Panthers: Minter hopes to stay

We won the TB games and Arizona game. Are you trying to forget we won the Arizona game because Branch played well?

 

Yep. It was a conspiracy.
We won AZ? Yep. That was my mistake. It was on what I was looking for, too, so there was no excuse. And I'll give you credit, you didn't even address how all those receivers got ~75 yards a game and were "shut down".

 

Never called him "shut down." Just because I think he's an upgrade over Grant doesn't mean I think he is shut down.

 

My fault, the other guy said "shut down", "owned", etc. in relation to guys who had really good games against us. You were just correcting me on AZ.

 

Ok. I admit I exaggerated the term "shut down" They are good WR, they will get theres here and there. But they didnt score on us or cause us to lose any of those games. Our run d and covering the TE and RB did that to us. So maybe not shutdown or white on rice, but solid coverage? You damn straight.

 

Of course, their stats aren't directly related to Branch anyway, but based on what conclusion?
Nevermind. You know I disagree, I'll just leave that where it is and be confused.

 

Don't worry about it, Mo. What Magnus says is the law around here. I agree with you, though. And I think Branch is a better player than Grant.

 

Don't whine. It just makes it look worse.

 

That post was awful. Don't over hype him just because you don't think he's muck.


Look, I'm not so down on Branch. Hell, with our safety situation, he's gonna play some next year you figure. And he did show some improvement.

But here, I'm trying to think, how many times did we assign coverage responsibility to him.

Answer: not that much.

We ended up playing a lot of man free last year, particuarly as we got more aggressive. And that just happens to be what Branch seems to do decently. he did get beat (as in not providing the expected help soon enough) a few times, Philly comes to mind, but for the most part he wasn't as bad as feared here.

Direct cover responsibility, the few times we did it, he showed why we shouldn't. San Fran was one that comes to mind, and yes, late vs Zona. Branch certainly didn't cover Fitz like white on rice. Long play, TD. Their were a few others that game, not for TDs. Yes, I realize he made a couple of picks that game, and on the return he showed some nice speed. But it was up and down.

In short, he's a decent zone safety, can break on a ball occassionally, but can't cover much at all, and needs to seriously improve his tackling.

If he can improve his tackling, then he's a decent cheap safety for this scheme, or at least better depth than what we have had. But he's a long way from being an above average player yet.

 

I thought you'd take it as a compliment.