Carolina Panthers Film Room: Who's to Blame for 3rd Down Issues?

[AlphabetsEnd]

For those wanting to dig more into last week's offensive problems on 3rd down. 

[Jackie Lee]

Mixed bag so far, long developing routes, Baker struggling throwing from the pocket due to his height. No pre snap motion, no misdirection. Saints are threatening blitz and playing man like we should be doing more often. Baker missed a few easy ones earlier in the game but as the game goes on McAdoo isn't giving him many good options with these dumbass routes

[TheSpecialJuan]

these vids have been excellent 

[TheCasillas]

1 minute ago, Jackie Lee said:

Mixed bag so far, long developing routes, Baker struggling throwing from the pocket due to his height. No pre snap motion, no misdirection. Saints are threatening blitz and playing man like we should be doing more often. Baker missed a few easy ones earlier in the game but as the game goes on McAdoo isn't giving him many good options with these dumbass routes

dont forget the effort by DJ as he called out in the video.

[Jackie Lee]

13 minutes ago, TheCasillas said:

dont forget the effort by DJ as he called out in the video.

Yup. I swear we had more exciting offensive play calling in the preseason as well. 

[CPantherKing]

Ickey would be the main problem on 3rd down

[panthersgreenville]

What really baffles me is Baker has always been the same the same height and he has had several seasons in the NFL now being what, a top 15 QB, maybe better?! But suddenly he is playing like a mid round rookie who has never stepped foot on a NFL field until now. 
 

I get it, new team, new offense but he looks lost and like he’s been some back up jag his whole career. I just don’t grasp how a QB can go being a top 12-top 15 QB to suddenly becoming the absolute worst QB in the league while being in a contract year. 

[kungfoodude]

1 minute ago, panthersgreenville said:

What really baffles me is Baker has always been the same the same height and he has had several seasons in the NFL now being what, a top 15 QB, maybe better?! But suddenly he is playing like a mid round rookie who has never stepped foot on a NFL field until now. 
 

I get it, new team, new offense but he looks lost and like he’s been some back up jag his whole career. I just don’t grasp how a QB can go being a top 12-top 15 QB to suddenly becoming the absolute worst QB in the league while being in a contract year. 

Well the modern NFL offenses typically focus fairly heavily on tweaking offenses to make their best players(especially QB's) more effective. We are literally doing the exact opposite of that under Ben McAdoo.

This isn't an offense that many QB's wouldn't have some struggles with. But it doesn't help that we are taking a flawed QB and making him operate outside his comfort zone.

[Jon Snow]

[kungfoodude]

6 minutes ago, Pakmeng said:

McAdoo’s offense is regularly referred ti as QB friendly.  Eli is one to have used those specific words

Well watching the offense definitely shows that to be completely untrue.

At the bare minimum, McAdoo is trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. At the NFL OC level, that's really stupid.

[Jackie Lee]

Apparently there's something wrong with Robbie's game but Newton doesn't know how to copy and paste links

 

[rayzor]

15 hours ago, Jackie Lee said:

Mixed bag so far, long developing routes, Baker struggling throwing from the pocket due to his height. No pre snap motion, no misdirection. Saints are threatening blitz and playing man like we should be doing more often. Baker missed a few easy ones earlier in the game but as the game goes on McAdoo isn't giving him many good options with these dumbass routes

seems to be a recurring theme with OCs we've had...trying to get too clever with the routes and accomplishing nothing. scheme needs to work around what baker can and can't do and needs to factor in that defenses know that if they keep on blitzing they will make him freak (not at all the ballsy QB that was advertised, btw). 

and you're right....we do need to be doing more man and more blitzing ourselves on defense. dish it out. we've got the guys to do it...do it.

[UNCrules2187]

I definitely think a combination of issues have led to the lackluster offensive performance so far. Baker's footwork hasn't seemed great and there's been multiple times he's bailed early from clean pockets. McAdoo's route combinations and playcalling are also leaving something to be desired. There's so much 11 and 12 personnel and little to no pre-snap motion to give Baker easier reads.

Ultimately though, I feel like the playcalling isn't playing to Baker's strengths - Stefanksi is a better OC/playcaller than McAdoo and he schemed up easy throws to take advantage of Baker's skills. McAdoo seems more determined to call plays he likes rather than plays tailored to take advantage of both the QB and playmakers like CMC and Moore.

Edited September 28, 2022 by UNCrules2187

[rayzor]

33 minutes ago, panthersgreenville said:

What really baffles me is Baker has always been the same the same height and he has had several seasons in the NFL now being what, a top 15 QB, maybe better?! But suddenly he is playing like a mid round rookie who has never stepped foot on a NFL field until now. 
 

I get it, new team, new offense but he looks lost and like he’s been some back up jag his whole career. I just don’t grasp how a QB can go being a top 12-top 15 QB to suddenly becoming the absolute worst QB in the league while being in a contract year. 

can't really blame it on the players around him either. we may not be allpro at every position but we're not horrible either. it's like mayfield all of a sudden realized that he's tiny and it's in his head.