Defense

[Hoenheim]

What happened to our defense?

I know we had two fumble recoveries today, and there may have been a few good plays, but generally, our defense was horrible this game. What exactly is the problem? I thought that we were supposed to have one of the best defenses in the NFL, the way some of the announcers were talking about us near the beginning of the season. But now we are making so many mistakes and we just look awful a majority of the time.

One of the most glaring things that I have noticed is pass defense. What is up with our defensive players' inability to stay with their man? Are the people they are trying to cover just too fast and athletic or what? When you are on some man for a pass play, I thought you were supposed to be quite close to him to either make a play on the ball or at least tackle the man. Even when someone looks like they may be halfway decently covering their man, opposing quarterbacks seem to find ways to make the pass and opposing receivers more often than not make the catch. Is it too much to ask to take a glance or two at the qb to see if he may throw it to your man or not? Even sometimes when our defenders are in front of their man, they are turned around and too occupied with catching up with their man, and the ball ends up sailing right pass their heads.

Another thing I particularly noticed is rush defense. Why is it that quarterbacks we play against seem to have so much time in the pocket to make their decisions? If we applied more pressure (or we had people that were more capable of applying pressure) I have a hunch that we would not have had so many instances where some team we are playing against somehow manages to complete third and long with ease.

I know the NFL can seem to be an offense intensive league sometimes, but defense is so important to a team's success or failure.

[Mr. Scot]

I don't know that anything "happened" so much as maybe they were just never really as good as we thought.

[GRWatcher]

I don't know that anything "happened" so much as maybe they were just never really as good as we thought.

Sadly this could be very true.

[SorthNarolina]

I was at the game in the endzone so I couldn't be quite as observant as I wanted but I seems like Nic Harris isn't doing to well in coverage.

I think the secondary has been overachieving with the amount of pressure we've been getting. They can't stay consistent without consistent pressure.

[Mr. Scot]

Objectively speaking, and regardless of position, Nic Harris is not as good as Dan Connor.

I don't think it's as simple as that, though.

I haven't seen it anywhere. Why was Ed Johnson deactivated today?

[chef17]

Lack of pressure makes any secondary look horrible. And as far as this game goes, I knew our secondary couldn't keep up with their receivers. TJ, Boldin, and Mason are just too good.

[House]

Could be that it is hard to go out and really put forth your full effort when you know that your HC is a dumbass and is intent on starting a 30 year old journey man that really gives you no hope in hell of winning.

yeah, yeah, I know about the whole "they are profesionals" b.s. but poo still gets to you.

[Kevin Greene]

2 Pic sixes in like 14 seconds didn't help the D look any better either. a 23-13 game instantly became a blowout.

[Brooklyn Bully]

They're worn out, the d-line is NOT good, the secondary is nothing special, and now we have injuries. Our stellar LB corps can't do it all, folks. The pre-season fooled so many, and the days of rucker/jenkins/buckner/peppers are long gone.

People need to take a long, hard look at what this team really is. Go ahead, count the number of winning seasons we've had under Fox. Don't coun't 8-8 as a winning season either, because it's not. That's the Panthers most fans know.

I know we love our Panthers, but we're just not that good of a team and maybe never have been. We've had four awesome seasons in our history...four. That's not good enough. I want to be a dynasty. We have a long, long way to go.

[woody]

Yeah they have got to be wearing down mentally and physically. For a lot of games this season they have done their half of the job. Its got to be tough when you force a team to punt knowing that you will be back out there in 3 or 4 plays.

[House]

They're worn out, the d-line is NOT good, the secondary is nothing special, and now we have injuries. Our stellar LB corps can't do it all, folks. The pre-season fooled so many, and the days of rucker/jenkins/buckner/peppers are long gone.

People need to take a long, hard look at what this team really is. Go ahead, count the number of winning seasons we've had under Fox. Don't coun't 8-8 as a winning season either, because it's not. That's the Panthers most fans know.

I know we love our Panthers, but we're just not that good of a team and maybe never have been. We've had four awesome seasons in our history...four. That's not good enough. I want to be a dynasty. We have a long, long way to go.

While I want the Panthers to be a dynasty also, patience.

How long did the Steelers exist before they ran across Chuck Knoll? How long were the Pats around before Bellicheck and their current run of good luck with the Brady pick? How many years did the Colts suffer before they got Manning and Dungy together?

Now I hope that it doesn't take the Panthers nearly as long to become an elite franchise but people have to realize that this is still a young organization and while it is not an elite team yet, we have been pretty good thus far.