Max Protection Play Action

The Panthers only faced three plays in the four games studied here where the offenses resorted to keeping eight blockers in off play-action, and while all three led to receptions, it is hard to read much into this. One was a high-risk throw that the Falcons got lucky on:

 

On another, Ryan threw a perfect throw to the outside against tight man coverage off his back foot while under pressure:

 

And on the other, the Panthers just completely blew a coverage:

This is included in this section because, despite consistently getting pressure, the Panthers were unable to prevent receptions on these plays. However, while the blown coverage is frustrating, there is little more the Panthers could have done on these from a pass rushing point of view and so there is little point in going into them in much greater detail. What is worth going into in more detail, however, is how the Panthers have struggled to defend plays where the offense has looked to use all five of their available receivers

Spread and Shredded

When offenses look to use all five of their receiving options, the defense is always going to be stretched thin. Their numbers advantage in coverage is decreased as a percentage, and they are either forced to get pressure with their base four rushers or decrease that number even further by calling a blitz. While the Panthers have managed to have some success in these situations with blitzes:

 

This is a high risk strategy that leaves them open to being burnt either on quick underneath throws or over the top. Instead, for a majority of the time at least, they are required to generate pressure with just four rushers when put in these situations – the “front-and-cover” defense Eric Washington referred to this week. The easiest way of doing this is for one or more of the defensive linemen to win the battle with the player or players trying to block them.

Simple.

 

But defensive coaches can also look to generate pressure with stunts or twists which look to generate mistakes on the offensive line by forcing blockers to switch blockers by running one defender back behind another. On both of the following plays, the Panthers were able to generate some pressure by running Addison back behind a defensive tackle:

 

However, these plays do have a downside, as they take some time to get pressure – the rusher isn’t taking a direct path to the quarterback – additionally, because the rushers are forced to move laterally to the line of scrimmage, they run the risk of getting completely negated if the blockers are able to catch on early and catch them off-balance. Ideally then, defensive lines want to be able to generate pressure without having to heavily rely on such techniques. So what have the Panthers been doing wrong with their four-man rushes?

Well, once again, quite a lot of the time the issue has nothing to do with the defensive line. Far too often the Panthers have simply been too soft in coverage:

 

This just makes it too easy for an offense to avoid pressures becoming sacks. Not helping this was the Panthers decision to use three-man rushes against five wide sets early on in the season:

 

They might have gotten lucky on the missed throw, but it’s always going to be hard to get pressure when you rush three. There were also times when defenders simply got beat:

 

As well as times when the offense just made a nice play:

 

Oh, and don’t forget our old friend the man-blitz:

Up Next: Drawing The Defensive Line

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