so, what were the general thoughts...

...after the panthers game?

i got to see NOTHING but foster's run on espn.

 

Overview?

1. The difference between Henning as a quarterbacks man and Turk Schonert, Mike McCoy and even Musgrave if you count his four game dual stint is great. We will do well with whatever quarterback, given enough talent and room to grow, we decide to go with. Weinke looks much better than he did last year despite the odd playcalling (it was, partially, because they recognized an 8-man front and changed up) and didn't really overthrow - he was high on one pass deeper right and one deep left was debatable - Smith hauled it in out of bounds but a better judgement or a reach could have kept it in had we had a more experienced receiver there.

Fasani, likewise, fairly accurate and very athletic.

Anyway, the point is this: the offense will be in good hands, until Henning retires. There's no QB coach, there's only a pair of coaches that could be around past five or so years on O - Boudreau and Skipper. I'd expect that if we keep with Fox for a number of years Skipper is the new OC - and he's good, but not the old school type coach that Henning/Breaux/Williamson is.

2. The shotgun, the H-back, the bulk of gimmick and convention that we'll use in regular season are there, but they're window dressing. No player from the H received a ball, nor did a tight end. Backs got only a very small helping and some of those were dropped. Only one play from the gun and that turned out to be a nice Weinke scramble.

3. The OL is a work in progress.
While Washington is a very stout setup, and we'll improve, it's hard to say that we'll be able to be quite as good initially as we thought.
Still the pass protection was excellent.

4. Defense is fast. Morgan flows to the ball with a quickness, but he's not the only one there. Fields is really fast upfield, Jackson is really fast in pursuit and Witherspoon is just fast. they're all physical as well, and so are the corners. They might be small, they might not have great ball skills or speed, but they're physical and they're on their men. The amazing thing is that with the hitting going on, Minter's not got one in yet, so he's due once the gloves come off.

Right now, the difference between a defense like ours and a defense like Baltimore's is simply talent at corner and a much stronger DL. Keeping Rucker and upgrading DT should get us closer. That obviously flows to the next point:

5. There's still a lot of room for talent.

We're really lacking a strong 2nd receiver - Byrd should be a third, Smith should be a situational third. Bright looks great out there, but he's banged up already. It'll take another top notch receiver to match Moose - who plays at his best when he's competing. To a point he could match and exceed Walls but WW will only be asked to do so much from here on out. The O will grind it out and should have some really good situational points in the passing game, but it won't be fully functional until a receiver fills in.

Similarly, I think it'll take a strong pass rusher at DT to round out this defense, along with the obvious needs at corner. I'd assume that we will need a decent backup RB next year, along with having to resolve the right tackle situation.

Bringing in a franchise level player to contribute immediately (Charlie Rogers, Roy Williams, William Joseph) and another solid starter from the draft should find us much more talented and complete. Hopefully we'll see a small amount of free agent activity to fill in some of the blanks.

 

I didn't see the game, but from what I get from it, we have to learn to win. Seems the Panthers showed Fox just how it's done in the final minutes in Carolina.

I think the Panther will match up well against most of the teams we play this year, which should produce a winning record. Fox has got to produce some wins in the preseason, atleast 2 out of the remaining 3.

 

I guess if you call Fox putting in Watkins with the game in hand then yea, otherwise you can chalk the lose entirely to Watkins with extremely poor judgement. If he'd have just kept Fasani in we would have ended our 15 game losing streak... but thats neither here nor there, I'd rather know about Watkins now, than later...

 

Offense:

Of the two smurf WR's we have, Bright looked the best and seemingly locked up a roster spot. Then again, that's what we thought about Burks a year or so ago. I worry about both being able to stand up to the pounding they'll get with more PT though.
Smith needs to run his routes better. The TE spot seemed overlooked in the offensive scheme, they only got two balls all night and one ws the overthrow to Crawford in the end zone by Fasani. Moose still has the dropsies, that worries me. Start fining his ass with each drop and that'll do wonders for his concentration I'll bet. Smith looked spent, no drive in his legs. At this point unless he dazzles against the Cowboys, I'd have to start looking elsewhere for Foster's backup. The first team O Line looked ok, but should improve with their run blocking as time goes on, pass protection was fine. I was impressed with Fasani, but he's not the second coming as some already believe.

Defense:

LB play was pretty good. As noted Morgan, Fields, and Witherspoon impressed. Jackson moreso on special teams.
The CB spot still worries me. Cousin is more than adequete, Welsey looked lost in the beginning, then settled in, then got hurt. He'll miss almost a month with hernia surgery it looks like. Unimpressed with Jenkins even with the INT. Vinson stayed around the ball, but I'm not sure he'll be the answer either. Howard at the moment looks like the starter. He should improve with PT. The first team tackling looked better. Peppers isn't going to get by on sheer athletic ability, he needs tons of work on technique, but we all knew that coming in. Both Wallace and Rasmuessen looked to be competent backups and played with more fire than Williams did in his two years here. We need better quality at backup DT.

Special Teams:

A major clusterfuck that had to have O'Brien ready to pull out his hair. Too many stupid penalties. Coverage should be improved with Bates joining Cooper at Gunner. Sauerbrun hammered a couple that were wiped out by penalty. Smith made a mistake bringing one out of the end zone after he muffed it. Bates was a little too straight ahead in his returns to suit me.

 

Bright looks great out there, but he's banged up already.

I wouldn't call him banged up - he just got the wind knocked out of him. He was back in a few minutes. By that standard, Smith, Moose and Byrd are Banged up, considering they've all missed full days of camp or mini camp.

Not that he's a #2 receiver.

I thought the biggest difference was the defense. I was listening to The Page during my 7 block commute, and they referred to a quote from Seifert this time last year, that the team resembled 'lawn deer'.

I can tell you that's ancient history. This team got after the ball and laid the wood like I've never seen. We had the CB blitz on several occasions, and along with howard, I saw big hits from Morgan, Fields, Witherspoon, and Jackson.

Lamar Smith looks spent.

The first team COULD NOT run the ball AT ALL.

We threw the ball DEEP, and OFTEN. Weinke had better accuracy than I remember seeing at all last year.

 

I would agree with MVM for the most part. IMO a bigtime playmaking speed receiver or a DT that can run stuff and get pressure would be areas you would like to see an impact player from the next draft. The others would be CB or OL.

That said...(in the next draft)

The WR position should be loaded with Rogers, Washington, Andre Johnson, Williams (all franchise types) along with Lloyd, Evans, Berrian, Teyo Johnson and others

DT is not as deep but their are a few very good ones at the top
(Joseph, Wilfolk, Kennedy)

CB is not deep at all unless a few guys step up to superstar level (Woolfolk, Weathersby, Trufant, Vasher, Newman)

And QB will be a loaded position - especially if some of the underclassman declare. (Manning, Leftwich, Ragone, Simms, Grossman and many others)

If I had to pick my top 5 prospects overall ATP they would go like this...
1) Manning
2) Joseph
3) Kelley Washington
4) Andre Johnson
5) Leftwich or Charles Rogers

 

didn't get to see the game either. couple quick questions regarding your overviews.

1. sounds like there may be some red flags concerning our offensive line's ability to open up the running game, which is something i was concerned about last year. for one, i thought meat and others were saying that smith looked really strong in camp and now we're saying that he is spent? guess we'll get more of a clue this weekend with foster running with the 1st team. sounds like he is going to have a helluva impact. haven't heard much about Hoover. how did he look at FB? is he going to be the starter and a force?

2. weinke having trouble throwing to his left? moose lines up on the left and it sounded like weinke hit him in the hands at least 3 or 4 times.

3. read that washington was playing 8 men in the box, which was attributed to smith's lack of production. is this the first sign that opponents are not going to respect our ability to pass the ball? do we have the weapons at wr and qb to have some success on offense?

4. i know most of the fans' focus on defense was on the corners, lbs and peppers but did anyone notice grant. expecting him to really play well this year. any half-assed or missed tackles? poor reads?

5. general clock management by the coaches? please tell me that all looks well.

don't agree with those who feel like we must win a couple of these preseason games. i'll grant you that we don't need to get blown out but wins in preseason don't mean a hill-of-beans and the players know it. we simple need to see significant progress and avoid injuries to our starters. glad we have a coach that not only voices that he's not concerned with winning preseason games but also, for at least the first one, stays with his plan of rotation. i think that says a lot to the players about what he's all about and it's not hypocrisy.

by the way, profootballtalk had a nice little blurb about how nfl insiders are saying that Carolina looks like it's going to be improved and are giving the credit to Fox and Co.

 

i thought meat and others were saying that smith looked really strong in camp and now we're saying that he is spent

I said Foster looked good in camp, never Smith. To me, it was always the all the other RB's, and then 'holy shit look at that guy *Foster*'

 

Yeah, this was far from the meltdowns we had last year. Watkins came in and played very poorly, poorly enough to where it costs us the game.

POSITIVES:

- Weinke looked poised. Was accurate and seemed to have good zip on his throws. I don't remember him throwing to his left except for the one fly down the sidelines to Smith (so we'll see if that's still an issue).

- It's been well documented, but Fasani really did impress. Good arm strength, mobile, and tough. I'm anxiously awaiting seeing him on Saturday.

- Bright was impressive as well. Just turning his DB around completly on the one TD catch. Caught some balls right at the sidelines. Looked much better than Steve Smith.

- Foster. I hadn't been to camp so this was my first impression and man it was a good one. Showed very good burst at the line, good vision, and speed once he got into space. I don't remember us throwing to him any, I want to see what kind of hands he has.

- Fields and Morgan. These two were around the ball the whole night. I expected this from Dan but was pleasently surprised by Fields. Fields also showed really good speed off the edge on one running play.

NEGATIVES:

- First string O-line. Well, the pass blocking was great, so that was actually a positive, but they struggled mightly to open any holes for Smith. We must get better in this area if we're going to run the kind of offense Fox says we are.

- Smith really did look spent. No really much burst and we already knew he wasn't a burner. He'd be a lot more effective if the O-line had opened a few holes, he could have squared his shoulders, and ran downhill. O well, didn't happen, not at all.

- Watkins blew. Simple as that.

- Bates. It's not that he did anything wrong, it's just that I want to see Smith returning the majority of the kickoffs. In a footrace, I'll take Bates, returning a kick I want Smith.