FYI... Ron Rivera did not play for the field goal on final drive

[Jeremy Igo]

After re-watching the game I have concluded Ron Rivera did not settle for a field goal on the Carolina Panthers final drive.

Observe...

1st and 10

Read option. Cam Newton keeps the ball running it for three yards up the gut. Seahawks OLB makes a good play.

2nd and 7

Panthers in the shotgun. Greg Olsen comes open for what would have been a first down. Unfortunately, by that time Taylor Moton is beaten and Cam is under heavy pressure. Throws ball away. Would have been a first down if no pressure from Seattle.

3rd and 7

Panthers in shotgun again. Seahawks blitz. Crossing routes by Wright and Moore. Neither get much separation. Cam completes pass to Moore for 3 yards. Crossing routes were supposed to pick off Moore's defender so he could get more separation, but that didn't work out.

4th and 4 - Field Goal

The right call here, obviously. You have to try to go up by 3.

 

So, now that heads have cooled a bit, I admit I was wrong about that final drive. The Carolina Panthers did not play for the field goal. They did actually try for the first down.

[SpeedOFLight]

Yeah I agree with you. The fact is that dB made a great tackle on Moore (example for our defense to follow). He misses that tackle , who knows how far Moore takes it.  I just believe at this point as I mentioned in  the other thread. We as fans are so upset to what’s being going on that Rivera will get the blame no matter what happens on the field . I would have liked to see more down field passes but what do I know lol 

[uncfan888]

I would have went for it on 4th down before trusting a kicker with the yips to kick a 53 yard field goal

[Jon Snow]

I disagree Cotton, they were trying to burn clock and it backfired on him, as usual.  

[Jeremy Igo]

2 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

I disagree Cotton, they were trying to burn clock and it backfired on him, as usual.  

By passing the ball?

[Jon Snow]

Just now, Jeremy Igo said:

By passing the ball?

Short underneath routes are the same as a running play.  Seattle had stuffed the running game in the 4th quarter.

[Pejorative Miscreant]

18 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

After re-watching the game I have concluded Ron Rivera did not settle for a field goal on the Carolina Panthers final drive.

Observe...

1st and 10

Read option. Cam Newton keeps the ball running it for three yards up the gut. Seahawks OLB makes a good play.

2nd and 7

Panthers in the shotgun. Greg Olsen comes open for what would have been a first down. Unfortunately, by that time Taylor Moton is beaten and Cam is under heavy pressure. Throws ball away. Would have been a first down if no pressure from Seattle.

3rd and 7

Panthers in shotgun again. Seahawks blitz. Crossing routes by Wright and Moore. Neither get much separation. Cam completes pass to Moore for 3 yards. Crossing routes were supposed to pick off Moore's defender so he could get more separation, but that didn't work out.

4th and 4 - Field Goal

The right call here, obviously. You have to try to go up by 3.

 

So, now that heads have cooled a bit, I admit I was wrong about that final drive. The Carolina Panthers did not play for the field goal. They did actually try for the first down.

Nooooooo!  This would mean the other team had players that actually did their job and executed a bit better on those plays.   

Impossible.  We must fire everyone.  End of story. There will be no cooling of heads, Dammit!  There will be rolling of heads instead!

Huddle needs to keep Huddlin.  

[KendrickPanther]

I would have gotten the ball to McCaffrey. The guy burns clock and gets first downs. Seattle's defense did step up but we ran plays that were easier for them to defend imo. Other than one or two break downs, running up the middle was just not there and we kept trying to do it throughout the game. 

[GoobyPls]

It was not Ron who cost us the game, it was Norv and his idiotic redzone play calling. Theirs no reason to take the ball out of Cam's hands down in the redzone when he led us down there.

[Manther]

Red zone execution and play calling.  Can't put the interception on Norv.  That ball shouldn't have been thrown.

[Mr. Scot]

The thing about the choice to pass in that situation is that since it wasn't done successfully, we wound up leaving Seattle with plenty of time to win the game. On top of that, the missed field goal gave them great field position.

This goes back to something I've said before. When it comes to judgement calls like this, it's not that Rivera always makes the same mistakes. He's not necessarily always too conservative, nor is he always going for it at times when he shouldn't.

The problem just seems to be that whichever choice he makes all too often turns out to be the wrong one.

Mind you, it'd actually be easier to fix if it was always the same problem. You'd just have to switch to the opposite approach.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

[BrianS]

We lost the game on two plays:

1.  Fourth and two at the Seattle five on our first drive of the day.  Zero points on the board.  *ALWAYS BREAK THE GOOSE EGG*

1.  First and ten at the Seattle 18, first drive of the second half.  Cam forces the ball to Manhertz in double coverage.  Interception.

[Chaos]

Should have been running RPO with CMC that final drive.  We were killing Seattle with it the 4th quarter.  We went away from what was working which had many fans scratching their heads. 

[Davidson Deac II]

37 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

I disagree Cotton, they were trying to burn clock and it backfired on him, as usual.  

Trying to burn some clock was the right thing to do.  There were nearly two minutes left, even if we make the fg, they still have time to get a td.  I do wish they had run the ball on second down (but of course hindsight is 20/20).