Breaking down the Bernard touchdown run

[Jeremy Igo]

Once again the Panthers gave up a long run while their opponent was pinned in their own red zone. Once again, Luke Kuechly was the most concerned player on the team.

 

As he went to the sidelines, he switched from watching the replay on the screens to talking to players, trying to figure out what had happened.

 

 

During the extra point, Luke sat with Thomas Davis and linebackers coach Al Holcomb, going over the play on the tablet.

 

 

 

 

Here is my best guess as to what they saw....

 

Frame 1 - Notice they do have a safety Thomas DeCoud deep as a safety valve should something go terribly wrong. Roman Harper is sealing the left side of the field to prevent a sweep to the longer side.

 

Frame 2 - Star Lotulelei is shoved to the side by a single offensive lineman. Star was beaten badly here which opened up a huge hole.

 

 

Frame 3 - Charles Johnson is able to get a hand on Bernard, but its not enough for him to slow down. Thomas Davis recognizes the threat and is in pursuit.

 

 

Frame 4 - Thomas Davis over pursues and misses the tackle.

 

 

Frame 5 - Melvin White has run from far over to the right where he was in coverage on the wide receiver. He is blocked out of the way and misses the tackle. DeCoud looks like he thought White would be redirecting Bernard his direction.

 

 

Frame 6 - Thomas DeCoud, the only Panthers player who was unblocked the entire duration of the play, chooses the wrong angle and is outrun by the speedy Bernard.

 

 

Touchdown.

 

 

So, there you have it. A complete defensive breakdown and plenty of blame to share.

[KSpan]

Ugly. And I love the blatant cross-face hold on Horton, though tough to say how often that call isn't made against anyone. Might've had a shot without it though.

[London Loves Luke]

I remember watching Harper and thinking he massively misread the speed of the play and ended up so far up the field that Gio was 3 yards past him as he hit the line. Also the Gap between CJ and Star was ludicrous and the missed tackle by Davis disappointing. 

 

It is kinda hard to fault Decoud when a RB with Gio's speed + talent has a 15 yard head coming at you. 

[KillerKat]

When there's so many mistakes on one play, coaching needs to take blame as well. They lack discipline. They don't know where to go. They're just running around lost with no direction.

[Matthias]

It would be better the next time we have them pinned back, not have our linebackers bunched up so close to the line.  Have them backed off a little bit, and let the d-line plug the hole.  If they don't, there would then be a linebacker waiting for the runner to either tackle him or redirect him into one of the secondary players for a tackle.

[London Loves Luke]

When there's so many mistakes on one play, coaching needs to take blame as well. They lack discipline. They don't know where to go. They're just running around lost with no direction.

 

How on earth can u blame the coaches for our line being physically dominated on one play like that? If you watched the rest of the game you would have seen how solid the line was for 17 other Gio carries - 8 total tackles for loss and Bernard was 17 for 47 the rest of the game. Sounding like a broken record already...

[Cary Kollins]

I've been wondering about Star. I know there were questions in college about his desire to play football, to the point where he actually quit if I remember correctly.

I know he played great last season. I hope he hasn't become complacent or stopped caring all together. Last season it would be unfathomable for one 80+ yard rush against us, now we've had three in the last four games.

[KillerKat]

How on earth can u blame the coaches for our line being physically dominated on one play like that? If you watched the rest of the game you would have seen how solid the line was for 17 other Gio carries - 8 total tackles for loss and Bernard was 17 for 47 the rest of the game. Sounding like a broken record already...

How many points has the defense given up this year? Oh yeah.

The defense continues to not know what gaps to fill. They continue getting run on. They continue letting receivers wide open. They continue being soft. That's coaching. When a whole unit collectively continues to suck, that's coaching.

[London Loves Luke]

How many points has the defense given up this year? Oh yeah.

The defense continues to not know what gaps to fill. They continue getting run on. They continue letting receivers wide open. They continue being soft. That's coaching. When a whole unit collectively continues to suck, that's coaching.

So we've gone from a top 2 run defense last season to a bottom 2 this season - lets look at whats changed: The coaches? No they're the same. The Line? Well yeh we've lost one of our best lineman and two of our interior are a year older and we haven't got as much talent to rotate. The Secondary? Yeh we've two starters injured and we've lost a whole load of speed and have a brand new unit back there. 

 

Look at it logically and you'll see the coaches are doing a decent job calling with what they have - instead of calling out one play and expecting an impenetrable unit after so much roster instability. 

[KillerKat]

So we've gone from a top 2 run defense last season to a bottom 2 this season - lets look at whats changed: The coaches? No they're the same. The Line? Well yeh we've lost one of our best lineman and two of our interior are a year older and we haven't got as much talent to rotate. The Secondary? Yeh we've two starters injured and we've lost a whole load of speed and have a brand new unit back there. 

 

Look at it logically and you'll see the coaches are doing a decent job calling with what they have - instead of calling out one play and expecting an impenetrable unit after so much roster instability.

Calling out one play? lol I just told you about the whole season. This play just epitomizes the whole season. The line and LBs not knowing what gaps to fill, the DBs running around lost. Giving up yet another long run. It's called scheme. When players know the scheme, knowing where to be, we should be a much better unit. Better than dog poo at least. We're just lost on D. Coaches need to direct them.

[Chaos]

Not to change subject of thread, but speaking of Harper, it also looked to me like he had a chance to hit Jones on that long KO return when that big hole opened up, and he held up at the last second.

[pstall]

If your overall team speed on def is bad, the bad angles and gaps are more pronounced.

[panthers55]

Calling out one play? lol I just told you about the whole season. This play just epitomizes the whole season. The line and LBs not knowing what gaps to fill, the DBs running around lost. Giving up yet another long run. It's called scheme. When players know the scheme, knowing where to be, we should be a much better unit. Better than dog poo at least. We're just lost on D. Coaches need to direct them.

You can take any thread and find the way to blame Rivera and the coaches and give the players a complete pass.  Guys like Davis know the scheme and frankly he totally wiffed on the play.  It was his gap they ran and he should have made the play for a few yard gain.  Coaches set up the players to be where they are supposed to be  Star getting blown up and Davis wiffing has little to do with coaching. It has to do with tackling and that is something that players have been doing since grade school  What is disturbing to me is that on at least 2 of these long runs it is Davis who is wiffing badly.  And last year he was a solid tackler. .

[pstall]

Im curious how many runs to the left and deep passes had happen uo to this point.

Zod this might be asking too much but do you have similar grabs of the Pitt game and the other one where the long run happened?

Maybe we just arent disguising the look.