McCaffrey - Making things easy for every one else.

[Jeremy Igo]

Taking a closer look at three touchdowns against the Patriots. All of them were made much easier by the extra attention Christian McCaffrey received from the Patriots. Clearly, the Patriots wanted to take CMC out of the game. To his credit, Mike Shula apparently was counting on that and ready.

It seems Belichick underestimated Shula. 

 

1. Touchdown screen to Fozzy Whitaker.

Literally the entire Patriots defense followed McCaffrey right. Not only was Fozzy able to score the touchdown, look at how wide open Ed Dickson is here. The Patriots completely disregarded the left side of the field. If the play call was not a screen to Fozzy, Dickson would have had an even easier touchdown. He could have walked in. 

 

2. Cam Newton read option.

Watch 53 as he takes himself completely out of the play, his eyes stuck on Christian McCaffrey the entire time. Without that, Cam would not have had a clear lane to the end zone. Bonus: See Trai Turner use one LB as a bowling ball and the other as a pin. 

 

3. Play action to Funchess

Patriots stacking the box with 32 here, selling out for the run here and staying on McCaffrey. Basically daring Cam Newton to throw it. It seems the Patriots were expecting the Cam Newton of last week, and not the one that spent a week in practice. 

 

The good news? It worked. The Carolina Panthers successfully used the Patriots' own game plan against them. Kudos. 

The bad news? That won't work again now that Detroit has seen this film. Mike Shula will need to come up with a new game plan against the solid Lions defense. 

[Cyberjag]

Bad news my ass.  All this means is that Shula will actually USE McCaffrey in Detroit.  It's going to be fun to watch.

[stirs]

It is exactly why we drafted CMC and why we talked him up all during camp.

Now LB's and safeties have to pick their poison and Cam just has to make the right read and if he does, then we are good to go

[Jeremy Igo]

8 minutes ago, Cyberjag said:

Bad news my ass.  All this means is that Shula will actually USE McCaffrey in Detroit.  It's going to be fun to watch.

Yep. Hopefully Detriot will have to start accounting for other players on the field, giving CMC a little room. Could be a decent day for CMC.

[ThPantherFan]

11 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Mike Shula will need to come up with a new game plan 

Thus the problem.

[MasterAwesome]

Love me some sweet-a&$ GIFs.

[Khyber53]

The best of it is that now defenses have to prepare for CMC first as an active player, then also as a decoy player. And that is just where you want them -- spending extra time on just one guy. And then, you do a couple of test plays early in the game, figure which tendency the defense is following and then hit them with the opposite.

No matter what his stat line is, it is the potential that is scaring opposing DCs. And that's golden.

[Pantha-kun]

And fans of other teams keep saying that he's a poo RB and we're using the decoy logic as excuses. I hope he has a couple of big showings running the ball sometime within the next 4 games , but I'm doubtful. Stewart seems to be running quite well and McCaffrey has been getting well under 10 carries per game since game 2.  

The coolest stat I compiled myself from him is that McCafffrey picked up at least 14 first downs through the first 4 games . I think that's good? Also pretty much every time he catches the ball he looks really good. If he was starting at WR #2 beside Benji he'd probably be killing it with receiving yards right now. Although currently he's on pace for over 80 receptions and over 800 receiving yards. Which might be closer to 100 rec and 1000 receiving if Stewart continues to dominate on the ground. 

[ladypanther]

58 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

It seems Belichick underestimated Shula.

You surprised me with that.

[KB_fan]

Hopefully we'll get Curtis Samuel back on the field too adding another weapon.

Have to say I'm very encouraged by what I saw from KB, Funch & Dickson.  All 3 of them stepped up their game.  And it is always fun to see Fozzy make a great play.  He doesn't make a lot, but he's broken a few great ones.

Hey, I don't think any one's mentioned it.  Isn't it AWESOME that Fozzys great catch & run did NOT get called back due to holding / illegal block?!?!  Seems like there were a few of those last year... Didn't Fozzy have a 50+ yard TD called back against the Vikings last year?  

I love how few penalties the Panthers have gotten through 4 games.  Big improvement from last year (13 so far vs. 32 through week 4 of 2016).  It's made a difference, especially when points have been hard to come by for the 1st 3 games...

[stirs]

5 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

Hopefully we'll get Curtis Samuel back on the field too adding another weapon.

Have to say I'm very encouraged by what I saw from KB, Funch & Dickson.  All 3 of them stepped up their game.  And it is always fun to see Fozzy make a great play.  He doesn't make a lot, but he's broken a few great ones.

Hey, I don't think any one's mentioned it.  Isn't it AWESOME that Fozzys great catch & run did NOT get called back due to holding / illegal block?!?!  Seems like there were a few of those last year... Didn't Fozzy have a 50+ yard TD called back against the Vikings last year?  

I love how few penalties the Panthers have gotten through 4 games.  Big improvement from last year (13 so far vs. 32 through week 4 of 2016).  It's made a difference, especially when points have been hard to come by for the 1st 3 games...

Even the refs are watching CMC, haha

[csx]

Even at my most pessimistic I can't find anything negative to come up with regarding this.

 

[Moorgan]

22 minutes ago, Pantha-kun said:

And fans of other THIS team keep saying that he's a poo RB and we're using the decoy logic as excuses.

FIFY

[Chaos]

That gif of Trai "bowling" would be great with timed sound effects.