.

Anyone watching MNF?

Carolina D continuing where they left off against the hers

EDIT: more dodgy penalties deciding the games...

:lux::lux::lux::lux::lux::lux::lux::lux::lux::lux: :lux:

grrrr

Carolina above the 9ers for the wild card spot :(

A post season with no Harbaughs would be fantastic.

I'm still all Harbaugh-ed out from last season.

Count me in! :p

At this point I would hope we are going for the Division never mind a Wild card. Six to play, two of them against the Saints.

Not even going to comment.

https://twitter.com/mikegiardi/statu...85408946835456

http://twitter.com/ESPNNFL/status/40...286848/photo/1

Great refereeing.

Didnt watch the game, but from that photo, that's holding and pass interference. Although one may say the ball was never going to get to him anyway since the interception looks like a couple meters in front of him.

The NFL thread
 

Give the ball some air, Tom.

Bad throw. Good call.

The interference started where the ball was thrown, he had no chance of coming back to the ball once Kuechly decided to rape him.

Panthers looked good, probably the 2nd or 3rd best team in the NFL right now. Cam Newton made a couple of miracle plays, which with better tackling, could've been stopped.

Early days but we are looking decent. :) I don't want us to be too good though. I like being the only Panthers fan (other than VHA and LLCS) that I know.

Overall, I think the Panthers deserved the game, there's bound to be some karma for 'Tuck Rule Tom' and all his chums, and the Pats gained some momentum from an uncharacteristically sneaky (and of course unpunished) leg whip on Charles Johnson that took him out of the game.

But my MVP has to go to Talib, who surely must have gained as many yards for the Carolina offense as...... the rest of the Carolina offense?

However, despite showing us all again why most people hate them, the banged up Pats still demonstrated why they have been so good for so long. A disciplined machine whose whole is better than the sum of its parts, with two masters of the game at its helm, capable of not only extracting the best out of their own team, but exploiting the worst of their opponents'.

He's made quite a few plays like that - there was one in his rookie year that was even more ridiculous! His speed makes him hard to catch, but his size means that even when he is caught, he's not too easy to bring down. The DE and DTs are too slow to chase him down and the LB and secondary are the same size or smaller.

His biggest weakness has always been decision making under pressure. But recently he has added game management to his unique skill set, and it's really paying off. Much less flashy numbers, but more wins. Sure he learnt plenty off Brady though last night.

That would be by virtue of beating them head to head, at their house ;).

I guess I should really deactivate smug mode now. Just had to make the most of the last couple of weeks before it inevitably unravels Arizona 2009 style!

I thoroughly enjoyed Talib vs Smith, despite Talib getting harrassed and being an arse at times. I love the swagger. I love that when he went for Smith, it took one player and a Coach to bundle him to the ground to stop him doing something stupid.

The Patriots missed Dennard. He's been a top 15-20 CB this season, Arrington and Ryan struggle to press players, so Talib and Dennard compliment each other.

It's a shame the game will be remembered for the penalty. It was a tough first 2 quarters that broke into an Offensive show for most of the 2nd half.

The Pats O-line really stepped up in the second half, to the extent that Rivera even swapped out both our DTs at one point to find more pressure.

He showed why those writing off RG3 are doing it too quick. Newton had a sophomore slump, and now he looks a top 10 QB.

You're right on Belichick by the way.

He tried to take away the run and leave Talib on Smith. Talib is much better used against the bigger receivers, it just suits his style to man up against a Graham, Green, Marshall type receiver. It's why next Sunday, you'll probably see Talib man-on-man with Demaryius Thomas. Dennard will be against Decker and Arrington or Ryan with help off the line vs Welker in the slot. And then a combination of a Linebacker (Fletcher probably) and a Safety (Harmon/Gregory) on Julius Thomas, with McCourty deep.

I foresee a Rams SB plan against the Broncos. Let Denver run it against sub packages, and see if a) they can run it well enough to win, and b) Manning puts the ego away and doesn't call a high amount of passes at the LOS.

Dante Scarnecchia is the man. Marcus Cannon is a huge drop off from Vollmer. Just like Connolly was from Stephen Neal and Wendell from Koppen, but each time, they step up and the next man up can play the scheme and keep Brady clean. Last year, I think it was 4 different centers, and there wasn't a huge drop-off bar one or two games.

The holes created in the Panthers D for runs was stunning for me at times, Ridley was getting 3-4 yards before being touched.

I think Blount is the key man there. Maybe doesn't always get the yards, but is the first power runner I can remember at the Pats for a while. Wears a defense down, and creates chances for others, much like Tolbert and Stewart do. Not sure why he isn't used more in the red zone for short yard gains? Tolbert does this very effectively for the Panthers.