Carolina Panthers #4 Scoring Offense

[hepcat]

10 hours ago, KSpan said:

Great visual that makes it clear just how dark and terrible 2010 was.

And also shows how truly great the 2013 defense was...

[GoobyPls]

Funny thing we could of easily had more TD if it wasn't for a few blunders in the redzone

[KB_fan]

4 hours ago, Marguide said:

Without looking up the numbers, I suspect our yards per completion are up over last year. It seems like we are taking more shots downfield, lowering completion % without lowering our yards gained.

True?

I'm about to go look up the numbers, but I think your thoughts are probably true.  We are definitely doing better in the deep ball. 

Cam's net yards per passing attempt (not just completion) were insane on Sunday (2nd only to Mariota, funnily enough).  And I think 4 or 5 of our receivers (including Olsen) had catches of 20 yards plus.

Whether we're throwing more shots downfield, I'm not sure.  (Don't think I've seen stats on that anywhere.)

Obviously drops affect the completion % and last I checked, we still lead the league in dropped passes.

[Darknight]

15 hours ago, KB_fan said:

This is the highest points per game total in Panthers' history.  I had just posted the latest chart from Sporting Charts in the Week 9 Stats & Analysis thread.

 

 

2010.....holy fug. We cut Jake, Moose retired, Peppers went to Chicago and also I think Hoover retired too. I don't know why I thought we could be a playoff team that year.

[CatalystNX]

What is most encouraging to me is that 1) we're getting C.J. back soon so the defense should be better, and 2) the team as a whole tends to play better in December under Rivera, which is VERY encouraging at 8-0.

[KB_fan]

Ok, following up on @Marguide's thoughts about yards per completion...  I spent a little time comparing passing stats from this season and last season.  In some cases too I could pull up stats from mid season last year.  (The Team Rankings site let's you search for a team's stats as of a specific date in a given season - very cool.)

My comments follow the table.

There is evident improvement in yards per completion, yards AT the catch (receivers running deeper routes), yards AFTER the catch.  Also our scoring efficiency is improved in both passing and overall.

Sacks are way down.  But drops are up.

And look at "passing big plays" (data from sporting charts).  We have almost as many passing plays of 25+ yards through 8 games of the season as we did for the entire year last year.   So, yes, we're throwing the ball deeper, and our receivers are getting more YAC.

Very very nice.

[Marguide]

Thanks KB_fan. So that is probably one of the keys to a lower completion % this year. We are attempting more deep throws, raising the average "degree of difficulty", for lack of a better term.

[KB_fan]

26 minutes ago, Marguide said:

Thanks KB_fan. So that is probably one of the keys to a lower completion % this year. We are attempting more deep throws, raising the average "degree of difficulty", for lack of a better term.

Yes, I think that's part of it, along with the higher drop rate, and of course the slightly higher turnover due to "drops" turned into interceptions.  (I can think of two...)

If anyone has access to PFF Signature stats (I don't), there would be some interesting stats to look at:

● Deep Passing (QB)
● Passing Under Pressure (QB)

During the summer PFF did a series of article digging into QB passing stats.  It broke down a QBs passing attempts by distance

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/05/29/qbs-in-focus-deep-passing-2/

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/05/28/qbs-in-focus-intermediate-passing-2/

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/05/27/qbs-in-focus-short-passing-2/

Here are Cam's stats  (I'm honestly not sure exactly what the PFF grades for each distance range mean since I've never had access to PFF's premium or signature stats)

1 - 10 yards:    44.9%  (NFL avg 49.8%)   Grade  -3.1

11 - 20 yards   28.7%  (NFL: avg 22.6%)   Grade  6.2

21-30 yards:    5.5%    (NFL avg  6.8%)    Grade  7.4

31-40 yards     4.2%     (NFL avg  3.3%)    Grade  -0.9

40+ yards        2.5%     (NFL avg 2.1%)     Grade  0.4

 

It would be SO interesting to be able to compare his stats so far this year with last year.  If anyone finds data related to the % of passes by various distances, I would love to have access to it.

***

There are two other articles of interest from PFF I've not looked at closely re: passing and the 2013 season

Here is PFF's analysis of pass depth & grades for all QBs from the 2013 season

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/06/13/qbs-in-focus-pass-depth/

And here too is an in-depth analysis of Cam's passing in different situations following the 2013 season.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Cam-Newton.png

[TheWiz]

I used to have a big problem with Shula's deep threat playcalls... but the rational behind it actually works well with Cam's skill set. 

Receivers running 10 yards down the field gets DB's farther down the field, if a defense decides to blitz, Cam has room to run in an open field. The challenge was there was no time for routes to develop. This year Cam is getting the time he needs to either get the ball downfield deep or take off for an 7 or 8 yard gain. 

The KB injury has been a blessing in disguise. It has forced our receivers to step up and make plays. I know we're enjoying this years success..... but next year with a healthy KB... and I expect we draft another tackle & RB... This offense is going to be even more explosive. 

[Ivan The Awesome]

Shula has also improved his play calls and designs. It's a group effort to be honest. Cam also is responsible with his play making ability and audibles at the line.  

 

So...who's going to eat some crow with me? I'll make it fajita style.. 

[beastson]

We have to run more screens, HB and WR. Every time we screen to Ginn he picks up yardage with good blocking from Cotchery. The past 3 games it seems like teams are abandoning their game plan due to the score and sending the blitz to get after Cam because for the most part he hasn't been getting touched and Shula hasn't adjusted. We have to run time consuming drives to hold off teams. I love when Cam goes 4-5 options wide, it's happened only a few times but those are the perfect formations against the blitz, have Ginn or Philly on either side and run a bubble screen

[Thal]

If our opponents think we need to hold them to under 20 points to beat them, they're mistaken. We'll put 40 on them if we need to. Our defense only rank 12.