Carolina Panthers

[smvalkyries]

I am not a Carolina fan but as a Dukioe I always kind of liked them and rooted for them. A couple of things really bothered me in yesterdays super bowl and I was hoping some Carolina fans could enlighten me. (1) I am bothered that what was clearly the best team all year did not win. They played almost as if the ACC FOM rules were preventing the O-line from stopping penetration. Must admit it was fan exciting watchimng the qb get creamed every play but it did ruin the game. I know things like this happen occasionally but it still bothered me. The other two things that bothered me are more difficult to explain. (2) Why does Ted Ginn always run out of bounds? After a 40 yard completion with 5 yards between him and a defender on the denver 30 and I counted 6 other times he ran out of bounds with no contact thereafter. More FOM application? I thought Carolina was a tough gritty team? (3) Why down 6 with 3 minutes to play does Cam look at his own fumble and decide not to dive for it because a denver player was a little closer. Don't get me wrong I respect Cam and would never accuse him of being soft especially after the beating he took yesterday but whatever got into him to not even make the effort to recover the fumble in the super bowl. I also know it was not a thought out issue but just an instinctive one but since when did soccar mentally surplus football mentallity in North Carolina? Thank you for any explanations you might have. Oh yes I did lose supporting the Panthers but made most back on the under so my questions really are more educational than sour grapes.

[Highlander]

I am not a Carolina fan but as a Dukioe I always kind of liked them and rooted for them. A couple of things really bothered me in yesterdays super bowl and I was hoping some Carolina fans could enlighten me. (1) I am bothered that what was clearly the best team all year did not win. They played almost as if the ACC FOM rules were preventing the O-line from stopping penetration. Must admit it was fan exciting watchimng the qb get creamed every play but it did ruin the game. I know things like this happen occasionally but it still bothered me. The other two things that bothered me are more difficult to explain. (2) Why does Ted Ginn always run out of bounds? After a 40 yard completion with 5 yards between him and a defender on the denver 30 and I counted 6 other times he ran out of bounds with no contact thereafter. More FOM application? I thought Carolina was a tough gritty team? (3) Why down 6 with 3 minutes to play does Cam look at his own fumble and decide not to dive for it because a denver player was a little closer. Don't get me wrong I respect Cam and would never accuse him of being soft especially after the beating he took yesterday but whatever got into him to not even make the effort to recover the fumble in the super bowl. I also know it was not a thought out issue but just an instinctive one but since when did soccar mentally surplus football mentallity in North Carolina? Thank you for any explanations you might have. Oh yes I did lose supporting the Panthers but made most back on the under so my questions really are more educational than sour grapes.

This article is the best one I have seen breaking down the reasons for the loss:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14...er-broncos-nfl

They answer (1) by saying that Mike Remmers and Michael Oher were outmatched. Panthers O line preseason was seen as a huge question mark. Remmers was an upgrade over Bell, but still not elite. Oher was seen as a huge risk as his time in Tennessee was less than impressive. All year the Panthers got off to big leads early and then used their defense to ratchet up the pressure. This time that script was reversed. Granted, Von Miller makes even elite O lineman look silly, but this was just a talent mismatch. Second problem was that Carolina never adjusted scheme to counterract the repeated blitzes coming from Denver, with predictable results.

For (2) they don't cover it, other than to say the Panthers receivers are below average. IMO, the one long pass Ginn caught he had 2 guys closing on him. My guess was that he didn't think he'd get by both of them and opted to avoid an unnecessary hit. I didn't see the other plays where he ran out of bounds. Ginn is an average receiver with above average speed. Cam made him look great this year, but running crisp routes and making clutch catches are certainly not what he's known for.

For (3) Here's their take:

On that second strip-sack, Newton was criticized for choosing not to dive to the ground for the ball while it was rolling around the ground. The argument has been that Newton somehow chose in the moment to avoid diving for the football because he had given up on the game or didn't have the heart to sell out for his team, which is absurd, lowest-common-denominator fodder.

This is the same Newton who clearly played through injuries behind a porous offensive line last year for a Panthers team that was falling rapidly out of playoff contention, the one who rushed back from a car accident to suit up for a 5-8-1 team. The one who screwed up his Florida career so badly that he had to transfer to a junior college before working his way back into becoming the first overall pick. Does anybody really think that a veteran team with Thomas Davis -- who suited up with an arm that looked like a football yesterday -- would get behind a quarterback and treat him like an unquestioned leader if he was a fraud? The idea that Newton is soft or unable to overcome adversity is unsupported by his entire career up to that one play.

Why didn't Newton dive for the football, then? It's hard to say. Football's a fast game, and fumbles aren't exactly the easiest things to recover. Maybe he got caught thinking the ball was about to move as DeMarcus Ware dove toward it. That's exactly what happened, which would have rendered a Newton dive worthless, but that's been lost in the discussion. Maybe he froze, in the same way that Bill Belichick might have frozen when he didn't call a timeout before the Malcolm Butler interception in last year's Super Bowl. Maybe Newton was injured and couldn't move the way he wanted to. There's no obvious explanation, but that doesn't justify pushing some lack of intestinal fortitude to the top of the excuse pile because it fits a pithy storyline. It's far more likely to be a football mistake than a sign of emotional weakness.

[captmojo]

The pass receivers could not get open. When they were...when is a catch a catch?

[smvalkyries]

Thanks for the excellent response it was much more than I expected. I surmise from your response that the Ginn issue hasn't been a year long thing, maybe he just had some sort of upper body injury that wasn't made public. I am sure if he'd been doing that all year someone would have commented upon it before now. Still too bad the best team did not win.

[moonpie23]

this might shed some light - from cam himself...

[wavedukefan70s]

The pass receivers could not get open. When they were...when is a catch a catch?

True but they dropped a bunch on the biggest stage of thier career.
While i dont like carolina. Cam got a bad rap at the interview. I dont know if i could have been as composed with the heckling.