Second Impressions

I went back to watch parts of the 1st half that I missed.


-- Bell does indeed look....not so god awful shitty on the left side. I'm cautiously feeling better about the offensive line. Cautiously, because it's still preseason football and defensive coordinators aren't yet game-planning. The run blocking was better this week, especially from spread out formations, which is something we should consider doing more of from now on.


-- I don't know who Anderson Russell is, but I hope I never have to see him play football again. Curious move to give him the start. I guess, like Blanchard last week, they wanted to see how a guy could do with starters.

-- Loved Melvin White's game. He was physical against the run and did a nice job. high pointing that deep ball on the free play. I don't think he always played to his size last year, but aside from getting knocked over by Bowe that one play, he played physical. And who was bitching about Cason? He was in beast mode all night. That's the kind of football I love to see from that position.

-- DeCoud looks stiff and slow. Ugh. Whatever. We're not going to get all pro safety play but we gotta get better than this. The play of White and Cason kept the secondary from looking completely atrocious. Lester, wow. That was pure shit.


-- Opposing DBs are all sitting on short routes, so unless Cam starts hitting some of the deep passes, the passing game won't be functional at all. I would chalk the overthrow of Benjamin to "lack of chemistry" but we saw him do that all throughout 2013. And he's still staring down the slant routes, making no effort whatsoever to look off the defenders.


-- Nice play on the INT by Klein, but I still think I prefer him as a super-sub type linebacker, and not yet a starter. He was pretty shaky against the run, which is Blackburn's specialty.



-- Do we really need to have Tolbert covering punts in the preseason?


-- Matt Blanchard reminds me of the poor white guy from Chappelle's Real World parody. We just don't need that around here.



-- The Thomas Davis statue just needs to happen already. No need to wait until retirement. I love, LOVE him shutting Norman the fuck up. This is a secondary that just needs to do their job and be quiet. Aside from the leadership aspect, he was once again terrific on the field. He's the fucking Alpha Bull of this team. Luke gets the national attention, and I love him too, but this team belongs to Thomas Davis.



-- Gotta love Stewart's first touchdown run. That was vintage Stew. We didn't even really block anybody on that play. All effort. Stay healthy, you fuck.



-- Brandon Williams aka Swolebones has been a real find. He blocks well, much better than Dickson, and is clearly the most physical of the tight ends. I loved the catch and run in the second half. That position group finally appears to have some god damn depth. I mentioned it the other day, but TE coach Pete Hoener fucks every sorority girl in both Carolina's, and half of the ones in Tennessee.


Carolina Panthers TE coach Pete Hoener
scans the crowd for some hot young college ass.


-- Bersin? Yeah, not bad. No speed. If we didn't have so many possession receivers on hand, he might be a guy to seriously look at. Gotta give him credit though, he's playing well. Maybe we do keep him as the 5th or 6th WR, but I still think we could use some type of vertical threat. Then again, King had a chance to pull in a deep ball and shit himself. Getting behind a secondary only really matters if you catch the damn football.


-- Think I'd like to see Whittaker get some 1st team reps, just to see what we really have there. Don't get me wrong, he was fucking stud tonight and pretty solid against Buffalo, but you never really know when a guy is running against 2's and 3's. I do know that Barner isn't even worth practice squad consideration right now.


-- Kuechly still isn't particularly good in coverage.


-- Ealy has been pretty indifferent so far. I've seen him get close a few times, he forced Fisher into a holding call, which is nice I guess. But he's not making much of an impact right now. Too early to get real concerned about that, but it's still disappointing. Horton has outplayed him from what I've seen.

 

Interesting points.
I never heard Turner`s name mentioned once last night. Did he even play?
I was watching a slow-mo replay of King running down on a deep pattern and the db was hanging on his jersey for 10 yards and the balls goes off the outside of Kings arms.
The officials call finger touches some games and let muggings go on others...
waa, waa, waaa.

 

* Jordan Gay sucks on levels never before seen on this earth. An 8 yard punt? I hope you got your degree in college because your living your dream until the first cut down date.
* Richie Brockel (sp) is an unsung player. He blocks his ass off.
* Taquan Underwood. Leave, just leave. The Wofford receiver deserves your snaps
* Has Jerico done anything in preseason?
* I love the defensive line rotation. Charles Johnson was everywhere last night

 

I forgot to watch the game, maybe intentionally since I'm still feeling a little burned out on football after all the work that went into my e-book that no one is going to buy. I did see the highlights regarding Newton staring down the slant, and my impression on the Benjamin overthrow is that Cam will have to adjust to Kelvin just not being very fast. You almost have to plan to underthrow it so that he can use his size.

 

I as well didn't get to see much of the first half. That was me, btw that called out an Anton Cason play. I hadn't seen any of the game until then, so I wasn't sure if he was good or bad, other than just seeing the posts about the terrible secondary play.

So anyway, to expand on the post, here are some more thoughts as well -

1. Byron Bell does look pretty good. He gets awfully deep on his drops though, and that's gonna make him victim to the double move when he starts seeing live bullets in games that mean something.

2. Cam Newton doesn't look good at all. He telegraphs his passes, stares all his throws down, and KB was open a few times in front of Cam and wasn't seen. This is just terribly concerning IMHO....year 4 and this shit still....

3. Cason has indeed played very well. Blew up a few plays, and I didn't see him get tested a lot.

4. White looks to be in good form as well at times. He's tipped passes, broken up runs in the backfield, and taken clean angles tying up blockers allowing other defenders to make plays in the run game. He was held on a screen that went a good distance and it wasnt called.

5. Jesus, the safeties look so average it's numbing. Anderson Russell filled in ok at times last year, but his time should be very, very limited out there.

6. Lester looks slow again. He did some awesome things last year, and he's a smart player, but he's too slow.

7. We are missing Mitchell's speed out there in the centerfield.

8. Still not crazy about the offensive playcalling.

9. KB is a fucking stud. He was getting open all day.

10. Philli Brown needs to be fair catching the damn ball near the 20 instead of waving it off. Lucky it took a bounce our way, because if it didn't, we could've lost serious field position. Wtf.

11. Cam still doesn't step into his throws, and he missed KB on a TD because of it. Unbelievable. Year 4. This guy doesn't care about his craft.

12. RT position will still be a weakness. Good fucking God.

13. GOdfrey isn't standing out over any of the bubble guys.

14. Fucking defense bites on PA a hell of a lot.

Where's Ealy?

I'll say it again, too. I really hope Norman can get it together. I really like him, and he seems so close, yet so far away

 

Bears repeating.

-- The Thomas Davis statue just needs to happen already. No need to wait until retirement. I love, LOVE him shutting Norman the fuck up. This is a secondary that just needs to do their job and be quiet. Aside from the leadership aspect, he was once again terrific on the field. He's the fucking Alpha Bull of this team. Luke gets the national attention, and I love him too, but this team belongs to Thomas Davis.

 

I'd be interested in reading your e-book should you decide to give any away....

 

Bargin bin it or he needs to start a blog. I enjoy Magnus's

 

Encouraging the Dline was able to get consistent pressure and hits if not pure sacks. Didn't see a lot of push but the DTs though.
Safeties are going to be a big issue this year.
Why doesn't Dwayne bowe dominate?
Oline was ok. Nate chandler doesn't seem to be the good.
Hardly mentioned or notice Godfey at all.
Barner vs fozzy could be interesting. Barner had a nice run or to but at this point he just doesn't seem to be able to contribute. Also directly led to a sack on DA by missing a blitz pickup
None of the WR's particularly looked good. Was excited to see what king could do but he dropped his opportunities. Bersin could sneak on this team...

 

Chandler is still getting a little overpowered, and my positive comments about Bell only allude to the fact that he's not getting constantly face-raped at LT. My impression isn't "fuck yeah, we're set at offensive tackle!" Unfortunately I don't think we'll know how it really looks until the regular season. I do feel OK about the interior. Turner looks solid so far, as does Amini.