Week 10 WIN against the Titans - Stats & Analysis

[KB_fan]

Maybe Peanut is teaching Luke a few tricks?

Black & Blue Review ‏@BlackBlueReview 3m3 minutes ago

Strange but true: Luke Kuechly’s forced fumble today was just the second of his career & 1st since ’14 season opener.

[KB_fan]

And the stats & superlatives keep coming...  Cam can break all kinds of records next week.

Jonathan Jones ‏@jjones9 5m5 minutes ago

Cam Newton has 19,433 yards of total offense in his career. With 86 yards next week, he'll pass Jake Delhomme for first in #Panthers history

[KB_fan]

Great post by @ladypanther in another thread, worth copying here:

Posted 29 minutes ago (edited) · Report post

	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Dexter McCluster	3	25	8.3	1	25

 

	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	SACKS	RTG
Marcus Mariota	16/24	185	7.7	0	1	1-7	72.4

 

The Titans converted only 5 of 12 third downs.

 

Carolina's defense was even stronger. The Titans were held to 19 yards and one first down in the third quarter, and they never regained the momentum they showed early in the game when Mariota was effective as a runner and passer.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=400791499

 

Finished strong.  No points in the 2nd half.  Check.

[KB_fan]

Time for me to sign off, but one last post for the evening.  

Bill Voth very quick in posting this week's Stats & Superlatives.

http://blackandbluereview.com/panthers-at-titans-stats-and-superlatives/

Here are a couple that caught my eye - but there's much more.
 

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–Completed a season sweep of the AFC South. Carolina is now 10-10 all-time against the division.

–Went turnover-free for the second time this season (Week 3 vs. Saints).

–Have scored 20 or more points in all nine games this season. That ties a franchise record for most consecutive 20-plus games in the same regular season (2005).

–Have scored 255 points through nine games, the most in franchise history. The 2005 team scored 250 after nine games.

–Are 24-2-1 when scoring at least 20 points since the start of 2013.

–Rushed for 100 or more yards in their 20th straight game. The last team to do that was the 1989-90 Bears (Seattle is currently at 19 straight and hosts Arizona Sunday night).

–Went 7-for-13 on third down for a season-best conversion percentage of 54 percent.

 

 

[KB_fan]

I'm not hesitant to give credit for good articles from sites that normally don't post a lot of good stuff...

Today is one of those days.  A really EXCELLENT analysis of the Panthers win over the Titans up at B/R today

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2589738-panthers-vs-titans-carolina-grades-notes-and-quotes/page/

As usually it's a multi-page slideshow deal (clickbait... sigh).  But several of the pages are very interesting.

 

Here are a few snippets:

Grades & comments by position (page 2)
 

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Quarterbacks  (A)

Newton had his second-most accurate day in his NFL career, completing 21 of 26 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown and rushing for another touchdown to put the game away late.  He didn’t end up with a massive day passing, but he was hyper-efficient, averaging 8.3 yards per attempt and finding the open man consistently throughout the day.

 

Running Backs  (A-)

Jonathan Stewart ended with 91 yards rushing on 22 carries and a touchdown, averaging 4.1 yards per carry and having a very efficient day.  Mike Tolbert added a 16-yard reception for a key first down late.

 

 

Cam's passing game (page 3)
 

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Entering the game, Newton ranked 34th out of 36 qualified quarterbacks with a 53.7 percent completion rate.  Part of that is due to Newton attempting deeper passes than the average quarterback, and part of it is due to drops by receivers, but Newton hasn’t exactly been the most accurate passer in his career.  Seeing a career 58.5 percent completion passer being nearly perfect was a surprising sight.

Newton’s career-best completion percentage in a game was 88.2 percent in a 2013 win over St. Louis.  While the improved defensive pressure in the second half kept Newton from hitting that mark, it was still his most accurate day since that day and his second-most accurate passing day ever.

 

 

On our running game: (p 5)
 

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How old-school is it?  The last team to have 20 consecutive games with 100 or more yards rushing was the Chicago Bears in 1989 and 1990.  It’s been decades since anyone else has been as effective as the Panthers have been at pounding the football…

…except the Seattle Seahawks.  The Panthers became the first team in a generation to put together a 20-game, 100-yard rushing streak only because the Seahawks are playing on Sunday night.  They’re sitting at a 19-game streak, with the chance to extend it against the Arizona Cardinals Sunday night.  [...]

If Carolina continues this streak throughout the rest of the regular season, it could join the six teams that have put up 27-game streaks, all in the 1970s.  That’s definitely throwback football—and successful, too, as those teams went a combined 139-53 in those games and picked up four Super Bowl rings in the process.

 

 

[maddog1945]

I've said it before and I still think I'm right but is that really Stew in that #28 uniform?

In the past I've been down on Stew but MY GOSH!

He has really changed my mind about him.

How amny yards did he have yesterday?

[Servant of Cthululelei]

48 minutes ago, maddog1945 said:

I've said it before and I still think I'm right but is that really Stew in that #28 uniform?

In the past I've been down on Stew but MY GOSH!

He has really changed my mind about him.

How amny yards did he have yesterday?

I can't tell if you're eating crow or not because you said you still think you're right.  Right about what?  If you honestly thought Stewart wasn't capable of this type of running, I don't know where you got that idea.  His only issue since he's been with the team is a tendency to get himself injred.

[maddog1945]

1 hour ago, Servant of Cthululelei said:

I can't tell if you're eating crow or not because you said you still think you're right.  Right about what?  If you honestly thought Stewart wasn't capable of this type of running, I don't know where you got that idea.  His only issue since he's been with the team is a tendency to get himself injred.

Yes, eating a lot crow! I know he has been injury before, I'm just glad to see him do what he is capable of when healthly.

Maybe its my wording.

[KB_fan]

BBR has posted the weekly snap counts:

http://blackandbluereview.com/week-10-snap-counts-panthers-at-titans/

I had not realized how few snaps our defense played.  Nice, glad they could have a somewhat less grueling game to begin the 3 games in 11 days stretch.

Good to see Tre Boston getting more playing time.  Here are BBR's notes:

 

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NOTES:

—Jonathan Stewart has played at least 50 snaps in six of the Panthers’ nine games. He’s had at least 20 carries in five straight games, the longest streak of his career.

—Devin Funchess is slowly getting more playing time. After his season-low 10 snaps in Week 8, he saw 18 against the Packers and 22 in Tennessee. It’s interesting that’s one more than Jerricho Cotchery.

—Daryl Williams got a handful of plays on offense after his DNP last week.

—Fozzy Whittaker played only special teams for the first time this season.

 

–The defense was on the field for just 46 plays, easily their fewest of the year. Before Sunday, their lowest snap total was 61 at Seattle and they were averaging more than 76 snaps per game.

—Kurt Coleman has played 656 of a possible 657 snaps this season.

—Roman Harper and Tre Boston finally had more of a rotation, with Harper getting 67% of the playing time a week after he played every snap.

—Ryan Delaire has made one tackle in 128 snaps since his five-tackle, two-sack debut at Tampa Bay.

—Shaq Thompson has played just 14 snaps since returning from a knee injury against the Packers. A.J. Klein was in for four more plays than Thompson on Sunday.

 

 

 

[KB_fan]

5 hours ago, maddog1945 said:

I've said it before and I still think I'm right but is that really Stew in that #28 uniform?

In the past I've been down on Stew but MY GOSH!

He has really changed my mind about him.

How amny yards did he have yesterday?

The figure that sticks in my head for Stew's rushing yesterday is 91 yards.  I checked it and yes, that is the total.  His longest rush was 17 yards.  Avg. 4.1 yards / carry

[KB_fan]

Really like this short analysis of Cam's improvement in passing accuracy & completions yesterday and how all the extra work he's putting in is paying off:
 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/11/16/ron-rivera-credits-extra-work-for-cam-newtons-accuracy/

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That kind of completion rate is rare for him, but easy to explain for his coach.

“It was 81 percent? Well, again, he continues to work with the receivers,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said, via Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review. “It’s all the extra work that they’re putting in as a group, as a unit, as individuals. When you watch them in practice and something happens, as soon as we go to the defensive side, him and whoever he had trouble with, they’ll go to the other field and they’ll run that route until they get it right. So, I just think that they’re putting in a lot of extra work to give themselves a chance to get better.”

It helps that the Titans were without both starting corners, but they put enough pressure on Newton to make him make quick decisions. And for all his gifts, he’s been prone to passes that stray. He hadn’t been over 64.5 percent in a game this season, and hit just half last week against the Packers and 45.7 percent the week before against the Colts.

 

 

[KB_fan]

The CAR v TEN game review and top 5 player grades are posted at PFF:

Looks like we might have to add Kurt Coleman to the ProBowl voting.  He's in pro bowl company with his grades this week...

Olsen has moved WAY up in their Tight End rankings & gradings.  He's now at #2 among all TEs.  [oops: never mind, I read the article too quickly, he's the #2 tight end for his grade as a RECEIVER, not overall.  They still rag on him for his run blocking though.  At least to my eye, I really don't see his failure in that area, but I'm not a football analyst, just a fan.  And Olsen looks pretty good all around to me.]

I'll post all the PFF Player grades for the team later this week.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/11/16/car-ten-grades-panthers-defense-suffocates-titans/

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Here are the top takeaways and highest-graded players from the Panthers’ 27-10 victory over the Titans.

Carolina Panthers

– Efficiency was the name of the game for QB Cam Newton who only missed on a handful of throws while consistently moving the chains with his arm and his legs. He completed 21 of 25 “aimed” passes, one of which was dropped, good for an accuracy percentage of 88.0 percent that ranked third in the league this week. He’s such a key part of the Panthers’ running attack, often the go-to guy in short yardage situations, whether running the sneak, naked bootleg, or quarterback power, Newton is so valuable when needing one or two yards.

– Another week, another top game from the Panthers’ trio of defensive superstars – LB Luke Kuechly (+4.5), DT Kawann Short (+3.1) and CB Josh Norman (+2.0). Kuechly’s ability to diagnose plays, particularly against the run, is just off the charts, and he led the team with six stops. Short consistently created havoc in the run game at +2.1 while adding two QB hits, while Norman was avoided for much of the day, allowing only two catches for nine yards on three targets.

– The Panthers got efficiency out of their tight ends as Greg Olsen and Ed Dickson combined to catch all 11 passes thrown their way for 101 yards. Olsen caught eight for 80 yards, and he is currently our no. two graded tight end as a receiver at 96.3. He got open a variety of ways, but his one-handed catch on a back-shoulder throw was the highlight of his afternoon. The one issue with Olsen’s game is his run blocking this season which graded at -1.3 on Sunday and nets the worst rating in the NFL this year.

Top Performers

QB Cam Newton +5.7
LB Luke Kuechly +4.4
DT Kawann Short +3.1
FS Kurt Coleman +2.7
C Ryan Kalil +2.3

 

 

[Galvatron]

Did Thomas Davis really record no tackles? I couldn't believe it...how did the Titans manage to run away from him all game?

[KB_fan]

PFF has weighed in on the "is Cam playing at an MVP level debate"

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/11/16/pro-why-cam-newton-comes-up-a-little-short-in-mvp-discussion/

Fairly standard analysis... but the comments are worth reading - they are better than the article!

Here's an excerpt of the article:
 

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Newton is the foundation of Carolina’s offense unlike any other quarterback. (Newton currently ranks No. 13 in our QB grades, but that alone doesn’t capture everything he does for this offense.) When you consider what his receiving options are, he’s having a pretty good year passing on top of that. Ted Ginn is legitimately the team’s No. 1 option at wide receiver. Ginn is closer to being out of the league than he is to being a No. 1 wideout on any other roster ...  Newton is generating a passing game with a group of players that wouldn’t see the field anywhere else.

As well as he is playing, he’s not quite at the top of the MVP race this season because of Tom Brady and Carson Palmer, who are both playing spectacular football through 10 weeks of the NFL season.

For as well as Newton is getting things done with that receiving corps, he still misses far too many routine throws through no fault of his receivers.