Commanders Post at The Warpath - Slingin Sammy 33s

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Slingin Sammy 33s - Panthers Game Review

So I was doing some research on the Mayans and the whole 2012 thing. Turns out the Mayans really said Oct. 11, 2009 (at about 4PM) was the end of the world. But just like Y2K and several other End of the World scenarios, the loss to the Panthers came and went and we're all still here (although the clock is ticking on Zorn).

In a loss, nothing is a bad as it seems. I'm going to focus on things that the current coaching staff can address now rather than long term franchise strategy, the addition of a GM, or coaching changes (although one is warranted IMO).

[B]What'd we do Right[/B]
- Zero turnovers on offense.
- Penalties only 4 for 20 yards.
- Heyer's performance overall. He was beaten by Peppers once in pass-pro and on the Stretch play for the Safety. Last I checked, Peppers was arguably the best DE in the NFL. He gets paid $ 16M for a reason. Other than those two plays, Heyer was solid.
- Run playcalls went away from 80% Stretch to much more straight ahead blocking with Leads/ISOs.
- JC's great deep pass to DT, nice to see that.
- JC finding the lane in the pocket to get Portis the ball for the TD.
- Portis running downhill with good effort.
- No Stretch on the GL to get Portis in, just straight ahead.
- DL good effort. The pass rushing front 4 of Haynesworth, Orakpo, Carter and Jarmon has been effective. 3 sacks, good consistent pressure
- Blache still mixing the D up, Zone Blitz, creating confusion by bringing 6 & 7 to the LoS, would like to see a little more disguise in coverage, but that's just nitpicking.
- 2 turnovers for the D
- Three 3 & outs for D in first half.
- Great GL stand, on 3rd down Daniels is double teamed and held his ground, McIntosh fills, Hall finishes. Well done, great team effort. 4th down another great team effort.
- D. Hall good return to set-up 17-2 lead.

[B]What'd we do Wrong[/B]
- On the TD play for Portis, it appears he misses a blitz pickup in the A gap, fortunately he and JC make a play.
- G pull plays still aren't working.
- Heyer was beaten by Peppers on the Stretch on the GL. I count this a Wrong by him, but will discuss more in FUBAR.
- Orakpo in coverage
- Specials allowing a big return off the TD in the second half. Westbrook not paying attention to where his kick returner was. Still a bad call, but this is the second play this season where Westbrook has made a bad play in specials, not good for a player at the bottom of the roster.
- Moss' corner route that was "overthrown" wasn't Campbell's fault. That was a well thrown pass, based on the separation Moss created. Pass-pro was fine. On Moss' post corner route he gives nothing more than a quick head shake, no post move at all. Very poor route.
- Sellers getting knocked back by an LB and staying flat on the Stretch Lead that resulted in the Safety. Pro Bowl FBs who cry about being underpaid can't let these things happen.
- Batiste, but this isn't unexpected. Hopefully he can improve this week. He wasn't horrible, but certainly there's a big drop-off between Samuels and him.
- Dockery isn't looking good pulling, and he's getting beat in pass-pro. He killed one drive by getting abused on a spin move and was a cause in two other plays I marked as "total line" being the problem.
- Jason Campbell's limitations. While he didn't kill us this week, he fumbles again in the pocket and almost fumbled a second time. He isn't improving his ball security. Zorn is clearly protecting him with the playcalling. Out of 23 pass attempts, 13 were quick passes to 1 receiver (no reads) or screens. 3 were play-action, of the other 7, 4 were the TE delay play. Zorn isn't putting Campbell in a position to drop-back or sit in the gun, read the D and make throws based on progressions/reads.

Granted the OL protection was not good overall for the day, but I'm not seeing Campbell progressing week-to-week. Samuels getting hurt couldn't come at a worse time for evaluating JC. I was one who felt the OL problems late last year were to blame for the lack of production late in the year and JC would progress with a whole off-season to get the full grasp of the offense. What we've seen so far is zero or minimal improvement in JC, certainly not to the point where opposing defenses view him as a threat to beat them in the passing game.
- JC calling timeout when Carolina brought 6 up to the LoS in the 4th Qtr. Why? I wish we knew the problem, is it a JC reading the D problem. Is it Zorn's communication or restriction on JC? Whatever it is, it shouldn't happen. The QB sees a D not right for the play call, audible the damn thing. You come out from C and don't like what you see, throw it away. No need for a conference with the coach, just go on to the next play.
- DT's drop :benched:
- D. Hall is soft as cotton. He could be on the cover of the damn Downy bottle. Twice on the final drive Carolina ran plays that would force Hall to make plays in the run game. The first was the 3-2, the OL blocks down and brings a FB to block Hall on the edge. I'm not asking Hall to stand up the FB and make a tackle, but engage the SOB and create a pile in the backfield. If Hall even comes up aggressively and dives at the FBs thigh level, he'll create a pile. Our LBs and Safties could've easily cleaned the play up and stopped Williams for a loss or no gain. Hall backs up while trying to push the FB down, creating enough space for Williams to lunge for the first.

The play with Jake was not only cotton-soft tackling, but even worse he bit on the play fake. Proper technique for this type of play is taught from Pop Warner on up. If you are the last contain man on a side, and the play goes away, you stay home for BCR. Backside, Counter, Reverse. No way Hall's going to make a play 30 yards across the field, STAY HOME blockhead.
I didn't put this in FUBAR, because Hall's limitations are no secret. If the FO wanted a CB who would play run support, and not make mental mistakes, they should've never signed Hall.

[B]What was FUBAR[/B]
[B]Zorn's playcalling in key situations. This isn't improving.[/B]
I suspect the changes in the run game were due to Sherm Lewis, not Zorn.
- Stretch play on the -2. Haven't we seen enough of this damn play in short yardage situations to take it off the playcall sheet in the -10 or +10. You're asking Heyer to take a lateral step against Peppers and drive him off the ball...good luck with that.
- Third & 7 inside the Red Zone, RB Screen? The D reads the play, JC makes the correct decision and throws it away. Even Billick said the same thing, "Why call a screen in the Red Zone?"
- 3WR, 2TE Empty backfield, TE Delay Cross. Zorn ran this play twice on 3rd & 7, once on 3 & 13 and I believe on the 3 & 16 play also. It didn't get a single 1st. Is that the only play on the playcall sheet for 3rd & 7 or more? Absolutely FUBAR.
Zorn: I know, let's run the TE Delay Cross again Carolina will never believe we'll run it again....times 3.
It's also a play that takes a while to develop, not a great playcall with a banged up LT and a reserve RG. No problem with the formation, but just run the TEs on a simple out on one side and a dig on the other if you read Man coverage.
- Out of a timeout, on 4th & 3, the same quick slant that was run at least twice towards the end of the first half and again twice (one was a slant curl) in the same series. The CB was playing inside and JC still went to the slant, no audible to a Slant-Go or fade or a look somewhere else. Just terrible.

[B]Benching Rinehart in favor of MW.[/B]
What did the coaches see in practice that they didn't see on game film. I guess not what I saw. I saw Rinehart getting better and starting to develop with Heyer. These two young guys could solidify our right side for years. Are they Pro Bowl guys? Probably not, but were they consistently making mistakes, No. These two can develop into a good RG/RT tandem IMO.

MW is going to struggle in space and with even average speed or finese DL players. This was a bad move that compounded Samuels' injury. We went from having four positions on the OL solid and just needing to give extra help at LT. To having only three solid OL positions and problems on both sides of the OL. The OL problems this week weren't a talent or FO issue, they stemmed from a bad coaching decision and an injury to a Pro Bowl caliber player. Coaching can be controlled, injuries cannot.

[B]Fixes[/B]
- Get Rinehart back at RG, Heyer at RT, Batiste at LT. Provide TE, RB or protection calls to help Batiste.
- Start Orakpo at RDE, Jarmon at LDE, keep the pass-rush combo of Carter, Haynesworth, Orakpo, Jarmon intact in passing downs. Activate Jackson, cut Wynn.
- Use Wilson, Blades, Carter or some combination at SLB.
- Use more spread sets on offense, mix up formations, better route combos. Don't protect JC with playcalls, let him sink or swim.
- Use Cooley and Davis to create mismatches in the run & passing game. If the D defends them with LBs, throw them the ball. If the D defends them with DBs, run down the Ds throat.
- get Barnes on the field in primarily run packages, if Hall gets pissed tell, him we can go back and look at film again.
- Blache keep mixing up the fronts, blitz, zone blitz, disguise coverage, we've got 31 flavors, use 'em all. :)