Panthers/Jags game thread.

Leftwich out doesn't equal "their second string"

 

It was the second string defense we scored the td against and at least they said it was the second string offense we got the sack/fumble against.

 

Maurice Williams is the starting RT, so the first string offense was in except for Leftwich, but yes, the second string defense was in for the most part when we scored our TD.

 

First Quarter thoughts:
* On the first play, Wahle and Hartwig opened a nice hole right up the middle on those two big DTs.

* Second play, Gaines was lined up in the backfield as an off-set FB and just completely whiffed on the blitzing SLB, who made the tackle.

* Our play action is terrible. The linebackers and DBs aren't fooled for even one step.

* Jake always throws off his back foot when he sees the blitz, even when a guy isn't in his face. That's what he did on the hitch to Carter, but it was ok because the CB was playing off.

* Mathis has poor hands. He got good leverage on Meier, but his hands slid off and Mathis ended up wrapping his arms around him. Prepare for holding calls.

* DE shed Gaines easily to make the tackle on a run.

* Hartwig was beaten on pass pro when Mathis looked outside too soon instead of giving help. Pressure forced a rushed pass that went incomplete.

* Colbert made a nice move to beat Cousin out of the slot, and Jake threw a beautiful ball.

* Ironically that fake toss we ran would have worked better as an actual toss, since Foster could have gotten the corner. Brian Williams pealed off and got back to cover the end zone, which is where he nearly intercepted the pass.

* On the Foster pick play, Rashean Mathis was covering Foster so Jake never should have thrown there anyway. Only thing I can think of is if they were expecting zone.

* On the Kemo sack, I figured out why it happened. Jenkins was double-teamed on the play but actually drove the center into Naeole, who got his feet tangled up and lost his balance, causing him to get high and allow Kemo to push by his outside shoulder for the sack. Awesome that Jenkins could do that to a double team.

* Morgan and Davis appear to be the primary nickel backs. I don't know why they love to have Morgan out there in those situations, because he's horrible in pass coverage.

* On the deep pass to Carter that Grant should have intercepted, Jake again threw a floater off his back foot when blitzed even though he had room to step into the throw.

* In most nickel plays, Gamble was lined up over the slot. On one he was blitzing and helped out against a run play.

* TD didn't stand out, but I saw one tackle out of the nickel where he moved around the guard and got the tackle after three yards.

* I don't know if it's a standard call for Minter to FS blitz against a 1 WR set, but we were in a 4-3 over and Minter came up to help seal the backside. Adams had great penetration but missed the tackle on Taylor in the backfield.

* Both teams were running a lot of 3 WR sets, which was interesting considering that both were missing a starting WR.

* Jenkins just rag-dolled his man and stuffed a draw.

* Anderson's sack came out of the nickel where we had a 2 LB twist. I couldn't see who the other guy was, maybe Adams, but he came first on the blitz and blew up the pass pro RB, and Anderson came on the twist behind him for a free shot on Leftwich.

 

Second quarter thoughts (don't know if I'll do the 3rd and 4th):
* Key does a nice job of going up to get that high ball.

* Toss sweep to DW didn't work because the DE blew up Key's crack back attempt, and to add insult to injury, Key was called for holding.

* DW was solid in pass protection, although I'd like to see him man up more instead of cutting.

* Carter adjusts to the ball really well in the air. He looks more agile than I remember him being.

* Faced an 8 man front on 3rd and 1. Hoover and to a lesser extent Mathis whiffed on their blocks in the hole, and no one picked up the backside LB, who crunched DW. No chance.

* TD was engulfed by the tackle on a stretch run from Taylor that gained 7 yards.

* We blitzed CBs a lot, and at one point on two consecutive plays. Draft was slow to get out to cover the flat, which resulted in a first down.

* TD looked good in man coverage, and Branch was playing nicely over the top on the INT, which was strictly an overthrow.

* Hoover sucks. If he isn't whiffing then he's getting stuffed at the point of attack. The SLB just blew him up in the hole, leaving DW no place to go. Is this why we're running more 3 WR?

* We ran that toss again, but for real this time. DE wasn't fooled, but DW still turned nothing into something by getting the corner and 3 yards.

* Jake has pressure and floated that pass to Carter in the flat that nearly got him killed.

* D. Lewis gets nice push up the middle. He had an interesting technique where he grabbed the guard's shoulder pads and was like rocking him back and forth to get the guy off balance. Lewis drove him right back into Leftwich.

* 58 and 28 blitzed on a smoke route that gained a first down. Perfect call for Jax there, but Branch almost tipped it by being aware and jumping.

* G. Jones broke Draft's tackle to get a first down. Branch came up and made the play, but not after he got a couple of yards first.

* Diggs was playing very loosely off of Drew out of the backfield and gave up an easy completion.

* Jenkins timed a snap perfectly and disrupted the timing of an off-tackle run. Drew actually blasted into his pulling guard, knocking him down, then bounced outside where Marshall made a nice ankle tackle.

* DW had a decent kickoff return.

* Goings looked good on blitz pickup, allowing Hoover to make a nice catch.

* I don't know if it was designed or not, but Gross washed down the DE and Mathis kicked out the DT on Goings' long run. Looked to me like they just took the linemen where they wanted to go instead of it being drawn up that way.

* The one time PA works, Jake overthrows a wide open Colbert.

* On the play where 59 hit Jake, I don't know what exactly went wrong. I wonder if Gaines was supposed to help on blitz pickup instead of going on his route since there were three guys coming on that side. The LDT ended up twisting to the right, so Mathis tried to get Gross' man and Gross tried to get out to 59, but couldn't.

* 4th and 2 was an easy call, as Jax had a safety covering Key. High throw on the slant meant an easy first.

* I didn't think there was any pass inteference on the throw to the endzone.

* Jake has already shown disturbing signs that he'll lock on to Key. He stared him down on 1st and goal, while Goings was wide ass open in the flat to the other side.

* Mathis and Gross washed down nicely on the Goings TD, who cut back behind them.

* Draft and Anderson were slow to recognize the screen out of nickel coverage.

* Peppers' sack was beautiful because of the way he used his hands. He got the edge on M. Williams because he slapped his hands away and then got on his outside shoulder. I hope he does that more often. I also noticed that he was getting held and even face-masked often but got no calls.

* Just to reiterate, both teams were running 3 WR maybe half to two thirds of the time. That struck me as odd.

 

Jenks must be really good at picking up on subtlties of the opposing QB because he was the one who figured out what the Dallas QB did right before snapping at the playoff game, and in Jax I thought he had to be offsides on that one play. That's just one more thing he brings being out there because I remember that Dallas game after Jenks clued the others in, our whole front line was in the backfield before plays could even develop.

 

we seemed to be rotating nickel personnel a lot. Adams and Anderson were getting a lot of play, Bush was in there 1st quarter, and Marshall obviously gave the one play up to Williams.

Carstens got blown up, the Greg Jones run ~2:08. It's allright that he gets moved a little on the doubleteam. Shouldn't, because if you can't hold your ground you make a pile, but as bad as getting blown off the ball when they're running in your hole, he had a chance at the tackle about 5 yards upfield and halfheartedly missed an armtackle. Davis comes in and crashes the center, which is a good move for him even though he gets a little turned around; it looks like, to that point, the run would've been to the right, that's where the FB was going, and it's how Carstens is able to disengage to have a shot at the play.

Saw Jenkins try a spin move that it looks like he'd decided to use before the snap, because he had a doubleteam and that's about the worst thing you can do for a doubleteam other than fall down. He almost pulled it off, though, because it spun him to get leverage on the outside shoulder of the guard and got him away from the center.

 

Nice comments. Has anyone noticed Cramer, Seidman, or King making any blocks to speak of? I haven't.