Welcome back and great post phillyb.
As for your keys to beating the Panthers, it's not looking good for us.
1. Bracket Olsen. I sure as hell hope so. Pretty much every team that has a TE with a pulse has gashed us with them this year. Eifert just had a career game against us, although that's not hard when we refuse to cover him up the seam (who knew TE's ran up the seam!?). Hell, we made the Rams TE's look good.
2.Pump fake. Wilson is pretty good at this. Our new WR, Lockett (no E), is actually lighting quick and is really good at changing direction. He was breaking ankles in preseason, so we promptly went away from that...it worked too well evidently. To be fair, Wilson typically hasn't had time to pump fake this year. I also doubt Bevell scouted this out at all.
3. Step up in the pocket. Uhh, nah. That's probably Wilson's weakest trait as a QB. He just doesn't do it much. To be fair, our interior OL is so bad at pass protection, I can't really blame him. Then, when he does get perfectly clean pockets, he can't believe his eyes and won't climb the pocket. I don't know who you're trotting out (Is Starr hurt again, and what is Short up to?), but we'll make them look All Pro. Last week was unusually good against a good Bengals DL, but somehow we have the best skill position talent at receiver Wilson has ever had, and we just don't click.
4. Scoring early has been a decided weakness of this team this year. Followed closely by scoring late, as in the 4th quarter. So we better hope to score 30 points in quarters 2 and 3.
I'm not super impressed by the undefeated start, but I'm decidedly less impressed with our 2-3 start. Typically I'd say we win this game, but I'm not so sure. I'll wait to see the injury report, but if Wagner is out, we're probably doomed.
As for your keys to beating the Panthers, it's not looking good for us.
1. Bracket Olsen. I sure as hell hope so. Pretty much every team that has a TE with a pulse has gashed us with them this year. Eifert just had a career game against us, although that's not hard when we refuse to cover him up the seam (who knew TE's ran up the seam!?). Hell, we made the Rams TE's look good.
2.Pump fake. Wilson is pretty good at this. Our new WR, Lockett (no E), is actually lighting quick and is really good at changing direction. He was breaking ankles in preseason, so we promptly went away from that...it worked too well evidently. To be fair, Wilson typically hasn't had time to pump fake this year. I also doubt Bevell scouted this out at all.
3. Step up in the pocket. Uhh, nah. That's probably Wilson's weakest trait as a QB. He just doesn't do it much. To be fair, our interior OL is so bad at pass protection, I can't really blame him. Then, when he does get perfectly clean pockets, he can't believe his eyes and won't climb the pocket. I don't know who you're trotting out (Is Starr hurt again, and what is Short up to?), but we'll make them look All Pro. Last week was unusually good against a good Bengals DL, but somehow we have the best skill position talent at receiver Wilson has ever had, and we just don't click.
4. Scoring early has been a decided weakness of this team this year. Followed closely by scoring late, as in the 4th quarter. So we better hope to score 30 points in quarters 2 and 3.
I'm not super impressed by the undefeated start, but I'm decidedly less impressed with our 2-3 start. Typically I'd say we win this game, but I'm not so sure. I'll wait to see the injury report, but if Wagner is out, we're probably doomed.
