The issue in the secondary on these plays make it almost impossible for the pass rush at times. Defensive backs are never going to be perfect and offenses are always going to make some nice plays, but the soft zone coverages and the baffling use of man-blitzes just don’t put this defense in a position to succeed. With that said, the defensive line isn’t blameless, and some of the time they just didn’t get any pressure. Given that this is really the heart of the issue at hand, what is it that they are doing wrong on the plays where it is hard to put the blame anywhere else?
First, let’s eliminate the plays that you just have to live with. Sometimes pass rushers just end up getting in each other’s way:
And sometimes the offensive line just does a really good job of jamming the 1-tech before taking away the inside on the 3-tech:
This is stuff that is hard to prevent happening a few times over the course of the season. What are preventable are the times where the Panthers pass-rushing issues have been down to play design. Something that was really exciting to see the Panthers run during the preseason was their ‘joker’ package, where they moved away from a conventional 4-3 scheme and looked to play around with defensive line formations in order to generate pressure. While this is certainly something to continue to explore, the Panthers’ implementation of this to this point has been questionable.
On this first play, Short is never going to be able to generate a consistent edge rush and Cox just gets out-muscled by the guard:
Ditto here with Addison:
And here with Horton:
Formations like these have the potential to confuse blitzes, and this may be wise – the Panthers have been much more successful against heavier protection sets, but simply getting a defensive tackle to rush around the edge and an edge rusher to rush against a guard doesn’t really achieve much beyond putting players in a worse position to succeed. And lining them up like this only to run a stunt to end up with a normal four-man rush isn’t advantageous either:
And there’s a reason why Marquis Haynes has been a healthy scratch for eight of the season’s nine games:
Yes, he’s very raw. No, I have no idea what he was doing there either.
The other issue the Panthers have had in terms of trying to scheme themselves into a pass rush is that they have tended to overuse stunts, to the extent that offensive lines are almost expecting them to run them, so half the time when the defensive end cuts back inside it is only to find a blocker waiting to cut them off:
In fact, there were only four plays over these four games where the Panthers had good coverage on the back end, they ran a conventional four man rush, they didn’t get caught out tying to run a stunt and the offense didn’t pull off an atypically good throw to get the ball out early and the Panthers still couldn’t get a pass rush.
The first was against the Cowboys:
Peppers does actually get some pressure late on in the play, and Poe nearly gets through with a rip move – but the Cowboys smartly use a double team on Short and this, combined with Cox unsurprisingly being unable to beat Smith, leads to Dak being able to step up into the pocket to make the throw.
On the second, the Falcons again chose to double Short with a chip on Addison, and then do a good job of taking away Peppers’ edge rush using a swing route and Poe is then unable to win the remaining solo block:
On the third, the Panthers actually don’t do that badly, with Horton and Addison pushing the pocket and with Poe doubled, Short is the one unable to win his one-on-one:
And on the final play, Butler is the one who draws the double team and Obada does a good job of getting around the edge – but the Bucs do a good job of blocking Horton and Love’s outside line allows Fitzpatrick to step up into the pocket and make the throw:
Four plays, one in each game, where the Panthers got beat on the defensive line, are far from a disaster. The inconvenient truth seems to be that the Panthers’ defensive line hasn’t been bad at all; instead, they have been let down by poor coverage on the back end, questionable play calling or overly-complicated rush schemes. It might not solve the problem, but if the Panthers go back to a more straightforward four-man rush and trust their talent to generate pressure while not giving the offense easy completions to avoid sacks, at least the Panthers will know that the problem they are facing is not one they are generating for themselves.
Or, as Kawann Short put it this week: “I think we need to light our hair on fire and just go – don’t think too much.”
What this doesn’t explain, however, is how the Panthers were so completely battered on Thursday Night Football against the Steelers, generating just two hits on the quarterback – one of which was by a safety – en route to an absolute drubbing. So what went wrong against the Steelers and how can they prevent it against the Lions?
Well for that, you’ll have to wait for part four!
All clips via NFL Game Pass.
