Panthers are 5th in scoring since trading Kelvin Benjamin

[Jeremy Igo]

Is this more to do with Kelvin gone or Cam running again? 

 

I think it is the second thing. 

[uncfan888]

8 hours ago, JARROD said:

Well like it or not,... he’s gone.

right now our offense is doing decent,.. still would like to have a legit receiver like an AJ Green or Antonio Brown or even a Keenan Allen,.. I still don’t feel like Funchess will ever be one of them. 

Funchess has exceeded all of my low expectations but he’s got a long way to go still.

And we get one and cam goes back to staring him down and forcing the ball to him. I think maybe cam is just better with a stable of average WRs and Olsen. They will drop some passes but I guess that's just what we have to live with

[csx]

7 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Is this more to do with Kelvin gone or Cam running again? 

 

I think it is the second thing. 

He's carrying 1.5 more times a game noe than with Benjamin. Maybe that's significant. 

[Jangler]

or 5th in scoring over the last 6 weeks.... that would work too. 

but, we must always be divisive.

 

[Davidson Deac II]

8 minutes ago, uncfan888 said:

And we get one and cam goes back to staring him down and forcing the ball to him. I think maybe cam is just better with a stable of average WRs and Olsen. They will drop some passes but I guess that's just what we have to live with

Or when he is healthy and the defense is forcing turnovers, giving the offense a short field.   In our last three victories, offense has been the beneficiary of critical turnovers forced by the defense.  

[ecu88]

12 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

I would point out that Cam is healthier now than he was at the beginning of the season.  And we are forcing more turnovers, ie short fields.  And the oline is playing better.  None of those things have much to do with KB.  

S/

[Car123]

47 minutes ago, uncfan888 said:

And we get one and cam goes back to staring him down and forcing the ball to him. I think maybe cam is just better with a stable of average WRs and Olsen. They will drop some passes but I guess that's just what we have to live with

Cam played as well as a young quarterback can when Steve Smith was around. It's no coincidence. 

We're seeing less 8 man boxes now that we have more speed on the outside, which has improved Cam's running efficiency.

[KittyLover]

46 minutes ago, csx said:

He's carrying 1.5 more times a game noe than with Benjamin. Maybe that's significant. 

Is this true?  That pretty much disproves the Newton running anology if so. I’m too lazy to google. 

[Car123]

Those of you mentioning short fields from turnovers, note that we traveled over 70 yards on 3 of our 4 touchdown drives vs Green Bay. Same for 3 of our 4 touchdown drives vs Minnesota (the other was a 69 yard drive).

[csx]

11 minutes ago, KittyLover said:

Is this true?  That pretty much disproves the Newton running anology if so. I’m too lazy to google. 

Yes. Sideways but yes.

[Cat]

1 minute ago, stbugs said:

 

Not going to get caught in this trap again.

Until last week with Byrd our WRs outside of Funchess were trash. People keep saying average WRs, but Clay, Shepard and Berlin have had very little affect on our scoring.

This year we were 5-3 with KB and 5-1 without him. Here’s a list of stuff far more important than KB leaving:

1. OL is actually run blocking. They were absolutely trash early in the season and as shown multiple times Matt Kalil has actually had a huge improvement in run blocking. Instead of gifs of him messing up there are more of him opening huge holes. As much as people want to point to Cam’s MVP season, the running game has been far more vital to our scoring recently than passing. Cam has thrown for less than 200 yards in 5 of the last 7 games because the running game has been so good. That’s also why he’s thrown so many less INTs.

2. Shula has improved his play calling. Anyone remember a 6 touch drive for McCaffery with KB? Anyone have any clue why when KB was here that we seemed to solely throw deep balls? Anyone remember not doing QB sneaks against Philly, but now Cam is running free? I still worry about Funchess getting hurt because Clay and Shepard have dropped more balls than they’ve caught. One funny note is weeks 4 and 5 with KB are Cam’s best passing games of the year.

3. It’s the second half of the year. We always start slow and finish well. In case anyone forgets, the start of 2017 is Ron’a second best career start behind 2015. So, KB did a bad job of screwing up our start this year.

4. Cam is much healthier. Anyone forget his wide open overthrows early in the season? As I noted above his best two passing games of the year were with KB, but his three worst games surrounded those two games. Cam wasn’t as healthy as he is now. That’s easy to see.

5. Turnovers are way up. We forced 4 turnovers in the first 7 games (4-3). We have forced 14 turnovers in the past 7 games (6-1). People like to gloss over that we were the number 1 team in 2015 forcing turnovers. So many that we forced one turnover per game more than an average team. Unlike most top scoring offenses our 2015 offense was closer to average in yards per play because our D was a turnover machine.

I’m tired of the KB is gone argument. It’s as lazy as how those people feel KB is. Those 5 items above are far more important than replacing KB with Clay and Shepard’s drops. I’ll throw one more nugget out there. We win SB 50 if KB is out there instead of Cotchery. He was the one WR that performed against Denver.

Good post, this is all true. I wont say KB being gone isn't having a positive effect but I would say these 5 reasons certainly are a big reason we have improved offensively. 

[Davidson Deac II]

14 minutes ago, Car123 said:

Those of you mentioning short fields from turnovers, note that we traveled over 70 yards on 3 of our 4 touchdown drives vs Green Bay. Same for 3 of our 4 touchdown drives vs Minnesota (the other was a 69 yard drive).

Fair enough, although I would point out that those turnovers tend to give you more possessions and demoralize the opposing d a little.  And having Olsen back in those two games has helped as well, although he was more of a decoy in the game against the Vikes.  

But against the Jets, we had a pick 6 and a punt return td.  Against Atlanta, the offense sputtered most of the game, except a spurt at the end of the second qtr, which included a short field after a Mike Adams int.   Against New Orleans, the offense scored on the first drive, then disappeared except for a short field td after a fumble and a garbage time td.  

Don't get me wrong, I do think the offense is playing better, primarily because we have dramatically cut down our own turnovers.  And KB was not involved in most of those early season turnovers. I just don't think that having Clay, Sheppard, or Bersin line up on the other side is forcing other teams to adapt.   Byrd has improved, and at least can catch the ball, but I am not convinced he is forcing other teams to adapt either.  

[Jangler]

 

[PantherBrew]

38 minutes ago, stbugs said:

 

Not going to get caught in this trap again.

Until last week with Byrd our WRs outside of Funchess were trash. People keep saying average WRs, but Clay, Shepard and Berlin have had very little affect on our scoring.

This year we were 5-3 with KB and 5-1 without him. Here’s a list of stuff far more important than KB leaving:

1. OL is actually run blocking. They were absolutely trash early in the season and as shown multiple times Matt Kalil has actually had a huge improvement in run blocking. Instead of gifs of him messing up there are more of him opening huge holes. As much as people want to point to Cam’s MVP season, the running game has been far more vital to our scoring recently than passing. Cam has thrown for less than 200 yards in 5 of the last 7 games because the running game has been so good. That’s also why he’s thrown so many less INTs.

2. Shula has improved his play calling. Anyone remember a 6 touch drive for McCaffery with KB? Anyone have any clue why when KB was here that we seemed to solely throw deep balls? Anyone remember not doing QB sneaks against Philly, but now Cam is running free? I still worry about Funchess getting hurt because Clay and Shepard have dropped more balls than they’ve caught. One funny note is weeks 4 and 5 with KB are Cam’s best passing games of the year.

3. It’s the second half of the year. We always start slow and finish well. In case anyone forgets, the start of 2017 is Ron’a second best career start behind 2015. So, KB did a bad job of screwing up our start this year.

4. Cam is much healthier. Anyone forget his wide open overthrows early in the season? As I noted above his best two passing games of the year were with KB, but his three worst games surrounded those two games. Cam wasn’t as healthy as he is now. That’s easy to see.

5. Turnovers are way up. We forced 4 turnovers in the first 7 games (4-3). We have forced 14 turnovers in the past 7 games (6-1). People like to gloss over that we were the number 1 team in 2015 forcing turnovers. So many that we forced one turnover per game more than an average team. Unlike most top scoring offenses our 2015 offense was closer to average in yards per play because our D was a turnover machine.

I’m tired of the KB is gone argument. It’s as lazy as how those people feel KB is. Those 5 items above are far more important than replacing KB with Clay and Shepard’s drops. I’ll throw one more nugget out there. We win SB 50 if KB is out there instead of Cotchery. He was the one WR that performed against Denver.

This is all well and good, but there is still one big fuging denominator.  

After the trade, the team told us they wanted more speed on the field to open things up. 

So now, the field has opened up and we are reaping the benefits.  Just like the entire 2015 season.  

I know some of yall love KB, but jeez.

When teams can run single high safety on you all game long it makes everything else so much damned harder.