googoodan":32eal6of said:
HawKnPeppa":32eal6of said:
Yeah, it's a sad state of affairs for the other team when they want our OL, LMAO!
On another note, if slumping your shoulders on the sideline with a towel over your head is 'black enough,' I'll keep our 'Uncle Tom,' thank you!
At least one person gets it.
Wilson wouldn't survive to halftime with our band of Ryan Kalil and the four UDFAs.
I understood what you meant and understand why you'd say it. To me it's not a a troll, more like a factual statement of the situation from the Carolina point of view.
Your 4 UDFAs + Kalil made our pass rush look good at the end. Honestly, I was surprised our defense got blown off the ball the first few Carolina drives by that patchwork OL, and we were extremely lucky to only concede FG's instead of being down 2 scores. It was like watching our read-option offense and trying to defend against it, except with Cam running it instead of RW. It was downright scary for most of the first half and only a timely turnover and a late first half mini-revival of our offense kept us in the game.
This game felt like the San Diego and Dallas games (losses) all over again until the last drive of the 1st half. I was thinking, sh*t, how are we making Carolina's supposed scrap heap OL look like Pro Bowlers?
Apparently the Seattle defensive coaches woke up made some halftime adjustments to take advantage of the patchwork.
The reality of the situation, is that if Cam makes exactly "1" more play in this game than he made, it's all reversed, and all the talk about leadership, etc. is just so much hot air. The "1" play Cam needed to do different this game was the avoid-the-sack flip-pass pick to Marcus Burley. That was a gift.
At the same time, Cam has given us several "gifts" like that in crunch time the last few seasons, so it seems he needs to somehow change his mental approach to the game to stop doing that.
Gifts:
1) The Brandon Browner strip-fumble that stopped a Carolina TD. (I think that was a 2012 game, but not 100% sure)
2) Throwing the ball into the ground at the end of the 2013 game on a 4th down play that would have led to a 14-12 Carolina win.
3) The ill-advised flip-pass pick today.
Honorable mention: The pass thrown into the ground on Carolina's last possession looked just like the pass on gift 2) above.
I can only conclude that there is something about our team, and the interaction with Cam, and where he's at in his current mastery of the game, that gets into his head and results in him giving us these kinds of gifts.
Personally, I think that Cam is so physically gifted that he's been able to ride that to success at every level prior to the NFL, and thus hasn't *had* to work as hard on the mental game, emotional self-management, and leadership. Wilson hasn't had that advantage as much, so he's had to work his ass off his whole life and look for an edge in every area, including those.
If Cam decides to really go to work on these areas, it would probably make up the 1 key play per game, and instead we'd all be talking about his passionate emotional leadership and clutch play, probably in the context of multiple Carolina Super Bowl wins. Only Cam can make that decision and do the WORK to become that composed QB and leader, in his own way, reflecting his own unique strengths.
I think an interesting parallel would be Eli Manning, with his two Super Bowl rings. Eli isn't known for his "intense emotional leadership", in fact quite the opposite. Yet he has two Superb Owl rings, from making two amazing key plays at critical times, which really just shows that he stayed positive and focused the whole time, no matter how bad sh*t got. I'm speaking specifically of the David Tyree helmet catch, after somehow escaping a sure sack, leading to improbably Lombardi #1, and then the Mario Manningham sideline tightrope that led to Lombardi #2. The major issue with Eli seems to be his season-to-season consistency with varying collections of talent, but he's sure had a couple good playoff runs.
Can Cam change his internal mental approach to be focused and constructive, when sh*t is going bad against a tough opponent, and keep his focus when it counts, and make the key play, instead of making a bonehead play? Right now, that's the difference, that's why Russell Wilson has a ring, because Russell was able to do that in timely situations last year. If and when Cam does that... scary for the rest of the league!
