During the Panthers 22-19 win over Tampa Bay, we learned a number of things about the Panthers defense. We learned that there appeared to be a lack of trust and chemistry in the secondary. We learned that Luke Kuechly has scary chasedown speed, even against a wide receiver like Charles Godwin. But perhaps the most important thing we learned, as if we didn’t already know, was that Tampa Bay, like most offensive lines, didn’t have an answer for the Panthers defensive line, specifically Kawann Short or Julius Peppers.
As scary as the front seven of the defense looked against Tampa Bay with six sacks and three forced fumbles, the defensive backfield was quite the opposite, giving up 367 yards passing to Jameis Winston and the Bucs offense. In the most important moments of the game, the Bucs trusted their offensive line to protect Winston and didn’t keep anyone in to provide additional protection; interestingly enough, in those same moments the Panthers only rushed four, showing trust in those four to get to Winston and dropping as many defenders into coverage as possible. More often than not, the Panthers won in those moments; when they did, it was because of those four defensive linemen winning their matchups. While Charles Johnson has been out, Wes Horton has stepped up and played at a high level, both against the run and against the pass; while the Panthers might be one of the most blitz-happy teams in the league, four of their seven “sacks” against the Bucs came while only rushing four. Let’s take a look at the sacks and what worked for what many are calling the best defensive line in the NFL:
Sorry, Jameis: A Sack Story In Seven Parts
Sack #1 Horton Strip Sack
Before the play even begins, Evan Smith actually false starts, and the Panthers rush four while dropping seven into zone coverage.
Winston had time, but there was good coverage downfield and Wes Horton eventually beats his man inside. The Panthers ran a basic defensive look against twin crossing routes on the right and trips left that cleared underneath coverage; Winston wants to take a deep shot and looks the safety to the middle while he waits for his slot to turn upfield; in an effort to buy time, he steps up in the pocket assuming that Horton is going to continue around instead of cut back. Horton gets a free shot thanks to Winston stepping up in the pocket and the master of the strip-sack gets another one.
Sack #2 Up the Middle
The Panthers rush five out of a Double A-Gap look with Luke Kuechly being the extra rusher. The Bucs line up with twins left and right; the outside receiver goes deep while the inside receivers run routes toward the left sideline. Doug Martin stays in to block momentarily then pops out to the right, but the long developing routes and good coverage downfield force Winston to hold the ball long enough for Mario Addison to force Winston into Star Lotulelei’s arms.
Sack #3 Jail Break
On third-and-nine in the red zone, the Panthers again rush four and are again able to get to Winston. Short immediately beats his man inside and starts chasing Winston who turns outside just as Wes Horton breaks past his man; Short, Addison and Horton all had clear shots at Winston. This is one of the best examples of the defensive line’s domination all season; Lotulelei draws a double team and the rest of the line destroys their assignments one-on-one.
Sack #4 Penalty negates individual wins
Panthers show five rushers, but again only rush four. Vernon Butler and Kyle Love beat their men immediately and collapse on Winston who gets taken down by Butler and Peppers. Tampa Bay doesn’t keep anyone in to help the offensive line and had Butler not grabbed Winston’s facemask the Panthers would have recorded seven sacks this week. Also, as a reminder, Julius Peppers is 37 years old.
Sack #5 Loose Peppers
On first-and-goal from the eight-yard line, the Bucs run play action with two receivers running trailing slant routes on the left and the outside receiver on the right running a fade.
The Panthers have five on the line of scrimmage and two linebackers just behind, while the corners are playing man coverage. The offensive tackle responsible for Peppers either thought the play call was a screen or just had no idea what Peppers was about to do and allowed him to waltz in unhindered and sack Winston. Again, Peppers is 37 years old.
Sack #6 Forced Scramble
It looks like the Bucs ran a wide receiver screen that Winston decided to pull down instead of try to make the throw; had he thrown it, it likely would have been intercepted by Peppers. Winston turned to the left and got as much as he could, but the Panthers defense, particularly Worley, reacted well and took him down for a loss.
Sack #7 Game Sealing Strip Sack
Carolina has five on the line of scrimmage and plays man coverage, the Buccaneers are in “hail mary” formation. The Panthers only rush four and the defensive ends collapse around the edges while Short runs more or less free to take down Winston and force the game-sealing fumble.
Safety Double Penalty
The Bucs show twins left, one right and backs to either side of Winston in Shotgun. The Panthers again send only four and Julius Peppers rushes through three guys to get a shot at Winston where he ends up getting held. This should have resulted in a safety but Star Lotulelei was whistled for a personal foul after the play which negated Peppers’ unbelievable individual effort.
Continued Dominance: Stop That Run
The Panthers continued their dominant rushing defense, only allowing 66 rushing yards on 24 carries (2.8 YPC) to the Bucs; if you remove a 34-yard burst from Peyton Barber, they gave up 32 rushing yards on 23 carries (1.4 YPC).
Run Stop #1
Bucs rush to the right and give the rusher two extra blockers. Luke Kuechly and the Panthers likely diagnosed the play presnap; the instant the ball is snapped they all move to cut off the rusher’s lane.
Great awareness and execution as a team leads to a big tackle for a loss.
Run Stop #2
On second-and-goal, the Bucs line up trips right, single high back, tight end on left and Winston under center. Once again, the Panthers seem to have diagnosed the play presnap because Kuechly and Thompson work in tandem to get to Barber before he can hit the line of scrimmage; great linebacker play and strong defensive line play to open up lanes for Thompson and Kuechly.
Run Stop #3
With the Bucs lined up in I Formation and unbalanced to the left, Kuechly is kept clean and makes a great tackle behind the line of scrimmage. Once again, this stems from great play by the defensive line and overall awareness of the defense.
Run Stop #4
Here, with the Bucs showing a shotgun formation with two wide right and a back flanking Winston, the Panthers have eight in the box and play the run very well. Peppers beats his man inside and gets to the rusher when he hits the line of scrimmage along with a number of other Panthers.
Usually you don’t see teams load the box when the opponent is in shotgun, but in this case, the Panthers were ready with good zone coverage that created additional pressure off the left side.
Secondary Problems? Not Really
The Buccaneers used a number of level concepts to terrorize the Panthers zone-based coverage scheme. For large portions of the game, the Panthers secondary played off the line of scrimmage and were focused on limiting gains in the passing game, rather than making plays on the ball. Jameis Winston completed back-to-back passes of 15 yards and 13 yards on seemingly broken coverages; what actually happened was that the defender’s first responsibility appeared to have been covering the deep ball which led to them giving up easy passes underneath; in both cases the defenders were clearly asked to take the safe route and prevent large gains.
TThis led to the Buccaneers being able to slowly march down the field a number of times and why the secondary appeared to be a real issue. As the field shortened, the secondary played more man, underneath and press coverage concepts which made it much harder on Winston.
This doesn’t mean that the secondary wasn’t the primary weakness of the defense, just that the passes that they gave up were more due to scheme than poor performance. The Panthers need to develop better chemistry in the secondary in order to keep up against the NFL’s elite passing attacks during the playoffs; no play showed that more than the Buccaneers’ passing touchdown.
Kurt Coleman left a wide open receiver in the back of the end zone to bite on a move to the outside that Daryl Worley covered well. After Coleman backed off and covered the deep receiver, Worley’s receiver broke to the middle and the corner hesitated for only a second because he had seen Coleman move in his direction, which gave the receiver enough room to make the catch. That one-second hesitation cost the Panthers six points and it could have been avoided.
