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Thanatos

It is (waaaaaaay) past time for Mike Shula and Ron Rivera to get the fuck out of Carolina

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An infant child who was given random choices could run our offense more consistently than Mike Shula.

 

Mike Shula continues to insist on running Cmac right up the middle. 2.7 YPC.

 

Including the Bears game, here are your Panthers stats on the last 29 first down plays.

 

23 of those 29 plays were run plays for 3 or less yards.

 

3 were passes, (2/3), for 21 yards.

 

3 were runs for more than 3, (a 4,5, and a 10 yard run).

 

Of those 23 run plays for 3 or less yards, EIGHTEEN of them gained no yardage or lost yardage. Mike Shula is literally throwing away a down every possession and then wants Cam to rescue them for his piss poor playcalling.

 

And Ron Rivera continues to blame the players. Today, again, his familiar mantra of "missed opportunities" did indeed come out, but first he took the opportunity himself to throw his players under the bus and defend Mike Shula, (because the media actually fucking finally had the balls to ask about Shula's job). In response to said question Rivera said this:

 

"It's more about making plays than calling plays."

 

Go fuck yourself you useless sack of shit. Mike Shula has been the worst OC in the league for several years now. Just because his dad was good at it, doesn't mean he is.

 

I am not watching another Panthers game until somebody is fired. I don't need this shit. I don't need to watch Mike Shula and Ron Rivera either almost lose a game they have no business losing, or actually lose a game they have no business losing. I will happily be watching NFL games for which I do not have a rooting interest, but I cannot handle watching these two complete imbeciles squander the talent on this team because Shula has no fucking damn clue how to coordinate a high school play, much less an NFL offense, and Ron doesn't have the guts to fire him.

 

He should have been left in Chicago along with Ron.

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That pitch that resulted in a fumble was a horrible play call and horrible in every aspect of its execution, from the pitch to the way the play developed to the botched pitch catch. Poor Curtis Samuel :(

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Horrible playcall, but Samuel needs to be closer to Cam, he ran way too far outside.

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“I liked the play calls. We had opportunities to make some plays, again, some things happened,” Rivera said. “You have to make some plays sometimes. Maybe we can make better calls. I'll take the opportunity to look at the tape and evaluate that. But again, you have to make plays.”

 

-Ron Rivera

 

Fuck both of them. Get them both out of here.

 

Newton is fed up. You could tell watching his press conference. They asked him about Shula, and instead of defending him in any way, he said “Sorry, I can’t answer that question. I’m executing the play that is given to me and pretty much trying to check what the defense gives me.”

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It's amazing how many coaches and coordinators in the NFL fail to tailor their scheme around the players they have and instead try it the other way.

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I've always said that first down is a passing down. Especially play action.

 

It's amazing how many coaches and coordinators in the NFL fail to tailor their scheme around the players they have and instead try it the other way.

 

 

I know exactly what it is, tbh.

 

The Panthers have been a power run team for awhile. When Cam was playing like an MVP, we had a bruising run game. The Panthers once had a streak of 40+ games in a row with 100 yards on the ground. Now, a large part of that was Cam. He would contribute 20-30 yards sometimes that would barely push us over the edge of 100, so its largely an arbitrary figure. Still, it shows.

 

Mike Shula and Ron Rivera are stuck in the past. They talked all offseason about our offense needing to evolve- and they are correct. Dave Gettleman saw it too. That's why he took Cmac and Curtis Samuel. He may have reached, those may not be the players to do it, but the idea was to evolve our offense, give us some speed, some short routes, a slot wideout and a RB who can catch passes and make people miss.

 

The trouble is, Mike Shula is mentally incapable of evolving himself. Oh he throws in a few plays now and then that makes you think he might be getting it. The reverse to Samuel in the Eagles game for 20+ yards. The devastating fake to Cmac that resulted in a 35 yard perfect TD strike to KB. A few HB screens that Cmac normally takes for 8-10 yards.

 

But he still sees that as gimmicky, or perhaps as something that you can't build a complete offense around. He always comes back around to power run football. And we don't have the personnel for it anymore. We might be able to do a little better if they'd let Alex Armah actually come in and run block in a power-I formation, but the facts are our offensive line sucks complete ass at run blocking. We knew this when we brought in who we did and let others slip by. So why do we continue to try to be a run-first team?

 

I know its counter to the logic this team is used to, but the Panthers offense should now be pass-first. Pass to set up the run. Run some delayed draws out of the shotgun. If they start blitzing their asses off, throw a few screens, a few reverses, some counter plays out of the gun.

 

Absolutely nothing is working on the ground. It is time to completely abandon it. The issue goes beyond just horrid offensive line run-blocking. Another issue is that literally nobody is scared of Cmac running between the tackles. It's an issue Cherry pointed out pre-draft, and frankly, I agree, which is why I didn't want him at #8 overall. So when we substitute McCaffrey in the game, everyone assumes its a screen of some sort, or a sweep, and thus adjusts defense accordingly. Christian is shifty, he can make guys miss, what he can't do is power through a tackle from an NFL linebacker or D-lineman. And then when we put JStew in, they know its either a run up the middle or a pass play, because Stewart is better at blocking.

 

To put it simply, our offense has a tell, depending on who is at RB, the defense can narrow down the play that is about to happen. You can't give NFL defenses that kind of shortcut to figuring out your plays before they even happen.

 

Mike Shula is incapable of evolving, he has proven that. Let him go.

 

And now I have a name that I'd like to see replace him. Norv Turner. We have everything Norv likes to see in his scheme- a scat back, big tall WRs, and good blocking TEs- at least when Olsen gets back, Manhertz is a complete bust at blocking.

 

Norv already has family working for the Panthers, so maybe they could convince him to come, idk.

 

This is of course, all a pipe dream, because Jerry Richardson is not firing someone mid-season and Rivera will never fire Shula himself. He'd prefer to blame the players over and over again.

Edited by Thanatos

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I've always said that first down is a passing down. Especially play action.

Especially if teams don't think you can't pass....

 

The Ravens were basically throwing away plays against the Vikings calling a run on first down every time.

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Another issue is that literally nobody is scared of Cmac running between the tackles. It's an issue Cherry pointed out pre-draft, and frankly, I agree, which is why I didn't want him at #8 overall. So when we substitute McCaffrey in the game in the game, everyone assumes its a screen of some sort, or a sweep, and thus adjusts defense accordingly. Christian is shifty, he can make guys miss, what he can't do is power through a tackle from an NFL linebacker or D-lineman. And then when we put JStew in, they know its either a run up the middle or a pass play, because Stewart is better at blocking.

 

To put it simply, our offense has a tell, depending on who is at RB, the defense can narrow down the play that is about to happen. You can't give NFL defenses that kind of shortcut to figuring out your plays before they even happen.

One thing I'd be interested to see is if the Panthers could incorporate McCaffrey & Samuel as motion guys out of the slot frequently while leaving Stewart on the field.

 

If you have McCaffrey & Samuel in play to get the ball downfield or to motion into the backfield as a runner, it would really relieve some of the stress defenses can put down on the run game with just JStew or CMac.

 

McCaffrey is a dangerous enough receiver to be on the field full time. Let him work in the slot for the majority of snaps then put him in the backfield every once in a while.

 

Samuel is definitely raw but he's still a freak athlete that should be incorporated into the offense.

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....they beat the Patriots...

 

We beat the Patriots because Panthers WRs were literally wide open. Like 15 yards around them clear of all Patriots wide open. A college QB could have put up 21 on the Patriots that game, not even joking.

And we still nearly lost, because the coaching staff sat on the lead after we went up 30-16 vs the greatest QB of all time, so he predictably tied it 30-30 before we went down the field on them again.

 

And then we barely got into FG range and immediately shut down the offense and just QB sneaked twice in a row, and were content with a 48-yard attempt to win the game instead of trying to get Gano ten yards closer or so.

 

If Brady gets the ball again, we lose that game. Coaching staff did everything in their power to lose it outside of literally just handing the ball to the Patriots. That game is yet another example of why Ron and Mike need to gtfo of Carolina.

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You know, after the Super Bowl, I defended Cam. The guy didn't want to talk to the press after getting destroyed in the biggest game of his life but this dude is just a cry baby at this point. He's supposed to be a leader of men. The face of your franchise. Cam has had coaching issues this year and his offensive line hasn't been good, he hasn't had a running game...I get it. You don't see Russell Wilson pouting after a loss. Matt Ryan and Eli are having rough seasons too and they get up there and do their job and yes, talking to the media is part of his job.

 

Cam is a really talented player but I wouldn't want him as my QB. He'd be at the bottom of the list as far as franchise QB's for me. I'm obviously not taking somebody like Blake Bortles over Cam, but if you asked me Kirk Cousins or Cam for example I'm taking Kirk all day and the difference in talent with those two is considerable. I think at times his bad attitude reflects on his play on the field. He's a fucking asshole.

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If you're talking about the media press conference thing, there's some context you need to know first.

 

The media member in question that he is talking to is Joe Person, who is notorious for leading questions that he then writes shit about answers that are twisted in such a way as to promote whatever narrative he is trying to write.

 

Thomas Davis is an awesome dude. Thomas Davis told Joe Person to, "Never come around to my locker again as long as I'm with the Panthers."

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It's predictable but it also doesn't help when Cam makes the wrong read.

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