The Carolina Panthers offense came back to life during Sunday’s win over the New England Patriots, with 444 total yards, including 304 yards through the air. A big reason why they were able to have so much success passing the ball is due to Offensive Coordinator Mike Shula’s creative use of spread offense formations from different personnel groups. While we’re all familiar with the Panthers heavy use of the 3x1 formation, this past Sunday we saw the Panthers unveil a new formation in their “evolved” offense called the 4x1 (also called quads) formation.

The Panthers only used this formation for one play the entire game, but it was very successful, as Cam Newton completed a 43 yard pass to wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin, who ran right through a coverage bust in the Patriots secondary.

The Panthers come out in an empty backfield look from their 3 WR set, also called 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR’s). On the backside of the 4x1, Ed Dickson is the isolated “X” receiver, and his job on this play is to clear out the zone defenders with a go route. Newton also has a likely “alert” in place, if the defense shows an overload blitz pre-snap, or if Newton likes Dickson’s match-up against the defender.

On the quads side of the formation, the Panthers run a variation of the “drive” concept that features Russell Shepard running a dig route, combined with Devin Funchess running a shallow crossing route. Running back Christian McCaffrey will run a pivot route, while Kelvin Benjamin will run an intermediate out route. The route combinations are designed to stretch the defense both horizontally and vertically.

Right before the snap, the secondary appears to be in a state of chaos, as they struggle to communicate to one another on how to defend the quads formation. At the snap, three Patriots defenders follow Shepard and Funchess on the “drive” concept, in what appears to be zone coverage. However, underneath, we see safety Devin McCourty play man coverage against McCaffrey who is running the pivot route.

This coverage bust results in Kelvin Benjamin being completely left alone on the out route, and Newton sees this and immediately throws it to Benjamin for a 43 yard gain.

The Panthers end up scoring a touchdown two plays later, on a similar busted coverage against a 3x1 formation.

The Panthers are adding new wrinkles to their offense every week, and the spread 4x1 formation is definitely one of the most interesting looks I’ve seen from them so far this season. The 4x1 is also not a particularly common formation in the NFL, which is why I’m even more excited to see how it will be utilized moving forward.

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All GIF’s and images courtesy of NFL.com