How in the Hell does this make sense? The Carolina Panthers are the League leaders in total sacks.

[nctarheel0619]

25 minutes ago, Cracka McNasty said:

Gettle... magic? I guess Ealy was right when he said when the sacks come they'll come in bunches. 

For real though when we've been healthy our defense hasn't looked horrible. We haven't been able to piece together consistent solid team games throughout the season though. When the offense looks good, the defense looks bad. When the defense looks bad, the offense looks good. When offense and defense look good, special teams fails us. 

Injuries have really hurt us this season. 

Injuries aren't the reason we suck ass on the back end.  

[CPF4LIFE]

25 minutes ago, Cracka McNasty said:

Gettle... magic? I guess Ealy was right when he said when the sacks come they'll come in bunches. 

For real though when we've been healthy our defense hasn't looked horrible. We haven't been able to piece together consistent solid team games throughout the season though. When the offense looks good, the defense looks bad. When the defense looks bad, the offense looks good. When offense and defense look good, special teams fails us. 

Injuries have really hurt us this season. 

It still an issue that hardly any have came from him. 

[csx]

12 minutes ago, top dawg said:

Well, that is a function of coaching...perhaps for compensating for a weaker than normal output of the front, or just for general strategic reasons. Perhaps Ron and/or McDermott are actually doing something good (sense the sarcasm).

It's not true according to the stats

[CPantherKing]

While Ealy was starting for the first 6 games and taking a majority of the snaps as an every down DE, the Panthers registered 12 sacks.

In the next 7 games following Ealy coming off the bench and using Addison instead of Ealy in passing situations the Panthers posted 27 sacks.

As soon as the Panthers reduced Ealy's, Butler's, and Soliai's roles that they had at the beginning of the season it all came together for the DL. The Panthers went from 17th in sacks to 1st in sacks over the past 7 weeks.

Now, the Panthers just need their secondary to start making plays on defense to stop drives and create takeaways. Maybe they can get their pass defense out of the basement and into the top 20 before the season is finished.

Then the offense can go back to doing what it was built to do. Run the ball and catch the defense off guard with a big play in the passing game.

[Ricky Spanish]

3 minutes ago, nctarheel0619 said:

Injuries aren't the reason we suck ass on the back end.  

That is specifically the reason we have sucked ass on the back end. Our secondary, while inexperienced, has been serviceable when healthy. We had a stretch of games in the middle of the season where we were on our 4th and 5th string guys at corner, and second and third at safety. That contributed significantly to the overall performance of the secondary. 

Not having Norman has been significant, but it's not the end all be all reason the defense has struggled at times. We see how competent the secondary can be when they are healthy, that just hasn't been a luxury we've had this year. 

[Ricky Spanish]

2 minutes ago, CPantherKing said:

While Ealy was starting for the first 6 games and taking a majority of the snaps as an every down DE, the Panthers registered 12 sacks.

In the next 7 games following Ealy coming off the bench and using Addison instead of Ealy in passing situations the Panthers posted 27 sacks.

As soon as the Panthers reduced Ealy's, Butler's, and Soliai's roles that they had at the beginning of the season it all came together for the DL. The Panthers went from 17th in sacks to 1st in sacks over the past 7 weeks.

Now, the Panthers just need their secondary to start making plays on defense to stop drives and create takeaways. Maybe they can get their pass defense out of the basement and into the top 20 before the season is finished.

Then the offense can go back to doing what it was built to do. Run the ball and catch the defense off guard with a big play in the passing game.

Yep, this is pretty much it. The biggest thing we miss with Norman is turnovers and TO opportunities. With how inexperienced our secondary is we weren't going to create nearly as many turnovers due to the guys just being so young requiring them to think instead of react. With experience the TO's will come which will be a great thing for us moving forward. 

[Snake]

31 minutes ago, emhoward said:

The question is, does this still make DE a primary need going into the offseason?

For me personally I still think it's a big time need going forward. We can't depend on Addison having another career year. Plus CJ will be a year older.

Yes but not as much as keeping Cam upright. Our offense and OC has been much worse than our defense. 

[nctarheel0619]

4 minutes ago, Cracka McNasty said:

That is specifically the reason we have sucked ass on the back end. Our secondary, while inexperienced, has been serviceable when healthy. We had a stretch of games in the middle of the season where we were on our 4th and 5th string guys at corner, and second and third at safety. That contributed significantly to the overall performance of the secondary. 

Not having Norman has been significant, but it's not the end all be all reason the defense has struggled at times. We see how competent the secondary can be when they are healthy, that just hasn't been a luxury we've had this year. 

When Worley has played, he hasn't played adequate at all.  Hence the reason he gets so many tackles.  Also, Boston+Griffin have been trash.  Coleman has played out of position as well.  Like I stated, you can use injuries as your excuse.  But, the games don't lie.  The inexperience, and lack of talent back there has shown numerous times.  

[top dawg]

8 minutes ago, csx said:

It's not true according to the stats

How's that. How are stats going to prove that Rivera and/or McDermott haven't found ways to get much needed pressue on opposing QBs. IIRC, early this season, Rivera even suggested that they may have to use the LBs and DBs to generate some sacks.

[Snake]

28 minutes ago, PhillyB said:

just goes to show we're really not that bad, we've just been situationally just bad enough to lose a bunch of games. a tic better and we've won 8 games.

It's more coaching than anything else. How do you collapse in the second half like this team does every game. 

[Mr. Scot]

8 minutes ago, Cracka McNasty said:

Yep, this is pretty much it. The biggest thing we miss with Norman is turnovers and TO opportunities. With how inexperienced our secondary is we weren't going to create nearly as many turnovers due to the guys just being so young requiring them to think instead of react. With experience the TO's will come which will be a great thing for us moving forward. 

The notion that the offense is bad because we aren't getting turnovers is silly.

The offense is bad on its own terms.

[gmonjimbo]

18 minutes ago, Cracka McNasty said:

That is specifically the reason we have sucked ass on the back end. Our secondary, while inexperienced, has been serviceable when healthy. We had a stretch of games in the middle of the season where we were on our 4th and 5th string guys at corner, and second and third at safety. That contributed significantly to the overall performance of the secondary. 

Not having Norman has been significant, but it's not the end all be all reason the defense has struggled at times. We see how competent the secondary can be when they are healthy, that just hasn't been a luxury we've had this year. 

Starting guys like Bene who had poor conditioning, Zack Sanchez who seems like a dud and Michael Griffin who can't play anymore hurt the secondary. I do agree with Gettleman approach in the off-season that we needed to make a long term solution in the secondary with getting Worley and Bradberry but it hurt the team in the short term

[My Goodness My Guinness]

22 minutes ago, CPantherKing said:

While Ealy was starting for the first 6 games and taking a majority of the snaps as an every down DE, the Panthers registered 12 sacks.

In the next 7 games following Ealy coming off the bench and using Addison instead of Ealy in passing situations the Panthers posted 27 sacks.

As soon as the Panthers reduced Ealy's, Butler's, and Soliai's roles that they had at the beginning of the season it all came together for the DL. The Panthers went from 17th in sacks to 1st in sacks over the past 7 weeks.

Now, the Panthers just need their secondary to start making plays on defense to stop drives and create takeaways. Maybe they can get their pass defense out of the basement and into the top 20 before the season is finished.

Then the offense can go back to doing what it was built to do. Run the ball and catch the defense off guard with a big play in the passing game.

I completely agree about Ealy. The guy is just better coming off the bench on the left. However, I don't know if you realize but Butler played a ton yesterday and was actually disruptive in both the passing and running game. 

[nctarheel0619]

11 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

The notion that the offense is bad because we aren't getting turnovers is silly.

The offense is bad on its own terms.

Bad is an understatement, it's hard to watch at times.