December 30, 2025 • 43 mins
In the first hour of the show, the guys discuss the two doors that have opened for the Panthers heading into the final week of the regular season, tell you how this year's NFC South race compares to 2014 and talk about the Hornets' latest news and notes after a loss to the Bucks last night.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Only Sports Radio ninety two point seven a half m
a ufn Z five.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
He's the Wesson Walker Show. Even a crowd, no, let's
come in there.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I can't believe we sit here on December thirtieth, twelve
oh two in counting, and the Panthers have two doors
they can walk through. Not spread through because that would
imply some sort of aggression in getting a playoff spot,
but walk through. They have two doors open right now
for them to get to the postseason. If the Panthers
beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend, they're in, simple
(00:44):
as that. The other way they can get in is
if the Falcons beat the Saints this weekend, and what
you know it, the Falcons open up as a three
point favorite. There are two opportunities for the Panthers to
get to the postseason, which would mean if they don't, yep,
some heartbreak around here in the Queen said, I.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Mean, you got to be excited about that if you're
a Panthers fan, so you do have a little bit
of coverage if you should somehow falter. But at the
end of the day, I know they want to get
the win. They don't want to chance it to the
Atlanta Falcons a team that may hate you enough that
they may just lose just so you won't be able
to get Well.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
The thing, do they hate us more? I think they
probably do more than Tampa. Do they want us to
get in or do they want Tampa to get in?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
NFC South, I would I would have some really good rivalries.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I mean, I feel like all the teams hate each other,
and I would think that the whole eighty five rivalry
between the two. You'd probably hate Carolina more. But that
would be some kind of hate for them to just
go ahead and say, hey, we'll lose. But they are
incentivized a little bit if you care about draft position.
They don't have a first round pick though, so now
you're talking about a second round pick that you would get,
(01:47):
you're not really trying to tank anyway. The Falcons are
not incentivized to tank because they don't have a first
round pick.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
True.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, that's a good point. Go ahead and get the win, Falcons.
We're pulling for you. We're gonna be pulling for Atlanta now.
Lies in a couple of different ways. We have pulled
for other NFC South teams. We've pulled for the Saints,
and we have pulled for the Falcons a couple of times.
It's been a weird, wonky twenty twenty five Carolina Panthers season,
and we only have one more game to go at
(02:14):
least in the regular season. It's Wes and Walker on
a Tuesday, Do it to at Tuesday, People, Tuesday DTT
do it to at Tuesday. Wes and Walker Sports Radio
ninety two to seven WFNZ. We're broadcasting live from the
Chandler Vault to studios, CV Injury Law dot Com, CV
Injury Law dot Com.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
One call.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
That's all the Carolinas personal injury lawyers. We got a
lot to get to today. We got to have the
annual Steve Smith not in the Hall of Fame discussion,
which there's nothing that gets me more frustrated than Hall
of Fame voters.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I know you find up.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I just what are you doing at baseball football? I
can't stand the Hall of Fame voters anyways. So I'm
going to tell you why I can't stand them. The Hornets.
They took the l last night. Giannis was back. There's
another ankle injury. No it's not to Lamellow. No, it's
not to con Miles Bridges left with an ankle injury,
so we have to get to that. The other thing
we have to get to before we start breaking down
(03:05):
this Panther's playoff picture. I need to ask you something,
flound Yeah, is your hair different today? Because you look good?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Thanks? Is it going?
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I'm going to the Torio game tonight, so I had
to fix my hair up.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Okay, So is this buttoned up flound Dog or you
just comb the hair straight back and embrace your Italian
roots a little more than usual. That's right, because you
look like Tony PAGs. You don't look like Anthony pag Nada,
you don't look like Flounder. You look like Tony PAGs.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Oh, thank you, that's I take that as a company.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I never thought about doing a slick back and then
just having a little hang going to like going just
full out Italian with the slick back, and then you
have you a little bit hanging in the back.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I don't know about that. That kind of jiggy though.
Give me a full on track suit too, I'll be looking.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Bad. Guy.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Move here.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I'm about to say it. Do you have enough hair
to have the hang down of the back? Do you
have enough I could get there, he could.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Okay, that look you just conscribe flounder as I think
would be a great look for you to be frankly
track with the slick back, with the little hang a
little necklace going. I know this is full on stereotyping,
but I think that's a look that's going to attract
a few ladies.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Tony Pegs. Now it's kind of hard. All right, let's
go ahead and do this. Let's do extreme makeover flound edish.
Let's get Tony Pegs going. I say we get that
hair a little wet, slick it back, get some product
in it, because it looks good. Flound I'm not kidding.
You got the polo one. I could tell you probably
had something to do tonight. You can tell when the
(04:40):
producer's got something going.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Little Carolina tracks who going with? And then you already
got jays. You got the j game going to man,
Come on.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Now, stope ones on.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
That's right, Yeah, somebody, somebody give this man some jewelry. Please,
come on, Pops, Pop of PAGs needs to give you
some jewelry. Ugg and switch the name. Bought them to
Tony Pegs really bad.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I tried on a pair of the shorts that they
got for me for Christmas.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
They don't fit the ladies.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
It's just a rough Christmas, rough Christmas man. I apologize
the ladies. Ask you what your name is? You say,
Tony Peg. Totally, Tony Pegs. We need to start embracing that,
I mean dating profile.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I think we might need a change there to Tony Pegs.
I think that's gonna boost that thing just a little
bit now for me.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
With my hair, I hate wet. Heead look, didn't stand it.
I don't like it. So what I use as a
powder because I want it dry. I want a little messy.
I hate gel, I hate all that. But with the
hairstyle that flown does bring it to the table. I'm sorry,
Tony Pegs is bringing to the table. It's slicked back,
it looks good, it's different than usual. I say, we
just get a little tiny bit of shine. I want
(05:51):
a little bit of the light reflecting off of the deal.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Point will look yes, yes, a little bit like the
way what talking right now? For like twenty twenty six,
we might need the sports world. According to Tony Pegs
segment once a Week where we get the old mob
music playing in the background, and you give you a
takes on what you think is going on for that
week or that day, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Man, we need to put that scataboo say that we
might need that.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I mean, now twenty six baby little innovation, let's go.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I need that impression, putting it in my notes right
to look. Please write this down so we don't forget
about Tonya the alter ego that we will embrace in
twenty twenty six. And perhaps we ask this question before
we dive into the playoff picture a little more so.
One thing that we didn't do because holiday radio it's wild,
it's chaotic, it's disorganized, but we're still going to give
(06:47):
you a show. One thing we did not do that
Wes brought up just a little late. I would have
thought about it as well. Didn't do it, so it's
on me. Also, maybe you guys can help us out.
I'm outsourcing our preparation today on Wes and Walker. What
the best moments in twenty twenty five for wesn Walker.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
They will do a good job of doing that for us. Man,
because you know it's the end of the year. This
is my last show for the year.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Same, Well, Well, it's the last West Walker.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, I know what I'm saying, Last West and Walker
for the year? Man, do you guys watch the year
in show? I kind of jump on them a little bit.
I like, I do enjoy the music countdowns for the
end of the Yeah, I do too. I know I
like the year interview. So I'm outsourcing the work. Hey
call it lazy, that's fine. I find it more interesting
this way. Wessel Walker rapped. Yeah, yeah, you just read
(07:35):
my mind because I was going to ask and say,
you notice everybody's doing that now YouTube does it? There
are a lot of people doing it, but I didn't.
I need to get your music data too. We hadn't
talked about that. Oh it's so it's all out. The
number one artist was and all that.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can all right, so we can
work at walling. Wait, wait, that's it. You nailed it.
That's my guy. I know that was it for you.
When you said Wes and Walker rapped off the heels
of me asking the best moment it's on the show.
I was wondering, did we ever wrap on the show?
Is that something we did?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And no, we did not.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You're just talking about did football grunts?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Earlier this year. That's one of the ball runts. Is
a good one. Yeah, help us out here. That's top five.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It's grunts people like yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, seven oh four,
five seven oh ninety six ten, fandul text line, let
us know the best moments of WESN. Walker in twenty
twenty five seven oh four to five, seven oh ninety
six ten. We have a lot of people writing in
a bunch of different questions. Again, we'll just sprinkle them
all throughout the show. The last show of twenty twenty five.
Let's hit it floundy. Let's pull up to the scene,
Let's open up the doors, Let's get off the bus.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We look good getting off the bus. I got Tony
tags you look good.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I love this idea for twenty twenty six, we're starting
off with the bank. Let's talk about the playoff picture.
Nick Carboni has done a great job of trying to
simplify it for all of us on Twitter. Go follow
them on Nick Carboni WCNC. The thing about it is,
it's really not all that complicated like it used to
be a couple of weeks ago. The Panthers have two
chances to get to the postseason. The simplest way to
(09:05):
get to the postseason is by beating Tampa Bay on
Saturday at four point thirty. You beat Tampa Bay, you're in.
You win the NFC South, no more questions asked. The
other way to get in the postseason, you might lose
to Tampa. There's still a way to find yourselves in
the playoff picture. Even if you lose to Tampa. If
Atlanta beats New Orleans, Carolina's in. So I like those
(09:29):
scenarios as much as I possibly could. For an eight
win football team at this point of the year. You win,
you're in. Atlanta wins, you're in. Tampa Bay has to
have more things break right for them, and well, yeah,
I guess it's kind of similar. I guess it's similar.
If the Saints win and they win, then Atlanta's and
(09:50):
then you have Tampa get in. But if Carolina wins,
or if Atlanta wins, then maybe we're going to be
talking about some playoff football. Nay, not only playoff football,
but a home player game. So it's pretty simple. After
a unexpected victory for Atlanta last night over the Red.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
It is confusing because I spent time last night trying
to figure out the scenarios that make it make sense
in my own head. But I was like, well, it
doesn't really matter for the Panther as much if you know,
these scenarios are two if Atlanta wins out and then
they end up losing. But how funny is it now
that the NFC South, the two teams on the bottom,
are the two hottest teams in the conference. Right now,
(10:27):
you got a hot Atlanta team one up against a
hot New Orleans team to figure out who could end
up helping who maybe in this division, man, so this
one should be a lot of fun. This weekend is
going to be a lot of fun. I did not
know the game was on Saturday. The San Francisco game
is on Saturday too, So I.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Was like, man, well, these are the big games, right
You're talking about both games mattering in a winner take
all scenario. And ESPN decided they wanted a little piece
of that, so they decided to put the Panthers and
the Buccaneers game at four point thirty. Again, different kick.
Now we're talking about a little bit of a shorter week,
but both teams are dealing with short weeks. It's really
no excuse whatsoever. We'll see if Carolina can take advantage
(11:05):
of it.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
What's also interesting is there have been people writing in
on the FanDuel text line New Orleans they're playing good ball,
that's undeniable.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I think because of the way that each of these
teams have been playing each of the last couple of weeks.
I'd rather put my money on New Orleans. I'd rather
have my situation come down to New Orleans win. But
if Atlanta just beat the Rams last night, Bjhon Robinson
continues to look like the best running back in football.
It looked like Jonathan Taylor for the crest half. I mean,
(11:33):
he's unbelievable. What are you gonna do? My god? I
think the only reason that he didn't go off for
another long touchdown run was because he was gassed from
running all over the place in the previous attempts that
he had.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
And it was funny because you know, he's from Tucson.
And when I was out there, I asked the barber
because he was a big sports fan. He was an
Atlanta Falcons fan of all fans, and he was born
and raised in Tucson, And I said, did you go
check out?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
But John Robinson when he was in high school.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
He was like, I was like, how, Like in my mind, like,
there's no way a player of that caliber. But they
did give out the high School Player the Year award
is named for him because I saw a few people
coming in with B John Robinson jerseys on, and I
was like, that's got to be his family, because nobody
would come to this game with those jerseys on, and
(12:19):
they were there in place of him to give out
the high school player and the girls high School Player
of the award for flag football and then the boys
was tackle football.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well, he's incredible.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
He could have all the awards named after him in
high school and he might have some awards named after
him if he continues this in the NFL, because he's
unbelievable and he was a huge. He was pretty much
the offensive reason that they won last night. It really
wasn't anybody else doing anything. Kirk Cousins wasn't impressive to me.
It wasn't Drake London didn't do anything that OpEd.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
My fantasy squad.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I know some people are asking, Drake London didn't do anything.
Kyle Pitts nothing after going on a tear the last
three weeks. It was all Bejohn and defensively they forced
some turnovers, but offensive it was all about that Atlanta
running back. So here we are in this scenario where
I feel like there was one person on Twitter that
brought this up before when anybody was really talking about it,
(13:10):
we had all kind of assumed the Rams would just
take care of business, and they did it on the road.
Rams really don't like traveling out ease.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
That's a thing you can't The NFL is just so weird, man,
you could never just full out.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I feel like a team has no shot at all.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
But I mean, it was just one of those games
last night in Atlanta's hot, and they're still playing hard
for their coach apparently, and you felt like the Rams
are gonna get it done. But yeah, you're right. This
is the team that is backing into the playoffs. And
so everybody that's talking about, oh, they're the best team
at football and then just gonna flip a switch when
they get into the playoffs, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Got to rethink it. And they're gonna have to go
on a road. Yeah, we have to rethink that. And
I have been one that has been steadfast in my
belief in the Rams and I'm always gonna believe in
Sean McVay and that organization. At the same time, they
have not looked great each of the last hover many weeks,
really starting with that loss to carol They lose to Seattle,
they allow the Seahawks to come back, they lose to Atlanta.
(14:05):
They didn't look ready to play. So you have to
rethink this whole. They're clearly the best team in the NFL.
There's no clearly. I don't even know if it's true
anymore to just flat out say they're the best team
in the league. I'm retracting that statement as a long
time believer. We have a lot of assignments out for
everybody to complete right now. On the text line, we're
going to try to organize that give us those moments
so far, Yeah, we've got some great moments to relive
(14:27):
because if you the listener providing those moments, reminding us
of those moments. The other question that I have, yeah,
I have another assignment for you to complete. I apologize,
but it's going to be a fun one. Do you
think that this year in the NFC South is worse
than the twenty fourteen season when the Panthers found themselves
in the playoffs this by going seven eight and one,
seven oh four, five, seven oh ninety six to ten.
(14:47):
Let us know your answer to that question. On the
Fandel text line, more Wes and Walker coming up next.
We have a bunch of miscellaneous messages coming through on
the fan Duel text line. We're just gonna comm through them.
(15:10):
Last show of twenty twenty five, I want everybody to
be heard seven oh four or five, seven oh ninety
six to ten. So we're experimenting with a new segment
in twenty twenty six. Already it's gonna be Tony Paggs related,
not Anthony Pagnada, even though that is a still great name.
Tony PAGs is better flounder. No, that's gonna have to
move on. For the alter ego segment that we have,
(15:31):
I don't know. Is it just gonna be strong takes?
Is he gonna Is he gonna discuss his sports thoughts
like a mob boss?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
He could do it thatp Well, there's a few ways.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I was thinking more along the lines of, you know,
him having his old world music playing while he either
picks an individual, yeah, something like that. But I'm thinking
a little bit more slow and dramatic. That's a little
too happy. I want to I want God's find I
want Godfather with contemplating on who is gonna whack? No
doubt it has to be darker man. Yes, uh, then
(16:03):
we're talking. You know, either he can pick a topic
he wants to runt about or just kind of his
views on what's going on.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Maybe that week. I think I need an Italian impression
as well.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Okay, don't I don't know how well that's going to play,
especially if you do a if you rant for I
don't know, five minutes, it's gonna be tough for you
to keep that impression up and you can't half asset. Yeah,
you got to go full ass. If you're going to
do an Italian impression, that's right, that's me full ass.
So if you do that, I think we can pull
this thing off for five minutes. But we do have
to figure it out. It will require some experimenting, but
(16:38):
I think that we have something here. Yes, I don't
want to let it out of my grip. A lot
of people also writing it about that. Huntersville Robb says, Hey,
don't forget, he's gonna have to smoke a cigar or
at least two on one and also have a twenty
four K bracelet. I like that, but closer. I have
it in my mind because that is the Godfather thing.
But I still have I need a little bit. I
already have it pictured. You and I are on the
(16:59):
same path, like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I I like it.
Keep looking, keep look. I'm going to continue to search.
This one was much closer. The other one reminded me
of a big night out at Olive Garden.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
That's what that reminded me of.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
This reminded me more so of Godfather, but also it's
almost like a euphoric moment. It's almost like background. I
need to be shaking a tiny bit. I need to
be uncertain about what your next move is here. I
don't feel like I'm in danger. I like this nine
seventeen guy. He says he can pick a team on
athlete to whack each week. It's not bad. I kind
of like that one Sleeping with the Fishes segment. Some
(17:34):
people to whack. Who are we whacking this week? I
kind of like that.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Interesting. I want to put that in the notes.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well that's very different, all right, no need for phrasing.
You made that dirty. That's what you did, flounder. We
have people writing in walls it says, got to be
better than max Italian impression. I haven't heard it, but
I guess it's bad. Give me a second. Oh you
got you got some sound for us? I've pulled.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Look, if you make any sort of impression on the air,
it's getting pulled pretty much.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
That's it's fair. No, I've seen you in action there, and.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Of course now audition is freezing, so I'll be back
in a few moments.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Folks with your impression, you keep looking for scary mob
boss type beats. We also have people writing in the
best moments on Western Walker in twenty twenty five. We're scrolling,
We're scrolling, We're scrolling some more squirrel meet. Henderson says,
best of Wes and Walker was when Wes did not
know what a bull was on the farm.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
That was not this year. That was not that was
last year year.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah he just heard the promo. Yeah, that's just the
promo that we made. But that did not happen this year.
We did have somebody right, Yeah, Jack and diet Here's
what he wrote. And I forgot about this one. The
discussion that lives rent free in my brain is the sock.
This one's closest. You keep getting.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Closer, but I don't want to take something that's already
been used over and over again.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
But I do like that you keep climbing the ladder
closer to the pinnacle here. All right, let's go back
to Jack and Diet. He says, the discussion that lived
rent free in my brain is the sock sock shoe
shoe versus sock shoe, sock shoe to bake. That's right,
And I believe it's Walls. Let me know if I'm
correct about this, but I believe it's walls life that
(19:13):
I changed, who decided to go my way with sock
shoe sock shoe. And he says his life has never
been the same, and that's the way he does it now. Now, okay, again,
I can't fault people for thinking I'm a serial killer
because I used to believe that as well. I used
to go, yeah, it's sock sock, then shoeshoe. What are
you idiots doing? Except now I'm the idiot doing it
(19:33):
the other way and I haven't gone back.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So you do sock shoe sock shoe? I do? Wow, Okay,
I don't try that. You should.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, I'm gonna try it, because again I don't want
to put the socks on the ground, and inevitably you
find yourself putting your sock on the ground when you're
putting on the other shoe. So why don't we just
go ahead and put sock shoe. So I put the
shoe on the ground, which is gonna be on the
ground all day long. Unless you've got the dogs, they
might take it well, especially if you have animals. If
you have animals, I don't want dog hair all over
(20:00):
my sock and then it just gets nasty and that's
how you get stains on your sock and then you
get down shoe. Yeah, and you could just say I
don't care about it, or you could have just avoided
all together by going sock shoe, sock shoe. This is
the way people, you're welcome. Kyle Fremaine said Flounder's dog
noise was top notch.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Do you remember it? Don't think I did a dog noise?
That are we talking about? This grunt?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I believe that's fitty. Yeah, that's what I was going
to say. I'm talking. I'm talking twenty twenty five people. Now,
the football grunt was great. Smoke was in here, and
Smoke had close to the best football grunt. I sounded
like I was having a hard time in the bathroom,
That's what people said, And mine wasn't very good.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
No, and I have to admit that. All right, let's
talk more about some.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Of the NFL NFC South playoff picture scenarios that we
have in front of us, because the Panthers, again, they
have two doors open. Right, you beat Tampa, you're in,
or you lose to Tampa. It doesn't matter because Atlanta wins.
But if you beat Tampa, you're in. Atlanta win and
you're in, and it doesn't really matter what happens against
the Buccaneers. My question was, is this year in the
NFC South worse than what happened in twenty fourteen when
(21:09):
the Panthers won the division and they get to the
postseason at seven eight and one, just a disgusting record
to get into the NFL playoff picture. But I would
tell you I went back and researched that twenty fourteen season, Wes,
that's the worst season for any division. It has to
be in all of them. Yeah, it was so bad.
(21:30):
So what happened in the first ten eleven games of
twenty fourteen. In the NFC South, it was the Atlanta
Falcons through the first eleven games that were atop the
division at four and seven.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And then it was the Saints at second at four
and seven, and the Panthers were three seven and one,
the Buccaneers were two and nine. So eventually the Panthers
go on a four game winning streak to go to
seven eight and one and then eventually, of course get
to the playoffs. If you look at the wins that
the Panthers there's posted that year. All of the wins
(22:03):
were against bad competition. It's not like this year where
Carolina has the Rams, right, Yeah, there was none of
that to speak of with the Panthers in twenty fourteen,
and that four game winning streak. Really what Carolina did
was they beat up on the bad competition in the
NFC South. So they beat the Saints, the Bucks, and
(22:23):
the Falcons.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
And the other team that they beat, the Browns. They
they didn't have any win to boast about. They really
were the best of terrible teas got in eating out
of a garbage Oh yeah, I mean, you can survive,
and they did they somehow found a way to survive
just enough to get to the playoffs. But I've seen
some people throw it around and there's just no way.
(22:46):
Going back and doing some research on this, that season
is still the all time worst maybe division season in
history of all divisions, but especially in the NFC South.
Compared to this year, it's wild. This division is still
your drunk uncle, no doubt about it. It's been that
way really the last couple of years. But this season
still is much much better, as hard as it is
to believe, than what we saw in twenty four.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I mean, anytime you get in with the losing record,
people are going to feel that you aren't deserving and
you're going to have a reputation of people thinking you
aren't going to be able to win a playoff game.
Because they were talking about that question this morning. They
are saying, oh, it's the NFC South one going to
be won and done, and they were saying, hey, man,
the way things go, you cannot think that way. So
you know, but anytime you get in with a losing record,
(23:29):
that's going to have a dramatic effect on how people
view that season.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
It's hilarious how it doesn't compare despite this season not
being good. I mean, you know, Barstool Bigcat puts out
the NFL rankings every single week and they're quite funny.
And the category that the Panthers are in, they are
the only team in there except for Tampa also being
in this category. And the category is one of these
teams are legally mandated to be in the NFL playoffs.
(23:56):
One of these teams has to make the playoffs, like
that's how you have to They have to do it.
One of these teams has to get in. And it's
the Panthers who have quality wins. And we're doing the
back and forth win loss win loss thing. But even so,
it doesn't compare to what we saw and you got
to play. Yeah, it is crazy. They really did. It's
it's wild to believe. So okay, let's not have to
(24:18):
rely on Atlanta. Would like to not have to do
that because the Saints are playing good football right now.
So let's just say the Panthers. Let's say they beat Tampa.
What has to happen for Carolina to beat Tampa just
overall west, but even specifically offensively because defensively they had
some issues. But I don't think anybody's blaming the defense
more so.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I mean j C.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Horn had his moments, two bad moments, but the offense
fifty four passing yards not all that much success running
the football either. How does this offense adapt in order
to beat Tampa like they did the first time they played?
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Well? I mean, it's kind of like what they've done
a lot this year when they played complimentary football, when
they have been aggressive in how they approach things, and
when Bryce Young has been on one and then how
you know, the offensive line has been on one accord.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
As well, kind of like what you saw.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I guess the perfect blend for the Panthers will be
like how you played in the Rams game, where you
got equal contributions from the run in the pass game.
It sounds very simplistic, is not that in depth? Before
the Panthers this as clear as playing complimentary football, because
this past weekend they did not. The passing game was disjointed,
it wasn't there. This does need to be an all
(25:26):
hands on deck type of game, So somebody's got to
step up besides Ted Roy McMillan. I mean, hopefully he
will be one hundred percent or close to it by
game time. This week, But you've got to have somebody
else step up in that passing game. Cocher, we know
that he's been coming on, but he was non existent
in the last game as well, So you're going to
have to have and I'm going to count him as
a guy that I would expect to show up and
(25:47):
play and make plays when called upon. But who's going
to be that other weapon that's going to get it
done for them this week? Because that's what I think
it's going to take. This isn't a team that's going
to come out on a regular basis and be thrown for,
you know, two hund in seventy five, three hundred yards.
So you can't just say, oh, we know we're going
to get big contributions from the top two wideouts. It's
going to be for one can tell a rolla bounce
(26:08):
back and get on track. Then you know Jalen Kocher,
what is.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
He going to do? But you're gonna need to me
a third guy.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
And that's me given a lot of credit to those
two receivers to say that they're going to be guys
that you can count on this week to make plays,
but they need contributions from at least three of their
skill guys this week to me to get this victory.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I'm going to
make something out of nothing here. But a lot of
times people will discuss the use of play action and
just how potent it is against defenses. And I look
back at what Bryce Young has been doing in play
action so far this year, and what I'd come to
find is that there hasn't been a lot of play action,
and usually they're just allowing him to do the point
guard thing. They're allowing him to be in shotgun, and
(26:50):
they're still running shotgun a pretty decent amount. I think
it's like league average, maybe a little bit higher. But
Tampa Bay has struggled with that, and they struggled with motion,
and I struggled getting in to a lot of the
play action discourse. Same thing with motion, because it seems
like that's the easy button for everybody to press when
they say an offense is struggling, We'll just go ahead
and use play action in motion and then you got
everything fixed. And I fight that notion because it seems
(27:11):
a little too simple. But yet, Wes, I look at
some of the best offenses in the league, and they're
using it at a higher rate than everybody else. And
so while it seems simplistic, while it seems too much
like the easy button, they're all doing it.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
The offenses are doing it.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Because it's complimentary football, and they make a lot of
stuff look the same. And when you're able to be
effective running the football, and then you're going to be
able to have a high probability of making everything look
the same. That's the big thing. I mean, the forty
nine ers, the Rams. You look at a lot of
the top teams and that is what they do. Man,
They're gonna give you something in the first quarter, and
then they're gonna run something probably in the third quarter.
(27:49):
It looks just like what they ran in the first quarter,
but it's gonna be different, and they're gonna get your
guys more than likely bite on it to be able
to get a big play or something that's gonna keep
their drive going. So, yes, that's why you see that
consistency man, complimentary football.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
And I wonder if Dave Canalis doesn't like using play
action as much with Bryce Young specifically as his quarterback,
because of what we've talked about so often. When we
gave him so much praise last year. A lot of
it was, hey, you spread everything out, you let him
play point guard, you let him scan the field, allow
his processing, his superpower to be on full display, and
(28:24):
that's how you win. And that's how Bryce Young improved
so greatly when he came back into the starting lineup.
And so that makes sense to me. So okay, that's
been the thing that we've talked about wanting Dave Canalis
to do with his QB. Well, okay, now, also the
top offenses in the league, granted they have really good
players and it's not a perfect Hey, just do what
they're doing and then you're going to be successful. Now
(28:45):
they have different players, they have championship aspirations. Panthers now
have playoff aspirations. Tiny bit faulty. We don't need to
apologize for it. We can get in there. But usually
people will say you're a little fraudulent if you get
in with a losing record, which is still on the table.
But you know, I'm only going, you know, dipping the
toe in those waters of takes. But what happens here
(29:07):
is okay, rams, ton of motion, ton of play action,
same things with the Bears, right, So great coaches. Ben Johnson,
great play caller. What do they do. They're towards the
top of the league in play action and using motion
all over the place. I go back to twenty twenty
three when Dave Canalis was calling plays for the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers. They didn't use a ton of play action
there as much, but it was still a little closer.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
To the it was.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I guess it really wasn't all that much of a difference.
But the big thing here is that, man, they're just
not throwing the ball downfield as much this year, Like
just trying to find different ways that Carolina can get
back on track and comparing what Canalis is doing with
this team compared to what he did in twenty twenty three,
and to me, the big difference is throwing the ball
downfield West. I mean, you go back, whether it's non
(29:53):
play action or play action. Baker Mayfield has taken shots.
In fact, he was top ten in average depth of
target in both Bryce Young lowest average depth of target
of any QB in the league that has played fifty
percent of the snaps. Just to throw that qualifier out there,
just not throwing the ball downfield. So now this brings
up a couple questions to me. Okay, when we always
(30:16):
debate play caller versus QB, whose fault is it?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Does it?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I don't think it helps Bryce in the way that
Baker Mayfield was throwing the ball downfield. But also they
had two wide receivers that are ballers, and Mike Evans
and Chris Godwin who you could throw downfield to. And
here you have t Mac and like I guess what,
seventy percent of the time you had Jalen Coker. Yeah,
So how do we make sense of all of this
in your eyes? The differences in play calling in twenty
(30:42):
twenty two, what he's doing now with Bryce Young, the
differences in personnel, specifically in pass catchers that you had
with Tampa twenty twenty three. I should say, excuse me
to what we're seeing right now, and how do we
get the best version of both play caller and QB
against Tampa and going forward?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah, the thing I would like to see because when
you look at this Panthers offense, they are twenty seventh
in the league in yards per play. And so the
question I have, and I would like to get the
date on that, is how much Because I saw how
I think it was Honey Badger, one of those guys.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, it was Honey Badger.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
He was talking about how the league now runs so
much of fifty five coverage, which is man too, where
you have the two safeties deep in the year man
coverage across the board and you have your two safeties
playing those zones. And so he was saying that a
lot of people put that in because of you know,
the Josh Allens and the Patrick mahomes is to be
able to stop the big play. And so I'd like
(31:32):
to see the date on how often teams are doing
that to the Carolina Panthers, because for one, they feel
like that their front seven can take care of their
run game. And then also too, they feel like that
the Panthers aren't really going to be able to beat
you deep often, they're not going to attack deep, so
they can feel like that they can you know, keep
things in front of them. That's what Seattle basically did
to this offense. They said, well, we know you're not
(31:53):
gonna throw it deep, and we're gonna sit on a
lot of that shorter stuff, or if we do give
you the flats, we're gonna make tackles quickly and so
that rendered their offense ineffective. And the thing that blows
my mind is that, you know, in the NFL in
twenty twenty five is wide open as the league can
be at times, and we have seen the quarterback numbers regress,
but you would think, especially with a receiver like Ted
(32:14):
Roal McMillan or you draft all these receivers with size,
you would think you would try to at least go
down the field a couple times per game, if anything,
you could perhaps get some passing appeerences. So that's the
thing that kills me is that with the way that
these games are officiated, it's like, Okay, you know, you
probably can get at least one to two significant passing
appearance calls in a game if you try to throw
(32:35):
it deep. And so that's why I'm like, why, Also
is there a lack of the attempts on this type
of pass?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, I think a lot of it is not drawing
him up for sure, But also when he does draw
it up, I think Bryce Young just doesn't want to
turn the ball over so badly that he's not going
to take a lot of those risks even when he's
really accurate. This is where I just if Dave canalyis
is thin. If his mantra his philosophy is one take
(33:04):
care of the football. Two get the football out of
your hands before two point seven seconds. If those are
the two things, well that's a pretty careful offense. And
if Bryce Young has that beaten into his brain, don't
turn the ball over and get the football out of
your hands in less than two point seven seconds. Is
(33:28):
that the thing that lends itself to seeing such a
low average depth of target?
Speaker 2 (33:33):
To me, it does.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
It's pretty like that seems like a pretty simple explanation
for it. And that's how he's played in a lot
of these games. We haven't seen the Panthers passing offense
really take off. But again I go back to that
twenty twenty three season, and that's when we did see
Baker Mayfield really throw the ball downfield. I think that's
a couple of things. Better ride receivers, no doubt about it.
Mike Evans Hall of Famer, Chris Godwent very very good.
(33:55):
Only reason that he hasn't been good in some season
is that he's been so injured. And also Baker, he's
the gun slinger. Yeah, have we ever described Baker Bryce
Young excuse me as a gun slinger. In't think anybody's
ever described him as that. Yeah, and to be Frankie
kind of was that in college. And the thing that
I was going to bring up too, because one of
the Texters also put in a good stat but we
(34:16):
looked at last year, you know, we talked about the
big time throws. And that's why I am going to
put a decent.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Amount of this on coaching a little bit, because you look,
even this year, he's still top fifteen. He sits right
at fifteen in big time throw so he's capable of
doing it. And so that's the thing that's so perplexing
about this is when you see a guy that last year,
over that ten game stretch, he was top ten in
the league in big time throws and then now he's
still top fifteen. So it's like you have a quarterback
(34:42):
that's capable of completing these styles of passes, but it
feels like the coaching staff will not let them because
to the point of what maybe is Bryce turning it
down because he doesn't want to turn it over. I
think if he had the autonomy to be able to
do that, I think he would more often. That's what
I'm not sure about and I'm not saying you're wrong.
I'm just I'm not sure about it.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
I also saw this fusing no it is, and I
saw him The reason I go back to it. I
think the Dave Canalis problem is, Hey, I know Tea Mac.
He'll get out and muscled at the point of attack
every once in a while. I don't think that that
ability is just completely gone from him. In the NFL,
I thought that was one of the reasons you drafted.
So let's try it more, right, I think I put
(35:22):
that on coaching. I'd like to see some straight up
go balls from him now. If they're bracket coveraging and
then safety's constantly helping over, fair enough. I don't want
t Mac to be trying to battle for this football
with two different defenders. And if that's what's happening, then
fair enough, let's not throw that. But I also saw
Bryce turned down a lot of throws to Jalen Coker
early on when I just feel like he got a
trust Coker to come down with the fifty to fifty
(35:43):
ball or a contested catch. Throw it accurately. You can
do that. The numbers show that you can do it.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
The tape.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Forget the numbers, don't subscribe to any of the analytics sites.
Let's watch the game. The game says you can throw accurately.
Go ahead and let it loose, baby, because we trust you.
Do you trust yourself? And how much does Dave Canalis
trust you? And that seems like it has been the
thematic question surrounding this entire season.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Is it play calling? Is it Bryce Young?
Speaker 1 (36:10):
As to why this team is so rated, so low
ranked in terms of passing yards? And I mean, my god,
fifty four yards is terrible. And it's not all that crazy.
If there's a team that's gonna throw for that low
of a total, it's the Panthers. They're the team that
doesn't throw for very many yards. Let's move on. We
have plenty more Panthers thoughts, plus the Hornets. They played
(36:31):
last night. They also lost to the Bucks. How do
you feel like they've been performing the last couple of
months or last months specifically, because it's been pretty interesting
what we've seen over there at the Spectrum Center. We'll
get to that in just a moment. On Western Walker
Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ, I'm getting Western vibes
again at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
That's what makes it Italian. That's not bad right there,
And that's a contender. There's still a little more tempered
than I want.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
This is a contenders, I think with both of the
last songs. Yeah, yeah, you like the West is feeling
so for me, the last two songs have been like
me entering the mob boss's office and him staring right
at me, and I am a little I'm terrified. I
(37:21):
don't want I don't know if a little terrified can
go together. I'm terrified. I'm a little I'm a little scared. Yeah,
out real quick? What are you doing? Why am I here?
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
I picture a table full of guys and great food
on the table, Yeah, smoking the air. Yeah, I don't
wonder how men should do that?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (37:43):
That's how we should do it, how scary man should
do because it's a little scary. I mean, I'm just saying,
big hands, uncertain. Yeah, I need I need you to
be a little more predictable. That music screams unpredictable, and
I like unpredictable. That makes me scared. Seven four seven
zero ninety six to ten. Let's talk to Charloon hornets
real quickly. They lost to the Bucks last night, one
(38:05):
twenty three to one thirteen. We had another injury, just
keeps happening. We had an ankle injury with Miles Bridges.
He would leave and he would not return, and it
wasn't great basketball after that. In fact, it wasn't great
basketball offensively for sure in the second half for the Hornets.
Twenty three points in the third, twenty four points in
the fourth. Brandon Miller played well. He was shooting pretty
(38:26):
well from I'm king on people in Sultan, Yeah, not
well from the outside, but did go to the free
throw line and was ten of twelve from the charity stripe.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Five assists to one turnover. So it wasn't a great
field goal percentage. But Brandon Miller really did play well
last night. I thought Colin Sexton gave this team some
good runoff of the bench. If we take the macro
last month approach to this, and we see that the
Hornets overall have been playing better basketball. They've been winning
more games. If you look at their last ten, they're
(38:56):
five and five, all right, five hundred wes. It feels
like over the last month this has been the kind
of bad that I expected and was somewhat hoping for
because this kind of bad is an improvement from last
year's bad, and the bar is low, perhaps on the
ground with all of the injuries, with all of the
g leaguers that were playing real NBA minutes. But what
(39:18):
happens when you draft a hit in the first round
and hit is underselling it, You draft an unbelievable basketball
player that is on an historic pace in many different
ways at fourth overall, that's going to help you a
little bit. Second rounders that deserve NBA minutes right here,
right now, and Ryan Coalchbrenner and Sion James, Colin Sexton
been hurt, but a legitimate guard to come off of
(39:40):
the bench. T Jhon salon Man last month. We've simplified
what we've asked him to do, and it's paying dividends.
Hit shots, get out in transition, play some defense every
once in a while.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Will allow you to drive, even though it's an adventure.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
When he puts the ball on the deck, I get
a little bit when I see him put the ball
into deck.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
But he's been better at some drives.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Hornets, I think thumbs up Man from what we've seen
from them over the last I would say months, even
with some entries that they're still dealing with. I feel
a lot better about where this team is going because
of what we've seen.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Really the last thing I do too, there's been a
lot of positive signs. And then even got through the
LaMelo ball kind of trade deal and was that gonna
break down?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
We got through that, okay.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
As you said, the emergency t Johns Salon's showing development,
which I know we had talked earlier in the year
about underdogs, and he's always been my underdog pretty much
since they picked him. And I got to watch him
and just see how much passion he plays with and
all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
So yeah, I think there are a lot of positive signs.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Hopefully they can pick up some wins in these next
couple of games, because I think five hundred basketball, if
you can continue to play that way pretty much throughout
the rest of the season, then you feel okay about
how this thing could turn out. And you know it's
sad to say, but I think when Miles Bridges got
hurt yesterday, as I got all of the hornets that
could get hurt, that's probably the one that doesn't really
(41:01):
affect you the most. Like and I'm not talking about
on the court. I'm just saying as a fan of
all the guys that you know, come to the game
and you want to see play, and Miles brings great moments.
Don't let me get that twisted as far as on
the court. But you're still like, all right, it's Miles.
But if you still got to Nipple and Ball and
all those other guys, you're like, all right, you know, well, okay.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, well I think yeah. And basically what.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
You're doing is you're ranking the most valuable players on
the team, and you're saying, with the most valuable players
you have, I mean, I don't know who's I think
it's still Lamello something, Con got that fair enough? Those
two one, A, one B. And then it's Brandon, who
you'd least like to see. I don't want to see
any of them, Majared. Yeah, that's let me say that,
you don't want to see any of them. Valuable players,
the guys that mean the most of this team right here,
(41:41):
right now, it's LaMelo, it's Con, it's Brandon Miller, and
then it's Miles Bridges after that. And Miles Bridge is
in that role, is a good basketball player. The things
that have been a little twisted on him is when
he's asked to be the lead dog or shoot the
last shot and shoot the last shot, which is lead
dog stuff. When con has been the guy shooting the
(42:01):
last shot, it's gone well. Raptors game nailed three. When
Miles Bridges missed the dunk against Milwaukee on the road
at the beginning of the year and the ball ends
up in conk Nipple's lap, drain nol. Hey, that's you know,
and LaMelo has given us some good moments. Either way,
they've been playing better basketball. People are taking notice of
what the Hornets have been doing. Zach low finally isn't
(42:23):
tisking Bill Simmons anymore for having the Hornets so far
up the league pass rankings. He said, yeah, I was
wrong on that. Zach Lowe is saying, hey, they are
fun when those three guys are on the floor, con Brandon, LaMelo,
they are a lot of fun. So we'll see if
they can continue the good vibes and stop the injuries.
All right, just please please stop the injuries. Let's give
out some Hornets tickets. By the way, do we have
(42:44):
two to give out flound or do we have four?
It will be a pair. Yes, okay, we're going to
give out a pair of tickets to tomorrow's game New
Year's Eve. The good news is it's a mad na,
so it doesn't interfere with your New Year's Eve plans.
If you text in hoops, I'm not gonna spell it
for you. If you text in hoops to the FanDuel
text line seven oh four five seven oh ninety six
to ten, you will have a chance to win a
(43:05):
pair of Hornets tickets as they welcome the Golden State
Warriors to town. It's a big game and it's Mattinee
love Mattinee basketball. You get out still daylight, even when
the sun goes down as early as it does. Text
in hoops and you will have a chance to win
a pair of tickets to the Hornets game against the Warriors.
One o'clock tip should be noted one o'clock tip at
Spectrum Center. Text hoops two seven oh four, five seven
(43:29):
oh ninety six to ten, Campus Corner Huh balling or falling?
Coming up next on Western Walker Listen to the Wes
and Walker show Wee Tis from noon to three only
on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
UFNZ, the official home of the Charlotte Sports Fan
Only Sports Radio ninety two point seven a half m
a ufn Z five.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
He's the Wesson Walker Show. Even a crowd, no, let's
come in there.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I can't believe we sit here on December thirtieth, twelve
oh two in counting, and the Panthers have two doors
they can walk through. Not spread through because that would
imply some sort of aggression in getting a playoff spot,
but walk through. They have two doors open right now
for them to get to the postseason. If the Panthers
beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend, they're in, simple
(00:44):
as that. The other way they can get in is
if the Falcons beat the Saints this weekend, and what
you know it, the Falcons open up as a three
point favorite. There are two opportunities for the Panthers to
get to the postseason, which would mean if they don't, yep,
some heartbreak around here in the Queen said, I.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Mean, you got to be excited about that if you're
a Panthers fan, so you do have a little bit
of coverage if you should somehow falter. But at the
end of the day, I know they want to get
the win. They don't want to chance it to the
Atlanta Falcons a team that may hate you enough that
they may just lose just so you won't be able
to get Well.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
The thing, do they hate us more? I think they
probably do more than Tampa. Do they want us to
get in or do they want Tampa to get in?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
NFC South, I would I would have some really good rivalries.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I mean, I feel like all the teams hate each other,
and I would think that the whole eighty five rivalry
between the two. You'd probably hate Carolina more. But that
would be some kind of hate for them to just
go ahead and say, hey, we'll lose. But they are
incentivized a little bit if you care about draft position.
They don't have a first round pick though, so now
you're talking about a second round pick that you would get,
(01:47):
you're not really trying to tank anyway. The Falcons are
not incentivized to tank because they don't have a first
round pick.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
True.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Yeah, that's a good point. Go ahead and get the win, Falcons.
We're pulling for you. We're gonna be pulling for Atlanta now.
Lies in a couple of different ways. We have pulled
for other NFC South teams. We've pulled for the Saints,
and we have pulled for the Falcons a couple of times.
It's been a weird, wonky twenty twenty five Carolina Panthers season,
and we only have one more game to go at
(02:14):
least in the regular season. It's Wes and Walker on
a Tuesday, Do it to at Tuesday, People, Tuesday DTT
do it to at Tuesday. Wes and Walker Sports Radio
ninety two to seven WFNZ. We're broadcasting live from the
Chandler Vault to studios, CV Injury Law dot Com, CV
Injury Law dot Com.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
One call.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
That's all the Carolinas personal injury lawyers. We got a
lot to get to today. We got to have the
annual Steve Smith not in the Hall of Fame discussion,
which there's nothing that gets me more frustrated than Hall
of Fame voters.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I know you find up.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
I just what are you doing at baseball football? I
can't stand the Hall of Fame voters anyways. So I'm
going to tell you why I can't stand them. The Hornets.
They took the l last night. Giannis was back. There's
another ankle injury. No it's not to Lamellow. No, it's
not to con Miles Bridges left with an ankle injury,
so we have to get to that. The other thing
we have to get to before we start breaking down
(03:05):
this Panther's playoff picture. I need to ask you something,
flound Yeah, is your hair different today? Because you look good?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Thanks? Is it going?
Speaker 4 (03:16):
I'm going to the Torio game tonight, so I had
to fix my hair up.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Okay, So is this buttoned up flound Dog or you
just comb the hair straight back and embrace your Italian
roots a little more than usual. That's right, because you
look like Tony PAGs. You don't look like Anthony pag Nada,
you don't look like Flounder. You look like Tony PAGs.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Oh, thank you, that's I take that as a company.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I never thought about doing a slick back and then
just having a little hang going to like going just
full out Italian with the slick back, and then you
have you a little bit hanging in the back.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
I don't know about that. That kind of jiggy though.
Give me a full on track suit too, I'll be looking.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Bad. Guy.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Move here.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I'm about to say it. Do you have enough hair
to have the hang down of the back? Do you
have enough I could get there, he could.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Okay, that look you just conscribe flounder as I think
would be a great look for you to be frankly
track with the slick back, with the little hang a
little necklace going. I know this is full on stereotyping,
but I think that's a look that's going to attract
a few ladies.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Tony Pegs. Now it's kind of hard. All right, let's
go ahead and do this. Let's do extreme makeover flound edish.
Let's get Tony Pegs going. I say we get that
hair a little wet, slick it back, get some product
in it, because it looks good. Flound I'm not kidding.
You got the polo one. I could tell you probably
had something to do tonight. You can tell when the
(04:40):
producer's got something going.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Little Carolina tracks who going with? And then you already
got jays. You got the j game going to man,
Come on.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Now, stope ones on.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
That's right, Yeah, somebody, somebody give this man some jewelry. Please,
come on, Pops, Pop of PAGs needs to give you
some jewelry. Ugg and switch the name. Bought them to
Tony Pegs really bad.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
I tried on a pair of the shorts that they
got for me for Christmas.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
They don't fit the ladies.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
It's just a rough Christmas, rough Christmas man. I apologize
the ladies. Ask you what your name is? You say,
Tony Peg. Totally, Tony Pegs. We need to start embracing that,
I mean dating profile.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I think we might need a change there to Tony Pegs.
I think that's gonna boost that thing just a little
bit now for me.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
With my hair, I hate wet. Heead look, didn't stand it.
I don't like it. So what I use as a
powder because I want it dry. I want a little messy.
I hate gel, I hate all that. But with the
hairstyle that flown does bring it to the table. I'm sorry,
Tony Pegs is bringing to the table. It's slicked back,
it looks good, it's different than usual. I say, we
just get a little tiny bit of shine. I want
(05:51):
a little bit of the light reflecting off of the deal.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Point will look yes, yes, a little bit like the
way what talking right now? For like twenty twenty six,
we might need the sports world. According to Tony Pegs
segment once a Week where we get the old mob
music playing in the background, and you give you a
takes on what you think is going on for that
week or that day, or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Man, we need to put that scataboo say that we
might need that.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I mean, now twenty six baby little innovation, let's go.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I need that impression, putting it in my notes right
to look. Please write this down so we don't forget
about Tonya the alter ego that we will embrace in
twenty twenty six. And perhaps we ask this question before
we dive into the playoff picture a little more so.
One thing that we didn't do because holiday radio it's wild,
it's chaotic, it's disorganized, but we're still going to give
(06:47):
you a show. One thing we did not do that
Wes brought up just a little late. I would have
thought about it as well. Didn't do it, so it's
on me. Also, maybe you guys can help us out.
I'm outsourcing our preparation today on Wes and Walker. What
the best moments in twenty twenty five for wesn Walker.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
They will do a good job of doing that for us. Man,
because you know it's the end of the year. This
is my last show for the year.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Same, Well, Well, it's the last West Walker.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, I know what I'm saying, Last West and Walker
for the year? Man, do you guys watch the year
in show? I kind of jump on them a little bit.
I like, I do enjoy the music countdowns for the
end of the Yeah, I do too. I know I
like the year interview. So I'm outsourcing the work. Hey
call it lazy, that's fine. I find it more interesting
this way. Wessel Walker rapped. Yeah, yeah, you just read
(07:35):
my mind because I was going to ask and say,
you notice everybody's doing that now YouTube does it? There
are a lot of people doing it, but I didn't.
I need to get your music data too. We hadn't
talked about that. Oh it's so it's all out. The
number one artist was and all that.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can all right, so we can
work at walling. Wait, wait, that's it. You nailed it.
That's my guy. I know that was it for you.
When you said Wes and Walker rapped off the heels
of me asking the best moment it's on the show.
I was wondering, did we ever wrap on the show?
Is that something we did?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
And no, we did not.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You're just talking about did football grunts?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Earlier this year. That's one of the ball runts. Is
a good one. Yeah, help us out here. That's top five.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It's grunts people like yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, seven oh four,
five seven oh ninety six ten, fandul text line, let
us know the best moments of WESN. Walker in twenty
twenty five seven oh four to five, seven oh ninety
six ten. We have a lot of people writing in
a bunch of different questions. Again, we'll just sprinkle them
all throughout the show. The last show of twenty twenty five.
Let's hit it floundy. Let's pull up to the scene,
Let's open up the doors, Let's get off the bus.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We look good getting off the bus. I got Tony
tags you look good.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I love this idea for twenty twenty six, we're starting
off with the bank. Let's talk about the playoff picture.
Nick Carboni has done a great job of trying to
simplify it for all of us on Twitter. Go follow
them on Nick Carboni WCNC. The thing about it is,
it's really not all that complicated like it used to
be a couple of weeks ago. The Panthers have two
chances to get to the postseason. The simplest way to
(09:05):
get to the postseason is by beating Tampa Bay on
Saturday at four point thirty. You beat Tampa Bay, you're in.
You win the NFC South, no more questions asked. The
other way to get in the postseason, you might lose
to Tampa. There's still a way to find yourselves in
the playoff picture. Even if you lose to Tampa. If
Atlanta beats New Orleans, Carolina's in. So I like those
(09:29):
scenarios as much as I possibly could. For an eight
win football team at this point of the year. You win,
you're in. Atlanta wins, you're in. Tampa Bay has to
have more things break right for them, and well, yeah,
I guess it's kind of similar. I guess it's similar.
If the Saints win and they win, then Atlanta's and
(09:50):
then you have Tampa get in. But if Carolina wins,
or if Atlanta wins, then maybe we're going to be
talking about some playoff football. Nay, not only playoff football,
but a home player game. So it's pretty simple. After
a unexpected victory for Atlanta last night over the Red.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
It is confusing because I spent time last night trying
to figure out the scenarios that make it make sense
in my own head. But I was like, well, it
doesn't really matter for the Panther as much if you know,
these scenarios are two if Atlanta wins out and then
they end up losing. But how funny is it now
that the NFC South, the two teams on the bottom,
are the two hottest teams in the conference. Right now,
(10:27):
you got a hot Atlanta team one up against a
hot New Orleans team to figure out who could end
up helping who maybe in this division, man, so this
one should be a lot of fun. This weekend is
going to be a lot of fun. I did not
know the game was on Saturday. The San Francisco game
is on Saturday too, So I.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Was like, man, well, these are the big games, right
You're talking about both games mattering in a winner take
all scenario. And ESPN decided they wanted a little piece
of that, so they decided to put the Panthers and
the Buccaneers game at four point thirty. Again, different kick.
Now we're talking about a little bit of a shorter week,
but both teams are dealing with short weeks. It's really
no excuse whatsoever. We'll see if Carolina can take advantage
(11:05):
of it.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Now.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
What's also interesting is there have been people writing in
on the FanDuel text line New Orleans they're playing good ball,
that's undeniable.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
I think because of the way that each of these
teams have been playing each of the last couple of weeks.
I'd rather put my money on New Orleans. I'd rather
have my situation come down to New Orleans win. But
if Atlanta just beat the Rams last night, Bjhon Robinson
continues to look like the best running back in football.
It looked like Jonathan Taylor for the crest half. I mean,
(11:33):
he's unbelievable. What are you gonna do? My god? I
think the only reason that he didn't go off for
another long touchdown run was because he was gassed from
running all over the place in the previous attempts that
he had.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
And it was funny because you know, he's from Tucson.
And when I was out there, I asked the barber
because he was a big sports fan. He was an
Atlanta Falcons fan of all fans, and he was born
and raised in Tucson, And I said, did you go
check out?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
But John Robinson when he was in high school.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
He was like, I was like, how, Like in my mind, like,
there's no way a player of that caliber. But they
did give out the high School Player the Year award
is named for him because I saw a few people
coming in with B John Robinson jerseys on, and I
was like, that's got to be his family, because nobody
would come to this game with those jerseys on, and
(12:19):
they were there in place of him to give out
the high school player and the girls high School Player
of the award for flag football and then the boys
was tackle football.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Well, he's incredible.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
He could have all the awards named after him in
high school and he might have some awards named after
him if he continues this in the NFL, because he's
unbelievable and he was a huge. He was pretty much
the offensive reason that they won last night. It really
wasn't anybody else doing anything. Kirk Cousins wasn't impressive to me.
It wasn't Drake London didn't do anything that OpEd.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
My fantasy squad.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I know some people are asking, Drake London didn't do anything.
Kyle Pitts nothing after going on a tear the last
three weeks. It was all Bejohn and defensively they forced
some turnovers, but offensive it was all about that Atlanta
running back. So here we are in this scenario where
I feel like there was one person on Twitter that
brought this up before when anybody was really talking about it,
(13:10):
we had all kind of assumed the Rams would just
take care of business, and they did it on the road.
Rams really don't like traveling out ease.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
That's a thing you can't The NFL is just so weird, man,
you could never just full out.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I feel like a team has no shot at all.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
But I mean, it was just one of those games
last night in Atlanta's hot, and they're still playing hard
for their coach apparently, and you felt like the Rams
are gonna get it done. But yeah, you're right. This
is the team that is backing into the playoffs. And
so everybody that's talking about, oh, they're the best team
at football and then just gonna flip a switch when
they get into the playoffs, I don't know about that.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Got to rethink it. And they're gonna have to go
on a road. Yeah, we have to rethink that. And
I have been one that has been steadfast in my
belief in the Rams and I'm always gonna believe in
Sean McVay and that organization. At the same time, they
have not looked great each of the last hover many weeks,
really starting with that loss to carol They lose to Seattle,
they allow the Seahawks to come back, they lose to Atlanta.
(14:05):
They didn't look ready to play. So you have to
rethink this whole. They're clearly the best team in the NFL.
There's no clearly. I don't even know if it's true
anymore to just flat out say they're the best team
in the league. I'm retracting that statement as a long
time believer. We have a lot of assignments out for
everybody to complete right now. On the text line, we're
going to try to organize that give us those moments
so far, Yeah, we've got some great moments to relive
(14:27):
because if you the listener providing those moments, reminding us
of those moments. The other question that I have, yeah,
I have another assignment for you to complete. I apologize,
but it's going to be a fun one. Do you
think that this year in the NFC South is worse
than the twenty fourteen season when the Panthers found themselves
in the playoffs this by going seven eight and one,
seven oh four, five, seven oh ninety six to ten.
(14:47):
Let us know your answer to that question. On the
Fandel text line, more Wes and Walker coming up next.
We have a bunch of miscellaneous messages coming through on
the fan Duel text line. We're just gonna comm through them.
(15:10):
Last show of twenty twenty five, I want everybody to
be heard seven oh four or five, seven oh ninety
six to ten. So we're experimenting with a new segment
in twenty twenty six. Already it's gonna be Tony Paggs related,
not Anthony Pagnada, even though that is a still great name.
Tony PAGs is better flounder. No, that's gonna have to
move on. For the alter ego segment that we have,
(15:31):
I don't know. Is it just gonna be strong takes?
Is he gonna Is he gonna discuss his sports thoughts
like a mob boss?
Speaker 2 (15:39):
He could do it thatp Well, there's a few ways.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I was thinking more along the lines of, you know,
him having his old world music playing while he either
picks an individual, yeah, something like that. But I'm thinking
a little bit more slow and dramatic. That's a little
too happy. I want to I want God's find I
want Godfather with contemplating on who is gonna whack? No
doubt it has to be darker man. Yes, uh, then
(16:03):
we're talking. You know, either he can pick a topic
he wants to runt about or just kind of his
views on what's going on.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Maybe that week. I think I need an Italian impression
as well.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Okay, don't I don't know how well that's going to play,
especially if you do a if you rant for I
don't know, five minutes, it's gonna be tough for you
to keep that impression up and you can't half asset. Yeah,
you got to go full ass. If you're going to
do an Italian impression, that's right, that's me full ass.
So if you do that, I think we can pull
this thing off for five minutes. But we do have
to figure it out. It will require some experimenting, but
(16:38):
I think that we have something here. Yes, I don't
want to let it out of my grip. A lot
of people also writing it about that. Huntersville Robb says, Hey,
don't forget, he's gonna have to smoke a cigar or
at least two on one and also have a twenty
four K bracelet. I like that, but closer. I have
it in my mind because that is the Godfather thing.
But I still have I need a little bit. I
already have it pictured. You and I are on the
(16:59):
same path, like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I I like it.
Keep looking, keep look. I'm going to continue to search.
This one was much closer. The other one reminded me
of a big night out at Olive Garden.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
That's what that reminded me of.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
This reminded me more so of Godfather, but also it's
almost like a euphoric moment. It's almost like background. I
need to be shaking a tiny bit. I need to
be uncertain about what your next move is here. I
don't feel like I'm in danger. I like this nine
seventeen guy. He says he can pick a team on
athlete to whack each week. It's not bad. I kind
of like that one Sleeping with the Fishes segment. Some
(17:34):
people to whack. Who are we whacking this week? I
kind of like that.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Interesting. I want to put that in the notes.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well that's very different, all right, no need for phrasing.
You made that dirty. That's what you did, flounder. We
have people writing in walls it says, got to be
better than max Italian impression. I haven't heard it, but
I guess it's bad. Give me a second. Oh you
got you got some sound for us? I've pulled.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Look, if you make any sort of impression on the air,
it's getting pulled pretty much.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
That's it's fair. No, I've seen you in action there, and.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Of course now audition is freezing, so I'll be back
in a few moments.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Folks with your impression, you keep looking for scary mob
boss type beats. We also have people writing in the
best moments on Western Walker in twenty twenty five. We're scrolling,
We're scrolling, We're scrolling some more squirrel meet. Henderson says,
best of Wes and Walker was when Wes did not
know what a bull was on the farm.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
That was not this year. That was not that was
last year year.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yeah he just heard the promo. Yeah, that's just the
promo that we made. But that did not happen this year.
We did have somebody right, Yeah, Jack and diet Here's
what he wrote. And I forgot about this one. The
discussion that lives rent free in my brain is the sock.
This one's closest. You keep getting.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Closer, but I don't want to take something that's already
been used over and over again.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
But I do like that you keep climbing the ladder
closer to the pinnacle here. All right, let's go back
to Jack and Diet. He says, the discussion that lived
rent free in my brain is the sock sock shoe
shoe versus sock shoe, sock shoe to bake. That's right,
And I believe it's Walls. Let me know if I'm
correct about this, but I believe it's walls life that
(19:13):
I changed, who decided to go my way with sock
shoe sock shoe. And he says his life has never
been the same, and that's the way he does it now. Now, okay, again,
I can't fault people for thinking I'm a serial killer
because I used to believe that as well. I used
to go, yeah, it's sock sock, then shoeshoe. What are
you idiots doing? Except now I'm the idiot doing it
(19:33):
the other way and I haven't gone back.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
So you do sock shoe sock shoe? I do? Wow, Okay,
I don't try that. You should.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, I'm gonna try it, because again I don't want
to put the socks on the ground, and inevitably you
find yourself putting your sock on the ground when you're
putting on the other shoe. So why don't we just
go ahead and put sock shoe. So I put the
shoe on the ground, which is gonna be on the
ground all day long. Unless you've got the dogs, they
might take it well, especially if you have animals. If
you have animals, I don't want dog hair all over
(20:00):
my sock and then it just gets nasty and that's
how you get stains on your sock and then you
get down shoe. Yeah, and you could just say I
don't care about it, or you could have just avoided
all together by going sock shoe, sock shoe. This is
the way people, you're welcome. Kyle Fremaine said Flounder's dog
noise was top notch.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Do you remember it? Don't think I did a dog noise?
That are we talking about? This grunt?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
I believe that's fitty. Yeah, that's what I was going
to say. I'm talking. I'm talking twenty twenty five people. Now,
the football grunt was great. Smoke was in here, and
Smoke had close to the best football grunt. I sounded
like I was having a hard time in the bathroom,
That's what people said, And mine wasn't very good.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
No, and I have to admit that. All right, let's
talk more about some.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Of the NFL NFC South playoff picture scenarios that we
have in front of us, because the Panthers, again, they
have two doors open. Right, you beat Tampa, you're in,
or you lose to Tampa. It doesn't matter because Atlanta wins.
But if you beat Tampa, you're in. Atlanta win and
you're in, and it doesn't really matter what happens against
the Buccaneers. My question was, is this year in the
NFC South worse than what happened in twenty fourteen when
(21:09):
the Panthers won the division and they get to the
postseason at seven eight and one, just a disgusting record
to get into the NFL playoff picture. But I would
tell you I went back and researched that twenty fourteen season, Wes,
that's the worst season for any division. It has to
be in all of them. Yeah, it was so bad.
(21:30):
So what happened in the first ten eleven games of
twenty fourteen. In the NFC South, it was the Atlanta
Falcons through the first eleven games that were atop the
division at four and seven.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And then it was the Saints at second at four
and seven, and the Panthers were three seven and one,
the Buccaneers were two and nine. So eventually the Panthers
go on a four game winning streak to go to
seven eight and one and then eventually, of course get
to the playoffs. If you look at the wins that
the Panthers there's posted that year. All of the wins
(22:03):
were against bad competition. It's not like this year where
Carolina has the Rams, right, Yeah, there was none of
that to speak of with the Panthers in twenty fourteen,
and that four game winning streak. Really what Carolina did
was they beat up on the bad competition in the
NFC South. So they beat the Saints, the Bucks, and
(22:23):
the Falcons.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
And the other team that they beat, the Browns. They
they didn't have any win to boast about. They really
were the best of terrible teas got in eating out
of a garbage Oh yeah, I mean, you can survive,
and they did they somehow found a way to survive
just enough to get to the playoffs. But I've seen
some people throw it around and there's just no way.
(22:46):
Going back and doing some research on this, that season
is still the all time worst maybe division season in
history of all divisions, but especially in the NFC South.
Compared to this year, it's wild. This division is still
your drunk uncle, no doubt about it. It's been that
way really the last couple of years. But this season
still is much much better, as hard as it is
to believe, than what we saw in twenty four.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
I mean, anytime you get in with the losing record,
people are going to feel that you aren't deserving and
you're going to have a reputation of people thinking you
aren't going to be able to win a playoff game.
Because they were talking about that question this morning. They
are saying, oh, it's the NFC South one going to
be won and done, and they were saying, hey, man,
the way things go, you cannot think that way. So
you know, but anytime you get in with a losing record,
(23:29):
that's going to have a dramatic effect on how people
view that season.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
It's hilarious how it doesn't compare despite this season not
being good. I mean, you know, Barstool Bigcat puts out
the NFL rankings every single week and they're quite funny.
And the category that the Panthers are in, they are
the only team in there except for Tampa also being
in this category. And the category is one of these
teams are legally mandated to be in the NFL playoffs.
(23:56):
One of these teams has to make the playoffs, like
that's how you have to They have to do it.
One of these teams has to get in. And it's
the Panthers who have quality wins. And we're doing the
back and forth win loss win loss thing. But even so,
it doesn't compare to what we saw and you got
to play. Yeah, it is crazy. They really did. It's
it's wild to believe. So okay, let's not have to
(24:18):
rely on Atlanta. Would like to not have to do
that because the Saints are playing good football right now.
So let's just say the Panthers. Let's say they beat Tampa.
What has to happen for Carolina to beat Tampa just
overall west, but even specifically offensively because defensively they had
some issues. But I don't think anybody's blaming the defense
more so.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I mean j C.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Horn had his moments, two bad moments, but the offense
fifty four passing yards not all that much success running
the football either. How does this offense adapt in order
to beat Tampa like they did the first time they played?
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Well? I mean, it's kind of like what they've done
a lot this year when they played complimentary football, when
they have been aggressive in how they approach things, and
when Bryce Young has been on one and then how
you know, the offensive line has been on one accord.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
As well, kind of like what you saw.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I guess the perfect blend for the Panthers will be
like how you played in the Rams game, where you
got equal contributions from the run in the pass game.
It sounds very simplistic, is not that in depth? Before
the Panthers this as clear as playing complimentary football, because
this past weekend they did not. The passing game was disjointed,
it wasn't there. This does need to be an all
(25:26):
hands on deck type of game, So somebody's got to
step up besides Ted Roy McMillan. I mean, hopefully he
will be one hundred percent or close to it by
game time. This week, But you've got to have somebody
else step up in that passing game. Cocher, we know
that he's been coming on, but he was non existent
in the last game as well, So you're going to
have to have and I'm going to count him as
a guy that I would expect to show up and
(25:47):
play and make plays when called upon. But who's going
to be that other weapon that's going to get it
done for them this week? Because that's what I think
it's going to take. This isn't a team that's going
to come out on a regular basis and be thrown for,
you know, two hund in seventy five, three hundred yards.
So you can't just say, oh, we know we're going
to get big contributions from the top two wideouts. It's
going to be for one can tell a rolla bounce
(26:08):
back and get on track. Then you know Jalen Kocher,
what is.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
He going to do? But you're gonna need to me
a third guy.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
And that's me given a lot of credit to those
two receivers to say that they're going to be guys
that you can count on this week to make plays,
but they need contributions from at least three of their
skill guys this week to me to get this victory.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I'm going to
make something out of nothing here. But a lot of
times people will discuss the use of play action and
just how potent it is against defenses. And I look
back at what Bryce Young has been doing in play
action so far this year, and what I'd come to
find is that there hasn't been a lot of play action,
and usually they're just allowing him to do the point
guard thing. They're allowing him to be in shotgun, and
(26:50):
they're still running shotgun a pretty decent amount. I think
it's like league average, maybe a little bit higher. But
Tampa Bay has struggled with that, and they struggled with motion,
and I struggled getting in to a lot of the
play action discourse. Same thing with motion, because it seems
like that's the easy button for everybody to press when
they say an offense is struggling, We'll just go ahead
and use play action in motion and then you got
everything fixed. And I fight that notion because it seems
(27:11):
a little too simple. But yet, Wes, I look at
some of the best offenses in the league, and they're
using it at a higher rate than everybody else. And
so while it seems simplistic, while it seems too much
like the easy button, they're all doing it.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
The offenses are doing it.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Because it's complimentary football, and they make a lot of
stuff look the same. And when you're able to be
effective running the football, and then you're going to be
able to have a high probability of making everything look
the same. That's the big thing. I mean, the forty
nine ers, the Rams. You look at a lot of
the top teams and that is what they do. Man,
They're gonna give you something in the first quarter, and
then they're gonna run something probably in the third quarter.
(27:49):
It looks just like what they ran in the first quarter,
but it's gonna be different, and they're gonna get your
guys more than likely bite on it to be able
to get a big play or something that's gonna keep
their drive going. So, yes, that's why you see that
consistency man, complimentary football.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
And I wonder if Dave Canalis doesn't like using play
action as much with Bryce Young specifically as his quarterback,
because of what we've talked about so often. When we
gave him so much praise last year. A lot of
it was, hey, you spread everything out, you let him
play point guard, you let him scan the field, allow
his processing, his superpower to be on full display, and
(28:24):
that's how you win. And that's how Bryce Young improved
so greatly when he came back into the starting lineup.
And so that makes sense to me. So okay, that's
been the thing that we've talked about wanting Dave Canalis
to do with his QB. Well, okay, now, also the
top offenses in the league, granted they have really good
players and it's not a perfect Hey, just do what
they're doing and then you're going to be successful. Now
(28:45):
they have different players, they have championship aspirations. Panthers now
have playoff aspirations. Tiny bit faulty. We don't need to
apologize for it. We can get in there. But usually
people will say you're a little fraudulent if you get
in with a losing record, which is still on the table.
But you know, I'm only going, you know, dipping the
toe in those waters of takes. But what happens here
(29:07):
is okay, rams, ton of motion, ton of play action,
same things with the Bears, right, So great coaches. Ben Johnson,
great play caller. What do they do. They're towards the
top of the league in play action and using motion
all over the place. I go back to twenty twenty
three when Dave Canalis was calling plays for the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers. They didn't use a ton of play action
there as much, but it was still a little closer.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
To the it was.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
I guess it really wasn't all that much of a difference.
But the big thing here is that, man, they're just
not throwing the ball downfield as much this year, Like
just trying to find different ways that Carolina can get
back on track and comparing what Canalis is doing with
this team compared to what he did in twenty twenty three,
and to me, the big difference is throwing the ball
downfield West. I mean, you go back, whether it's non
(29:53):
play action or play action. Baker Mayfield has taken shots.
In fact, he was top ten in average depth of
target in both Bryce Young lowest average depth of target
of any QB in the league that has played fifty
percent of the snaps. Just to throw that qualifier out there,
just not throwing the ball downfield. So now this brings
up a couple questions to me. Okay, when we always
(30:16):
debate play caller versus QB, whose fault is it?
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Does it?
Speaker 1 (30:21):
I don't think it helps Bryce in the way that
Baker Mayfield was throwing the ball downfield. But also they
had two wide receivers that are ballers, and Mike Evans
and Chris Godwin who you could throw downfield to. And
here you have t Mac and like I guess what,
seventy percent of the time you had Jalen Coker. Yeah,
So how do we make sense of all of this
in your eyes? The differences in play calling in twenty
(30:42):
twenty two, what he's doing now with Bryce Young, the
differences in personnel, specifically in pass catchers that you had
with Tampa twenty twenty three. I should say, excuse me
to what we're seeing right now, and how do we
get the best version of both play caller and QB
against Tampa and going forward?
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah, the thing I would like to see because when
you look at this Panthers offense, they are twenty seventh
in the league in yards per play. And so the
question I have, and I would like to get the
date on that, is how much Because I saw how
I think it was Honey Badger, one of those guys.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, it was Honey Badger.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
He was talking about how the league now runs so
much of fifty five coverage, which is man too, where
you have the two safeties deep in the year man
coverage across the board and you have your two safeties
playing those zones. And so he was saying that a
lot of people put that in because of you know,
the Josh Allens and the Patrick mahomes is to be
able to stop the big play. And so I'd like
(31:32):
to see the date on how often teams are doing
that to the Carolina Panthers, because for one, they feel
like that their front seven can take care of their
run game. And then also too, they feel like that
the Panthers aren't really going to be able to beat
you deep often, they're not going to attack deep, so
they can feel like that they can you know, keep
things in front of them. That's what Seattle basically did
to this offense. They said, well, we know you're not
(31:53):
gonna throw it deep, and we're gonna sit on a
lot of that shorter stuff, or if we do give
you the flats, we're gonna make tackles quickly and so
that rendered their offense ineffective. And the thing that blows
my mind is that, you know, in the NFL in
twenty twenty five is wide open as the league can
be at times, and we have seen the quarterback numbers regress,
but you would think, especially with a receiver like Ted
(32:14):
Roal McMillan or you draft all these receivers with size,
you would think you would try to at least go
down the field a couple times per game, if anything,
you could perhaps get some passing appeerences. So that's the
thing that kills me is that with the way that
these games are officiated, it's like, Okay, you know, you
probably can get at least one to two significant passing
appearance calls in a game if you try to throw
(32:35):
it deep. And so that's why I'm like, why, Also
is there a lack of the attempts on this type
of pass?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, I think a lot of it is not drawing
him up for sure, But also when he does draw
it up, I think Bryce Young just doesn't want to
turn the ball over so badly that he's not going
to take a lot of those risks even when he's
really accurate. This is where I just if Dave canalyis
is thin. If his mantra his philosophy is one take
(33:04):
care of the football. Two get the football out of
your hands before two point seven seconds. If those are
the two things, well that's a pretty careful offense. And
if Bryce Young has that beaten into his brain, don't
turn the ball over and get the football out of
your hands in less than two point seven seconds. Is
(33:28):
that the thing that lends itself to seeing such a
low average depth of target?
Speaker 2 (33:33):
To me, it does.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
It's pretty like that seems like a pretty simple explanation
for it. And that's how he's played in a lot
of these games. We haven't seen the Panthers passing offense
really take off. But again I go back to that
twenty twenty three season, and that's when we did see
Baker Mayfield really throw the ball downfield. I think that's
a couple of things. Better ride receivers, no doubt about it.
Mike Evans Hall of Famer, Chris Godwent very very good.
(33:55):
Only reason that he hasn't been good in some season
is that he's been so injured. And also Baker, he's
the gun slinger. Yeah, have we ever described Baker Bryce
Young excuse me as a gun slinger. In't think anybody's
ever described him as that. Yeah, and to be Frankie
kind of was that in college. And the thing that
I was going to bring up too, because one of
the Texters also put in a good stat but we
(34:16):
looked at last year, you know, we talked about the
big time throws. And that's why I am going to
put a decent.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Amount of this on coaching a little bit, because you look,
even this year, he's still top fifteen. He sits right
at fifteen in big time throw so he's capable of
doing it. And so that's the thing that's so perplexing
about this is when you see a guy that last year,
over that ten game stretch, he was top ten in
the league in big time throws and then now he's
still top fifteen. So it's like you have a quarterback
(34:42):
that's capable of completing these styles of passes, but it
feels like the coaching staff will not let them because
to the point of what maybe is Bryce turning it
down because he doesn't want to turn it over. I
think if he had the autonomy to be able to
do that, I think he would more often. That's what
I'm not sure about and I'm not saying you're wrong.
I'm just I'm not sure about it.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
I also saw this fusing no it is, and I
saw him The reason I go back to it. I
think the Dave Canalis problem is, Hey, I know Tea Mac.
He'll get out and muscled at the point of attack
every once in a while. I don't think that that
ability is just completely gone from him. In the NFL,
I thought that was one of the reasons you drafted.
So let's try it more, right, I think I put
(35:22):
that on coaching. I'd like to see some straight up
go balls from him now. If they're bracket coveraging and
then safety's constantly helping over, fair enough. I don't want
t Mac to be trying to battle for this football
with two different defenders. And if that's what's happening, then
fair enough, let's not throw that. But I also saw
Bryce turned down a lot of throws to Jalen Coker
early on when I just feel like he got a
trust Coker to come down with the fifty to fifty
(35:43):
ball or a contested catch. Throw it accurately. You can
do that. The numbers show that you can do it.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
The tape.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Forget the numbers, don't subscribe to any of the analytics sites.
Let's watch the game. The game says you can throw accurately.
Go ahead and let it loose, baby, because we trust you.
Do you trust yourself? And how much does Dave Canalis
trust you? And that seems like it has been the
thematic question surrounding this entire season.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Is it play calling? Is it Bryce Young?
Speaker 1 (36:10):
As to why this team is so rated, so low
ranked in terms of passing yards? And I mean, my god,
fifty four yards is terrible. And it's not all that crazy.
If there's a team that's gonna throw for that low
of a total, it's the Panthers. They're the team that
doesn't throw for very many yards. Let's move on. We
have plenty more Panthers thoughts, plus the Hornets. They played
(36:31):
last night. They also lost to the Bucks. How do
you feel like they've been performing the last couple of
months or last months specifically, because it's been pretty interesting
what we've seen over there at the Spectrum Center. We'll
get to that in just a moment. On Western Walker
Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ, I'm getting Western vibes
again at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
That's what makes it Italian. That's not bad right there,
And that's a contender. There's still a little more tempered
than I want.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
This is a contenders, I think with both of the
last songs. Yeah, yeah, you like the West is feeling
so for me, the last two songs have been like
me entering the mob boss's office and him staring right
at me, and I am a little I'm terrified. I
(37:21):
don't want I don't know if a little terrified can
go together. I'm terrified. I'm a little I'm a little scared. Yeah,
out real quick? What are you doing? Why am I here?
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
I picture a table full of guys and great food
on the table, Yeah, smoking the air. Yeah, I don't
wonder how men should do that?
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (37:43):
That's how we should do it, how scary man should
do because it's a little scary. I mean, I'm just saying,
big hands, uncertain. Yeah, I need I need you to
be a little more predictable. That music screams unpredictable, and
I like unpredictable. That makes me scared. Seven four seven
zero ninety six to ten. Let's talk to Charloon hornets
real quickly. They lost to the Bucks last night, one
(38:05):
twenty three to one thirteen. We had another injury, just
keeps happening. We had an ankle injury with Miles Bridges.
He would leave and he would not return, and it
wasn't great basketball after that. In fact, it wasn't great
basketball offensively for sure in the second half for the Hornets.
Twenty three points in the third, twenty four points in
the fourth. Brandon Miller played well. He was shooting pretty
(38:26):
well from I'm king on people in Sultan, Yeah, not
well from the outside, but did go to the free
throw line and was ten of twelve from the charity stripe.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Five assists to one turnover. So it wasn't a great
field goal percentage. But Brandon Miller really did play well
last night. I thought Colin Sexton gave this team some
good runoff of the bench. If we take the macro
last month approach to this, and we see that the
Hornets overall have been playing better basketball. They've been winning
more games. If you look at their last ten, they're
(38:56):
five and five, all right, five hundred wes. It feels
like over the last month this has been the kind
of bad that I expected and was somewhat hoping for
because this kind of bad is an improvement from last
year's bad, and the bar is low, perhaps on the
ground with all of the injuries, with all of the
g leaguers that were playing real NBA minutes. But what
(39:18):
happens when you draft a hit in the first round
and hit is underselling it, You draft an unbelievable basketball
player that is on an historic pace in many different
ways at fourth overall, that's going to help you a
little bit. Second rounders that deserve NBA minutes right here,
right now, and Ryan Coalchbrenner and Sion James, Colin Sexton
been hurt, but a legitimate guard to come off of
(39:40):
the bench. T Jhon salon Man last month. We've simplified
what we've asked him to do, and it's paying dividends.
Hit shots, get out in transition, play some defense every
once in a while.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Will allow you to drive, even though it's an adventure.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
When he puts the ball on the deck, I get
a little bit when I see him put the ball
into deck.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
But he's been better at some drives.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Hornets, I think thumbs up Man from what we've seen
from them over the last I would say months, even
with some entries that they're still dealing with. I feel
a lot better about where this team is going because
of what we've seen.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Really the last thing I do too, there's been a
lot of positive signs. And then even got through the
LaMelo ball kind of trade deal and was that gonna
break down?
Speaker 2 (40:24):
We got through that, okay.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
As you said, the emergency t Johns Salon's showing development,
which I know we had talked earlier in the year
about underdogs, and he's always been my underdog pretty much
since they picked him. And I got to watch him
and just see how much passion he plays with and
all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
So yeah, I think there are a lot of positive signs.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Hopefully they can pick up some wins in these next
couple of games, because I think five hundred basketball, if
you can continue to play that way pretty much throughout
the rest of the season, then you feel okay about
how this thing could turn out. And you know it's
sad to say, but I think when Miles Bridges got
hurt yesterday, as I got all of the hornets that
could get hurt, that's probably the one that doesn't really
(41:01):
affect you the most. Like and I'm not talking about
on the court. I'm just saying as a fan of
all the guys that you know, come to the game
and you want to see play, and Miles brings great moments.
Don't let me get that twisted as far as on
the court. But you're still like, all right, it's Miles.
But if you still got to Nipple and Ball and
all those other guys, you're like, all right, you know, well, okay.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
Yeah, well I think yeah. And basically what.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
You're doing is you're ranking the most valuable players on
the team, and you're saying, with the most valuable players
you have, I mean, I don't know who's I think
it's still Lamello something, Con got that fair enough? Those
two one, A, one B. And then it's Brandon, who
you'd least like to see. I don't want to see
any of them, Majared. Yeah, that's let me say that,
you don't want to see any of them. Valuable players,
the guys that mean the most of this team right here,
(41:41):
right now, it's LaMelo, it's Con, it's Brandon Miller, and
then it's Miles Bridges after that. And Miles Bridge is
in that role, is a good basketball player. The things
that have been a little twisted on him is when
he's asked to be the lead dog or shoot the
last shot and shoot the last shot, which is lead
dog stuff. When con has been the guy shooting the
(42:01):
last shot, it's gone well. Raptors game nailed three. When
Miles Bridges missed the dunk against Milwaukee on the road
at the beginning of the year and the ball ends
up in conk Nipple's lap, drain nol. Hey, that's you know,
and LaMelo has given us some good moments. Either way,
they've been playing better basketball. People are taking notice of
what the Hornets have been doing. Zach low finally isn't
(42:23):
tisking Bill Simmons anymore for having the Hornets so far
up the league pass rankings. He said, yeah, I was
wrong on that. Zach Lowe is saying, hey, they are
fun when those three guys are on the floor, con Brandon, LaMelo,
they are a lot of fun. So we'll see if
they can continue the good vibes and stop the injuries.
All right, just please please stop the injuries. Let's give
out some Hornets tickets. By the way, do we have
(42:44):
two to give out flound or do we have four?
It will be a pair. Yes, okay, we're going to
give out a pair of tickets to tomorrow's game New
Year's Eve. The good news is it's a mad na,
so it doesn't interfere with your New Year's Eve plans.
If you text in hoops, I'm not gonna spell it
for you. If you text in hoops to the FanDuel
text line seven oh four five seven oh ninety six
to ten, you will have a chance to win a
(43:05):
pair of Hornets tickets as they welcome the Golden State
Warriors to town. It's a big game and it's Mattinee
love Mattinee basketball. You get out still daylight, even when
the sun goes down as early as it does. Text
in hoops and you will have a chance to win
a pair of tickets to the Hornets game against the Warriors.
One o'clock tip should be noted one o'clock tip at
Spectrum Center. Text hoops two seven oh four, five seven
(43:29):
oh ninety six to ten, Campus Corner Huh balling or falling?
Coming up next on Western Walker Listen to the Wes
and Walker show Wee Tis from noon to three only
on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
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