Plays to Hate (aka “P2L, P2H”) looks at the most significant plays

Plays to Love Carolina Panthers T-Shirts , Plays to Hate (aka “P2L, P2H”) looks at the most significant plays in swinging momentum and impacting the eventual outcome of the game. There is always plenty to hate about NFL officiating, so we will only focus on the plays on the field, not the refs.Three Two plays to love1st Quarter 11:19 – Panthers 0, Steelers 0. Panthers ball 4th-and-1 at PIT 22The Situation: The Panthers had taken the opening possession down to the Pittsburgh 22 and faced 4th-and-1.The Play: Ron Rivera could have taken the field goal to get three points on the opening drive, but instead he chose to be aggressive and went for it. Christian McCaffrey picked up two yards for the first down to extend the drive. On the very next play, CMC took a short pass 20-yards to the house for an early 7-0 Panthers lead. 2nd Quarter 7:35 – Panthers 7, Steelers 24. Panthers ball 3rd-and-4 at CAR 46The Situation: The wheels fell off early and the Panthers found themselves down 24-7 midway through the second quarter. Facing 3rd-and-4 from near midfield, the Panthers desperately needed a first down. The Play: Jarius Wright did what he has done all season - convert a big third down. Wright’s numbers aren’t flashy but he is the Panthers wide receiver I trust the most to make a clutch play to move the sticks. This drive ended with another CMC touchdown to trim the Steelers lead to 24-14, giving Panthers fans a least a glimmer of false hope. Three plays to hate1st Quarter 10:29 – Panthers 7, Steelers 0. Steelers ball 1st-and-10 at PIT 25The Situation: After the Panthers opened the game with a touchdown, the Steelers offense took the field for their first play of the game. The Play: James Bradberry got absolutely smoked by JuJu Smith-Schuster for a 75-yard touchdown on Pittsburgh’s first play from scrimmage. All of the momentum from Carolina’s opening drive score evaporated in an instant. 1st Quarter 10:13 – Panthers 7, Steelers 7. Panthers ball 1st-and-10 at CAR 12The Situation: After Smith-Schuster’s score, Jermaine Carter was flagged for a hold on the kick return, forcing the Panthers to start their drive at the 12 yard line.The Play: On Carolina’s first offensive play following Pittsburgh’s one-play score, Cam threw a back-breaker of a pick-six. In a poor play design by Norv Turner, T.J. Watt came completely untouched off the edge and was immediately in Cam Newton’s face after play action. Cam retreated to the end zone and instead of taking a sack for a safety he made a terrible decision to force a throw over the middle. The errant pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. The Panthers 7-0 lead was turned into a 14-7 deficit in the matter of 18 seconds. Carolina never recovered.3rd Quarter 1:23 – Panthers 14, Steelers 38. Steelers ball 3rd-and-8 at CAR 32The Situation: The Steelers had a 24-point lead and were driving with the third quarter coming to a close. The game was already over at this point.The Play: Ben Roethlisburger scrambled for a first down on 3rd-and-8 and went into a traditional quarterback slide, giving himself up to the defense. Eric Reid came in at full speed and dove shoulder first at Big Ben’s head. Reid’s shoulder made direct contact with Ben’s helmet, causing his head to snap back and hit the turf. The cheap shot started an on-field skirmish and resulted in Reid being ejected from the game. The Panthers gutless performance was bad enough, but watching Reid go headhunting in a blowout was flat out embarrassing. As Panthers fans we rightfully get livid when Cam is on the receiving end of these types of cheap shots and it would be hypocritical to not call out Eric Reid for this completely unnecessary dirty play. Closing it out and summing it upThis loss was as brutal of a Panthers defeat as I can remember. Why do they always embarrass themselves so spectacularly on national TV? The offensive line got completely exposed. Chris Clark channeled his inner Byron Bell in this one. On defense, I’m starting to seriously wonder if Eric Washington is up for the job. The individual pieces are there are a good (not great) defense, but this unit is seriously struggling right now. I absolutely hated the decision early in the second quarter to RUSH JUST TWO LINEMEN on 3rd-and-2. Big Ben stood in the pocket like a statue as five Steelers linemen manhandled the two Panthers rushers. After what seemed like an eternity, Roethlisberger hit Antonio Brown for a 33-yard gain because it’s impossible to cover him for that long. I also hated Rivera’s decision to keep playing Cam Newton, Christian McCaffrey, and other starters late into the fourth quarter. With the Panthers trailing 52-14 with less than six minutes left, Rivera chose to expose his franchise cornerstones to completely unnecessary injury risks. That was dumb. But in the end, a loss is a loss. Yes, this was a humiliating and public defeat, but the Panthers are still 6-3 and will have a couple of extra days to prepare for the Detroit Lions in Week 11. That’s the only good news to be found. Plays to love season leaders3 - Cam Newton https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/hats , Christian McCaffrey, D.J. Moore, James Bradberry2 - Efe Obada, Kyle Love, Torrey Smith, 1 - Ben Jacobs, Colin Jones, David Mayo, Devin Funchess, Donte Jackson, Eric Reid, Graham Gano, Greg Olsen, Jarius Wright, Julius Peppers, Kawann Short, Mario Addison, Norv Turner, Ron Rivera, Taylor Heinicke, Wes HortonPlays to hate season leaders4 -Eric Reid, Mike Adams3 - Cam Newton2 - Christian McCaffrey, D.J. Moore, Dontari Poe, Eric Washington1 - Amini Silatolu, C.J. Anderson, Captain Munnerlyn, Colin Jones, Devin Funchess, Donte Jackson Carolina Panthers Hoodie , Ian Thomas, James Bradberry, Luke Kuechly, Norv Turner, Ron Rivera, Thomas Davis, Trai Turner Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Hog Molly Report, where winning in the trenches is all that matters. Before we begin, we open with the reciting of our usual motto:In the spirit of Mr. Gettleman’s words (regardless of him having moved on) and the philosophy of building a team from the inside out, my goal will be to watch the hog mollies each game during the season and give them a grade based on their performance. This week we will look at the Carolina Panthers third straight loss, second in close fashion, where they couldn’t hold on late and knock off a Seattle Seahawks team that they really needed to win against. The offensive line handily won the battle up front, but the defense once against struggled with consistency rushing the passer.Offensive Hog MolliesYards per Carry: 8.1, season: 5.3 (1st, NFL)Yards per Play: 8.4, season: 6.1 (9th, NFL)Sacks allowed: 0, season: 20 (T-5th, NFL)Third downs converted: 3 of 8 or 38%, season: 40% (12th, NFL)Rating: 5 out of 5 Mega MolliesThe Carolina Panthers put on an absolute rushing clinic on Sunday, except in the moments where they needed to and shouldn’t have had to. For example, in the first seven red zone snaps, which ended in a turnover on downs and a field goal respectively, the Panthers always faced eight or nine in the box, except on their successful first down runs. It’s a bad gamble to try and run in those situations, but yet, we tried to do it five times, failing every time. That’s a major coaching failure, and one of the main reasons we lost this game Graham Gano Jersey , because otherwise... this offense was singing all day. Heck, the offensive line didn’t give up their first pressure until midway through the second quarter.Here are your pressure counts for week eleven:No sacks to report this week!It’s a team game, and Christian McCaffrey doesn’t put up a rushing chart like this without the offensive line opening massive holes.From an offensive perspective up front, we really should not have lost this game. It’s a bit maddening that we did, and it was all situational. The aforementioned first two red zone trips ending in just three points, and pressure on the final drive were both untimely and unusual given the rest of the day. Overall, a clean Cam Newton and the gaudy rushing numbers we put up were plenty for a five hog day and a nice bounce back.Defensive Hog MolliesYards per Carry: 2.7, season: 4.1 (10th, NFL)Yards per Play: 6.7, season: 5.8 (19th, NFL)Sacks given: 2, season: 25 (T-22nd, NFL)Third down allowed %: 6 of 14 or 43%, season: 40% (19th, NFL)Rating: 3 out of 5 Hornswogglin’ HogsThe defensive line did a really good job putting the clamps down on one of the best rushing teams in the NFL, holding the Seahawks to half their season average in rushing yards on the day. That’s the good news. The bad news is, the defensive line still struggles to put pressure on the quarterback when just rushing four, and needs help from a blitz to finish the job. Both sacks on the day belong to players who aren’t defensive linemen, and in the second half, the Seahawks figured out how to neutralize our blitz and started to torch us with big passing plays.Granted, I believe a healthy Donte Jackson makes all the difference needed in this game, as at a minimum that terrible touchdown on fourth and three late in the game would not have happened on his watch. Beyond that though, the theme continues to be that the Panthers cannot maintain any consistent pressure without sending extra rushers, and if they don’t get there we usually surrender a long conversion or a big play. I have no doubt that with a premiere pass rusher, this team could have probably swung three losses into wins so far this year, particularly these last two games, and we’d be looking at an entirely different scenario the rest of the way.Hog Molly of the Week: Chris ClarkIt has been a rough few weeks for Clark, so it was nice to see him bounce back in a big way against the Seahawks. He only surrendered one pressure, and lead the charge on several running plays that sprung Christian McCaffrey off the left side. He had another called back to a bit of a ticky tack holding call that I really won’t put on him. I hate it when linemen get penalized for doing their job too well and end up landing on someone drawing a flag.