Interesting article about the Panthers paying the piper.

[Maulbert]

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2016/10...ers-riverboat-ron-losing-team-super-bowl-bets

The house always wins. It’s a tired, old adage. Sure you can plonk down your $20 at the table and go on a hot streak, but eventually, if you don’t walk away — the house always gets you back. The Carolina Panthers’ string of luck is over, they hit 17 one too many times. Now the once-dynamic Super Bowl contenders are a husk at the bottom of the NFC South. The worst part: It was easy to see this coming.

The 2015 Super Bowl team got immense credit for playing fast and loose on fourth down, leaning on Cam Newton and his MVP season to pull it all together. The Panthers had no business winning games like they did without depth in the secondary, a makeshift offensive line, and a horrible group of wide receivers -- yet they did. A breakout rookie season from Devin Funchess paired with a bizarrely effective Ted Ginn Jr. gave Newton and the offense just enough weapons to make a go of it — and thanks to a lack of injuries, they did.

Fast forward to now and the Panthers are laughably bad. On Monday night it didn’t help that the team was without left tackle Michael Oher, running back Jonathan Stewart, and Newton, but those are excuses for an endemic problem. Carolina couldn’t beat a 1-3 division rival with a rookie kicker missing two critical field goals despite having a chance to win in the red zone with three minutes left on the clock. Good teams shouldn’t struggle like that, Super Bowl hangover or not.

The easy explanation is complacency. That somehow making it all the way to football’s biggest game left players unprepared, but that isn’t the problem. The real issue is that Carolina took its lauded, gambling style from the field and transferred it into the front office with how the team was built. Every single one of those bets have been a bust.

There's a lot more, and it's definitely worth the read.

 

[nanomoz]

Great read, thanks for sharing. I can't disagree, but I think this article places a bit too much blame on the front office/Josh Norman situation. I think that is in play, certainly, but it's not a primary reason for the decline.

To my untrained eye, Carolina looks . . . tired. Especially on defense. I swear their linebackers are half a step slower. It also seems like the defensive line isn't having as much "depth" success with personnel packages. On paper, that defensive line is exceptional. This year, that isn't translating to the field, especially in regards to interior pass rush.

The criticism of Shula is spot on in the two games I watched. Man, he's arrogant as hell as a play caller. Both with forcing chunk yardage and putting his QB in harm's way. At some point, a play caller has to realize that long-developing passes/playaction passes are imprudent due to a lack of talent up front. Sound familiar, Seahawks fans?

 

[xgeoff]

http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2016/10...ers-riverboat-ron-losing-team-super-bowl-bets

The house always wins...

Great article, and spot on. The funny thing about one of their moves (letting Josh Norman go) is that they had plenty of cap space to keep him. Evidently the GM bought into the hype on this team and didn't realize just how lucky they were getting.

He should have, after the Seahawks came within a whisker of winning that playoff game in Carolina. It was the latest of many close shaves that made for a magical season till Denver turned their Super Bowl carriage back into a pumpkin and their princess (Cam Newton) back into a scullery maid.

Bottom line is that their front office should have realized that luck doesn't always carry over from season to season, unless you have the officials in your pocket (yeah, I'm talking to you Steelers fans!) and should have locked down their marquis cornerback.

 

[Hawks46]

Well I thought the Norman move was more emotional than practical. Norman started wanting money and getting public, and Getlleman seemed to get butt hurt over it.

I knew the Panthers would come back down to earth. The Super Bowl Hangover is a real thing. Plus, they benefited from one of the easiest schedules in the NFL last year. Atlanta can do some damage, the Bucs looked like they were up and coming and the Saints...well they can score points on anyone but their defense typically struggles. None of them are easy outs for a flawed Panthers team.

Put into this pot the way Newton plays; the guy really thinks he's Superman. He's not going to last the year taking all these hits. Denver exposed their weak Tackles in the Superbowl. I'm not going to rip them and call them a bad team, because I'm a bit superstitious until we play them, but it wasn't difficult to see this coming. Maybe not to this degree, but looking at that disaster of a secondary in a passing league.....well the writing was on the wall.

 

[ctrcat]

The article mentions Stewart being injured as usual but doesn't mention the $9.5+ million cap hit he brings thanks to the GM before Gettleman giving the contract to the injury prone RB.

It also doesn't mention Bradberry missed the last two games, going out in the first series vs Atlanta. No, a rookie from Samford couldn't and shouldn't be expected to shut down Julio, but he's surpassed expectations and is wildly ahead of where Norman was as a 25 year old rookie.

I said DE was my biggest concern going into the year, and I was right.

Several more things, good and bad, right and wrong, glass half full and half empty, truths and half truths in the article. Bottom line is they're 1-4 in a bottom line business. But if they beat the Saints and/or the Hawks beat the Falcons, I still expect them to win the South. What Gettleman has done can be questioned in the short term but the long term jury is still out.

 

[2_0_6]

Im still baffled how the front office let Norman walk for nothing so late into FA.

 

[Maulbert]

It also doesn't mention Bradberry missed the last two games, going out in the first series vs Atlanta. No, a rookie from Samford couldn't and shouldn't be expected to shut down Julio, but he's surpassed expectations and is wildly ahead of where Norman was as a 25 year old rookie.

I could sit here right now and tell you Richard Sherman as a rookie was light years ahead of where Bradberry is right now and it would mean about as much to how bad Carolina is now compared to last season as arguing about Norman's merits as a rookie. The point is the Panthers secondary is terrible and letting Norman walk is the biggest contribution to their backslide, no matter how promising you think Bradberry looks.

 

[Popeyejones]

The Panthers weren't as good as their record last year (no team that wins that many games is), nor are they as bad as their record this year.

They clearly need to invest in their O-line and secondary, but they've got a ton of good young pieces to work with moving forward. Totally disagree that their WRs are bad, and also disagree that missing Oher, Stewart, and Newton on Monday is an "excuse"-- the Panthers are as dependent on their QB as any team in the NFL; right up their with the Packers, Chargers, Colts, and Saints.

As for their holes, I think they're manageable. You can stumble into good O-lineman late and good RBs very, very late. With the scheme their running they can also get CB talent late.

If I'm the Panthers I'd basically try to nail a pick on a safety in the first round, get good value on a top interior lineman in round 2, and then just stockpile on more o lineman, dbs, and a couple hbs as value presents itself throughout the rest of the draft.

 

[OkieHawk]

The Panthers weren't as good as their record last year (no team that wins that many games is), nor are they as bad as their record this year.

They clearly need to invest in their O-line and secondary, but they've got a ton of good young pieces to work with moving forward. Totally disagree that their WRs are bad, and also disagree that missing Oher, Stewart, and Newton on Monday is an "excuse"-- the Panthers are as dependent on their QB as any team in the NFL; right up their with the Packers, Chargers, Colts, and Saints.

As for their holes, I think they're manageable. You can stumble into good O-lineman late and good RBs very, very late. With the scheme their running they can also get CB talent late.

If I'm the Panthers I'd basically try to nail a pick on a safety in the first round, get good value on a top interior lineman in round 2, and then just stockpile on more o lineman, dbs, and a couple hbs as value presents itself throughout the rest of the draft.

This article disagrees with the bolded portion.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

There's a reason a VERY large percentage of SB losers don't even make the playoffs the next year...........the SB hangover is very real.

IMO the biggest negative in the off season for the Panther was not signing Norman. How would the Hawk's players have felt in 2014 if we decided to just let Sherman walk? Monumentally deflating for a team to see management not take care of and keep the core players on the team.

Panthers look flat, tired, disinterested...........maybe they'll do what we did last year, get their poop together the last half and make a run. But their hole is too big IMO to overcome.

 

[Fade]

If this weekend works out for the Panthers. Them winning, and the Falcons losing. They can salvage the season, and make the playoffs from a bad division. Both must transpire though, or they are done. Even then it will feel like a disappointment when they get spanked in the 1st rd and eliminated if they can pull it off.

They are supposed to be competing for championships, not barely making the playoffs. Gettleman is a failure, and like Trent Baalke I hope he never gets fired.

When they didn't extend Kawaan Short, let Josh Norman walk, and shed a couple more vets in their back end. Then they drafted a DT in the 1st round, while ignoring DE I was pretty happy. At that point I knew they would take a small step back. I was wrong, they took a major step back.

 

[ctrcat]

If this weekend works out for the Panthers. Them winning, and the Falcons losing. They can salvage the season, and make the playoffs from a bad division. Both must transpire though, or they are done. Even then it will feel like a disappointment when they get spanked in the 1st rd and eliminated if they can pull it off.

They are supposed to be competing for championships, not barely making the playoffs. Gettleman is a failure, and like Trent Baalke I hope he never gets fired.

When they didn't extend Kawaan Short, let Josh Norman walk, and shed a couple more vets in their back end. Then they drafted a DT in the 1st round, while ignoring DE I was pretty happy. At that point I knew they would take a small step back. I was wrong, they took a major step back.

I actually don't disagree with some of that. The trade deadline is still weeks away so we'll see, but to only receive a 3rd round comp pick and $14 million for the "future" is frustrating when no one is guaranteed tomorrow.

With that said, anything can happen in the playoffs. The Vikings are currently the #1 seed. Yes, they whipped the Panthers in the 2nd half, but this link helps explain why the Panthers coulda/woulda/shoulda easily been ahead by multiple scores at the break. http://blackandbluereview.com/how-panth ... irst-half/

 

[Largent80]

LOL @ Panthers......You SUCK.

 

[Maulbert]

With that said, anything can happen in the playoffs. The Vikings are currently the #1 seed. Yes, they whipped the Panthers in the 2nd half, but this link helps explain why the Panthers coulda/woulda/shoulda easily been ahead by multiple scores at the break. http://blackandbluereview.com/how-panth ... irst-half/

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Shoulda woulda coulda is the last defense of an already lost argument. If it counted for anything, Cammie would have recovered his fumble in the Super Bowl. You didn't 'almost beat the Vikings'. You lost to them, and bad teams don't capitalize on opportunities. That's why Tampa Bay beat you by 3 instead of 20.