Smitty OTA Observation 6/5/13

[PantherFeez]

Here's what Smitty said word for word about Chud/Shula

 

“There were times where we would listen to Chud’s calls and things got lost in translation. There was so much verbiage. Now with Shula, we just call some of the plays like they are supposed to be called. Instead of changing the word slant – now a slant is a slant. We would sometimes call a slant a different word, and you’re just like ‘huh?’”

 

“This is what I think. I think Shula is not advertising for a head coaching position. He’s going in there and saying “I know what I did wrong in the past, I know what the guy before me did to not help us, and I will do things differently.” One of the most frustrating things used to be, and now I think it’s a great compliment, is we’re starting off for 4 or 5 days now where I’m paying attention that the first play is a run. I like that. I think we’re emphasizing the things that we didn’t do well. Things that we didn’t even practice now we’re just like “hey that was wrong, let’s do it again.”

 

[TheRed]

The more I hear about Chud, the more difficult it is for me to wish the guy much success in Cleveland.

[FootballMaestro]

not surprised about chud. still uncertain about shula and not completely thrilled about the offense being more predictable on forst downs, but whatever. the players are apparently buying in and happy to have someone other than chud so there's that. i hope he does well.

 

aside from brandon williams being hurt, sounds good about everyone. 

 

I wouldn't buy into what they're practicing now. It's not a game. Only OTA's. 

 

Smitty could be on WFNZ another week, and say they ran mostly passing plays, or executed them first. 

 

As a matter of fact: Smitty said the reason why they were stressing the run recently, is 'cause Shula wants to practice the things they didn't do well last year, where Chud would just move on'. 

 

Nonetheless, no matter what glowing results Shula may have or doesn't: We'll find out during the actual games, when every thing is fluid and dynamic. 

 

As far as Chud. The less said, the better. 

[rayzor]

I wouldn't buy into what they're practicing now. It's not a game. Only OTA's. 

 

Smitty could be on WFNZ another week, and say they ran mostly passing plays, or executed them first. 

 

Come on This is just practice. 

 

No matter what glowing results Smitty may have or doesn't: We'll find out during the actual games, when every thing is fluid and dynamic. 

 

As far as Chud. The less said, the better. 

yeah, my comment was made before context was added. pantherfeez added the direct quote from smith about shula and put it in proper context compared to the OP which provided none.

 

they are doing it because they want to get it right. people have been taking a couple obscure comments about the run game and spinning into us being a very run heavy traditional ball control offense when it was just tobert saying that shula came into the RB room and said that one thing they are going to do is run the ball. if there's one thing they're going to do it's run..and that's pretty much verbatim. 

 

all that I've gleaned from a few comments is that they intend to be more efficient and more balanced and make the most use of the talents they have on the roster and they are bent on fixing what was obvious to the players didn't work, and that's a positive thing to me.

 

my main concerns about shula are still unchanged, same with rivera...it's the in game management and playcalling that i have my doubts about. 

 

i feel better about the management of things right now, but yeah....it's still OTAs. bullets aren't flying so I'm still going to be measured in any positive things i glean from whats going on. right now it seems the coaching staff is doing all the right things and the players are responding positively, but it's easy to look good right now because it's just practice.

[FootballMaestro]

yeah, my comment was made before context was added. pantherfeez added the direct quote from smith about shula and put it in proper context compared to the OP which provided none.

 

they are doing it because they want to get it right. people have been taking a couple obscure comments about the run game and spinning into us being a very run heavy traditional ball control offense when it was just tobert saying that shula came into the RB room and said that one thing they are going to do is run the ball. if there's one thing they're going to do it's run..and that's pretty much verbatim. 

 

all that I've gleaned from a few comments is that they intend to be more efficient and more balanced and make the most use of the talents they have on the roster and they are bent on fixing what was obvious to the players didn't work, and that's a positive thing to me.

 

my main concerns about shula are still unchanged, same with rivera...it's the in game management and playcalling that i have my doubts about. 

 

i feel better about the management of things right now, but yeah....it's still OTAs. bullets aren't flying so I'm still going to be measured in any positive things i glean from whats going on. right now it seems the coaching staff is doing all the right things and the players are responding positively, but it's easy to look good right now because it's just practice.

 

Good post. 

 

I don't disagree with nothing you said. 

[iamhubby1]

I don't want to read to much into this, but here is my take. Shula will run a play, if he is not satisfied, we run it until he is satisfied. If he wants to use that play in a game, he wants to be sure everyone knows what is expected.

Chud on the other hand. Would run a play a couple of times, if you got it fine, if not, fine. He would still call that play in a game even though the players were not comfortable with it.

Shula wants to be comfortable with the plays he calls. Putting the players in the best position to succeed. Chud would call the play regardless of past practice, or game time, success. He did not seem to care what circumstances surrounded said play.

I love Shula's approach. Give the players all the tools they need to succeed, and they just may succeed.

Running the ball effectively was our Achilles heel last year. I see no problem with using practice time working out the kinks.

[jarhead]

Good enough. At least you didn't call me a squid.

 

 

Squid...just kidding

[Navy_football]

I don't want to read to much into this, but here is my take. Shula will run a play, if he is not satisfied, we run it until he is satisfied. If he wants to use that play in a game, he wants to be sure everyone knows what is expected.

Chud on the other hand. Would run a play a couple of times, if you got it fine, if not, fine. He would still call that play in a game even though the players were not comfortable with it.

Shula wants to be comfortable with the plays he calls. Putting the players in the best position to succeed. Chud would call the play regardless of past practice, or game time, success. He did not seem to care what circumstances surrounded said play.

I love Shula's approach. Give the players all the tools they need to succeed, and they just may succeed.

Running the ball effectively was our Achilles heel last year. I see no problem with using practice time working out the kinks.

 

I think that's an underrated statement. This team could not run the ball against good defenses. Because of that, the offense had to revolve too much around one guy - Cam Newton. Who, by the way, was only in his second year in the league; coming from one year of big time college football that didn't run anything near an NFL offense.

 

Cam seems to have grown up particularly in the latter part of the season, but he still has a ways to go. And a strong running game can make up for his deficiencies or rather inconsistencies. Kap, Griffin, Wilson and yes even Luck had thousand yard rushers on their teams. None of those QBs even sniffed leading their respective clubs in rushing. How is that even possible in today's NFL?

 

Cam has been set up to fail thus far. If the Panthers don't a)fix this o-line and run the ball with power, or b)acquire two more all-pro level WRs to open up the field (maybe Hixon and Ginn can be those guys but I doubt it), how is this offense supposed to compete in the NFCS? The easier and quickiest solution would be to fix the o-line and run the ball with your all-pro level RBs.

 

The defense looks better on paper. They should keep us in more games this year. But to be honest, we were only out of two games. An inability to finish teams off with power running was just as culpable as Naka and Norman.  

[catnip]

I think part of the problem last year was our O-line. We had young players at a couple positions

and veterans playing dinged up. Hopefully the young players learned from last year and our veterans stay healthy. It will be interesting to see how our draft picks perform and who stands out. If we don't have at least and even record by the first 6 games, I think Rivera will lose his job.

[iamhubby1]

I think that's an underrated statement. This team could not run the ball against good defenses. Because of that, the offense had to revolve too much around one guy - Cam Newton. Who, by the way, was only in his second year in the league; coming from one year of big time college football that didn't run anything near an NFL offense.

 

Cam seems to have grown up particularly in the latter part of the season, but he still has a ways to go. And a strong running game can make up for his deficiencies or rather inconsistencies. Kap, Griffin, Wilson and yes even Luck had thousand yard rushers on their teams. None of those QBs even sniffed leading their respective clubs in rushing. How is that even possible in today's NFL?

 

Cam has been set up to fail thus far. If the Panthers don't a)fix this o-line and run the ball with power, or b)acquire two more all-pro level WRs to open up the field (maybe Hixon and Ginn can be those guys but I doubt it), how is this offense supposed to compete in the NFCS? The easier and quickiest solution would be to fix the o-line and run the ball with your all-pro level RBs.

 

The defense looks better on paper. They should keep us in more games this year. But to be honest, we were only out of two games. An inability to finish teams off with power running was just as culpable as Naka and Norman.

I think there were three reasons the Offense improved the last half of the year. 1) Amini coming around. 2) Better play calling. 3) Cam finally figured it out. A healthy Kalil, growth from Amini and Bell, and we can be pretty good. Room for improvement, but plenty good to do what we want. If Cam and the play calling are as advertised. We should be really good on Offense.

IMO, Cam has just starting to figure this out. He can now rely on his knowledge as well as his talent. He is finally comfortable as an NFL QB. Cam leading the team in rushing is not against the new metric. Cam gets 700, Dwill gets 700, Stewy gets 700, and Tolbert gets 300 that is going to win us some games.

I don't see Cam as being set up to fail. I see it more as Chud outsmarting everyone. And I agree that running the ball well would help Cam. But if we can stay balanced we should be okay. Shula says we are developing plays for our playmakers. If we can do that, and run the ball well, our Offense should be better than last year. Cam gots this.

If our front seven can control the run, teams will have to pass. That feeds into our strength. Dwan and KK can still penetrate and disrupt because Star is occupying 2 blockers. Yes he can be that good. Add in CJ, Franky, and the Kraken and you got yourself some pretty impressive depth. Rotation keeps you fresh. If we can be fresh in the 4th quarter, we may have a Defense we can trust to finish games.

I feel your pain. We have lived it. And we have a tough schedule, in a tough Division. But I see plenty of reasons to feel giddy for the possibilities. I have said before, the future has already started.

 

 

I think part of the problem last year was our O-line. We had young players at a couple positions

and veterans playing dinged up. Hopefully the young players learned from last year and our veterans stay healthy. It will be interesting to see how our draft picks perform and who stands out. If we don't have at least and even record by the first 6 games, I think Rivera will lose his job.

Our O-line started shaky, played shaky, then steadily improved. As Amini grew, the whole line played better. Smitty recently praised both Amini and Bell, that makes me giddy. That gives us 2 pretty darn good players, 2 emerging players, and Hangman. As a unit not to bad, but upgrading Hangman should be top of the list at this point in time.

Rivera is a whole different game. He could do almost everything right and we make the playoffs and most would say he is safe. Then again, he could do almost everything right and we go 8-8, or 9-7 and the questions will start. I don't feel he will be fired during the year, unless we tank it bad, and that ain't happening. To me he gets the whole year. And until he is extended or fired the questions will come.

Me? I have seen the growth in this team. I truly see a bright future. I also see Rivera leading that charge.

[Razeyfingers]

All I can say are 2 things about Chud's time here. .we have a pretty nice foundation playbook for building an offense around Cam that can scale with him as he changes, and at least now the league knows what Cam can, will, and has done.

 

To me, it didnt look like Chud's offense restricted Cam. It was just kind of reckless and illogical in places.