The first thing to note on these plays was the formations the Panthers chose to use, as on four of these six plays the Panthers went with just three down linemen, choosing to use a ‘joker’ defensive end in order to disguise both pressure and overage. This was something that the Panthers showed glimpses of doing during the preseason, but actually led to both of the Cowboys conversions on Sunday. The first of these conversion came late in the third quarter:
Here, the Panthers have Addison as a stand up rusher, and bring Thompson down over the A gap, with the rest of the Panthers defenders in off zone coverage. The advantage of using Addison as a joker with Thompson also at the line of scrimmage is that the Panthers are able to disguise who is rushing and who is dropping into coverage. However, with Kuechly and Munnerlyn well away from the line of scrimmage and the Panthers having two safeties deep, the Cowboys know that they can use Elliott to pick up Thompson if need be and are able to treat Addison as just another defensive end should he bring pressure.
This therefore allows the Cowboys to fairly easy pick up the Panthers four rushers and Prescott was able to find the space in the Panthers’ dropback zone coverage for the first down. Despite the lack of pressure, the Panthers will probably be slightly annoyed that Beasley managed to find as much space as he did with the Panthers having the numbers advantage in coverage. Here it is again:
On the Cowboys’ other first down conversion, the Panthers once again move a defensive end – this time Horton – from his usual edge spot to being a standup rusher over the A gap and bring Luke, Jackson and Munnerlyn down to the line to disguise the pressure and coverage. Again, what the Panthers end up bringing is essentially drop-back zone coverage, but this disguised pressure forces Elliott to initially stay in to protect; the Panthers do a much better job in coverage and it is only through a scramble that Elliott was able to pick up the first down:
In an ideal world, Horton could have taken a better angle to the quarterback, and Kuechly could have reacted faster to the scramble, but if this is what teams have to do to pick up a first down against the Panthers then Eric Washington can sleep pretty soundly at night. Where this defensive look is most valuable, however, was made clear on the Panthers’ most impressive third down stop on this third-and-3:
Here, the Panthers again bring a lot of players down to the line, but in contrast to the two plays above, they look to bring Thompson as an inside blitzer while dropping Peppers into coverage. With Thompson coming up the middle, the Cowboys keep Elliott in to protect once again; Peppers, Kuechly and Munnerlyn do an excellent job of taking away Dak’s hot routes over the middle. This gives Shaq enough time to shed the Elliott block and get to Dak to force the throwaway – by hiding where the pressure was coming from and who was dropping into coverage, the Panthers were able to combine the benefits of blitzing and dropback coverage; this will be something to watch for as the season continues.
On the final play from a base 3-4 front, the Panthers ran what appears to be a fairly simple cover-2 man, with Kuechly and Thompson initially showing pressure before dropping back to cover when the tight end and running back looked to break out from pass protection. While the Panthers aren’t able to generate immediate pressure, this play showed something equally as promising for Panthers fans going forward: really good outside man coverage.
The throw being slightly off helped, but Bradberry is in excellent position to make a play on the ball had it been on target. If the Panthers are able to trust their corners to cover man-for-man on the outside like this throughout the season then it will make it very hard for opposing offenses to pick up consistent yardage through the air. Of course, the Panther did also get a bit of luck on Sunday, as one of their biggest coverage mistakes, an apparent miscommunication between Adams and Searcy, went unpunished with Dak unable to make the throw on the run:
This play does have an important lesson for the Panthers; however impressive the play design, getting off the field on third down ultimately comes down to execution. If teams are able to cover effectively on the back end and win their battles up front, then they are likely to have success regardless of the play call, at least to a certain extent. That was certainly the case on the Panthers biggest third down of the game, as the Cowboys looked to construct a two-minute drive to tie the game late:
The Panthers aren’t doing anything hugely complicated here, they have nobody at the line besides the four linemen and all the defenders appear to be in dropback zone, willing to let the Cowboys try and dink-and-dunk their way down the field while knowing they have the defenders to prevent yards after the catch; the Panthers execute this at a very high level. They had clearly identified Beasley as the key receiver and look to double him with Adams and Bradberry; Kuechly, Searcy and Jackson take away the far side with Munnerlyn in the flat and Shaq doing a great job against the tight end. Up front, Short does a great job of forcing the double team, Butler pushes the pocket and Addison is able to swing around on the stunt for the chase-down strip-sack.
Despite holding the Cowboys to just two third-down conversions, the Panthers may well feel that they left plays on the field on Sunday, and while it is always going to be near-impossible to completely hold a functioning NFL offense in check for an entire game there are areas where they can get even better as the season goes on. With that being said, the Panthers showed an awful lot to get excited about, both in terms of play calling, coverage and pressure up front.
