While parts one and two of this piece have focused on the mistakes made by the Panthers’ coaching staff in terms of play calling/design and potentially Cam Newton in terms of not checking out of doomed runs, the players also have something to answer for concerning the Panthers’ dismal rushing performance against Washington. While blaming the blocking for a poor rushing performance is something of a lazy fall-back, there are some times when it really does come to the blocking, and even some when the ball carriers themselves are at fault. So what did the Panthers’ players to do ruin well-designed rushing plays, and are those errors fixable?
Just Block Somebody
Because the Panthers ran the ball so infrequently on Sunday, the team only needed to make a few mistakes to have an impact on the overall efficiency of the rushing game, and while the blocking on Sunday actually wasn’t too bad, but there was one play where the blocking didn’t really give the play much of a chance:
This play should have worked, if the play is frozen midway, then everything looks at though it should work:
While the Olsen/Clark/Van Roten block might not look pretty, it is actually quite effective, and Van Roten will likely be able to kick out to take the linebacker pursuing from the backside of the play. With the backside defensive end left unblocked, this then allows Kalil and Moton to pull around the corner and kick out the remaining two defenders – allowing McCaffrey to cut back inside for what should be a good gain. What could go wrong? Well…
First, Moton mistakenly runs into Van Roten’s back. Van Roten, in turn, fails to disengage from the block to cut off the backside linebacker; which, to be fair, might actually have been a failing of Olsen or Clark, it is hard to know exactly who was meant to do this; this leaves Kalil to attempt to block both edge defenders. Even then, if he had managed to secure a block on either defender, McCaffrey might have had a chance but, being presented with two defenders, he appears caught in two minds as to who to block and as a result doesn’t satisfactorily block either of them, leaving McCaffrey with nowhere to run.
This is a reasonably fixable problem, as the mistake by Moton is likely confusion, something that can be corrected with reps and familiarity; the triple team block could have struggled due to the lack of familiarity between Olsen and Clark. Given how little the Panthers ran the ball against Washington, it is hard to know how significant an issue this is based off this one game, but it would be wrong to say the the offensive line were blameless on Sunday.
Ball Carrier Error
However, even when the offensive line does its job well, the ball carrier still has a chance to ruin the play, and on at least one play on Sunday that was exactly what happened. On the following play, the Panthers run something very similar to the long run that Cam had against Miami last season:
This is essentially a fairly simple read-option, only with the read-side tackle looking to kick out to the linebacker in order to create an inside rushing lane:
It isn’t clear if Moton’s kick out block is part of the design of the play or whether this is simply a reaction to the linebacker being wider than expected, but either way this play has been shown to work in that Miami game, with Newton hesitating to give Moton time to come across before running between guard and tackle. What he does here, however, is to attempt to work outside of the apparent play design and attempts to fake the linebacker out and break the run outside. Even then, he nearly gets away with it – because he’s a generational talent – but ends up losing his footing and goes down for a loss. Newton is an extremely talented player, one of the most talented in the NFL in fact, and he is capable of making moments of improvised brilliance, but these moments of magic should be limited to times when the designed play breaks down. Despite all the hype around long touchdowns and spectacular catches, football at its core is a game of efficiency, and Newton is more likely to get past the first down marker on a consistent basis by cutting in behind the pulling tackle than he is by trying to juke out the linebacker.
And There’s Always Bad Luck
When it rains it pours, and on a day when they made a number of painful mistakes, the Panthers also had their share of bad luck – even when they designed a pretty good play they couldn’t pull it off. The Panthers’ decision to run the ball on second-and-17 has been maligned a fair amount, but it actually wasn’t – in my opinion – a bad decision. Crucially, it was a second down and not a third down, and so the Panthers were actually looking to pick up nine yards in order to get ahead of the chains rather than the 17 needed for a first down. Additionally, Washington were in a two high safety formation, with the Panthers having as many blockers in the box as there were defenders, meaning that the Panthers had a real chance of forcing Washington into a situation where a defensive back is forced to make a tackle in space to prevent a long gain, likely after an already solid chunk of yardage. This can be seen in the following image:
The Panthers actually have this really well blocked, Olsen has a real chance against the linebacker in space, with Turner in position to seal off the linebacker and the far side safety well away from the play. If the read defender commits outside then Newton hands the ball off and McCaffrey is away and if the read defender looks to take away the outside run, Newton is able to keep the ball and run up the center of the field. At this point here, most NFL offensive coordinators would see it as a job well done.
Unfortunately, the defensive end Preston Smith actually does a really good job here, as while he lines up outside, he is actually facing inside, making it hard for Newton to read him correctly, and putting himself in with a shot either way. In hindsight, Newton should probably have handed the ball off and trusted McCaffery’s speed advantage to give him the edge of getting outside the end and into space, but these are split-second decisions and it would be unfair to deny Smith his plaudits by looking to blame Newton. Sometimes things aren’t going your way and nothing you do seems to make any difference and here, with a well-designed play called against a suitable defense, the Panthers couldn’t catch a break – the defense gets paid too.
Washington’s defensive line, especially their young defensive tackles, is no joke, and had the Panthers struggled to be at their best on the ground on Sunday, that likely wouldn’t have been a surprise. However, with a performance plagued by questionable play calls, some unsuccessful options concepts and a few players errors, the Panthers didn’t really give themselves a chance. These issues are all fixable, and it is far from panic time for the Panthers’ rushing attack, but the Panthers need to be truly self-critical about where they went wrong on Sunday in order to fix these issues and return to a position where they are churning out first down yardage on the ground week-in and week-out.
