Panthers Homers vs. Haters: Peppers Week 2 Review

I assume #9 and #25 are the two plays he registered “decent” effort.

I’d imagine that if the same in depth analysis of film work were done for any other DLman, it could hardly have been less effective — he basically went through the motions in this game.

Maybe because it’s MNF, or because he’s reported to be auditioning for Jerry Jones, he’ll dhow more this game — or if he just has ANY pride in his rep at all! We’ll see, won’t we?

HE is making more money than Dwight Freeney. I feel that Julius has more attributes and talent.

The serious question is who would you rather have on that line?

My money would be with Dwight. He hustles every play.

I sit firmly in the lover camp, and make no apology for that. But, lets not forget the previous week he had 5 tackles a sack and a blocked FG. People have been waiting for one of his (common) low impact games to jump on him since he has the insane contract and this is the first opportunity.

He is just mercurial. Its frustrating to watch when he cos you know what he is capable of. But the game is not about one player. Its a team game. you just have to forget about the size of his contract and judge him as just a player. People seem to assume he IS the pass rush. Its not happening for him, the Panthers have no pressure.

The best way to use him is in a defence that is working well as a unit. He holds up his end of the line, he rarely gets beaten and he shows up every now and again and does something ridiculous. That’s how he plays, how he always has.

If the rest of the defense was playing up to par it would be easy to critical of Peppers. Right now to single him out is a moot subject, we have a whole defense that is playing sub par and something needs to change quickly. I know everyone is concerned about making it to the playoffs and I would like that myself but to me it is more important to find out what is bothering this whole team. They seem to be a disfunctionable family and no one is working in harmony and I lay that on the coaches. I know they don’t make the plays but they have a job to get the players ready to make the plays and I feel they atr falling down on the job. This includes getting Peppers ready to play but I have a feeling they sort of leave him alone and expect him to do it on his own. I have people that work for me that are evey good at what they do but I still have to keep them focused and prepared to do what I want and they way I want it done. It takes personal involvement with each player on my team. We have the talent (except for injuries) to have a very good team and I just hope they can get it together and soon.

This is a good inside look at Peppers’ production. I, like many, would like to see him be a more disruptive force on a regular basis. I guess the big question would be, how much of the 24% are plays intentionally run away from Peppers?

Right now I set saying Peppers needs to have more games like Philly and less like Atlanta. Off games will happen (look at Delhomme), teams plan directly for you and such, however, off games should not happen against division rivals. If any game a player should be fired up for is a division rivals. That said my real beef is with the coaching staff.

The persistence that Fox/Hurney showed in retaining Peppers and the cap commitment attached to it, should mean they had big plans for him in the “new” defense. The idea behind Meeks’ system (as I understand it from my pc chair) is that he designs his scheme around the player, not their position. If that is the case then Peppers (and every player) should always have the opportunity to make big plays.

Two games into a new system, where many of the starters were out during the pre-season, is showing, and I can accept that. Having an early bye should prove beneficial if they can’t right the ship before then. That’s the hope I holding onto at this point.

 But if I was going to point fingers at anyone right now it would be the ST and ST coaches. The defense and offense have both showed good improvement from one week to the next (stats or no stats the defense held Atlanta under 30 points not too many under but under), special teams has bombed two games in a row.

There is no way a RB, TE or any OL who is not an all pro should be able to stop him alone on any play. I’m not even looking at what he’s making this year, that really isn’t his fault, but that’s another subject…With his talent, skill, size and speed, he should have a direct effect on almost every play if he is not double teamed, and an indirect effect on every play he is on the field. He should be, and in the past has been, someone that OC’s lose sleep over. Which is why ownership was so desperate to keep him. He really could be another LT. I just wish Pep believed that himself.

This is a team sport, but the sucess of the team comes from the efforts of individuals. Especially the efforts of it most talented individuals. If the most talented and important players on the team don’t play to their potential every game, we can not expect the team to be successful.