2016 Week 2 Carolina Panthers coaches film analysis

Well I don't know about where you live, but down here in the beautiful state of Alabama, it's been weather in the 90's, dry(for the south) and hardly a cloud in the sky. Welcome, once again, to the weekly coaches film analysis thread!!

Losses are never fun, but sometimes when you watch the film after a loss you end up feeling not as bad about yourself and the team as you otherwise would. Then, other times you walk away feeling more depressed about your team than if you hadn't seen the film....(like last year against Pitt, for me at least....) This was a game that had nearly equal parts of both. The similarities between this game and the Pitt game were somewhat staggering - Bethea busted a coverage and gave up a 70+ yd td. We had a 70+ yard TD on a beautifully thrown pass late in the game to give us some hope. We gave up over 40 points against a big, strong arm and hard to tackle QB - but there was a definite difference in the tone of the game. The game felt more like one team that was established, well stocked with talent against a team that was young but talented and just not ready to compete against the big boys.

I went into the game expecting us to lose by 14 points - however, I was expecting more of a 28-14 than what it turned out to be.

But, enough with the chit chat, let's get down to what the coaches film revealed. I'm going to save the QB discussion for last, because once again, it's such a hot button topic that I know I'll lose people right away, on either side, no matter what I say - so you gotta trudge through everything else to get to the stuff you want - kind of like milk at the grocery store

Coaching: I felt like we got out-coached through a lot of the game. Not in a bad way - like Jim "fartman" Tomsula kind of way. But more in, the Panthers had done their homework and came in with a really good game-plan to shut down the run game and force Kelly to beat him with passing design. Which, shouldn't surprise anyone considering that Ron Rivera is a great football coach and had an extra 2-3 days to prepare.

It seemed like the Panthers knew where they could exploit our run game and did a great job of that. They were able to handle our running game with 7 guys in the box, for most of the game. It didn't mean that they weren't coming with a 3 deep coverage, they were just able to do it while playing with more of a cushion to the outside so the deep balls were taken away. That meant, that Kelly had to utilize a lot of underneath patterns to take advantage of those cushions, when we did that, we moved the ball so long as the Gabbert wasn't throwing dirt balls

Panthers D-line: These guys are studs. It reminded me a lot of our D-line from out championship run. The interior guys were very stout and we weren't able to get a handle on them all game long.

"Gabbert needs to take the ball on those zone-reads more to... "
Ok, one thing we need to realize from this game - there was a LOT less zone-read than it appeared. It didn't mean we didn't run it, but when we did, I thought there were only 2 plays where Gabs should've kept it and 1 was the TD. We started out the game with it, but then as Carolina's defense showed they knew how to counter it(duh, the panthers run it a lot too, so they should know what defeats it), we switched things up to more of a power-man scheme of running with a lot of powers, traps and counters. So, the QB run is just a diversion to hopefully pull some not-paying-attention defender out of the play.

Hyde: As good as Hyde is, there are some things he's got to get better at to be an all-around back that takes it to that, 'Gore' level. He has to get better at pass-pro. He did alright, for the most part, but he's not Gore. Gore was a monster in pass pro and Hyde has the potential to be, considering his size, but he's got to use his strength and become more aggressive in his pass-pro. He didn't allow any sacks, but he did allow the pocket to get collapsed a couple times into Gabbert so he couldn't step into a few throws.

Another thing he's got to get better at is sticking the ball up in the hole. There were times when he was too eager to bounce it outside and he's got to just put his head down and get the gritty, non-sportscenter yards more. Especially if we're going to be running power plays.

Defense: The game plan coming in appeared to be one where we wanted to put Jimmie Ward on Kelvin Benjamin and try to take away the easy underneath throws and make Cam beat us with deep balls to the outside. The unfortunate thing was, he did....

To me, we played wayyyyy too much single high safety in this game and a couple times, the timing of it really seemed odd to me. I wasn't a huge fan of the way JoN called the game. It wasn't Mangini terrible but there were some definite head-scratchers that cost us big time in the game.

QB: I don't always agree with Cosell, but sometimes he's spot on and his little blurb about Gabs this morning was spot on. He's inconsistent and you don't know what you're gonna get. He's frustrating on a completely different level than CK. You don't know what you're gonna get with Blaine. When he's in rhythm - he can be awesome and make beautiful throws with great execution and pocket awareness - then there's other times . What seems to be the difference is how much trust he has in himself and the play-call to execute things right. I didn't think he did quite as bad as the numbers suggest. I think there were a number of deep balls that were off-target when the pocket had something to do with it. But, then there are other times when it seems like he's scared that the defenders are going to collapse at mega speed and so he's so hurried in what he's doing that he rushes things. He's still playing scared. Not scared of taking a hit - we've seen him have the toughness to deliver balls while taking a hit, but scared to mess up. That time in Jacksonville probably did a number on him. Taking the brunt of all the blame everywhere he went, everything he heard, probably from coaches too - the whole, "blame Gabbert" deal. It seems like he's so worried about throwing a ball late or missing the opportunity that he's rushing everything a lot of times. I'm not sure what it would take for him to overcome that and gain some good confidence, but it's gotta happen for him to get any better than backup QB status. It's gotta be hard for Kelly as a play-caller because you're working with a QB with an inconsistent mentality. When you call a pass play, you're not sure if your QB is gonna have the confidence to execute the play. If Kelly can find a way to get Gabbert in rhythm and keep him in rhythm then I think we'll see a big jump in offensive production and efficiency. However, if they can't iron this out, then we need to start exploring other options(I.E. CK or Ponder). The question is going to be, how patient should we be as a fan base. Many people wanted to have Gabbert yanked this week in favor of another QB.... yet, these same fans expected only a 6-7 win season, regardless of who was at QB. I doubt any of those same fans expected one of our 6-7 wins to be against the defending NFC champs. So, y'all need to slow your roll a little bit

Overall: There's a lot of things to get into and I'm feeling too random and sporadic right now to go through them in a coherent manner right now - so we'll just go with plays as they come.

One thing that was striking and is the difference between the really good teams and the young teams that are developing: The Panthers were able to take advantage or come through in the key moments of the game. We weren't out of our league in this game(which should be encouraging ) but the Panthers were a team that executed like a top tier team.

Thanks for the feedback johnnydel. Any thoughts on our receivers? Were they getting open enough for a consistent offense? Are we utilizing our TEs as pass catchers? Any thoughts on screens for the RBs? How did the Oline look?

Excellent post - one of your very best!!

Not mentioned by many is Chip getting outcoached in this game.

In both games it seems we come out flat in the 3rd quarter and the playcalling isn't what it was in the first half.

We played the NFC Champions and hels our own in the first half.

They are a much better team than we are and it showed.

Biggest issues moving forward??

IMO, the QB situation and Pass Rushing.

Thoughts??

Two biggest questions for me from the Rams game were is the defense as good as it showed against Keenum, and just how well
is the new 49er OL playing?

The Panthers defensive front was a much bigger test for the 49ers OL than the Rams were and this had to do with the two DTs, Charles Johnson, and Luke Kuechly. As much as Kuechly gets the name recognition, and he is a terrific player, I thought Kawann Short is just as disruptive, if not more. The 49ers interior had a heckuva time blocking Short all game
long. While most 4-3 DTs are asked to penetrate and blow things up, there were plays where Short took on two and kept Kuechly clean to run around. The 49ers struggles to get anthing going between the tackles and used some plays to try to avoid Short. This is where CAR used their safties to provide extra run support on the edges. A number of run plays
were snuffed out and never had a chance as CAR would creep in an extra defender into the box just before the snap. Some of these stuffed runs were RPOs and I thought Gabbert could have opted for the quick pass to the slot WR in these instances as CAR was always trying to cheat in that extra box defender. A few of us mentioned how Gabbert should have kept the ball on some of the zone reads but I didn't see an instance where it was obvious he could have kept an picked up yards except for the TD run where Kuechly attacked the mesh point and lost. I think I saw a play where it looked as though Gabbert could have gotten some yards had he kept, but there was an unblocked LB staying home to play the QB keeper (first play of 3rd quarter). Let me know of an instance or two you thought Gabbert could have gotten some yards.

Gabbert continues to struggle with the deep Out (Comeback) route and it needs to be fixed because this is the area of the field that CAR sacrificed to bolster their run defense in this game. The deep Out requires timing from QB/WR, accuracy, and also proper depth of route. Only the players/coaches know whether the depth of route was run correctly, but it's very much a 'throw to a spot' type of play. QB completes dropback and throws to a spot, just like how they practice it. It's up to the WR to get the CB to flip his hips, then that's when the WR starts his break to comeback for the ball. Gabbert contnually missed on this throw and it killed drives. Torrey admitted to turning the wrong direction on the INT, but there were other instances where it looked like an inaccurate throw. Teams are going to single up on the outside so the play is there to be made. His TD throw to Torrey showed what a calm Gabbert can do as he moved his way to his third read in the progression. It was a great route concept versus the coverage and Gabbert executed it perfectly.

A huge area of improvement that I'm seeing is the blitz pickup and pass pro in general. But the blitz pickup aspect is night and day better than last season. The RBs (Hyde, Draughn) also get big props. Every blitz by CAR was picked up with no free rushers. Whether it's coach Flaherty (OL coach), having Kilgore back, or just better talent, CAR's blitzes did not fool any of the OL/RB. CAR came with a lot of zone concepts even when they blitzed. These zone concepts also caused Chip to call many RPOs, which work better versus zone.

The 49ers defensive failures came from the number of chunk plays given up, both in the run game and the passing game. Still, except for 2 blown coverages and the gaff from Bethea that allowed the Olsen TD, I thought the 49ers played fine in coverage in terms of not giving a lot of separation. However, it was the pin point throws from Cam, nice catches from big bodied WRs, and lack of edge pressure from the 49ers that allowed the Panther's to win this matchup. I see a pattern matching scheme being implemented and it could take some time before the potential for this defense's pass coverage is realized. An exotic pattern match scheme requires a lot of communicaiton before the play and CAR tried on a few occasions to quickly break the huddle, line up, and snap the ball to catch the 49ers mid communication, not ready for the snap. In the run game, JoN continues to line up his three DL close together to help stuff any inside runs. All of CAR's big run plays were outside the tackles, which is what gets exposed when going with a partial Bear front (DL with close splits).

Overall, I thought the coaches went in with a sensible gameplan given the short week of preparation. They mixed in more outside runs to avoid Short/Star/Kuechly, call a bunch of RPOs to take advantage of CAR's zone coverage, stop the inside runs, mix up coverages to have Cam hold the ball. The talent gap just proved to be too much.

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:
Excellent post - one of your very best!!

Not mentioned by many is Chip getting outcoached in this game.

In both games it seems we come out flat in the 3rd quarter and the playcalling isn't what it was in the first half.

We played the NFC Champions and hels our own in the first half.

They are a much better team than we are and it showed.

Biggest issues moving forward??

IMO, the QB situation and Pass Rushing.

Thoughts??

Run game and run blocking too.

Originally posted by thl408:
Two biggest questions for me from the Rams game were is the defense as good as it showed against Keenum, and just how well
is the new 49er OL playing?

The Panthers defensive front was a much bigger test for the 49ers OL than the Rams were and this had to do with the two
DTs, Charles Johnson, and Luke Kuechly. As much as Kuechly gets the name recognition, and he is a terrific player, I
thought Kawann Short is just as disruptive, if not more. The 49ers interior had a heckuva time blocking Short all game
long. While most 4-3 DTs are asked to penetrate and blow things up, there were plays where Short took on two and kept
Kuechly clean to run around. The 49ers struggles to get anthing going between the tackles and used some plays to try to
avoid Short. This is where CAR used their safties to provide extra run support on the edges. A number of run plays
were snuffed out and never had a chance as CAR would creep in an extra defender into the box just before the snap. Some of
these stuffed runs were RPOs and I thought Gabbert could have opted for the quick pass to the slot WR in these instances as
CAR was always trying to cheat in that extra box defender. A few of us mentioned how Gabbert should have kept the ball on
some of the zone reads but I didn't see an instance where it was obvious he could have kept an picked up yards except for
the TD run where Kuechly attacked the mesh point and lost. I think I saw a play where it looked as though Gabbert could
have gotten some yards had he kept, but there was an unblocked LB staying home to play the QB keeper (first play of 3rd
quarter). Let me know of an instance or two you thought Gabbert could have gotten some yards.

Gabbert continues to struggle with the deep Out (Comeback) route and it needs to be fixed because this is the area of the
field that CAR sacrificed to bolster their run defense in this game. The deep Out requires timing from QB/WR, accuracy, and
also proper depth of route. Only the players/coaches know whether the depth of route was run correctly, but it's very much
a 'throw to a spot' type of play. QB completes dropback and throws to a spot, just like how they practice it. It's up to
the WR to get the CB to flip his hips, then that's when the WR starts his break to comeback for the ball. Gabbert
contnually missed on this throw and it killed drives. Torrey admitted to turning the wrong direction on the INT, but there
were other instances where it looked like an inaccurate throw. Teams are going to single up on the outside so the play is
there to be made. His TD throw to Torrey showed what a calm Gabbert can do as he moved his way to his third read in the
progression. It was a great route concept versus the coverage and Gabbert executed it perfectly.

A huge area of improvement that I'm seeing is the blitz pickup and pass pro in general. But the blitz pickup aspect is
night and day better than last season. The RBs (Hyde, Draughn) also get big props. Every blitz by CAR was picked up with no
free rushers. Whether it's coach Flaherty (OL coach), having Kilgore back, or just better talent, CAR's blitzes did not
fool any of the OL/RB. CAR came with a lot of zone concepts even when they blitzed. These zone concepts also caused Chip to
call many RPOs, which work better versus zone.

The 49ers defensive failures came from the number of chunk plays given up, both in the run game and the passing game.
Still, except for 2 blown coverages and the gaff from Bethea that allowed the Olsen TD, I thought the 49ers played fine in
coverage in terms of not giving a lot of separation. However, it was the pin point throws from Cam, nice catches from big
bodied WRs, and lack of edge pressure from the 49ers that allowed the Panther's to win this matchup. I see a pattern
matching scheme being implemented and it could take some time before the potential for this defense's pass coverage is
realized. An exotic pattern match scheme requires a lot of communicaiton before the play and CAR tried on a few occasions
to quickly break the huddle, line up, and snap the ball to catch the 49ers mid communication, not ready for the snap. In
the run game, JoN continues to line up his three DL close together to help stuff any inside runs. All of CAR's big run
plays were outside the tackles, which is what gets exposed when going with a partial Bear front (DL with close splits).

Overall, I thought the coaches went in with a sensible gameplan given the short week of preparation. They mixed in more
outside runs to avoid Short/Star/Kuechly, call a bunch of RPOs to take advantage of CAR's zone coverage, stop the inside
runs, mix up coverages to have Cam hold the ball. The talent gap just proved to be too much.

The one miss to Streeter to the outside in the 4th qtr looked like a bad throw, but I think it goes into this. Gabbert threw it to the spot he thought Streeter would come back to. Streeter's feet not as nibble

Here's a play where I think Gabbert's pop up timer went off a little too quick. Though, I might be grading him hard because I don't know a lot of QB's that would want to stand in the pocket that long against Carolina's defensive front - just ask Peyton Manning about wanting to get rid of the ball playing this front, lol. But, it turned out to be a big play of the game as it was our first drive inside the red-zone.



Here, we're going to run a smash concept to the top of the screen and a hook/out combo. The Panthers show a press-man look with pressure pre-snap. On the smash concept there's usually an "alert man" in the playbook to throw the corner route against man-coverage. The progression then looks 1 to the corner, 2 the curl 3 the HB over the middle and 4 the QB. So, it's usually a 3 progression pass play. This is why I say I'm judging him harshly. Realistically, he's only supposed to go through 3 progressions.


Right before the snap, the Panthers back out of the pressure look and drop into a soft 2 zone. This soft 2 zone is going to put 5 defenders at or near the endzone - which is the line to gain. It does make it really tough on a team when the defense does this.


You see then how we get outmatched on the routes. We have a 4v2 at the bottom and the safety is rotating wide into his cover 2 spot and is now gaining leverage on the corner route.


You see the safety has a good angle on the corner route with an underneath defender taking away a shallower throw to that route and the other corner is squatting on the curl. You also see the other 2 receivers bracketed. Gabbert has already hit his back foot here and is on his hitch step.


He's making sure the corner right(primary) is covered and see's that both routes on that side of field are taken away. The key is, these two defenders circled in blue, they've got eyes on the QB and aren't looking at Patton who's about to break free.


When Gabbert looks to his checkdown, you see the defense start to collapse. This is going to give an opportunity for a score in the back of the endzone.



Carolina has our progressions covered, but patton is free if Gabbert throws it a little high in the back of the endzone. But, his pop up timer goes off and he leaves the pocket and ends up throwing the ball away. It's a tall order to ask him to stay in the pocket that long(4-5 seconds) but the protection was there and it's plays that Aaron Rodgers or a Brady makes. Again, it might be harsh considering the circumstances and the team we were playing but it's a play that I think needs to get made and I'd grade Kaepernick hard on it too.

Originally posted by qnnhan7:

Originally posted by thl408:
Two biggest questions for me from the Rams game were is the defense as good as it showed against Keenum, and just how well
is the new 49er OL playing?

The Panthers defensive front was a much bigger test for the 49ers OL than the Rams were and this had to do with the two
DTs, Charles Johnson, and Luke Kuechly. As much as Kuechly gets the name recognition, and he is a terrific player, I
thought Kawann Short is just as disruptive, if not more. The 49ers interior had a heckuva time blocking Short all game
long. While most 4-3 DTs are asked to penetrate and blow things up, there were plays where Short took on two and kept
Kuechly clean to run around. The 49ers struggles to get anthing going between the tackles and used some plays to try to
avoid Short. This is where CAR used their safties to provide extra run support on the edges. A number of run plays
were snuffed out and never had a chance as CAR would creep in an extra defender into the box just before the snap. Some of
these stuffed runs were RPOs and I thought Gabbert could have opted for the quick pass to the slot WR in these instances as
CAR was always trying to cheat in that extra box defender. A few of us mentioned how Gabbert should have kept the ball on
some of the zone reads but I didn't see an instance where it was obvious he could have kept an picked up yards except for
the TD run where Kuechly attacked the mesh point and lost. I think I saw a play where it looked as though Gabbert could
have gotten some yards had he kept, but there was an unblocked LB staying home to play the QB keeper (first play of 3rd
quarter). Let me know of an instance or two you thought Gabbert could have gotten some yards.

Gabbert continues to struggle with the deep Out (Comeback) route and it needs to be fixed because this is the area of the
field that CAR sacrificed to bolster their run defense in this game. The deep Out requires timing from QB/WR, accuracy, and
also proper depth of route. Only the players/coaches know whether the depth of route was run correctly, but it's very much
a 'throw to a spot' type of play. QB completes dropback and throws to a spot, just like how they practice it. It's up to
the WR to get the CB to flip his hips, then that's when the WR starts his break to comeback for the ball. Gabbert
contnually missed on this throw and it killed drives. Torrey admitted to turning the wrong direction on the INT, but there
were other instances where it looked like an inaccurate throw. Teams are going to single up on the outside so the play is
there to be made. His TD throw to Torrey showed what a calm Gabbert can do as he moved his way to his third read in the
progression. It was a great route concept versus the coverage and Gabbert executed it perfectly.

A huge area of improvement that I'm seeing is the blitz pickup and pass pro in general. But the blitz pickup aspect is
night and day better than last season. The RBs (Hyde, Draughn) also get big props. Every blitz by CAR was picked up with no
free rushers. Whether it's coach Flaherty (OL coach), having Kilgore back, or just better talent, CAR's blitzes did not
fool any of the OL/RB. CAR came with a lot of zone concepts even when they blitzed. These zone concepts also caused Chip to
call many RPOs, which work better versus zone.

The 49ers defensive failures came from the number of chunk plays given up, both in the run game and the passing game.
Still, except for 2 blown coverages and the gaff from Bethea that allowed the Olsen TD, I thought the 49ers played fine in
coverage in terms of not giving a lot of separation. However, it was the pin point throws from Cam, nice catches from big
bodied WRs, and lack of edge pressure from the 49ers that allowed the Panther's to win this matchup. I see a pattern
matching scheme being implemented and it could take some time before the potential for this defense's pass coverage is
realized. An exotic pattern match scheme requires a lot of communicaiton before the play and CAR tried on a few occasions
to quickly break the huddle, line up, and snap the ball to catch the 49ers mid communication, not ready for the snap. In
the run game, JoN continues to line up his three DL close together to help stuff any inside runs. All of CAR's big run
plays were outside the tackles, which is what gets exposed when going with a partial Bear front (DL with close splits).

Overall, I thought the coaches went in with a sensible gameplan given the short week of preparation. They mixed in more
outside runs to avoid Short/Star/Kuechly, call a bunch of RPOs to take advantage of CAR's zone coverage, stop the inside
runs, mix up coverages to have Cam hold the ball. The talent gap just proved to be too much.

The one miss to Streeter to the outside in the 4th qtr looked like a bad throw, but I think it goes into this. Gabbert threw it to the spot he thought Streeter would come back to. Streeter's feet not as nibble

That's a great point - one that I was trying to watch for - consistency in the placement of those comeback/out routes. Those are "throw to a spot" plays. Though, the encouraging thing is that he's looking to make those throws. That's the only way you build that chemistry but one that takes quite a while to get down right. I remember people dinged him last year against the cards because he didn't want to make that throw against Patrick Peterson - but you see, a lot of things have to go right and there has to be a lot of trust built up to make those throws.

But I noticed the same thing on the last INT, even when I watched it live I thought, "oh....good lord, Torrey, he obviously expected you to run an out route...."

Thats not a throw I expect gabbert to make thats just above his skill level. imo

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's a play where I think Gabbert's pop up timer went off a little too quick. Though, I might be grading him hard because I don't know a lot of QB's that would want to stand in the pocket that long against Carolina's defensive front - just ask Peyton Manning about wanting to get rid of the ball playing this front, lol. But, it turned out to be a big play of the game as it was our first drive inside the red-zone.



Here, we're going to run a smash concept to the top of the screen and a hook/out combo. The Panthers show a press-man look with pressure pre-snap. On the smash concept there's usually an "alert man" in the playbook to throw the corner route against man-coverage. The progression then looks 1 to the corner, 2 the curl 3 the HB over the middle and 4 the QB. So, it's usually a 3 progression pass play. This is why I say I'm judging him harshly. Realistically, he's only supposed to go through 3 progressions.


Right before the snap, the Panthers back out of the pressure look and drop into a soft 2 zone. This soft 2 zone is going to put 5 defenders at or near the endzone - which is the line to gain. It does make it really tough on a team when the defense does this.


You see then how we get outmatched on the routes. We have a 4v2 at the bottom and the safety is rotating wide into his cover 2 spot and is now gaining leverage on the corner route.


You see the safety has a good angle on the corner route with an underneath defender taking away a shallower throw to that route and the other corner is squatting on the curl. You also see the other 2 receivers bracketed. Gabbert has already hit his back foot here and is on his hitch step.


He's making sure the corner right(primary) is covered and see's that both routes on that side of field are taken away. The key is, these two defenders circled in blue, they've got eyes on the QB and aren't looking at Patton who's about to break free.


When Gabbert looks to his checkdown, you see the defense start to collapse. This is going to give an opportunity for a score in the back of the endzone.



Carolina has our progressions covered, but patton is free if Gabbert throws it a little high in the back of the endzone. But, his pop up timer goes off and he leaves the pocket and ends up throwing the ball away. It's a tall order to ask him to stay in the pocket that long(4-5 seconds) but the protection was there and it's plays that Aaron Rodgers or a Brady makes. Again, it might be harsh considering the circumstances and the team we were playing but it's a play that I think needs to get made and I'd grade Kaepernick hard on it too.

If we are running plays that take 4-5 sec to develop, we are going to end up killing our QB's.

Originally posted by thl408:

The Panthers defensive front was a much bigger test for the 49ers OL than the Rams were and this had to do with the two
DTs, Charles Johnson, and Luke Kuechly. As much as Kuechly gets the name recognition, and he is a terrific player, I
thought Kawann Short is just as disruptive, if not more. The 49ers interior had a heckuva time blocking Short all game
long. While most 4-3 DTs are asked to penetrate and blow things up, there were plays where Short took on two and kept
Kuechly clean to run around. The 49ers struggles to get anthing going between the tackles and used some plays to try to
avoid Short. This is where CAR used their safties to provide extra run support on the edges. A number of run plays
were snuffed out and never had a chance as CAR would creep in an extra defender into the box just before the snap. Some of
these stuffed runs were RPOs and I thought Gabbert could have opted for the quick pass to the slot WR in these instances as
CAR was always trying to cheat in that extra box defender. A few of us mentioned how Gabbert should have kept the ball on
some of the zone reads but I didn't see an instance where it was obvious he could have kept an picked up yards except for
the TD run where Kuechly attacked the mesh point and lost. I think I saw a play where it looked as though Gabbert could
have gotten some yards had he kept, but there was an unblocked LB staying home to play the QB keeper (first play of 3rd
quarter). Let me know of an instance or two you thought Gabbert could have gotten some yards.

This was spot on - I was basically too lazy to write all that out and just said, "The panther's D-line are studs" lol.

jonnydel, IMHO nice post.
I thought the defensive game plan was to keep Cam in the pocket and not let him run free. Make him beat us with his pocket play. Opps, with Kelvin
Benjamin beasting and Olsen's catches that didn't work out too well.

Originally posted by jonnydel:


When Gabbert looks to his checkdown, you see the defense start to collapse. This is going to give an opportunity for a score in the back of the endzone.



Carolina has our progressions covered, but patton is free if Gabbert throws it a little high in the back of the endzone. But, his pop up timer goes off and he leaves the pocket and ends up throwing the ball away. It's a tall order to ask him to stay in the pocket that long(4-5 seconds) but the protection was there and it's plays that Aaron Rodgers or a Brady makes. Again, it might be harsh considering the circumstances and the team we were playing but it's a play that I think needs to get made and I'd grade Kaepernick hard on it too.

Successful scrambling also requires a different type of awareness. For example in this case, why scramble to the side that appears to be blanketed? He has a lane between Staley and Beadles to see if he can find something on the left side by scrambling. Wilson is so crafty at scrambling that he always seems to scramble to a correct side.

Originally posted by jcs:
If we are running plays that take 4-5 sec to develop, we are going to end up killing our QB's.

But, I have to be fair. Would we grade Ck negatively on a play like that?? I know I probably would give the same eval - tough play to make, not sure if it's realistic to expect a qb to stay in there that long, but they are plays that Rodgers and Brady make, so we can't hope for less. Aaron Rodgers simultaneously is the QB who makes the most throws under 2.1 seconds and also makes the most throws over 4 seconds. It's about that full understanding of the game.