“Gotta be better, I Guess”

[ncfan]

[Waldo]

What was the question he answered?

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, Waldo said:

What was the question he answered?

Yeah, that'd be helpful.

[ncfan]

5 minutes ago, Waldo said:

What was the question he answered?

About the pressure on Reich and the staff.

[LinvilleGorge]

We're 1-8. Gotta be better I guess.

Ya think????

[SaltAndPepper]

With time ticking, is Panthers’ Frank Reich preparing to take over the offense again?

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers managed to lose ground even during their mini-bye, which is on brand for a 2023 season that has soured like month-old milk.

The Arizona Cardinals’ comeback win against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday left the Panthers with the NFL’s worst record at 1-8. In most years that positioning at the top of the draft would be the ultimate consolation prize. But the No. 1 pick belongs to the Chicago Bears.

Given the weekend to think about how he might try to fix a flailing offense over the second half of the season, Frank Reich said he’s still thinking. Specifically, the Panthers’ first-year coach declined to say whether offensive coordinator Thomas Brown would continue calling plays.

That’s twice in four days that Reich had a chance to offer public support to his 37-year-old coordinator, and twice that Reich chose not to do so. It certainly appears that if Reich is going to go down on this sinking ship, he’s going to be the one at the helm.

“Have not totally dialed that in,” Reich said Monday. “We’ve been collaborative to what we do. Still evaluating the whole thing and how it’s actually gonna function.”

 

The Panthers’ offense has been a picture of dysfunction since Week 1. Receivers and tight ends not getting open. Offensive linemen not protecting. Running backs failing to make much out of limited running lanes. And most troubling, rookie quarterback Bryce Young beginning to look like someone who’s a bit unsure of himself as the whole thing has crumbled around him.

While C.J. Stroud is having one of the best seasons ever by a rookie QB, Young has ranked near the bottom of most passing categories all year. Some observers don’t believe Young has gotten much help, including some at the upper-most reaches of the organization.

The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reported “those in power” want to see the Panthers start running an offense that more closely resembles what Young excelled in at Alabama, with more bubble screens and RPOs, the latter of which have been virtually nonexistent in Reich’s scheme.

“We haven’t been as productive in some of those areas as we want to be, and we’ve gotta continue to work on that,” Reich said. “But that’s one of the advantages of him being in (shot)gun. It does bring an element to the run game on some of the RPO stuff that you don’t have from under center.”

Several coaches and executives believe the Panthers are relying too heavily on shotgun and pistol (a mini-shotgun) formations with Young, which limits the effectiveness of play-action passes. They say adding more play-action from under center would slow down the opponents’ pass rush because they’d have to honor the run, and create more separation for receivers between the second and third levels of defenses.

But the 5-foot-10 Young is most comfortable in the shotgun, and Reich indicated that’s where he would continue to align most of the time.

“That’s what Bryce has been good at his whole life. Two percent of his snaps in college — 1 or 2 percent — were under center. We have introduced it. He does do it, he does feel comfortable doing it. There’s no problems doing it,” Reich said. “But as we continue to develop what we’re doing as an offense, for right now it’s just gonna be a smaller part.”

Reich said he’s still mulling potential personnel changes to an offense that ranks 30th in total yards (275.6) and 29th in points (17.0 a game). But arranging the deck chairs likely won’t do much good, according to at least one well-known analyst.

Kirk Herbstreit, who called the Panthers-Bears game on Thursday for Prime, said the Panthers lack the personnel for the offense they want to run with Young. Even if Reich agreed with Herbstreit, that’s obviously nothing he would say publicly.

“With the vision that we have for our offense this year, we don’t need anybody else. We got winning receivers. We got winning tight (ends). We have to just play winning football,” he said. “That starts with me. I have to do a better job as a head coach getting our offense playing more consistently to win football games.”

 

With owner David Tepper frustrated by the offense and its lack of progress, according to Russini, Reich has left open the possibility he will call plays again. When he handed the play-calling duties off to Brown during the bye week, part of Reich’s thinking was Brown would get to break in during a softer portion of the schedule — home games against Houston and Indianapolis, followed by the prime-time game at Chicago.

Instead, the Panthers went 1-2 and managed just two offensive touchdowns in 12 quarters with Brown calling plays for the first time.

“However we’ve done the play calling — whoever’s been doing the play calling — we haven’t performed as an offense. So let me just make that point clear, first of all,” Reich said. “As I look toward, now, the last half of the season, what’s the best dynamic and why? Any decision that’s ultimately made is just gonna be based on that one pure factor. So that’s how we’ll approach it.”

It might not matter if Bill Walsh were calling plays for the Panthers this week. They’ll try to bounce back from Thursday’s anemic effort against the Dallas Cowboys, who boast the league’s third-ranked defense and outgained the New York Giants on Sunday by 468 yards, the largest margin in Cowboys’ history.

Dallas (6-3) opened as a 10-point favorite against the Panthers, who have not been favored in a game all season and might not be. Cowboys fans are expected to take over Bank of America Stadium, a scene that is becoming all too common in Charlotte. Ask Matt Rhule, who was fired last October a day after the San Francisco 49ers routed the Panthers 37-15 in front of a sea of red jerseys at BoA.

Steve Wilks took over and went 6-6 as interim coach. But Tepper wanted to hire the franchise’s first offensive-minded head coach and, after Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson backed out, signed Reich to a four-year deal. Not 10 games into that contract, Reich is already facing questions about his future, which means Panthers players are facing questions about Reich’s future, too.

“Honestly, it hasn’t crossed my mind at all if I’m being real with you,” left tackle Ikem Ekwonu said. “Obviously, we love coach Reich. We want him here. Gotta be better, I guess. Just make sure we don’t put guys in those positions.”

That the Panthers are back in this position already is hard to believe. While the defense and special teams have played well, especially of late, the offense has been unwatchable at times.

That’s Reich’s baby, and he might be running out of time to make it right.

Here's the full article on The Athletic. 

[Mr. Scot]

I don't want Reich to call plays again.

Handing the playcalling over to Jim Caldwell would be an option though.

[Daeavorn]

Of course Bryce prefers shotgun, he can't see over the linemen under center. 

[Camp Fodder]

Frank has no answers. Never thought this would turn out worse than when Rhule was here

[hepcat]

8 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

I don't want Reich to call plays again.

Handing the playcalling over to Jim Caldwell would be an option though.

They could hand over playcalling to a 6th grader using Ask Madden and it would probably work better.

[hepcat]

1 minute ago, Camp Fodder said:

Frank has no answers. Never thought this would turn out worse than when Rhule was here

Frank is harder to hate than Matt Rhule which frustrates me. I didn’t get the impression Matt Rhule gave a sh*t and he was so wildly unqualified for the job and ridiculously overpaid that he was a target of vitriol. Frank seems like a decent man, same as Ron Rivera, so it’s harder to just outright hate them. He sucks as a coach though that much is clear and the offense which was supposed to be his specialty is the worst in the NFL. Another massive swing and a miss for David “I know better than you because I’m a billionaire” Tepper

[TheBigKat]

I like Ikem and he's flashed that he can be a very good player. I think he's in a terrible coaching scheme 

[rayzor]

how the hell could we not be better than we were with rhule?

that's the thing that baffles me. 

at some point we have to figure out that maybe...just maybe...it's an organizational flaw. 

[raleigh-panther]

28 minutes ago, ncfan said:

About the pressure on Reich and the staff.

This pic was shared by another link 

From his press conference earlier this year to now…either it’s lack of hair dye and a shave or the stress is killing him