Offseason post: Rivera literally told the media he wasn't changing anything before Superbowl 50

[onmyown]

Any fan that watched the play calling the entire 2015 knows this players fought their hardest, tooth and nail to overcome miserable play calling, schemes and compensate for zero adjustments. It was always horrid to see plays beginning and then gratifying to see our team come through.

Positive results were often a result of busted plays, overachieving players, and our players became elite at adapting (gee wonder why).

Feel free to go back and watch.

No, the coaching didn’t lose any games for the team but it didn’t do anything to help and already elite team either.

[onmyown]

On 6/3/2021 at 7:53 AM, pantherclaw said:

We didn't lose that Superbowl because of Ron. 

Easy thing to say because had he made adjustments, it’s impossible to know if we would’ve won or still lost.

But it’s pretty clear from the lack of adjustments, he sure didn’t help and his well known stubbornness cost him at the very least a better chance. I mean from the comments of that Broncos defense...hopefully that’s pretty obvious.

Edited June 4, 2021 by onmyown

[NanuqoftheNorth]

On 6/3/2021 at 7:17 AM, Mr. Scot said:

Ron wasn't the only reason, but Ron was a big reason.

Ron was the biggest reason.

In spite of all the questionable calls by the refs, the Panthers had their opportunities and failed to execute.  Had Ron changed plays up even a little and given Cam a moment or two more w/adequate O-line protection, the Panthers win that game in a rout.

Ron's complacency cost the Panthers a championship.

Edited June 4, 2021 by NanuqoftheNorth

[PandaMan]

20 minutes ago, LegioX said:

I still believe there was no way in hell we would have won that game. We picked a crappy year to go to the Super Bowl in the same season Manning was retiring. You know NFL wouldn’t let their boy lose a super bowl right before retirement.

So many things went wrong for us.  We’d protected the ball really well all year and then lost 3 fumbles (4 total fumbles).  The “no catch” for Cotchery.  I don’t buy the conspiracy theories, but damn, 9/10 times that game would’ve been ours.  In the words of the everlasting John Fox, we picked a bad day to have a bad day.

 

also shula doing nothing about Miller

[NanuqoftheNorth]

6 minutes ago, PandaMan said:

So many things went wrong for us.  We’d protected the ball really well all year and then lost 3 fumbles (4 total fumbles).  The “no catch” for Cotchery.  I don’t buy the conspiracy theories, but damn, 9/10 times that game would’ve been ours.  In the words of the everlasting John Fox, we picked a bad day to have a bad day.

also shula doing nothing about Miller

The Panthers were the more talented team, but our coaching staff was second best.  Given an entire off season Ron still couldn't solve the lack of protection for Cam and we lost to the Broncos yet again.

Ron is good at taking a crappy team and making them good, but don't expect him to adjust on the fly or match wits with the best.  9 seasons as a HC says he doesn't have that in him.

Edited June 4, 2021 by NanuqoftheNorth

[PootieNunu]

16 minutes ago, NanuqoftheNorth said:

The Panthers were the more talented team, but our coaching staff was second best.  Given an entire off season Ron still couldn't solve the lack of protection for Cam and we lost to the Broncos yet again.

Ron is good at taking a crappy team and making them good, but don't expect him to adjust on the fly or match wits with the best.  9 seasons as a HC says he doesn't have that in him.

Is he even capable of that? His tenure here he used elite players to cover up his short comings as a coach. A good team would have back to back winning seasons, especially with the talent we had. He allowed Cam to be battered behind a piss poor O-line and he never had any weapons outside of Olsen worth mentioning. 

His defense is not much better with his soft zones.

Even last season he backed into winning the NFCE because the eagles allowed him to. 

Im waiting for him to fall on his face in DC.

[cardiackat88.]

On 6/3/2021 at 5:13 PM, MechaZain said:

They didn't look like themselves all game 

I will never forget the very first defensive series of that game.

Keuchly looked like someone had abducted him out of a spaceship and dropped him in the middle of a parking lot, butt ass naked.

I am not sure WTF was happening, it wasn't just him or the defense. They all seemed to be completely in a trance, at least in the first quarter.

[NanuqoftheNorth]

36 minutes ago, PootieNunu said:

Is he even capable of that? His tenure here he used elite players to cover up his short comings as a coach. A good team would have back to back winning seasons, especially with the talent we had. He allowed Cam to be battered behind a piss poor O-line and he never had any weapons outside of Olsen worth mentioning. 

His defense is not much better with his soft zones.

Even last season he backed into winning the NFCE because the eagles allowed him to. 

Im waiting for him to fall on his face in DC.

Yeah, Ron wasn't consistent, couldn't win back-to-back seasons, so in that respect he wasn't even good. 

JR should have gone with his gut feeling and fired Ron (along with Hurney) in 2012.

Missed opportunities.

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by NanuqoftheNorth

[ladypanther]

Wonder if Ron learned anything from that...since he is in Washington learning from his Carolina mistakes.

[RumHam]

On 6/3/2021 at 9:24 AM, hepcat said:

Classic Ron Rivera, not only did he not plan on changing up his strategy in Superbowl 50, he told the media this exact fact before the game even started. All the Broncos defense had to do was listen.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2609930-super-bowl-50-predictions-bleacher-reports-expert-consensus-picks

Even if Rhule and co doesn't pan out, Rivera was way too stubborn to ever win a Superbowl as a head coach. It's just a shame the Panthers didn't cut bait with him before Cam's prime was over. 

Most of you look for anything to bash Ron on. We basically went into that game undefeated. why the hell would you fix what wasn't yet broke? When you lose the super bowl, you get exposed on the biggest stage and we never rebounded. You'll see this year with the Chiefs. I'll bet now that Rivera has a better win percentage than Rhule by the time Rhule is done. If we poo the bed the next two years, you gonna learn. Again, why fix what ain't broke? Now, should you adapt during the game? Yes. Rhule is better at doing that, but still not great. 

[CRA]

I think refs were the biggest issue.

Ron stuck with what got him to 17-1 on the season.  There are stupider things Ron has done. 

[Eazy-E]

Why are so many of you not understanding that making adjustments doesn’t mean completely changing how the team plays football. 
 

Ron should have watched the tape and known Von Miller would have to be game planned against. Hell, even during the game after the first strip sack TD, he should have made the adjustments to give Remmers some damn help. Instead he changed nothing and continued to let Remmers get abused 1v1 vs Miller the rest of the game.

It’s the same reason we lost to the Falcons. How can you be a head coach and see that poo is not working during a game and not even attempt to make even the slightest adjustments. 
 

[Wes21]

I remember one of my favorite radio hosts picked us to win in the week leading up to the game.  But when he did his GameDay pregame show he switched it to the Broncos at the last minute.  He said when you were down on the field and around both teams you could just tell which team was more prepared for the moment (Broncos) and that's why he switched.

[Sgt Schultz]

1 hour ago, Eazy-E said:

Why are so many of you not understanding that making adjustments doesn’t mean completely changing how the team plays football. 
 

Ron should have watched the tape and known Von Miller would have to be game planned against. Hell, even during the game after the first strip sack TD, he should have made the adjustments to give Remmers some damn help. Instead he changed nothing and continued to let Remmers get abused 1v1 vs Miller the rest of the game.

It’s the same reason we lost to the Falcons. How can you be a head coach and see that poo is not working during a game and not even attempt to make even the slightest adjustments. 
 

Teams have two weeks to prepare for the Superb Owl.  What exactly did our coaching staff do with that time?  We know what they didn’t do.

Our strategy (or stragedy)?  Von Miller, no problem.  Demarcus Ware, no worries.  No need for gadget plays or misdirection, we have Cam.  No need to have somebody help the OL, especially against Miller.  Do they not know who we are?

To your point, the Broncos had the #1 defense by yards allowed and yards per play.  They were fourth in points allowed.  As good as our defense was, statistically they were slightly better in most categories.  That’s not enough to make a difference by itself.  But any coaching staff worth its keep would come up with a few plays to give that defense a pause.  Just enough to knock them on their heels once in a while, if not produce a home run.  But we were much too clever for that.

Our defense basically gave up two FGs in that game.  The other 18 Broncos points were either directly by the Bronco defense (Von Miller’s sack), when our punt coverage stood around like a bunch of government employees and they returned one to the Panther 14 (and kicked a FG), and the late-game fumble that gave them the ball on the Panther 4.  6 points earned, another 18 coming on 4 yards of offense (actually, 3 yards since they lost a yard on the drive after the punt return).

We’ll never really know what wrinkles the Broncos put in on offense to counter our defense because they didn’t need to use them.  The scoreboard just never called for them to run any.  After the first 8-1/2 minutes, they were in a position that their offense simply needed to not lose the game.  That was about all their offense accomplished.  Look at the QB ratings in that game: Cam – 55.4, Manning 56.6.  If you add them together it is a good performance for one QB.

The game was there to be won.  Our coaching staff was just insistent on doing what we had done all year until it worked or the clock wound down to :00.  It probably was not as bad as the Rams taking plays out of the playbook against the Pats, but even that qualifies as an adjustment!

Back in the 90s, a reporter asked Mouse Davis (mastermind of the Run and Shoot) what he did when the Run and Shoot wasn’t working.  How did he adjust when the opposing defense had it firing blanks? His response was, “well, you run and shoot.”  That was our coaching philosophy, too.  Just do the same things and hope they magically work.

Edited June 4, 2021 by Sgt Schultz