How times change.

A season ago, the Minnesota Vikings spent the game chasing Cam Newton around Bank of America Stadium after offensive tackle Michael Oher was lost for the season and left Charlotte with a 22-10 victory. This season, the Panthers managed to keep Newton fairly well-protected against a stout pass rush and it was the Vikings’ Case Keenum who was under pressure, being sacked a total of six times on the game. Much has been made of the Panthers’ propensity to blitz this season, but Sunday’s performance was as much about players winning individual battles as it was about defensive scheme.

Starting The Clock

Given time, almost any defensive front can get pressure on the quarterback, as can be seen on the plays below.

 

 

With that in mind, a lot of credit needs to go to the players in coverage behind the defensive line. If receivers are able to get open quickly, it is almost impossible for pressure to be brought; however, good defensive line play can cut down the amount of time a quarterback has to make his reads.

Not since the 2013 season have the Panthers had a defensive end group capable of bringing consistent pressure off the edge, but on Sunday there were signs that this might be the case once again. The Panthers resigned Mario Addison to a big new contract during the offseason and brought back veteran Julius Peppers to add some pass rush of the edge; both played a significant part on Sunday. On the following play, both are able to get pressure as Peppers beats the right tackle around the edge and Addison wins his battle against the left tackle with a nice spin move:

 

Interestingly, Addison also had some success when asked to go up against the Vikings’ left guard. On the first play he uses his speed and momentum to bull-rush the guard back towards Keenum:

 

On the next, he uses his hands well to get inside the guard and drives through towards the quarterback:

 

In addition to Addison, another returning player who has continued to improve this season is Wes Horton. Horton, largely been known as a run-stuffer thus far in his career, has improved so significantly as a pass rusher that he now needs to be dealt with as a genuine threat off the edge. On the following two plays, Horton uses his speed to get around the tackle and on the second, he shows how he is able to pair this with good hand usage to beat the tackle inside.

 

 

Horton is unlikely to make a Pro Bowl, but plays like this are really impressive for a rotation player. Another rotation player who made some nice plays on Sunday was Bryan Cox; on the following play he gets around the edge and forces Keenum to get rid of the ball quickly.

 

What plays like this exemplify is how pressure can influence the game even if it doesn’t lead to sacks; even if they don’t get all the way to the spot, they can force quarterbacks to make poor reads or to settle for extremely limited gains. On the play above, the running back is almost immediately hit for next to no gain and sets the Vikings behind the chains; Cox might not have got the sack, but this play helps the Panthers by not allowing Keenum to get deep into his progressions.

Where the Panthers have been very fortunate in recent years is in the way they have been able to generate pressure with their interior defensive line. On the first play, Butler is lined up against the center and is able to beat him with a swim move; this forces Keenum to get rid of the ball.

 

On this next play, Love takes a little longer to get there, but shows excellent hand usage to stack and shed the left guard. While Thielen might have had a shot of coming down with the ball here, it isn’t unreasonable to think that Love’s pressure forces the pass slightly towards the corner which is what leads to the juggle and subsequent incompletion.

 

On all of these plays, Keenum doesn’t actually get brought down; any altering of the pass is largely psychological. However, on a number of occasions on Sunday the Panthers’ pressure got to Keenum physically as well as metaphorically.

 

 

On the first play, Addison is able to get inside the tackle forcing Keenum to throw the ball into the ground to avoid getting hit. On the second play, Keenum holds onto the ball and as he gets hit by both Addison and Lotulelei is forced to simply throw the ball away. Eventually, pressure like this leads to a big play for the Panthers:

 

Here, Horton and Peppers are able to force Keenum up in the pocket and into the arms of Love. By not being able to step into the throw Keenum underthrows the ball, allowing it to be picked off by Worley. The Panthers struggled mightily to generate turnovers during the first half of the season and getting consistent pressure has been a major part of the Panthers turnover renaissance the past five weeks.

Closing The Deal

The Panthers had six sacks on Sunday, but had they been a little bit more clinical when it mattered they could have had a lot more. The most basic part of that is making the tackle; twice on Sunday the Panthers had Keenum dead to rights only to let him slip through their fingers.

 

On this first play, the 5’9″ Munnerlyn somehow manages to go too high on Keenum allowing him to duck out of the tackle. There is very little nuance to plays like this: Munnerlyn needs to make that sack. On the second play, Kuechly and Horton have Keenum trapped but allow him to escape.

 

This is probably on Kuechly; he should realize that Horton has the edge covered and that he needs to attack Keenum from the inside to prevent him being able to cut back inside. Instead, he overruns the play allowing Keenum to avoid the sack.

The bigger issue for the Panthers on Sunday was keeping contain and preventing Keenum from scrambling. Keenum isn’t exactly a dual threat quarterback but he can make you pay if you give him an open running lane, as he did to the Panthers at times on Sunday.

 

On plays like this, it is unclear what has gone wrong with the pass rush, though it is likely that either Short or Addison should have been more central; on each of the following three plays the contain man allows Keenum to get loose.

 

Here, Peppers slips at an unfortunate moment, something that can just be ascribed to bad luck. Likewise, on the following play, Addison commits slightly too early, allowing Keenum to pull the ball down and run.

 

However, the following play, there is something that the Panthers should look to fix going forwards. Love, who appears to be the contain man, dips his shoulder inside the defender, unbalancing himself and opening up space for Keenum to slip out of the pocket and make the pass.

 

These are slight nitpicks of a dominant defensive line performance, but with some better contain and tackling, the Panthers could have had as many as a dozen sacks on Sunday.

Pay Dirt

Luckily for the Panthers, their contain was successful at times, leading to plays such as this sack by Short:

 

Short might not have put up gaudy numbers since signing his contract extension but his other sack on Sunday exemplified exactly what makes him so valuable; he simply rag dolls the guard and gets to Keenum for the sack:

 

Short wasn’t the only one making plays, Peppers continued to defy age against the Vikings making a couple of big plays:

 

 

To be able to dominate in this way at his age is nothing short of extraordinary. As mentioned earlier, Addison also had a good day on Sunday, the highlight likely being the following forced fumble:

 

The Panthers sixth sack on Sunday was a McDermott special, dropping out a defensive lineman and bringing both a linebacker and a safety. Here, Jairus Byrd is able to flush Keenum before Kuechly chases him down.

 

The Vikings offensive line has been surprisingly good this year, but still won’t be seen by many as one of the best in the NFL. With that in mind, the Panthers will be anxious to repeat this performance in the coming weeks to show that six sacks says more about them than it does about a banged-up Vikings’ offensive line. Though if Peppers, Horton, Addison and Cox can continue to bend the edge and with the Panthers’ stacked defensive tackle group, they have chance of making this a regular feature.

-Video clips Courtesy of NFL.com

Vincent Richardson on Twitter
Vincent Richardson
Managing Editor at Riot Report
Fan of zone coverage, knee bend and running backs running routes. Twitter: @vrichardson444