The "Jeff Davidson sucks" mantra.

[SmootsDaddy89]

And yeah, if you want to blame anyone for our offensive woes, blame Fox. He hold the reigns on Davidson pretty tightly.

[pantherclaw]

Fox doesn't call the plays.

Keep thinking he's got that tight leash.

[Squirrel]

Comp-Att

14-35

Yards per pass

4.2

Rushing Attempts

24

Yards per rush

3.7

all that needs to be said. He gets pass happy if we are losing by 3.

[pantherclaw]

Our oline needs to gel, and gel quickly.

Cause if they have got to execute the plays perfectly, with Davidson not wanting to mix up the play calling.

[boo7382]

Why don't we do something completely unexpected? I mean, would it really hurt to do something that people won't expect?

We are known for our vanilla offense. We are predictable and boring. Can't we sacrifice ONE play out of the whole game to try something weird? I mean, the worst that could happen is we throw and INT, and its not like that hasn't happened before.

What about putting Goodson in the slot? We could do that and see what happens.

[monstercat]

If it was up to Fox, he would have run the ball in the redzone, instead of throwing it 3 times.

Personally, I believe the problem is that they didn't pay enough attention to the running game during the preseason, and we saw the results yesterday.

The one thing that really bothered me about Davidson though, is that he kept calling PA passes, without establishing the running game first. I absolutely hate that, because those plays take too long to develop and it forces the QB to turn his back to the defense. You just can't do that when you have given the defense no reason to bite on the fake.

[SmootsDaddy89]

I will add an addendum to the mantra that will make it more truthful: "Jeff Davidson sucks when we don't have the lead."

Part of the reason we did well in points and yards last year is because when we were doing really well we ran up the score, and when we struggled we sucked out loud. When we are ahead, he is brimming with confidence. He calls plays that rely on our core strengths, and we would run up the score. His game plan when we are losing is to abandon the run and switch to the pass. And not even when we are losing by a wide margin, or late in the game. As soon as we are behind, he switches the Panthers to a pass-first team.

Yesterday was like a grim repeat of the Arizona playoff disaster. The QB struggles, and his plan is to put more pressure on him? We ran like 16 times in the Arizona loss, and we ran 21 times yesterday. Both very low numbers for a Panthers offense.

And it leads to a vicious cycle. Your QB struggles so you up the % of pass calls and put more pressure on the QB because the opponent D starts bringing the house. QB throws an interception, opponents score again, desperation increases, and the pass call % goes up again. And this keeps spiralling out of control until we see what we saw yesterday. Pressure, incompletions, sacks, fumbles, and injuries. If we stick with the run, use the play action and keep our play calling balanced, even when we are down, our offense would be much more productive.

I haven't really noticed us switching to pass first unless we're behind by more than a score. If anything, I hear moaning about us continuing to run, even when we're behind in the fourth quarter by 4 points, instead of passing. That's just me though.

[Cyberjag]

The Giants were putting 8 in the box on every play after some time in the second quarter, once they realized they could challenge Matt to beat them through the air, and he wouldn't be able to do it consistently.

You know, I forgot all about the way the Giants played their prevent defense for the entire second half last year. Had they only known that they could have stuffed us by putting 8 in the box, I'm sure the game would have been very different.

You sure you want other DCs around the league to know that we cannot and have never been able to run against an 8 man front? You should keep this sort of information to yourself.

[Captroop]

When you have 3 red zone interceptions and your power back has 6 rushes in a game, yeah, you're a pass-first team.

And when we are running down in the score it's the dreaded run-run-pass. That's not the dedication to the run I'm talking about.

[panthers2u]

If you want our offense to get better, stop blaming Jeff (who is handicapped by Fox, if anyone, as far as offensive creativity.)...

Oh the irony...but, I digress.

You should have titled your thread:

"It's Not Davidson's Fault; Blame Fox"

[Squirrel]

What really gets me is the first 2 runs of the game Smitty wasnt even on the field.

[SmootsDaddy89]

You know, I forgot all about the way the Giants played their prevent defense for the entire second half last year. Had they only known that they could have stuffed us by putting 8 in the box, I'm sure the game would have been very different.

You sure you want other DCs around the league to know that we cannot and have never been able to run against an 8 man front? You should keep this sort of information to yourself.

They were actually even bringing more than 8 sometimes. The difference between last year and yesterday is Matt was able to complete passes last year. He did throw three touchdowns and complete 75% of his passes, and not 45%.

Again, when you have a balanced attack, it's much harder to shut down your offense.

[God]

the common denominator is always Fox

[panthers2u]

Who's making the decision to pass? I hardly see Moore walking up to the line and making that call over and over.

This.