Inland Waterways » Kickers and punters normally fly below the radar

Youth Greg Olsen Jersey , so let’s hit pause and spotlight the many contributions kicker Graham Gano and punter Michael Palardy have made in helping the Panthers jump out to a 5-2 record. In my professional assessment, these guys are kicking butt. Graham Gano’s rehabilitation tourLet’s face it, most of us around here were pretty ticked last year when the Panthers chose to keep riding with Graham Gano over Harrison Butker. Butker was drafted in the seventh round in 2017 and had a solid preseason, but Carolina decided to put him on the practice squad where he was predictably poached away by another team, the Kansas City Chiefs. While it was difficult to watch Butker take his youthful potential and rookie-scale contract to Kansas City last year, Gano (then age 30 with a $4.0 million cap hit) responded in 2017 by connecting on a league-leading 96.7% (29 of 30) of his kicks and earning his first Pro Bowl selection. He’s been even hotter in 2018 by going 11-for-11 through Week 8. That’s right, Graham Gano has made 40 of his last 41 regular season field goal attempts. He’s also a machine at drilling kickoffs out of the back of the end zone and preventing returns. All things considered, Graham Gano has arguably been the NFL’s best kicker over the last season and a half. (Side note: He’s somehow missed two extra points in 2018, so there’s still some room for improvement.)Gano has not only been consistent, he’s been clutch as well. His miraculous 63-yard game winning field goal against the New York Giants could end up being a season-saver for the Panthers. The incredible kick tied for the longest game-winner in NFL history and fell just one yard shy of the NFL record of 64 yards. Michael Palardy’s house partyBut Graham Gano isn’t the only Panthers kicker who’s hot right now. Punter Michael Palardy is having a great season as well. According to Pro Football Focus, Palardy was the NFL’s top rated punter heading into Week 8’s game against the Ravens. Palardy then had a great game against Baltimore. Of his three punts in Week 8, one was downed at the one yard line (with a huge assist from Curtis Samuel) and another went out of bounds at the eight yard line. With data taken from NFL.com http://www.panthersfootballauthentic.com/michael-palardy-jersey-authentic , 53.6% of Palardy’s punts have landed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line which is the second highest percentage in the NFL, trailing only Cincinnati’s Kevin Huber at 54.5%. Palardy’s accuracy and touch have consistently caused opposing offenses to start with terrible field position and allowed the Panthers defense to pin back their ears and go on the attack. This week Pro Football Focus released their Midseason All-Pro team and Michael Palardy is their first team All-Pro punter. Here is what PFF had to say:Kickers and punters are normally afterthoughts unless they shank a kick or otherwise fail to do their one specialized job. Graham Gano and Michael Palardy are the exceptions this year. Their consistently excellent play has been an integral part in keeping the Panthers in the playoff hunt. Let’s just hope they can stay this hot for the rest of the season and throughout a deep playoff run. The current lead narrative among the (many) issues facing the Carolina Panthers is their inability to stretch the field vertically on offense. That is certainly a problem, but the Panthers defense is conceding too many explosive plays (completed passes over 20 yards). Through five games, they have allowed 21 passes over 20 yards. After watching these plays, there are three takeaways that contribute to the current problems.Pass rush The issue isn’t getting sacks. Sure, they’re great and I would prefer them over what’s currently happening. However, the overall pressures aren’t affecting the quarterback. As a result, the quarterback gets an opportunity to seek scrambling lanes. This causes many issues for the secondary as they can’t hold up for too long in coverage.The Panthers only allowed one explosive play to the Cowboys, but the cause of that play was a lack of pressure. Dak Prescott is allowed to scan, step up, scramble, and then find an open receiver in the middle of the field.They were worse against the Bengals.The defensive line partially gets pressure on Andy Dalton http://www.panthersfootballauthentic.com/c.j.-anderson-jersey-authentic , but it’s not enough as he works toward the sideline before zipping a fantastic throw across his body for a touchdown.Later in the game, Carolina nearly sacks Dalton but he escapes. The secondary loses contain of Tyler Boyd and the result is another long gain.The Washington game was hardly different.This play really irked me because of the situation the Washington offense was facing. It was third and long, but Carolina calls a zone dog blitz which means Mario Addison has to drop into coverage. I don’t usually mind dropping pass rushers into coverage because it can create unpredictability, but dropping the best one on the team on third down is inexcusable. Washington’s offense picks up the blitz, Alex Smith finds a lane to step into, and finds the receiver running across the field.Defending corner routesCarolina’s defense has been susceptible to corner routes on different coverages. The blame is varied, but the secondary and linebackers have to pattern match their assignments so there aren’t open receivers finding the corner.Rookie Donte Jackson has had a decent start to his professional career, but he’s makingmistakes in zone. On this play, the Panthers drop into a cover 4 shell. Jackson has to carry the vertical route and allow the linebacker to match the underneath receiver. In addition, the situation of this play also dictates Jackson not to allow anything over the top. Atlanta is operating in their 2 min drill before the half.The Falcons do an excellent job on this play-action concept. The heavy personnel and tight formation gets the linebackers to bite on the play-action. The Panthers drop into a cover 3. James Bradberry, correctly, carries the vertical route of the wide receiver. Linebacker Shaq Thompson not only bites on the play-action http://www.panthersfootballauthentic.com/wes-horton-jersey-authentic , but he’s too slow to match to the tight end. Jackson isn’t culpable for this blown assignment. Captain Munnerlyn is put in a difficult situation, but with the running back taking a delayed approach into his route, Munnerlyn should match with the corner route. The Panthers drop into a cover 3. Jackson initially matches with the receiver across from him. The receiver takes an inside stem to his route, which should have given Jackson the cue to pass off the route to the safety. As a result, Alex Smith has a sizable window to target the tight end on the corner. Special plays by the wide receiverThis may sound like a cop out, but the Panthers have actually played sound coverage at times. The issue is they’ve faced some top tier wide receivers who have made special catches. This might not happen in the coming weeks, so this area should improve.The Philadelphia Eagles are up next. The reigning Super Bowl champions are lacking in explosive plays this season, but they were one of the best at generating them last year. The Falcons couldn’t score in the red zone until playing against Carolina, the Giants couldn’t do anything, and Washington didn’t have any healthy receivers. The Panthers don’t want to be responsible for helping yet another team iron out their issues this season.