With the season over, it's time to be objective about that "No. 1 Ranked scoring offense" statistic

[Growl]

To my point,

 

1) a sizable bulk of it came on defensive scores

2) an ENORMOUS amount of it was a beneficiary of the defense's ability to produce short fields for the offense.

 

'I'm game grinding a point now, but I am saying there is justifiable cause to fire our offensive coordinator.

 

"But that creative running game, Growl!"

..was, by Shula's own admission this week, largely of Cam's own implementation, as he was involved both in the creation of the plays and their implementation within games.

This is a legitimate talking point that, to our detriment, won't happen but very much should

[Growl]

Still truth, deal with it.

[Mage]

I don't get what your point is.

Offense was still very good this season.  Nobody is saying they were the reincarnation of the '07 Patriots or anything, but they made a lot of big plays and especially in the second half of the season, played great football.

So I guess I'm just confused as to what you want to discuss.  That Shula isn't that good of a OC?  Maybe.  I'd disagree to an extent.  Otherwise though our offense played WAY better than the talent level says they should have.  That is a testament to A) good coaching and B) Cam Newton, not to say the interior OL, Olsen, and Stew don't deserve credit.  They absolutely do.

[JawnyBlaze]

I think our offense wasn't a mirage at all, but it was allowed to breathe when Shula tightened his death grip on it.  We have the players to make plays when allowed to.  Sure, short fields helped, and we didn't have many more defensive scores than most.  Two pick sixes by Norman, two by Luke in the playoffs.  I don't remember any others.  Maybe one by Coleman, but I can't remember for sure.  When we needed to drive the field, we often did throughout the season.  If we were to just let Shula create the plays and have input on the gameplan before the game, but just let Cam make the decisions on what plays to run on the field I think we can return to this year's level of performance.