Shula called a better game today than McDermott

[Ornias]

I hate bringing up reffing as an excuse, but if NO had been called for any of the holding they were doing, our defense would have looked much better. 

[DaveThePanther2008]

Literally no one could dislike Shula more than i do but he called a damn good game today overall....his redzone still sucks donkey balls but that's why Cam audibled and just bootlegged into the endzone instead of having to settle for a FG.

Rivera still couldn't game manage a pee wee game but yea when Rivera/McDermott suck Shula had a good day...I'd like to see a complete game still but 3-0 is 3-0 even with these injuries.

 

 

Actually if you remember we called time out.   This was probably discussed during the time out with Shula.  The post game radio show talked about that play.  Cam intentionally called the audible LOUD and CLEAR for power run to the right side.  Set the Saints up.   He faked the hand off and had Dickson as an option running to the left.  This was a great call but most likely communicated during the time out.

[pantherclaw]

McD panicked. McCown came out and was carving up the zone, so he bailed on it and tried to zone blitz. That didn't work, so he went man across the board, so they started running the long drag routes and utilizing motion to get favorable matchups. McD was caught acting to the offense rather than reacting. That's a big no-no when it comes to defense. Make them show their hand and call the defense to combat it. On that last drive, we FINALLY went zone and almost had a pick. Then we DID have a pick.

McD had an off game. Part of it is honestly not having film and not knowing tendencies. If you notice, in the second half, our guys were in better position to make plays on the ball. Shaq about came away with a pick. So did Peanut. They'll have 3 weeks of tape on Jameis. I'm not worried about the defense.

Shula called a good game. Give him his props. He still doesn't understand basic offense though. Think. Really think. They're stacking the box on our basic under center formations....so he runs up the gut. Several times. They want to stack the box, make them pay. Come out in the I with stew and Tolbert, then motion out to a 4 wide look with Ginn, Olsen, Brown, and Tolbert. Watch the defense freak out scrambling to adjust. Run the read option with stew because they bailed the box to compensate. That's BASIC offensive scheme to combat that crap. They don't bump out to the spread look? Throw it. Make them pay.

i don't  kow what you saw.

I saw a defense that lacked fire and intensity that it had even a week ago. 

I saw failed execution on the players part. 

Most tackles they weren't even trying to wrap up.  It was embarrassing, honestly. 

I am sure the players will hear about it from McDerm, and Rivera. 

 

[tailg8or]

Was at the game and haven't watched the game on TIVO yet but from the stands .... it looked like McC had ALL DAY in the pocket.  Was disappointed in our DL, especially with Star and KK together again.  Thought there would be a better push up the middle.  After half, expected that McD would make adjustments.  If he did, it didn't work very well.  Thankfully, Cam brought his A game and the Panthers were able to put up 27 points.  Cam seemed comfortable on the field and his accuracy was good. 

I agree with previous posts that Cam is calling a lot of audibles and that is making a difference.  Our run game still seems vanilla with different variations of the same slow-to-develop play.  However, the screen to Fozzy for a big first down was brilliant.  I don't know if that was Cam or Shula ... but it caught everybody by surprise.

Other observations from the game ....

-  Lots of Saints fans in the parking lots but not much noise at the game. 

-  Olsen was a beast and Cam was smart.  Great day for both.

-  Although BOA wasn't packed, the crowd was great.  Lots of noise.  Love the KEEP POUNDING chant.

-  Don't know if anyone noticed but Norman came off the field when the Saints tried to convert the 4th down.  He thought it was a punt.  He got all the way to the bench and sat down before he looked at the Jumbo screen and saw the offense / defense on the field.  Peanut was already on the field to replace him.  When the coaches held him back (play was about to start), Norman was not a happy camper.

-  Panther fans stayed until the end.  That's what is great about rain games.  The folks that showed up already knew they were getting wet and the fair-weather fans stayed home. 

[panthers55]

McDermott didn't call a bad game this is what happens when you best middle linebacker is out, you best DE is hurt and you can't play your type of ball in the rain. We rushed 4 and sat back in zone. And with little to no pressure we got repeatedly burned. His is doing what he can with what he has to work with. Luke gives us the ability to send blitzes and still protect the back end. With ankle in he is fine against the run but struggles in space despite the interception last week. This is why getting Luke back is more critical than Johnson.

[SOJA]

Heard Josh Norman on the radio as part of an after-game wrap up. He said the defense had prepared & practiced for this game by studying schemes the Saints may run because of not being sure who would be QB. Instead of studying McCown or any player or parts of the Saints offense specifically. That tends to lead to a vanilla defense with holes for a smart QB to attack. Add to that, we couldn't tackle today or pressure the QB & the Saints WR's seemed to have glue on their hands & found all the holes in our zone defense. In the 4th qtr our d-line started to get disruptive & that's when McCown started to have trouble getting the ball out for a catch. I don't know what was different then or why they couldn't do it earlier. I'll have to rewatch the game.

valid point

[panthers55]

I told everyone that in essence Rivera was a first time head coach and needed time to work into his job. Shula is no different. What he did in Tampa and Alabama is irrelevant to what he is doing today. This offense is different from what he learned in the past and having Cam gives him a weapon that he continues to hone and improve. With the O line better and receivers making big catches the offense is doing fairly well. 

For those saying that this is Cams offense and not Shula's, who taught him virtually everything he knows about the NFL. Yeah that would be Shula. Unlike Chud however, Shula gives Cam the freedom to change plays and run what he sees the defense is giving them. Something his predecessor thought Cam was too stupid to learn based on insider reports at the time.

[CarolinaXblue]

I think Shula was able to call plays to open up the playbook because the Saints D was so bad. Brandon Browner got burnt all day. That allowed us to go deep a lot.

Also, our Defense had terrible tackling. I know stripping the ball is a big thing, but you've got to wrap up. Saw a lot of just going for the ball or trying to tackle with the head down. 

[Udogg]

You know what the problem is with Shula?   3 plays. 

If Olsen drops his 2nd attempt at a touchdown , the 50 yard play against Browner, and Ted Ginn drops the 19 yarder then the normal people would be talking about what a bad offense we run and Shula is horrible.

It's the same every week, the only difference this week was no horrible drops, tips for INT, and Cam was on due to the clean pocket. If you go back and look at games where we didn't perform offensively it's the same type of thing that happens on all our bad plays. Look at all the huge drop passes we have, remember the easy 3rd and 4th down receptions Lafell and Steve Smith used to have.  How many yards would KB have had last year without the drops?

Before the game we had a 8.9% drop rate,  Not incompletion rate, that just the drop rate on catchable balls. .  Everyone is an expert play caller after the play.  The blinded Shula hate distract from valid points about the offense and what we should or should not be doing.  Such as:

• We may very well need to become a pass first offense because of the strength of our pass blocking and ineffective run blocking.  
• We very well may be better with CAP at RB rather than Stew because we are not a power running team.
• We don't run enough drag routes to utilize the speed advantage of Ginn, Brown.

If these were part of the discussion, then that's good and valid.  However most of the Shula hate is either:

• 17 years ago he was bad in Tampa Bay with Trent Dilfer
• 8 years ago he was bad head coach because the offense struggled with John Parker Wilson at QB.
• He is not Chudzinski.

 

To top it off, whenever we do play a good offensive game, it's never because of Shula it's always in spite of to some people.

 

 

 

 

[Peppers90 NC]

Come on guys, we dont want to make the all the one word responses of "Shula" to become irrelevant do we?

[UKPanther94]

Shula needs to stop using Tolbert as a wide out though, he's no good in those situations 

[beastson]

To be fair to McD and I'm not a fan of his defense, Luke is out, but most importantly the pass rush just isn't getting to the QB. McD defense since he got here has been weak against dink and dunk offenses

What I will give Shula credit is his game planning this year, but most importantly the offense isn't struggling against 3-4 defenses

[FootballMaestro]

I think the offense looks "different" because this o-line is far better at pass blocking than they are at run blocking.

Shula has finally realized this and Cam is being told to throw.

Hidden Content

Let's hope so!!

[tiger7_88]

You know what the problem is with Shula?   3 plays. 

If Olsen drops his 2nd attempt at a touchdown , the 50 yard play against Browner, and Ted Ginn drops the 19 yarder then the normal people would be talking about what a bad offense we run and Shula is horrible.

It's the same every week, the only difference this week was no horrible drops, tips for INT, and Cam was on due to the clean pocket. If you go back and look at games where we didn't perform offensively it's the same type of thing that happens on all our bad plays. Look at all the huge drop passes we have, remember the easy 3rd and 4th down receptions Lafell and Steve Smith used to have.  How many yards would KB have had last year without the drops?

Before the game we had a 8.9% drop rate,  Not incompletion rate, that just the drop rate on catchable balls. .  Everyone is an expert play caller after the play.  The blinded Shula hate distract from valid points about the offense and what we should or should not be doing.  Such as:

• We may very well need to become a pass first offense because of the strength of our pass blocking and ineffective run blocking.  
• We very well may be better with CAP at RB rather than Stew because we are not a power running team.
• We don't run enough drag routes to utilize the speed advantage of Ginn, Brown.

If these were part of the discussion, then that's good and valid.  However most of the Shula hate is either:

• 17 years ago he was bad in Tampa Bay with Trent Dilfer
• 8 years ago he was bad head coach because the offense struggled with John Parker Wilson at QB.
• He is not Chudzinski.

 

To top it off, whenever we do play a good offensive game, it's never because of Shula it's always in spite of to some people.

 

 

 

 

In other words, as many of us have said before, for the Shula offense to "work" the players are not allowed any critical mistakes.

If we have ONE turnover on any of the TD drives yesterday, we score less than 20 points *again* and we lose.  The Shula offense can IN NO WAY recover from that.  Other offenses in the NFL can.  Shula's can't.

In other words, above all else, for Shula's offense to succeed, Cam is required to be *perfect*.