FanPost

How The Panthers Played Position by Position


I know it's just the preseason, but man does it feel good to get a win. Here is my opinion on how each position played.

QB- let's start with Cam Newton, Cam had a great night. He stood firm in the pocket, and delivered strikes to his receivers. He went through all his progressions and seemed to have good timing with the receivers (minus one play to Lafell) Now for DA- everyone wants to say we should get a backup more like cam, but if you really look at it athleticism aside DA is a good backup to Cam. He is tall, has good arm strength and has pretty good accuracy. He also showed that he has a good relationship with Louis Murphy who was routinely the first guy he looked for. It was an all around solid night for DA. Now for Jimmy. He started off rough, and I really saw what James was talking about when he said that Jimmy needs to put allot of strength into his deep throws, whereas Cam can just flick his wrist and it goes 50 yards. He settled in latter however and made a good throw to Armanti while he was getting hit. He also led us into field goal range.

RB- lets start with the original double trouble. Deangelo has some nice runs, and some good catches. He showed that he still has good burst and quickness through the holes. Didn't see much of stew as he got hurt early on, good news is he seems fine. Vaughn really seemed to redeem himself. All his caries were good, and while no plays really stood out it was a solid night for him.

FB- Tolbert was terrific, and aside from one fumble had an outstanding night both catching and blocking. I was pleasantly surprised with how good of a blocker he was; he constantly opened up holes for our running backs. It was something I wondered about, but it no longer worries me. In the pass catching department he caught every ball, and directly went north and south; bulldozing people every chance he got.

WR. Smitty looked as fast and as explosive as ever. Didn't see to many passes thrown his way, but the one where he beat Sean smith down the sideline forcing him into a pass interference he looked really fast. Lafell had one really good play on a long reception from Cam, and a really bad play where he didn't turn his head fast enough. Nothing else really stood out from him. Murphy looks to be out number three receiver: he had a nice end around a some nice gains on a few of his catches. Really excited about what I see out of him. TuTu looked bad. The only play that stood out was a bad one where he had a perfect route but failed to catch the pass DA put on his numbers. Pilaris looked explosive on a few short passes he turned into big gains.

TE- Olsen looked good in limited action hauling in a long pass from Cam, but I didn't see much else from him. Hartstock looked good both blocking and catching . Barny was invisible; he just never got open.

OL The first OL looked terrific giving Cam ample amount of time to go through his reads, and opened up holes for the RB's. The second OL looked solid giving DA his three seconds to throw, but not much more, and they had marginal success run blocking. All I'm going to say about the third O-line is if one of them come into the game, cam better be coming out of the game.
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Now for the Defense

D-line- can you say improvement? Edwards made a huge difference on that D-line constantly holding his man at the point of attack, and getting penetration. TMac looked like he had a great off-season; showing his nose for the ball, and getting into the backfield (we'll call this the Ron Edwards effect). CJ felt the Ron Edwards effect as-well constantly being matched up one on one with the right tackle, and he was giving him a headache repeatedly getting by him and hitting the QB. Applewhite saw time at DE,DT and OLB, but his biggest success came inside at DT on passing downs where he just bull rushed the guards. Alexander had a nice night showing off his pass rush moves and beating the Tackles frequently and giving pressure. He looked real good on that last drive. Keiser unlike Alexander doesn't have a whole lot of pass rush moves; as most off his pressure comes from his non-stop moter. Solid night for Keiser. Don't have much to say about Hardy just like you usually don't have much to say about who was matched up with Jake long.

LB's Solid night for kuechly and Anderson. Nothing really stood out about this group except for the 3-4 looks with

OLB Jason Williams or Thomas Keiser ( will probably be TD or Keiser in the regular season)

MLB James Anderson and Keek ( will probably be Beas and Keek in the regular season)

OLB Antwan Applewhite

Corners/ Safeties nothing really stood out about this group besides the fact that Norman appeared to be starting, and Gamble had an up and down night.

Kicker/ punter- meadlock was great at FG's but not on kickoffs. Mare is great at kickoffs, but not at FG's. this is a situation where you have just have to ask yourself are kickoffs more important or are FG's more important.

I for one would rather take a knockdown field goal kicker, and take my chance with the kickoff coverage. Both punters looked good, but Nortman is clearly our punter.

Feel free to give some insight on anything I missed; as-well as your opinion on the team's performance.

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