Proudiddy's Perspective on Preseason Game 2

[Proudiddy]

Hello all! Here is what I saw, and keep in mind, I watched as best as I could considering I was at the hospital picking up my wife and our third born child (a baby girl), who was born on Wednesday. So, here it goes:

Both QBs were so-so tonight, but I don't know how much weight we can put into either of their performances. Before you jump all over me for not saying that they were outright terrible, hear me out... I believe there was much more going on then just our QBs inability to move the ball.

I heard on NFLN the other night, I believe it was Willie McGinest or another smart-analyst-type guy who said while reviewing the Philly-Pitt debacle, that some teams gameplan in PS and some don't. He said it was possible that Pittsburgh had gameplanned (or at least LeBeau did), and Philly hadn't at all.

I think it's possible we saw some of that tonight. Part of the reason I heard Philly may not be gameplanning at all in the PS is b/c they are installing a new defense - well, we're installing a new offense AND defense, with an entirely new staff and significant turnover in the latter half of the roster.

Then again, maybe both sides were just out there playing... I wasn't disappointed in Cam's or Jimmy's performance, but I wasn't impressed either. I have to admit that I expected one of them to throw at least one TD tonight, but the offense had no rhythm whatsoever... And I have to believe, from what I was watching, a lot of that goes on the playcalling and execution by the OL tonight. Sure, both QBs threw the ball blindly, forced a throw, or just flat out missed on some throws, but they were seeing a good bit of pressure.

From what I was seeing, the offensive execution on running plays was HORRID while Cam was in. It seemed to pick up with Clausen and the backups, but I think that speaks to our depth. But, no doubt, the inability to convert on 3rd down while our 1st string was in was partly because we got nothing with the run. They forced us to pass, and I'm pretty sure Cam isn't progressing all the way through his reads and is instead trying to make sure the ball is moved - either by running or passing - according to his internal clock. Once he hits about that 3 second mark, he's wanting to make sure the ball is moved to avoid "looking like a rookie." That's just an assumption, but I think it's a good one after what we saw tonight.

But again, we just weren't picking up anything on the run. The OL didn't appear to hold blocks and the holes just weren't opening up on the few runs we attempted in the first half and therefore we were forced to pass. No run left no balance and the Fins' defense was licking their chops to force Cam into throwing. Considering that, he performed VERY well for his first start against another team's top defenders which included one of the top defensive backfields in the NFL. But, I think the Fins planned a little for this game and really wanted to put everything on Cam's shoulders, hoping to force him into mistakes.

Once Jimmy came in, the run game picked up quite a bit and the OL seemed to execute a lot better. With some semblance of a run game that the defense had to respect, things opened up slightly for the passing game. I wasn't able to pay full attention after a few plays because we were driving from the hospital to our house (about a 5 minute trip) and then getting settled in once we got home. Then from what I saw, Jimmy had the offense moving a lot better, but again, I attribute this a lot to:

*Jimmy's improvement from last year

*OL executing on run plays

*seemed to be more fluidity to offensive playcalling

*our depth is much better than the Dolphins

So, Jimmy did a slightly better job of getting us down the field and made some good throws while doing so. BUT, I also saw him make some "Old Jimmy" throws... At one point he almost got touched by a rusher in the end zone, turned his body away from him appeared to brace himself with his head making a turtle motion into his shoulder pads, then stepped back and chucked it while in this position. It was fairly accurate considering the position he was in when he chucked it, but it was a horrible decision... He threw it towards Clowney who was running sandwiched between two defenders and was luckily just knocked down.

Jimmy also avoided a sack and then threw the ball directly into a DLineman's mitts, much like the Jimmy of last year. I also saw him misfire to the sideline on what I would estimate was about a 20 yard route, but the ball just floated out of bounds, and then he checked down quite a few times again... Some necessary, some not.

So again, my conclusion is that Cam gives us the best chance to win (with a functioning run game and supporting cast), but Jimmy has made huge strides since last year and I wouldn't be terribly unhappy if we had to start the season with him until Cam was ready... But, to me, that would just be spinning wheels... We may as well put him in there and if we start to fear a bad game brewing - revert to Foxball and pound the ball for 1 yard gains until oblivion. I really don't think anything is going to negatively affect Cam's confidence, so that really isn't a concern for me.

Cam makes the defense have to account for him both in the passing game and as a scrambling threat. BUT, it is absolutely vital for him to have support from the run game and OL. And again, aside from who I think should start and gives us the best chance to win, I just want to say, I'm proud of Jimmy's progress, but he still has some work to do.

Also, I would like to point out, it was really disappointing to see so little completions to the WRs... I'm hoping Chud was holding back on calls with focus on WRs, because our offense NEVER looked like anything resembling what San Diego had (or Cleveland had in Anderson's pro bowl year). Then again, could've just been the lack of patience/reads by our QBs and excellent coverage.

I'm really hoping to see some more heart and sustained drives by our team next outing. That is all for now.

(SN: I'll watch the game in it's entirety tomorrow and make note of any other things that stand out to me. Keep the faith Panther fans, we're going to be happy with this season, watch!)

[L-TownCat]

fair enough. i was ready to hear all the cam bashing . good write up.

[mav1234]

honest question, how are you determining what was a "necessary" check down and what wasn't?

[countryboi]

the panthers got beat up front on both sides of the line bottomline....your just not going to win alot of games like that pre season or not

[PhillyB]

jimmy has improved, but i swear if i see one more nutless checkdown in the flats i'm going to lose my mind

[drkmay]

It looked like we didnt gameplan for this at all. We got beat by underneath check downs on defense and we kept getting aggressive penalites. I wasnt a fan of our front 4 pass rush. They werent disciplined at all leaving run lanes open for Henne to escape with...we made an ok QB look good tonight. Our offense had no rhythm. No consistency. No chance.

[Gazi]

Of course we didn't gameplan. It was vanilla O all night long.

[Proudiddy]

honest question, how are you determining what was a "necessary" check down and what wasn't?

Just as I mentioned how I was assuming Cam was just wanting to avoid holding onto the ball too long, I can safely assume Jimmy is checking down for the same reason without looking at other options... Or at least looked at them without giving them time to develop. On replays, you can see receivers come open without Jimmy giving the routes time to develop... He's doing this a lot less from what I see, but it still happens. Also, I think it's a sure fire sign that there was something better than the checkdown available when there is a guy all over the check down man, or at least waiting within a yard or two in a zone waiting to tackle him.

Again, he's making some good plays, but he's still checking down and throwing away too much to be consistently productive.

It looked like we didnt gameplan for this at all. We got beat by underneath check downs on defense and we kept getting aggressive penalites. I wasnt a fan of our front 4 pass rush. They werent disciplined at all leaving run lanes open for Henne to escape with...we made an ok QB look good tonight. Our offense had no rhythm. No consistency. No chance.

Agreed. I didn't touch much, if at all on the defense, but man... That DL was looking rough. I was particularly disappointed in E. Brown (which has come to be expected), and the interior guys aside from 64 on a few plays... The DL was horrible overall, and only real positive presence I saw tonight was from 61, Chinasa (a UDFA steal IMO), and maybe Fua from what I observed. I'm honestly really close to washing my hands of the Brown experiment. He is a much more costly version of Hilee Taylor at this point. Might be time for the new staff to just cut losses (maybe take a shot at McAdoo in the supplemental draft and let him develop behind Hardy?)... He's not getting around the tackles and he's not strong enough to get through them... Excuse me... Spin through them.

As far as the Dolphins checking down, I'm not sure if that was gameplanning on their part, OR just a lack of it on ours - as in no adjustments. They were running a whole lot of combos with drags and intermediate crossing routes and it looked as though we were just leaving the DBs in man and letting them attempt to hold their own throughout. This IS one of the weaknesses with this type of defense and the amount of blitzing we do. Then again, a lot of what I saw tonight was us getting beat without sending extra guys. Just a bad performance...

I'm hoping our guys just learn from it and don't let it happen again. It'll also help to get Gamble, Beason, and Hardy back out there.

Optimistically, I'm fairly confident that we weren't going into this game with any specific gameplan as we're still working through installation and execution of what has been installed on both sides of the ball. I doubt our staff cares about winning meaningless games, but I'm also sure they expect our guys to perform as if they counted, and they didn't for the most part.

the panthers got beat up front on both sides of the line bottomline....your just not going to win alot of games like that pre season or not

Yeah, the defense was pretty bad and as you said, the lines were where it started on both sides. But to see Reggie Bush dart up the middle for huge gains like no one had been there to begin with was disheartening. I'm thinking we'll need to address DT after cuts again because the guys aren't holding their ground in the middle.

Then again, I saw Hayden a lot out there tonight... Could be a positive correlation with horrible interior play - has been in the past, lol.

[rico6]

Like you said, I do believe that the offensive short comings were mainly due to the playbook probably being limited to like a handful, which I can respect once I cooled down.

But boy was the effort ugly today. I expect Rivera to shove his Puerto Rican gators up the collective asses of this team come Monday.. or whenever they return to practice.

[Montsta]

I thought Cam made some good reads. The strike to Shockey on the sideline was his 3rd read, and he went through them very quickly. However, he has actually regressed on his footwork IMO. Even when he wasn't under pressure, he looked to just put his weight on his back leg and fling it. Also, I thought he stayed in the pocket a little bit better last week, whereas this week he took off a bit quicker on a scramble. All in all, I'd say he looks like an unpolished rookie playing in his first preseason start.

If Everette Brown makes it through cuts at this point I'd be amazed. He just doesn't seem to be picking up anything. I wrote about it in the EB bust thread. He spins completely upright and in place and gets pushed. It's kind of sad. He reminds me of when your little brother is trying to fight you and you just toy with him because you know there is nothing he can do about it.

Eric Norwood actually looked pretty decent. I noticed they double teamed him on a couple of plays, and he was still going all out trying to rip between the defenders. He got some decent pressure on a couple plays, but Henne was lights out in getting out of the pocket and extending the play. Sometimes you just gotta tip your cap to a guy.

Corvey Irvin also looked like he regressed just a little bit. He seemed just a little off balance on every play that I focused on him. The guard would always be holding him by the pads, and he'd be on one leg trying to regain himself.

Our tight ends will be Cam/Jimmy's best friends this year. The mismatches Shockey and Olsen create are ridiculous, and they seem to be open on every play.

I like me some dan Connor, but I LOVE me some Jon Beason. Connor is a great backup, but I watched a couple plays where he just outright missed his guy. The touchdown rush where Thomas scored, Connor shot the gap and plain missed him. You could see Connor on the ground afterwards pounding his fist on the ground, and he knew he missed it.

This sounds like all bad news, but let's be realistic. I think Sparano really threw some things out there for the home crowd. Our offense was not just vanilla, but it was shitty skinny cow fat free vanilla. What I read about from practice play-wise sounds nothing like what was shown in this game. Don't underestimate the effect of Smitty and Double-Trouble being in the game either. I'm still a little concerned with the DB and DT situation, but I wouldn't go the chicken little route just yet.

[Proudiddy]

I thought Cam made some good reads. The strike to Shockey on the sideline was his 3rd read, and he went through them very quickly. However, he has actually regressed on his footwork IMO. Even when he wasn't under pressure, he looked to just put his weight on his back leg and fling it. Also, I thought he stayed in the pocket a little bit better last week, whereas this week he took off a bit quicker on a scramble. All in all, I'd say he looks like an unpolished rookie playing in his first preseason start.

Completely agreed here. After all the fuss from people complaining how he threw off his backfoot last week, I paid much more attention to it tonight, and all through the highlights you can see him doing it off and on. It's amazing... When his feet are set, you get throws like the first one to Olsen and the one to Shockey for the the 20+ yarder. The throw to Shockey was a thing of beauty. And agreed about the reads as well... When I saw those first couple throws on our first drive, I thought "He's gonna show out tonight!" But, I think the Fins brought more pressure after seeing what we were doing and he started to rush things thereafter.

From what I see, when he rushes he doesn't get set when he throws and he hurries himself through the play to do something with the ball and avoid a mistake (get out of the pocket, throw to whoever he's looking at, etc.). But I noticed he was hopping back on that backfoot and launching it several times when he felt a rusher in his presence, even if they didn't touch him. About the same area he completed the Shockey pass to on the opening drive, he later missed a comeback towards the sideline badly (short-hopped it) because he stepped back on his backfoot and never brought the other foot down and threw it. I trust that he'll get his footwork down and cleaned up with continued/increased reps and work in practice. He'll be fine... He's shown what he can do when he has time and sets his feet - and usually the result is a whole lotta awesome, lol.

And as far as the Fins doing some sort of planning for this game, Cam even said in the post-game interview with ESPN that they threw some different looks at him and he rushed some things or missed some reads, I can't remember... So, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Sparano was trying to win the crowd over early. We'll see what happens next road game... Hopefully, our guys got all the butterflies out of their system tonight...

[jarhead]

Game plan or no game plan we still have glaring needs on defense at tackle and cb.I would have expected better out of our DE"s as well considering Jake Long did not even suit up.

On offense our qbs played as you would expect for their tenure but the offensive line gave me flashbacks of last year.The rb's had absolutly no where to go.

[Cavscout]

The team just didn't have the talent on defense to stop Miami and they don't have the talent on offense to beat the leagues 6th ranked defense.

[Lout]

I agree that Cam needs a strong run game, but the only way we are going to get that is if they stop run blitzing, and that won't happen unless our passing game becomes more of a threat. Miami dared Cam to throw it. Cam needs to earn the respect of opposing defenses or they will take away our run game, just like last year.