Who impressed/who fucked up?

Clausen was under assault because of terrible pass protection. Rolling out in those circumstances is not a bad thing, and you seem to be forgetting that he did so on one 3rd & 7, which created enough space and time to find LaFell 20 yards downfield except Brandon stepped out of bounds as the pass was released. It's bizarre that you want to pretend he played poorly, and is an example of exactly what I'm talking about regarding biased fans who will never give him a fair shake here.

Neither of the punt returns showed explosiveness. They just didn't. Regardless of what kind of athlete the Panthers think Edwards is, he doesn't have that short-area burst that Steve Smith has used to such great effect. Now that doesn't mean he can't be an effective wide receiver in time, but I am disappointed that he isn't a better athlete. If you're going to spend a pretty high pick on a guy who has to change positions, I'd like him to be a physical freak.

Again, I have absolutely no idea what game you think you watched. Aside from stepping out of bounds, LaFell played really well, and this is from a guy who dogged him last season. Meanwhile the only pass Edwards caught came when he was completely uncovered, and he almost dropped that one. He has no route running ability, questionable hands, and isn't an explosive athlete.

Agree with this part. I'm not a fan of blitzing in general, but I'm worried that McDermott will feel pressured to blitz early and often to get after the quarterback, which exposes an already suspect secondary.

 

He bailed several times when he shoulda stepped up in the pocket and trusted his blockers. Giants never sent the house at him like they did at Cam (who didn't bail out). Other than the pick six he threw, the slightest hint of pressure and he was tucking and running. I'm not forgetting the one play where it worked (or would have it not for LaFell's error) for him to bail, nor all the rest when he bailed and failed. I'm not sure why you're being oblivious to the obvious other that you're exactly what you're accusing others of ... biased. Personally, I was hoping for him to look good enough that we could trade him but I don't see how any team would want him after that performance. Yet, I still think there's still hope, just not anytime soon. If anyone would benefit from sitting on the bench for a few years, it would be Jimmy.

He doesn't have the same type of explosiveness as Smitty (it's very rare and why he's one of the best in the NFL) but then, neither does Smitty have moves and vision that Edwards displayed. Doesn’t mean Smitty isn’t a helluva player and athlete. AE is a phenomenal athlete. With his work ethic I think he'll go to the pro-bowl someday soon, which will justify to most of us what we gave up for him.

You could be right about LaFell. What worries me about him is "questionable hands." They were a knock on him coming outa college and I still worry about them. The one pass he caught the other night, he caught with his stomach. I also worry about his ability to separate. The first pass in the endzone, he made a nice move but wasn't quick out of it and lost his separation. The second pass in the endzone woulda been a touchdown if he hadn't got mugged by the DB (which didn't get called). The advantage he has in that situation is his size. I dunno that he shoulda been able to fight through the DB holding him but I know last year he had issues not winning jump balls (not fighting hard enough for the ball). So it worries me about him. One thing I do like about him is that he seems to be good running with the ball after the catch.
I didn't see Edwards almost drop the ball. In fact, despite being wide open, he attacked the ball and caught it with his hands.
Edwards has no route running "ability?" Perhaps the wrong word used? He has plenty of ability, just a lot to learn.
Edwards isn't an explosive athlete – this is just plain stupidly wrong. Please stop repeating it lest some immature simpletons begin to repeat it too.


Some measurables:

Lafell:
40 - 4.59
3 cone shuttle - 6.81
20 yard shuttle - 4.20

Smitty:
40 - 4.41
3 cone shuttle - 7.44
20 yard shuttle - 4.25

Edwards
40 - 4.41
3 cone shuttle - 6.71
20 yard shuttle - 4.04


btw, I still love you.

 

FINALEE SOME1 GETS IT! AE IS BEST ATHLET ON PANTHERS SINCE PEEPERS BUT WILL LIVE UP TO HIS ABILITY. IF FOX USE AE MORE LAST YEAR PROBABLY STILL HAS GOB.

 

hay hes alt like david carr as in athleat but davison never tryed to use him to his abilety but i am hopeing chusensky kin make amani versetol

 

He'd already been sacked twice at that point, and the pocket was collapsing. You only step up in the pocket if you're ready to throw. If you're not ready to throw, then you scramble wide to buy time. This is football 101 stuff, dude.

The Giants didn't blitz much against either quarterback. In both cases, their defensive linemen were dominating Carolina's offensive linemen.

When you just randomly make up shit about a game that almost everyone here saw, how do you think you're going to get away with that? When Clausen broke the pocket, it was almost always while looking downfield for somewhere to throw. He only tucked and ran once, and that was on his second to last series.

Clausen had one rushing attempt, and was only tackled two other times on sacks. Therefore your statement that "he was tucking and running" at "the slightest hint of pressure" is clearly proven wrong by the facts. Again, I don't understand why you would say things that anyone who watched the game or even just looked at the box score would know is completely wrong.

Yeah, you're not biased at all.

Please tell me that you're just saying this to get a rise out of me and aren't actually that stupid.

Please tell me that you're just saying this to get a rise out of me and aren't actually that stupid.

Valid concern, although on that throw I think it's fine to protect the pass with your body. When a pass is around your midsection, it's not easy to reach out and pluck it with your hands. For the record, on the penalty catch he did catch it with good form away from his body. What I liked in particular about LaFell on Saturday night is that he looked fast off the line and crisp through his cuts. You could tell he put a lot of work into that during the lockout.

Again, no one gets separation in the endzone unless you fake the defender. Between the 20s you can get separation because the defender doesn't know if your route is going to be vertical or horizontal, so a sharp cut can catch them off guard. From the 5 yard line, everyone knows you're cutting off the route, it's just a question of which direction.

It looked to me like he bobbled the ball, but I watched it again and that was just an issue of needing to slow down because the throw was behind him. There was nothing bad about that catch, so I was wrong.

Jeff King finished 1st in the combine cone drills for his draft class of tight ends, but would you refer to him as a great athlete? Edwards has wiggle to him, so he can juke defenders and change directions well, but he's not explosive. I was hoping to see great top speed, or at least some explosive burst when accelerating. He's still above average in those respects, but not really impressive. For the record, he is obviously a better athlete than LaFell.

 

This is correct. But he tucked and scrambled multiple times. One of Gross's sacks was because he scrambled instead of stepping up into a clean pocket (first sack? pretty sure). Anyway, that was the only one that comes to mind as a particularly bad decision.

 

The first sack, JPP just abused Gross. The second is the one you're thinking of where Clausen was scrambling to his right, but it wasn't a clean pocket. And "tucked" means to pull the ball down, which Clausen did only once. What HeadCase described bore no resemblance to what actually happened on the field.

 

I did the rewind on that play several times and it looked clean to me but maybe I'm missing something. Right or wrong I walked away with a negative impression on that play and if I did I can understand how a casual fan could to. Still it was only that one play I thought he made a bad call on.

Fair enough. I was using the "tucked" definition of "ball not in a throwing position but scrambling position", not a "I'm definitely going to run and need to secure the ball" but I get your point. Not to get picky here on a term but if you wouldn't call the QB holding onto the ball with two hands around the center of the chest tucked what term would you use?

 

um, no. pocket wasn't collapsing, he just thought it was. he was feeling pressure from behind him. he didn't need to go anywhere but he could have stepped up in the pocket to avoid the pressure he was feeling from behind.

They brought 7 on Cam's overthrow to AE. He had three in his face on the throw. Jimmy would have caved like a little girl. Even though Cam missed (narrowly) he showed he could make that play. Jimmy has never shown anything close to that ability.

Actually, our o-line did a pretty good job other than Gross getting schooled like a pylon a couple of times. On run plays, Gross dominated his man.

wrong again. when he broke it was because he was feeling pressure. i don't remember them having any called or naked bootlegs for him like they did Cam.

in addition to 2 sacks, the one rushing attempt that came up woefully short on 3rd and long (where he quit looking downfield despite having space and time), the pass to LaFell, and at least one ball thrown outa bounds after him scrambling (i use that word loosely here). let's see he had 7 passing attempts, plus at least these 5 failed plays. That's over 40% of the time that he bailing and failing, all in one quarter of play. It's not horrible, but it ain't good either. (maybe we should compare how many times Newt bailed and failed, you know for argument sake).

good points, i didn't take note of him getting off the line. he did make nice cuts on the endzone play, so you’re right. i'm not condemning him, just don't feel good about him for reasons stated.

on the first endzone route, he looked like the DB thought he was gonna break it out, so LaFell had a at least a step to the inside on him. he was open then he wasn't.

maybe not "explosive" but he is quick as shit. musta been at least a dozen defenders during those two punts that had him locked in their sights only to tackle air. he made some unbelievable moves thru some through some really tight spaces. 4.4 speed is gonna win most foot races. goodson by comparison i think runs in the 4.5s, which is why he won't ever take many to the house.

to say AE is a better athlete than Lafell is like saying Smitty is better than AE. they all very good but different. things one can do, maybe the other can't.

as far as AE, i think it wasn't until the second half of Smitty’s 3rd season that he came on as a receiver and didn't seem to have the best hands in the world either. anywho, i think AE is gonna surprise us. personally, i was amazed at him the other night.

 

He couldn't even see JPP because that was his blind side. He scrambled to his right because the Giants were getting pressure up the middle.

Actually, Cam didn't have anyone directly in his face on that throw, although he did have three players coming at him from the two sides (one left, two right). Moreover, the Giants brought a blitz on the touchdown throw to Olsen. Fiammetta did a great job of picking it up, and Jimmy calmly looked off the safety before throwing to the tight end down the seam. By the way, if you want to talk about things a quarterback has shown no ability to do, I have never seen Cam look off a safety at any level. You also seem to conveniently forget that Newton consistently threw off his back foot Saturday night, including the pass attempt you're talking about. He's the one you should be complaining about not stepping into his throws, since if he had done so he might not have overthrown Edwards.

They were pretty awful in pass protection the whole game. Neither quarterback had a lot of time.

The fact that you try to describe Clausen's throw to LaFell on 3rd & long as a failure by Jimmy shows both how biased you are. He scrambled, bought time, and then completed a really nice pass to LaFell for a first down. It's not his fault that Brandon stepped out of bounds, especially since the pass left him plenty of room not to. Moreover, trying to pretend that throwing the ball away on 1st down was a bad thing is also absurd. Clausen made an awful, indefensible decision on the interception, but aside from that he played quite well. You made yourself look bad by insisting otherwise. Seriously, you're showing a lot of bias here, and it's understandable for any fan after enduring such an awful season last year, but you need to get past it. Maybe Jimmy will go back to being terrible against Miami, but he wasn't against the Giants.

I wasn't big on him last season, but I was impressed on Saturday. Hopefully he builds on that and seizes the job at flanker since someone needs to.

He does have some great moves, I was just hoping that he would be more explosive since that's pretty important for being a playmaker. It's what makes Steve so dangerous. Give him a bit of space, and he's back up to full speed before you know it. Regardless of what the 40 times say, watching games also leads me to believe that Goodson is more explosive than Edwards in his initial acceleration.