Bottom line ... terrific season for the Panthers, despite losing their only playoff game. I know the whole franchise feels like they went out on a bad note, but you can't lose sight of the fact that they got their whole program turned around and did a great job winning the Division.
San Fran was just a better team on Sunday. I don't think the Panthers really lost it in any one area and I clearly don't think you can hang it on Cam the way people are want to do most of the time. They obviously had good gameplans on both sides of the ball, but gut hung up in the red zone twice by San Fran's defense and just couldn't sustain enough pressure with their front four to make the the defense hold up as the game went along. They got beat by a really solid team that played a really good playoff game. It certainly didn't hurt the Niners that their core group had been there, done that in the previous two seasons. They looked like playoff vets, and the Panthers looked like a team that hadn't been there before ... which was in fact the case.
Go draft a couple of defensive secondary guys and continue to improve the o-line in the off season and there's no reason they can't be a playoff team next season.
San Fran was just a better team on Sunday. I don't think the Panthers really lost it in any one area and I clearly don't think you can hang it on Cam the way people are want to do most of the time. They obviously had good gameplans on both sides of the ball, but gut hung up in the red zone twice by San Fran's defense and just couldn't sustain enough pressure with their front four to make the the defense hold up as the game went along. They got beat by a really solid team that played a really good playoff game. It certainly didn't hurt the Niners that their core group had been there, done that in the previous two seasons. They looked like playoff vets, and the Panthers looked like a team that hadn't been there before ... which was in fact the case.
Go draft a couple of defensive secondary guys and continue to improve the o-line in the off season and there's no reason they can't be a playoff team next season.
