In the first part of this series on the Panthers’ pass rush we looked at what the Panthers have done well to this point in the season and, as the name of this series suggests, this second part will focus on the areas where the Panthers have consistently struggled; namely defending play action roll-outs and RPOs. So why is it that the Panthers have been so poor at defending these two sets of plays?
Roll-Outs
First of all, lets look at what it looks like when the Panthers defend a roll-out effectively:
On both of the above plays, the Panthers are able to do three things well – they get a defender into the face of the quarterback to take away the scramble, they recognize the rub defender early and take away the dump-off route and also manage to cover effectively across the field to take away the deeper routes. All of the Panthers’ failures going forward in this area should be judged on these three aspects; if they are able to do all three things well and the offense is still able to make plays, then so be it.
First, the Panthers need to make sure they don’t allow the quarterback to simply keep the ball and run unmolested for a reasonable gain. On the following play, Mayo overpursues on the run fake and finds himself cut off from the roll-out, allowing Ryan to simply stroll for a first down:
This isn’t in fact a pass defense issue; this lack of gap discipline is actually Mayo making a mistake on the run fake. Luckily, Mayo isn’t likely to be on the field with Davis back from his suspension, as if it wasn’t for Dontari Poe completely blowing up his block, the Falcons would likely have had even more success if they’d simply handed the ball off for a back-side run.
The Panthers have also struggled in picking up the backside rub at times, and while David Mayo and Corn Elder aren’t likely to be major parts of the defense for the rest of this season:
Donte Jackson and Mike Adams are:
These mistakes are really down to the individual player, and while Jackson’s can in some part be put down to him being a rookie in his third career game, Mike Adams should really know better. However, a couple of individual errors are can be taught out, and the Panthers should hope that teams aren’t able to have consistent success on these gimme throws going forward.
Similarly, much of the Panthers’ issues in terms of allowing receptions on deeper routes have been down to player error. Fortunately, Mayo – once again – is not a starter at this point:
And Colin Jones has been surpassed by the signing of Eric Reid:
But Mike Adams – also again – can’t afford to get beaten off the line like this:
Oh, and it would also help if Wes Horton didn’t decide to grab an already-covered receiver:
The numbers for the Panthers’ defense on roll-outs are poor, and while it is always somewhat uncomfortable to put things down to a series of individual errors, it seems hard to deny that this is what is going on. None of these errors are due to a lack of coverage ability, but rather mental errors which should be coachable. If things aren’t getting better in this regard, it speaks to a lack of preparation on behalf of the Panthers, but there don’t appears to be any scheme issues with how the Panthers are defending these plays. So what about RPOs?
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