Keys for the Panthers to win on Sunday

[PantherBrew]

This is not a thread that is going to blow your mind with some outlandish theory or crazy idea, but here we go. 

 

In my opinion, the most important key for the Panthers this week is the play of the defensive line.  They are going to be more important than the secondary, or LBs, or even Cam.  We have to be able to pressure Brees with 4 rushers.  We have to slow their run game down without our linebackers selling out on the run. Kawaan Short is the guy, he has to show up and probably get at least 4-5 pressures.  Can't allow Brees to climb the pocket and get those explosive pass plays. 

Also, if Wilkes believes we are going to go in NO and play man the entire game and lock them up across the board, then we are in big trouble.  Playing Man Defense is a usually a must for a team that blitzes as much as we do.  And don't get me wrong, I love when we get aggressive and bring the heat as much as anyone, but this allows them to out scheme us, and not necessarily out talent us.  Wilkes high blitz scheme kind of goes against, Rivera and Shula's ball control style.  Now granted, maybe Wilkes is blitzing because he believes that we cant get pressure without it, and if thats true we cant win the Super Bowl anyways. 

I know no one wants to hear this, but this might be the week to really play bend but don't break.  Give up the underneath routes and tackle in space might be our best option.  When we do bring pressure, maybe send a fire zone or double A gap on 1st down.  But you can't show it, cause they will bubble screen you to death.

The Wilkes/Luke combo vs. Payton/Brees chess game is going to be interesting.  So far, it appears Payton has gotten the better of Wilkes, but maybe he has something cooked up for the playoffs.  

If it were me, I would be in 4-3 Tampa 2 and Cover 2 most of the game.  When you do lock up, get Shaq on Kamera and hope for the best. Its safe and reliable, and honestly fits the personnel of the team much better. But this means the defensive line has to dominate the entire game.  And they might not be good enough to do it, and if they can't, we lose.  
 

TL-DR: I think we need to play more zone this week and take our chances on Brees chipping away at us, and make them have long sustained time-consuming drives.  

 

Now, I could be completely wrong, but I believe we have to break some tendencies in this game if we want different results.  

[*FreeFua*]

Kidnap Brees, Kamara, Payton, Ingram, Lattimore and Cam Jordan!

It’s no secret we have to be able to get pressure with 4, Brees is too smart to get beat with a blitz 50% of the time. 

Our front 4 didn’t do much in ATL this past week and really owes us one.

[cptx]

Win the coin toss and don't fkn defer. Enough of that crap

[mc52beast]

I think if we score more points than NO we win

[t96]

Just now, cptx said:

Win the coin toss and don't fkn defer. Enough of that crap

Always defer. Belichick does it for a reason. Hell he's even deferred in OT... And won...

[cptx]

Just now, thomas96 said:

Always defer. Belichick does it for a reason. Hell he's even deferred in OT... And won...

Yeah it has worked out well both saints games letting them score 1st and not doing poo w the opening 3rd qtr possession. why change poo up

[t96]

1 minute ago, cptx said:

Yeah it has worked out well both saints games letting them score 1st and not doing poo w the opening 3rd qtr possession. why change poo up

In those two games, I don't think we lost because we deferred. Pretty sure we would've gone 3 and out on the first possession and allowed a TD on the first possession after half...

[cptx]

4 minutes ago, thomas96 said:

In those two games, I don't think we lost because we deferred. Pretty sure we would've gone 3 and out on the first possession and allowed a TD on the first possession after half...

Panthers scored on both opening drives. a td the first game and a fg the second. no points on either 2nd half opening drives. Not to mention taking zero chance to score on the final 1st half possessions, which would be the whole advantage of deferring. Make NO play from behind for once, Ron is not Bill lmfao

 

Im not saying its why they lost, i'm saying stop doing it if you aren't going to take any advantage from it. Scoring first is more important THIS game.

[rayzor]

don't try to out-scheme, out-think, or out-coach them. it won't work. we don't have what it takes to pull that off.

punch them in the face early and don't stop punching until all four quarters are done.

[t96]

5 minutes ago, cptx said:

Panthers scored on both opening drives. a td the first game and a fg the second. no points on either 2nd half opening drives. Not to mention taking zero chance to score on the final 1st half possessions, which would be the whole advantage of deferring. Make NO play from behind for once, Ron is not Bill lmfao

 

Im not saying its why they lost, i'm saying stop doing it if you aren't going to take any advantage from it. Scoring first is more important THIS game.

I see what you're saying, I'm just of the mindset that it's always better to defer if you win the coin toss. We should maybe focus more on making adjustments at halftime rather than not deferring. I hate Belichick but damned if he isn't the best coach in the history of the league (and would be even without the cheating, tragic genius) and I've never seen him not defer if he wins the coin toss.

[PantherBrew]

5 minutes ago, rayzor said:

don't try to out-scheme, out-think, or out-coach them. it won't work. we don't have what it takes to pull that off.

punch them in the face early and don't stop punching until all four quarters are done.

Yes this for the most part. 

Keep it simple and play fast.  (Used to be my defense motto)

 

[PhillyB]

that interior d-line is going to have to be on fuging point.

[Khyber53]

It will require a defense that can slow them down, but more than anything, it is going to require something from our offense.

We can't go out there and have Cam winging it over receivers heads or completely missing wide open targets like he did this past weekend in Atlanta. We're going to need Turner in there to hold the line together and we're going to need Stewart to keep them honest and give CMC a chance to be the change-up guy. We're going to need Olsen to keep his cool, and Funchess to play like the WR1 he can be. And one of those other WRs is going to have to step up and play the game of their life.

We're gonna live or die by Cam this weekend, though. There's no way to sugar coat it. If he's on, we've got a shot, a good one. If he's off, it's gonna be over before halftime. Luckily, when he has a craptastic game he generally follows it up with on of his best ever. This past weekend was one of his worst of all time, so maybe we'll see him break a good record this time around.

 

[PantherBrew]

Just now, Khyber53 said:

It will require a defense that can slow them down, but more than anything, it is going to require something from our offense.

We can't go out there and have Cam winging it over receivers heads or completely missing wide open targets like he did this past weekend in Atlanta. We're going to need Turner in there to hold the line together and we're going to need Stewart to keep them honest and give CMC a chance to be the change-up guy. We're going to need Olsen to keep his cool, and Funchess to play like the WR1 he can be. And one of those other WRs is going to have to step up and play the game of their life.

We're gonna live or die by Cam this weekend, though. There's no way to sugar coat it. If he's on, we've got a shot, a good one. If he's off, it's gonna be over before halftime. Luckily, when he has a craptastic game he generally follows it up with on of his best ever. This past weekend was one of his worst of all time, so maybe we'll see him break a good record this time around.

 

Also, going to have to rush for 200+.