Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

In 2012 we swept the Bucs who swept the Panthers who swept us ... And everyone got a piece of Atlanta ...

From an analytical perspective which entails me putting my Biased team spirit aside , the Panthers are fundamentally a problem for our style of Football ... Offensively and Defensively ...

To display how I came to this conclusion it's really simple actually , you take everything that were horrible at and line them up with what our opponents do best ...

Defensively they destroyed us in 2012 !

Carolina has 2 healthy Studs at RB ... Carolina has a devastating Ground Game and Cam Newton ... In a bad year they Ranked 9th in Rushing ...

We can't tackle ... We can't stop the run ... We ranked 25th in defensive TOP ...

I'm sure you see where that can be a bit of a problem for us .

Given their draft picks and success at the Linebacker position it won't be an easy task to run on them ... Which could make us one dimensional :/

Not only that they are constructing one heck of a defense . I
I understand we have our quarrels with Atlanta but Carolina seems to have our card fundamentally ...

Hopefully the return if SP and Rob Ryan Vaccarro etc ... Can make a difference for us .

Atlanta is at a prime , Tampa is getting some steam , Carolina is figuring it out ... And we are reloading ...
When we play Atlanta it's a Strategic war ... Same with Tampa , Carolina presents a stylistic and physical problem that the Redskins , Seakhawks and 49ers have , whom we have all lost to including the panthers as of late ...

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

We'll be able to throw on them. Probably have trouble containing Cam Newton though. Carolina is always the most scary team we face to me. We've got bad luck against them. They've got our number in a way.

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

Come on training camp!

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

I agree with Rez, it seems like no matter what kind of team carolina throws at us they always seem to give us fits.

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

Any analysis based on last year is no analysis at all.

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

We have a 3-4 defense now and that does a better job of shutting down the mobile QB.

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

Hopefully. I don't trust Will Smith to slow down anything but the average speed of our linebacking core. Start Junior!!

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

If Will Smith is starting Week 1 at Jack LB instead of Junior (and not because of injury to Junior) then I will lose so much faith in our coaching staff. And please people, don't even say that you're skeptical of Junior's ability in pass coverage because he played linebacker for 3 seasons at Temple before transferring to Stillman for his senior season and switching to defensive end. He's clearly the answer not Will Smith.

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

There you geaux...

We now have an extra linebacker to attack with...

Plus...

We WILL run the ball and allow Grubbs and Evans to pound that defense and wear it down...

And as far as their running game, John Jenkins was drafted for that purpose with Jordan and Hicks on the flanks...

This Carolina challenge will be met...

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

Sky is falling already?

How about we wait until we play the games.

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

When can we stop referencing out 2012 defense (which is what 70% of the OP is based on) when predicting performance in 2013? New Coach, new scheme, and enough changes in players to make the 2012 season irrelevant.

Thomas put up more yards against Carolina than any other team we played and his YPC ave was higher than any other team we played yast year.

Sproles did better against Carolina than ATL or TB.

Ingram put up more 1st downs and matched production against Atl and Car.

Newton did better against ATL and TB than NO.

Williams ran better against us but then again it was 2012!

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

The Saints killed themselves against Carolina. but then again, Carolina really should have beat Atlanta, if I'm thinking of the right year, except Cam fumbled late trying for the extra yard.

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

Yeah just stop Cam.

Re: Why the Panthers may be our biggest Threat and not the Falcons
 

I can't believe you people are scared of Carolina. Last year was a hot mess, really ugly, but look at the facts -- under Payton we have consistently handled them, and quite often beat them by like 31-17 type scores, where we outscore them 2 to 1. Up until last year, Drew had won five in a row against the Panthers.... Sean Payton has an amazing record versus "mobile" quarterbacks, when MIchael Vick was in Atlanta he was useless and we owned them...Payton is mostly known as an offensive genius, but Sean Payton has the eye for detail to make the pre-game adjustments, without him we were lost defensively last year. He is not the guy who invents the whole defense and does everything, but he sets the tone and gives the concepts to the DC and makes suggestions during the week leading up to the games, which is critical for our game planning.

Sean Payton is like the interior decorator who comes in the room and says, "put the couch over there, and the dresser here" and changes two things and suddenly the room is much more awesome. He's an idea guy. THAT absence is a big part of what made our defense plummet from decently average to miserable last year. You had people trying to think LIKE him, to ask each other and guess what he would do, and of course that is never gonna work. Hence the defensive fiascos against mobile quarterbacks last year, RGIII, Cam, etc.

Look at the box scores. For every close game with Carolina, there is one that is a complete and other Saints blowout. Last year Drew had that pick 6, which caused the collapse, it was a complete outlier.