The View from behind the Skins bench....

[70th Week]

Ok, let me preface this by saying this was my first Skins game and I was super excited to have front row seats behind the Skins bench. I have been to several Panther games though and I wanted to give my perspective grades on the team from where I was sitting:

Coaching: D-. Even though our stats show that we are balanced in the run/pass ratio, that is clearly not the case. We ran the ball the whole 1st half and then passed it the whole 2nd half. That is not balance. There was no "pass setting up the run" or "run setting up the pass. It was totally predictable and even I was calling out the plays from the stands. Why in the world would you continue to line up Josh Wilson on Steve Smith the whole game? why not Hall? While Carolina clearly made adjustments at halftime Mike clearly did not. They came out dead. Also, the call to go for it at midfield changed the whole complexion of the game. Why, when you need 2 yards, call a pass play the way we were moving the ball? Terrible.

Offense: C+. I believe the playcalling hampered them the most but overall we are just mediocre on that side of the ball. I remember one drive that stalled because of easy drops by Fred and Jabar (I think). Hightower was a beast up until he got hurt. He clearly he is best we've got at that postion but I think his injury falls on the shoulders of the playcaller. Skins ran him too much while they should have been mixing in more play action passing. Beck isn't bad and may turn into something with a few more starts under his belt. Point blank, we have players but no playmakers such as Cam and Steve Smith.

Defense: D-. How do you let a rookie drop 33 on your top 10 defense? Oh, it's Cam Newton. He is the real deal folks. But the hit London put on him at the goal line was vicious. Almost every run play the defensive line was pushed off the ball 5 yards. I was very disappointed in Ryan going against an undrafted rookie on his side, he should have been in Cam's face all day but he had tons of time to throw the ball and thus, picked the secondary apart. I think I saw Steve Smith catch 5 in a row at one point. The secondary is just trash, what more can you say about how Wilson got torched all day.

Special Teams: B+. Really have nothing to say here. Gano kicked it into the end zone every time and made his field goals. Rocca punted once or twice I believe but that dude is a beast. He is huge, lol...

Had a great time yesterday but overall this team is just average and has a lot of holes to fill. IN football you've got players and then you've got playmakers and we have zero of the latter.

[Boss_Hogg]

I'm not sure about judging the coaching staff in regards to Hightower's injury. The replays clearly show that he went to make a cut and his knee buckled, just a freak accident

Sounds like you had awesome seats.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

We have playmakers, just not many of them.

Hall, Orakpo and Kerrigan on defense; FreddieD and Cooley when he's fully fit on offense; Banks in the return game.

Pretty good summation, save for the unfortunate THT injury. That was just a freak injury that happened when he planted his left leg to cut, nothing more. Nobody to blame there. Not sure I'd either like to be sat bench or as low down as that. I'd like to be in a position to see the whole field and the plays developing, Your view get's a little skewed from pitch level for me.

Hail.