Fua is horrible!

[Killakatsfan]

Why is this guy still here? He is getting man handled!

[CarolinaFan87]

Why is this guy still here? He is getting man handled!

He is not as bad as Nakamura. He blows and needs to be replaced. I will taken Martin over him any day of the week

[manbearchef]

He is not as bad as Nakamura. He blows and needs to be replaced. I will taken Martin over him any day of the week

My god, I've never been so frustrated at a single player in one game in my entire life. He got burned all game long. He needs to go back to only special teams considering he looks absolutely lost as a starter. That first deep TD was on him, that more or less game-winning deep pass from the 1 was all on him, and had Julio Jones not stepped out of bounds, that deep pass would've been all on him. Seriously, it's time for Martin to return.

I think Martin would be fine now that the defense is doing a better job at stopping the run (as opposed to last season). Martin probably would've picked off those two deep passes. Nakamura just looked like a high schooler, he wasn't even going the right direction to defend that late pass.

This game was the best game we've played as a team, but unfortunately the rare Newton fumble and the piss-poor FS play lost this one. We could be 3-1 right now with better coaching, why would McDermott call such aggressive plays on the 1 yard line when they only had 60 seconds to get 70 yards. So stupid. I hated the Newton fumble (would've also won the game), but it isn't what lost the game. I literally said, "The defense hasn't given up the game yet, they might as well go for 4th and 1 since the defense will screw up," and they did. "We let 'em off the hook."

You can say what you will about Johnson, but he's been earning his paychecks this season.

[RCarlson85]

I had a terrible feeling when we punted. If only Newton would have held on to the ball, the game was over. It's hard to say punting was a bad call, especially after they got pinned at the 1 yd line, but our defense was getting burned deep all game. Newton has to be the biggest/most athletic QB in all of football, I like the chances of him getting 1 yd on a QB keeper. I didn't like how we went totally conservative on our 2nd to the last drive either. There was still almost 5 min left at that point and we come out and go 3 and out. Luckily our defense held them to a FG after that. This would have been such a huge win, what a shame it ended like this.

[manbearchef]

I know what you mean. I won't say the punt was a bad call, but we all know how our defense/special teams manages to find ways to lose winnable games. Considering that the Falcons knew we were running every play and still couldn't stop it I'm sure we would've gotten that one yard. It sounds stupid to say, but I was hoping the punt would've been a touchback because I knew we'd call a stupid play on defense with the ball on the one.

[N.E.PanthersFan]

Not for nothing, I didn't realize this, so thanks to Yasinskas for pointing it out:

Perhaps the most significant detail in all of this is that Carolina blitzed cornerback Chris Gamble on the play. Gamble is the best cover guy on the defense and the front four had been doing a great job of generating its own pressure all day

... wow. Way to go, McDermott.

I'm also baffled that Norman released White. It's not like he had to step up to a more shallow WR.

[manbearchef]

Wow, I didn't even realize that. Honestly, Gamble should never be blitzed, regardless of the situation. A.) He's not paid to blitz, he's paid to shut-down WRs, B.) He's the only DB we have that isn't a liability.