2016 Week 2 Carolina Panthers coaches film analysis

Originally posted by jonnydel:
This might be one of my last posts of the evening, we shall see: but, I wanted to end on a high note - sorry Thl, I took the 2 TD passes :)

It was a beautiful play - and one where we finally made Carolina pay for all their fire zone blitzes.


As you had seen from all those other plays, the Panthers kept blitzing DB's off the edge and we weren't able to counter it - until this play. Carolina shows the 2 deep safety look. As I've been thinking about it, I think they did this to bait the run. They kept showing this 2 deep look, then after Kelly signaled in the play, would come down and blitz off the edge. Expecting this we run a sail concept to the far side and a smash concept to the short side.


Post snap you can see that the close side safety drops down and they blitz a DB out of the slot. They're rotating into a fire zone behind the blitz.


This creates a 3v2 hi/lo read to the "sail" side of the field. The underneath defender takes the RB out of the backfield into the flat, with the streak clearing out the deep 3rd defender it opens up a space for the TE on his corner route. With Keuchly mainly responsible for the zone over the middle there's no way he can defend this route.



Gabbert is mid wind-up and it's not like McD's area is vacated. He's trusting the concept and throwing with anticipation - things you really like to see. You see the underneath defender taking the flat and the corner proteting his deep 1/3


He does a great job of putting air under the ball and throwing into the sweet spot in the zone.


This was a perfectly thrown ball - it sailed over the underneath defender and dropped perfectly to McD in stride. It hit him nearly perfectly "1 foot in front of the numbers" It was a little lower than the numbers, but Jerry Rice said that's right where he always wanted it, about belly height 12 inches out - this is right where the ball end up.


McD picks up a block from Patton and, "TOUCHDOWN 49ERS!!!!"

It's plays like this that tease us, oh Gabbert our Gabbert....

Many general characteristics of a Chip play here. Beating the blitz with 5 routes, not extra protection. Get that ball out on time or get smacked. One concept to each side of the field. On the left side, Sail concept busts Cover3/Fire zone. On the right side, Inverted Smash busts Cover 2 (from stacked formation busts man coverage) .

You guys seem to give a lot of attention to the passing game and Gabbert's play but frankly, we need to replace the QB and at minimum 2 of the WRs. So hopefully a season from now, the passing game will be much different. We have a lot of placeholders out there until we get talent.

I'm more interested in how well the pass protection and run blocking is doing with the O-Line, and how Hyde is developing.

I don't have any "tape" to review, but my impression was Carolina's pair of DTs manhandled us.

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
You guys seem to give a lot of attention to the passing game and Gabbert's play but frankly, we need to replace the QB and at minimum 2 of the WRs. So hopefully a season from now, the passing game will be much different. We have a lot of placeholders out there until we get talent.

I'm more interested in how well the pass protection and run blocking is doing with the O-Line, and how Hyde is developing.

I don't have any "tape" to review, but my impression was Carolina's pair of DTs manhandled us.

We might have the receivers already, but we don't have the chemistry right now. We need to give them a chance to develop.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
This might be one of my last posts of the evening, we shall see: but, I wanted to end on a high note - sorry Thl, I took the 2 TD passes :)

It was a beautiful play - and one where we finally made Carolina pay for all their fire zone blitzes.


As you had seen from all those other plays, the Panthers kept blitzing DB's off the edge and we weren't able to counter it - until this play. Carolina shows the 2 deep safety look. As I've been thinking about it, I think they did this to bait the run. They kept showing this 2 deep look, then after Kelly signaled in the play, would come down and blitz off the edge. Expecting this we run a sail concept to the far side and a smash concept to the short side.


Post snap you can see that the close side safety drops down and they blitz a DB out of the slot. They're rotating into a fire zone behind the blitz.


This creates a 3v2 hi/lo read to the "sail" side of the field. The underneath defender takes the RB out of the backfield into the flat, with the streak clearing out the deep 3rd defender it opens up a space for the TE on his corner route. With Keuchly mainly responsible for the zone over the middle there's no way he can defend this route.



Gabbert is mid wind-up and it's not like McD's area is vacated. He's trusting the concept and throwing with anticipation - things you really like to see. You see the underneath defender taking the flat and the corner proteting his deep 1/3


He does a great job of putting air under the ball and throwing into the sweet spot in the zone.


This was a perfectly thrown ball - it sailed over the underneath defender and dropped perfectly to McD in stride. It hit him nearly perfectly "1 foot in front of the numbers" It was a little lower than the numbers, but Jerry Rice said that's right where he always wanted it, about belly height 12 inches out - this is right where the ball end up.


McD picks up a block from Patton and, "TOUCHDOWN 49ERS!!!!"

It's plays like this that tease us, oh Gabbert our Gabbert....

Many general characteristics of a Chip play here. Beating the blitz with 5 routes, not extra protection. Get that ball out on time or get smacked. One concept to each side of the field. On the left side, Sail concept busts Cover3/Fire zone. On the right side, Inverted Smash busts Cover 2 (from stacked formation busts man coverage) .

Also notice that's not exactly a clean pocket Gabbert gets. He gets smacked right after he throws the ball and goes down. So, let's give props to Gabs when props are due.

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
You guys seem to give a lot of attention to the passing game and Gabbert's play but frankly, we need to replace the QB and at minimum 2 of the WRs. So hopefully a season from now, the passing game will be much different. We have a lot of placeholders out there until we get talent.

I'm more interested in how well the pass protection and run blocking is doing with the O-Line, and how Hyde is developing.

I don't have any "tape" to review, but my impression was Carolina's pair of DTs manhandled us.

Oh, Carolina's DT's were grown men in that game.

I would say pass pro is holding up well. It's not 2005-2012 Patriots good, but it's good enough.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by matguy87:
Could you go over that first interception? I think the defense saw that play coming and jumped that route pretty easily.

I can, it'll be probably about an hour before I get to it :)

I'll set up the INT with this play. This is 1st Quarter 3rd & 8. Just looking at the trips side. The cross crossing provides a pick/rub action versus man and a variation of Switch Verticals concept versus Cover3. The yellow Out from the slot works the cleared area due to orange/red.


Just highlighting the Cover3 CB that would get attacked with Switch Verticals. We'll see this against SEA. Let's just hope it's not from the same formation/personnel.


Incomplete. I think Gabbert threw this down and low to protect the WR, but the WR (Kerley) was not open to begin with. Gabbert should wait and let the Switch Verticals develop. They got the look they want - Fire Zone (3 deep shell).


49ers also ran this play again in the 2nd quarter here:
http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/186722-2016-week-carolina-panthers-coaches-film-analysis/page8/#post112

Switch Verticals wants to achieve this versus the sideline deep 1/3 defender. Put that defender's eyes on the inside WR to target the outer most WR.


Caught by Vance.

Personally, with the type of skill positions we have on offense, we need to have much longer drives.. I don't care if we go no huddle, but what I'm saying is, more quick passes on 1st downs, run the ball up the gut, and set up an ez 3rd down .. .. we need to get everyone on offense on the same page as far as believing that "we can score on this drive"...

Little by little, confidence will grow and once it is there, then CHIP can run his DUCK ATTACK offense..

Originally posted by BleedsRedNGold:

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
You guys seem to give a lot of attention to the passing game and Gabbert's play but frankly, we need to replace the QB and at minimum 2 of the WRs. So hopefully a season from now, the passing game will be much different. We have a lot of placeholders out there until we get talent.

I'm more interested in how well the pass protection and run blocking is doing with the O-Line, and how Hyde is developing.

I don't have any "tape" to review, but my impression was Carolina's pair of DTs manhandled us.

We might have the receivers already, but we don't have the chemistry right now. We need to give them a chance to develop.

I understand your point about chemistry but I can't believe we have the receivers right now.

We know what we have in Torrey Smith - #2 deep threat who lacks the qualities to be much else. Patton has a small catching radius - does not attack the ball nor does he shield defenders away from contested balls. Kerley is a LITTLE guy who was going to either be the return guy in Detroit or cut. The fact he is getting PT here only points to the lack of quality WRs on the roster.

The hope, or should I say prayer, is that Eric Rogers will come back strong and be that big, strong guy that will help his QB by winning contested balls but we don't know that. The hope was that Ellington would be an effective slot guy but he has never been healthy long enough to show it.

Let's hope that the current crew will stay healthy and can develop the chemistry with Gabbert to strengthen the passing game. In the meantime, all we can do is wait and hope.

Oh another comment that I'm curious if its backed up on the replays, I thought Staley was a complete stud. I feel like he is playing the best football I've seen out of him in quite some time.

Originally posted by SunDevilNiner79:
You guys seem to give a lot of attention to the passing game and Gabbert's play but frankly, we need to replace the QB and at minimum 2 of the WRs. So hopefully a season from now, the passing game will be much different. We have a lot of placeholders out there until we get talent.

I'm more interested in how well the pass protection and run blocking is doing with the O-Line, and how Hyde is developing.

I don't have any "tape" to review, but my impression was Carolina's pair of DTs manhandled us.

I'm still curious about the plays Chip is calling, and the new defense. As far as the OL/RB is concerned we can all see it from the TV view so there isn't really much to add using the coaches film.

I understand the microscopic critiquing but there also needs some context. To the facts that this is a new team with new coaches, new schemes, new players. Yet some expectations are that of a team that has been running the same system for years. Give it some time. The receiver are getting open the defense is showing life. When it all comes together it is going to be fun to watch. RELAX 😁

So, if you look at the above plays, there does seem to be a disconnect on the depth of the route - on the incompletion, Kerley breaks at 7 yards and then drifts back to 9-10 yards. He should break at 7 and either square it off or come back slightly. This is one of the problems with this next play, inconsistent route running.


So, we're going to come out in the same formation as the switch verts and run a variation off this play. We're going to show switch verts but then Patton is gonna hook his route short.


You see Carolina is running a cover 4 look on this side, which defeats the switch verticals and the other side of the field is triple covered.


Gabbert is reading #24, he appears to be playing in between the outside and the inside routes so he takes the inside route as it's the shorter throw(I think). Based off of #24, it's not a terrible throw. The problem is that the route combo is so similar to the switch verts that we ran twice before Keuchly immediately recognizes it and starts to break on the route. Notice Kerley breaks at 7 yards - like he's supposed to.


He then drifts again after his break to a depth of 11 yards. You never, never, never want to drift on a curl/out route. If anything, come back to the ball and help your QB out. If you've ever played WR, or any receiver of any kind you've almost surely been taught, come back to the ball on those, don't let that ball hang out there. Because he drifts, it allows Keuchly to under-cut the pass. I think #24 was expecting that route as well as he jumps on the route too. Patton looks really open here, but it's only because the pass has already been thrown so the underneath defender is jumping the route. In theory, Kerley's route is the right throw against a cover 4. You should have a soft spot between the middle and outside underneath defenders. Carolina just expects this route and jumps it.


The pass is intercepted at a depth of 10 yards. If he really breaks that route off at 7, this probably isn't picked off - at worst it'd be an incompletion.

Originally posted by thl408:
Incomplete. I think Gabbert threw this down and low to protect the WR, but the WR (Kerley) was not open to begin with. Gabbert should wait and let the Switch Verticals develop. They got the look they want - Fire Zone (3 deep shell).

Yea, Gabbert screwed up here. The pass he tried to make could work with a perfect throw and good adjustment/catch by the receiver. He almost makes it, but the ball is 6in too low.

If he made the play I'd give him props, but since he didn't Gabbert definitely takes the blame for this one. He should have red-lighted that route because of the coverage and moved on to his next read which would have been open...

This is one where he tries to force the ball and get the ball out too quickly.

Originally posted by 9moon:
Personally, with the type of skill positions we have on offense, we need to have much longer drives.. I don't care if we go no huddle, but what I'm saying is, more quick passes on 1st downs, run the ball up the gut, and set up an ez 3rd down .. .. we need to get everyone on offense on the same page as far as believing that "we can score on this drive"...

Little by little, confidence will grow and once it is there, then CHIP can run his DUCK ATTACK offense..

They definitely need to get that run game going better and it showed this game... put too much pressure on Gab and the WRs. I wonder what the o-line could have done against that tough front 7 and I wonder if AD and Garnet would help.

It seems like almost all of the o-line was outmatched in the run game.