Run Game

we can. problem is that it is Cam that can do it. my bold prediction before the season started was that he would lead the team in rushing ... which is not a good thing.

 

yeah that would be a fucking disaster.

 

I'm not too worried about it at this point. I figured it would take a few weeks even if Otah was back. With the right side getting mixed up it just keeps putting the continuity back a few more weeks.
Rivera said when Rivers came in they gave him a shit load of passes early. It's part of the plan

 

it's happening

RUSHING
PLAYER ATT YDS YDS/ATT LONG TD
Cam Newton 18 71 3.9 12 2
DeAngelo Williams 17 43 2.5 8 0
Jonathan Stewart 13 31 2.4 13 0

 

is that why they gave DeAngelo Williams that long extension with a gazillion dollars in guaranteed money?

 

Camolina Panthers

 

rewatched the GB game last night. i think you can throw Wharton in there as a reason our run game is sucking. he was also a problem in pass protection.

tried to keep count of time Cam was under center vs the shotgun. in the first half it was pretty evenly split and maybe a slight edge to him being under center more. for the most part the times he lined up in the shotgun were normal downs a passing team would do so, i.e. 2nd and 3rd and long. late in the second half we went to almost entirely shotgun since we were behind. overall, i counted that he set up under center 30 times ... so i think he's getting good amount of reps in games.

i think he looks fine working from under center. Chud did a good job of mixing it up. ran ten draws that i counted from the shotgun fairly successful ... though i think Cam got a high percent of those. I think they run the draw with him pretty often not only because it gets pretty consistently good yardage but it also sets that little fake draw move, which does make the LBs bite enough to help open passing lanes in the middle.

the shotgun with the 5 receiver sets seemed to be the most problematic for us. GB would rush 3, maybe four ... so they would be flooding the passing lanes with defenders, particularly in the redzone. gave Cam a lot to process as to who would be singled. to me, he looked better when we only ran 2-3 receivers out, lot fewer options and created more space for the guys who were running routes. having two big-time pass catching TEs is awesome. defense has to respect each and figure which one, or both, is going to run a route. Chud had some great play designs taking advantage of this.

don't remember seeing Cam throw a single timing route where he was throwing the ball before a receiver broke. everything was crossing routes, long outs, post routes, slants and seam routes (if that's the correct term). guessing, that is part of simplifying things for Cam until he gets a lot more reps.

the running game still perplexes me. GB obviously ran pretty well from the spread. i think our OL is hurting that a lot and Chud has spent more time with the passing game. but, if he wants Cam around for the entire season, i think he's gonna have to lighten the load on him by figuring out ways to run the ball. i was very impressed with Chud's play design and balance. GB and our OL's ineptitude, dictated a lot of what we did. still with Henning especially, he could come up with ways to still run on teams. maybe using AE a few times in the wildcat ... hope Rivera wasn't just giving lip service to finding ways to get him on the field.

it's gonna be interesting to see how teams try to defend Cam going forward and how we adjust to what they do.

we easily coulda won those first two games. stupid mistakes.

oh, and jordan pugh was absolutely awful in that game. you can see he has talent but he is killing us with not knowing how to play safety.

 

The OL is not used to playing this style of offense. This is completely different from what we did under Fox. It is going to take a while for them to adjust. That is why a guy like Wharton who is a good player may struggle for a while.

I think they could get the running game going if they would just run it more often and do it out of a "running" set with a fullback leading the way. I know everyone was tired of Fox's conservative style but somewhere between what we are doing now and what he was doing is probably the better path.

 

yeah, but if we can get the red zone shit figured out, and we will, none of us will care how we got down the damn field.

 

I think we will still care eventually. You need balance on an offense. A pass only attack will eventually meet a defense that can stop it. When that happens and you can not run the ball effectively then you are done.