Black and Blue Review
After Week 7’s blowout loss to the Packers, Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott and linebacker Thomas Davis shared some clues as to why Carolina’s defense continues to be in a tailspin.
McDermott said, “We’ve got to do a better job of swarming and gang tackling.”
Davis added, “From the film we watched, we have a lot of guys that are on a consistent enough basis that are not competing hard enough. It’s showing up, and we have to do a better job.”
So let’s take a look at a few clips to see some of these issues ourselves.
The Panthers rush defense was dominant in 2013, allowing the 2nd-fewest yards in the league (86.8). Through seven weeks this season, they’ve giving up 137.6 yards on the ground, which ranks them 26th. The breakdowns are occurring on multiple levels.
On the play below, the Panthers appear to have the run well defended. Packers running back James Starks heads toward the line, but finds no holes. It’s the sort of play the Panthers would have stuffed immediately last season. But not this year.
The defense gives up the backside contain, so when Starks bounces outside, he finds little resistance on his way into the end zone.
The biggest breakdown comes from defensive end Wes Horton, who continues to start in the absence of Greg Hardy. Even though Horton has a favorable size matchup, he’s knocked off balance by the fullback (bottom right frame).
With Horton out of the play, Stark heads to the second level. Here is where Davis and Luke Kuechly are exposed because of the play of their teammates. The Panthers’ defensive tackles let Green Bay’s offensive linemen get their hands on Davis and Kuechly, and now they won’t be able to get to Starks in time.
Once past the linebacker level, the secondary is all that remains. And this is where we can see the lack of swarming and effort.
Cornerback Melvin White and safeties Thomas DeCoud and Roman Harper stand between Starks and an angle to the end zone. But they drift backward to where Starks will be, rather than where he is. That allows the running back enough space to score.
The Packers’ opening touchdown was too easy from the start.
Receiver Jordy Nelson gets off the line cleanly against cornerback Antoine Cason. In a last-ditch attempt to bat the ball away, Cason dives. Then Harper comes in at very poor angle. Nelson needs just one quick cut to head in for an easy score.
Harper’s age and lack of speed are already a disadvantage, so poor directional decisions only add to his issues.
To make matter worse, no defenders hustled to try and clean up the play.
Once again we see a couple guys (left frame) in observational mode. The worst offender is nickel corner Charles Godfrey, who appears to assume Harper will clean up Cason’s mistake. Godfrey doesn’t fly in to assist, and when Harper fails to deliver, chasing Nelson is feeble.
If the Panthers’ secondary had a swarming, aggressive mentality, it might give up fewer big plays. But wide-open spaces are also a common theme for this defense.
In this example from Week 6, Bengals wideout Dane Sanzenbacher has plenty of green around him. The cornerbacks are in man coverage, and Godfrey affords Sanzenbacher way too much room. The safeties could at least help close the space if they came crashing down, but that doesn’t happen.
Godfrey, who was released this week after his nickel experiment failed, is far from the only guy to blame on the Panthers’ struggling defense.
This play is another example of Harper taking a poor angle. He botches his tackle attempt, and then DeCoud arrives once the play is pretty much over.
The green space from the first screen shot stays open because the defenders do not take smart, aggressive actions to close it.
The Panthers’ defense is obviously dealing with multiple issues. Hardy’s absence has hurt the pass rush, which has caused a domino effect into the suspect secondary, but that’s just one major problem.
Davis is right. There are too many instances where a defender misses a tackle, while the rest of his teammates just come pitter-pattering in, arriving too late to help. The swarming, attack-style defense that made Carolina special last season is noticeably absent right now.
If the Panthers have any chance of shoring up their leaky defense, they have to at least turn up their competitive heat.
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