On all fronts.

Pretty much everything I came here to say has already been said, except that Moose hit scared the bejesus out of me.

Dawkins is a great player but he looked like he led with his helmet on that one.

Also, did anyone else catch what Jake said in his interview with Pam Oliver, something about “addition by subtraction.”

What did you guys make of that? Just another nothing comment? Or was it a directed at Keary Colbert, Drew Carter, DeShaun Foster (some, all of the above, others)?

I don’t want to make a mountain out of a mole hill, but that statement took me off guard- and I’m not saying it isn’t the truth, but I didn’t ever realize there might have been discontent brewing in last year’s locker room.

Thoughts?

I think you are trying to find excuses on why things were not good, but I have a feeling this season may end up like the last two seasons. I think all will agree, that the first half was played with most of the starters from both the teams. Yes, the panthers missed some WRs and CBs. But the offense scored 3 points in the first half. Yeah, the eagles scored none, but look at the game and you know they played way better than us and got to see what they wanted. Some interesting points:

Good:
Deangela Williams looked amazing. Give him something and he makes the most of it. While he may lack strength, he is pretty elusive and bounces well.
Matt Morre looked impressive in the 2 minute drill till the interception. A little more exp. and I think he will be fine. He will be a good heir to Jake throne.
Jeff Otah is hugeeee. I think he will be the best pick of the panthers this year. Infact the O-line is pretty good.
Julius peppers didn’t do anything amazing, but he looks energized and better than last year

Bads:
Jake looked scared and unsure whenever he went out. Maybe he still is needs time to get used to the NFL after sitting out or is he still worried about the arm.

Jonathan Stewart did nothing to look like a first round pick. Agreed he was behind the second string offensive line, but he was also facing the second string defense. He looked slow and a big version of Deshaun Foster (Oh myyy!)

I feel the panthers may just scrape through the playoffs, but SB will requrie a lot of luck like 2003 (hence cardiac cats)

There are holes on offense and defense. I was most worried about Jake. I hope it was the rain. But he looked like some rookie starting his first NFL game. His swagger, intensity was missing. The completion to Moose would have helped him build confidence.

Needs to go on ahead and turn in his pads.

After starting 10 yards deep against a wide receiver, he was beat in the endzone by 5 yards. Could he not run more than 15 yards in the time it took the WR to run 30?

Then on the run where Nate Salley missed wrapping up on the tackle, Toney ran by and seemed to point at the runner. Dive/touch/push/yell, something! Fall down in his way, and maybe someone else can try and make a tackle.

The Eageles Offense scored two touchdowns, and Toney was a big part of both of them.

The second team O-line sucked as a unit which makes me unsure as how to grade his performance.

I know our guys made some mistakes and looked bad, but the key to remember is that we were up 13-0 with 730 to go, and no starters were on the field. As bad as we may have looked, McNabb and Westbrook were unable to score. We have to give the defense some credit for that.

Peppers is going to have a monster season, and I am still trying to figure out how Fox is gonna keep Marshall on the bench. When we’ve got the lead in the second half, there may be plenty of nickel packages in play for us, but I’d like to see him stuffing the run in the 1st quarter. He would be very helpful in week 1 against any LT sweeps to his side.

I’m curious to see how the coaches make adjustments, and that is something we can’t see in the preseason. I want to see how our first team offense adjusts in the second half after going without a TD in the first. That’s going to be critical as last year it seemed our gameplan and playcalling never changed, regardless of the score.

I also want to see a couple more flea flickers, more play action, and some single back, two TE, two WR sets. We need to do something different than last year in addition to just getting better players.

One final note, Jake talked about addition by subtraction. I doubt he was talking about Foster. Jake cares about attitude because he’s a competitor. No one can doubt that Foster worked hard and was very competitive. He made mistakes on the field, but it was not because of a lack of effort. I still got love for Foster as I reminisce about some of his best Panther moments, but we all know it was time for him to move on.