Through the first half of the season, the opinions on Christian McCaffrey’s value to the Panthers have been understandably mixed. He vacillated between a bust that was overdrafted and the multi-faceted swiss army knife the Panthers needed in their offense that was on pace to break the NFL single-season record for receptions by a rookie. While McCaffrey has been excellent as a receiver in the passing game, he had failed to make much of an impact on the ground.

Until Sunday.

Sunday’s game against the Falcons was somewhat of a break-out for McCaffrey the running back; averaging over four yards per attempt and adding a touchdown is quality production for running backs across the league. The piece explores what changes to allow McCaffrey to have a big game on the ground, and therefor how the Panthers can look to get him involved in this way going forwards.

Numbers Game

Part of what has held the Panthers’ running game back through the first half of the season was the insistence on running against stacked boxes. Whether these past mistakes were due to questions about Cam Newton’s shoulder health or simply a breakdown in game-planning is hard to know, but what was clear is that the Panthers did a better job of taking what the defense gave them on Sunday.

While the Falcons only have one high safety on this play, the cushion shown to Ed Dickson and Curtis Samuel allows the Panthers to treat the outside corner as a high defender. While Dickson could likely have done a better job of hindering the defensive end, the quick shotgun hand-off combined with Dickson’s ‘block’ allows for the Panthers to block every box defender and, as a result, McCaffrey isn’t even touched until he has got four yards down the field.

The other way in which the Panthers were able to get a numbers advantage was by using Cam Newton as a runner, something they seemed hesitant to do earlier on in the season. Offensive coordinator Mike Shula called their decisions to run Newton “week by week”, but as the quarterback gets farther and farther from offseason shoulder surgery, he seems to have more freedom to run as he chooses.

On this play, the Falcons keep one safety high and have a seven man box with Dickson at tight end and McCaffrey at running back. However, by using Newton as the ball carrier, the Panthers are able to use McCaffrey as an extra blocker and, combined with the pass fake, this allows Newton to get well past the down marker without being touched. The final way in which the Panthers were able to get a numbers advantage was by using read-option plays.

While McCaffrey isn’t being used as a blocker here, he is able to draw a defender as a potential runner and Newton is able to take the ball and pick up the first down by beating the safety in space. While only one of these plays involved McCaffrey as a ball-carrier, the read-option plays in particular will begin to pay dividends for McCaffrey over larger sample sizes.

Bootlegging

A few weeks ago, Mike Shula commented that when the Panthers look to try and run the ball, they try to run away from the unblocked defender. While it would certainly be foolish to do the opposite, if a defense maintains gap discipline this still makes it very hard to run the ball, with each defenders simply sliding across a gap in order to leave the unblocked man taking the back side edge to prevent a cut-back. Where the Panthers were fortunate on Sunday was when the Falcons failed to do this, as on the following play.

This play has had repeated issues for the Panthers this year, with Turner and/or Norwell struggling to pull across the formation as fast as would be needed for the play to work. However, on this play the Falcons linebacker over-pursues and McCaffrey is able to cut the ball back inside for a big gain. While this is not the hardest play to capitalize on; it is a staple of many college offenses; McCaffrey does show the vision, change of direction and burst to make the most of the opportunity.

However, on the following play the Panthers are able to block all the in-box defenders as the far-side corner (#23) drops off the formation rather than chasing McCaffrey down the line. This is largely due to plays such as this:

Here, the edge defender dives in on McCaffrey and Newton is able to pull the ball and pick up a huge gain on the bootleg run. By putting plays like this in the mind of the defense the Panthers are able to use Newton as a running threat even on conventional hand-offs. When the back-side defender is forced to hesitate rather than crashing the line it effectively eliminates them from being able to make a play on the running back, should the blocking hold up.

Ron Rivera said after the game that one of the two naked bootlegs that Newton ran was a check that Cam made at the line, choosing to keep the ball instead of handing it off. These options and changes at the line make it harder for defenses to predict what the offense is going to do, thus making for more opportunities for big plays. While plays like this from Newton are very useful in this regard, the use of reverses has always played an important role in the Mike Shula offense. Plays such as the following two force the back-side defender to hesitate as crashing the line would give up back-side contain, which is exactly what happens:

The timing of such plays to take advantage of the defense has always been one of Shula’s strengths, but Sunday was one of the first times this year that he has effectively used this to create large runs on the front side of the play. Whereas reverses largely require pre-snap shifts, the ability to use Newton as a pre-snap option on the back-end has the potential to create consistent opportunities for multiple Panthers, including McCaffrey.

Pitch Perfect

Something that did seem noticeably different about the Panthers this week was the increased use of pitched running plays. While this might seem unimportant, it made a significant impact on the Panthers attempts to run the ball against stacked defenses. While it is often easier to look to pass the ball on such occasions, the ability to run the ball against loaded boxes is extremely valuable and pitch plays can be a large part of that.

As discussed earlier, Shula often looks to run the ball away from an unblocked defender when attacking loaded boxes, but this often runs the risk of the play being run down from the back side and while the use of bootleg runs can be useful in countering that, pitches are often a more reliable method.

On both of the previous plays, the Panthers are able to leave a defender unblocked on the back side as the pitch greatly decreases the time it take McCaffrey to get outside of the defense. This in turn allows him to get upfield much sooner and so pick up gains more consistently. Little changes like this can be the difference between a stretch play being run down from behind and a toss play gaining five yards. If the Panthers can continue to make these small adjustments then they can likely reap significant rewards.

Just Too Good

The final way in which the Panthers were able to have success on Sunday was through excellent blocking. The Panthers offensive line has been somewhat of a work-in-progress for much of this season and while there is still work to be done there were signs on Sunday of what good blocking can do for a running game. On the following play, Daryl Williams does something that no offensive lineman should be expected to do on a consistent basis; block two players.

First, he is able to jam the defensive end, preventing him from being able to make a play from the back side, then he gets to the second level to make a block on the linebacker. It would be unwise for the Panthers to be reliant on such plays to succeed in the ground game, but when they do happen, they are extremely helpful.

Putting over two hundred rushing yards on the Falcons was somewhat of a coming-out party for the Panthers running game, and while this total might not be reached every week for the rest of the season, by using the methods described here to gain a numbers advantage and prevent plays being run down from the back side combined with a little bit of luck, the Panthers should certainly expect to see a stronger performance from the running game, and McCaffrey in particular, throughout the latter half of the season.