Week 8 WIN against Indianapolis - Stats & Analysis

[KB_fan]

And yet a 3rd good article at C-S-R - their weekly "little big play" analysis.

http://www.catscratchreader.com/2015/11/4/9667688/little-big-plays-indianapolis-at-carolina-week-8

I thought the section re: 3 plays in the 3rd quarter was particularly interesting in highlighting some of the game's momentum shifts.

 

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3rd Quarter

7:18 – Panthers 10, Colts 6. IND ball 3rd-and-1 on CAR 45. The Panthers opening possession of the second half ended in a punt, and the Colts followed with a methodical drive. Facing 3rd-and-1 in Carolina territory, Indy handed off to Ahmad Bradshaw but Star Lotulilei (+3, -0) broke through the line and forced Bradshaw backward. Kurt Coleman (+3, -0) also broke through on a blitz to record the tackle and a seven yard loss, forcing a Colts punt.

5:51 – Panthers 10, Colts 6. CAR ball 3rd-and-10 on CAR 20. Facing 3rd-and-10, Cam Newton (+10, -8) went shotgun with Mike Tolbert (+2, -0) in the backfield as a blocker. The pocket collapsed around Cam and he moved forward, buying just enough time for Tolbert to ditch his blocking assignment and drift to a wide-open flat to Newton’s left. Cam managed to dump the ball to Tolbert who rumbled for a 40-yard gain that ignited both the crowd and the offense. This play was the result of little but smart decisions made by both Tolbert and Newton. But five plays later the momentum was snuffed out when Cam fumbled the snap on 2nd-and-Goal from the one yard line.

1:22 – Panthers 10, Colts 6. CAR ball 3rd-and-9 on IND 4. Three plays after the fumble, the Colts faced 3rd-and-9 at their own four yard line. T.Y. Hilton ran a deep route against Josh Norman (+6, -0), and Norman made a diving deflection to break up the pass. Instead of a deep completion and first down, Indy was forced to punt from their own end zone. After a nice 18-yard punt return by Ted Ginn, Greg Olsen scored on a 27-yard TD pass to increase the lead to 17-6.

 

 

[KB_fan]

Gee what's in the water?!?  4 good articles at C-S-R.  The 4th includes some additional PFF grades that aren't available in the short weekly grades article at PFF:

http://www.catscratchreader.com/2015/11/4/9672418/panthers-29-colts-26-handing-out-the-grades

 

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Offense:

• While his statistics don't look impressive, Cam Newton (+5.2) earned the highest grade on the Carolina offense.
• Philly Brown (+2.2) received his highest grade of the year. Although quietly, Brown is a solid +4.1 overall on the year.
• Fernando Velasco (+0.8) was solid in Ryan Kalil's place. He did particularly well on run blocking (+1.8).
• Trai Turner (+0.2) gave up his first sack on the year.

It's nice to see PFF give a QB credit for things that don't show up in the stat line. I also have to admit I did notice Philly Brown playing well in this game. Props to PFF for calling him 'Philly' as well.

I'm pleasantly surprised to see Velasco have such a good game in spite of the fumbled snap. I wonder if they instead blamed Newton for that one.

 

 

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Defense:

• Luke Kuechly (+5.0) played his finest game of the year. He made 8 stops in the run game.
• Roman Harper (+4.1) received his best grade this season by a wide margin (his previous best was +1.0 week 4).
• Star Lotulelei (+0.6) has struggled since returning from injury, but earned his first positive grade on the year.
• Josh Norman (+2.2) and Kawann Short (+2.0) continued their strong play.
• Ryan Delaire (-2.3) received the worst grade on Carolina's defense. Since his breakout performance week 4, he is -4.7 overall.

Luke is such a bad ass...not much else to say. I'm happy to see Harper have a nice game after previous not-so-wonderful performances. J-No and Short continue their good work. Honestly I'm not sure I've ever seen a CB make so many awesome plays on the ball in such a short span of games. Josh Norman let's nothing get over his head. You either throw it in front of him or that is it. If Norman can't get to the ball then neither can the receiver.

 

 

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Special Teams:

• AJ Klein (+1.0) and Joe Webb (+1.0) both made 2 tackles on kickoff team.
• Graham Gano was strong on field goals (+1.3), but uncharacteristically poor on kickoffs (-0.6). He produced only 2 touchbacks on 7 kickoffs.

Signature Stats:

• The Panthers took Colts WR TY Hilton out of the equation. Hilton was targeted 6 times and made 1 catch for 15 yards. 2 passes targeted at Hilton were picked off.
• Andrew Luck completed 6 of 7 attempts for 69 yards and 1 TD when targeting Bene Benwikere in coverage.

 

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[KB_fan]

Thanks to @Bartin for posting this great chart in another thread on Panthers dropped passes so far this season.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTA6GhbWUAAJIUm.png:large

Credit for this chart goes to @danny_g13 on twitter

Here's the summary:

21 drops

377 yards

5-6 lost TD's

3 interceptions

 

[KB_fan]

I posted this in the "drops" thread but thought it would also be worth posting here.

I thought it might be interesting to look back at drop % and reception % for the past few years.  Via Sporting Charts, here is data for 2013, 2014, and 2015 to date (through week 8).

http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/drops/2015/

Data is sorted by drop % from highest to lowest.