What Chicago's 291 Asks of Atlanta's Right Guard

With 40 seconds left in the third quarter in Charlotte, one play after a Carolina fourth-down failure at the Chicago 39, Kyle Monangai took a handoff up the middle and went 61 yards. Chicago 38, Carolina 31 became Chicago 45, Carolina 31. It was Chicago's last carry with the game within a score.

The final was Chicago 59, Carolina 37, the most points the Panthers have allowed since 1995, per the AP. Chicago ran 39 times for 291 yards, 7.5 a carry, and of the 282 yards the play-by-play itemizes, 211 came with the game tied or within seven at the snap. Three of the four runs of 20 or more — D'Andre Swift's 32, Caleb Williams's 29-yard scramble, the Monangai run — came in a one-score game. Garbage time does not survive the drive chart.

Where the 291 came from

Swift went 18 for 124 and three touchdowns, Monangai 10 for 100, Williams 10 for 65, seven of them scrambles. By ESPN's play-text tags, not a film chart, the two backs ran between the tackles 14 times for 143 yards, 10.2 a carry, and to the edges 13 times for 72. Chicago's damage was inside.

Dave Canales's summary, to The Charlotte Post, was "Seventeen points off turnovers." By the drive chart that is ten off the three box-score turnovers — three after the muffed punt, none after the interception, seven after the fumble — and 17 only if the fourth-down stop before Monangai's run counts, which coaches count and box scores do not. Ejiro Evero's defense was on the field for 34 minutes and 70 plays and allowed 10 of 14 third downs; it was left out there, but turnovers do not explain the 291.

A to Z Sports's Kole Noble called it "a fireable offense" for Evero and put the failure in coverage and contain: "The soft zone coverage got picked apart," and "QB contain was non-existent." One diagnosis. The box score offers a second: 11 rushing first downs, ten a carry between the tackles. Only the second travels to Atlanta.

What Atlanta brings

Atlanta's run game worked at Acrisure Stadium: 31 carries for 120, nine rushing first downs, Bijan Robinson 21 for 83 and eight catches for 90 on 10 targets. The club described its scheme in August as "the outside zone scheme that has been their bread and butter in recent seasons," with gap- and power-style runs added under offensive line coach Bill Callahan. ESPN's tags for Sunday: five right-end runs for 44 yards, eight up the middle for 22, three at right guard for 4.

The two box scores do not describe the same run. Chicago's backs hurt Carolina inside; Atlanta found its yards on the right edge and 2.8 a carry up the middle. One game each side, and one of them a 22-point loss. Encouraging is the ceiling on the word.

The right guard

Outside zone is a guard's scheme as much as a tackle's. On the front side the right guard reaches the defensive tackle on his outside shoulder or overtakes him and climbs, and the back reads that combination. On the backside he has the cut-off; lose it and the play is over. The boot off it takes a right-handed passer to his right, with the right guard on the front side, the geometry that changed when Cooper Rush took the first-team reps. My reading, not a report of Sunday's calls.

Chris Lindstrom played that spot for three quarters and the first minute of the fourth. Per the club's game breakdown, he was hurt early in the fourth quarter on the T.J. Watt interception return, gave way to Kyle Hinton on the next drive and was later ruled out with a concussion. He did not return. Three of Pittsburgh's four sacks came with Lindstrom in; the fourth, with 5:01 left, came with Hinton at right guard. Atlanta ran 24 times for 77 yards with Lindstrom and seven for 43 after him; seven carries against a defense protecting a lead is a note, not a sample.

As of Monday morning the club has published nothing beyond that; the week's first practice report comes Wednesday. ESPN's schedule exists: Carolina at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday at 1:00 PM ET, then Green Bay at Lambeau Field on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 8:15 PM ET, four days later. A right guard in question is a two-game question.

Carolina won the NFC South at 8-9 last season and swept Atlanta: Carolina 30, Atlanta 0 in Charlotte, then Carolina 30, Atlanta 27 in overtime at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Which quarterback hands the ball off against Carolina — Tua Tagovailoa, inactive in Pittsburgh with an oblique strain; Michael Penix Jr., inactive with a knee; Rush, who started — is Wednesday's document at the earliest. The handoff is the same from all three. What changes is who is reaching the defensive tackle.