After a day to clear my thoughts

After a day has gone by and the anger has all but worn off, I few random thoughts on the two losses seem to haunt me...........

"Playing not to lose"......the real definition has the "not" taken out of it. 9 out of 10 times a team plays not to lose what does it do? That's right, lose. Want two examples? You need only look at the last two Panther losses. Against Green Bay when Dee Brown ran down to the 10 yard line with 1:40 left in the game I think the focus shifted from trying to win the game to trying not to turn the ball over and lose(hence the conservative playcalling on the last three plays).......besides the when your at the 10 yard line a field goal is a gimme right???????????????
Fast-forward to Arizona......a game I felt we dominated in the first half, but I think we lost our offensive philosiphy in the second half(maybe due to Lamar's two fumbles??) and seemed to be trying to prove that we could pass more on Arizona and had a lot of three and outs, intil we got the 13-6 lead. At that point we started playing not to lose.....and is it me or did the defense start to back off a little in the fourth quarter, they looked "soft". Again playing not to lose. By the way when is the last time "icing" the kicker actually worked??? That last timeout would have been handy in getting us down the field for a tie.

I think its apparent that our offense isn't that great, it's even worse with Moose out. Our defense is good, but they are young and I don't think we can rely on them to win EVERY game. Our defense will keep us in most games, but at some point our offense has to step it up and win some for us.

But what do I know..........just one jackasses opinion

 

Preach it brother. Good point about the icing. I wonder how much that really affects a kicker? And that was indeed some of the shittiest playcalling I've seen on that last drive against Green Bay.

 

Re: Re: After a day to clear my thoughts

It doesn't in the nfl.......they are called professional football players for a reason.

I think I saw it work in college a few years back, but thats college.

 

I don't think the D let up, I think they just started to get tired. Cards had the longest time of posession of any team we've played to date. Our D was on the field most of the first half and a great deal of the second.
We just didn't execute our game plan. Too many three and out's resulted in our D being on the field too much. Same w/ the turnovers.
It's exactly what you were saying about the offense having to step up and win one once in a while, similar to the Ravens SB team...not that we're headed in that same direction, but the similarities are there. QB who isn't expected to win or lose the game with a D that is expected to dictate to the opposition.
It's a solid formula, but we don't quite have what we need in place for it to be sucessful enough for more than an 8-8 finish IMO.

 

The Panthers are a really good football team who are having some trouble with turn-overs. Eliminate our turn-overs, and any team we play will have to bring their A game.

This team is going to get better as the season goes on. And then add Foster and Moose back into the mix, and we'll even have weapons to come from behind. I would imagine getting Foster some touches in the open field is going to open up everything a little more. Steve Smith is learning more with every game. I thought with Moose out, he might get shut down, but he's getting open. This offense might even become.......should I say....explosive.

Defense is pretty damn good, but I wouldn't say the best in the league, and they are also still very young. But they will get better too as the season goes.

 

>> 9 out of 10 times a team plays not to lose what does it do?

actually, we are 3-2 playing not to lose ... i'll take that all season

>> I think its apparent that our offense isn't that great

i thought that was obvious before the season started. that's why we were all praying that they would land a quality FA wr. even with Foster and Moose, our offense is going to struggle but would hopefully be just enough to win a few games

>> similar to the Ravens SB team

problem is that I don't think our defense is as good as the Ravens was that year ... to many youngsters, questionable cbs with no decent depth behind them. another year, they could be as good, but I don't see it this year

>> Good point about the icing. I wonder how much that really affects a kicker?

if you're down to no time, then yea why not to try to ice the kicker. didn't GB ice our kicker the week befoe? but i had same thoughts when they called that timeout with 16 seconds left, our only hope was two long passes down the middle and quick time outs. then when az gave us the ball at the 40 with no time run off the clock, i was really thinking we fucked up. a couple of 15 yard passes down the middle and we could have been in fg range. course, ya don't expect az to be so stupid. we shouldn't have had more than 10 seconds left when we got the ball back (or 16 seconds and the ball at the 20) and then 2 timeouts would not have helped -- probably was the coach's thinking.

>> And that was indeed some of the shittiest playcalling I've seen on that last drive against Green Bay.

here come the monday morning QBs. i was amazed that the Panthers got themselves in position to win and certainly in position to tie, especially considering the lack of weapons we have on offensive and GB and their crowd. the QB draw call was just plain weird but what the hell do i know. there have been plenty of other plays called that I thought were stupid and going to be ugly only to see us make a real nice gain or score a TD.

>> Defense is pretty damn good, but I wouldn't say the best in the league, and they are also still very young. But they will get better too as the season goes.

i dunno if we will see improvement. the things i worry about both offensively and defensively are :1) injures, cuz we have little decent depth, 2) Peppers wearing down over the course of the season. and 3) QB situation. injuries is the main concern. if we can avoid key injuries (which we haven't done so far), then maybe we would get better. but while we add things to our defense and offense, other teams will also be getting a better idea of how to defend and attack us. i think injuries are going to continue to kill us all season. so i don't expect to see much improvement -- unless Weinke or Fasani come on and really add a spark. i think we have seen the best Peete has to offer. i think it's going to be a long, tuff season at best.

>> This offense might even become.......should I say....explosive.

with Peete at the helm?

 

quote: didn't GB ice our kicker the week befoe?

no they called a timeout on fourth down to stop the clock in case he made it......they tried to ice him but as the Panthers learned a couple years ago you can't call timeouts back to back.

even if they were able to "ice" graham that wouldn't be the reason he missed.

 

>> that wouldn't be the reason he missed.

you could make that statement after a fg was missed and by any kicker that was "iced."

my bad on the "icing" at GB. i didn't get to see the 4th Q live and fast forwarded through it. the end result was bad enough that i never went back to review it. thought i had read that GB had iced our kicker.

finally figured out why i hate having to watch the game from a recorded tape (even if noone has told me the score or that we lost) -- by the time i watch the tape i can't do a damn thing to help 'm out, it doesn't do any good for me to cross my fingers and toes and pray like hell cuz it's already history.