When people around the league heard that Scott Turner had been promoted to offensive coordinator this week, they all had the same advice for the 37-year old who began his NFL coaching career with the Panthers in 2011 before making stops in Cleveland, Minnesota and the University of Michigan and then landing back in Carolina last season as quarterbacks coach when his father Norv was brought in as offensive coordinator.
Be yourself.
That’s exactly what the younger Turner did as he took over playcalling duties and offensive coordinator title from his father and while the result may not have been exactly what the Panthers wanted in a 40-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, there were flashes of the kinds of mismatches Turner could create with wrinkles to his father’s scheme.
“You can see the innovation in his mind of what he would like to do and what he saw when he saw a defense and the kind of mismatches he thought he could create,” interim head coach Fewell said last week. “I think he has groomed himself through the years of being with his dad.”
“I’ve worked with a lot of different coaches, received a lot of different text messages from different people, people that have done a lot this themselves and they said, ‘Go be yourself,” said Turner. “You’ve been around this game, you know this game, basically call what you think is going to work.”
“It’s never hard for me to be myself.”
Turner chose to remain on the sidelines instead of heading to the coaches booth, working with quarterback Kyle Allen in between drives – he’s always been the voice in Allen’s helmet as the plays previously were relayed from Norv to Scott before being called into Allen, but now he’s the one making the decisions. While Allen said he didn’t notice that much of a difference, there were some nuances – the Panthers ran the ball three consecutive times to open the game, but three different players carried the ball – including Curtis Samuel, who lined up in the backfield for the first time this season.
“I mean I’ve been playing running back my whole life, so whenever I get the opportunity to run the ball, it just comes naturally to me,” said Samuel, who had three carries for 17 yards and became the second wide receiver in Panthers franchise history to have more than 100 yards rushing in a season – but echoed the sentiment that he didn’t notice wholesale differences in playcaling between the father and son. “Nothing really different, I mean we had opportunities to make plays, we’ve just got to make them.”
While the term missed opportunities doesn’t get used as often nowadays, the Panthers certainly did in Atlanta – the same issues that have plagued the Panthers all season reared their ugly head on Sunday. Carolina struggled to protect Kyle Allen as he was sacked five more times by the Falcons and the Panthers now rank second in the NFL in sacks allowed at an even 50. The team that ranks 29th in the league at converting third downs only converted three of ten chances – mostly due to not picking up enough yardage on first and second downs.
“Honestly, I thought [Turner] did a good job,” said Christian McCaffrey, who had 135 scrimmage yards and continues to lead the league in the category. “We’ve got to do a better job of executing; it’s tough to call plays on second-and-longs, third-and-longs. We have to do a really good job – it’s the same story, just a different week – of eliminating the self-inflicted wounds.”
Kyle Allen also missed Curtis Samuel on multiple deep balls, a recurring theme over the past two months.
But there were flashes of what the Scott Turner offense can provide – and that’s what the Panthers want to see for the final four-game stretch of the season: the Panthers had 27 first downs, their most of the season, and seven players had receptions for only the third time this season and the first since Week 8.
Those flashes are what the Panthers will cling to as the season fades to darkness.
Meanwhile, the other side of the ball had a new playcaller – or a couple – as interim head coach Perry Fewell and Eric Washington collaborated on the defensive scheme, but it appeared Fewell did the bulk of the calling during the game and again, the same issues that plagued the Panthers under Ron Rivera as he was the defensive playcaller affected Fewell. The Panthers allowed a bottom three rushing attack to average five yards per carry and gave up chunk plays on both the ground and through the air – and Donte Jackson, who was involved in both of Matt Ryan’s touchdown passes, felt as if he wasn’t put in a position to succeed with the plays being called.
“The [Calvin] Ridley touchdown, first of all, it was bad calls,” said Jackson. “Two horrible calls, two calls that we didn’t call in those situations at all this week in practice.”
The first, a Ridley touchdown that appeared as if Jackson went underneath to help on an Austin Hooper route while Ridley went behind him and walked untouched into the end zone when Eric Reid couldn’t get over in time, was a Cover-2 look and not man-to-man – the second was just the opposite as with the Falcons backed up inside their own ten-yard line, Perry Fewell felt as if the team could use a spark, so he sent both linebackers and Tre Boston on a blitz. Boston got to Ryan a second too late and Ryan put the ball 40 yards downfield for rookie wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, who shrugged off Jackson’s tackle attempt and sped the rest of the way for his first career touchdown on his first career catch and the longest pass of Ryan’s career.
“It was a quick snap,” said Zaccheaus about his 93-yard explosion. “We wanted to get to the ball and just snap the ball fast. They ran cover zero so I knew I had an opportunity and chance to make a play. I was trying to track the ball early and I couldn’t see it until like the last second. I’m grateful I found it and just made a play for the team.”
Again, while Jackson agreed that he could have made the tackle, he felt like he wasn’t set up for success with the playcall.
“Backed up third and seven. Called an engage eight blitz, we sent everybody,” said Jackson. “We leave the corners out there by themselves. The post was thrown to the opposite hash, so I was really tailing him from the beginning of that route. Zero coverage, no help, backed up – with a quarterback like that, I don’t care if you’re Champ Bailey [or] any one of those corners on the NFL 100 list, that is a play that is hard to make for any guy, especially with a quarterback like Matt Ryan. It was just two bad situations.”
“I was beat from the start — banzai, zero-blitz. Just a bad call, man, just wasn’t smart football in that situation, a play we really needed. And I do have to make that tackle. I have to finish that play, but no excuses.”
Donte Jackson talks about coverage on that 93-yd touchdown and the Calvin Ridley touchdown play. pic.twitter.com/z0s1pdFAx7
— Sheena Quick (@Sheena_Marie3) December 8, 2019
Luke Kuechly felt as if the coaches did what needed to be done, but the issues that have persisted all season don’t just go away when you have an interim head coach.
“It’s been difficult but I think guys have been resilient. I think guys were sad and bummed out on Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Kuechly. “Guys certainly miss Coach Rivera and everything he’s brought to this team and this organization. I honestly thought we had a good week of practice. I think guys were focused. Coach came in and kind of talked about how you owe it to these coaches and yourselves to give your all to. It was a tough week, but I thought guys were focused and I thought we had some good practices.”
“I think they did a really good job, we had good adjustments on the sidelines; those guys have been coaching for a long time and that wasn’t the reason things didn’t go well.”
It doesn’t matter who’s calling the plays if the players aren’t executing on the field.
“At the end of the day, we just have to execute better as players,” said McCaffrey. “whatever the plays called, whoever the coach is, we’ve got to do a better job executing.”
