What’s going on with Luke Kuechly

[mc52beast]

Lots of talk on WFNZ this morning about Luke and what seems to be an off year for him. Couple callers said he’s slowing down, getting confused easily.

Others said he’s struggling in Ron’s defensive scheme. Also said we have a D-line that is getting destroyed and allowing Luke to get swallowed up by offensive linemen. 
 

What do you guys think... Do we look at Luke and say he’s not the same guy we’re used to seeing or is he paying the price for having others around him that aren’t doing their jobs

[hepcat]

Scheme change and lack of as many big bodies on the D-Line is probably the biggest reason for any drop off we’re seeing

[blackcat]

New system and we don't have that we don't have enough of the right personnel.  

[BrianS]

I think it's the combination of a new scheme, which is currently a complete mess, and other players not helping.

Honestly, all our players are suffering from a scheme that is the worst of both worlds right now.  There is WAAAAYYYYYYYY too much talent in our front seven to be as awful as we are against the run right now.  If the talent is there, but the production isn't, it starts to paint a very specific picture.

[Carl Spackler]

Blaming Luke for defensive problems is akin to blaming Hillary for Trump’s idiocy (now that I think of it, if she’d have ran even a half-ass campaign, terms like “deportation camp” and “travel ban” probably wouldn’t exist).

It’s not Luke’s fault is what I’m getting at

[CRA]

I think it is obvious. 

The talent in front of Luke has gotten weaker....thus he wrecks less havoc.   When we had a great tandem in front of him (Star/KK) and as a result he was a half man, half god, half possible centaur.  We removed Star last year and Luke looked sorta human at times.  More human than we were used to.  Now we lose KK this year.....and Luke now officially is a real life human.

 

[Wolfpack352]

I am seeing it.....Luke is getting smacked by the bigger O-linemen.  Almost as if they(opposing offense) planned it this way, take out the biggest tackling threat and dedicate a body to run at Luke and push him aside.  Every now and then I see Luke getting pushed down, even getting pushed from behind and getting away with it.  Luke is getting increasingly frustrated after those big chunk plays, i feel for him.  

[Mr. Scot]

3 minutes ago, blackcat said:

New system and we don't have that we don't have enough of the right personnel.  

Didn't we supposedly spend the offseason getting players to fit this scheme though?

[kungfoodude]

I know some here have anecdotally stated that he seems to be having issues getting clean lanes. The DL seems to be allowing linemen to the second level to counteract him moreso recently. I don't know if the film shows it conclusively because I haven't sat down to do that analysis. 

[Mr. Scot]

I'd probably be doing more direct analysis myself but it's kind of hard to want to rewatch a lot of the games this year.

Heck, I deleted the 49er game as soon as it was over.

[Eazy-E]

You can tell when Luke tries to do too much. He is basically the defensive coordinator. He is trying to plug holes in our Swiss cheese defense.

He has been getting caught off guard with the snap a lot recently because he is so preoccupied trying to realign and audible the defensive play call because it’s usually a terrible call coming from the sideline.

He is making more pre snap adjustments than I can ever remember. A player shouldn’t be having to constantly fix his coordinators mistakes.

Oh yeah and it seems like refs don’t give a fug about calling holding this year either.

[CRA]

2 minutes ago, Wolfpack352 said:

I am seeing it.....Luke is getting smacked by the bigger O-linemen.  Almost as if they(opposing offense) planned it this way, take out the biggest tackling threat and dedicate a body to run at Luke and push him aside.  Every now and then I see Luke getting pushed down, even getting pushed from behind and getting away with it.  Luke is getting increasingly frustrated after those big chunk plays, i feel for him.  

that is exactly what I was referring to.  When the DT talent was good in Carolina (Star/KK) it allowed Luke to be a monster.  With weaker DT play....offenses now can get to him.  When they get to him quicker it limits his ability to wreck a play.  

You essentially have to look at Luke like a QB.  The line in front of him has to do their job to maximize Luke. 

[Snake]

I think it's Riveras scheme. He asks Luke to cover more than he should. 

[WarPanthers89]

Luke has made great plays this year and has been called out multiple weeks for diagnosing plays which kept us in games. Team game plan around him, and our overall defensive performance had been a joke with the amount of talent that we have across the board. Washington as been demoted from calling plays and our run D has gotten much worse. We need a coaching change.