Competency Trumps Continuity

[jungleking]

1 year at Florida.

1 year at Blinn College.

1 year at Auburn.

2 years with Chudzinski.

 

Freeze it there, at the time of the decision, and think about the entirety of Cam's career. His biggest issues at the time were fundamental problems: throwing off of his back foot, overthrowing receivers, etc. The playbook that we were running was good enough for a top-10 offense. Even if we assume that Shula is a bad coach (and I did) who would take the offense back a step or two, what's going to ultimately be more damaging, allowing Cam to run Shula's offense, or forcing him to divert his attention to learning his fifth offense in six years?

 

Follow-up to that question: What happens if the Panthers hired a new offensive coordinator last year, then Rivera got fired this year and the team cleaned house? Cam's looking at learning his sixth offense in seven years. He'd have been in the league for four years under three offensive coordinators. How is he supposed to focus on learning NFL defenses when he's spending all of his time learning new offenses?

 

Now, in what looks like Cam's worst season as a pro, the choice is pretty clear. But there's so much to learn about being an NFL quarterback that it would be irresponsible to force a young quarterback to constantly evolve while trying to pick it all up.

[Delhommey]

Simple X's and O's breakdown: Yesterday about the 2nd quarter, the Cards really started sending interior pressure. Shula, possibly drunk, then adjusted by having Cam run some zone option reads and rolling him out away from the pressure with a run/pass option. Result? We started moving the ball again.

 

So what does Shula do in the second half? Stubbornly go back to his original game plan and glue Newton's feet in the pocket so #1 can get slammed over and over when his receivers don't get open on their long routes.

 

Cam looked GREAT yesterday...till the pressure came. Then he looked OK...till he fell behind and started pressing. Then he looked terrible. 

 

I think midway through the second quarter he had a 114 QBR. 

 

As Tony Dungy said, nothing's wrong with Cam. Everything's wrong with the play calling.

 

 

[grateflday]

This and this x1000.  The fault lies with Jerry Richardson, again, by not getting rid of the coach along with the GM. .....

 

Without a doubt this has been one of the most frustrating parts of the past ~4 years.  It all started when Fox got fired and they kept Hurney.  Right then and there both should have gone.  

[beastson]

I wanted Chud as HC

[Darth Bobo]

I see a few vague comments about dumbing down the offense, or good schemes, or bad schemes, whatever that nonsense means... 

 

I'll be more specific....

 

In Cam's first year, the one where he broke all those records.....we had two things going:
1) Olsen and Shockey killing it on the line.  

2) More designed QB runs.

So why not rip a few pages out of Cam's rookie year playbook, and do them again?  Use Tolbert at TE2 if you have to, HE CAN ACTUALLY CATCH A PASS.

 

To hell with QB protection, that is what you do when you have Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, or Drew Brees.  It is not what you do when you have Ben Roethlisberger or Cam Newton.  Sorry, but Cam isn't and may never be as accurate down field as the "elites".  We have to use the skills we have, not the ones we wish we had.  NFL defenses are going to beat any offense we put out that isn't running the ball ten ways to Sunday, and beating them with short passes when they load the box (put linebackers closely behind the defensive linemen).

 

Here's something about Cam that can be fixed:
How about not being so obvious and apathetic during a fake or hand-off to a running back?  The QB should never turn around and watch a running back to whom he just handed the ball.  He should run in the opposite direction, without flinching, without turning back, and look like he is running had to get to the other side.  This is what will sometimes fool a Mike linebacker for about 1 or 2 seconds, especially with a Quarterback who leaves the pocket.  But Cam seems to routinely do the exact opposite.  He will hand the ball off to Tolbert or DWill, and take two skimpy looking steps, turn his body around, and watch the Mike tackle the running back.  Is Newton secretly pleased that his teammate failed to make a play?  Hate to say it, but when a Quarterback can't be troubled to put forth a convincing sell or act in the transfer of the ball behind the line of scrimmage, it feels to the observer like SELFISHNESS.  And that my friends, is something that can totally destroy an organization if it is not STAMPED OUT WITH IMPUNITY by the coach/manager.  Teaching CAVALIER CAM how to act is a challenge, and Rivera may not be up to it, I would dare say that others have tried and failed, but acting in the game and out of it is part of the identity of a franchise.  I'm sure that I have overstated my point, so take it with a grain of salt PLEASE.  Put simpler, Newton needs to work on faking until he can convince me that he is trying to actually fake someone out.  As a backseat driving, TV watching fan, it looks to me like he doesn't give a poo at all once he's not immediately involved in an offensive play.

 

 

[OneBadCat]

What about getting Brandon WIlliams some snaps? Where the hell is Hixon and Armanti? It seems like we only have 3 WR's and Olsen busting his ass to get down field.

 

 

[CRA]

some of us saw this coming.

others complained that we weren't giving him a chance. that it was because of the situations he was thrown into. that after all this time surely he's gotten better.

i was hoping that they were right. they weren't, although still some blame the players, just like at tampa and 'bama.

i see a more likely common denominator other than shula's just unlucky.

i see an inept offense. i see a lack of scoring. i see a lack of readiness. i see a lack of preparation. i see a lack of execution. i see a lack of ability to adjust. i see a slow paced offense with a lack of excitement, energy, ambition, and inspiration.

i see shulaball.

I see a weak OL with no depth....

Which most of us saw last year and heading into this year.....giving our OC little chance

[rayzor]

I see a weak OL with no depth....

Which most of us saw last year and heading into this year.....giving our OC little chance for his game management that requires deep passing routes that takes several seconds to develop.

 

what he does isn't working. his plan is failing because he doesn't have what he needs. the smart person would adapt to what you have rather than keep on doing the same thing and seeing continual failure.

 

if you don't have a stout OL with a lot of pass protection, don't have a game plan that requires them having to hold people off so long.

 

shula doesn't adapt. neither does rivera. they change things...but usually it's to stop doing something that works and trying to replace it with something that they think should work. for the most part, tho, hese guys seem in over their head.

 

what they want to do relies on personnel that we don't have enough of.

[BigBoss]

Who has said he couldn't?

 

IMO, Rivera's decision to promote from within was as much about security as continuity.  He knew he was on what was likely the hottest seat in the NFL coming into this season.  Losing record, unthinkable late game meltdowns, new GM, etc.  Promoting Shula meant that he would have two relatively inexperienced, unproven NFL coordinators.  In short, he knew that if he got off to a slow start, there was simply no one on the staff to hand the reigns to in the event that the Panthers decided to cut the cord on his ass.  If he'd hired a guy like Hugh Jackson to run the offense, there was a viable stop gap option available on his staff and that might spur the decision to just let Ron go and see if it was possible that we had the long-term answer to our coaching issue currently in house.

 

As often as you see people scream continuity  and keep the offense the same! I would think that has to be part of it. How many other reasons could there be realistically that people were demanding that around here? (and yeah, they were) We hear media talk about having to keep the offense simple, you really think there is nothing to it? Tom Brady seems to get a new offense every year, no problem. It's just a basic thing that QB's have to do.

 

Maybe he can, maybe he can't. But if people are worried about continuity, then what's that say about Cam? At the very least, what people think about him.

 

 

 

Long story short, our offense sucks.

[LinvilleGorge]

As often as you see people scream continuity  and keep the offense the same! I would think that has to be part of it. How many other reasons could there be realistically that people were demanding that around here? (and yeah, they were) We hear media talk about having to keep the offense simple, you really think there is nothing to it? Tom Brady seems to get a new offense every year, no problem. It's just a basic thing that QB's have to do.

 

Maybe he can, maybe he can't. But if people are worried about continuity, then what's that say about Cam? At the very least, what people think about him.

 

 

 

Long story short, our offense sucks.

 

Well, where is the continuity?  What part of this offense looks like Chud's offense?  The terminology may have remained the same, but nothing about this offense on the field looks like our previous offense.

[hepcat]

I'm just hoping the era of blind loyalty is over.  It has been killing the team for the last 5 years or so, all starting after the Panthers lost to Arizona in the playoffs.  Jake Delhomme had one of the worst playoff performances in the history of the NFL, but still received a massive contract extension.  In the following offseasons they re-signed most of the key players from that 2008 playoff team to massive contracts - Beason, D-Williams, J-Stew, Charles Johnson, among others.  The trend has continued to coaches with Richardson keeping John Fox in a lame duck year in 2010, then keeping Rivera for an unnecessary extra season, crippling the team's development each time.  Then Rivera not only retained but PROMOTED Shula in a trickle down effect.  What's next...another season for Rivera?  Breaking the bank to re-sign Brandon LaFell?  A bigger contract for Greg Hardy than Charles Johnson got?

 

With Gettleman in place I think player contracts will be more reasonable and cap friendly, but Richardson is still calling the shots as evidenced by Rivera being retained for a third year as head coach, even though he brought in a new GM.  It might have been a money thing...since the team was in such bad shape financially after the 2012 season, he might have just mortgaged the season to see if Rivera could finally put it together while Gettleman cleaned up the cap so a new head coach to have some flexibility to bring in some of his own players.  Time will tell.

[ZeroZeroSeven]

What about getting Brandon WIlliams some snaps? Where the hell is Hixon and Armanti? It seems like we only have 3 WR's and Olsen busting his ass to get down field.

It seems to me that they would be trying to fit B. Williams in there somewhere. Okay, so it's known he needs to improve the blocking aspect of his game, but I think a good coaching staff would have been able to implement him in a way that disguises his weaknesses and plays to his strengths (much like we should be doing for our QB and O-line), but that may be the problem; we don't have a good coaching staff from an offensive standpoint nor is the coaching staff good at disguising weaknesses.

[CRA]

what he does isn't working. his plan is failing because he doesn't have what he needs. the smart person would adapt to what you have rather than keep on doing the same thing and seeing continual failure.

if you don't have a stout OL with a lot of pass protection, don't have a game plan that requires them having to hold people off so long.

shula doesn't adapt. neither does rivera. they change things...but usually it's to stop doing something that works and trying to replace it with something that they think should work. for the most part, tho, hese guys seem in over their head.

what they want to do relies on personnel that we don't have enough of.

We knew what he does before the season started.....which is what Chud D as well.

We were inconsistent last year bc OL play. DG opted to have 2 years of it.....which IMO is a clear indication he was going to do nothing to add this staff

[rayzor]

We knew what he does before the season started.....which is what Chud D as well.

We were inconsistent last year bc OL play. DG opted to have 2 years of it.....which IMO is a clear indication he was going to do nothing to add this staff

 

even more reason to change what you do. adapt to suit who you have, not who you would have in an ideal world.