Evolution of the Panthers

[Diehardpanther02]

ev·o·lu·tion

:the gradual development of something, especially from a simple to a more complex form:

Let's keep that in mind moving forward.

We have heard it for the past couple of years. Evolution. We have to evolve as a team in order to see our expectations become reality. Ole' Ronnie boy has stated it over and over again. Our offense must evolve. But lets take a more in depth look to what the staff means when they say this.  They are pointing directly at the Evolution of Cameron Newton. And one way to learn more on how we do this is to pay attention to what Franchise we look up to. For some time now or FO has been obsessed with the steel city. Jerry Richardson has always stated he wanted this franchise to be in the mold of the Steelers.  And lets be honest with 6 superbowl wins, thats not a bad one to emulate.  So lets delve a little into the evolution of the Pittsburgh Steelers and more recently with Big Ben and the change from Bruce Arians to Todd Haley.  And if I recall correctly, this has been talked about via some of the regulars on this board. But the knee jerk is real with a sizeable percentage of this fan base and I felt it should be addressed. Ill keep it as short as I can.

Early on in Ben Roethlisberger's career with the Steelers, Big Ben could take a punch. His stature and measurables where unmatched at the time and Bruce Arians took advantage.  He aired it out. Subjecting Ben to a ton of hits. And there are stats to back it up which I pulled from the link below which is a good read on this topic :

1. Defenders sacked big ben on 9.47% of his dropbacks or 215 times between 2007 to 2011. Umm thats alot.

2. In 2011, he was sacked 40 times or 7.8% of dropbacks.

And despite engineering a succesful offensive showing in superbowl XLIII, Art Rooney pressured Tomlin to give Bruce the boot. But Why? Why would you let go of a coordinator who built one of the most explosive offenses the game has seen. Other than the fact that year ben was put on his butt a wopping 50 times, Rooney felt that Arians didnt run the ball enough. And although Tomlin didnt immediately jump on board he would later see the difference. Now dont get me wrong, Arians is a genius when it comes to scheme, and running an effective air raid but the problem with this is it subjected his pro bowl QB to unnecessary punishment. Art Rooney, looking at the long haul, knew that they had to incorporate a more solid run game to keep Ben from well, dying. So, eventually the move was made.  They let go of Arians, brought in Haley and looking back EVERYONE prospered from the decision.  Bruce had done well in Arizona, and Pittsburgh has been better off.  More importantly though, Ben was protected and the offense stayed explosive and an argument can most definitely be made that it is even more so under Haley. Here are some numbers that proves this:

               Sacks.     Sacks/Drop.     YPG.     Td%

Bruce:       215            9.5%             248        5.02%

Todd:         125            5.9%             288        5.10%

 

The offense put up more yards and more points per game under Haley than Arians all the while keeping Big Ben from being kicked in the sack. Pun intended. Seriously though, the sack numbers came down significantly. Which gets me back to my point, Evolution.  Haley has been on record stating their first objective when he was hired was to allow Ben to be Ben, but also find ways to do so without subjecting him to so much pressure.  They did this by incorporating more check downs and short yardage pass plays to get the ball out of Bens hands quicker (which to be fair to Bruce, did tend to hold the ball to long) as opposed to Arians more vertical attack to complement a solid running game.  He also stated that he knew it would be a process. Over time the Steelers have boasted a very potent offense, and Ben has stayed pretty healthy extending his career some years. And that same process is taking place with our Panthers.

Look at the offseason for example. It tells you everything you need to know just by looking at the personnel that we have brought in.  Mccaffrey, Samuel, Kalil, Moton, Shepherd and finding ways to utilize Byrd.  All these guys were brought in to help Cam evolve, CMC especially.  By bringing those guys in it allows cam to have that check down option that guys like Rodgers with Cobb, Matt Ryan who had his best season last year had Freeman, Big Ben has had Bell and it sickens me to put it this way but the Best Qb to ever caudle a centers balls, Tom Brady has had Welker, Edelman, Amendola, COOKs and this list goes on and on and well you get the point. But back to what I was saying, All those guys have check downs if they get under pressure. 

While Stewart is good catching the ball out of the backfield, lets be real he cant find space and attack as well as guys like CMC. Hes a power back. And up until now Cam hasnt had a reliable option to CHECK DOWN to if he is pressured therefore taking more hits scrambling to make something happen.  So when you guys complain about using Mccaffrey as "only" a check down option as if we are always supposed to use him in exotic packages that somehow give him one on one matchups vs d tackles. I say, do your home work. Simple is not always a bad thing. And as we EVOLVE(please refer to definition above, there is a key word in the defintion I believe it was GRADUAL), I think we will see more packages to get him in space. But for now, having him as a check down and watching the way the niners felt the need to have 2 and 3 guys around him at all times, I think will open a ton of options for us offensively. And more importantly protect our franchise qb and let superman be Clark Kent every once in a while. So lets calm your tits, and enjoy the show.  Panthers football is back Baby!

 

http://steelcurtainrising.com/2016/03/steelers-todd-haley-vs-bruce-arians-ben-roethlisberger-passing-statistics-performance-sacks-interceptions-whisenhunt.html/

 

 

Oh and sorry, Im not really one to include pictures. So you may need your reading glasses. But just to appease those that need a visual. 

 

Which of these pictures do we want to see more of?  I think I would take the latter.

[TheSpecialJuan]

nice

[jfra78]

It's funny because all off-season everyone complained about not throwing the ball short to the check down receivers. This game we did it and I saw a bunch of posts screaming to throw it long during the game.  Proves you can never truly please a fan.

[Jeremy Igo]

Good OP. 

Latte 4 u. 

[rayzor]

This thread should be required reading.

Before we drafted cam, despite all the typical and stereotypical comparisons people threw out there when talking about him, I saw him as a much more mobile big Ben, so it's always interesting to see things like this.

I totally agree that this is the plan and that it's needed but will be slow in progressing. My fear is that it will be too slow. The INT was, I think, a direct result of them not wanting to let go of the old ways going for the big play down field. As soon as I saw him launch that ball I had a bad feeling and found myself asking "why are we still doing this?" And then came the INT and all I could do is shake my head. 

It's time to move forward.

[Ace_Aladdin]

The deep ball could have been TD if Cam led it in front of KB , but coming off shoulder surgery with no real chemistry will do that. Deep ball should be never taken away from the play books 

[KB_fan]

2 hours ago, sanjay_rajput said:

The deep ball could have been TD if Cam led it in front of KB , but coming off shoulder surgery with no real chemistry will do that. Deep ball should be never taken away from the play books 

It won't be.

Cam still threw 6 of 25 passing attempts deep (24%), of which 3 were completions (50%).

Cam is too good at throwing deep for us to abandon it.  But we will rely a lot more on YAC and also dominating on the ground, as we did yesterday.

 

Great article OP!