Panthers secondary’s ‘dirty eyes’ against Jets won’t fly in New Orleans

It’s kind of a funny name for a pretty serious problem.

“Dirty eyes.”

It’s slang for a defensive back getting caught looking the wrong way, either because of a pump fake or play-action by a quarterback, a move pulled by a receiver or a switch in personnel. Basically, a lack of eye discipline.

It hurt Carolina against New Orleans in Week 3, an embarrassing 34-13 loss in which the Panthers defensive backs bit every which way on quarterback Drew Brees’ pump fake just days after talking about how they were preparing for it.

But after that game, Carolina’s pass defense climbed to among the best in the NFL for several weeks.

Against Josh McCown and the New York Jets on Sunday, the old mistakes popped up again, costing Carolina in a big way. McCown threw for 307 yards and three touchdowns – and had a chance at another wide-open score to tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who dropped the pass.

“I’m a little disappointed in our inconsistency, particularly on the big explosive plays that we gave up on the back end,” said defensive coordinator Steve Wilks on Monday. “That’s totally uncharacteristic of us, our play and the things that we do. That’s something that’s very correctable. ...

“It’s more due to a little bit of eye discipline, and those kinds of things.”

Explosive defensive and special teams touchdowns allowed the Panthers (8-3) to squeak past the Jets (4-7) on Sunday.

But New Orleans, fresh off its first loss since Week 2 and battling Carolina for the lead in the NFC South, will look for Brees to exploit the smallest mental mistake by the Panthers secondary.

“I think it’s really important each and every week, and it’s something that we definitely have to make sure that we clean up this week going against a good quarterback, a guy that we know can really exploit you in any area,” Wilks said. “So we really have to make sure that we’re on point with our eyes and being in the right position.”

Poor eye discipline was only a part of what head coach Ron Rivera said made up the four plays that hurt the Panthers the most.

“If you could eliminate four of those plays, then you can sit there and feel really good about the things we did,” he said.

The four:

▪  New York’s first touchdown of the game, a 33-yard catch by Robby Anderson, was double-covered by safety Mike Adams and cornerback James Bradberry. Adams had excellent position in front of Anderson.

“Mike Adams is in tremendous position, and doesn’t time his jump properly,” Rivera said. “The receiver makes a great move, jumps before our guy, gets his hands on the ball before our guy and ends up with the touchdown.”

▪  With 5:41 left in the third, McCown scrambled away from pressure and pointed to Anderson to keep running downfield once he saw that Anderson had not been pushed out of bounds by safety Kurt Coleman on an out-and-up route. A receiver cannot come back in bounds to make a catch, so McCown would have had to throw the ball away if Coleman had indeed pushed Anderson out.

“The Kurt Coleman one, his eyes are on the quarterback,” Rivera said. “He’s got the receiver, he’s in great position, and he looks at the quarterback just as the receiver makes his move vertical. And again, at that point, the quarterback is scrambling, you locate your target and you knock him out of bounds.

“And Kurt knows better than that. He just got dirty eyes on that play.”

▪ With 6:48 left to play, Bradberry gave up a 17-yard catch to Anderson despite being in excellent position to swat the ball away. Rivera and Wilks both said they’d like to see their cornerbacks make more plays on the ball.

That play set up a touchdown to bring the Jets within a score.

▪  Receiver Jermaine Kearse broke off a 42-yard catch-and-run as the third quarter ended, after both Daryl Worley and Coleman missed tackles on him.

“We make that tackle and it’s a first down, not a 40-something yard gain. So those are disappointing. ...

“(But) they’re correctable, and that’s the biggest plus about that.”

Correctable by Sunday? Carolina had better hope.

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 5:21 PM with the headline "Panthers secondary’s ‘dirty eyes’ against Jets won’t fly in New Orleans."