Panthers News: Frank Reich, Austin Corbett, Bryce Young and Week 4
By Dean Jones
Frank Reich on Carolina Panthers run game
One of the biggest failings of the Carolina Panthers offense so far has been a lack of balance. Quarterback Andy Dalton was forced to throw the football 58 times, which stemmed from playing behind once again and the fact nothing was generated consistently when running plays were called.
Raheem Blackshear remains a healthy scratch and Chuba Hubbard is another that gets overlooked despite his decent output this season. Miles Sanders isn't doing enough as yet and the offensive line isn't creating the holes needed to make a significant difference, which is a recipe for disaster.
When discussing the run game's failings, Frank Reich stated via the team's website that the ethos changes depending on the in-game situation. And the pursuit of victory in Week 3 outweighed the demand to find more balance offensively.
"Just from a lot of years of calling it, I would say I've seen a theme in these kinds of games, where you end up having as few runs as we did. At the end of the day, we're committed to running the football. Well, then, why didn't you call more runs? Well, because I'm first committed to winning the game. And we're going to call whatever we think we need to call to win that particular game. In a perfect world, you're 60-40 pass-run, or 55-45, but game-by-game, you just never know how it's going to work out."
- Frank Reich via Panthers.com
The Minnesota Vikings are giving up 120.7 yards per game on the ground - ranked No. 19 league-wide. Therefore, establishing the running tone early is of critical importance in Week 4 no matter which quarterback the Panthers have under center.