The Kyle Bailey Show: Steve Smith Sr

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Over fifteen thousand total yards the.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Way sixteen NFL seasons. You see this nice last five
Pro Bowls and countless memories. When a dog gets an
X ray, they've got that Steve Smith inside their rib game.
Steve Smith is on wfn Z h suff Son, Well,
he's back Sports Radio ninety two to seven wf and

(00:27):
z KB and smoke with you here on a Panthers Monday,
not a victory Monday, and real quick, I got big
Cat Dan on the FanDuel text line listening from every
day from down in Florida, says the loss was disappointing,
but it's not the end of the world. Again. Who
picked us to beat Seattle? We've roller coastered the whole season.
Why is everyone surprised? The same things were said after
the Saints loss. Let Dan Morgan keep building, Canalis, Bryce

(00:49):
and Vero have us knocking on the door to the
playoffs after seven years of mock draft talk and not
being picked to win more than six games, much less
make the playoffs? What are we doing the fricking ride.
He's one of many that are sending that in. I'm
actually surprised how many people are sending that in. And
let's see what Steve Smith thinks about that. Panthers legend
NFL Network analyst Agent eighty nine back for his Monday conversation.

(01:13):
Merry Christmas, Happy new your brother. How are you appreciate you?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
I'm good hater in the building or should I say
Hayter on the telephone? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh okay, all right, so we're in a spicy mood
today then.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Huh no, I'm just throwing you all.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I know, I know, I'm good. I'm good, full of
holiday spirit and cheer. I'm not down today. You know,
this is this is who they are Steve, and uh,
I'm actually you know, just as a fan, right because
this is we all started as sports fans, as a
as a fan week eighteen to make the playoffs. It's
a good thing. I'm still fired up about it, but
I think people are really and I'm talking about all fans,

(01:50):
former players. If you're upset today, I think it's probably
more so because the Dolphins did beat Tampa and the
opportunity was right there and they just couldn't take advantage
of it. What do you think about that?

Speaker 3 (02:03):
I had a conversation with someone today and he said, Hey,
what do you think about the Panthers, and I said,
what do you think? He was like, man, I was
at the game and it was disappointing. I said, what
are you disappointed at? He said, well, I'm disappointed because
they didn't beat Seattle. And I looked at him and

(02:23):
I said how many wins did Seattle have? And he
looked at me. He said, what does that mean? I says,
it means a lot. He goes, well, they just won thirteen.
I said, the only part you're disappointed at is you
thought that Seattle was going to lay an egg. That's

(02:44):
really the disappointment. Seattle is a twelve thirteen win team.
You don't win those games because you got a cute uniform,
because your coach had a nice has has awesome cliches.
You do it because you stay diligent in the run game.

(03:07):
You minimize the turnovers, and you take advantage of every
opportunity the opposing team gives you. And that's the difference
between the game yesterday, too many turnovers, not being able
to adjust to the momentum swing and oh yeah, I forgot.
You're playing a really good team who has shown you

(03:29):
they're good all year.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah. I think Mike McDonald's done a great job with
that defense. I mean, great job. And I don't want
to gass anybody up too much, right, because the league's
full of good players.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
League good players, but the league, the league is full
of good players, and the league is also full of
coaches who don't know how to position good players. Or
there's good coaches kind of players, right, And I'm not

(04:01):
indicating that the Panthers are that way. I'm just saying
you gotta look at what it is. Is you played
a pretty good team. They won twelve games, and so
that says that it was not going to be a cakewalk.
You are not playing Atlanta Falcons.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Who have no identity, right, Yeah, You're not playing New
You're not playing New Orleans who has a rookie quarterback.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
You're playing a team. Yes, Sam Donald was here in Carolina,
but he's been coached obviously, and he's playing better.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Speaking of coaching, what did you think. I was a
little bit surprised yesterday when I was in the postgame
press conference when Dave Canalis just came out and admitted,
you know, they played a lot more man than we'd anticipated.
Seattle came in playing more zone than anybody else in
the NFL, all of a sudden, they're playing coverage, and
Dave Canalis basically admitted yesterday that it caught him off guard.
What does that say to you, HM.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
That says that a team who plays primarily zone coverage
comes in and says, we're gonna play man because we
like our matchups. That's what that says. And you should
take it personal if they generally go zone and then

(05:33):
they go man. Right, you go back Chicago Bears two
thousand and five. They were a primarily zone team when
we came to town. Guess what they stayed. They stayed,
they asked and zone coverage. Then when we went to
the playoffs, they didn't switch it up. They still went

(05:54):
into zone coverage. You got to make adjustments. Like the teams,
they have tendencies, but you got to understand the playbook.
That is not a living and breathing organism. It's a
piece of paper that you've put together and you've laminated

(06:14):
and you write on it and looks like a fat
boy's menu, you know, when you're watching a coach on
the sideline. But the game, though, is coming and going
as you see is. You got to make adjustments and
you got to adapt to the circumstances and the surroundings
that you're going through at that moment.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, now you're right, Steve Smith Senior with us here
on a Monday conversation, Brice through for fifty four yards,
there's no way you can spend that. That's bad. I've
gone back and rewatched it and it did affirm a
lot of what I saw in the press box yesterday
that you know, he missed some things. But also you
know they've that pressure got there quick yesterday and there
was not There was not a lot of wide receiver

(06:56):
separation on a lot of those snaps either. I mean,
it just kind of felt like back to front start
to finish. You know, a lot of offensive failure, but
like fifty four yards passing, who's most of it? And
I'm not asking you to throw anybody out of the bus,
but I'm just saying, when you're looking for problems after
a performance like that, where does it start?

Speaker 3 (07:12):
It starts with you. First of all, starts with looking
at your opponent. What is the Seattle Seahawks. They have
a really good front seven, they stop to run right
and then the offensively, Clint Kubiak does an excellent job
bro of running the football even when they don't get

(07:35):
any yards. He never abandons the run. They will bump
their heads up on the goal post, not moving a football,
but they will still run the football. They are committed
to running and they don't deviate from it. They're not

(07:57):
a really good running team if you look them up statistically,
they're okay, but they commit to running a football. And man,
you got to respect that coach. You know, I used
to as a I receiver, I hated Coach Fox with
being diligent and running the football. We're gonna run it.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
We're gonna do this because at times that was frustrated.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Is when you needed a pass. You didn't have a
lot of data information to kind of know what to
do in the past game because you keep running it
with a cloud of dust. Well that's what That's what
the Seattle Seahawks do is they run a football and oh, yeah,
news alert. They throw into number eleven a lot, a

(08:41):
lot the just in case no one noticed, Yeah they did.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
And let me ask you real quick on that too,
because this is one of the biggest talking points today.
You know it. They cut the lead to seventeen to ten,
defense forced a third and twenty one, they go to,
there's guy eleven. They go to Jackson Smith and Jig
but and j C. Horn gets called for a face
mask penalty, automatic first down. Seattle ends up tacking on
points to make it a two score game. I know,

(09:09):
I know JC after the facts that he felt like
eleven sold that thing. But there's also clear video of
a hand in a face mask. What do we what
do we take from that?

Speaker 3 (09:18):
You take for what the referee said it was, it
was a face mask, Yeah, I agree, but you can't argue.
You can try, but I've just kind of I've just
kind of reserved it to where it doesn't matter. When
have you ever seen a penalty really get argued to

(09:38):
where they pick it up and put it in their pocket. Rarely, right,
especially with like a face mask, horse collar, like some
of that stuff. Right when you're talking about somebody being
lined up in a neutral zone, all that stuff, that's
that's different, that's debatable, right, Well, when it's a clear
face mask, horse collar, cracked back, chop block, you know

(10:02):
some of those things. Man, the dude in the stripes
they hold the last.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Word, Yeah, they sure do. Did you have any problem
because some people did? And I'm not talking about just
fans like Dave Canal has caught some heat for taking
it for kneeling on the football with two minutes left
to go down seventeen. Did you have a problem with that?

Speaker 3 (10:23):
No, here's why I didn't have a problem with it.
This is a real question. You ready, Kyle, And then
I'm looking for an answer.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Okay, how many passing yards did they have?

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Fifty four?

Speaker 3 (10:36):
How many rushing yards did you have? Oh?

Speaker 2 (10:38):
I got to look that one up. Sorry, I didn't
come prepared for the test today.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
The pop quiz, I'm sorry, it was still in the fifties. Okay.
So my question is what were they going to do
differently that they weren't able to do for the last
three and a half almost four quarter.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
For the record, I agree one hundred percent. If somebody
gets hurt, they're all getting crushed for them today. So
it's not fun. Nobody liked it, but I thought it
was the right decision.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
So were they going to march down the field the
same way they did not march down the field the
last three quarters?

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Nope?

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Oh okay, yeah, Look, I'm trying to figure out what's
logical because I'm looking and you're like, Hey, man, we
got to win this marathon.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Bro, you're not gonna win the marathon in the first
mile when it's thirty two.

Speaker 2 (11:31):
No, No, listen again, it's a there was no win, right,
You're not winning the game. If somebody gets hurt, you're
getting crushed for that. I hated it, but it is
what it is, all right, last thing, buddy, Week eighteen.
It all comes down to this. They're still alive. I mean,
Tampa's in a spiral.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Man.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
They've lost seven of eight. They lost that game yesterday,
but they've got home field advantage on Sunday. What in
your mind's eye? What do you imagine this game looks like?

Speaker 3 (11:55):
This is why I love this game. Week eighteen. This
game is you. You have the ability to control your
own destiny. You gotta wake you gotta wake up, You

(12:16):
gotta you gotta wake up on Sunday morning and figure
out do you want to show up or not? HM.
Bottom line right, this is this is this is what
every little kid that plays football says they want to do.
Is they get the opportunity to make the winning tackle,

(12:37):
to wake them, make the winning throw, to make the
winning catch, to make the winning sack. You gotta visualize
what you prepare and want to do on Sunday, and
you gotta start it yesterday. You gotta wake up on
Sunday morning and your your birth certificates say should say,
I wish you would try me today. That's where you

(12:59):
need to be from. I wish you would. I wish
you would isolate me and play me man and man coverage.
That's what I see. And you want to establish yourself
as being a big dog. Go win the game, I
hear you. Go go win the game that you're not

(13:20):
supposed to win, not the game you're supposed to because
that happens. But this is also a very young team
who just may not sound right. They're learning how to win.
And when I say win, I'm saying finish and start

(13:42):
a complete game.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, I hope they do, and I hope seven days
from now we're talking about the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
Buddy.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Happy New Year to you and yours. We appreciate you.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
I knew you.