Carolina Panthers at SF 49ers -- Scouting the next opponent

Since is a down week, I planned to watch the CAR-SF game just to familiarize myself w/ the team we play next week.

Anyone else planning the same ?

Maybe we can use this thread as a substitute 'Game-day thread for addicts'. LOL.

Gumby said:

Since is a down week, I planned to watch the CAR-SF game just to familiarize myself w/ the team we play next week.

Anyone else planning the same ?

Maybe we can use this thread as a substitute 'Game-day thread for addicts'. LOL.

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I'm definitely very interested in this game.

From what I have seen on Game Rewind, the Carolina defense is very, very good - but the offense is not good at all. However, I still can't help but wonder how much of that is due to the talent on the Panther team, and how much of that is due to the talent of their opposition: the combined record of Carolina's opponents was 8-33 heading into week 10.

This is only one game, but it should be a good gauge for how good they are. Hopefully they beat the 49ers today, so they have less of a chip on their shoulder and have a lowered sense of urgency next week.

I am going back and forth between the Denver and Carolina games.

OT (sortof): CAR-SF -- Scouting the next opponent

Carolina's D is good from the times I have watched it. Gonna be a tough game for the pats.

Archeryaddict12 said:

Carolina's D is good from the times I have watched it. Gonna be a tough game for the pats.

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Carolina's Front 7 looks very physical. That's a good match up against the Patriots OL if our guys don't come switched on from the first whistle. That said, Gore is running on them fairly easily. I'd like to see a heavy dose of Ridley and Vereen where possible.

Carolinas secondary isn't that good IMO. Gronk/dobson will exploit them.

Anyone have the stat of Bradys/BB record AFTER a bye week...haven't they only lost like 2 together?


They are 6-3 coming off a big W in SF...while the pats are rested...i know who i would take. Like someone posted...their opponents record isn't that great..besides SF but they looked horrible today

Carolina's receivers don't separate well from man coverage, particularly if you stick a guy like Talib on Steve Smith.

Patriots will probably struggle to run the ball and give up some pressure right up the middle at times. Carolina's dominating defensive line and Luke Kuechly covers up a lot of the holes in their secondary.

is Talib close to returning?

Brady_to_Moss said:

is Talib close to returning?

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We'll find out at about 7pm next Monday.

Can we get a "Cam Newton is Awesome" thread ...

The Andrew Luck is awesome thread led to a 4 turnover for Luck loss today.

http://espn.go.com/blog/indianapolis-colts/post/_/id/1938/rapid-reaction-indianapolis-colts-5

OT (sortof): CAR-SF -- Scouting the next opponent

So Carolina beat the Niners, that's a huge win to get on the road, in SF.

After watching the game, the panthers appear to have a very physical defense with a punch-in-your-mouth attitude. Thankfully, their offense is less than stellar. I would like to believe that if our offense fires on all cylinders like they did last week, we *should* be able to win it. One thing is for sure though: our O-line will have their work cut out for them.

I'm starting to think this game will be tougher than the Broncos one.

If the Pats are gonna get hit for having the schedule they had for the first 9 weeks, then the Panthers are too.

This was their first win vs a winning team. The only teams that have a worse Strength of Victory percentage is Atlanta, TB, and Oakland. And their Strength of Schedule has been the 3rd easiest behind Seattle and KC.

Brady_to_Moss said:

Anyone have the stat of Bradys/BB record AFTER a bye week...haven't they only lost like 2 together?

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9-2 (regular season)

15-3 (including the wild-card bye week)

16-5 (if you include that off week before the SB)

26-6 (if you count Week 1 games)

My thoughts:

Newton: doesnt scare me as a passer. Floats passes almost half the time and throws one or two behind wide open guys to boot. Scary part of his game is that he is a rothlesberger type (hard to bring down) but can run fwd when the play breaks down (requiring a spy) and could do an Eli on you if he shakes off a sack.

His WRs arent too much and TEs were non-existent. Smith looks aging (but still can show up once or twice). The guy with the french name (LaFell) looks decent (most dangerous wr) but still had some butter fingers.

RBs: Tolbert looked quicker and more dangerous than stewart; but hopefully they will do like they did vs SF and keep trying to feed stewart. Tolbert is a HUGE LOAD; but he still seems to get off like a jack rabbit from the FB position.

DL: Very discipined (wont be seeing a lot of offsides freebie 5 yds) and very strong. They got tons of pressure on Kap with only 4 man rush. They will be quite dangerous. if Dante doesnt have the guys together; TB will be taking some hits. They will need to hit some short slants or other quick plays early to get them backed off.

LBs - looked good; but didnt seem as talented as the front 4; and in Run D it seemed early on that if the SF RB got past the front 4; the RB could go a long way - a couple of good 10-12 yd runs there. But their Ss covered up quick it seemed.

CBs - it didnt seem like SF had any decent wrs to really challenge these guys. They may be good; but I didnt see them being so great as much as the front got pressure and SF just stunk it up running routes - so it might have made them look better than they are (or else they are so good they make it look too easy).

STs- they appear to have a real good punter; but their blocking seemed kind of Suspect. coverage on punts seemed pretty good. Edeldude may not get as much chance to make an impact.
Kicker was so-so; 1 for 2 on FGs (although he hit the longer (53) one) and seemed like he didnt pound it for TBs consistently even though was warm there. I thought on one of their KO coverages they didnt keep their lanes well; so Blount might do more damage than Edeldude next week

Exactly the kind of team the Pats have struggled against. Tough D and a QB who can make things happen with his legs even after the Pats have blanketed his receivers. I'll be taking the Panthers plus the points this week.

As I said in another thread last week:

The Panthers defense is a lot like the Jets, or at least, it presents alot of the same issues and has the same weakness.

Their front seven is vastly underrated and is easily top 5 in the NFL. Their secondary is pretty average in terms of talent (a lot of UDFA starters), but because of their strong front, they can get away with a lot of freelancing. Their secondary is very opportunistic because of that. They feast off pressure, which their two DEs (Johnson, Hardy) are exceptional at along 2 stout DTs. And Kuechly, to me, is best all around LB in football. The kid is special and he can do it all.

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They're also very adept at pressure up the middle from their DTs.

On defense a zone-based scheme, with edge setting responsibilities is probably the best course of action against Newton. Although he's been fairly good this year, his lack of awareness doesn't allow him to always identify the best matchups against the zone.

He's been pretty inconsistent these last few weeks. If the Patriots can keep him in the pocket, and force him to make plays they have a good shot at shutting down their passing attack.

In addition to that, protecting Tom will be the key to everything. The O-Line needs to show the ability to contain a stout front for once. Each time they've went up against a good D-Line, they've gotten pushed around too easily. This is the game to prove they can handle teams who come with the talent and the intent to punch them in the mouth.

ey guys - just checking in here- we have the best defense in the NFL today bar none - TB going to have a very long Monday night if our front four do what they did to Kapernick and that number one pick line of 'sF - lol - Cam will be Cam- he might have a great game or a poor one but one thing will be certain - our D will show up - Brady will have a minimum of time to make his classic check downs- dont know how your running game is going to this point but, you see how SF did against our front 7. Its gonna get real on MNF and may the best team win - always respect you all and lets get it on!

Until today, they were beating up on very poor teams.

They have a very, very good D-line that will make our O-line look bad at times.

Newton looked pretty bad today, and their offense is not good.

MP-Logick said:

Carolina's receivers don't separate well from man coverage, particularly if you stick a guy like Talib on Steve Smith.

Patriots will probably struggle to run the ball and give up some pressure right up the middle at times. Carolina's dominating defensive line and Luke Kuechly covers up a lot of the holes in their secondary.

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See I don't think that's true at all. A short, shifty, receiver like Smith, as always given Talib problems. And let's remember, its gonna be Talib first game back in almost a month.

Key to this game, take away their run game, and force Newton to beat you with his arm. This is gonna be a dog fight..