Coach Fox, very deliberate...

The article in the paper and on the Panther web site, I noticed this that stood out....

"I think it's fairly evident we're not a good football team when we play the Atlanta Falcons," said Panthers head coach John Fox, who now stands 0-5 against the NFC South and 3-3 in all other games. "We lost to them 30-0 at their place and you know the score today. We obviously have a long ways to go toward being competitive with the Falcons."

He almost makes it sound like, aside from the Falcons, they are a pretty good football team???

I'm still impressed with Fox and the efforts he has made with this team. I don't see him being the complacent Capers type or the lack of balls Siefert type.

 

I'd rather loose the first 13 games and win the last 3.

 

>> I'm still impressed with Fox and the efforts he has made with this team.

I'm starting to wonder. I mean what has he done to be impressed with? Spoke to Meat and gave him a headsup on Foster? That was sweet but other than that, what? To his credit, he did quickly get rid of some deadwood and brought in some guys to help the defense. FAs and the draft went pretty well except the offense was virtually neglected. He made what at the time seemed a great and gutsy call in going to Peete over Weinke but after the way Weinke was and is continuing to suck royally i'm not so sure now that it was such a gutsy call. He started out going 3-0 with an ultra conservative game plan relying on a defense that was much better than was to be anticipated ... but it was primarily due to the unexpected impact of Peppers and the DBs not being as bad as expected. I think teams have figured him out (Reeves in particular) and I just wonder if he can win in this league with his ultra-gutless approach to the game. I was upset upon hearing him defend a 3rd and 7 draw call as being too scared to play a couple of plays without a center; but then watching Peete telling the ref to let the play clock wind down to 1 sec before calling a time-out when we were down 21-0 was just mind-boggling. And I am sorry but Peete had no business playing yesterday ... though I'm not sure who shoulda been playing. I don't suppose there's any chance but I wish they'd give him a one way ticket outa town along with the ass-wipe Hurney.

>> I'd rather loose the first 13 games and win the last 3.

Yep. You would like to see improvement and we are not. We saw a big improvement over last year at the beginning of the year but things seem to now be steadily going downhill. One could blame injuries, which certainly has not helped. Or one could blame certain pre-Fox players like Moose for giving half-ass efforts when the loses mounted; but I also think you also have to start questioning the coaching. I can't see a single facet of their game that seems to be improving. Grant is staying at home but the rest of his play has gone downhill. You like to see improvement to gain some sense of hope for next year. As of now I don't and I have no hope that Fox and Hurney can get the job done.

Everyone is getting all caught up in FA and draft talk, which is fun and all. But I think Hurney will fuck it up and Fox won't win regardless of what talent is brought in. So what's the point? As they use to sing on Hee Haw "Pfft. Wish you were gone." (or something like that)

 

I don't fault Hurney that much, although basically he's just a well paid and hard working vessel to get Fox players. Even a guy like Charlie Armey, who has to deal with his coach having final say, has a differing opinion, and since Hurney and Fox are said to be on the same page no matter what, that suggests Hurney really doesn't have the right to disagree other than to contain potential hazards and give reports on players. He's doing his job, and Bushofsky's doing his. The final say rests on getting Fox the guys for his system.

>>To (fox') credit, he did quickly get rid of some deadwood and brought in some guys to help the defense.

The part to bring in D is great. They executed that part of the equation. Fields, Cousin, those were great pickups. Hell, Lamar Smith was too but that's beside the point.

But most new coaches get rid of deadwood. A lot of Fox' guys would be cut immediately too. So I don't find that a tremendous positive.

Now. As for Fox. It seemed as if, coming in, Fox was branded a disciplinarian, and a hard nosed guy. I haven't seen that. He's been very conservative.

It worked out with Peete and with some other things he took a chance on. As a whole, it hasn't. It means we go into a shell and basically hope that the lead we carried into 05:00 will still be there when it's 00:00. I'm uncomfortable with that.

He started out being very up front, benching Weinke was a good move for the rest of the team - your job isn't safe. But then he only benched Grant and Nesbit, taking Nesbit out way too long. He didn't sit other guys who needed it. He handled Grant well, in retrospect. But no, I didn't ever think he'd back up the Weinke thing with other people being liberally punished for mistakes, and unfortunately, they weren't.

And now IMO he's lost his team for the year. It'll take him time to build them back up. Part of that is his conservative approach as you say. Part of it's out of his control, this many losses in a row and holidays coming up makes one want to coast it on home. But he's still gotta control this team, limit the mental mistakes, and whip them into shape. And I don't see it happening. Anybody can coach a great team, all it takes is preparation and decision making.

>>I think teams have figured him out

Certainly. We don't give opposing teams much to scout. We're very simple, enough to put our plays on an armband - so that means we're probably using ten runs and twenty passes chosen for that game. Yech. Most WCOs, and a lot of the independently successful teams, run 15 different scripted plays to start the game, and carry about 100 to 130 to use that day.

Defensively, we run C2, which is simple in theory and yet hard to stop, but we don't blitz much (not nearly as much as you'd guess from preseason talk) and when we do we disguise it but end up making it cover three or even just man with Grant taking the free 1/3 deep. We often get more interesting with our blitz stuff, including where we put Peppers outside Rucker and brought them both, or where we'd overload one side and then drop two of those guys, bringing a stunt in the middle to end up overloading the other side. Good stuff, but we tend to call stuff like that when the other team's got a screen on. Just bad luck, and I don't question JDR as much because he's new, he wants to be agressive, and it feels like his hands are somewhat tied. With Henning, I get the frustrating feeling you describe, that we're doing nothing because we feel like we shouldn't bother because we don't have talent.

And that, to me, is part of giving up. Just like punting after second down is. Just like two rushes off right guard for a total of two yards and then a draw off RG for third is dumb.

It's frustrating whenever you see a guy say "run first" and uses it to hide behind an extremely conservative approach. You rarely find hardnosed guys that are this conservative. Even run first guys often find themselves doing something more than just occasionally giving into the OC and letting a pass fly deep now and again.

>>but I also think you also have to start questioning the coaching.

Say it ain't so we must really be in trouble now.
Just getting on you. To tell the truth, it's easy to do once you get to a half season's worth of losses and the team hasn't really changed.

I don't want to feel such bad feelings about Fox, and I certainly don't want to just call for his head and promote JDR (and bring in college type guys like Charlie Strong and all that jazz I've probably blurted all around the net since yesterday), because that sounds too good to be true.
So it probably is.