Why do you think Fox did this?

[Cyberjag]

At the bye we were a top five defense across the board. The changes/simplifications Trgovac installed in training camp were being hailed as big successes, Godfrey and Brayton were great additions to our defense, and Peppers was thriving at right end. By all measurable stats, our defense looked like it was having it's best year in a long time.

Recent reports coming out of the whole Peppers thing talk about Fox getting involved directly with the defense in the middle of the season. Last year he got involved as well, but I don't remember how the defense was doing at that particular time. The question is, why? If things are going great, what needed changing that required a head coach's involvement?

I know any answer here is pure speculation, but I'm interested in your opinions anyway. I personally kind of wonder if he wasn't doing that to massage Peppers' ego, but there have to be more plausible reasons out there.

[ladypanther]

Fox did say that they put in some new defensive schemes during the bye. The result was a mediocre D.

With the first half D and the 2nd half O...the Panthers could be in the Super Bowl.

Unfortunately.....Fox seems too stubborn to learn from his mistakes.

[Cyberjag]

Ok, so he got involved and they put in more schemes. The question is, why? Things were going great, right? Was there a problem with Trgovac that wasn't showing up on the field? Was Fox bored? Does he like the complex defense/was he unhappy with Trgovac's simplifications? Was he trying to make Peppers happy? Did he want to share in the success?

I didn't know about the new defensive schemes, but it makes sense given the results and what was reported out of training camp regarding simplification of the defense.

[ladypanther]

Whatever she did for whatever the reason....it should have been clear to him that the D had problems.

The 1st big "Why" is why did he mess with it in the 1st place?

The 2nd, is why didn't he see the problem and go back to what was working?

Both will drive us crazy CJ.

[KillerKat]

Trgo is a mastermind! If Fox didn't get involved, we would've had the best defense in football!

[njpanther]

Mybe we should get rid of Fox & keep Turdo.

[Davidson Deac II]

IMO, a big reason for our first half defensive success was the competition we played. As we started to play teams with more balanced attacks, our defense started to struggle. So how much of it was due to new schemes, and how much of it was due to improved competition?

If you remember, the last game we played before the break was the Cardinals, and our defense was ok, not great but not terrible. So it started before the break.

[dksmith17]

We played the Cardinals and looked horrible on defense going into the bye.

Warner was 35/49 for 381.

[Urrymonster]

IMO, a big reason for our first half defensive success was the competition we played. As we started to play teams with more balanced attacks, our defense started to struggle. So how much of it was due to new schemes, and how much of it was due to improved competition?

If you remember, the last game we played before the break was the Cardinals, and our defense was ok, not great but not terrible. So it started before the break.

Not sure I 100% agree here. In the first 8 games we had San Diego, New Orleans, Arizona and Atlanta. We also had to face Adrian Peterson. So we certainly faced some explosive teams in the opening games.

The only reasoning I can think of is that Fox is more a coordinator than head coach in what he personally wants to do. As people have pointed out both offensively and defensively the coordinators operate under Fox's philosophy. That means the general concepts are his and that the coordinators are responsible for the specific schemes and every week gameplans. As soon as he starts to dictate the schemes and the weekly gameplans, then he is the coordinator and Trgo becomes the game day play caller.

Why would he do that? There are many possible reasons.

1. The defense was simplified. It could be that Fox felt that teams were starting to get a grasp on the zone schemes we were using and thus felt it was time to 'change things up' in an attempt to keep the other teams off balance. Why Fox started to intervene could simply be because Trgo felt that the younger players were thriving at that moment and that making it more complex would probably expose them too much and thus Fox started to take over due to a disagreement

2. The players were performing well. The flip side of the first is that Fox saw that his young players were performing above expectations and thus forced the schemes that had 'more to them'

3. Fox did not buy the schemes that Trgo was putting out. He could of had the, 'I am not sure about this but will trust you and see how they go' mentality. Then the moment they started to be exposed (ARZ) he felt that he needed to use his ideas instead.

4. Finally, it could simply be that they had decided that the bye week would be when they start to step it up in terms of complexities etc etc etc and that would need more game plan time and thus they simply felt it better that they had both working actively on it rather than just one.

Just my thoughts. Probably a load rubbish!

[CatMan72]

There's allot of speculation in this thread.... at the end of the day it's up to the players to execute. I think there is way to much made of defensive playcalling. Anyone who has played defense knows that there is allot of real-time improvisation and adjustment that happens no matter what play you put in.

[realstandman]

One thing I do remember is that during the by weeks they do self scouting. They look at there own team tapes like they would if they were getting ready to play another team....He must not have liked what he saw.

[CatfanMO]

At the bye we were a top five defense across the board. The changes/simplifications Trgovac installed in training camp were being hailed as big successes, Godfrey and Brayton were great additions to our defense, and Peppers was thriving at right end. By all measurable stats, our defense looked like it was having it's best year in a long time.

Recent reports coming out of the whole Peppers thing talk about Fox getting involved directly with the defense in the middle of the season. Last year he got involved as well, but I don't remember how the defense was doing at that particular time. The question is, why? If things are going great, what needed changing that required a head coach's involvement?

I know any answer here is pure speculation, but I'm interested in your opinions anyway. I personally kind of wonder if he wasn't doing that to massage Peppers' ego, but there have to be more plausible reasons out there.

If this is true, Fox needs to be the target on our teams pathetic collasp.

[bleys]

Whatever she did for whatever the reason....it should have been clear to him that the D had problems.

The 1st big "Why" is why did he mess with it in the 1st place?

The 2nd, is why didn't he see the problem and go back to what was working?

Both will drive us crazy CJ.

Sums it up the best... With this being purely speculation, the main results are going to show up as people's opinions with no basis for those opinions.. Pretty much what we find most of the time anyhow. lol