panthers55

Of course we can get more pressure. We just need a better scheme than rushing 3 folks. Can we play more man? I thought the answer was yes with Aboye potentially outside but with Donte alligator arms Jackson I am not sure. Then again we will likely play zone and man. Can't just play one coverage exclusively. I thought we were trying Chinn at free safety and this wasn't mentioned at all.

I don't know why DJ is playing outside. Not only is he relatively small but he plays shorter than he is. His arms are short and teams routinely threw over the top on him. A guy like Norman who is 2 inches taller at 6'0" played much taller than he was and could go up with receivers to take the ball away. I haven't seen much of that with DJ ever.

In reviewing stats yesterday looking at points for and points against for us and others in the division I noticed the obvious and perhaps the not so obvious. Obviously you have to score more than you give up and in most every category our defense gave up.more than we produced. So obviously the problem was the offense right? Given we don't play our offense against our defense but other teams defense then how does our offense compare to others teams defenses and you see the issue. NO and TB both has top 10 defenses. Of course they had top 10 offenses as well. While Atlanta is supposedly bad on defense, points wise they were right next to us. So how many points can we realistic expect to give up and still win? Obviously the answer is we need to score 1 more point than they score. But given the defenses in our division and on our schedule can we afford to give up 25 points a game and stand a good chance of winning? Can our offense consistent put up 27 points a game? Should they have to? I have always said my goal for the team is don't give up more than 21 points and you should be in most games. That would have put up top 5 last year. NO gave up 20.9 and Tampa gave up 21.6 and were both top 10. So while we want our offense to be prolific and score 30 points a game is that realistic? And given that Tampa and NO score 30 points a game on offense and Atlanta scored close to 25 points is it realistic to assume we can hold them to way below their season average. And yes I know Brees retired but I am not writing them off until I see them suck. I keep seeing the discussion about how we were on both sides of the ball compared to other defenses or offenses on the same side of the ball but wanted to change the conversation to how will our defense compare to the offenses and vice versa.

And let's be clear I don't give Brady or Rhule a pass either. Brady playcalling was predictable and I didn't see much progression as the year unfolded which is what you would expect given limited offseason and no training camp. I loved his scheme but he needs to get better too. I love Rhules drafts and like his culture development but things like clock management and when to challenge were baffling at times. I am optimistic for the future and realize that they were all in new positions for the first time. Hopefully they all grow and develop immensely. But a turd is a turd no matter how much you polish it. Last year was bad. This year we have better personnel. Now with better execution and playcalling along with an evolved scheme we should have better results. As a Panther fan what else would you want. I hope we are top 10 on both offense and defense this year because we are due. I guess I should focus less on the past and more on the present and future.

But the point is our zone defense was poor as well. Look and see how many times receivers would find huge holes in the zone and instead of closing to attack the man once he comes into the zone our guys sat there and waited for the ball to be thrown before reacting. Even zones have man to.man responsibilities once a guy comes into their area. And let's be real. In today's NFL you have to use multiple stunts and disguise rushes and coverages or you get eaten alive. And zone coverage demands a pass rush not 3 guys rushing straight ahead and sending a linebacker from 10 yards away on a delayed blitz. That is a poor scheme regardless of the personnel. We were more effective when we did send pressure so I disagree that we had no choice but to play prevent. We played passive between the 20s and tightened up in the redzone. Yeah you can argue you can cover tighter given the restricted space so we could take more chances but if it worked then why not make that our dominant scheme? I can't agree that playing passively worked better than being aggressive. Show me numbers to show I am wrong. When McDermott got here our defense in year 1 was pretty poor and we struggled with young and inexperienced guys. But we ran a more aggressive scheme and lived and died by the big play and had lots of missed assignments. But we got better over time and improved. The scheme stayed the same because it is hard to go from passive to aggressive. It is a different mindset. I hear lots of we are going to be aggressive and have a hell of a pass rush. I dearly hope so. I love aggressive football aka Jim Johnson and think we have the personnel to run that scheme. I hope we don't see anymore of the prevent defense which is what his 3-5-3 is. A college scheme that got picked apart last year. I know I am in the minority but it doesn't mean I am wrong. I will become Snow's biggest disciple if we run an aggressive scheme this year and play great. But this is the NFL so there are no excuses. And you need to maximize your personnel and show improvement.. Once teams got film on Snow it seemed we looked worse not better and didn't really change all year.

I don't think knew Gase what he was doing but he sure thought he did.

Not being a contrarian at all just pointing out the realities of what I saw. The offensive scheme was solid but the offensive play was poor largely due to Teddy not throwing the ball. But the defensive scheme was not solid at all nor was the play. Our zone was passive not attacking and we didn't even blitz to help the secondary. We left poor defenders out there with no support. The whole we went from really bad to 18th in areas like total yards is what I would expect a casual fan to say. It shows a lack of understanding about situational versus global stats. We went for example from 21st in 2019 to 31st in 3rd down conversions allowed in 2020. Sacks we went from 2nd in 2019 to 21st in 2020. Note I didn't even include passing defense given how young and inexperienced we were. But no the defense didn't help out the offense and given they couldn't stop anyone often limited our chances to score given they didn't get on the field. The offense helped the defense by sustaining drives and giving the defense decent field position being 9th in time of possession in 2020 versus 23rd in 2019. And on and on. What you called contrarian I called seeing it like it is. I have great hope for Snow but I am in the show me crowd.

From what I saw last year there are lots of adjustments presnap to take advantage of what the defense is showing. So if the defense shows blitz from the right side we often adjusted the back to that side either to block or receive a dump off and sent a receiver in the slot to that side so if they blitzed he can fill the area just vacated by the Blitzer for an easy pitch and catch. Or we overload the zone going high low to give the QB choices. Or we use the slot receiver to pick the corner and the ourside receiver is wide open on a slant. And on and on all from one shift depending on things like defensive positioning, leverage and adjustments they make post snap.

Snow is a great interview and talks a great game. I hope the results actual reflect what he says he is going to do unlike last year. He has all the talent he needs and has a year of experience as a DC. Hopefully we play a much more aggressive scheme this year with much better results. It is embarrassing watching your defense bend until they break and realizing you haven't made the other team punt the ball but once or twice all game. https://www.google.com/amp/s/pantherswire.usatoday.com/2020/12/02/panthers-coverage-rates-conservative-phil-snow/amp/ The viking game was just one of several that the defense gave up because they couldn't stop anyone.

Just the opposite for me Brady scheme attacks the defense and was aggressive if Teddy had thrown it downfield. Snow came in talking about an aggressive defense and then installed a terrible prevent defense that minimized our talent instead of maximized it. Brady needs to.improve his playcalling but Snow needs to show he knows how to install an effective defensive scheme. So far he hasn't come close.

Hard to criticize anyone last year. The defense was so passive we allowed receivers to catch the ball and then tried to.limit yards after the catch. Without pressure the secondary had to cover forever and they weren't good to begin with. How many of those blitz attempts were off of stunts or disguised blitzes versus straight forward predictable bltzes coming from 10 yards back on a delayed blitz which was totally useless since the ball was already out to the 3 receivers wide open.

For me you have to separate scheme from playcalling. His scheme was top 5 but his playcalling was meh. The scheme did allow the offense to attack the defense. Bridgewater was just too timid to maximize it. I cam imagine Brady watching film with Teddy pointing out all of the downfield options he routinely ignored. But actually calling the right play for the situation or coaching up the qb to do what he needs to do was lacking at times and didn't improve as the season went along.

Agreed. If players get surgeries to keep playing what the heck is 2 vaccines in comparison. I bet there are plenty of guys who want their spot and would jump to get the vaccine.

The best news I heard is my PSL will have value moving further. Add the team has more talent and the coaches should be better this year and we could make some noise. Too early to tell and too early to be negative. So let's enjoy the summer and whatever happens.

I expect they will give him the works in preseason just to see what he does. Then when the season starts use lots of short passes, screens and swing passes to get him in a rhythm and boost his confidence. If the defense can bail him out by not surrendering points when he does throw a pick it gives him the confidence to bounce back and keep pounding as opposed to rolling over in New York. The easier start to the season should be very helpful this year.

Scheme has a ton to do with decision-making. Good schemes are considered quarterback friendly because they simplify reads, give the QB multiple choices and usually someone is open or check downs are available. In blitz scenarios good schemes have hot reads, and can move players around to take advantage of the blitz instead of being victim to it. Is New Orleans that great or with Brees knowing where to go with the ball and having Kamara as your check down makes any line look good when the ball is out in under 2 seconds.

If he can collapse the pocket up the middle it keeps QBs from stepping up to avoid the rush. He may still not get big numbers but the ends sure will.

In 2019 we were terrible up the middle getting gashed for big runs straight up the middle. In 2020 we end up more solid against the run. Biggest difference- Brown. It sure wasn't Whitehead. How many passing downs did we rush 3 meaning Brown was doubled if not triple teamed. Even when we lined him up in the A gap he was mostly doubled. He played well outside of the penalties which you live with if you start a rookie. With better interior help and better pass rushers we have the talent to be aggressive and allow Brown to get more 1 on 1 matchups where is he tough to block. Snow just has to let the cats hunt this year and be aggressive and give up the prevent defense of last year.

That was a great video. I heard Mick speak at a local rotary meeting which I am told he does quite often. While the ample bosom descriptions are a little creepy, he is very well spoken and eloquent. He is a very good storyteller.

Since it includes TEs we were penalized because of our underwhelming group. If it was just about WRs we likely would be higher.

That is likely true. He gets traded from one of the worse franchises to one of the up and coming franchises with a ton more talent. He knows this stop will define his career. If he fails it won't be because he isn't giving his all.

That is a good point. Gentleman used to churn the rosters and we always seemed to start out slow and finish strong. I hope we don't do the same under Rhule since we really need to start off strong at the beginning because the second half will be much harder. I guess we will see how good these coaches are at building teamwork and a culture.

For those who say Jackson is too small to play nickel slot, the two top ranked slot defenders by PFF were Kenny Moore who is 5'9" and 190 lbs. and Bryce Callahan is 5'9" and 188. Compare that with Jackson who is 5'10" and 180. He is surely big enough and fast enough. And if he isn't a good tackler I would rather have him miss a tackle closer to the line where he might have help rather than putting him on an island as an outside corner or at free safety where he is our last line of defense. The only reasonable place you play him if you start him at all is at nickel slot.

So if Jackson struggles to cover players deep on one side of the field as a corner, you think we should move him to FS where he has to play both sides of the field deep? Why in the world would we do that? Now move him to the slot and I would agree.

Sure it makes sense. With big tall receivers who are tough to bring down you need a safety who is big, tall and fast as well. I hope he can be our version of Ed Reed in the secondary.