Panthers / Saints Running Commentary

In an interview last week one of the Panthers said that every game from here on was a playoff game.

 

Nope

 

every time I've seen Drew Carter on the field he has looked good. I hope to see him today. Anybody know if he is dressed today?

 

DAMMIT JAKE!

 

Yes!! Its not an NFL quality field. Hope no one gets hurt.

 

This is, most definitely, not the same New Orleans team that took us on to begin the season.

No more Deuce McAllister, no more Aaron Brooks, no more Darren Howard. That's a big trio to lose, and add in continuing injury to Ernie Conwell, and this isn't the group that hurt us last year.


The upside for Bouman is that we don't have much tape on him, and no one really knows him well. He has a decent line in front of him, though it seems the secondary blockers struggle a bit more. They're also a bit better run blocking than pass blocking, but they do enough to force Carolina to blitz some.

The interior defense must be strong this week, as the Saints' forced "new look" running game focuses almost entirely on the middle gaps. They run almost 3 of every 4 there, including draws, a fair amount more than average; Buckner and Carstens must come to play, and Morgan must be tough.

Witherspoon struggled a little bit with trying to come down off his gap to help out. That's great, but watch the back, because while Smith and Stecker are not as talented as Williams was last week, there's inevitably going to be a thought from tape that they can counter and Witherspoon might not be in his gap.

Horn and Stallworth are still there, and Hakim and Devery Henderson make for a good quartet. Horn didn't kill us in the first meeting, 5/66, and missed most of October; he hasn't scored since September and hasn't had 100 yards receiving since then, either. Lucas needs to be ready for this matchup, however, because if he plays off Horn too far, he'll pay. Horn's not exactly Smith when it comes to taking the shortest passes, but he'll kill you on 3rd down. This is, however, clearly Horn's worst season in years, and he'll probably be looking for a job next year if Haslett is.

While Stallworth's productivity's come down in the last few weeks, he was on a tear in mid-October and throughout November (4 TD catches in 3 games, 6 in 6 before the two game dry spell). He had been Brooks' go-to for most of the season.

I do expect we'll bring McCree in the box some, though the run isn't that big a consideration. It's a natural tendency of this defense, and as well, it allows a bit more blitzing. The Saints really have no secondary threats, their top 4 receivers all being wideouts, and Zach Hilton being somewhat of a bumbling receiver as an intended 3rd TE/situational blocker thrust into starting.


On the other side, we're going to have to run well, but put up points to force Bouman into mistakes. Their setup on the outside, McKenzie, Thomas, Craft, and safety Dwight Smith are all decent. Meanwhile, SS Josh Bullocks is working his way to average, the LBs are all a bit lumbering, and our best matchups seem to be in trying to tighten up inside.

If we have 2 TEs to ably play, we should work that a fair amount, and try to make things happen off of that. Getting Foster involved into space out of a tight formation, like I suggested last week, might be a good way to beat coverage in a 3 WR look without having nickel personnel on the field.

There should be ample room to get Gaines involved, and backs underneath linebackers may be a good way to get 5 good cheap passing yards. Now's when we really have to find a way to sustain drives, by passing short and running the ball where it works best. We need to keep Delhomme involved, spirited, and throw more, with less chances. When he gets in a rhythm, he's wonderful. When we expect him to throw twice in a quarter, he's not.

Smith did have a good day against McKenzie, 8/138/TD, but without having come up with a good compliment in the last 12 games, I'm expecting they'll spend all day rotating to his side. If we can run on them, they probably won't be able to afford to put a man in the box. Smith's only scored twice in 6 games, and he'll have to work to get something out of McKenzie, though McKenzie's probably going to be good for a couple PI calls.

Teams had good success running on Darren Howard, though they didn't run much more in his direction. I don't expect Will Smith will be much better. Smith did, however, have the Saints' only sack last game.

However, the biggest loss on our side is a healthy Stephen Davis. Davis' 13 carries/81 yards/TD was a boost, but Foster did also average over 4/carry, so Deshaun will do enough to make us pretend he'll be worth big money today (Foster was also the team's 2nd leading receiver that week).

 

It's Payback time.Let's go Cat's 24-7 Panthers

 

Yep. I really feel like this game will hinge on Delhomme. Their defense is solid, their pass defense is very good. They blitz a lot. They play us well, they know us. If they can force Delhomme into early mistakes, this game takes a whole 'nother face. If he can play well, complete some passes, we can get some run game going on, and Kasey can be effective? We can snowball this game on them late, and scoop up some fourth quarter points.


Im slightly worried about this game. I dont think well come out emotionally flat, but I hope we dont come out thinking we have this thing won.

 

Will Smith and Charles Grant are a major concern, while I expect the Saints to run the ball early and often with Antowain Smith, who actually looked pretty good against the Falcons (although most RBs look good against the Falcons). I'd like to see us be aggressive both offensively and defensively in the first quarter to try and put this game away before it starts.


magnus:
Radio said that Gaines is out again.

 

It's hard to think about our offense letting us both pass and be safe. We just don't do it often, and the only time this year was honestly after the Chicago game, which seemed a lot more like overadjustment than anything.