Observations from today

[lightsout]

This will be shorter than my usual wall of text, so rejoice.

- The OL played MUCH better today. I have no idea what was changed during the last week of practice, but that unit looked much more aggressive. Our offensive line actually got push. A lot of it was zone stretch and power/counter blocking, which is our strong suit. There were at least 2 inside zone plays that FINALLY got the blocking assignments and execution right though (if you recall my posts in the past, that's a play in the run game I've harped on). I have to believe a lot of it was the running from 3 WR sets though. Spread the D, you create more room naturally.

- Defense was lights out as usual. Couple rough drives/moments, but really well played. Having Kurt back makes this defense just so much better. The big issue was two breakdowns on the deep balls to Julio and the roughness of the field turf. I don't know if it was moist or if it's just really soft, but Bradberry was falling a LOT trying to keep up with Julio and other players on both teams had some issues with the turf it seemed.

- CMC finally got room to run. An effective between the tackles guy, just not the guy you run into a wall with the expectation for him to pop through the other side of it. The OL gets the credit, but CMC took advantage and made some nice moves to gain extra yardage once he got that initial 3-4 yards. Good day for him.

- Shula is STILL randomly calling terrible, terrible plays at inopportune times. However, the offense DID feel different today in comparison to the first half of the season. The plays called seemed more in rhythm. Was this due to not having KB to factor into playcalling? Was this due to knowing Atlanta as well as we do? Was this just an anomaly? We'll find out next week.

- Rivera is a coward. We all know it.

- Cam needs more chemistry with receivers not named Funchess. I got the feeling that Samuel tried to make the most of his opportunities today knowing this. Speaking of which...

- Samuel is a mean route runner. Want to see him get more targets. A deep shot better be in his future. The deep ball to Clay should have been Samuel. I need this to happen soon because I just feel like Samuel can be special if given the chance.

 

[Ship]

Yep, as soon as we get around to throwing deep to Samuel, we'll be watching a young star be born. He's got the confidence just give him a good shot.

[Saca312]

7 minutes ago, lightsout said:

Samuel is a mean route runner. Want to see him get more targets. A deep shot better be in his future. The deep ball to Clay should have been Samuel. I need this to happen soon because I just feel like Samuel can be special if given the chance.

 

Indeed. Samuel's been very quick and great with his routes. Just check this beauty out:

Fantastic route, footwork, and finish to grab the ball, adjust, and keep both feet inbounds for the good gain.

[LA_Panther]

I’d like to see a few bombs to Samuel when he is one one one just to keep defenses honest ... 

[JawnyBlaze]

I will say Shula’s game today was better than usual. Fewer runs up the middle on 1st, a couple nifty plays like CMC’s TD. Still plenty of wtf moments so we couldn’t forget that he’s still a Mike Shula. But better than usual. 

[KSpan]

1 minute ago, JawnyBlaze said:

I will say Shula’s game today was better than usual. Fewer runs up the middle on 1st, a couple nifty plays like CMC’s TD. Still plenty of wtf moments so we couldn’t forget that he’s still a Mike Shula. But better than usual. 

As soon as they came out in that formation I (and I imagine many football-savvy Panthers fans) knew it was going to be a triple option. Guess the Atlanta D needed some more film study.

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

With the lack of deep throws, I wonder if cams shoulder completely up for it.

[DaveThePanther2008]

45 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

I will say Shula’s game today was better than usual. Fewer runs up the middle on 1st, a couple nifty plays like CMC’s TD. Still plenty of wtf moments so we couldn’t forget that he’s still a Mike Shula. But better than usual. 

We had about 3 really nifty calls on the same drive but really didn't see many more, if any, after that.  I would love to see a bit more of this throughout the game.  It helps so much making defenses cover the whole field.

[Marguide]

Enjoy your posts LO.

Please keep them coming.

[ThPantherFan]

5 hours ago, JawnyBlaze said:

I will say Shula’

shula sucks.

[tiger7_88]

4 hours ago, DaveThePanther2008 said:

We had about 3 really nifty calls on the same drive but really didn't see many more, if any, after that.  I would love to see a bit more of this throughout the game.  It helps so much making defenses cover the whole field.

After we made the 4th and 1 (fug you Ron, you coward), there were no more “nifty” calls. So any creativity ended at 4:43 left in the 3rd quarter. After that point, we only got 39 yards of offense and 2 1st downs (not counting the final possession).

Ron and Mike still believe that you “run out the clock” with 20 minutes to go in a game and a 10 pt lead by running the ball and going 3-and-out and punting.

[lightsout]

4 hours ago, Leeroy Jenkins PhD said:

With the lack of deep throws, I wonder if cams shoulder completely up for it.

I'm wondering the same. I don't think it's soreness as much as control. I think you can see he still has the arm strength to sling it, but he's having trouble controlling the power conversion from the ground through the ball. This is common with shoulder injuries and throwing motions. Pitchers in baseball can have comparable surgeries and come out still throwing with as much power as they did pre-injury but they've lost the ability to put the ball where they want every time. Some find a way to get it back, some don't. Cam was never an on-the-money-every-time deep ball guy (though when he would set his feet he was pretty lethal there). I think Cam just needs time and reps doing it. Something tells me, with the way we're keeping throws mostly short to intermediate, the practice reps are just that with the occasional deep ball. I'm sure he's working on it, but if it's not a focus it needs to be. Especially considering he can't have the timing with the speed of Shep, Samuel, and Clay completely down yet. He was able to hit Ginn as consistently as he did due to the time he had to work with him. He knew when to throw it and how much to put on it every time, so 2015 happened.

The same needs to happen now. If this offense can't stretch the field vertically then slugfests and close games are in the future the rest of the way. This isn't going to put the team at a disadvantage, but it is taking a weapon to be utilized completely off the table needlessly. Let Cam do it sparingly and fail until the timing and the control gets there.

[lightsout]

2 minutes ago, tiger7_88 said:

After we made the 4th and 1 (fug you Ron, you coward), there were no more “nifty” calls. So any creativity ended at 4:43 left in the 3rd quarter. After that point, we only got 39 yards of offense and 2 1st downs (not counting the final possession).

Ron and Mike still believe that you “run out the clock” with 20 minutes to go in a game and a 10 pt lead by running the ball and going 3-and-out and punting.

The idea they have is fine. You do want to control the game. They just go about it backwards. You don't allow teams to hang around for the sake of chewing clock. You don't change what has been working and what has given you touchdown drives for the sake of "not taking risks". A defense is on the ropes, they don't know what's coming, they're having trouble communicating, whatever it is...and you come out with two TEs, Armah, and Stew and think "yeah, iso will work now"? Makes no sense.

[usmcpanthers]

I saw us come back from 2 scores downs and 2 horrible fumbles to pull out a win. I've been waiting to see this mental toughness from the team. Aints and bears game the offense gave up after the turnovers.