Defense - Good read

Article from another site (Panthers Huddle):

Schematically speaking
By Steven Burton

Following a close victory over the Green Bay Packers, the Carolina Panthers advance to 2-2 and remain in the division’s cellar. While the schedule gets easier in the impending weeks, the problems with the Carolina Defense and coaching continue to cause the team to stall and put the end result in danger.

The nails were in the proverbial coffin and Green Bay should’ve been packing it in, but the Carolina defense allowed them back into the game through poor defensive play and even worse defensive schemes. An unspeakable crim considering both the caliber of Brett Favre’s ability and the immense lead the offense put on the board.

The issue was evident when Brett Favre began to pick apart the Carolina Defense: not enough pressure. Time and time again in the NFL community the knock on the Panther’s defense has been that the team is somewhat soft. The illusion is born out of the schematic failures from the coaching staff. Jack Del Rio’s schemes were simply brilliant and the same success that he experienced during his tenure was expected to carry over when his understudy (then defensive line coach) Mike Trgovac took over. What was seemingly overlooked however was the fact that Del Rio had so much success because of his creativity and ability to make adjustments in order to deal with superior play from the opposing offense.

As was mentioned in a previous article “Steel Sieve to Steel Curtain” the Panther’s defense relies on pressure to be effective. It was successful against the Patriots but unsuccessful against both the Dolphins and the Saints due to the pressure or therefore lack of placed by the defense on the opposing team. Monday night’s game highlighted the problem that when our defensive line does not get pressure in the zone scheme, Trgovac will not search for another way to cause pre or post snap panic. The majority of the fourth quarter defense being on its heels was due in large part to the hurry up situation and crowd noise but the first quarter defense reinforces the issues with the play calling.

In the beginning of the game, offensively, a team such as the Green Bay Packers will attempt to run the ball and gain some control of the game. In doing so the defensive line is tired because of the sheer amount of exertion during this probing stage of the game. Alternatively if a team comes out passing then the offensive Line remains relatively fresh and therefore does not have the same issues experienced later in the game with fatigue and the loss of speed. As pointed out by Andy Little in his article “1st Quarter Defense” this is becoming a large issue for the Carolina Panthers.

What needs to be done to fix this issue is rather simple. Utilize the defensive line rotation scheme, be more creative and bring the blitz. The Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons have experienced good defensive play especially in the last season. Atlanta and Philadelphia both employ the system of defensive line rotation. Due to this the Atlanta Falcons led the NFL last season in sacks and were able to hamper the Panther’s Delhomme in the two meetings forcing turnovers. The Philadelphia Eagle’s Jim Johnson is renowned for his ability to attack an offense and has the pieces in place to do so, many of which are similar to Carolina’s. Some of the blitzes in our arsenal should include safety blitzes using rookie Thomas Davis (due to his speed), and the underused linebacker blitzes possibly with the same player.

The defensive line (outside of Mike Rucker) has been a disappointment thus far in the season. Jack Del Rio utilized stunts, rips, pulls, shifts and varying formations in order to throw off protection schemes. Mike Trgovac barely manages to get the four or occasionally five linemen in a situation to obtain more than one sack in a single game-more disturbingly with the league’s best left defensive end at his disposal. Why not allow Peppers to shift along the line until he finds his niche’ or target in similar style to how the late Reggie White was used for his various teams? Perhaps allowing Peppers to actually rove and stand like a linebacker or shift out and come around the corner without contact in a similar vein to how Michael Strahan has been used at times by New York. Why not try anything to generate pressure when it is needed in the Carolina Panther’s system, especially with hybrid players like Thomas Davis and Julius Peppers who undoubtedly have the capability to take over a game if properly unleashed.

Sending the blitz and altering the defense to be more aggressive will lead to the occasional big play given up by the defense, but this is where confidence in the team’s offense and defensive backs comes in. Aggressive play from the defense will lead to turnovers and poor decisions from the average and inexperienced quarterback’s in the league some of which are ahead in the Panther’s schedule. Facing the Arizona Cardinals next week presents the Panther’s with a traditional bane, a mobile quarterback, which is why the defensive schemes must be altered to bring more pressure and more importantly consistent hits on the signal caller.

Final point:
Carolina has the potential and personnel to not only win the NFC South but also the conference. Not one team in the National Football League would be able to stop this unit if everything came together. Seemingly however the issue is not when the team will come together or why the team will come together but, how will the coaching staff put them in the position to do so. Can Trgovac get it together, take off the diapers (to use a Dick Vermeil verbiage) and allow the defense to crack the skulls it is capable of destroying or will John Fox need to take upon himself the responsibility of defensive game calling? This team has a chance to be special, in this era of Free Agency and Salary Cap seldom does a team with the Panther’s potential come along primed for a run at the Super Bowl. The fans, the alumni, the injured and the sick involved with the Panther’s all want to see Carolina succeed; it all depends on whether the coaches can find it within themselves and their playbooks to make it happen.

 

I want to agree with most of this article, but I can't.

A lot of what he's suggesting actually is being done -- moving Pep, letting him be a standup LB, blitzing the safety, etc.

I do, however, agree that Trgo is probably being too conservative/overprotective, even with our overrated secondary. Lucas can stand on an island and be fine. Gamble really isn't a bad cover corner at times, but he plays scared and that cripples his playmaking potential. The biggest weakness I see is not at corner, but at safety. And with the front seven we have on the field, safety is a place I think it might be okay to be conservative and get away with it. They just have to remember how to tackle.

 

But wouldn't more consistent (and successful) pressure on the QB's ultimately make the suspect secondary better? Certainly there are some QBs who can continue to throw accurately when they get the chance even when harrassed, but an awful lot of them (ours included) are going to be much less accurate when they do get the chance to throw. I think on perfect throws and routes our secondary sometimes struggles, but if the routes are having to be changed because the QB is running for his life, then you're going to "create" bad throws, WRs changing a route just as the ball is released and that route might not match the throw. I just think letting our guys get more pressure will mostly help - yes we'll get burned now and then but hey, we're already doing that without pressure.

One of the things Lucas was excited about even before he arrived here was playing behind a line that was "in the QBs face all day" - he said that our secondary would benefit greatly from that and he'd not had the chance to play in the kind of situation he anticipated (wrongly so) here.

 

that's a ridiculous article, the majority of what he's suggesting is already being done. Thomas Davis is blitzing. Just because the blitzer is getting picked up at the LOS, doesn't mean we aren't blitzing. I do agree about the lack of adjustments though.

 

Pay attention!

If anyone was looking closely, they could have seen Peppers and Rucker lined up together on the right side several times on Monday night. :imagestor

 

Ugh. Panthers Huddle. I stopped reading there. I don't take my own writing seriously enough for it to be proof of anything, and I could buy and sell this guy's writings with what I mumble in my sleep.

So I take it he was bitching about a lot of stuff we actually do? Nice work.

 

I didn't notice. I'll try to go back and look. I don't suppose you remember when it was.

 

I saw them on the right too. Not sure when, believe it was probably 2nd half.

It didn't take me long to find Peppers on the right...the 1st and 2nd GB possessions.

About 12:10 left in the 2nd qtr is another.

At 12:30 in the 3rd Pep and Ruck were the right 2 in a 4 down linemen set.

 

I made mention of it a few times first half. wasn't the 3-4 look we had v/s NE, was a 5-DL look used to combat their Tackle Eligible at times, and sometimes just a pass set we used.

 

Minter refuted all this in today's Observer. I must admit that I got a kick out of the fact that he said many of the things I've already said here; namely that most fans don't know football and that we've been bringing pressure, it just hasn't been getting to the QB (usually because teams are using short drops).