Greg Cosell's (Shutdown Corner) Spotlight Team .... Carolina Panthers

[Monday Night Shyamalan]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/greg-cosell-spotlight-team-carolina-panthers-winning-defense-220720389--nfl.html

 

 

I think the overlooked element of the Carolina Panthers and their three-game winning streak is the defense, because everyone focuses on quarterback Cam Newton.

Carolina's front seven is exceptional. And I think Sean McDermott, their defensive coordinator, has done a great job with his coverage concepts to camouflage some individual weaknesses in the secondary. We think of coverage as just the secondary, and it’s not just them. The coverage concepts include linebackers, and the Panthers have two excellent coverage linebackers.

 

The Panthers play nickel often, and I’d argue Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis are the fastest pair of nickel linebackers in the NFL. That’s a very overlooked element of defense if you’re going to play nickel instead of dime.

Carolina also has a terrific defensive line rotation with multidimensional and versatile players. Greg Hardy is a player who rarely gets talked about, but he plays defensive tackle and defensive end and is a really good player. They’ve gotten good snaps out of both rookies at defensive tackle, Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short, who is really talented physically but played too many snaps in college. He has played about 35 snaps a game this season and has been really effective.

Defensively, they’re very good. Then offensively, they have a lot of talent and many dimensions, which makes them tough to defend.

 

read more at the link.

[Cary Kollins]

"The Panthers also have some flaws."

Bullpoo who is this hack!

[MHS831]

Cam has been better during the streak.  What is the variable?  Better preparation, according to Cam.  Why is this hard for people to digest?  Cam was not deserving of praise in the first few games.  He is now.  Good. 

[Mr. Scot]

"The Panthers also have some flaws."

Bullpoo who is this hack!

Cosell is actually among the better analysts you'll find these days.

[Frizzy350]

Anybody ever think that maybe when Cam gets time to you know, go through his progressions and has room to step up in a pocket he's absolutely lights out?

 

Thank the poor defenses we've played as of late and Shula for tossing in more screens and quick developing plays to wear down those Dlinemen.

[Kuech the Sneak]

Agree with everything in that article, especially the part about if we're truly improving we should beat a struggling Atlanta team

[Jackofalltrades]

Brandon LaFell is a better No. 2 receiver than most people think,

This can't be, the Huddle has said and PROVEN time and time again that LaFell sucks and we have no number 2 WR!

[thunderraiden]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/greg-cosell-spotlight-team-carolina-panthers-winning-defense-220720389--nfl.html

 

 

I think the overlooked element of the Carolina Panthers and their three-game winning streak is the defense, because everyone focuses on quarterback Cam Newton.

Carolina's front seven is exceptional. And I think Sean McDermott, their defensive coordinator, has done a great job with his coverage concepts to camouflage some individual weaknesses in the secondary. We think of coverage as just the secondary, and it’s not just them. The coverage concepts include linebackers, and the Panthers have two excellent coverage linebackers.

 

The Panthers play nickel often, and I’d argue Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis are the fastest pair of nickel linebackers in the NFL. That’s a very overlooked element of defense if you’re going to play nickel instead of dime.

Carolina also has a terrific defensive line rotation with multidimensional and versatile players. Greg Hardy is a player who rarely gets talked about, but he plays defensive tackle and defensive end and is a really good player. They’ve gotten good snaps out of both rookies at defensive tackle, Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short, who is really talented physically but played too many snaps in college. He has played about 35 snaps a game this season and has been really effective.

Defensively, they’re very good. Then offensively, they have a lot of talent and many dimensions, which makes them tough to defend.

I think the issue with Newton has always been that he's a little slow to process and isolate the necessary information. He has been a beat late with throws, he has had some issues with accuracy. I think over the last three or four games – and nobody can answer why, but it’s there on film – he is processing better, the ball is coming out of his hand a lot quicker to the right receiver at the right time and he has recognized coverages better.

Also, their run game is extremely versatile and difficult to defend because so much involves Newton. When your quarterback is part of your run game, you can do so much more in the backfield with formation, personnel and backfield actions. The defense has to account for the quarterback as part of the run game. And the Panthers do a lot of different things in the run game.

 

 

PLZ do not post entire article due to copywrite and other nasty legal things.

[Kuech the Sneak]

Ready to see this defense eat on Sunday

[Jackofalltrades]

PLZ do not post entire article due to copywrite and other nasty legal things.

He posted the link, it's not a copy write issue, but posting snippets is encouraged as we don't want to take page views from the originating sites.

[wine-o and cheese-doodle]

LaFell is one of those receivers that can drop one pass and bring out the cries of, "we need a #2". Then when he continues to make clutch catches somehow he is not mentioned until he drops another one. But he has improved every year and is way above average.

[CPF4LIFE]

LaFell is one of those receivers that can drop one pass and bring out the cries of, "we need a #2". Then when he continues to make clutch catches somehow he is not mentioned until he drops another one. But he has improved every year and is way above average.

 

Sure

[KendrickPanther]

They ran a basic quarterback power with the right guard pulling left, but with a read option element added to it.

 

 

We pretty much brought back the Quarterback run to the point they use words like "basic" to describe it. I know Vick ran a few designed runs but it was more of a gimmick based on his speed. The Panthers have made the well designed QB run in vogue. Just like we did the Wildcat. But I'm sure ESPN will tell you Shanahan and Harbaugh invented it.

[EMSMedic79]

Good article.

 

I hope we can improve the secondary next season... It's nice having a dominate front seven, but if that pressure doesn't get there, we always get burned.