An example of an adjustment

[Mr. Scot]

Said it yesterday. Pro football games are chess played with human pieces. Adjustments are a huge part of that, and ideally they shouldn't just be something you do at halftime.

The smartest coaches do two things: They adjust on the fly, and they adjust preemptively to adjustments they think the other team is going to make. The idea is to be thinking six moves ahead like a master chess player does.

The Panthers haven't been good at that sort of thing for a while, but yesterday gave us a good early example of why that might have changed.

Early on, the Panthers run game was getting stuffed. Dallas seemed to be  heavily keyed in on Christian McCaffrey and they were doing a pretty good job of stopping him. Had the Panthers followed a prior pattern of simply continuing to try the same thing in the hope that it would eventually start working, it might not have produced a good result.

But they didn't.

Norv Turner switched things up by calling plays that allowed Cam Newton to start running more. In doing so, he took advantage of how much attention the Cowboys were giving McCaffrey. When Newton ran for that first touchdown, McCaffrey was used as a decoy, and the Cowboys bit on it. Newton had as easy a path to the end zone as I've seen in a while.

Now, the fact that the Cowboys didn't key on Newton as much is enough to make one wonder if they've even watched film of the Panthers. How do you not treat Cam Newton as a primary running threat? That boggles the mind.

But here's the thing: Even when an opponent makes a huge tactical error, you still have to capitalize on it in order for it to mean something. Mistakes don't matter if you don't make them pay for it.

Turner made them pay for it.

And he did so by making an adjustment on the fly.

Turner didn't wait till halftime when he could sit down and talk to everybody about it. He made the change while the bullets were flying. And just as important to realize, he recognized what the Cowboys were doing and knew the right way to respond to it. That sort of thing is not a given.

My biggest reason for optimism coming out of yesterday was the offense's second half performance (that's a result of adjustment too). But it made me equally happy to see us make such an effective change early in the game and set the tempo.

A lot of football yet to be played, but so far Norv Turner looks like he still knows what he's doing.

And I'm rather happy about that.

[Khyber53]

Good post and the adjustments were often and early. 

Norv is still fine tuning this whole offense. He didn't play anything like this in the preseason, and for good reason. We'll see different wrinkles against Atlanta next week and in game adjustments as quickly as he can identify the defensive tendencies. 

[Ace_Aladdin]

So what happened to adjustment for the passing game? I expected Norv to take the passing game to another level not Shula it.

Panthers are lucky they played a team that can only put up 8pts

[Mr. Scot]

2 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

Good post and the adjustments were often and early. 

Norv is still fine tuning this whole offense. He didn't play anything like this in the preseason, and for good reason. We'll see different wrinkles against Atlanta next week and in game adjustments as quickly as he can identify the defensive tendencies. 

That's a good point too.

I got the impression with Shula that once he felt like he had the offense installed, there was no point in making changes to it. That's a huge contrast from the Patriots who change game plans every single week.

Turner making adjustments from week to week, drive to drive and play to play is a culture change, and a good one.

[Ace_Aladdin]

1 minute ago, Mr. Scot said:

That's a good point too.

I got the impression with Shula that once he felt like he had the offense installed, there was no point in making changes to it. That's a huge contrast from the Patriots who change game plans every single week.

Turner making adjustments from week to week, drive to drive and play to play is a culture change, and a good one.

He missed a lot of  opportunity to call PA when Boyz where blitzing like crazy, maybe things changes with return of Samuel. 

[hepcat]

2 minutes ago, Ace_Aladdin said:

So what happened to adjustment for the passing game? I expected Norv to take the passing game to another level not Shula it.

Panthers are lucky they played a team that can only put up 8pts

Would have scored 24 if it weren't for ragdoll Silatolu messing up a snap and McCaffrey fumbling in the red zone. I think the offense played well all things considered.

[JARROD]

2 minutes ago, hepcat said:

Would have scored 24 if it weren't for ragdoll Silatolu messing up a snap and McCaffrey fumbling in the red zone. I think the offense played well all things considered.

Yeh this is from disgruntled fantasy nerds,... we would have scored 24 and the passing game was 65% completion rate with zero interceptions,.. Torrey Funchess and Wright all caught passes when they had opportunities.

im sure there will be an uptick in the routes that worked for each.

[Squirrel]

26 minutes ago, Ace_Aladdin said:

He missed a lot of  opportunity to call PA when Boyz where blitzing like crazy, maybe things changes with return of Samuel. 

Did we do any PA yesterday? I dont remember any. I'm sure we did none that stood out. 

[BrianS]

Anyone complaining about Cam's performance yesterday is clearly someone who started him on their fantasy team.  I was very pleased with Newton doing what I (and others) have wanted all along - taking what the defense gave him.

Dallas did a good job of staying over the top on our deep and intermediate routes.  They know Cam likes to go deep because let's face it, he's got a gorgeous deep ball.  Instead of trying to force something deep, he checked it down over and over.  It wasn't flashy, it wasn't getting him on the fantasy scoreboards . . . but he didn't turn it over.  In a one score game, having zero turnovers from your QB is a huge step in the right direction.

[UpstatePanther]

49 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

Did we do any PA yesterday? I dont remember any. I'm sure we did none that stood out. 

We ran a couple and succeeded when we did. Shula always overused PA. Norv sprinkled it in at juuuust the right time 

[Mr. Scot]

39 minutes ago, BrianS said:

Anyone complaining about Cam's performance yesterday is clearly someone who started him on their fantasy team.  I was very pleased with Newton doing what I (and others) have wanted all along - taking what the defense gave him.

Dallas did a good job of staying over the top on our deep and intermediate routes.  They know Cam likes to go deep because let's face it, he's got a gorgeous deep ball.  Instead of trying to force something deep, he checked it down over and over.  It wasn't flashy, it wasn't getting him on the fantasy scoreboards . . . but he didn't turn it over.  In a one score game, having zero turnovers from your QB is a huge step in the right direction.

Newton seemed a little off early in the game but he got going and finished strong.

(worth noting that's different from prior years too)