Panthers-21 Cards-28: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

[NJCardFan]

Well, my first Good, Bad, & Ugly of the season...and all 3 aspects were covered extensively. Well, here it goes:


The Good

A Win-A win is a win I suppose.

Kevin Kolb-18 of 27 for 309 yards and 2 scores. And all without a lick of protection.

Patrick Peterson's punt return-While his defense needs polishing, his punt returning looks solid. Game winner today.

Dan Williams-Looked really good today.

Darrell Washington-He was all over the place. 2 interceptions(I don't care what those officials say, that was a lousy call) and an all around good game.

Beanie Wells-The fumble aside, 90 yards is pretty good start. He hit holes well and ran well to the outside. Had he had better concentration, the game might have been over in the 1st quarter.

LSH-The guy is a beast on ST.

TE-All played well and are a huge asset.


The Bad

Secondary-I'm cutting them a little slack because of the inexperience but they were less than stellar today.

Pressure-The only reason why this isn't in the ugly category is because there were times when Newton was pressured but for the most part Newton had all day to throw including on blitzes.

Ray Horton-Had we lost, he would have been in the ugly bin but the defense came up big in the 4th but my God guy, when you blitz, blitz, and blitz some more and yet you keep getting burned, you might want to switch up your scheme a bit.


The Ugly

Offensive Line-Bad to horrible at times. Brown and Keith are the worst set of bookends in the history of football. All game long I saw both of them either get completely burned or matadoring someone. They had Kolb running for his life all day. Scares me to think how potent this offense would be if we had even a mediocre offensive line.

Game Plan-Once again Whiz and company were ill prepared for this game. And once again, no adjustments were made.


Well, that's all for now. Feel free to add some.

 

[cardpa]

Is it just me or does it seem that when we blitz it almost always get picked up and get no pressure. Our blitzers always seem to get blocked.

 

[gamebird98]

I would like to add Doucet to the good list.

 

[NMCard]

I thought Kolb had some good time in the pocket on several occasions. I would not say that he had a good game "without a lick of protection".

 

[Duckjake]

I don't know how they do it but Carolina manages to get Steve Smith open against us no matter who we have in our secondary.

And yes our offensive line is horrendous. It looked like 80% of our passes were screens. Even though they weren't. Just look at the replay of the TD to King.

However, we got our own record setting performance today. Longest punt return in franchise history.

 

[conraddobler]

I thought Kolb had some good time in the pocket on several occasions. I would not say that he had a good game "without a lick of protection".

The protection was very good at times, it's inconsistent that's for sure, maybe as they get more time together it'll get better for the whole game.

Thought the run game looked good.

 

[NJCardFan]

I would like to add Doucet to the good list.

Ugh, how did I miss that?

 

[Jetstream Green]

I give them bad and not ugly on the OL, because they were part of the reason Wells looked good
I would like to give credit to Sherman for his blocking

 

[JeffGollin]

When blasting our lack of pressure to the QB, it's easy to overlook the fact that (with perhaps the exception of RG) the Pantera O-line is excellent and their 2 RB's are experienced at blitz pickup.

(Sometimes you have to tip your hat).

 

[Duckjake]

Is it just me or does it seem that when we blitz it almost always get picked up and get no pressure. Our blitzers always seem to get blocked.

Its not just you. Fortunately our interior line was doing a good job. But you know you can't brag too much on your overall pass defense when you just let a guy set the NFL record for most passing yards in a rookies first game.

Also was that Reggie Walker getting some pressure on Carolina's last play?

 

[DakotaCardsFan]

I'll put Colledge in the good category. When Kolb fumbled inside the Card's 10, he was the fourth player to jump on the pile and still comes up with the ball.

 

[NJCardFan]

When blasting our lack of pressure to the QB, it's easy to overlook the fact that (with perhaps the exception of RG) the Pantera O-line is excellent and their 2 RB's are experienced at blitz pickup.

(Sometimes you have to tip your hat).

OK. Fair enough. Then at what point do you stop blitzing and resort to coverage? As Einstein said, the true sign of a mental illness is doing the same thing over again and expecting the same results. The blitz stopped working halfway in the 1st quarter but we kept on running it and exposing our inexperienced defensive backs and we got burnt...badly.

 

[Duckjake]

Holy Cow we had scoring plays of 48, 70 and 89 yards. Amazing.

Always love it when the Cards win in spite of being the same old Cards the entire game.

 

[NJCardFan]

Holy Cow we had scoring plays of 48, 70 and 89 yards. Amazing.

Always love it when the Cards win in spite of being the same old Cards the entire game.

Which is something we didn't even come close to doing last season(save for THT's long run against Atlanta). The fact that a TE had a long play is impressive.

 

[crisper57]

Levi just plain sucks. And he's ugly too.

 

[Mitch]

Levi just plain sucks. And he's ugly too.

OK---I myself would rather have Levi at guard---but, I have to say that after the first quarter, Levi was solid---and he had no penalties (even when Johnson jumped the neutral zone).

As i've been saying---how can the Cardinals tackles improve when they have no one on the opposite side of the ball in practice who is going to put the kind of pressure on them that our opposing DEs do?

This is why we see a great deal of struggles early in games.

 

[oaken1]

I was very impressed with Washington....dude just needs a new contract now, why wait,lol....
Some thing that has been puzzling me a lot this season, maybe one of you can shed some light.
Generally, a RH RB prefers running to their right, which keeps their body between the defense, and the ball in their right hand...
For some reason, we continually run Wells to the left, and while he has been doing well with it....it just seams to me he would/should do better running the same play to the other side...
Is this perhaps because they are trying to run behind Brown? Even coming out of college run blocking was his strength....if so, I can understand wanting to be behind him....but then why not just move him back to RT where we drafted him to play in the first place? Lutui and Colledge are both road graders in the run game....traditionally a team has their best pass defenders on the left(QB's blind side) and their best run blockers on the right.....since our LT position is so dysfunctional,...why not just put Brown back to RT so we have at least one side of the line that dominates in one facet of the game?....then run Wells to the right, where he should actually be more comfortable and more productive anyway.....
I dunno.....there must be something there I just aint seeing,...I aint no engineer or nuthin....

 

[Cbus cardsfan]

When blasting our lack of pressure to the QB, it's easy to overlook the fact that (with perhaps the exception of RG) the Pantera O-line is excellent and their 2 RB's are experienced at blitz pickup.

(Sometimes you have to tip your hat).

That's what I was going to post. Gross, Otah, and Kalil are among the best at their positions. That being said, I thought Williams beat up Kalil pretty good today.

 

[D-Dogg]

Run defense!!!!!

I was hesitant to zero in on this in the preseason but we were stout against the run then too. These were two GREAT running backs we went up against and we flat out shut them down. SHUT DOWN.

Dan Williams was a BEAST in the run game. He engulfed guys right at the line or right before it. It was beautiful to watch that whale of a man simply absorb RBs like Bob on Monsters vs. Aliens.

 

[NJCardFan]

Run defense!!!!!

I was hesitant to zero in on this in the preseason but we were stout against the run then too. These were two GREAT running backs we went up against and we flat out shut them down. SHUT DOWN.

Dan Williams was a BEAST in the run game. He engulfed guys right at the line or right before it. It was beautiful to watch that whale of a man simply absorb RBs like Bob on Monsters vs. Aliens.

It's still weak around the outside.

 

[Crimson Warrior]

I give them bad and not ugly on the OL, because they were part of the reason Wells looked good
I would like to give credit to Sherman for his blocking

They occasionally looked dominating...

As duckjake is fond of pointing out, continuity is very important for good offensive line play. Give this group several more starts, and I think their performance will improve.

 

[Seandonic]

...love it when the Cards win in spite of being the same old Cards the entire game.

Very true statement Duck.

I just hope the Cards cushy early schedule gives them time to develop.

 

[Fitz Rulz]

The Good
- The W
- The tailgate
- Strong TE position we have now
- Kolb

The Bad:
- Secondary in general. We were smoked.
- C'mon Feely

The Ugly
- Penalties killed us
- End zone failure twice


A question:
I think it was 1:19 for CAR 3rd & Goal at the end. AZ called timeout, why ?
Godforbid CAR scores, we only have 1 TO??!! not enough to get us to FG range. OR Whiz wanted an overtime ???

 

[Bert]

I need to watch the game on TV because all I saw was live and I dont want to be unfair, but, I watched Joey Porter alot and he did absolutely nothing in terms of pass rush. I mean he was devoured by the guy assigned to him.

 

[Shane]

I need to watch the game on TV because all I saw was live and I dont want to be unfair, but, I watched Joey Porter alot and he did absolutely nothing in terms of pass rush. I mean he was devoured by the guy assigned to him.

Had a sack and got screwed on another.. Cam was In the f'n grasp!