The reality is this – the preseason is about practice. The scores don’t matter and the stats don’t matter; while it may be a chance for players at the bottom of the roster to prove themselves to coaches and show that what they’ve been doing on the practice field translates when you’re against an opponent, for the starters, it’s less about the results and more about the process. So when the Panthers get an opportunity to practice a situation that might turn out to be meaningful in the regular season, they seize it – it’s why Ron Rivera went for two when Christian McCaffrey scored on the second play of the game last week against Miami. You want that opportunity to practice a situation when you’re going to need those two points.
Or when you’re going to need to score in a two minute drill.
So when Stephen Gostkowski missed a field goal with 1:52 left in the first half of their 25-14 preseason win, it was the perfect opportunity, something Rivera has mentioned specifically as something he’d hoped they’d get a chance to practice in a game situation.
“Having a chance to go no-huddle with only one timeout and being conscious [and] being smart with run after catch, smart with where the out of bounds is, getting first downs and getting down,” said Greg Olsen, who had 39 yards on the drive. “All of those things you talk about in meetings and you rep, but until you’re getting tackled – you never get a chance to do those things until you do them. So I think that was nice from a procedural standpoint – it was good to end on that.”
Olsen had three catches on the drive, but it was the final one, a sliding catch at the five yard line that seemed to be the perfect combination of gaining yardage and getting out of bounds to stop the clock – until the referee signaled the clock to keep moving. While Rivera thought that the refs “just missed it” and Olsen said he thought they assumed he had been touched as he slid out of bounds, the fact that they were able to hustle and spike the ball with one second left was actually a great learning experience.
Something they can practice in the preseason and use in the regular season – Trai Turner called it a “confidence builder” – but Newton, who was 5-for-6 for 54 yards before the spike, said it may have had even more significance.
“For us to get kind of a questionable call at the end and for us to respond and still get lined up and have one second left on the clock,” Newton said. “I’m not sure what happened, but at the end of the day I’m more happy that we didn’t let that deter us from clocking the ball and keeping that one second on the clock. We don’t know, it may come back up during the season and everybody having the wherewithal to get to the line of scrimmage and get set, it’s very pivotal.”
Preseason makes perfect.
