It finally happened, folks. The Carolina Panthers, a franchise that started playing football in 1995 and has been to two Super Bowls, rank first in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metrics for the first time in team history after their 26-7 Week 2 beatdown of the New Orleans Saints, who were fresh off Jameis Winston’s five-touchdown performance in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers. Things did not go well at all for Winston in Week 2 — he completed just 11 passes in 22 attempts for 111 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, four sacks, and a passer rating of 26.9.
The Panthers rank 15th in Offensive DVOA and 31st in Special Teams DVOA after two weeks, so it’s pretty easy to discern where the explosions originate — from a defense that started to look pretty special at the end of the 2020 season, and has taken that momentum to an entirely different level in the new season. The architect is second-year defensive coordinator Phil Snow, who has been with second-year head coach Matt Rhule through Rhule’s tenures at Temple and Baylor, and now Charlotte.
Why does this defense work so well, and why are things even better in 2021? You could say that in 2020, Snow’s defense was a petri dish of fronts and concepts that didn’t quite have the personnel to match it. But with offseason acquisitions in free agency (edge defender Haason Reddick, defensive lineman Morgan Fox, linebacker Frankie Luvu, cornerback Rashaan Melvin), additions in the 2021 draft (cornerbacks Jaycee Horn and Keith Taylor, and defensive tackle Daviyon Nixon), and the development of a 2020 draft class that consisted of nothing but defensive players (with defensive tackle Derrick Brown, edge defender Yetur Gross-Matos, do-it-all safety Jeremy Chinn as the impact players), Snow now has the horses to run the stuff he likes. Factor in previously established stars Brian Burns and Shaq Thompson, and you have a defense that is suddenly the envy (and the headache) of the NFL.
Nobody’s had a bigger headache than Winston so far. Last Sunday, he was pressured on an astonishing 60.7% of his dropbacks — 17 of 28 — and when pressured, he completed four of 13 passes for 50 yards, 3.8 yards per attempt, and a passer rating of 4.2. The Saints’ generally stout offensive line had no answer for what Snow and his players were bringing.
“I think the number one area was in protection,” Saints head coach Sean Payton said after the game. “Offensively, our communication and being able to handle some of the pressure looks we received from Carolina. There were just a number of things that we need to clean up. That would be the one thing that stood out.”
When asked whether his receivers’ ability to gain separation from Carolina’s defensive backs was a primary issue, Payton brought it back to the front.
“I don’t know that the separation was more of a problem than having a chance to set and be protected. There were too many times [there was a] free rusher, too many times when our communication wasn’t on point. So I wouldn’t look at that as the first thing.”
Payton isn’t the first great football mind to look at Snow’s defense and take a step back, wondering exactly what the heck he’s dealing with.
Aaron Rodgers faced the Panthers in Week 15 of the 2020 season, and though the Packers won that game, 24-16, Rodgers had quite a bit to say about concepts he’s not used to. He wound up with 20 completions in 29 attempts for 143 yards and a touchdown. Rodgers’ yards per attempt of 4.93 was the fifth-lowest of his career in games with at least 20 passing attempts, and the Panthers added to Rodgers’ issues with five sacks and a ton of pressures.
“It’s a lot of principles you see at the college level — the 3-3-5 stuff, very strange alignments,” Rodgers said, per Joe Person of The Athletic. “They played very soft in the secondary with a lot of two-high and even some, I don’t even know what you call it, but it’s like five guys are high. The pressure package, I felt like we picked up pretty good. It was more of the four-man rush when we didn’t have guys open that gave us problems.”
Rhule, who knows more about Snow than anybody else in the NFL, knew exactly why his team was able to dominate a Saints team that beat the Panthers twice in 2020. Pressure, pressure, and more pressure.
“It changes things, and I think there are two parts to that,” Rhule said. “I think it’s stopping the run because then on second-and-7 you are not sitting here playing a run defense now and you know what, we trusted the players. We played a lot of bear [front] — five up guys and played man to man defense today. Keith Taylor was out there. Rashaan Melvin was out there. Those guys stepped up. You know, Juston Burris went down and played the nickel. It was a tale of a lot of guys.
“I just think we played really well up front and I think Phil called an amazing game. He was bringing pressures and showing pressure and coming the other side. I think it was a great job by the defensive staff but also our players. At the end of the day, they owned it. They delivered on it. I think Shaq continues to be a tremendous field general out there. I was proud of that part of the game.”
How has Snow created this defense? It starts back in college, and the inevitability of a sea change in how NFL defensive coaches will have to take from the NCAA to succeed.