How do we get our run game going?

Carolina running backs 'in a funk'

By Darin Gantt The Herald
(Published October 21‚ 2005)

CHARLOTTE -- When asked what was wrong with the Carolina Panthers' running game, offensive coordinator Dan Henning offered a reasoned, measured, scientific response.

Running back DeShaun Foster's more the intuitive sort.

"We're just in a funk, I guess," Foster said. "I don't know."

Whether you lean toward the art or the science, the bottom line is the Panthers haven't been able to run the ball with any consistency.

They're 21st in the league in yards per game (89.5), but 32nd in yards per rush (3.1), indicating that they're trying, just not succeeding.

They've scored when they needed to (tied for fourth in the league in rushing touchdowns), but also failed to convert first downs on the ground (none last week).

They've been without the big play, with only 10 rushes of 10 yards or longer, and only three teams have fewer.

That's sent the coaching staff back to the drawing board.

Henning said the team was in the midst of a "critical analysis" of the running game, with coaches breaking down tapes to their smallest details, quantifying what's working and what isn't.

"We have to spend this off week trying to figure out if there's a better way to approach the run game, and are we doing exactly what we want to be doing with who we're doing it with," Henning said. "So we've got the quality control apparatus in place and operating."

When asked if the breakdowns centered on the what or the who, Henning said he was still figuring that out.

"I don't know that yet," he said. "There are times when we've run the ball efficiently. And then there are times we've been real poor at it, sometimes on the same play. So there's an inconsistency element there.

"You have to study your people, find out what they do best, and lean on that. So we've done an evaluation, and in some cases we think we're right on and just need to execute better. And some places we're going to have to make a couple of adjustments on either the formation we run something out of or the direction we run it in."

What's not in the picture, Henning said, were massive personnel changes.

"If we thought so, we'd have done it, OK," Henning said.

The veteran coordinator said that in general terms, the run blocking hasn't been as crisp as hoped.

The line has been stable throughout the season, although it was missing key blockers Brad Hoover and Kris Mangum for most of the Lions game, in which it managed 54 yards on 22 carries, an embarrassing 2.2 yards per.

There are certainly other mitigating factors a work. Teams have played more eight-man fronts than the Panthers anticipated. They've also trailed in several games when running regularly wasn't a realistic option.

"The opponent is trying to take it away in the worst way, while still trying to take Steve (Smith) away," Henning said. "We have to react to whichever way they go.

"The big thing is we're not doing as good a job as we'd like to do blocking."

He conceded there were times backs didn't hit holes at the right times. While that seems to point to 31-year-old Stephen Davis, Henning said no individual was to blame.

Davis is averaging a career-worst 3.1-yards per carry, and it's easy to draw the line between that and his comeback from microfracture surgery on his right knee.

"We're not interested in evaluating this thing off statistics," Henning said. "We're looking at it strictly from a non-emotional, technical standpoint. We think Stephen's doing the job we're asking him to do.

"Sometimes the hole's not there when he's in the best position and sometimes the hole's there when he's not in the best position. We have to do a better job totally as coaches and players of executing the running game."

Foster shrugged off questions about Davis' health, since he went through the same procedure. Of course, he did it when he was 23, so there's a difference. Foster maintained there was no drop-off in his teammate's game.

"It's all the same; there's nothing I would say, nothing noticeable," Foster said. "Just as quick, as explosive. If he wouldn't have had this injury, we wouldn't be talking about the run game like this.

"It's not that Stephen's not well. It's the luck of the draw. It just happens that last year he got hurt, and this year we're not running the ball the way we'd like to."

Coincidence? Perhaps.

Foster's also quick to point out the rushing touchdowns, and that the Panthers were 4-2 entering the bye weekend.

"We're running it when we need to, I guess," he said.

 

Anyone get the feeling that sportswriters just read message boards, polish up the language, and post those thoughts as their own?

 

unless i missed it, we don't have anyone on here interviewing the players and coaches, which adds a lot of interest even if you have to take everything with a grain of salt. if they are reading the worries here and adding substance to the subject then that is a good thing. i liked the "quality control apparatus" and the "We're not interested in evaluating this thing off statistics" and the "Sometimes the hole's not there when he's in the best position and sometimes the hole's there when he's not in the best position" (been there) quotes. course it could be that they should address their funtional fixation with the run.

 

I was just wondering how much we miss Moose's run blocking. Maybe I'll browse the stats and see how many tackles opponents' secondaries are racking up.

 

hell, Moose was blocking ends. And pretty well.

 

More than a few of us said that we'd probably miss Moose in the run game more than anywhere else, but truth be told, I don't think that has been a major factor in the run woes. We actually haven't even tried many outside runs, so the WRs aren't coming into play that often.

 

A person could probably connect the two, right or wrong, that fewer outside runs is partly connected to that lack of Muhammad sealing the contain end or pursuing linebacker.

Of course, a similar connection could come from a relative lack of blocking execution overall causes outside runs to be that much riskier.

 

One might jump to that conclusion, but it would be wrong. According to the stats, we've actually had greater success per outside attempt this season than last. Honestly I'm not sure why we don't run outside the tackles anymore.

 

>> Honestly I'm not sure why we don't run outside the tackles anymore.

the bigger curiousity to me is why we aren't running behind the left guard like we did in 2003. i figured with wahle and then with davis back we would see a lot of that again this season. we haven't been real successful there but it seems like we rarely try. do you think wharton is enough of a liability to allow teams to shut us down in the run on the left side? that's the only thing that i can figure as wahle looks solid to me.

 

I think it was mentioned earlier in this thread (or if not then in another thread), but we are running behind left guard far more than any other lineman. It's not a majority of the time, but still far more than anywhere else. Moreover, we're doing much better when running there than when running behind Mitchell or Reyes.