Is Panthers Top 10 Defense for Real?

We’ve held backs to around what… 3 yard per carry in almost every game? I think we had outing where they were closer to 2 yards per carry.

I’m also not terribly surprised that our pass D is the weak link. When you think about how teams have beaten us it’s been through the air. They haven’t been able to run very effectively on us, but still haven’t been able to stop them. That’s troubling to me because our whole idea is to stop the run stop the run stop the run. If teams can beat us without the run, then our entire gameplan is worthless.

I attribute this to the changing league. It’s a much more pass friendly, pass oriented league now than it was 30 or 40 years ago. The philosophies we employ are a bit antiquated in that sense.

Not because I don’t think they’ve played well, but because the offense has been so anemic. Obviously, we miss TD (get well soon). But we’re not the only team that has problems covering TEs (see Saints).
What stands out is the sack rate (32nd). Who’da thunk it after our preseason? Are we selling out to stop the run at the expense of getting to the QB? Don’t make me say we miss a certain DE. If we don’t pressure Brees, he’ll eat us alive. Especially now with Lancey in the slot.
It looks to me like we need to make a few tweaks to get more sacks, hurries, hits. Not many QBs can throw from their ass – just look at our own QBs. We need to mix things up occasionally and show new blitz packages that the opponent hasn’t seen, especally on 3rd downs.

One thing to remember about those numbers id they are still taking in to account some of the preseason. I think at this point it weight about 25% on the stats.

But still moving up from 16 to 10 does show progress. Either that or everyone else just sucked last week.

No. We suck and once they face a real offensive juggernaut the true Panthers defense will be revealed. Mwahahaha!

For the amount of turnovers our offense has given to the other team and the amount of time our defense has spent on the field, I think to say that we have performed well has to be the greatest understatement of the century.

You want to fix the pass defense? Kick Godfrey out of the defensive lineup and bring back Chris Harris. Seriously. That’s the quickest way to fix it right there. He is the weakest leak in this defense, despite his giftwrap interceptions he keeps getting for some reason. Almost all of the deep throws against Hakeem Nicks in the backfield was because Godfrey was ‘defending’ against him by being a mile away in front of the guy he’s supposed to have the over coverage on. He improved a bit in the game against the Bengals, but he looked much better than he should have been because Carson was throwing so horribly and he wound up with 2 interceptions.

Honestly, we’re not doing too bad in pass defense though. 207 yards per game. That’s pretty good in my book, almost Top 10.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth/post/_/id/13658/panthers-bucs-leading-in-one-category

on how the defenses [are doing] when they used four or fewer pass rushers.
…
The Carolina Panthers are right on Tampa Bay’s heels in these situations. The Panthers rank No. 3 in this category, holding opposing quarterbacks to a 60.5 rating.

That’s a bit creepy.

Great post, I love the way you broke it down. Everything fits with whats happening on gameday. To me its funny that our preseason worries were stopping the run, and its what we are best at(for right now at least). We have got to start getting some pass rush from someone, I dont care who it is. At times the secondary looks terrible and the rest of the time is spent looking average at best. Im still not a big fan of the Meeks tampa 2 defense, but I hope they can get it together and turn my opinion around.

Your stats against receivers by position is interesting. I’m not a stats guy but over at CSC there are guys that spit out every stat for everything down to the number of hot dogs sold off the top of their head. Still have never seen that one. More to the point , it doesn’t bode well for your Cats. Saints are very good using slot and TE receivers. We will see shortly. Do think Cats will match up and play better against this Saints team [ injuries ] than anyone gives them credit for. Think the points are stupid and Saints don’t cover 14. But do win.
    Geaux Saints !