Carolina Panthers at Arizona Cardinals: Know Thy Enemy Edition
by Pyromnc on Oct 29, 2009 10:00 AM MDT
in 2009 Season
6 comments
Last year the Carolina Panthers were able to build a very good team that had a pretty good defense and an offense built around their young running backs Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams. Their offense would see Stewart and Williams rush for a combined 2,351 yards, with 1,515 by Williams and 836 by Stewart. Those are stellar numbers for two running backs but they haven’t been able to replicate the same success this season. Part of the problem has been the turnovers, a category in which the Panther’s lead the league. This team has had 6 fumbles lost and 14 interceptions this season through six games. This has made it very tough for this team as they get behind their opponents and it takes out a running game that was among the best last season. This all started when the Panther’s faced the Cardinals in the playoffs and the Cards forced 6 turnovers. Ever since then, this offense has not looked the same and the Cardinals will hope to repeat what they did on Sunday. If they want to do that they will have to neutralize the Panthers run game, something the Cards have done in their past 12 games (including the playoffs). Last season the Cards neutralized Stewart pretty good, allowing just 22 yards on 11 carries for 1 touchdown. However, they allowed Williams to rush for 171 yards on 29 carries (5.9 yards per carry) and 1 touchdown. Williams will be the one to look out for in this game.
DeAngelo Williams went to college at Memphis and was one of their best players to ever play there. While at Memphis he compiled over 7,573 all purpose yards, with 6,026 of those coming on the ground. The all purpose yards are an NCAA record and the rushing yards would be good enough for fourth all-time behind Ron Dayne, Ricky Williams, and Tony Dorsett. Williams was not bad at receiving either having 70 catches that went for 723 yards and 5 touchdowns. All this would be spread over a four year career in which he would only start one game his freshman year, but the remaining three years he would start every game he played. Those are pretty impressive numbers and would end up being good enough for him in the 2006 draft.
In the 2006 draft, it was hard to predict where Williams would go. Some had him going as a top ten pick, possibly by the Cardinals, and some had him going in the second round. Williams would end up going number 27 in the first round to the Carolina Panthers. In Williams first two years he did not get a lot of chances, having 121 rushing attempts and 33 receptions in his first season, and 144 rushing and 23 receptions in his second. This was because he was backing up DeShaun Foster. Williams would make the most of his chances by gaining 501 yards rushing on those 121 attempts and 313 yards on the 33 receptions, and would gain 717 yards on the 144 attempts and 175 yards on the 23 receptions his second year. This would lead to Williams getting his chance to start in 2008 and he did not disappoint. As stated in the opener, he would have 1,515 yards over 273 carries (5.5 yards per carry), which would go for 18 touchdowns. This year has been a different story. Williams has not had as many chances this year, in part because of the turnovers and most of these can be blamed on Jake Delhomme, who has 13 interceptions and 2 fumbles lost this season. When Delhomme is not turning the ball over, he is consistently missing open receivers, and generally making bad decisions. This had lead to the Carolina offense not being remotely close to what it was last year. This will be a key to the Cardinals winning this game.
The Cardinals will want to make the Panthers try and beat them with Delhomme and not with the run game. That is why the Cardinals must stop Williams and continue to stop Stewart like they did last season. If they can stop those two, Delhomme might be in for another long day and might even have some flashbacks to that playoff game that a lot of people believe started this whole mess for the Panthers. Do you think the Cardinals can continue their dominance over the running game? Will Delhomme have another bad game? Or will he get his revenge for what the Cards did in the Playoffs last year?
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I think the defensive gameplan will be very much the same as it was last week
I think they’ll stack the box with eight or even nine guys and play single coverage on the outside. That should eliminate the Panthers running game and put all of the pressure on Jake. The key will be not letting Steve Smith hurt us deep. He’s been a bit of a Cardinal killer over the past couple of seasons and it’ll be up to DRC to shut him down. I wouldn’t be surprised if A-dub lives in the box this week and Rolle brackets Smith over the top.
Make Jake beat you without a running game and without Steve Smith.
Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
by Bezekira on Oct 29, 2009 11:45 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
Need to be careful not to fall into a Trap Game
Cardinals are coming off of an emotionally intense game where they won and so are feeling good about themselves. Carolina is a team with talent that has consistently under-achieved and have shot themselves in the foot. They out played Buffalo but still lost because of turnovers. This has all the makings of the classic trap game. Carolina has enough talent to win this game if the Cards come out flat and if Carolina doesn’t turn the ball over.
Cards need to come out hard and crush Carolina from the get go and never let them think they have a chance to win. Then maybe we will get another chance to watch Leinart play. Otherwise, we may be talking about how the Cards let this one slip away and how this loss offsets the Giants win. I think this game will show as much about their maturation as a team as any of the previous games.
MBN
by mbn on Oct 29, 2009 12:56 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs
yep the longer this game is still winnable for the Panthers, the worse I'll feel
Hopefully it’s a game where we’ll be able to talk about Leinart’s play in the fourth quarter come Monday.
Be careful....to a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
by Bezekira on Oct 29, 2009 1:02 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
It will also speak volumes about this coaching staff. While I think that they have done an outstanding job to this point , a team is a reflection of it’s leaders. The evolution and growth of this coaching staff is what I’m most intrigued about. If the message is clear and the players are motivated, everything else will take care of it’s self.
I think the Cards are the more talented team but we know that the more talented team does not always win.
by Cardsfan81 on Oct 29, 2009 6:06 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Agreed
Look how we played against the Niners this year. They don’t have near the amount of talent we have but we still lost to them. Whether it was being out coached, our players not playing to their best ability, or a combination of both we should have won that game, especially at home.
by Pyromnc on Oct 29, 2009 6:12 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs
Thank you
Now that’s a glowing example.
by Cardsfan81 on Oct 30, 2009 8:51 AM MDT reply actions 0 recs
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