Perhaps Rivera and Shula and Cam are finally learning

[Cyberjag]

So it's late in the game, not a lot of time left on the clock, and you're up.  The other team gets the ball, and is obviously going to throw the ball.  What does your defense look like?

We blitzed, didn't we?  A lot.

[iamhubby1]

    So...because Stafford (One of the best QBs in the game.) put up 14 points late in the game. Folks are saying we went soft? Never mind we still threw the ball, we went soft. Never mind we still blitzed, we went soft.

 

    Folks see what they want to see. 

[2jakefansinva]

7 hours ago, Moorgan said:

Thought I saw a tweet yesterday (maybe from Voth) that the defense blitzed 7 times on the Lions' last drive. That's not prevent defense. I also noticed that the offense (with the exception of 1 series in the 3rd quarter) often threw more often than the typical run, run, pass, punt or even run, run, run, punt of a prevent offense. Basically, I'm challenging the notion that we played prevent in the 4th quarter. But I have no stats to back it up. It's the internet, I don't need facts.

I believe we at 47% run so far........

[SOJA]

7 hours ago, Khaki Lackey said:

I just wish Ron would stop with the prevent defense and prevent offense with 20 minutes left in the game. 

This. How many leads have we had in the past few years that have eventually become close games?

I've truly lost count, but I can tell you I always see it coming. 

[NavyPF4L]

Jesus fuggin christ. The offense isn't trying to play the let's not lose game they are doing what every fuggin NFL teams wishes they could do or at least trying and that is run the ball down people's throats chew clock and keep the other offense off the field. We saw EXACTLY that when we played a game earlier in the season and literally drove down the field and shoved the ball down the opposing teams throat for like a 6 minute drive. 

 

What does this cause that helps us? If it works it kills clock which in turn makes the other team go into absolute panic mode and demoralize their defense because they can't stop it. Which in turn makes the other team also take otherwise unneeded risks and that plays into our well rested defenses hands. 

 

It's worked very well at times for us this season however we stalled at the goal line most of the time but in the end it still did exactly what we wanted it to do. We just need to learn how to finish the deal in the red zone and a team that can literally throw it all over you and then run it down your throat when we are up is an absolute monster to defend. 

It's not pretty unless you actually enjoy smash mouth football but I love it with a passion when it works. I also believe khalil being out has reeeeeaaally hurt our run game and hopefully he will be back soon or as we have seen with the pass blocking that too wI'll get better and better as the group plays more together.

 

The point being. Teams that are able to do that win championships. We are trying to be that and we are trying to win a damn ring. There WILL be a learning curve but the best place to learn is in real games and hasn't cost us a damn game yet. 

[xav8tor]

38 minutes ago, NavyPF4L said:

hasn't cost us a damn game yet. 

This year...yet.

Speaking of a yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RysLPnojaHc

[ShutDwn]

Wow I feel dumber for reading this thread

It’s not complicated. If you want a team that puts away teams, teach this OL how to run block. 

Keep our pass rush fresher and play keep away. 

Expecting road blowouts lmao

[JawnyBlaze]

Blitzing and prevent defense aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. The prevent defense Ron is so fond of has the secondary and all non blitzing Lbs playing off 10yards allowing completion after completion as long as there aren’t any huge plays for a 10s score. We just give up 1-5 minute scores in those cases. Yes, sometimes it works.  A lot of times it hasn’t. If not for a GREAT throw and catch by Cam and KB on our last drive, that game almost certainly would have at least gone to overtime, if not an outright win by the Lions on their last theoretical drive. 

[JawnyBlaze]

4 hours ago, Cyberjag said:

So it's late in the game, not a lot of time left on the clock, and you're up.  The other team gets the ball, and is obviously going to throw the ball.  What does your defense look like?

We blitzed, didn't we?  A lot.

The same as it did for the other 40 minutes where they were throwing a lot and we held them to 10 points in 40 minutes. By that loose math we would have only allowed 5 more points vs 14. 

[UpstatePanther]

21 hours ago, Udogg said:

Everyone here has seen the switch go off.   Last 2 games has been the Cam we all know exist.  Due to injury and practice that Cam hasn't shown up till now.   Saying Shula or Ron Rivera have changed is crazy. 

Yeah it just goes to show that Rivera and Shula need an almost perfect situation for their offense to flourish. 

If Cam is off, our offense can’t move and score.

if the line isn’t blocking, we can’t move or score

if the receivers aren’t on point, we can’t score

if the backs aren’t making things happen, we have a hard time scoring

if the defense isn’t holding teams to less than 24 points, we generally aren’t able to keep up if every single thing doesn’t go perfectly on offense

and that is infuriating to watch

[Udogg]

30 minutes ago, UpstatePanther said:

Yeah it just goes to show that Rivera and Shula need an almost perfect situation for their offense to flourish. 

If Cam is off, our offense can’t move and score.

if the line isn’t blocking, we can’t move or score

if the receivers aren’t on point, we can’t score

if the backs aren’t making things happen, we have a hard time scoring

if the defense isn’t holding teams to less than 24 points, we generally aren’t able to keep up if every single thing doesn’t go perfectly on offense

and that is infuriating to watch

That's the side effect of running an offense specifically tailored to Cam Newton.  When Cam Newton isn't Cam Newton , it doesn't work.  

So the choices are: 

Run a more "traditional" offense that doesn't use all the skills that Cam Newton possess.  It works, but only 2 an extent. It's more of what you run when you have an "average" QB.  See what Hugh Jackson is running in Cleveland. 

Run a timing based offense.  It works, see Tom Brady.  But takes impeccable timing, and quick , precise route runners.  Not gonna work here. 

Run an offense specifically tailored for Cam Newton, the big, running, super cannon for an arm juggernaut. As much as people bitch about Shula being incompetent, some people realize that it's hard work running what might quite possibly be the most diverse offense in the NFL behind K.C. (and that's debatable).  The downside, it needs a once in a generational talent (see Cam Newton) to run it.  

We chose the latter.  When it's clicking it's a thing of beauty.  When it's not, it seems disjointed.  Our offense (now) can scheme around bad Oline, bad receivers, bad run blocking, but absolutely cannot survive bad QB play. 

[SCO96]

22 hours ago, Harbingers said:

A wins a win. Better to win by one than not at all.

You've got a point (no pun intended)

As good as the Patriots have been thru the years, They've never won a Super bowl by more than 6 points, and that was last years game that went to overtime. Their first 3 wins were all by a 3pt margin. The Seattle game had a 4 point margin. If you average the point margins for all five wins, it's comes out to 3.8 points per game.

If they had won them all by 1point the pundits would still be saying that Belichick and Brady are the best of all time.

[KB_fan]

36 minutes ago, Udogg said:

We chose the latter.  When it's clicking it's a thing of beauty.  When it's not, it seems disjointed.  Our offense (now) can scheme around bad Oline, bad receivers, bad run blocking, but absolutely cannot survive bad QB play. 

Well, we did in week 1 & 2...  Cam was not great in those games.  Our run game and our defense saved us in both.  

But yeah, long-term you're probably right (as in 2016 season).