Really good game, at least in terms of entertainment. If you told me the Panthers would be in this game after failing to convert on 4th right before midfield, turned the ball over via an INT and muffed punt, I woud have been shocked.
Other thoughts:
Kudos to Dave Canales and his coaching staff. I thought they did a great job. Their team played hard, played well, and I thought they had a great game plan. I watched the regular season game between these two teams, and the Panthers ran the ball a lot, sometimes in heavy personnel. They held on to the all for about 13 minutes in the 3rd. In this game, they passed more, and I’m guessing they thought the Rams would be prepared to stop the run. This could have been a way the coaching staff got to cute, but it didn’t turn out that way.
In a way, the game was close because the Rams missed on some explosive plays (e.g., Stafford missing a wide-open go route, Nacua dropping what should have been an easy completion on a go route). Stafford had a bad INT, and also the Rams allowed a blocked punt, which was huge.
On a similar note, I feel like the Rams hurt themselves when they get away from running the ball from under center, passing from shotgun a little too much. Their run game is awesome in that they can consistently get 3-5 yards. When they keep going to that, and then sprinkle in passes, they’re unstoppable.
Packers@Bears
A tale of two halves. The Packers were dominant, and Caleb Williams seemed to be unraveling and the Bears defense was terrible. I don’t know what happened in the second half, but the Bears defense looked dominant. And then it was McNanus’s turn to fall apart.
The thing that stood out to me the most was that the Jaguars seemed to be fairly effective running the ball from under center, but they went away from that. (I’m saying this so often, I’m wondering if my bias is blinding me.) To me, leaning on the RBs seem preferrable to leaning on Lawrence, who seems shaky as a starting QB.
Rams@Panthers
Really good game, at least in terms of entertainment. If you told me the Panthers would be in this game after failing to convert on 4th right before midfield, turned the ball over via an INT and muffed punt, I woud have been shocked.
Other thoughts:
Packers@Bears
A tale of two halves. The Packers were dominant, and Caleb Williams seemed to be unraveling and the Bears defense was terrible. I don’t know what happened in the second half, but the Bears defense looked dominant. And then it was McNanus’s turn to fall apart.
It was an odd game.
Bills@Jaguars
The thing that stood out to me the most was that the Jaguars seemed to be fairly effective running the ball from under center, but they went away from that. (I’m saying this so often, I’m wondering if my bias is blinding me.) To me, leaning on the RBs seem preferrable to leaning on Lawrence, who seems shaky as a starting QB.