The Dowdle Mirage - Play Calling Problems

[Aussie Tank]

18 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

Just quoting myself here to ask the question to anyone else still coming into this thread......

Was anyone actually pleased with today's play calling?

Because lost in all this T-Mac stuff was that my initial point of this tread was that the play calling sucked and we should't absolve Canales for it because we had a 200 yard rusher, as that 200 yards was because of a few big plays, not because of great play calling for 60 minutes, which I tried to re-explain here in this quoted post.

If that's controversial, then I'm sorry, but to me, it's the very objective truth.

There was way too much 5 wide we were gashing them and we took the threat of play action out of the plays 

[jfra78]

8 minutes ago, Aussie Tank said:

Another game where TMac had a deep pass bounce off his hands that were advertised as vice grips 

7% drop rate so far, about the same as XL last year.  Wheres the outrage?

[tukafan21]

22 minutes ago, Aussie Tank said:

Another game where TMac had a deep pass bounce off his hands that were advertised as vice grips 

C'mon now, is this a serious comment?

The ball was thrown behind him, he made a leaping twisting attempt at the ball while the defender was yanking him down by the jersey.

If they don't pick up that flag, not a single person is calling that a drop or a "deep pass bounce off his hands" like that.

I've had no problems with people calling out the actual drops that he has had, but far too many people are attributing the uber difficult plays he wasn't able to make as drops, just insane.

[Aussie Tank]

1 hour ago, tukafan21 said:

C'mon now, is this a serious comment?

The ball was thrown behind him, he made a leaping twisting attempt at the ball while the defender was yanking him down by the jersey.

If they don't pick up that flag, not a single person is calling that a drop or a "deep pass bounce off his hands" like that.

I've had no problems with people calling out the actual drops that he has had, but far too many people are attributing the uber difficult plays he wasn't able to make as drops, just insane.

He's not a separator he was drafted to be able to catch those 1 on 1s. He got 2 hands too it so he should of caught it 

[tukafan21]

12 minutes ago, Aussie Tank said:

He's not a separator he was drafted to be able to catch those 1 on 1s. He got 2 hands too it so he should of caught it 

Complete nonsense

It was a terrible throw and clear blatant PI, the only reason he even got his hands on the ball is because of how good he is, him not making THAT catch is insane to put on him.  I have no problem calling him out when he drops one he should have caught, have done it multiple times this year already, but this wasn't one of them.

The fan base is already so used to his crazy catches that they're chalking all non catches that hit his hands up to his fault already, it's wild.

He's going to end up with around 1,200 yards as a rookie with Bryce as his QB, Canales as his play caller, and no legitimate 2nd receiving option (our 2nd leading receiver right now is Brycen with 108 yards).   And all of that on only a 21% target share so far, but people seem to think he has XL level drops problems. 

Edited October 6, 2025 by tukafan21

[Aussie Tank]

4 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

Complete nonsense

It was a terrible throw and clear blatant PI, the only reason he even got his hands on the ball is because of how good he is, him not making THAT catch is insane to put on him.  I have no problem calling him out when he drops one he should have caught, have done it multiple times this year already, but this wasn't one of them.

The fan base is already so used to his crazy catches that they're chalking all non catches that hit his hands up to his fault already, it's wild.

He's going to end up with around 1,200 yards as a rookie with Bryce as his QB, Canales as his play caller, and no legitimate 2nd receiving option (our 2nd leading receiver right now is Brycen with 108 yards).   And all of that on only a 21% target share so far, but people seem to think he has XL level drops problems. 

If he wasn't tattooed on your back you would be saying the same as me 

[tukafan21]

1 minute ago, Aussie Tank said:

If he wasn't tattooed on your back you would be saying the same as me 

No I wouldn't, because I have a brain and eyes.  The pass was thrown behind him, he had to make a leaping twisting attempt at the ball while the defending was pulling him down by the jersey and keeping him from getting proper extension and body control.

Could he have still made the catch?

Sure, of course.

But SHOULD he have made the catch?

Absolutely not, it would have been an amazing play to make, and one he'll make in the future, and one that other elite players could and do make, but those same elite players will also not complete some of those same type of plays as well, and nobody then faults them for it.

There is no player in the history of the game that I'd have said that about with that particular play, whether that was T-Mac or Jerry Rice, that would have been an amazing catch if it was completed and a great effort if it wasn't.

[BEASTfromdaEAST]

Does OP know that you have to run negative plays sometimes to set up home runs?

[dep]

I too started Tmac in Fantasy and want him to catch more 

[Diehardpanth02]

3 hours ago, tukafan21 said:

I know full well this post is about to get poo'd into oblivion, but I think it's important to not look at final box scores when judging how a game went, especially in regards to play calling and game plans.

A friend of mine was giving me poo for how I can complain that we didn't throw to T-Mac more when "you won because you were just riding the hot hand with Dowdle."

So I just went and looked at the play by play and he had 162 of his 206 yards on just 6 of his 23 carries, which means he had 44 yard on his other 17 carries, or just 2.6 yards per carry.

That's not riding the hot hand over the course of a game, that's a player having a handful of big plays, partially due to some poor tackling, and thus having a final box score that jumps off the page.

This is why T-Mac's lack of targets in the 2nd half bothers me so much, because what the hell were we actually doing out there?  It means the overhwelming majority of our play calls ended up in a minimal gain or dink and dunks to our lesser pass catchers who combined for 125 yards on 22 targets, or a measly 5.7 yards per pass attempt.

So yes, full credit to Dowdle for having a career game, but his end box score doesn't tell the story about the entire game and the issues with out play calling.

Trying to take away 6 big carries and chopping it up to bad tackling is an insanely bad take. What Rico did today was nothing short of amazing. He put the team on his back. And I’ll even go as far to give the panthers credit for actually recognizing the run was effective. Also Kudos to the OLine and even the receivers for great blocking to accomplish it.

just a straight up dookie take.

Edited October 6, 2025 by Diehardpanth02
Dowdle not doodle

[csx]

1 hour ago, jfra78 said:

7% drop rate so far, about the same as XL last year.  Wheres the outrage?

Its not 7% and hes way down the sorted list doing significantly better than many of the top receivers.

Twice as good as mcconkey for example 

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2025/receiving_advanced.htm

Edited October 6, 2025 by csx

[tukafan21]

8 minutes ago, Diehardpanth02 said:

Trying to take away 6 big carries and chopping it up to bad tackling is an insanely bad take. What Rico did today was nothing short of amazing. He put the team on his back. And I’ll even go as far to give the panthers credit for actually recognizing the run was effective. Also Kudos to the OLine and even the receivers for great blocking to accomplish it.

just a straight up dookie take.

And saying Canales called a good game because of those 6 plays is a good take?

That's my point, I'm saying he called yet another terrible game, but people are going to see the 200 yard rusher in the box score and chalk it up to us calling and playing a great game.

I'm not trying to take anything away from Dowdle or his performance, I'm just saying I think it's more of a mirage in terms of a statement about the offense/team than anything.  If he had put up 200 yards because we were getting 8-12 yard chunks on a consistent basis because we were keeping the defense off balance, then yea, I'm chalking that up to a great Canales play calling game.

6 of our 62 plays accounted for almost 40% of our total offense today.

I don't want to be negative, but I also can't help but call it like I see it, and I don't see a team that is turning a page, I see a team that is making the same mistakes that we've been making since last year, and are being bailed out by playing a team with it's own terrible problems.

I said the same thing after we shutout the Falcons, that it's nice to get a big win like that, but I saw more problems than good in that game too, and then we got embarrassed the next week.  So to me, the "200 yards" is a mirage in the same way the "30-0" was.

I should have left the OP at that, but I brought up T-Mac because we're a team with a clear cut #1 WR and nobody else behind him and we're not targeting him enough in games we're losing.  I'd have said that no matter who that player was, my personal feelings about them aside.

 

[jfra78]

12 minutes ago, csx said:

Its not 7% and hes way down the sorted list doing significantly better than many of the top receivers.

Twice as good as mcconkey for example 

 

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2025/receiving_advanced.htm

This isn't including today's game

[TylerDurden]

Don’t get me wrong, when guys go off for career days like Dowdle just did, it covers a lot of blemishes - hence, the discussion still surrounding Bryce and how we won in spite of him.

But, saying if you take away 6 plays and applying that logic is like the inverse version but the same thing as that poo Bryce-riders do with their “if the receivers had caught these uncatchable balls on these 10 passes, he would’ve had 749 yards passing today” and the hidden yardage bullshit.  

The plays happened.  They were big plays.  That’s what we want.  Statistically, for most players, regardless of talent or position, big plays are the anomaly.  So eliminating them when they happen to hyper focus on what the averages would be without them is wild, respectfully.