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12/2/2013 5:47:43 PM

The Saints losing tonight gives us a much better probability to get the #2 seed. This is the realistic option.

The Saints winning gives us a minutely better probability to get the #1 seed, while drastically increasing our probability to land in the #5 seed unless we win out and get tons of help from other teams. This is the boom or bust option.

12/2/2013 6:04:36 PM

Quote :

"best scenario to hope for is brees and wilson start a brawl that rivals malice at the palace and get suspended for the rest of the season."

12/2/2013 6:48:14 PM

LOL

12/2/2013 7:57:05 PM

December 2nd and still relevant. Feels good man.

12/2/2013 8:07:24 PM

Okay. When this is done we are tied. We can split with NOLA and they lose to STL and we are #2 seed. How hard is it to figure that out? We finish 12-4, they finish 11-5. That is what we need!

12/2/2013 9:47:10 PM

still pissed we lost to these fuckers

12/2/2013 10:08:00 PM

Seattle's defensive line being this effective against that Saint O-line is nothing but good things for our better line.

[Edited on December 2, 2013 at 10:13 PM. Reason : Saints fraud alert: They lose to teams with good D's (Jets, NE, and SEA)]

12/2/2013 10:10:18 PM

i'm kinda getting fed up with you people being content with splitting with the Aints

i'm looking forward to running the table and finishing 13-3

12/2/2013 10:15:19 PM

Just got jets tickets. For 52…..but guess what New Orleans ticket prices are…….102. YIKES!

12/2/2013 10:20:49 PM

Just traded .2 bitcoins for 2 Saints tickets.

12/2/2013 11:15:15 PM

Well, Ron just got his blueprint. Now get to work.

12/2/2013 11:59:41 PM

Quote :

"i'm kinda getting fed up with you people being content with splitting with the Aints i'm looking forward to running the table and finishing 13-3"

I like where your heads at

Looks like the plan should be:

Get pressure with 4
ball control with running
chunk plays on qb scrambles
turnovers
PA passes down the field

Sounds pretty familiar...

I know our team smells blood in the water after last night. Let those sharks on D get after it and FINISH THEM

[Edited on December 3, 2013 at 8:29 AM. Reason : Saints open as 4 pt favs btw]

12/3/2013 8:13:11 AM

Quote :

"Coach Ron Rivera said on Monday he expects defensive end Charles Johnson (sprained right knee), running back DeAngelo Williams (quad contusion), linebacker Chase Blackburn(foot) and tight end Ben Hartsock (sprained knee) to return to practice on Wednesday. "

Great game for Hartsock to come back. Our run game went in the tank after he got injured, Olsen can't block for shit.

12/3/2013 10:01:23 AM

12/3/2013 11:16:42 AM

12/3/2013 9:24:31 PM

12/3/2013 9:28:42 PM

^^ having fun googling Cam pics?

12/3/2013 9:42:03 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWXWawdXy7Q

[Edited on December 4, 2013 at 7:56 AM. Reason : KEEP POUNDING]

12/4/2013 7:49:36 AM

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-films-sound-efx/0ap2000000292736/Sound-FX-Ron-Rivera

lol when he's yelling after the fumble

12/4/2013 10:27:47 PM

Think everyone needs to go vote for Keuchly, Davis, Star, Cam, etc.

http://nfllabor.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/2014probowl-balloting-update2.pdf

Can't believe the top 2 at ILB are Alonso and Lee(who missed about 3 games so far).

12/5/2013 2:40:37 PM

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10082684/nfl-why-carolina-panthers-playoff-paper-tiger

The haters have arrived.

and no, I'm not an insider and don't have access to the whole article.

[Edited on December 5, 2013 at 4:04 PM. Reason : foo]

12/5/2013 4:04:25 PM

http://www.panthers.com/fanzone/official-2014-pro-bowl.html

Its a little easier to vote through there due to the panther players being at the top.

12/5/2013 4:09:05 PM

voted for every Panther

12/5/2013 4:28:07 PM

^^^

This has been a season of ascension for the Carolina Panthers. After three straight losing campaigns and a playoff drought extending back to 2008, the Panthers are now the owners of the longest win streak in the NFL (eight games) and have a 98.4 percent chance to make the playoffs, according to Football Outsiders. They are headed into a Week 14 matchup with the New Orleans Saints to determine first place in the NFC South.

But as great as this streak has been for the Panthers, it is something of a mirage. A closer look at the metrics and game tape indicates that Carolina has a slew of weaknesses that make this team a potential playoff paper tiger.

Anemic downfield passing game

Prior to this season, Cam Newton could be viewed as a modern-day Brett Favre, a quarterback who seemed to go all out for the reward of downfield passes while throwing caution to the wind. This led to some prolific vertical totals such as when he ranked tied for third in vertical attempts in 2011, but it also led to a 4.2 percent bad decision rate (BDR) that ranked 31st in the league in that same campaign. BDR is a gauge of how often a QB makes a mental error that leads to a turnover opportunity for the opposing team, and that level is simply too high for most teams to overcome.

Since Newton's BDR was still an issue in 2012 (3.1 percent, ranked tied for 35th), new offensive coordinator Mike Shula seemed to make correcting this part of Newton's game a top priority.

At one level this approach has worked like a champ, as Newton's 2.1 percent BDR is easily the lowest of his career, but that improvement has come at a significant cost in vertical productivity.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Newton is averaging 8.71 yards per vertical pass attempt (VYPA). This ranks 35th in the league and only one qualifying quarterback has a lower VYPA (Jake Locker, 7.72).

The numbers get even worse when looking at stretch vertical passes (SVYPA, a production measure of aerials 20 or more yards downfield). It is bad enough that Newton's 7.81 SVYPA ranks 34th, but it is even worse when noting there are six quarterbacks whose SVYPA is more than double Newton's mark.

Shula's changes have taken a huge risk element out of this offense but also have hamstrung the vertical passing game and turned Newton into one of the least productive downfield passers in the NFL.

A low-upside rushing attack

Carolina has built a reputation over the years as having a strong ground game, but this season the Panthers' rushing attack is solid at best.

The team does rank in the top 10 in rush yards (1,552, ranked ninth), but it has a low yards per carry average (4.12, ranked 17th). Carolina also fares quite poorly in the good blocking yards per attempt (GBYPA) metric that tracks a running back's productivity on rushing plays with good blocking (which is very roughly defined as when the offense doesn't allow the defense to do anything to disrupt a rush attempt). The Panthers' 6.7 GBYPA mark is more than half a yard lower than the 7.4 GBYPA level that serves as the approximate league-wide midpoint in this category.

Compounding the lack of breakaway carries is the Panthers' 43.0 percent mark in the good blocking rate (GBR) metric that measures how often an offense gives its ball carriers good run-blocking. This is a couple of percentage points below the 45 percent mark that is the league-wide mean in this statistic.

The combination of the anemic passing game and low-upside rushing attack is directly responsible for the Panthers' ranking dead last in the NFL in yards per play on plays that gain 10 or more yards (17.10). This means that even when this offense does make a big-yardage impact, it is for fewer yards than any other offense in the league.

Mediocre special teams

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Carolina has tallied minus-8.13 points in its special teams expected points added metric, which calculates how many points a squad's special teams added to the team's bottom line based on a wide variety of factors. That total ranks 23rd in the league and indicates Carolina's special teams are costing this team about three-quarters of a point per game.

Weak regular-season schedule

All of the above figures are bad enough on their own, but they seem even worse once the Panthers' weak schedule strength is taken into account.

Only two of Carolina's nine wins have come against a team that currently has a winning record, and four victories were against clubs that currently have three wins on the season.

Six of the Panthers' opponents currently rank 22nd or worse in offensive yards per play, and five of them rank 19th or worse in defensive yards per play. Eight of Carolina's games occurred against teams that rank 20th or worse in offensive Total QBR and five opponents rank 24th or lower in defensive Total QBR. Pretty much any way you want to angle this part of the review, it comes up showing the Panthers have faced a very weak slate of opponents.

The competition level is certainly about to get a lot tougher, especially taking into account the teams that Carolina could see in the NFC playoffs. If this list is limited to those contenders with records better than .500 (Seattle, New Orleans, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Arizona), it will include five of the top 11 clubs in yards per play and three of the top five teams in defensive yards per play.

Carolina does have an elite defense that is allowing a league-low 13.1 points per game, but this stretch run will test the Panthers far more than they've been tested so far this year, especially if they fall behind early against an elite offense like New Orleans'. Barring a big step up in performance, especially on the offensive side of the ball, the final stretch of the season will show the world that Carolina is a playoff paper tiger.

12/5/2013 5:06:45 PM

itt J_Hova writes for ESPN Insider

12/5/2013 5:12:35 PM

Just looking at it from the Panther side of the coin, why would we throw the ball deep a lot when we don't have to it like that or have personnel (outside of TG) to go that route?

Off the top of my head, when we have gone deep it's worked. I know Ginn dropped that one in Miami and one was just off LaFell's hands last week but you can't get all of them.

I noticed he didn't say anything about 3rd down, where we are the best in the league and Cam has the 2nd highest rating among QBs in the league.

12/5/2013 5:28:46 PM

I was with him until he started going after the opponent's records and offensive statistics, both of which mean absolutely dick.

^Also this, the offense compliments the defense perfectly. They may not get 20+ yards in one play very often, but they are damn hard to stop from getting 10 yards in 3 plays. They've also been clutch when necessary.

[Edited on December 5, 2013 at 5:36 PM. Reason : :]

12/5/2013 5:33:21 PM

The thing about stats is that they can be manipulated to support any argument. Rarely is the whole story told in the stat book.

12/5/2013 5:41:37 PM

Damn, that writer really seems to be reaching with some of those figures.

All I know is that Panthers have won 8 straight; their defense is allowing the lowest points in the league (by far); and they've shown they can win big/close games. They beat SF on the road and beat NE when Brady was at his best.

We'll see where they go from here, but saying the Panthers are "paper tigers" because of some screwy stats seems like a slap in the face.

12/5/2013 10:55:50 PM

STAR

http://regressing.deadspin.com/death-star-lotulelei-might-be-the-nfls-next-great-de-1475907175/@kylenw

12/6/2013 4:48:17 PM

best part of that whole article:

"He is a fucking beast"

12/6/2013 5:24:31 PM

Panthers will be making a push for Adrian Peterson this offseason. That's got 16-0 written all over it

12/6/2013 6:49:14 PM

When I saw tke responded to this I couldn't wait to see what kind of hate dude was spewing

This was a unique combination of butthurt and jealousy.

[Edited on December 6, 2013 at 10:47 PM. Reason : Hurry up Sunday]

12/6/2013 10:46:46 PM

Quote :

"The numbers get even worse when looking at stretch vertical passes (SVYPA, a production measure of aerials 20 or more yards downfield). It is bad enough that Newton's 7.81 SVYPA ranks 34th, but it is even worse when noting there are six quarterbacks whose SVYPA is more than double Newton's mark."

what a phuckin blowtoad, what a stupid stat

12/7/2013 10:45:10 AM

AHA, there's a lot to dislike about that post, but I'm alright with it.

Y'all ready for tonight?!?!

I'm ready.

12/8/2013 4:17:47 PM

no, i have the nervous shits.

12/8/2013 5:52:34 PM

Just assume we are gonna lose that will make watching the game much more enjoyable. I'd say its 75/25 saints win at home.

12/8/2013 5:55:16 PM

I'm too stupid to be nervous.

9 IN A ROW

We got this, y'all.

12/8/2013 5:58:07 PM

I'm just gonna watch, not gonna get mad. a win is nice, but I'm not expecting it. but the Cardiac Cats can pull it off, oh it's DAMN true

12/8/2013 6:21:52 PM

"Can't wait" in my Bart Scott voice. #IceUpSon

12/8/2013 7:20:10 PM

It'd be real nice for Seattle to win this one

12/8/2013 7:25:49 PM

Panthers are due for a bad ref call, and being in New Orleans you know the refs will have any bang-bang play go for the home team

12/8/2013 7:26:43 PM

seattle's OC must not have watched our game against VT

12/8/2013 7:40:25 PM

Vermont?

didn't realize they had a team in the league

12/8/2013 7:51:36 PM

I love Gano.

12/8/2013 8:50:51 PM

c'mon, need to get some touchdowns here.

12/8/2013 8:55:03 PM

FGs is a great way to lose to the saints.

12/8/2013 9:00:38 PM

Greg
Hogwarts

12/8/2013 9:01:43 PM

lol Hogwarts

12/8/2013 9:02:16 PM