kearly
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Popeyejones":4agmkpxx said:In the playoffs this year the Panthers played 3 very good defenses. By halftime against the first one they had dropped 31 point on 'em, and by halftime of the second one they dropped 24 points on 'em. Then they went up against Denver and just got manhandled.
Seattle's defense allowed 24 points, not 31, and was playing on skates for the first 20 minutes (at 10am, which impacts defensive effectiveness significantly). After Seattle had adjusted for body clock and found the right cleats to wear, the Panthers offense was mostly shut down, never crossing the 50 yard line in the final 2.5 quarters. I thought their early lead said a lot about the field conditions and early start and Kris Richard's soft zones. It did little to show that Cam Newton was unstoppable.
And besides that, Seattle's defense was not truly elite in my opinion last season, they padded their defensive numbers against bad offenses but struggled against good offenses. I honestly find it laughable that Seattle finished #1 in scoring D and #2 in yardage, which if anything is an indictment against using simple stats to evaluate defenses. I love the LOB, but they were several steps down from where they were from 2013-2014.
The Cardinals defense was pretty awful after they lost Matheiu. Both Wilson and Newton picked them apart, and Rodgers completed back to back hail mary's on it.
Really at no point this season did Newton impress me by beating a good defense that was playing their best. Seattle was hamstrung defensively in both their games against Carolina as was Arizona. And neither of those defenses, even at their best in 2015, would hold a candle to the 2015 Denver D. Which is why I correctly predicted Newton would get his ass kicked in the SB. He simply hasn't had success against an elite D firing on all cylinders before.