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

[Craig Pruitt]

17 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.

Great Post. I was shocked when I saw us among the league leaders in sacks. But, your post puts everything into perspective. It seems going forward with Ealy projected as a starting DE (especially RDE) would be a mistake. He appears suited as a backup or emergency starter. There is no way I'd ever sign him to a huge long term extension.

Johnson has played better lately, but he'll be 32 next year. He too seems better suited as backup at this stage of his career. Then again the Panthers could choose to part ways with him next year.

It may ne be time to move on from Ryan Delaire. If he were replaced would the team really miss him.

Mario Addison is clearly our best pass rushing DE this season. He needs some help on the other side. I'm hoping we can find a stud in the draft or find someone in free agency.

I'm posting a link to espn with a breakdown on the sacks have come this season. You'll need to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/team/stats/_/name/car

[Ricky Spanish]

6 minutes ago, gmonjimbo said:

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

Won't argue that. Hopefully this offseason we get the Safety of the future as well. 

[d-dave]

Out of our league leading sacks:

5.5 came from LBs

4.5 came from DBs

12 came from DTs

17 came from DEs

What does that tell you?  W're getting the majority of the sacks from the DL, but we know that we have to blitz to free those guys up.  What did the Giants do when Gettleman was there?  They took pass rushers when they were there.  I'd be fine if we picked up more pass rushers.  A twitch, speed rushing end would be great.

While it's great we lead the league in sacks, that doesn't tell the whole story.  I'd be interested to see the number of hits and pressures.  It could be that we get a lot of sacks, but not as many hits and pressures in general.  There have been many times this season where guys got sacked on 2nd down, only to have all day to complete a 3rd and 14 pass.  Sure the sack was great, but they still converted the down, which negates the sack.

[CPantherKing]

11 minutes ago, nctarheel0619 said:

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

The Panthers offense is the 13th best scoring offense in the NFL. They could very well break 400 points on the season and break into the top 10 over the next 3 weeks. That is a drop off from last season, but by no means is this a bad offense. Expecting an offense to produce 500 points per season is highly unlikely.

I think too many people are using the 2015 offense as the standard, and a defense like the Panthers had last season that can generate takeaways, limit 1st downs and give the offense favorable field position would put this offense into the top 10 of the NFL easily. Currently, the Panthers have not gotten that treatment from the defense for most of the season.

[Peppers90 NC]

Our defense had 3 really bad games. Our offense has had about 12.

[GoobyPls]

Lopsided games like yesterday and the cardinals. Our defense is on the field a lot. Oppsing offenses know to beat us they have to throw it, so that means more opportunities for sacks. And we play in the most pass heavy division in the NFL.

 

Addison, Star and Short have been monsters lately 

[AU-panther]

10 minutes ago, CPantherKing said:

The Panthers offense is the 13th best scoring offense in the NFL. They could very well break 400 points on the season and break into the top 10 over the next 3 weeks. That is a drop off from last season, but by no means is this a bad offense. Expecting an offense to produce 500 points per season is highly unlikely.

I think too many people are using the 2015 offense as the standard, and a defense like the Panthers had last season that can generate takeaways, limit 1st downs and give the offense favorable field position would put this offense into the top 10 of the NFL easily. Currently, the Panthers have not gotten that treatment from the defense for most of the season.

The absurd number of takeaways that our defense got last year no doubt helped our offense to their great year. 

This year though the offense is near the worst in the league in giving the ball away so that is contributing to some of the defenses struggles also. 

http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/givetake/sort/giveTotal

 

[electro's horse]

I really don't understand tbh

[t96]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Igo said:

The bad news is most aren't coming from a base 4 defense like in years past. 

2013 we generated a lot of pressure consistently with the base 4 but a lot of the sacks came from the secondary that year. Mitchell and Captain alone combined for 10+ I think, or close to it, plus all the other DBs. I think we had 60 that year so that's quite a bit from the secondary. And LBs definitely had a bunch of sacks that year.

[hepcat]

It's called racking up sacks against bad teams and in garbage time

[Mr. Scot]

Just now, hepcat said:

It's called racking up sacks against bad teams and in garbage time

Which is actually where most team's big sack numbers come from.

[CPantherKing]

21 minutes ago, AU-panther said:

This year though the offense is near the worst in the league in giving the ball away so that is contributing to some of the defenses struggles also. 

It does not matter how a drive starts for a defense. They must keep an offense out of the end zone whether it is a punt or a turnover. You can give the defense a pass for allowing a FG when the drive starts on their side of the field.

The defense must come up with takeaways of their own to at least match that of the offense. If the offense is turning the ball over less than 2 times a game, the defense should be able to easily match that with their takeaways.

It makes no sense to complain about the turnovers of an offense unless they break 30 turnovers in a season. You can think of 30 turnovers/takeaways as the mid line. You want the offense to be under it and the defense to be over it. The wider the margin the better. 25 turnovers and 35 takeaways is good. If you can get the offense around 20 turnovers and the defense around 40 takeaways, then you are likely dominating in the season.

In 22 seasons of Panthers football, The Panthers offense is on pace to rank 11th for fewest turnovers - currently 7th. The Panthers defense is on pace to rank 15th in takeaways - currently last (22nd). That gives us some perspective. Expecting 16 or fewer turnovers by an offense is extremely rare. The Panthers lowest amount of  turnovers in a season was 19 (2008/2013/2015).

[tiger7_88]

2 hours ago, nctarheel0619 said:

Also 2nd in interceptions and 4th in forced fumbles.

Almost makes you wonder if constant 2nd half defensive collapses and an utterly and totally predictable, boring offense might have something to do with coaching and play calling, doesn't it?

[tiger7_88]

2 hours 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.

*ahem* situational *cough* *cough* coaching *hack* *snort* adjustments