Carolina Panthers forgot their offensive identity in 20-9 loss to San Francisco 49ers

Carolina Panthers forgot their offensive identity in 20-9 loss to San Francisco 49ers

Panthers are six and six. [Music] I would normally start the show or start this segment uh with a little big picture optimism, right? Who wouldn’t have signed up to be six and six through six games or through 12 games, excuse me, with the the Carolina Panthers? Um but yesterday we we changed all that and I think rightfully so, right? I think the the goal was to be something like six and six. The goal was to be in the mix for the division. The goal was to play meaningful football late into the season. Check. Accomplished. Good job. Now, as of yesterday, right, when the Bucks lost and and the division became up for grabs, it became uh loftier goals, right? You moved on to the next checkpoint. Not off to a hot start going for the next checkpoint. 20 to9 loss to San Fran on Monday Night Football. Uh and and the worst part about it isn’t that you lost to San Fran. It’s not right. There’s, you know, there’s no moral victories, but there’s ways you lose that game and and you come in today maybe optimistic, but but the reason why it was such a bummer is because San Fran tried to give it to you and your difference makers, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, made a difference. And you have to take advantage of that. If JC Horn gets you two free possessions with some pretty unbelievable defensive plays, you have to win that game. Right. You have to win that game. If Bryce Young throws an absolutely unacceptable interception and the ref’s aid in another interception later on out of your control, uh, whatever you want to call it, and you still win the turnover battle, you have to win that game. So, the question becomes, how didn’t they? How did they not? I’ll tell you right now, uh, the early interception by Bryce to me changed everything. Not only taking away the seven points or the three minimum that you should have when you get the ball down that low, uh, especially into the low red zone, especially after a turnover, all of that, but to me, it put everybody on edge. Everybody clammed up a little, right? I I think Dave Canales wanted to to run the offense similar to how they did last week against Atlanta, which I don’t think was the right move. I think they should have tried to run it like they did against Dallas or Green Bay with through Rico Dow, but but it seemed like he wanted to run it like Atlanta, but the issue was he didn’t trust Bryce to go downfield because he made the big mistake early. So, you were pinned in you were pinned in to the parts of the passing game that didn’t scare you. And guess what? If they don’t scare you, they darn sure ain’t scaring the other team. Dave Canales sums up the loss to San Francisco after the game. Big picture stuff. Just a game of missed opportunities. Uh our defense was was, you know, putting us in in some great situations, you know, with the interceptions and not coming away with points. Having an interception on one of those things really hurt us. Um some basic things, you know, a couple of penalties put us in long drives. uh a drop on third down really just comes down to fundamental execution and things that you know I felt like we’re moving in the right direction but we didn’t take that step today that that I was looking for you know collectively as a group and the defense battled and they you know kept us in it gave us some opportunities there and then we turned it over again at the end with an opportunity to make the game close there at the end. Yeah, I like that he he made sure to double back on the defense there at the end because when he said it’s a game of missed opportunities, my internal monologue was going JC Horn didn’t miss opportunities. Mike Jackson didn’t miss opportunity. They made opportunities. Those two, three, four, whoever, all the backup linebackers that had to play in that game, they didn’t miss an opportunity. They played well for deep depth chart guys up against an offense that has some some dudes that they had to match up with. There weren’t all missed opportunities. Guys getting hurt during the game. That’s what I mean. They they started with maybe linebackers three and four, ended with maybe five and six. Like like they they were deep in their their depth. The offense missed the opportunities. The offense missed the opportunities. The play caller, the quarterback, the receivers missed the opportunities. Now, the lack of a run game is going to be frustrating. You see the numbers, it’s going to be even more frustrating. Dave Canales on the lack of a run game after the game. You know, I just felt like building off of uh you know, what happened last week and just taking a step forward with the pass game, I saw some opportunities. We were protecting uh pretty well uh as far as pass protection goes and just felt like we just didn’t come away with our opportunities um consistently enough early on. And then in the second half, you know, at a certain point when the when the score becomes what it is, it’s like, okay, we’re in a two-score game, we got to move it a little bit here and throw the ball around. And, you know, had some measure of success that way. But, um, and the run game seemed to be hitting pretty good, you know, but I was trying to take advantage of it. They were playing some loaded boxes. They did a good job with their disguise in some of those areas, too. The the running game was hitting, and in the third quarter, uh, you know, minutes in, it wasn’t like it was right away. um over halfway through I believe it became the the the 3-7 game rather than the 3 to 10 game. There was so much time, so many drives for you to double and triple down on the run game and you chose not to. And it’s almost like they skipped a step, right? And what I mean by that they they skipped a step from a play calling standpoint establish the run. There’s a reason why that’s like a cliche, right? Establish the run and then you can build your offense off of it. It’s almost like they just assumed that the run would be treated as if it were established because Rico two months ago ran for 200 yards and and they just started with like in crucial situations play action and things. But in in actuality, the run game probably would have picked up those crucial situations or at least I believe they have a much better chance than what you ended up doing. Agreed. And then once you pick up those crucial situations in the run game a few times, that’s when you can come with your favorite play action. That’s when you can come with your your your favorite uh tricky little little pass play because they’re already thinking can’t give up the run again. Can’t give up the run again. You never made them think that. Now, here’s where I’m going to contradict myself just a hair. Okay. It is really tough to get mad at an offensive coordinator, a play caller for not showing confidence in the quarterback, and then get mad at them for giving them the opportunity to make what was a relatively simple play down on the goal line, right? First down and and one, right? Whatever it was, uh, two, it first down on the goal line. You call a play action. From a quarterback’s perspective, if it’s not wide open, throw it away. Right? If if if it’s and if you are going to make the throw that he did that was intercepted, there’s a rule about the back of the end line when you’re throwing to somebody on the the back part of the end zone, that back sideline or back out of bounds line. High. Yep. Because your guy is going to be able to jump and get it. And if he doesn’t, it just sails two rows into the stands and you’re fine. Think Dwight Clark from Joe Montana, the catch. Like that’s where you put a ball. You don’t put it short because guess where all the defensive players are? Right there. They’re short, right? And and and short, closer to you, uh inbounds, if you will, underneath the high is where you That’s a rule, right? And in the front of the end zone, you throw it low. Why? Because you want to guys are on your back. You want to use your body to protect it. Back of the end zone, you throw it high. These are not places where you need to worry about yak, right? Possession play over. You catch it, touchdown. So you don’t have to put it, you know, in a place where they can catch and run or in a place where they can catch and protect. It’s it’s a place where if they catch it, it’s a touchdown. So you put it high, make it a tougher catch for him, you can’t leave it short. And as everyone said online to me a million times, probably could have ran for the touchdown. There’s the shot. Looked like it. So in that case, I like it rarely happens. Everyone always jokes that with a a pass play, there’s two bad things that can happen. Incompleted or interception. Only one good thing can happen. completion in that play. I truly believe based on Bryce’s decision, there were like four decent outcomes. Some were great, some were okay. Right? You throw it away. You throw that thing 10 rows in the stands. All right. Now Rico gets to try to run it in on the next play. You put it high. Uh maybe your guy makes a catch. Maybe it bounces off his fingertips and goes out of bounds. All right. Now you got your next best play on the goal line. You try to run for it. You you might score. Also, you get tackled. Okay. Hey, now we get to try our next best back. The only thing he couldn’t do is what he did. So, it’s like gosh, you know, did he get cute with the play calling? I’ve been screaming at him to trust Bryce all season. Don’t play Bryce if you don’t trust him to make that call. If you don’t trust him to make that play, it’s a very I like I would assume most JV football coaches would trust their quarterback to get out of that play without catastrophe. Now, they might call him over to the sideline and say, “Hey, listen. If it’s not wide open, throw it away.” Like, you might give them that extra, but you could do that to Bryce, too. If you don’t trust Bryce to execute that play call, at least to the point of zero emissions, a throwaway or a a tuck it and take the sack or something, you can’t play him. So, that that’s where I I struggle because I don’t like the play call. But I also acknowledge it’s not a high-risisk play call in and of itself. You gave him a lot of exit ramps. So that’s what I’m talking about when I say there’s like blame pie going to everybody. Don’t love the play call. Would have liked to see him establish the run. Hate the execution of a play call that shouldn’t have been catastrophic. And I get what what Canales was thinking. Get him an early touchdown pass. Get the confidence flowing, right? Make him look good. Oh, now we’re tied and it’s because he threw for it. Even though it would actually have been because, you know, a defensive turnover put you down on the goal line. Like you can steal some momentum for your quarterback as long as he doesn’t do that. Well, like you heard Dave Canel say, he wanted to build on the momentum of last week. Yep. Which was what 448 yards, but also and and let me bring up the exact totals here cuz I I don’t want to uh misrepresent. If I remember last year, even though the run or last year, last week, even though the running game was not through the roof, uh Rico Dattle finished with 19 carries. Yeah, they were 19 ineffective carries, but they were necessary, right? You you have to to just keep making it a point. That’s what San Francisco did all night with McAffrey. He ran it 24 times for 89 yards all night all season. Yeah. Like last night was not an unusually ineffective game on the ground for Christian McCaffrey. He’s like a 3.5 yards per carry guy all year and he’s way out touching everyone in the league because guess what? Kyle Shanahan is what you hope one day Dave Canales can evolve into as a play caller. It’s like, wow, look at this. KD’s really good catching passes on a play action. It’s like because they gave it to Christian McCaffrey a thousand times and and the defense thought it was going to happen. Very frustrating

Tim Donnelly & Dennis Cox discuss how Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales and QB Bryce Young struggled in their 20-9 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

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