Game plan to make O-Line seem better

Ran across this article in The State

Causes are plenty for this lost season. Interesting part in the middle about how we changed our offense for screens and other 3 step drop back passes to compensate for the line. So maybe Fordham and Wharton were not the difference in the o-line play, could just be the scheme to mask the problems....Injuries, changing the playbook from week to week is getting too much to handle. It is only week 8 and I feel like it is week 16
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By RON MORRIS

Columnist


CHARLOTTE -- A NATIONAL FOOTBALL Conference championship and Super Bowl appearance were distant memories Sunday afternoon for the 63,000 or so fans at Bank of America Stadium. They came with final hopes of watching their beloved Carolina Panthers return to the form that made last season so memorable.

Instead, they got a funeral. The 2004 Carolina Panthers’ season was buried Sunday.

“It is a hole,” said Carolina coach Mike Fox. “We’ll have to work very hard and do everything in our power to get better. Right now, we are not playing well enough to win. That’s why we’re 1-5.”

The Panthers would like to believe that six games do not make a season, but there are few signs that make anyone believe Carolina can play well enough during the final 10 games to even make the playoffs. Only one NFL team since 1990 — the 2002 New York Jets — started 1-5 and reached the playoffs. The Panthers will not be the second team to do so.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know (what the problems are),” said Carolina defensive end Mike Rucker. “If I had the answer, I would tell somebody. ... It’s aggravating. I hate losing at anything. That’s why I’m aggravated right now. I’m tired of losing.”

While Rucker could not put his finger on the problems that plague the Panthers, there are several obvious reasons they are not winning. Consider:

• Sunday’s loss was the third in as many home games this season. Granted, the losses were to three of the NFL’s better teams in Green Bay, Atlanta and San Diego, but a playoff team and championship contender must defend its home turf. The Panthers were 6-1 at home a season ago.

“It’s frustrating," Carolina fullback Brad Hoover said. “You don’t want to lose ball games at home. The main thing is our fans have been behind us, and I hope they stay behind us because they’re great. We’re going to eventually get turned around, and we need all the support we can get.”

There were about 10,000 no-shows on Sunday. Another loss at Seattle this week and the no-shows are likely to increase for the following week’s home game against Oakland.

• Carolina has been racked with injuries. Few teams can lose their top wide receiver and running back and expect to stay the course. The Panthers have played most of the early season without receiver Steve Smith and running back Stephen Davis.

On top of that, DeShaun Foster went down with an injury, and Carolina has been forced to play Hoover, a 6-foot, 245-pound fullback at the halfback position. Hoover performed admirably on Sunday, gaining 99 yards on 24 carries, but he does not offer the balance necessary to make the Panthers’ offense go.

Outstanding teams find a way to overcome injuries. Had the Panthers held their ground and come out of the season’s first half with a near-.500 record, they might have remained in the playoff hunt. They face a very favorable November schedule against Oakland, San Francisco, Arizona and Tampa Bay, but the one-win start pretty much negates any chance of positioning themselves for the playoffs.

• Aside from a four-touchdown outburst in the win at Kansas City, the Panthers are averaging 11 points a game.

“Right now, we’re just not scoring enough points to win,” Fox said. “We have to find some way to score some points.”

Quarterback Jake Delhomme is clearly not having a second consecutive stellar season. He completed 17 of 36 passes for 155 yards on Sunday and threw an interception. But the problems on offense hardly fall on Delhomme’s shoulders.

Carolina’s offensive line is a mess. Of the linemen who started in the Super Bowl loss to New England, only center Jeff Mitchell remains at the same position. Due to injuries and position shuffles, only Mitchell and left tackle Jordan Gross have started at the same position all of this season.

On Sunday, Todd Fordham started at right tackle in place of Matt Willig, who was sidelined with the flu. Carolina rookie Travelle Wharton shifted from left tackle to left guard to start in place of Tutan Reyes, who is sidelined with an ankle injury.

As a result, Delhomme rarely set up in the pocket to pass on Sunday. After being chased from sideline to sideline the previous week in a loss at Philadelphia, Delhomme primarily threw screen passes and others that needed only a three-step drop and quick release.
With the offense unable to sustain drives, Carolina’s defense is spending far too much time on the field and late-game collapses are inevitable.

Round and round it goes. An injury here, a poor decision there. A season that started with so much promise is now one of mostly frustration.

“I hate losing,” said defensive tackle Brentson Buckner. “I don’t get along with my wife when I’m losing.”

Buckner, his wife and the Carolina Panthers’ family will learn to live with it this losing season.

 

Damn, when did we fire the coach and hire Mike Fox?

 

The Limo Guy?

 

They need that 22 seat strech Hummer H2 to carry around the members of the IR squad

 

Maybe we could get Leon off the waiver wire???

 

The timing is off, plain and simple, and I think that's what's happening here with Delhomme. 3 step drops aren't really promoting stepping up in the pocket, and I think that's a spot where he's struggled - just not stepping into the heat. He used to be masterful at it, now he hangs back in the pocket, is less decisive, and tends to throw off his back foot more.

The screens don't work. I don't think the dumpoffs are working that well, either - which is concerning, because we can do well off them. The thing that gets me is that we don't run most of the 3 step routes - or don't use them actively, anyway. Slant, the out routes, comeback routes, we don't use them.

It's interesting, with 3 step we use a lot more TE routes. I guess that's what it takes to get the TE involved rather than blocking.

But Jake takes no fewer hits with the 3 step anyway, and we don't seem to be productive with it.