Third down conversions by opponents

[Jmac]

Did some research and the Panthers come in at fourteen amongst all the teams. I was suprised at this stat. Seems like they spend half the game giving up third downs. Wish I had an answer to improve this stat (better pass rush, better personal, defensive scheme, etc). Need to tighten this up somehow before we hit the big games if possible. Being in the middle of the pack isn't terrible, but wouldn't hurt to improve with the teams we will be facing.

 

 

 

[minicho]

Imo it seems like we don't win many 3rd and shorts on defense, or 3rd and goal. Our run d is soft up the middle far too often at least compared to what I've seen in past seasons...might just be because I remember the bad parts tho lol. 

[xXxBretWeedxXx]

5 minutes ago, minicho said:

Imo it seems like we don't win many 3rd and shorts on defense, or 3rd and goal. Our run d is soft up the middle far too often at least compared to what I've seen in past seasons...might just be because I remember the bad parts tho lol. 

If I was going by my eye test I would actually say 3rd and long is our weakness. I feel much better about 3rd and 5 or 6 than I do about 3rd and 10 or 12. It always seems we give up the 3rd downs that seem to be the easiest to defend.

[Darth Biscuit]

Agree with BretWeed, seems like we give up 3rd and long at a ridiculous rate sometimes and esp in the last 4-5 games it seemed to get worse.  

It's been noted elsewhere but our pass rush progressively got worse over the season, they really need to rectify this for us to have more defensive success in the playoffs.  

[xXxBretWeedxXx]

We've also allowed the most 4th down conversions in the league with 15.

[Darth Biscuit]

1 minute ago, xXxBretWeedxXx said:

We've also allowed the most 4th down conversions in the league with 15.

It's that damned zone prevent D.

[Snake]

Hopefully the bye will give our guys some rest.  I'm really not a big fan of giving vets all the playing time as well.  CJ has done nothing all year. 

[Louie]

It's our pass rush. It's not getting to the QB for sacks or even hurries. It seemed to get worse when Charles Johnson came back. I think Ealy and Delaire were getting more pressure than Johnson. I hope we get this fixed before next week!

[Moose Hoover]

I actually think this is a characteristic of our "bend-but-don't-break" approach to our cover 2 zone defense. We allow a lot of yardage between the 20s but force field goals instead of td's. Then, when we do force a punt, we convert the possession into a score, sometimes very quickly (td bombs to ginn). This results in the opposing team getting the ball back, playing from behind and taking more chances, resulting in more conversions. Our D in 2013 was "better" statistically because we played more ball control/TOP on offense, giving the opposing team less possessions.

This kind of defense is also why we can survive with the "next man up." Our D is successful when everyone is in their gaps/zones, not just because of defensive superstars. That way, when one of our superstars goes down (Luke) the next man up can fill in and we survive (AJ Klein).

[tondi]

Another factor is that when you are leading in every game, many times by a large margin, the other team is forced to be much more aggressive throwing the ball.  There hasn't been a game all season where the other team was just trying to run out the clock or otherwise sitting on the ball, because they are always behind.  That means the defense gets relatively few possessions where they aren't getting the offenses best shot.  Thats also a reason we have allowed so many 4th down conversions.  Teams are desperate to score and are being forced to go for it instead of punting.  Opponents never do that kind of thing when they are leading.  Thats not making excuses for the defense because we have been lousy on third down for a variety of reasons, but maybe it isn't quite as bad as it looks.

[pstall]

This is why the bye is extra crucial this year.

I hope some high level truth happens and someone tells CJ he has to play limited downs and let Ealy start. 

[bdwork]

Curious how this stacks up among past Super Bowl champs, and more specifically how it compares across defensive scheme. 

[d-dave]

Two great points above me!

But we will have to tighten things up in the playoffs.  We HAVE to get the other guys off the field, and we have to run the ball and score TDs.  That overused, simple formula is the key to our success this year, except we've had a lot of 3rd downs converted.

The reason we're 15-1 though is because we've caused more turnovers than anyone else and we've score a large portion of our points off those turn overs.  We're trying to prevent a deep, quick score, and force mistakes to create turnovers.  When we don't, they have tended to drive fairly well.

Think about how many of these drives we saw this season: Opponent takes over at their 20, they end up driving to our 40 or so with 2-3 conversions, then on that final one, they have to punt or try a long field goal (or turn the ball over!).  2/3 or 3/4 is really high, but they don't come away with points at the end of the day (unless you have a QB and roster that can attack our nickle CB....)