The Panthers against the Blitz - did Titans show teams how to attack us?

[KB_fan]

Ok, what I know and can talk about knowledgably regarding blitzing schemes can probably be said in 2 or 3 sentences.  So, please take the question in the thread title and what I post here with that caveat in mind...

But someone who knows a lot more about blitzing than I do is Greg Cosell of NFL Films.  I was listening to the podcast of his weekly radio show on WFNZ last night.  As always, the whole thing is a good listen, but I was particularly interested by one section of his commentary about the Panthers - Titans game and the blitzes by the Tenn defense.

Greg Cosell - week 10 podcast

Greg begins his segment 4:00 into the podcast. 

The section of interest to me is from 9:40 - 11:30 (on the blitzes)

Podcast topics:

• What was the difference in the Panthers defense in 2nd half - adjustments made in the game?
• Who flashed on defense?
• Cam's performance in the game - his 11 for 11 start.
• The blitzes by the Titans (see below for more on this)
• What did Cam do differently (if anything?) to increase his accuracy?
• Redskins: how much of their win against the Saints was due to Saints defense being terrible vs. Redskins being good?
• Redskins running game.
• Panthers offense vs. Redskins defense
• What about the Cardinals as a potential post-season opponent of the Panthers.  How do they match up?

 

So here's what Cosell was asked about the blitzes:

The blitzes:  It looked like our offense was confused in the 3rd quarter.  How much of this is a concern?  Could other teams emulate what the Titans did?  Did Tenn just give other teams the film to use against us?

Here's a rough paraphrase of Cosell's response

"It's a little bit of a concern.  Normally the Panthers are a protection-based team.  They've been good at that, but LeBeau was agressive with his blitz.  I counted 19 blitzes on 32 dropbacks... all 5 sacks came on the blitz.  They clearly had some pass protection issues against the blitz.  Some of that is communication.  They must get that cleaned up.  If a team sees a potential weakness they will attack it.  But the Redskins are NOT a high percentage blitz team, but overall this is something the Panthers must clean up"

 

So fellow Panthers fans, what say you?  Is Cosell right in his analysis?  Does our performance against the blitz worry you?   Which teams would likely be the biggest threat to us in terms of being able to do something similar to what Tenn did last Sunday?

[bigpoppa]

I heard that yesterday morning as well. At least its something that happened early in the season and we still won. Rather find and fix that problem now than have it exposed the week before the playoffs start.

[MountainHeel66]

He's not wrong in my estimation but blitzing that much is also a very risky move. If, and its a MASSIVE IF, Shula learns from it and game plans around it you can destroy a team that is overly aggressive with the blitz. Cam's legs are a big weapon if they over pursue and quicki hitters like slants to a speedster such as Ginn would take their toll and force a defense to fall back a bit more. For a team like the titans with a very talented coordinator and nothing to lose it is a decent strategy but for teams with a legitimate chance at playing even football with us, its more of a late game, need a stop NOW kind of strategy. 

[Mr. Scot]

They'd need to be in better condition than the Titans were to make it work.

They wore themselves out so bad they had nothing left in the fourth.

[Riverboat Ron]

Opposing team fans have already figured out the formula to beating us, double Olsen, keep Cam in the pocket and put 9 in the box since we have no WR's. Somehow our below average team has managed to go undefeated and outsmart the football gurus that post here.

[Nick_81]

We were eating the Titans up, early in the game.  The only way they felt they could counter that was to go blitz heavy, and you can see it didn't work for an extended period.  What we have to clean up is the adjustment to it, in case it happens again.  Screens, quick slants, etc. to make them pay for blitzing that much.  We didn't adjust quickly enough IMO.

[KB_fan]

15 minutes ago, MountainHeel66 said:

He's not wrong in my estimation but blitzing that much is also a very risky move. If, and its a MASSIVE IF, Shula learns from it and game plans around it you can destroy a team that is overly aggressive with the blitz.

Cosell specifically mentioned that the Redskins have been burned badly when they've tried to blitz, so it's clear that not all teams can pull it off.

[shaka]

I wonder how much Norwell being out contributed to the blitz being successful.  O-line talent deficiencies can be masked by good chemistry and playing as a unit.  I wonder if a few of those blitzes get picked up with Norwell in there.

 

Also I remember a back missing badly on a blitz pickup by releasing too early that resulted in a sack, I think it was Tolbert.  If Cam got it to him it would have been a big gain but he really needed to chip on the blitzing defender to give Cam time.  You keep blitzing if it's successful, if it backfires into a thirty or forty yard gain you probably stop blitzing as frequently.  

[Mr. Scot]

I don't think the Redskins defensive personnel are as good as the Titans.

[cardiaccat52]

23 minutes ago, Nick_81 said:

We were eating the Titans up, early in the game.  The only way they felt they could counter that was to go blitz heavy, and you can see it didn't work for an extended period.  What we have to clean up is the adjustment to it, in case it happens again.  Screens, quick slants, etc. to make them pay for blitzing that much.  We didn't adjust quickly enough IMO.

I think this is spot on. It seemed we were only running vertical routes or routes that took way too long to develop. Not sure why the offense didn't make any adjustments, but the short/quick passing game is something that the offense does lack. 

[UKPanther94]

Need to use Fozzy more for that sort of thing, they'd be blitzing less if Cam was getting quick plays off to Fozzy like in the play off game against Arizona

[carpanfan96]

One of the blitzes (Williamson's sack celebration one) Kalil has no one to block at the start, Amini's blocking and gets moved inside toward Kalil and 54 gets a free rush. On the other side 51 just blows by Remmers who doesn't even block anyone and isn't looking at 51. 

 

 

On one of the other sack plays, the one that many on here blamed on Tolbert in the game day thread. Remmers had inside protection because of the TE lined up next to him and let's the delayed blitzer right by him and once again doesn't block anyone. 

 

Went back and looked at the game, Stew gave up 1. Orakpo did a delayed stunt from Oher's side over across and got a free run.

[MadHatter]

So the template is to blitz the hell out of us.  However, Cam completed over 80% of his passes that game.

Yep...sounds like the blueprint for success to me.....FAIL!!!!!!!!

[Fox007]

Titans were also holding Kalil and no defensive holding was called...I'm sure they sent that to the league for review...poo I'd even send a "we know what's up" letter to the Redskins saying that we already notified the league about it and to go ahead and try it so we can get free calls during the game(even if it wasn't true).