Ron Rivera has emphasized a mantra a few times this season already – ‘The play doesn’t care who makes it.’
The immediate headline from the Panthers’ 16-10 win in Houston is that Christian McCaffrey carried the Panthers to a win with a career high in touches as he led the team in both rushing and receiving yardage. Yes, backup quarterback Kyle Allen evaded J.J. Watt and found Jarius Wright on perhaps the most important play of the game to extend a late drive and put more points on the board.
But look again and you’ll find that the heroes of the game aren’t the names you’d expect – particularly on a defense that currently has the most sacks in the league and is allowing the fewest passing yards per game of any unit.
Look at Ross Cockrell – the utility knife of the secondary that missed the entire 2018 season, the man they call ‘Pro’ in the locker room because he epitomizes a professional football player, who stayed home on a trick play and delivered the turnover that would lead to the only touchdown of the game for the Panthers while subbing for starting cornerback Donte Jackson.
Examine Vernon Butler – the first-round pick who has found himself on the bottom of the defensive line rotation for most of his tenure in Carolina – poking the ball away from Deshaun Watson in the fourth quarter of a three point game, the only reason he even had a jersey in Houston because star defensive tackle Kawann Short was out with a shoulder injury.
Or go back to the opening play of that key drive, with the Panthers clinging to a three-point lead and the Texans starting at their own ten-yard line – on the defensive line wasn’t first-round pick Brian Burns or high-priced free agent acquisitions Bruce Irvin or Gerald McCoy. It was fourth-rounders from the past two seasons Christian Miller and Marquis Haynes flanking Dontari Poe and Butler.
Pressure forced Watson to check down to running back Carlos Hyde behind the line – where he was wrapped up by 2018 fifth-round pick Jermaine Carter, Jr.
The play doesn’t care who makes it.
“They on the team?” asked Gerald McCoy when asked about the rotation on the defensive line. “Alright, then. That’s all that matters.”
“Nobody cares about years, nobody cares about experience – none of that other stuff. If you’re on the field, you’ve got to play. That’s how we feel – that’s what we believe and that’s how we’re going to continue to go.”
“Everybody’s a starter – young, old – you need to be out there in that situation. We prepare everybody to be ready for everything.”
The Panthers have 11 different players credited with sacks through four games – that’s the most in the league.
“We’re all here to push ourselves, we’re all going to make each other better – this was just a little taste,” Brian Burns, who is second on the team with 2.5 sacks, said after the Panthers had six sacks against the Texans, making their two week total 14. “Last week and this week was just a little taste of what we can do. There’s so much talent on this defensive line and this rush group, it’s amazing.”
“I’m telling you, you have no idea what we can do.”
“There are a number of guys that are quiet in the locker room. But they made some big statements today.”
-Ron Rivera
The defense’s prowess has come off of the Panthers’ assortment of coverages – their adjustments at halftime have also proved fruitful in the past two weeks. Arizona coach Kliff Kingsbury noted the changes in coverage after halftime confused Kyler Murray and Rivera himself said the adjustments made in the second half made a difference for the Panthers in Houston.
Over the past two weeks, Murray and Watson combined to complete 75% of their passes in the first half and 58.3% in the second – but even when they’ve completed passes, they haven’t gone for long. Watson’s longest completion was for 14 yards and Murray’s was 23. James Bradberry has held DeAndre Hopkins, Mike Evans and Larry Fitzgerald to 138 yards combined in three weeks, with much of Hopkins’ Week 4 contribution coming with the Panthers playing a prevent defense on the final drive.
According to NFL’s Next Gen Stats, Murray’s average completed air yards, a metric which shows how far the ball is being thrown ‘downfield’, was only 1.9 against the Panthers – Watson’s was 2.8. Both ranked in the bottom three in the league for the week.
That means the Panthers aren’t allowing open receivers downfield, forcing quarterbacks to checkdown – and if they don’t want to check it down, that’s when the pass rush pounces.
“We don’t win because of one [unit],” said McCoy. “You don’t hold a team to – until the third-to-last drive, they had like 89 yards passing – you don’t do that with just one unit. That’s how it is. We don’t trust them, we expect them to do their job just like they expect us to rush if they’re going to cover. That’s how it goes.”
“Having those guys back there – they believe in us and we believe in them. That’s all we can ask for.”
Deshaun Watson explains Carolina’s defense in 66 seconds. pic.twitter.com/8Fn4OAKHk3
— Rivers McCown (@riversmccown) September 29, 2019
And when the pass rush forces the quarterback to make a mistake – that’s when the secondary pounces. It all works in concert, but in opposite terms – the coverage provides more time for the pass rush and the pass rush provides less time for the coverage.
“They were running – it was two weeks in a row now where we’ve had mobile quarterbacks and they’ve kept them in the pocket – a lot of the mobile quarterbacks nowadays [like] Deshaun [or] Kyler Murray, they scramble around and they throw it deep,” said Ross Cockrell. “But they did such a good job chasing him around back there that he didn’t have time to get his eyes up and make a play.”
“We have a group of guys here that really love football. I’ve been to some other places where that’s not always the case – guys that want to win, that have a heart for each other, it’s just really special and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
After an 0-2 start where the Panthers gave up 50 combined points and only sacked the quarterback four times, some doubted the prowess of the Panthers revamped defense with Rivera calling the plays and new additions like Tre Boston, McCoy and Burns – but the guys in the locker room never lost confidence and now it’s showing on the field.
The Panthers have given up 627 net passing yards through four games and are on pace to give up the fifth-fewest of any team since 1993. Mario Addison has more sacks this season than the Falcons, Eagles and Broncos. Luke Kuechly and Shaq Thompson are both in the top six in the NFL in combined tackles.
They have allowed 3.79 yards per play over the past two weeks, which would be the lowest mark in the league. As it stands, their 4.32 yards per play ranks second behind only New England – who has benefited from an early schedule featuring the Dolphins, Bills and Jets.
“The reason I signed here is I’ve always looked and this team is very resilient and I’ve seen this team start slow and then go on a run,” said McCoy. “The great thing about being here is guys don’t quit.”
“It’s a culture that’s set.”
A culture where anyone – and everyone – can make a play.
