Posted on 02/09/2016 9:58:58 AM PST by Jim W N
5. The Broncos' run defense
The Panthers carried the ball 16 times for 53 yards on first-and-10 on Sunday, producing a 3.3-yard rushing average which will hit the books as their fifth worst on first down all season. In their two previous playoff games, Carolina carried the ball 33 times for 175 yards on first-and-10, averaging 5.3 yards per attempt. As a result, the Panthers were almost never in third-and-short situations in which they would have held an enormous advantage over the Broncos. Their one attempt on third-and-3 or less was when Newton plunged forward for a first down on third-and-2 during Carolina's disastrous attempt at a two-minute drill.
Denver will look back fondly on how it played. Carolina averaged 4.4 yards per carry, but some of that came from Cam as a scrambler; Jonathan Stewart produced just 29 yards on 12 carries, going out for part of the first half with a foot injury. At the same time, given how much I wrote about Carolina's state-of-the-art rushing attack heading into the game, I have to admit that I was pretty underwhelmed by how little Carolina did to spice up their ground game. Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall felt the same way.
The Panthers rarely brought motion across the formation to try to fake (or execute) the jet sweep, which could have slowed down the Denver edge rush. A triple option early in the first half sparked the first signs of life from Carolina's offense when it went for 14 yards and a first down, but Mike Shula didn't really go back to it, or much else in the way of exotic rush concepts.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
Cam, simply doesn’t have the experience yet at handling that kind of adversity. Will he ever develop it, or will he wind up as a “Flash in the Pan” like Kaepernick.
So they can complain via a poll taken afterwards how bad it was.
Correction, so as to respond to the poll on the NFL website saying it was bad or not good.
The first 19 plays against Seattle the TOP ranked defense against scoring were 74% (14) running plays and 5 pass.
The first 19 plays against Denver were 47% (9) running plays and 10 passing plays.
After the game, Wade Phillips tweeted the perfect pearl of wisdom:
“A little Dab will do you but too much Dab will undo you!”
As far as play choice, it may be that the Panthers passed more trying to pick on the two Bronco safeties and cornerback Chris Harris who were not really at 100%.
Well, they forgot what brung ‘em - their razzle-dazzle double and triple option and misdirection running game - 2nd best in the NFL.
I'm pretty sure Cam's conscious decision to not fall on his own fumble was not the fault of some random, cosmic roll of the dice, over which he had no control.
The only way the half time show could have been worse would have been if they had invited sCam to be in it.
Denver’s defense.
Next topic ...
Yes, Denver had a very good defense, but so did Seattle. Seattle had the #1 defense in the NFL against scoring. What happened there?
Brady.
He’s made his living shredding good defenses.
Except toward the end of the game, a commentator asked if Chris Harris had even been thrown to. (Not saying he wasn't; but commentator wondered that out loud due to rarity)
Brady didn’t play in the Seattle-Carolina game.
How did Carolina beat Seattle’s powerful #1 defense against scoring in the NFL?
There was more to the Super Bowl than Denver’s tough defense.
I didn’t mean the Seattle - Carolina game. I was referring to the Super Bowl last year.
Of course there was more than Denver’s D. But, they were the deciding factor in the game.
But there’s an important reason they fairly easily dominated Carolina instead of it being a close game: Carolina, the 2nd toughest running team in the NFL, forgot to mostly run the ball.
Yeah, I don’t know how Stewart was doing in the second half. Did the commentators even pursue that? It was a critical issue.
If Carolina coaching staff actually thought that, they should be severely reprimanded or fired. They all had two weeks to see how Denver shredded Tom Brady’s thereto invincible pass attack. They should have prepared accordingly and had the perfect answer - the same answer they had to beat Seattle: mostly run the ball with double and triple options and misdirection. Instead they played like they were blind deaf and dumb to who they were playing and what their own strengths were.
As far as Carolina’s side went, it wasn’t about Cam Newton, it was about the coaching staff handing them a lousy game plan.
Some shows the day after the SB mentioned the injury; he might have had a strained ankle or foot. Simms and Nantz mentioned the problem as well.
Well the Panther’s would say that that was that and the Bronco’s are no where near good enough to defeat us since we’re so good with Cam and all they have is an almost forty QB.
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