The Problem With Our Fanbase

[Urrymonster]

There personel issues you are citing are nothing more than armchair fanboy whinings. How many big plays did nakamura give aside from the one nakamura fail? How can you say that Adams and Norman were mistreated? Gettis hasn't played in two years, how are you so sure he could recreate his average first season? You say this list goes on, but please do as currently I can't see any cut and dry certainties that he mismanaged.

Joe Adams was given a second chance and fumbled it away.

If you think that he mismanaged the players so much, why did they play so hard for him throughout the season?

In my opinion, riveras fault simply lies in closing out close games and not trying to be too smart with the offence.

[2jakefansinva]

our fan base needs some patience with Rivera.

give the man more than one training camp and a few drafts.

he has only been coaching this team for 16 months.

[therealmjl]

Stopped reading at David Gettis.

[Panthro]

The problem with the Panthers fan base is that it's full of Panthers fans....

[rayzor]

low standards.

low expectations.

going from 6-10 to 7-9 is solid progress.

meh....

[Khaki Lackey]

I've always supported D-Will and I hope he is still here next year. I'll admit he's a little overpaid, but damn, good players should be paid well. Not any scrub running back can do what D-Will does. Not to mention he had his career game behind a garbage makeshift o-line.

[SCP]

The problem with the Panthers fan base is that it's full of Panthers fans....

Longshanks for OC!

[Proudiddy]

There personel issues you are citing are nothing more than armchair fanboy whinings. How many big plays did nakamura give aside from the one nakamura fail? How can you say that Adams and Norman were mistreated? Gettis hasn't played in two years, how are you so sure he could recreate his average first season? You say this list goes on, but please do as currently I can't see any cut and dry certainties that he mismanaged.

Joe Adams was given a second chance and fumbled it away.

If you think that he mismanaged the players so much, why did they play so hard for him throughout the season?

In my opinion, riveras fault simply lies in closing out close games and not trying to be too smart with the offence.

Forgive me. You're right.

There was absolutely zero talent on this team and it was managed as perfect as humanly possible. We should be thankful for such a strong finish and 7 wins. Thank you JR, thank you Rivera! May we have some more sirs? /Pantherfan mentality

[SmokeScreen]

I wanted Rivera fired so bad I even was okay if we lost yesterday to moleface and his crew. I know I'm sorry guys for saying that, but Rivera don't need to comeback.

[panthers55]

The problem I have with this whole diatribe is that while I agree with some of it, I am not blaming Rivera for all of it. For example I totally agree on the offense using the read option too much and not using Williams correctly but I blame Chud not Rivera for that. after all Rivera is a defensive mind and has to rely on his OC for the offense. Adams showed why he didn't play much as he was too unreliable and unable to take a big hit without fumbling.

And the whole argument that Thomas should have started over Norman assumes that they both were ready to play at season's start. What if Norman was better as a starter early on but Thomas developed and improved to the point that by later in the season he was the better option. Then perhaps Rivera did exactly what he had to do. Put the best guy on the field on a weekly basis based on who was the best option at the time.

This bashing of Rivera is made worse by the fact that many of the arguments postulated may be looking at what happened in hindsight without any understanding about why certain guys played in some games and then were replaced by others. Not everyone who started at the end of the season were even on the team 3 months ago.

[panthers55]

I wanted Rivera fired so bad I even was okay if we lost yesterday to moleface and his crew. I know I'm sorry guys for saying that, but Rivera don't need to comeback.

You don't have to be sorry about saying it. I am sorry you feel that way. It tells me you have no clue what you are looking at and can't evaluate the progress of the coaches or team. Anyone who can't see the way this team has improved across the board or thinks these game are meaningless doesn't have any idea what they are watching. I promise you that both Atlanta and New Orleans wanted to beat us in the worst way. Yesterday we kept the Saints from going 8-8 and avoiding a losing season. And we won in the dome. It was a divisional rivalry and a big deal.

[Proudiddy]

The problem I have with this whole diatribe is that while I agree with some of it, I am not blaming Rivera for all of it. For example I totally agree on the offense using the read option too much and not using Williams correctly but I blame Chud not Rivera for that. after all Rivera is a defensive mind and has to rely on his OC for the offense. Adams showed why he didn't play much as he was too unreliable and unable to take a big hit without fumbling.

And the whole argument that Thomas should have started over Norman assumes that they both were ready to play at season's start. What if Norman was better as a starter early on but Thomas developed and improved to the point that by later in the season he was the better option. Then perhaps Rivera did exactly what he had to do. Put the best guy on the field on a weekly basis based on who was the best option at the time.

This bashing of Rivera is made worse by the fact that many of the arguments postulated may be looking at what happened in hindsight without any understanding about why certain guys played in some games and then were replaced by others. Not everyone who started at the end of the season were even on the team 3 months ago.

Josh Thomas had been with us since last year.

What are the chances that he spontaneously hit some huge development milestone mid-season this year when he had been here a full season and a half, IIRC?

And I don't think he replaced Norman, I believe he stepped in with Gamble's injury and Captain moving inside more often after that. Norman continued to start initially. And honestly, I saw no big change in Norman's play from the beginning of the year to his demotion. So what changed there? He was a great tackler, made great plays on the ball when he was in position, but the problem was he gave too much cushion as was rarely ever in good position.

As for Joe Adams, it's like I said... I just threw his name out there among others, in hindsight, he shouldn't have been included because he earned his demotion. I'm not a Joe Adams-guy, so to speak. I was excited when we drafted him, but that quickly dissipated early on after he started muffing punts. My bigger point was that Nakamura was doing the equivalent to what Adams was doing on defense and he wasn't deactivated.

Yes, everything on our end is done in hindsight because we don't see what is going on day-to-day at every practice. But, in a case like Nakamura's, Rivera could've suited up himself and played better than Nakamura was.

I think Rivera plays favorites, and often, it isn't justified. Deangelo IS the prime example there. The argument with Gettis on the sidelines during one of the games when he was inactive comes to mind as well. Naanee last year anyone?

As to your point about Chud being the problem offensively and with some of the personnel being misused... There's a reason Rivera is the HC. He oversees ALL OF THAT. Especially the general philosophy and approach on both sides of the ball. If what Chud was doing wasn't working, then he needed to step in and say so and change it. Instead, he threw Deangelo under the bus and rode with the read option until Hurney got fired and they went back to traditional runs against Chicago.

Rivera gets blame because he deserves blame. He told on himself numerous times in pressers that demonstrated how dysfunctional his staff was, as well as his own decision making.

No, he doesn't deserve all of the blame and I'm not blaming him for all of it. But, he should be held responsible for game-related management/decision making because he oversees all of it... Or at least he was supposed to. And when you are the head guy, as Rivera said himself, the buck stops with him.

We won a few games and now people forget all of the problems that got us in the hole we were in to begin with.

[PhillyB]

to be fair, the late season run followed by a terrible opener the following season has only happened once under rivera. that's not a very big sample size.

[Fox007]

Our special teams coverge seemed to have improved but we have no talent in the return game.