USA Today: Five reasons to believe in the Carolina Panthers

[Fiz]

entire offensive philosophy? no, but if he was adversely affected the offensive by his own philosophy we would expect to see a horrible offense in 2011 and 2012… but we didn't. this leaves two possibilities: mike shula and personnel. i think you can make a case for both, but i'm not sure how much of that you can lump on rivera, especially if it's more personnel than mike shula.

 

and anyway changing the way you call plays situationally is the definition of a change in coaching philosophy. rivera is making mathematically the right move in high leverage situations where most coaches would just opt for something conservative (which is a proxy suggestion that 31 other coaches generally ignore mathematical logic.) if this is the case i don't see how you can define these actions as anything other than an indication of philosophy change.

There were a lot of rumors that Hurney actually hired Chudzinski and put the two of them together, with more of a Rivera being the head coach of the defense type situation like has developed in New York. I don't really think you can glean much of anything from those two years, except when it came time to make those crucial decisions he learned to handle this year, he consistently failed to make them.

 

As to your second point, I could make the argument that doing things like going for it on fourth down deep in the opponents territory are actually more defensive moves, a "reinforcement for a better retreat" if you will. I wouldn't be surprised if that's how it was presented to Ron. "Hey your defense is so good it's actually better for us to go for it on 4th and 1 from the 3" or whatever. 

 

Overall though, my main contention is that his philosophy change is a difference without distinction. It doesn't matter if he makes a right call once or twice a game when Shula is making the calls the rest of the time. If you have a coaching staff that calls better plays throughout the game, you don't need everything to constantly come down to a 4th down call at the end of the game. 

[OriginalPanther]

The Panthers regressed offensively pretty much across the board in 2013 but i guess media narratives are more convincing than you know stats and things like that

 

What facts do you have that point to this? Paper? It's fans like you that really grind my gears! What kind of 'fan' hopes for his team to fall flat on their face?!?!

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

I absolutely hate Shula's play calling and system.  

 

However, with the way our team is built, it is actually going to be the most effective way to run our offense next year. 

[Fiz]

even if shula bombs this year I think they have their new oc already on the team in Proehl.

Fixed that.

 

Team is very high on Ricky and if they don't promote him he'll be off the team soon. 

[Sean Payton's Vicodin]

if shula struggles AND the team doesn't do well, i have no doubt that the FO will be quick to shitcan him

[Jmac]

Ha... he isn't a fan, just an aujon provocatuer that is getting his kicks out of pissing you all off a day before training camp....don't take the bait boys...ignore and move on...nothing here.

[Fiz]

Ha... he isn't a fan, just an aujon provocatuer that is getting his kicks out of pissing you all off a day before training camp....don't take the bait boys...ignore and move on...nothing here.

uh i've forgotten more about this team than most people on this board will ever know and I go to greater efforts to watch them than almost anyone

 

slow your roll son

[rippadonn]

But what if we could get HoodieLord69?

Does JR ever "jump" at anything? We've already watched the coaching market move many times before while we...

[davos]

I absolutely hate Shula's play calling and system.  

 

However, with the way our team is built, it is actually going to be the most effective way to run our offense next year. 

 

I concur sir

[Jmac]

Not bitting....I'm sure your an expert in all things Panther and the one true fan..more power to you

[PhillyB]

There were a lot of rumors that Hurney actually hired Chudzinski and put the two of them together, with more of a Rivera being the head coach of the defense type situation like has developed in New York. I don't really think you can glean much of anything from those two years, except when it came time to make those crucial decisions he learned to handle this year, he consistently failed to make them.

 

As to your second point, I could make the argument that doing things like going for it on fourth down deep in the opponents territory are actually more defensive moves, a "reinforcement for a better retreat" if you will. I wouldn't be surprised if that's how it was presented to Ron. "Hey your defense is so good it's actually better for us to go for it on 4th and 1 from the 3" or whatever. 

 

Overall though, my main contention is that his philosophy change is a difference without distinction. It doesn't matter if he makes a right call once or twice a game when Shula is making the calls the rest of the time. If you have a coaching staff that calls better plays throughout the game, you don't need everything to constantly come down to a 4th down call at the end of the game. 

 

meh, maybe. correlation may not equal causation but i think you have to pay attention to a sudden change in rivera's situational philosophy, however effective you think it was, and the fact that all of a sudden we started winning game after game after game.

 

in a way i think this year will be ron's biggest test. we did have a lot of balls bounce our way last year and you'd expect us to regress to the mean this year, closer to the team that get kicked in the shins by san fran in the playoffs than the little basket of miracles that gave us the patriots and saints games. he's going to have to show that this philosophy, if that's what it is, can be effective again, effective enough to overcome distinct weaknesses in the roster.

 

i do agree that shula is the weak link in a pretty strong chain. i think if you combine the roster (weaknesses included) with rivera and an OC worth a damn you get a team that's every bit of its 12-4 record last year.

[DaveThePanther2008]

Pretty fair article.  AT least it gives a possibility.

[Gabeking]

I really hate the faith put in Ron Rivera. People think he changed his philosophy or something which frankly isn't true. Someone just showed him some relative value chart of going for it on 4th, or going for TDs deep in opposing territories, etc. These things aren't daring or innovative; they're logical.

And even if he's changed on 3-4 plays a game, he's still letting shula call the most horseshit offense in the NFL for the rest of them.

I hope they implode this year and they bring in Gus Malzahn.

Well it's not like he wasn't trying to tell us all along #calculatedrisktaker

Sent from my iPhone using CarolinaHuddle

[PhillyB]

Ha... he isn't a fan, just an aujon provocatuer that is getting his kicks out of pissing you all off a day before training camp....don't take the bait boys...ignore and move on...nothing here.

 

meh. fiz is three parts knowledgable fan diluted by two parts pot-stirrer. aside from that gem about rhyne robinson that rivaled zod's terrell mcclain predictions he's been pretty spot on