Carolina Panthers Defensive Turnaround

[TrevorLaurenceTime22]

3 hours ago, theinstrumental said:

I thought that this was the least talented defense in the league and I've never been happier to be so wrong. We also don't have a ton of games against elite offenses coming up--OKC, NO x2, Tampa, and Green Bay are the only big ones. We might be able to hold onto these kinds of rankings for the full season.

NO has not played like an elite offense this season..... #gochargers

[theinstrumental]

17 hours ago, TrevorLaurenceTime22 said:

NO has not played like an elite offense this season..... #gochargers

I expect a different story when Thomas comes back, but fair, they may still top out as good/very good but not quite elite. 

[Fox007]

I wonder if defenses are going to try to hold on the LOS like pulling OL down or something...I mean something has to give on that front and you have to imagine the teams know what's going on and should be smart enough to try something all their own....I'd give it a go to see how much I'd get away with.

[Bartin]

20 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Honestly, it's nothing short of shocking. Phil Snow is the unsung hero of the NFL right now. We all thought our offense could be good with Joe Brady and our skill position weapons, but I doubt you could've found anyone who didn't think we were going to have one of the very worst defenses in the NFL this year. Our defense is currently outranking our offense #10 vs. #12 in total yardage and total yardage allowed respectively.

This is where I was. I had come to terms with a season of 4-6 wins where we managed to just outscore some teams and thought that at least it would be entertaining to watch. Offense is a little better than I thought. I never even considered that the defense would be close to this good.

[Khyber53]

22 hours ago, Davidson Deac II said:

I thought the run defense was bad yesterday.  But Atlanta just didn't run it enough, in part because we were ahead and in part because they didn't want to.  Of course, Gurley looks significantly better now, which didn't help us.  But we still allowed them to control the line of scrimmage when they ran.  

 

The pass defense certainly better than expected, and they made some big plays.  The interception followed by the long drive cinched the game.  Ryan made a bad throw, but we made him pay for it.  

I've got to agree with you here that our run defense looked bad. We do have to couch it in the fact that Atlanta had five first round draft picks out there doing the run blocking. Still we need to stiffen up the run defense and I think that falls on the linebackers group here, particularly the middle linebacker position. Hopefully Snow can get Whitehead up to speed on where he needs to stand, how to read plays, how to actually tackle on his own rather than just waiting for a pile to form and cozily jumping on top of it.

On pass defense, I think we've improved mightily and mostly it has been addition by subtraction. I think Donte Jackson has been outplayed by both Corn Elder AND Troy Pride. Speed is important at DB, but both those guys seem to be much better at reading the plays.

 

[BPF]

I personally think run defense as a whole will look bad this season with lack of holding calls. Some teams will definitely take advantage of the lack of calls and do exactly what Atl did all game long and hold until the refs are basically forced to make a call at some point. A big detriment in the run D is a combo of Whitehead and Boston. Whitehead takes the absolute worst angles I have ever seen, and Tre is apparently afraid to hit anyone. The opposite end of this spectrum is Jeremy Chinn out there looking like a young TD running around and always around the ball, give me like 2 more of him and we have the best D in the league. What a find he has turned out to be, and also I have been impressed with the DEs we have, Weatherly is lowkey a great run stopping DE that we have been missing since Charles Johnson. This bodes well to the type of guys Rhule will find us in FA, which could be the difference between first round playoff potential to SB bound. Was seriously worried after the first two, but I'm firmly a believer now.