Panthers Rushing Defense

[Mark S]

This Panthers defense has given up 4.6 YPC, 122 YPG, 13 TDs, 8 runs of 20+ yards, 4 runs of 40+ yards.All of this ranks us as the #23 ranked Rushing Defense.

Most of this may not come as a surprise to you but here's something to look at.

As you may recall, this defense at the start of the season was pretty good. Things were clicking and it resembled the Defense of the 2013 Panthers.

Then this team started to fall apart, the Greg Hardy fiasco, multiple injuries, a loss of communication, a lack of talent in the secondary which was finally being exposed.

Again, you might be wondering what the point of all this is.

Well let's try to take something positive out of this. I'm sure most of you remember when the D would have the opponent trapped inside their own 20, when something broke down and the rusher broke off for a long TD.

Let's go to the first time this happened. The Pittsburgh game. The Pittsburgh offense was at the 19 yard line. Boom. Le'Veon Bell breaks off for an 81 yard TD. Some may say this was just simply miscommunication on our side of the ball. Well let's take that one run away. Bell ends the game with 20 carries for 66 yards. Pretty average, I'd say. Same goes for Blount in the same game, take away his 50 yard run and he ends the game with 9 carries for 68 carries.

Fast-Forward to the next game vs Cincinnati where we face off against Giovanni Bernard. The Panthers Defense has the Bengals at its own 11 when Bernard goes off for an 89 yard TD. Take away that run, and Bernard ends the day with 17 carries for 48 yards and 0 TDs.

Jorvorskie Lane also has 1 rush for 54 yards in the TB game. Take that away and his rushing stats for the day are 0 carries for 0 yards.

Take away these four big runs and the Panthers Rushing Defense has been pretty good this season. Without these runs, the Panthers have only given up 950 yards on the ground this season, an average of 95 YPG. Two of these were TDs, take these away, and we've given up 11 TDs this season. All of this would rank us at around the #10 ranked Rushing Defense. Not as great last year, but still something to think about.

We have shut down the likes of Reggie Bush, Matt Forte, Eddie Lacy, Marshawn Lynch, and Lesean McCoy. All of these, premier RBs in this league.

It's not really practical to say, "Take all these big runs away and see what happens", but usually these big runs are a result of miscommunication or a mistake that leads to other mistakes in the same play, a domino effect. So if we were to take these big runs away, I'd say this Rushing Defense has looked pretty good this year.

TLDR: Take away the big runs we have given up and the Panthers Rushing Defense has actually looked pretty good.

What say you?

[CRA]

Last 6 weeks it has been decent. Only really had the one run from Cincy in that time frame.

I always thought run D was the one correctable issue bc it was stud players being uncharacteristicly bad on the huge runs.

[Davidson Deac II]

I can't help but wonder if we had an over inflated view of our defense after the first two games.  Tampa is horrid and Detroit turned the ball over several times, and did us a favor by not running the ball up the middle much.

[Bronn]

A decent run defense does not a good defensive backfield make. If teams weren't able to run on us, they'd just pile on yards in the passing game. Any way you sugar coat it, we're a terrible defense this year aside from maybe three or four players.

[CRA]

I can't help but wonder if we had an over inflated view of our defense after the first two games. Tampa is horrid and Detroit turned the ball over several times, and did us a favor by not running the ball up the middle much.

First two games we were giving teams automatic completions whenever they wanted by throwing to the slot where Godfrey was. Ultimate chain mover/TD play for opponents. Success rate was near 100%

[Mark S]

A decent run defense does not a good defensive backfield make. If teams weren't able to run on us, they'd just pile on yards in the passing game. Any way you sugar coat it, we're a terrible defense this year aside from maybe three or four players.

I can see where you are coming from but, speaking just about the rushing defense, we haven't looked that bad. We have premier talent at positions that stop the run. Passing defense is a whole different story, we lack average talent at positions that stop the pass.

[Doyle]

Take away all those touchdowns and we would be undefeated.

[Mark S]

Take away all those touchdowns and we would be undefeated.

That's another way to look at it