Panther Football

This isn't it. On their heels receiving blows all game, instead of giving blows, except for the 2nd D series, and a few plays here and there.

They gave up on the run before the game started. We get stuffed on 3 or 4 runs, and don't try it again. I don't think they ever intended to run. The Panthers played 8 in the box too, but the Packers didn't give up on the run, obviously. And we weren't being stuffed either. They had some nice runs to the left, but they wouldn't go back to it. Quick plays, O off the field, D gets gassed. The HBOP O makes its return.

I don't think the new OL were responsible for the protection breakdowns. Mitchell let one sacker in, and let another blitzer blow by him. I'm sure he wasn't alone.

3 TOs didn't help.

Every DB got beat for one pass except Branch. Gamble let that WR slip his tackle, but he only got beat once. It could have been worse there. I thought Branch played well too.

I didn't see Morehead or the other DT. They must have only activated 3 DTs. Dangerous, and they paid for it. The DTs need to rotate, esp when facing the #3 running attack, with a powerful RB and a powerful OL.

Not many positives on O. Our one TD drive started in good field position, and was aided by 30 yards of penalties on them. Gaines was in early to block, and seemed to do well, but then I didn't see him later.

As our LBs reach the end of their contracts and maybe ask for big new contracts, Short will replace one of them.

 

Not Panther Football at all.

I hate to see the time of possession. Three of our first four plays are throws, including a WR pass.

We were terrible on 3rd down. On third and long. No pressure. No plays. And Favre ate us up.

Sure enough, those two things put our D out there for a long time. That, and missed tackle after missed tackle, and we end up getting punched in the mouth.

And the line didn't play well at all. As a unit, everyone got beat at some point. Our guards can't seem to move fast enough to pick the inside blitz up.

Even with all that, the two turnovers really killed us. One gave them a short field, another killed a scoring drive.

That it was only a 10 point loss is amazing.

 

Short might not have to wait that long. He's not a cure all, but he seems like a missile sometimes, and none of our backers made plays. Morgan cleaned up a ton of tackles, most of which seemed to be him falling on Green after he dove.

I don't know. I think we had only a bit of chance to run against them, and that was before the blitzing. We didn't likely expect it, to that level. Grady getting hurt exascerbated the blitzing. But I hate that this O is getting shit for the team's failures - the passing O was not the problem.



>>I didn't see Morehead or the other DT. They must have only activated 3 DTs.

Think this is true, yes. Don't know that lack of DL depth hurt us that much, our starting guys were having trouble even early. And if the team thought depth was a huge issue, I don't know that they would've pushed the 5 DL set so much.


I dunno about that on Branch. We passed to his level a lot. He didn't help out any.

 

I have to bitch about the play calling...last year was too conservative early on, this gameplan placed too much on Jake. I liked how we came out the first series agressively, but ecpexted to see alot of Davis on the next posession.
That run play to start the last drive was one of the worst calls Henning has ever made, given the situation.

Part of me wants to say this loss wasn't a bad thing in that it gets it out of the way. Maybe this will get us back under the radar.

Part of me wants to finish the case of beer in the fridge and go get more.

 

I formed that opinion pretty early, then didn't watch him that much anymore. I saw him helping out. We'll see how it goes.

 

I don't think Jake got too much on his plate. I just think his blocking sucked and he wanted to do too much.

Branch didn't specifically botch anything. All told, you can point at more that Minter specifically did wrong on tape. But they just seemed to throw it up that way a ton, and he wasn't around.

When they ran the 5-3 silliness, I'm to assume that Minter was "the" safety. So that might've factored.

 

I think that's true. Also with the 4-4.

BTW, I thought Madden was good. Being with AM and not doing the same teams every week seems to have revitalized him.

 

I just think we failed to play our game, we didn't try to establish the run at all and didn't adjust well to the blitz, that put alot on Jake. Putting all those guys up near the line of scrimmage, hell send Moose and Smith down the sideline and let it fly. Just key the FS and throw to the opposite side.
The O-line looked good at times, but it was usually when they only brought a base D. We can expect Gunther to be adding a number of blitz packages as we speak. Generally, it wasnt' a complete melt down on the O-line, most of what I noticed was one player at a time. The Packers seemed to flush the same gaps with blitzers, thus the blocker had to make a choice and pray for the best.

Neither Minter or Morgan looked like they viewed much tape this week and niether are known for thier cover skills.

When in the 5-3, Minter would have been considered the safety, but he was usually locked on the TE.

 

I agree about Madden, he seems to be much sharper and quicker to pick things up. Nobody can question his football acumen, he'd make as good of a coach as Vermeil or Gibbs even 30 years after he last coached, imo.

 

I didn't here him say, "That's what I like about Emmit Smith" once tonight. First time for everything. :huh: