Evidence our defense has been overrated

[the_philosopher]

Our defense was never great this year. Yes, we held several teams to low point totals and have been near the top in defensive categories such as YPG and PPG, but a closer look suggests much of that is a result of a ridiculously sloooooow moving offense. Check this out:

• The Carolina offense is 2nd in the league in offensive time of possession despite being only 18th in YPG and 16th in PPG. 

Ouch! That's a ridiculous statistic that perhaps only Shula and kneel-in-the-huddle-Newton could accomplish. (I love Cam Newton by the way, but I'd like to see more urgency.) For comparison, consider that the 1st place team in offensive TOP (Eagles) is 3rd in YPG, and 1st in PPG. 

Now you might be thinking, maybe our TOP is more a result of our defense being awesome at getting the ball back, which gives us more offensive possessions. Unfortunately, the stats don't bear that hypothesis out. While we are 9th in the league in defensive 3rd down percentage (which is good but not great),  our offense as of last week had 121 total drives, which was only the 21st most in the league!  More tellingly, the defense has faced only 116 drives which is lower than all but five teams in the league. This suggests that (a) our offense is managing to keep the ball away from other teams despite not being very good (go Shula!) and (b) our defense is quite overrated.

In conclusion, when you hear the broadcaster in next week's game say that the Vikings are going up against the 6th best defense in the league, they are referring to total YPG, and we must take that with a grain of salt. Defensive YPG and PPG are highly misleading for such a strange team as ours. A more pertinent stat is this: our defense is 14th in the league in yards given up per play. I remain hopeful they will become great by the end of the season, but they've been only slightly better than average so far.

TLDR: most teams have fared pretty well moving the ball against us whenever our ridiculously slow offense has given them the opportunity.

[Growl]

I really don't think we are utilizing the talent on defensive appropriately.

There's lots of bravado about how often we blitz because blitz is a cool word and blah blah but I don't thinks its actually benefiting the players.

The LBs aren't getting home and any QB that isn't a total putz fails to grow wide eyed and afraid and simply shreds out secondary that is bad at the CB spot and looks old at the Safety spot.

Kuechly is the best cover LB in the league. Why is he being asked to rush the A gap so often?

Let Peppers and Addison do their job and let Kuechly support the back end.

This defense isn't generating enough turnovers and nothing will change as long as the basis for those turnovers is trying to force the other QB to make mistakes-which isn't going to happen when you face competent QBs.

 

You're right though. Rivera coached teams have never played complimentary football. Rivera sees a statistic he likes and works backwards from it.

 

TOP on offense, in this case, being the stat in question. Its not a stretch to assume he saw team's overall record when controlling the clock, liked it, and elected to committed to it, regardless of how it effected the other phases, or personnel, or literally anything.

New Orleans was down two starters in the secondary yesterday-and it had literally no effect on the gameplan.

Even when we saw we had good Cam-nothing changed.

It all came to a head yesterday when we saw the most safe, boring, inept version of the offense we've seen during the Rivera tenure in a massive game. BECAUSE it was a massive game.

There were no gadget plays. No trademarked reverses. No vertical passing game or even QB run plays until the game was in essence over.

Rivera was more concerned with winning TOP than he was with winning the game.

[TylerDurden]

Well said.  It's true.  Our defense is a mirage.  And in all honesty, Luke is still the best MLB in the game, but he hasn't had a great year and a lot of it has to do with the players around him not doing their jobs.

[Growl]

Where was the no huddle? The tempo?

The worst part is, is that I guarantee you will see it more in the weeks to come, and it will be the 7th consecutive year that Ron Rivera has had to learn in season after an important loss that the team benefits from incorporating it.

[pantherj]

Coleman, Captain, Adams, Worley, these guys are not going to stop a potent offense like the Saints. TD is slower and wearing down. The Saints upgraded their o-line to neutralize KK and Star on passing downs and open up rushing lanes. It worked. They outdrafted us as well. Brees is a 1st ballot HOF QB surrounded by a great team. They're the better team by far. Now the injury bug can still strike them and even things out, but otherwise it's their year. 

[TheRed]

We're trotting out the worst WR core in the league on top of Olsen being out again, and Cam once again led the team in rushing even though we just drafted a RB 8th overall, but you're worried about Cam's urgency? Are you brain dead?

[pantherj]

We have the worst safeties, the worst WRs, 1 good CB, patchwork o-line, and our #1 receiving target is out with a sore foot. We have middle of the road talent and we win more than we should because Cam is the greatest QB of all time at running the ball.

[Ball4life]

19 minutes ago, pantherj said:

We have the worst safeties, the worst WRs, 1 good CB, patchwork o-line, and our #1 receiving target is out with a sore foot. We have middle of the road talent and we win more than we should because Cam is the greatest QB of all time at running the ball.

That would be Michael Vick.

[uncfan888]

27 minutes ago, TheRed said:

We're trotting out the worst WR core in the league on top of Olsen being out again, and Cam once again led the team in rushing even though we just drafted a RB 8th overall, but you're worried about Cam's urgency? Are you brain dead?

Cam is the only reason this team isn't 3-9

[*FreeFua*]

Our secondary consists of Adams, Coleman, Bradberry and Worley...

I don’t even think anything more needs to be said

[Wolfcop]

1. Which team(s) have stopped NO in the Dome?

2. When your offense goes 3 and out on the majority of possessions, you give your D no chance to be successful. None

[beastson]

32 minutes ago, Growl said:

Where was the no huddle? The tempo?

The worst part is, is that I guarantee you will see it more in the weeks to come, and it will be the 7th consecutive year that Ron Rivera has had to learn in season after an important loss that the team benefits from incorporating it.

Where? You answered your own question in the before post

TOP. Ron cares more about time of possession than winning. Ron wants a fresh defense and we score too fast, our defense is back out there. Somebody tell Ron that his precious defense is average, because the secondary sucks and we're not forcing turnovers.

[cardiaccat52]

The thread is a bit misleading. You can't just look at time of possession as a factor to discount the team's defensive ranking. I've seen SEVERAL games where TOP is very misleading, with yesterday being one. The team goes on a long, efficient drive of 10+ minutes, but then manages just three first downs in the next 5 offensive series? This team's TOP is definitely skewed by 1-3 long drives a game. The rest of the offensive series are quick 3 and outs...

If you take into consideration Carolina's 37% 3rd down conversion rate & 17 turnovers, both ranked in the bottom half of the league, the defense holds up well given the situation the offense puts them in. 

 

[Growl]

Its really not just how the phases connect to each other though.

 

Every aspect of this team happens in a vacuum. Everything about the offense is disjointed.