Who was at fault?

[UKPanther94]

Back in spring it seemed like the organisation made a big effort in overhauling the special teams corps after a dismal 2014 season and brought in a lot of ST specialists and changed the coach with DeHaven taking over for Rodgers. Yet, special teams were never that great this season, punt coverages were always sloppy, Teddy Williams seemed to get a penalty every other play. Even with Ginn back we never really got much going in the kick returns and the only time he took it to the house it got called back for a penalty. Not to mention the field goal team that managed to get several kicks blocked throughout the year.

Yeah we went 15-1 so this is somewhat overstated but ultimately this was one of the biggest reasons why we lost the Superbowl, against a team like Denver that couldnt move the ball but were elite on defense we simply had to win the special teams/field position battles, instead we always got pinned back inside our 20 while Denver always seemed to get better starting position and thats even before taking that complete failure of a 61 yard return into consideration.

Who takes responsibility for it. Gettleman for apparently not bringing the right guys in (arguably the only thing he hasn't nailed so far), the coaching staff for not utilising the players properly or merely just a case of individual mistakes from the players?

[rayzor]

Hard to read all that wall of text especially.  with a migraine but it was a team effort.  there is no one person to blame.

grade A certified fustercluck

 

[Ruff]

Basically everyone not named Kony Ealy. 

[Mr. Scot]

FYI: He's talking specifically about special teams.

[NanuqoftheNorth]

Special teams still have a lot of room for improvement.

ST Coach was sick much of the year, so that may have been part of the issue.

Will he be healthy enough to continue or get replaced this off season?

[thennek]

Every NFL team has a weakness, and unfortunately Special Teams is the weakness for the Panthers.  Actually, Special Teams has been a Panthers weakness for many years.  I think it has to do with that the Panthers have been trying to build their defense and offense.....and they have not either had the money or the opportunity to dramatically improve their Special Teams.  

[Pejorative Miscreant]

I mostly blame Wade Phillips and Von Miller. 

 

To to borrow a Foxism the other guys get paid to play too. 

 

Diwect refs, Gettlemans lack of OL etc...  And fact is we had a hell of a season and lost in the fuggin super bowl. Sucks. But it happens . 

 

This is team is built well. It can recalibrate and contend. 

[raleigh-panther]

Lot,of 'throats to choke'.  What would be the point.

i am just mind boggled by the the play selection in this game

the average time to get the ball  out of a QBs hands is 4 seconds so the metrics go

looked like those plays were taking 5 seconds 

the oline had the Denver Dline in its face in the backfield in about 3

you could surmise the Broncos are just that good, the protection was that bad or they picked up on the snap count. Either it was ugly

it is almost as if they didn't game play for that Dline at all. Sadly

dave needs to up his spending limit or the best of Newton's years gone 

newton took quite a beating . Someone said at halftime he almost went to Denvers locker room 

[Peppers90 NC]

I blame ridiculous fans

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

Again, this thread is specifically about special teams. Read more than the thread title you lazy bastards.

[stankowalski]

5 minutes ago, thennek said:

Every NFL team has a weakness, and unfortunately Special Teams is the weakness for the Panthers.  Actually, Special Teams has been a Panthers weakness for many years.  I think it has to do with that the Panthers have been trying to build their defense and offense.....and they have not either had the money or the opportunity to dramatically improve their Special Teams.  

I know it probably isn't true but I feel like we haven't had a good special teams since we had Michael Bates returning kicks.

[tondi]

They sucked all year so it should surprise no one that they would let us down in the biggest game of the year.  Day one of next years practice maybe we should work on how to recognize what a fair catch signal does or does not look like.

[thennek]

2 minutes ago, stankowalski said:

I know it probably isn't true but I feel like we haven't had a good special teams since we had Michael Bates returning kicks.

Yeah I miss those Michael Bates days on Special Teams.  When the football was in his hands, I always felt he could take it to the house.  

I do remember in 2008 the Panthers had pretty good Special Teams with Mark Jones as both the PR and KR.  He was not fast or showy, but very effective.  He played for like one season for the Panthers, and then they let him go.  I don't think the Panthers have had a good Special Teams unit since.  

[CPantherKing]

Gettleman gets the bulk of the blame for the OT, RB depth, and WR failures.

Shula gets blame for not protecting the offense against their weaknesses. Instead he played to their weaknesses, which were made worse since they also played to the Broncos strengths. Should have played to the Panthers offensive strengths and attacked the Broncos weaknesses. Not sure what they were thinking when they were putting together the game plan.

Then it goes to the players. I will say the players should have never been put into these positions and expected to win. Remmers, Oher, and Fozzy were exploited in blocking matchups against Von Miller and Demarcus Ware in one on one match ups. They were trying to play physical against man to man with their WRs. Ginn, Brown, and Cotchery are not physical WRs. The WR that should have been leaned on for physical man to man matchups would have been Devin Funchess. Since they were playing man to man the receivers needed to work the crossing patterns with their speed while stretching the field with one other receiver and Olsen. The sideline to sideline routes were wins almost all the time as the Panthers receivers could run away from the Broncos DBs and take away their angles. The down field vertical routes and curl routes were a waste as they played to the Broncos strength.

Domino effect. OTs failed in one on one match ups. Led to Cam not having time to develop the routes for the WRs. Threw off timing for receivers and they dropped a lot of balls they were not ready for as Cam had to throw the ball sooner than he wanted to. Some of the passes Cam tried to take a little more time as he let the receivers use their speed, but he trusted his protection and Shula had a horrible plan for pass protection.