McDermott: "What else can we do?"

[shaX 07]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000087745/article/sean-mcdermott-what-else-can-panthers-defense-do

This article makes me want to punch McDermott in the head.

"What else can we do?"

For starters you could not play pillow soft Defense during the 2 minute drill you idiot.

When this coaching staff gets fired, i'm going to celebrate heavily.
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[boondock]

I saw a similar article posted on the Observer. It's attitudes like that where you lose the fan base and your team. I was not a big fan of McDermott to begin with, this puts the icing on the cake.

Maybe the offense is the problem, so maybe the defense should start pitching shutouts. Then his statement can be true, what else can the defense do to win games.

We scored 20 points against a defense averaging around 13 points a game. I think that's pretty well. Defense played soft in the last 2 minutes and cost us the game, that's what else you can do, you can play aggressive and close out the game.
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[fretgod99]

[FriendlyEnemy]

Yep...let's clean house.
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^^Peppers90^^

[johnydtarheel]

How about stop someone when it matters when the game is on the line
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Thanks CK

[faccda01]

I feel like the D would be a top 10 with someone else coaching it.
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[DaveDX]

It's no different than the Fox era. If memory serves (I was really sick and about half way through really depressed) in the Arizona playoff game, the corners gave Warner anything he wanted in the 4-6 yard range, so he took it.
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[Moody]

I don't think he means at the end of the drive. I think he means looking at the game as a whole, they gave up TD drives of 49 and 38 yards and the Bears missed a FG, I can't remember how long that drive was.

It probably had to do with Dwan Edwards leaving and the pass rush cooling down. The worst way to handle that is to play your corners soft.

As of now, both sides of the ball are good enough to keep us in games but not good enough to win. The defense can play inspired ball all game and then they give up points when they can't.

[subparg]

I very seldom post anything on here and haven't posted at all in about 3 years. But I enjoy reading what you all have to say and spend time on the site at least 4-5 days a week and felt compelled to weigh in on this topic.

First of all, I think McDermott's decision to say this publicly is the latest example of the disfunctionality of this team. They are a train wreck that is gut-wrenching to watch. However, I don't disagree with his argument. This is very statistical and I know there is more to a story than the numbers (e.g. the coverage in the final minutes against Chi). But numbers to tell a lot about the entire body of the defense's work.

Last season, McDermott took over a very bad defensive unit with little time to prepare or install his system. This became more challenging due to injuries over the course of the year. This year the only personnel "upgrades" he got were two rookies (Kuechly & Norman), three players recovering from season ending injuries (Beason, Davis, Edwards) Dwan Edwards (legitimate upgrade) and Nakamura (I use the term "upgrade" very loosely here). Below are the defensive rankings on a per game basis for the past two seasons:

2011 2012
Yards/Game 28th 15th
Pass yds/gm 24th 15th
Rush yds/gm 25th 20th
Points/Game 27th 17th
Takeaways 17th 19th

Last season, Carolina averaged 32 minutes TOP per game vs 29 minutes so far in 2012. So McDermott has managed to take a unit from bottom of the barrel in nearly every category to middle of the pack while asking the unit to spend 3 more minutes per game on the field.

My point is not that they are anywhere close to a top 10 unit, but no one could be expected to take what they have on Defense and make them a top 10 unit while losing the TOP battle. They aren't playing championship defense but they are playing well enough to win games.

So far in 2012 the average points per game scored by an NFL team is 22.2 points. From this you could reason that as an offense if you score 23 points you have done your part and as a defense if you allow 22 or less you have done your part to helping your team win the game on average. Through 7 games, the defense has allowed 16 points 3 times (I'm taking out the Pick 6 against Chi) and 19 in another. In a fifth game (NO), they allowed 27 points but contributed 7 of the necessary 23 the offense needed to do their part, so you could say they did there part in that game as well if you wanted to get technical.

In the Seattle game in particular, the defense was responsible for 9 of the 12 points Carolina scored. That means that if Cam Newton and Company weren't allowed to step on the field for a single play, the defense would have still managed to only lose the game 16-9. That's a pretty impressive effort and one good enough to win the game.

The defense is making improvements and I would argue that it has little to do with improvements in personnel. With an above average offense, the defense would have put the team in a position to be 4-3 or 5-2 at this point. We'd all like to see it better, but the defense is not the reason this team is 1-6.

Sorry for the long post but with one post every 3 years I have to make them count.

[Cypher]

[fretgod99]

[boondock]

[fretgod99]