The way I look at it we are in a 3-way tie for 3rd place in the division. I posted before the game that I would not be some '2-0 baby!' optimist if we didn't beat the Panthers by the 14 points Atlanta did or better, after the Panthers lost 2 starters during the week. Well, the Panther's lost a 3rd key starter in the game and we beat them by only 3.

If you look at the 3-way tie in our division, we have had the easiest schedule of the 3 teams so far based on 2022 record. Our opponents had a combined 14 wins in 2022, Atlanta's had 15, Tampa's had 16. Between that and the much closer game against the same opponent, we are clearly positioned behind Atlanta and Tampa in our performance so far this season.

We do not need to use more Taysom Hill going forward. This game was typical. Hill is good against bad teams with bad run defenses so he makes plays early against those teams, gets more plays later, racks up stats, and so 'when we use him enough, he is effective.' But if play SF or Philly or Dallas etc and we just keep handing the ball to Hill, we will get shut out unless our defense scores.

Carolina is an incredibly bad team. They could go 0-17. They look like one of the weakest teams on our schedule.

Shaheed and Olave are great. Thomas is a quality WR3. We didn't use TEs or RBs much in our passing game, maybe they were all too busy helping Penning. It takes a village to raise a child.

Grupe is great.

Our defense is very good but I think there are better defenses in the NFL, or perhaps defenses in the NFL that benefit from breathing more between possessions.

I will be surprised if we win more than 1 of the next 3 games. At this point I think all 3 have looked better than us so far this season. We will see. We play the Packers next. We played a team Atlanta beat by 14 and came out ahead by 3, now we play a team Atlanta could only beat by 1. If we are better than Atlanta now is the time to prove it. We didn't prove it this week.