AU-panther

first play on the twitter

Everyone is getting caught up talking about Burns and our "tweener ends" but that is getting a bit overplayed. Watch the first play from the video that Gooby posted in slow motion. Reddick is the strong side end, the play goes away from him so it wouldn't have matter if he was any bigger. Weakside end is actually Haynes, not Burns. Your DTs are Brown and Roy, 320lbs and 330lbs. Everyone sees Haynes get kicked out of the play but honestly that is expected and would happen to most DEs that are outside aligned on the LT. So this idea that bigger DE's will magically fix that play is wrong. Watch the play in slow motion and watch what happens to both DTs. Roy can't get off of his block and Brown ends up going underneath the play and leaves the cutback.

I think fans and scouts have to be careful about trying to force the next great thing. You try to convince yourself that Willis can be the next Lamar Jackson. Same thing happened with Zach Wilson, you see some of the same type of off-platform throws that Mahome does so you start hoping to find that. Trey Lance and Josh Allen is another example. Recently successful players heavily influence scouts on what they start looking for in future players, but that can be dangerous. Willis might be as fast as Lamar, or have as strong as an arm, but that doesn't mean he is going to develop the same way.

Of course bigger, stronger, and faster always wins, but in reality when you go bigger and stronger you end up slower. Maybe our defense gets better against the run but worse against the pass. Maybe instead of being 6th in points allowed we become 16th.

We are 6th in the league in points allowed, but by all means lets go to big boy ball so we stop the few teams that run on us but then we can complain that we can't stop 75% of the teams that throw on us. NFL Football Stats - NFL Team Opponent Points per Game | TeamRankings.com Don't get me wrong, its never a bad idea to add talent, my point earlier is often when a team has sucess running on you its not just because your players aren't "big enough", often players are following their assignments. Personally I think this is why there has been all this chatter of leaders have to hold people accountable.

A lot of times when a defense is getting gashed in the running game it’s not just about effort or having bigger players, it’s about discipline. Gap responsibility and doing your assignment is paramount and my guess is this is why you are hearing all of these comments about leadership needing to hold people accountable.

I missed it, what did they actually say Cam did or didn't do?

I was referring to his two long catches in the first half since you said his "biggest plays". I agree it might be just a coaching decision, my comment was in regards to you saying we using Gilmore more on running downs, that not correct. Form the most part they seem to be using him more on 3rd and passing situations, who they have him cover when he is on the field is a different discussion.

He was on the field on the first one, not the second. At the beginning of the game he was mostly playing on 3rd down and passing situations, then he had a series he didn't play much at all and then the series right before the half he played almost the entire series. I quit rewatching in the thrid. it's clear they are limiting his snaps and mostly using him in passing situations, not the other way around. Maybe he isn't 100%, even when he does come in they are leaving Donte on the other team's #1? Either they did a really good job of attacking us passing on early downs which is rather surprising for a RR team.

yep. Football is a game of possessions, that is why turnovers have such a high correlation to winning. Failing on 3rd and 4th down are like mini turnovers with less field position change. Change the conversion numbers by two (we go 5/12 and they go 6/15) and there is a good chance we win considering we had the turnover.

4/5 of McLaurin's completions were on 1st and 10. 5/7 of his targets were on 1st down. Maybe Gilmore was actually in on passing downs so they attacked us running downs? Sounds like they actually attacked us on the non passing downs.

are you saying Gilmore came out on the passing downs?

I agree. We completed 1/8 3rd and 4th downs throwing the ball. Only one of those attempts was a sack. The rest were incompletes or completions that didn't get past the sticks. Overall, we were 3/12 on 3rd and 4th down. They were 8/15. That was the ball game right there. Everyone wants to talk about ToP, that's a byproduct of not getting them off of the field on 3rd down and not keeping our drives going on 3rd down. Our offense did a bad job of converting, our defense did a bad job of preventing. You can blame both.

Thanks. This QB clearly doesn't seem to be rated as high as past classes but at the same time that might cause some guys to fall in that 10-20 range and actually be available. Last years class was "stacked" but history tells us several of them won't work out. This year's class on paper doesn't look as good but there is a chance some NFL team is going to find their guy. Even if Cam plays well and we resign him at some point we do have to consider taking a QB early.

Serious question, since you have watched him as much as anyone, what are the negatives with him? I know rankings can be all over the place at this point in the year but he is consistently ranked in that 4-5 range of the QBs in this year draft. I know the team around him this year is terrible and I'm sure his stats aren't as good but most evaluators don't box score scout. There has to be some attribute that they don't like.

NFL Week 11 Game Recap: Washington Football Team 27, Carolina Panthers 21 | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF They had him as giving up the most pressures on the line. Also if remember correctly he had at least one penalty and pretty sure penalties are graded pretty harshly since they can be drive killers. NVM, I see your post about the penalties.

I understand the idea of a short passing attack. Its been very successful for Tom Brady, but is it it me or have we gone overboard with it? I decided to look at our passing attempts on 3rd and 4th. Cam went 3/7 with the 8th attempt being a sack. Of the three completions only 1 was actually a first down. The other two were short of the sticks. This isn't a knock on Cam, we saw the same thing with Teddy and Sam. Actually Cams deeper numbers were good today, he was 6/7 past 10 yards according to a quick recap by PFF. NFL Week 11 Game Recap: Washington Football Team 27, Carolina Panthers 21 | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF Its like we are trying so hard to protect the QB we are actually making their job harder. I understand protecting the QB or not having faith in the O-line but at a certain point you have to keep the defense honest.

Great player don't need the other players to make them good, they are the player that makes the other ones better. Nobody ever talks about Aaron Donald needing someone. Also where was KK drafted and where was Brown drafted?

Would you prefer a new OC or DC? Would you prefer for us to use most of our draft picks this year on Offense or Defense?

Here again you are turning this into some type of comment about Cam. These problems have been going on all season. NFL Football Stats - NFL Team Third Down Conversion Percentage | TeamRankings.com Bottom 10 in the league on 3rd down for the year.

So what would help this team win more games over the season? fixing the offense or the defense? Pretty easy answer.

Relax, I'm not picking on Cam specifically. The offense has been bad on 3rd and 4th all year.

If you can't score more than 21 points against the 5th worst defense in the league, at home, do you really think you are good enough to beat good teams in the playoff? Everyone is letting todays bad day by the offense let them distract them from what the bigger problem is.

If you can't score more than 21 points against the 5th worst defense in the league, at home, do you really think you are good enough to beat good teams in the playoff?

Everyone wants to talk about why we lost, but more times than not, turnovers and 3rd and 4th down efficiency will tell you who won a game. Its what separates good offenses, and good play callers, and good QBs from the rest. Throwing it for 7 yards on 1st down is a lot easier than on 3 and 6 when the defense knows how far you need to get and they know a better idea of run or pass. This offense looks decent at times when we stay ahead of the sticks but you can't count on that all of the time. How much of this is Brady? or the QB? or the line?