Brilliant!

[toldozer]

22 minutes ago, ThPantherFan said:

No it's not.  Were they playing a top teared NFL team?  No.

huh?

[Joe Bear]

Falcons cried enough to be top-teared.

Imagine being so unhappy that you can't enjoy a 30-0 win. Could not be me.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, mav1234 said:

Check out their first half drives. Bijan rushed like 10 times and got half his yards for the half on two carries mid way thru the 2nd quarter.  He had 2-3 yards on the vast majority of his rushes in the first half, so they were forced into third and long repeatedly.

Most of that had nothing to do with rushing. It was their insistence to stop doing so. I don't think they had a single negative or zero RB rush, correct?

[Waldo]

1 hour ago, panthers55 said:

I think we are building the defense which is who we are. As for offense we are acquiring good pieces for whoever the QB is. If not Bryce then the next one. Maybe Canales can do something with Hooker. Who knows.

I am skeptical of anything they are building. There is Brown, 2 CBs and Tet for me. Maybe Ickey solidifies in that group or he stays in his current good enough category.

[Waldo]

46 minutes ago, ThPantherFan said:

I'm right there too.  I didn't watch the Panthers.  We are not a Prime Time team.  A blind hog will find an acorn eventually.  I've been a Panthers Fan from the beginning.  When they get their head out of the ass and start looking like a Prime team, then I'll watch.  Not spending hard earned money to go see them play.

I'll watch the first series on both side but if it is a game where one side shows up as DOA then I don't need to waste 4 hours of my Sunday. 3 toilet bowl games in a row is too much for me. It's like the anti-playoffs. 

When I couldn't even find a watchable game on the other channel it was an easy call to just walk away for the day. 

[shaqattaq]

5 hours ago, d-dave said:

Here's one thing I will say about Bryce: despite his size, the game doesn't look to big for him.  Sure, he doesn't have a laser cannon of an arm, but this Bryce is a lot better than the Bryce who started last year.  I'm not seeing the deer in headlights when I watch the game.  How many more physically gifted QBs are we watching week in and week out panic, make poor decisions and look lost?  

IMO, Bryce is pretty damned good as long as he's not under pressure, which he wasn't yesterday. If the opponent is able to pressure him, well...

[Waldo]

56 minutes ago, WUnderhill said:

So you watched a 9 play 61yd TD drive in which the QB was 5/7 for 40+yds and a TD run and were like “what a terrible drive”?

Yeah it was like watching two bottom teams slap fight and play ugly small ball in the preseason to me. hard pass on that personally. 

[Icege]

27 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Most of that had nothing to do with rushing. It was their insistence to stop doing so. I don't think they had a single negative or zero RB rush, correct?

Two of their three 9yds runs came during the 2min warning in the 4th quarter as did one of their 10yd runs.

• 2yds - 5
• 3yds - 5
• 4yds - 2
• 5yds - 1
• 6yds - 2
• 7yds - 1
• 9yds - 3
• 10yds - 2
• 17yds - 1

Didn't stop any for less than 2yds, but they had nearly as many 2-3yd runs as they did the rest combined. ESPN's play-by-play shows that they came out slinging the ball around in their opening drive but then they went back to unsuccessfully attempting to establish the run until they needed to throw it.

For example, on their second drive of the game they ran it twice to get to 3rd & 1 only to get a delay of game and throw an incompletion on 3rd & 6. Their third drive started with a run and then a screen that got stuffed for -5. That led to an incompletion on 3rd & 13. Their fourth drive started with a healthy mix but then they called three passes in a row on a new set of downs and went nowhere. Their fifth drive had four runs in a row to set up an incompletion on 3rd & 5. The sixth drive was the pick-6 so their seventh drive only had two runs called due to being down 17-0. Their eighth drive came while down 20-0. 

They were playing hard to try and at least get a field goal on their final drive. They ran that s.o.b. six times in a row before fumbling it at the end.

The offense, defense, and special teams all did an excellent job in playing complimentary football imo!

Edited September 22 by Icege
Aforementioned play-by-play: https://www.espn.com/nfl/playbyplay/_/gameId/401772838

[45catfan]

1 hour ago, Aussie Tank said:

Did Bryce kick everyone's dog around here? 

No, but most of know this win is the exception rather than the rule.  Yes, winning feels awesome and I know the team really needed that 'W', but if things go the way most think, that feeling will be experienced only a few times this year.

[ForJimmy]

1 hour ago, mav1234 said:

Check out their first half drives. Bijan rushed like 10 times and got half his yards for the half on two carries mid way thru the 2nd quarter.  He had 2-3 yards on the vast majority of his rushes in the first half, so they were forced into third and long repeatedly.

Yep.  Actually watching the first half showed me we kept Bijan in check.  He had a couple long runs to bring their average up but they weren't converting early when they tried running.  We brought in Ransom in the Big Dime package and he was huge against the rung with Moehrig.  Our LBs actually played decent for a change as well.  DB kept their OL busy for the most part as well.  Evero did a good job Sunday.  

[strato]

1 hour ago, Aussie Tank said:

Did Bryce kick everyone's dog around here? 

He is what he is, the ‘dog’ kicker was Tepper. And my dog has been being kicked hard the last three seasons. 
Bryce seems to be a real good kid with a great heart and some attitudes that, if he were in an NFL QB’s body, would take him far.

But he isn’t in an NFL QB’s body and that is the rub. We don’t want three more years of dog kicking. 

Edited September 22 by strato

[frankw]

Shutting out the Falcons is still a uniter for the fanbase for the most part. It's just not in the way it used to be or what it once was for  multiple reasons. People who feel like they aren't seeing enough rejoice over it are missing the point. Instances like this would carry more weight if they were more frequent against our rivals for one. For two. This place also as has been noted before has taken on an echo chamber effect the last several years where all the losing has given way to factions of fans either fully apathetic or fully doubling and tripling down in defense of the powers that be and moves and decisions that have been made. And as a result from that the huddle has also moved to a distinct complete lack of outside views and chatter that in the past had been a source of change of pace entertainment and also more importantly a uniting force for fans here to rally around each other in opposition to. We used to have a number of Falcons fans visiting here over the years and driving home how much we dislike them. Same with the Saints. We even had some visiting Bucs fans from time to time. That's all long gone. Until we get back to instances like this becoming more commonplace nothing will change.

[Loyalty4Life]

I think the defense is playing better this year because Evero finally has enough starter level talent to work with.  Last year I remember reading an breakdown of his defense and why we physically didn't have the players or talent to stop the run and that what he was forced to do to compensate left us wide open for other attacks.  He was damned it you do and damned if  you don't.

Also, I hate when people talk about average yards when you have a huge outlier run.  Chop off the top and the bottom and that's the real average.  You can run for 1 yard 9 times and 80 yards 1 time and get a really good average. 

I hope it continues.