Panthers/Eagles game thread

My thoughts (offense)...

• Nearly the whole team looked sloppy.
• The OL didn't look as sharp as last week, but I agree with others who have said Philly was playing in mid-season form. It's like their defense knew what we were running. Gross did indeed get his lunch money stolen. Kalil looked better than I expected him to, but not spectacular. Still, I think they should stick with the starting 5 from this game.
• Jake still has some bad habits from last year. On more than one occasion, he ignored the remainder of the field once he got radar lock on Smith (regardless of the coverage). One play, he had Williams WFO in the flat -- not a soul around for 5 yards in any direction -- yet Jake forced the ball into a triple covered Smitty. That's one advantage Carr has over Jake -- working with the 2's has taught him to spray the ball around some. Jake also gave up and turtled a couple of times instead of throwing the ball away. Not a good precedent.
• The running game works.
• Gaines should be, and I believe soon will be, our 3rd TE.
• I hope to God Jarrett can start, because right now my depth chart for WR would look like this: Smith, Jarrett, Biddle, Carter, Horn, Colbert.
• Rosario looks very decent, and seems to be getting better every week.
• I have finally given up on Eric Shelton. His roster spot should go to Alex Haynes.

My thoughts (defense)...

• I am sick and tired of watching Gamble make mental error after mental error. He was outmaneuvered and almost outrun by a TE (Schobel) this week, for crying out loud! I'm ready to see if Marshall can run with the 1's.
• We are in serious trouble at DT if Jenkins goes down. We're as thin there as we are at OT.
• LBs couldn't get off blocks this week to save their lives.
• Our safeties suck. Every stinking one of them. We're going to be kicking ourselves all year for not upgrading this position.

 

I don't think Colbert should be last on the depth chart. People want Taye Biddle, and he's def. made some plays, but they've all come against 2nd and 3rd stringers. I just don't know what to make of him. He's only caught passes on what seem to be straight go routes and we already have Carter for that. Ryne Robinson might show some more as well, but I don't think Colbert is going anywhere.
I think the team is done with Shelton or they would've given him more than one carry.

 

odd. a friend of mine in houston who has season tickets said almost the exact same you're describing of Jake as is Carr's biggest problems (btw he also said he sucked). he can't read defenses, locks on to one receiver, often doesn't see wide open receivers, is too skittish in the pocket, and throws way too many stupid INTs.

when i had oiler season tickets i used to see the same thing with Warren Moon (a receiver would be wide ass open and he wouldn't see them ... sometimes so much so that the whole stadium was yelling at him to get him to look the other way). and the weird thing was, Moon actually was considered a good QB by some folks. course it mighta helped to have Mathews and Munchak on your OL.

my hunch is that with those big ass guys rushing at you at full speed and you knowing that you only have 3-4 secs (if your fat talentless lazy ass OL gives you that without grabbing somebody) that sometimes you can miss spotting a wide open receiver in the opposite direction of where you first read a play to go. just a hunch. another possibility is if they're running new routes the QB may tend to watch his receiver a little longer to make sure he's going/breaking when he thinks he will. and this may happen a bit until the trust develops under live fire. and it's possible he will make misreads until he gets comfortable with the new offensive. and it's possible Davidson's new offense sucks and is more predictable than Henning's despite going on two sometimes.

but the again it's possible you're right and Jake simply just sucks.

 

I laughed.

 

Why in the world not? Can you tell me one thing he's done in the past year that warrants his roster spot on this team?

 

yep. I don't go too much on individual performance when effort teamwide isn't there, but there's still plenty of room for individual mistakes too.

I still think this is our best 5, yeah. Too bad it looked so awful, but I don't see any other combos that look any better. There was a lot of bad blocking from what I saw through around a quarter of tape study - I don't think I've posted it yet, I wanted to finish up a drive - but the running game still looked OK. Or rather, our backs made it look allright that we didn't block worth a damn. Which means it should be very solid if we can only block.
The Eagles do this same attack most plays, so their D knows it without gameplanning. Giants may not. Who knows if that matters.

on various film study with the 1s this month I've seen and even noted where Jake's going through progressions. I'm sure that doesn't mean he's not locking onto Smith also, occasionally. Most QBs want to make something happen and occasionally get too zealous.

But he does still have some bad habits from last year, and the back foot isn't something cured as was hoped from last week.

yep. I didn't see anything solid at all out of his play so far. He's not a good blocker and doesn't even follow through on his blocks, which is nearly the minimum you can even do. Thanks to him, I know what the minimum actually is.

Our best receiving TE. Now if only one of them could block, we'd be good. He and King are effort guys, which is a start.

that was unfortunate. He's decent playing the WR in man coverage, but the Eagles knew what they were doing when they drove the TE upfield over the WR coming outside. They made him choose, and while camera work is sloppy, looks like he chose wrong. The TV called it Harris' man and have been really lambasting him, but IIRC it was Gamble's guy.

I've liked what I've seen out of Kemo so far. I don't see anything special about Lewis right now, and Moorehead's just not that good (still).

 

his appendix is still intact

 

Your friend in Houston doesn't know what he's talking about. Carr has never thrown more than 15 interceptions (which he did as a rookie in '02). Furthermore, a frequent criticism was that he didn't force the ball to Andre Johnson enough. Now obviously from your tone you're irritated that people are criticizing Jake, but that doesn't mean that those people think Carr is flawless. He has plenty of his own problems, they just happen to be different than Jake's, and arguably the exact opposite. Carr analyzes defenses too long, is too content to dump off on the underneath routes, and doesn't take even acceptable risks.

It would have more to do with new receivers than the new offense, because it's not like Davidson will be using new routes that Henning didn't. Every system employs the same routes, just with different frequencies, so that shouldn't trouble Jake or anyone else. Not being confident in Carter or Colbert making those cuts could be an issue, though.

You're oddly defensive.

 

In Colbert's defense, we haven't been throwing to him. At least not from what I saw Friday night (I missed a good part of the 1st quarter, so maybe I'm wrong). He's capable of doing more than he has, he just needs to make his presence known. He's been so invisible that he could leave the field, run up the stands, grab a hot dog, take a shit, go down to Starbucks and grab a coffee, and come back onto the field without anyone knowing he ever left.

I don't think Biddle and/or Horn would do us any better.

 

just repeating what my friend told me ... he could be all wet though thus far i can't say that i'm impressed with Carr other than he looks to at least give us a chance if Jake goes down. fortunately, i missed seeing Jake's performance this last game so i need to stay outa that particular argument.

btw, you are feel to call my friend an idiot if you want. i feel that way about most of his opinions. the two polar opinions on Carr just struck me as odd. and i like jake so yes i'm gonna be somewhat defense when i think the critism is a bit too harsh ... that is when i summon the nerve to stick my toe into the water.