game). As far as line play, their defensive line stopped the run game, and their offensive line gave Warner all day back there.

Third, the Cardinals coaches had them much better prepared than we were.

Many people are putting the blame on Jake. What would you have him do, throw the ball out of bounds three times in a row and then punt on every series? He tried to make something from nothing and it didn't happen last night. On the other side, the defense couldn't stop the Cardinals. The team with the best players and the best coaching won. But the Panthers are still MY TEAM, and I'm proud of the season they had.

[Kettle]

they didn't shut down the run. we abandoned it. Williams 5 ypc. Stewart 4. only 16 rushes the whole game.

[SKULL]

Panthers shut down the run when they fell behind and panicked [sp]

[Wither]

Overall, besides some points, this is the best thread (opening post) I've ever seen on this forum.

[goncrazi]

First, It seemed the like Cardinals must have been in our offensive huddle because:

1. they shut down the run.

2. our receivers were never open, and the Cardinal DB's were jumping the

routes.

Like Klong said, they didn't really shut down the run, we didn't have the opportunity to fully utilize it. As for them jumping routes, maybe they saw something about Jake's release on film, or maybe Jake was staring down receivers... who knows?

I've wondered from the time Davidson was hired why so many fans were so excited. Isn't Davidson an ex-lineman? How do you make an ex-lineman the architect of your offense? I think the offensive co-ordinator should be someone whose entire football experience was focused on moving the football into the end zone, not on knocking somebody down. Ex-linemen should be line coaches.

Many fans were excited because Davidson is a Belichick/Weis disciple. He's a smart guy who understands the whole of an offense. Surely you cannot complain about the offense's production this season?

Second, I always seeing "with the talent we have" posts from you homers.

Get over yourself. This is the NFL, the Panthers(that I've loved from the time they got Sam Mills) are not more talent-laden then many of the other teams. Quite the contrary. The Cardinal receivers are very much better than ours. The Cardinal DB's are much, much better that ours( nobody open all game). As far as line play, their defensive line stopped the run game, and their offensive line gave Warner all day back there.

The 2008 Cardinals are a by-product of sucking so badly for so long. Eventually all of those top 10 draft picks are going to start paying off. The difference this year is that the Cardinals have a coach that might actually be worth something.

Frankly, our glaring mistakes made their whole team look great. The Panthers are still the better team, they just didn't play better last night. I really don't see the Cardinals going any further than next week.

Third, the Cardinals coaches had them much better prepared than we were. Many people are putting the blame on Jake. What would you have him do, throw the ball out of bounds three times in a row and then punt on every series? He tried to make something from nothing and it didn't happen last night. On the other side, the defense couldn't stop the Cardinals. The team with the best players and the best coaching won. But the Panthers are still MY TEAM, and I'm proud of the season they had.

The whole team, from the coaches on down, sucked last night. It was a team loss. But Jake did not correct his mistakes as the game went on and was, by far, the worst player on the field. (And this is from a BJDJS!)

[litesabre]

Great post Diogi. We had a team that could have made it further, but we did not play our best. I don't really know what changes need to be made to be better next year, but I will stand behind the team just like I always have. I'm not one to point out what needs to be done because I don't know what all goes on in the background. I just hope they do what needs to be done to make us better.

[Jangler]

I really don't see the Cardinals going any further than next week.

That would be 3 weeks in a row they aren't supposed to get further than next week.

[Wither]

That would be 3 weeks in a row they aren't supposed to get further than next week.

Which is exactly why they are doing so well.

[goncrazi]

Which is exactly why they are doing so well.

Attitude can only take a team so far. Eventually talent wins out.

[Jangler]

I won't be surprised if it were a Ari/SD superbowl

[Pimpdaddy]

First, It seemed the like Cardinals must have been in our offensive huddle because:

1. they shut down the run.

2. our receivers were never open, and the Cardinal DB's were jumping the

routes.

I've wondered from the time Davidson was hired why so many fans were so excited. Isn't Davidson an ex-lineman? How do you make an ex-lineman the architect of your offense? I think the offensive co-ordinator should be someone whose entire football experience was focused on moving the football into the end zone, not on knocking somebody down. Ex-linemen should be line coaches..

Yeah they watched film of our 2003,04,05,06,07 season. they knew what was coming....

[Wither]

Attitude can only take a team so far. Eventually talent wins out.

It's not their attitude; it's the teams they face.

You have it wrong, though; talent only goes so far. Attitude goes the rest. And sometimes, it can go all the way.

I won't be surprised if it were a Ari/SD superbowl

Not a bad assumption.

[Jangler]

Yeah they watched film of our 2003,04,05,06,07 season. they knew what was coming....

oh wait...

[PanthersATL]

The game I saw last night made me angry.

Not disappointed. Angry.

Angry with FOX's camera work - it wasn't until the fourth quarter where they finally showed us a decent shot of a kickoff or punt return. Not everyone loves watching a football game in "Madden View" from behind the goal line. Sure, in replays it's worthwhile, but not when the ball is moving live. Don't get me started on the number of times they came back from a replay or commercial right as the ball was being snapped. You'd think that they'd be more professional during a playoff broadcast.

Angry with FOX's commentators. They are supposed to offer unbiased opinions, but time and time again we hear them continually favoring our opponents. Last night was worse than normal.

Angry with news coverage today. Just saw a news headline, "Cardinals Stun the Panthers". No, they didn't stun us. Why not tell the truth, "Panthers Beat the Panthers".

Angry about how empty the stadium looked as we went into the fourth quarter. Fans were leaving in droves. I don't care that we were getting our butts handed to us on a silver platter (more accurately, serving our butts ourselves to Arizona). This was a playoff game. On a Saturday. It's not like an MNF OT game where everyone needs to go to work the next morning. Suck it up. I don't care that it's raining - you knew the forecast when you woke up that morning. Football is meant to be played outdoors. True fans remember being at that game at Clemson that was played in a virtual monsoon; sure, we were a little damp at the end of it, but that was a small price to pay to watch history. True fans support their team, staying until the last minute, no matter what the score is going to be. There are tons of us out there who would have been more than happy to take your seat if we knew you were going to leave after 30 minutes of game play. Why did you even bother to go to the game?

Angry about the fans that were at the game. Somebody who was there can speak to this point, but on TV it didn't even sound like we had shown up. Were we loud on defense, quiet on offense? Didn't seem that way on TV.

Angry about how the team seemed to not only not want to play for themselves, but they didn't want to play for Mr Richardson. You'd think that Mr Richardson in and of himself would be inspiration enough to go out and win the world this year. Not intending to write a tasteless pun, but the phrase fits: the Panthers played like their heart just wasn't in the game. Mr Richardson deserves better.

But I'm angriest about how we prepared and played. Or didn't, as the case may be. Yes, Jake deserves a lot of blame for how he played. But so do other players for not protecting him, for not getting open, for missing routes, for missing coverage. For our first kickoff after our score, and first punt a few minutes later, both going out of bounds giving the Cards the ball on the 40 yard line? Giving the other team a short field is not how to win the game.

When we went 1-15, it was disappointing. But when you looked at how the team played that year, the games had many close contests that we *could* have won (two went to OT, and eight of the games were lost by 5 pts or less). Disappointing games we can deal with, as the team showed up to play those. Last night, I didn't see any fire beyond the opening 5-play drive. No inspiration, no desire to win.

Yes, I'm angry. I want to be disappointed, but that won't be the case when I look back on what up to now had been a great season.