Breaking Down Tampa's losses

[AKPantherFan]

I see a great day ahead for us

Run the ball, control the clock, and keep our defense and their offense off the field.

I have a feeling tha ole Foxy has something up his sleeve for this one.

[MadHatter]

Close game...but Cats pull out the win.

Keys to the game is to not make early mistakes....the blocked punt for FG and the early interception put us in a 14 pt hole in Tampa.

We want to run the ball...get behind early and could be a long night.

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

One thing not being discussed is that in every instance, Tampa Bay lost the game when the opposition scored more points than they did.

There it was all along, right under our noses.

My world made sense five minutes ago. This changes...everything

[mountainpantherfan]

Good scouting Blindsite.

A couple of things I'd like to see the Panthers do:

1- Go with 2 TEs. Both King and Rosario can catch the ball and could be instrumental in disecting the cover-2. The cover-2 is susceptible to seam routes and the TEs should take advantage.

The other advantage in having a 2 TE set is the run game gets another decent blocker.

2- Use an unbalanced line to kick-start the run game. Against the Redskins last night, the Ravens used an offensive lineman as their de facto TE. That allowed the Ravens to lineup three lineman on the strong side and pound the ball down the Redskins throat. Flacco only had 10 completions last night, but the Ravens were able to run the ball for more than 140 yards on a really good defense.

I like this idea. I was also thinking that Davidson might pull out more zone blocking run plays this game as well. So much was made of it last season but I've not heard anyone really mention it this season. That could be a move that could throw the Tampa defense on their heels.

[Fooball]

Nice analysis BlindSite.....props.

[Mr. Scot]

So far the Tampa Bay Buccs have lost each game by the following scorelines

New Orleans 24-20

Denver Broncos 16-13

Dallas Cowboys 13-9

In other tight games they won (with close scores)

Kansas City 30-27

New Orleans 20-23

Its clear that by their biggest losing margin of 4 points that this is probably the best team we've faced all year. Even when tested they rise to the occasion and come back to win.

From looking at these games its possible to deduce the following.

1. New Orleans, used a lot of underneath routes to reggie bush and inside gains to Jeremy Shockey to keep them on the back foot. Offensively the New Orleans game plan centered around getting the ball out quickly, and allowing players to make gains against the zone coverage.

The other show on here was that any time there was man coverage Brees looked to complete deep. When its man coverage, certain players are obviously exposed.

2. Denver wore down the Tampa defense using short passing gains. Due to the downfield excellence of the linebackers and secondary long gains isn't like to feature for any offense facing Tampa.

Tony Scheffler and Brandon Stokely were the leading receivers. Clearly the inside receivers have the tendency to get open faster than the outside receivers.

Much of the Tampa ineptitude on offense was because of Griese but notably Garcia didn't aim to complete a pass of longer than 15 yards all day.

3. Brad Johnson subbing for the injured Romo "threw passes that wouldn't get first downs, but wouldn't get intercepted", clearly the same plan that worked for Denver and New Orleans worked in this one too.

Marion Barber figured strong in both the run and pass as the he gained 80 running and 50 catching from the backfield.

4. Kansas City lost in overtime on a long field goal. To put up 27 points and almost beat the Tampa Bay Buccs, their offensive plan included some trick plays, but more than that a lot of running. Less and less the Chiefs looked to pass and when they did Tony Gonzalez was a feature.

KC loaded up and ran the ball early, often and to great effect right at the Buccs line. Their defense let them down mightily.

5. The Saints featured much of the same short passing and running game, they lost due to some offensive turnovers (interceptions) due to Brees throwing deep passes trying to over come some defensive allowances.

What we can take away.

Tampa like most Cover 2 shell defenses is susceptible to the short passing and running games. We need to use the tight ends we've got and DeAngelo Williams / Stewart as pass catchers out of the backfield, both of our running backs have excellent hands and featured in offenses in college that used a lot of passing to the running back.

The Offensive line has to be at its best but above all Jake Delhomme cannot afford to force passes to Steve Smith or Mushin Muhummad. The first game featured some obvious issues, number one was too little success in the running game and number two was too much medium to deep passing on the perimeter.

The panthers need to shorten up the passing routes and look to have Smith Crossing underneath and get Rosario involved early.

Defensively the Panthers must prevent any big scoring plays. Garcia doesn't mind going deep and in more than one game its been Garcia throwing a deep ball that leads to a big touchdown putting too much pressure on opposing offenses leading to turnovers.

The good news is, Tampa has played flat early in every single road game they've had this year and of the Road Games they've played they've either lost, or come close to losing most of them. We're undefeated at home and have the talent in the places necessary for a victory. The challenge therefore falls to the offensive line and our coaching staff.

Here's to a strong, injury free win!

Solid breakdown.

Philly and Tampa's defenses have similar weaknesses. They often have a fair amount of trouble handling teams with a good short passing attack and/or a strong, balanced run game. Reasonable, since the short pass/west coast style offense was conceived to essentially substitute for a run game (response to Buddy Ryan's 46 scheme, dominant at the time it was conceived).

It always amuses - and slightly confounds - me that many teams running a west coast offense have defenses who have trouble handling that kind of attack. You'd think since they practice against it all the time, they'd have no trouble. Never seems to be the case, though.

As to the Bucs, the book on Tampa has long been that they lose to teams that run on them 30 plus times. This season, their run defense has tightened up somewhat, but I still think the formula holds. Might be worth tweaking it a little and saying that the method for beating them is to have a mix of run and short pass on 30 or more plays.

Defensively, the one thing I think cannot be stressed enough when it comes to the Bucs, especially as quarterbacked by Garcia, is being able to get pass pressure with the front four only, not needing to resort to blitzes and such. The west coast offense is tailor-made to take advantage of blitzes. If we have to resort to those tactics for pressure, we're taking an even bigger risk than usual. Likewise, stop the run effectively (watching out for those tight formations like Jaworski mentioned) and do one thing that the Panthers have, sadly, never been all that great at doing: defend well if they go no-huddle.

The biggest positive for me? John Fox has historically been very good when facing a team to which the Panthers lost earlier in the season. For whatever you think of his in-game adjustments, his game to game adjustments have generally been solid.

Hopefully tonight is another example.