An Important Four Game Stretch..

[ItsPantone278]

If you're a part of the (seemingly dwindling) group of people who still care to look for anything 'positive' from the Panthers this season, the next four games should be very interesting. We are coming off of a bye with a home, away, away, home non-divisional mini-series before we kick off our second run in the division at home against the Bucs week 11.

The Cowboys are a team that we can beat(not saying we should but we absolutely can). They have a good defense, but its no shutdown defense like Seatle. I've accepted the fact that we are going to struggle at times offensively. Especially now that Kalil is down. But we still have Cam.

I really am hoping to see him over come the adversity this season and at least be able to continue to show progression. You have to be honest. No matter how 'realistic' you want to be when setting your expectations, please be honest... you know you want to see Cam shoulder this and some how pull the season out of the dumpster. Nobody is talking playoffs anymore, I'm just talking about being able to feel good about the team again.

A lot of people said the Panthers just weren't quite a playoff team yet before the season even started. I think its obvious why. But do you really think we are that far away from the Bears? The same Bears with hot head Jay Cutler getting sacked all night against the Packerson THF. They've since put up 34 the next week and 41 last week, but that was against the Cowboys and the Jaguars. Not really playoff competition there. Nothing like we've faced the last 3 weeks. It would be a steal if we won, but I feel like there can be some hope here. [sarcasm]maybe nakamura will hawk a few of those Romo INTs[/sarcasm]

Washington I kind of worry about. Scary to think of all of that speed at skill positions with our poor tackling. Any play could go the distance if we can't fix this major flaw in the defense. I mean guys are right there to make the play, and they completely whiff on the tackle. They don't have a shutdown defense either, so we should be able to score some, but that may be one of the better offense we face when looking back on the season. No telling what the O/U will be for this game.

We come home to close out this four game stretch with the much anticipated 'John Fox returns to Charlotte with his Peyton Manning lead Denver Broncos.' Fox will be up for this game of course, outside of the fact that will likely be a very important game for a playoff hopeful Peyton Manning. I don't care how positive you are, from what this coaching staff has shown as far as intensity you've got to have some concerns here. We win this one at home some how this could the makings of major upset. Of course I would never bet on that though.

I know a lot of people are sick of the option, but finding a way to get it going is going to be very important to this team. The staff, IMO, has committed to the belief that the best way to feature all of these runners is with the option. I think we have to see them do more with the pass early in the game to open up lanes within the various formations. Use the option to attack those lanes and kill them with the misdirection. That has to be the idea. Right now we are running on 8-9 man fronts, and when Cam does have time he struggles to make the right decision.

Theres still a chance things can turn around for the better. Even though last year we came off of a Bye we got smoked off in a 3 point outing against the Titans. But if the Panthers are able to turn it around to the tune of 3-1 over the next 4 games, they have a 4-5 record and the home game against the Bucs is a lot more interesting. Even 2-2 gives the team something to play for. But if the team is only able to muster a win at best it could get very ugly for a team two years removed from a 2-14 with the 'ICON'. I would imagine it would be unbelievable difficult for Rivera to keep things together when considering the issues of the recent past.

Should be as interesting next few weeks for better or for worse.

[PhillyB]

i can't read those white-backgrounded text bars without feeling like i'm reading a ransom note constructed of newspaper clippings

seriously why would you do that

[ItsPantone278]

wasn't intentional.. not sure why its like that.

[PhillyB]

its 330am and i'm being an ass. don't worry about it. check the text color button and if there's a background option, take it off (i'm far too lazy to look for it myself.)

regarding your actual post, i'd say the next four games look pretty dismal. cowboys, bears, redskins, broncos? those teams should all beat us with the way they're playing right now. we've come out playing quality football exactly twice this year, and one time we barely beat one of the league's worst teams and the other time we came up short because our suckiness got exposed.

i've always considered myself to be about as optimistic as they come, but i fully expect to get trounced in embarrassing format by at least two of those teams. i've been preparing myself to lose to dallas again for the last week, which is no little task considering my hatred of them.

[YoureWelcome]

I realistically seeing us being 1-8 at the end of this stretch.

I don't think we will have much of a shot in the Dallas, Chicago, and Broncos games. We MAY have a little chance of upsetting the Skins, but not much.

[ItsPantone278]

As bad as we've been, we still have a bit of a wild card factor. I'm sure everyone thought M. Lynch would just run all over us, but we limited him a lot until we wore the defense out going 3 and out over and over on offense. If we can get Cam back on track, the pass rush and linebacking is improving. If we tackle, and play anything close to where we were last year on offense we could be 4-1 and not 1-4.

No idea why the tackling has been so bad, and maybe we've been too cute on offense, but you don't become an NFL player if your unable to tackle, this can be fixed. We can also adjust on offense. We have to now with our best player on IR. We don't have to be a lock down defense if we are scoring points. We are also much better on special teams. I just wish we 'played to win' a bit more, if you know what I'm saying.

[cultclassiccat]

Duck, poo incoming.

[pantherj]

A lot depends on how many mental errors our players are going to commit in each of our remaining games. We have enough talent on the field to compete with just about any team, and the play-calling has been good enough to win most of our games. The reason we're losing is mostly due to terribe mental errors that you wouldn't expect to see from NFL players. We probably would have beaten Atlanta, but Naka made a huge mistake in coverage. We certainly would have beaten the Seahawks, but our RBs started fumbling, and Cam through a dirt ball because he didn't focus and use proper throwing technique. I'm just picking the first terrible mistakes that come to mind. These mental mistakes are the main reason we've been losing. It's been going on all season, and the mistakes are not just coming from one or two players. These are soul crushing, game deciding mistakes, and our opposition hasn't been making them anywhere near as many of them as we have.

The Cowboys defense is going to take away the deep routes, and give Cam some of the short and intermediate routes. They're also going to try and box him in to prevent him from scrambling. The Cowboys, and every other NFL team we'll face this season, are willing to bet that Cam will not use proper throwing technique enough times for our offense to be effective with short passes. They think he'll get frustrated and start throwing undisciplined passes with "any ol' how" throwing technique. Bet your ass he will. Everyone in the NFL knows that Cam will pull that B.S and toss away our chances of winning more often than not.

Rivera needs to tell Cam this before every offensive series: "I don't care what happens out there. I don't care how you feel, or what you see. Use proper throwing technique at all times, no matter what. If you don't, then I'm putting in Anderson. You can pitch a fit, put two towels on your head, or throw a gatorade bottle at one of our empty seats, but your ass will still be on the bench. NO BS THROWS!" Or something like that. I just want to see RR take this team back from the misfits, and start benching players for doing whatever they want. He benched a couple of players in the Seahawks game, but they were our worst starters. I want all of our players to know that they have to remain focused at all times, or go daydream on the bench.

[rayzor]

it all depends on if the team comes out to play...esp. cam.

if the team shows up and has some fire to them we've got a chance against any team on the schedule. if they come in like they did most games this year we're going to see much of the same type games we have so far.

keeping down the number of brain farts they have...stupid fumbles and drops, forgetting where you are in coverage, etc....this will also help.

got my fingers crossed.

[TruCatzFan]

Sorry but I have to do this OP... You left the door wide open bro

An important four game stretch.... Just passed and we failed miserably!

For the first time, I have no expectations... And I'd like to see how that pans out. Hopefully we'll be relevant agin by the time MNF rolls around, if not what a waste

[ItsPantone278]

Rivera needs to tell Cam this before every offensive series: "I don't care what happens out there. I don't care how you feel, or what you see. Use proper throwing technique at all times, no matter what. If you don't, then I'm putting in Anderson.

Sadly, I doubt Rivera has that much power over his own team where he could even say something like that.

[Brooklyn Bully]

Even if we play like we're supposed to, I think Peyton carves us up. The Bears game depends on what Bears team shows up, not what Panthers team. Dallas has solide DBs so it's all on our run game and if we can get to Romo. That's asking a lot. And I think RGIII pulls a 2011 Cam on us and shreds us. At most, I see us winning one game.