Norv Turner has spoken in detail the past few weeks about adjusting the game plan to tailor to what the opposing defenses allow – the Atlanta Falcons played deep zones and allowed checkdowns to running backs – so Christian McCaffrey had 14 receptions. Tbe offensive coordinator felt as if the Panthers could run the ball against the Bengals and McCaffrey went off for 184 yards on the ground; the Giants pursuit side-to-side meant the Panthers wanted to run a reverse early that ended up going for 18 yards. Whatever Turner saw on the Redskins tape must have pointed to the ground game as the Panthers opened their game against the Washington Redskins with five consecutive rushes, the first three going for 20 yards.
“We just called it how we see it – if the run’s looking good, we’re going to call it; if the pass is looking good, we’re going to call it,” said tackle Chris Clark. “I guess that’s what [Turner] saw at the time. Teams change, they have a few wrinkles here and there, but for the most part, the dynamic of the team is what it is.”
When Christian McCaffrey was stopped on the next two rushes for only a yard and the Panthers faced a fourth-and-one at their own 47-yard line, Ron Rivera elected to punt – didn’t even consider going for it.
“Fourth-and-one on our side of the 50?” asked Rivera, who has gone for it on fourth-and-one 41 times in his Panthers career and converted on 32 of them. “No. We punted the ball [and] we got the ball back; we had an opportunity. Unfortunately, we turned it over – so, no, there was no thought on that there.”
Even with Cam Newton, perhaps the best short-yardage weapon in the NFL – Newton has rushed on 85 third or fourth-and-ones and converted 89.4% of them in his career – the Riverboat stayed in the dock. The Panthers would punt the ball back to the Redskins and while they forced a three-and-out, the ensuing punt was fumbled by DJ Moore and the Panthers staked Washington to a 7-0 lead.
Two drives later and the Redskins facing essentially the same situation – fourth-and-one from their own 45-yard line – coach Jay Gruden elected to have his quarterback, Alex Smith, who is an inch shorter and weighs 30 less pounds than Newton, rush up the middle for a first down – the Redskins would convert that drive into a touchdown – their second of the game to put the Redskins up 14-0 – a deficit the Panthers couldn’t quite overcome even after outscoring the Redskins 17-6 over the final 35 minutes of the game.
Whether a first quarter first down on their own side of the field would have made a difference in a game in which the Panthers lost the turnover battle 3-0 and only possessed the ball for 25 minutes is certainly not a guarantee, but distorted reflections of fourth-and-ones punted or converted certainly didn’t help their cause – the Panthers appeared to come out with a plan to run the ball early and went away from that after the first drive.
After the first five rushes, the Panthers would only rush the ball four times the rest of the half – two of those were inside their own five as they tried to run out the clock; CJ Anderson, who is averaging 5.3 yards per rush, did not receive a carry and is listed as one of three players active for the game who did not play. Christian McCaffrey, who came into the game ranked fourth in the NFL in rush yards per game, rushed eight times for 20 yards – four of those came on the first drive; the team’s 81 yard total was the lowest rushing total for the Panthers since their Week 6 loss to the Eagles last season.
Whether on the ground or in the air, part of the Panthers plan is always to try and start fast.
“One of our keys to the game, every game, is to start fast and we didn’t do that today,” said Cam Newton, who rushed for 43 yards. “That is just a lack of focus on our part. That is not necessarily one particular person. I had a turnover, a couple turnovers. At the end of the day, you just got to be better and that is what it comes down to.”
