Brad Idzik on offensive balance heading into Week 13 matchup with the Rams | Carolina Panthers

Brad Idzik on offensive balance heading into Week 13 matchup with the Rams | Carolina Panthers

Dave’s already come out and said that he was very accountable to the locker room and about the need to run more and to be more balanced. What’s your perspective on how you guys were on Monday? Yeah, I think uh anytime you’re in the 40s of play count, there’s it’s either you’re hitting a lot of explosive plays or you’re not extending your drives. And um for us it was the latter and turning the ball over in the red zone didn’t help. uh we’re trying to, you know, piggy back off of what the defense was doing well early and and giving us some chances at short fields. Um but then uh just some near misses that didn’t allow us to extend the drives and get into the bulk of how we were trying to present our our call sheet. So that’s the the pit in the chest when you come back, you know, from a game like that and you you know, you see the the totals of carries and and the the lack of balance that you were able to play with and and it’s just a you know, a near miss here, a near miss there to to extend a couple drives to get that stuff going. um it just it you know it sits heavy with you for a little bit, but the guys know our intent. They know who we want to be. Uh they know, you know, the games that we’ve won, we have been balanced. We’ve done a good job of um you know, utilizing both sides of it. And um and they know that’s what we want to get back to. So that’s the focus this week. You and Dave have had a lot of success even when when you guys were in lesser positions in Seattle, but also in Tampa Bay with guys who were experienced at the quarterback position. Baker obviously had played several years before you’d worked with him. Gino had worked a lot there. Russ, is there a different aspect of this thing when you you didn’t hear Bryce in year one and you guys are learning what kind of makes him tick over the last two years that you have to adjust to that maybe you didn’t have to for Baker or Regina? I would say they were veterans uh you know when we were dealing with with Baker and Gino, but they were also at you know interesting times in their career where they were getting a a new chance. So, you had to learn uh who that guy became. You know, he wasn’t the guy that you might have evaluated in the draft process. Um he went through a lot of experiences, too. I think you you circle back to the Sunday night game and they were interviewing Baker. Um and he’s like, “Yeah, LA was a formal time for me those what five games of and I changed.” And the same went with Gino. And the same goes for Bryce. His first year before we got here, uh he wasn’t the same guy, you know, coming off of, you know, out of out of Alabama. So, um, going from year one with him to year two with him, uh, it’s a continual process to see how the guy’s learning. Uh, see, you know, what things he enjoys doing, what, you know, what kind of concepts like really are his, you know, wheelhouse and that we need to make sure we incorporate every week. And, uh, we’re growing together. So, uh, you know, you come off of different style games and and you learn something every week. Um, and that’s alongside of a bunch of young skilled guys, too. um what works for Bryce, but also what works for Bryce with the group around him. When a game unfolds the way Monday night does and maybe you or others are saying, you know, we’re getting a little imbalanced as you called it, it is it up to you or who is it who can kind of tap Dave on the shoulder and say like, “Hey, might want to introduce a few more runs again?” Uh it’s all of us. We we’re we’re always talking. Uh good. He’s always, you know, he’s always pulling the should, you know, pulling the sleeve and saying, you know, hey, if you only run it 35 times, you know, we can get to 40, you know. But, uh, no, it truly is like those are conversations that that are had. Um, you know, every time that there’s a change of possession, um, we’ve already had our conversations as an offensive staff and then I I bring those over to Dave and there’s there’s good dialogue and that that includes the players. Um, so we go into halftime and and then we say, okay, what does it look like? What does it need to look like going forward? um you know to get things off on the right foot in the second half and and uh and Goodie’s always great about saying hey this is this is what they’re doing up front. This is how we need to combat some of the things they’ve showed early. Uh and then you just hope to again extend those drives to be to be able to piece that together and get you know a handful of those play calls started to see okay where’s the second half going to take us. Said he was frustrated when he put up that emoji on social. Did you see that? And what was your initial thought and what’s your conversation with him been like? Uh, I I heard about it. I didn’t see it. I’m not really on on social media either. I think that’s for the betterment of my marriage. And um but I I’ll let her her cycle through some of that stuff for me. But um no, for for Rico, I think he he’s probably expressing, you know, all the frustrations that we all had. And uh again, that pit in the stomach that I had, you know, getting on the flight where um you feel like your some of your best players didn’t get a chance to completely showcase uh in a very important game. Yeah, that’s that’s on all of us. And uh and that’s to to again make sure that, you know, anytime you only have, you know, one to seven on third down and and 46 total plays, like we want to make sure that we’re extending those drives so that we can increase that, you know, that load that we’re putting on all of our guys that we know um you know, the more chances they get, they’re going to do something special. So um they helped us in the pass game, too. I think I don’t think that should go overlooked. Um there’s some huge plays that Rico and Chuba had, especially down the stretch when Bryce’s going through his progressions and and they were available for him and and making big plays. So um yeah, it’s just a continual um you know, diving back into our process when we get back in here. I know it’s got to be a quick turning of the page when you play on Monday night. Um that’s a challenge to get those guys to lock back in today. Um but they they all did. They’re all professional about it. Um and uh you know we had a great uh what was it like 60 play walkth through today to keep their legs fresh but they’re get their mentals back in it and we’ll be ready for LA. I just have a question. I mean the pit in your stomach and not to continue to speak this but when when do you realize like man we could have done this better? Were you on the plane and you’re watching film and you’re like we had these opportunities to run the ball. What did that look like? Uh every drive we we we really separated out. So if you have a three and out or if you have a 10-play drive, you say, “Okay, what was good? What was bad?” And there’s a constant re-evaluation. You get a chance to take a breath at halftime obviously and say, “Okay, what happened? What do we need to make sure that we’re incorporating uh into the second half, but yeah, um I think it’s kind of a the natural thing. The the postgame presser coach is like, I need to go watch the film, right?” And and that is true. Um there’s there’s a you get a the full truth, the full, you know, view of all 11. Uh when you do get to sit down and truly watch the tape and it’s not just coming through avenues of, hey, I was watching this guy, this happened on this play. This is why this one did or did not work. Um you you only have two, you know, two eyes to put on on the field at a time. Um and the still shots when you’re on the sideline, but doesn’t tell the full story until you can truly sit down, watch all the views, um and then talk to your staff about it. When you guys had Kurhan in Seattle, he was primarily right tackle. What What allows him to be effective inside when he has to come in and jump in and mid-stream like the other one. Yeah. One, he’s really smart. Um he does a really good job of of picking things up on the fly. Uh he’s he’s played mostly tackle for us in Seattle. Um but then was available to us at, you know, all four spots, not necessarily center. Um but the the guy’s really smart. He picks things up really fast and and he created a, you know, a good amount of trust with with Joe and Goodie in a pretty short amount of time. Um, and then just as a as a player, he covers guys up. He’s a he’s a big guy. He walks in the room and you see it right away. Um, he’s a big guy. He can cover guys up and stay attached in his own way uh to get guys to the second level. So, we’re excited uh, you know, that he came in and and he held his own and and the guys have done that in that room all year long. again is a testament to Joe and uh Goodie just how they train those guys and how they have every every single guy ready uh you know on a weekly basis and Jake’s a perfect example of that. Brad to follow up on Darren’s question you’ve had so many different offensive line combinations but that right guard position seems to be like a constant turn style. How does that impact your blocking strategy especially in the run game on a week- toeek basis? Yeah. Well, uh, you know, not going to give all the the hints away to our our guys that down here the stretch, but, um, I would say, you know, there’s definitely guys you can lean on in the run game and you find different skis to complement the, you know, whatever our self scout is, um, that we put out there of directional runs or types of schemes that we’re running with a certain individual, we want to make sure we’re doing enough to protect it. Um but at the same time, uh we hold a high standard to to that whole room of saying, “Hey, um we want to hang our hat on running the ball here, and that’s left, right, gap scheme, mid zone, uh wide zone, toss, crack. We want all of you guys to be able to step in and do that stuff.” Um because you you really don’t want to I I’ve been on teams where, you know, you lean heavy to the left side and then you become imbalanced and um you know, you got to do certain things schematically to protect it. Uh well, for us, we’d rather just take what the defense is giving us. Um get our advantageous double teams in certain areas based on the fronts and based on uh you know what they’re doing at the second level and then just running our schemes accordingly. And our guys have done a great job of of allowing us to be balanced because they they own this the uh system uh that’s in place. And then this the drop off hasn’t hasn’t been that significant because those guys are getting great training. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music]

The Panthers’ offensive coordinator also touched on having multiple starting offensive lines this season and the rushing attack.

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