November 12, 2025 • 44 mins
In the second hour of the show, the guys give you Wes's ACC Power Rankings and Quarterback Rankings for this week, tell you what is different about the Falcons this time around and dive back into the ACC hoops from last night.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were listening to the West and Walker Show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We didn't start to show off with it like we
needed to, but we know you need it out there
in the city.
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Okay, it's West Cheese, sandwiches, uncrustables, whatever kind of sandwich
you got it, the sandwich with your sour cream and
shadow ruffles, you know what I'm saying. Wow, Yeah, that's
that's pretty good. I got a little descriptive right there.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And Walker, on account of three, we're gonna yell like
hell baby one two, three corns.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We're going drinking baby in the cabbage garden. Oh wow.
Sorry only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM
w FNC. Sorry, Oh my god, I'm sorry. I drank
too much. Monster. Let's go to the corner quickly.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Welcome back, folks, this is the West walk A Show,
Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ to b Exach. Welcome
to the one o'clock hour from the tail of about
the studio, Cvinjurylaw dot Com.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
That's Cvinjurylaw dot Com. One call.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
That's all Carolina's personal injury lawyers. A lot of teasers
and trailers for sequels dropping today. I just saw the
Devilwaar's product too, And then we talked earlier Toy Story five.
That teaser just dropped as well. So there's a lot
of sequels going around, right, Devilware's product too.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I have to imagine if anybody has a significant other
out there, you're probably gonna go to the theaters and
watch Devilware's product too. That's that's it what you get.
And had the classic you know, Oh, I think I've
seen the movie. It's a five. I mean, I'm not.
There are worst movies to go see. It's there are
worst movies to see. Toy Story five. Now, there's not
many better movies to see than some of the movies
(01:52):
in the Toy Story franchise? Are you Quentin Tarantino in
the way that you don't want to watch anymore? After
the trilogy was complete? That's what he had to say
that it thought. He thought it was such a great trilogy,
it had the perfect ending, and he didn't watch Toy
Story four no matter how good it was, And let
me just go ahead and give you a spoiler. It
was excellent. Yeah, I am not that I will watch
Toy Story five. What say you?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's too hard not to not to watch, because especially
if they're really good. If the trilogy's great, then you're
gonna feel like that they aren't gonna fail. You're like, man,
the first three was so good, how can the fourth
one be bad? So you're gonna check it out.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I understand what Tarantino was talking about, that the trilogy
is so great. I do want there to be an ending,
and then they just decide because they want money, that
they're going to drum it up again for toy Story four.
But as long as you do a great job with it,
I can't get too mad at it. And four key
four Ky one of the best Pixar characters of all time.
I'm trash. Oh, I'm surprised that Jeff has not been
(02:47):
played everywhere on sports radio before. Anyways, shout out to toyste.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
All right, something that has been a sequel for weeks
and weeks and weeks now, there's no ending to this thing.
Okay until the end of football season. Let's get to it.
It's time for the campus coda see power Hour. Let's
get it. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
All right. We're gonna start you out.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
We're gonna go three by three, and then we'll figure
it out towards the end.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
How we want to giv you this thing up.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But the bottom three Boston College still holding it down
at seventeen, Syracuse at sixteen, they got stuff going to
coaches talking crazy. It's just too much going on in
Syracuse right now and a lot of losing.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And then Virginia what did the coach say, Yeah, yeah, okay,
I want to keep on job. They're going here, let's
do that all right?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Then Virginia Tech at number fifteen. So that's your bottom three,
Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Boston College.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, I mean, I don't have any problems with it.
What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Virginia Tech's probably I mean, Boston College is pretty feisty too,
but Virginia Tech I would maybe say that the feistiest
of the bunch.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
But I guess one question in a way that we
would discuss this with Miami being so bad without Tua
because of a lack of preparation in backup quarterback and
just your offense being so dependent on one guy. I mean,
I get it, it's hard to get one good quarterback
in college littlone two. Should syracusepy this awful without their starting?
You win things? So?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So I it's say in college football with the spacing
and you know how teams can score. I mean, it
feels like even an average team can get you twenty
four points in today's college I mean it is atrocious
like that.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
That's the worst. Talk about a passing attack. That's bad.
That's the worst passing attack without angelal question about it. All.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Right After that, we go Stamford at fourteen. Again, just
another feisty bunch. They tried to fight North Carolina, but
just not enough going on there. Then we've got Florida
State at number thirteen. They take the loss to Clemson
and they get beat handily after handily handling my Demon Deacons.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
There you go, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Then at number twelve and continuing to rise, the North
Carolina tar Heels. They're playing pretty good football. I wanted
to put them a little bit higher, but I didn't
want to jump the gun. I know, we talked about
that a little bit this week, so I didn't want
to jump the gun. But they are playing pretty good
ball when you talk defensively, they're as hot as anybody
right now. So we've got Stamford, Florida State UNC at fourteen, thirteen,
(05:05):
and twelve.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, the conversation about UNC. I think if there was
something you were holding on hope to at the beginning
of the season, it was the fact that Bill Belichick
is smarter than you when it comes to x's and o's.
I have real concerns about his talent evaluation. Those problems
propped up or they popped up in the NFL, the
hirings and the firings like, there are some real issues
(05:26):
that I'm not sure Bill Belichick has figured out. But
one thing that you can't deny is he smarter than
you when coming up with the defensive game plan. So
even with talent that I don't find to be as adequate,
And maybe that's changing too. Some of the intrushers. I
know you've talked about those guys. They should be highlighted.
That's starting to rear its head as the season goes on,
and that's something I'm willing to buy into. That the
(05:48):
guys are picking up the game plan and the tutelage
coming from Bill Belichick. That's something that I can buy into.
Are they great? No, Are they going to beat the
better teams down the stretch? I don't think so. But
are they better because of that thing that we thought
was gonna bear out at some point that I can
buy into. All right.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Next up at number eleven, we've got the Clemson Tigers
and it just kind of end that gray area there
where they're not very good, but they're not as bad
as the.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Teams under them, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I mean Clemson, they've got the talent, but they just
kind of play up and down to the talent all
season and it's resulted in a lot of losses. Number ten,
NC State they were off this past week. We'll see
what they offer coming back to the thick of things
after they beat Georgia Tech and had a huge victory,
so we'll see if that ignites their season. And then
(06:37):
the Duke turnover, I mean Blue Devils, the Duke Blue
Devils are at number nine. This is a team that, yes,
they've got a lot to like Cooper bar Kate leading
the acc and receiving yards, Darren Minca throwing it all
over the yard.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And we'll see where he lands.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And this week's quarterback power Rink is because we do
value winning there as well. So that's your next three,
number eleven, Clemson, number ten, INC State eight, number nine.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, this is an interesting group. Some of the teams that, yeah,
you could highlight all of them, I would say I
have Duke needs to fall down. I mean, I respect
the talent, but if they're just gonna turn it over
during winning time, then you can't trust this team as
a whole. The defense is pretty bad. That's surprising, yes
from Amanny Diaz coach grew allent. What's going on with
(07:22):
Duke's defense? They're terrible. I have no problem with them
being nine. If you wanted to put I don't know,
State's probably in the right spot. I think you did
a nice job here. I think Clemson is the team
that I can't help but go to as like the
best of the bad slash slightly mediocre squads. But they
still need to show us some more things, all.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Right, Next up the next I'll go four here. So
number eight the cow God Golden Bears one of the
more perplexing teams that you have, because they can play
good enough to beat Louisville, but then they can have
games where they you know, turning it over and they
lose to Virginia Tech. So you don't know what you're
gonna get from this bunch.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Every week. I hate watch that team. I don't enjoy.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Number seven and climbing the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. I
would love if their offense was better, I would have
them a little bit higher than seven, but their defense
has carried them to their last two victories, and that
Florida State blowout is just hard to ignore. Number six,
I've got the Louisville Cardinals sitting there after they lose
two col second loss of the season for them. And
(08:25):
then at number five, I've also got two lost Miami
who may have the most talent, but it hasn't shown
up for them, and they are falling in the critical
junctures of the season, like they've done with plenty of
other teams.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yet Louisville falling to number six. I don't know where
they were last week, but they certainly weren't at three. Yeah,
I can't help but feel the best about this team
where they were five, even with some of the other
squads that would be ahead of them. Like I like
Louisville more than I like SMU, But Louisville is behind
SMU at four and two. With SMU the must things
(09:00):
being five and one? Who do I trust more? For
some reason, I can't help but go back to the
Cardinals their losses have been close. I do think Jeff
Brohm is a fantastic coach, but I also can't argue
with the fact that they lose to Cal a team
I just said, I hated watching so Louisville being here
at six.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Louivo was two, Big Joe number two. Yeah, that is
a big job for them, all right. The final four.
I'm not talking March madness, but I've got SMU at four.
Virginia who and I initially made this, I had them
at seven because I wasn't sure about their quarterback situation,
but I looked it up and they could have Channel
(09:36):
Morris this week against Duke. I don't feel super confident,
but I had to respect the record. I had to
respect some of the quality wins on their resume, and
so for now I'll keep them at three.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
But I did have them at seven.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Then I've got Pitt sitting there in the number two
spot right now. Disruptive defense. They do give up some points,
but they are a disruptive group. When you talk sacks,
tackles for loss, Mason heinschrew, throwing it all over the park.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
He did.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I have a couple of picks the last time we
saw him. But this offense is explosive as well. And
at number one Georgia Tech Yellowjackets, they're getting it done,
only one loss on the season. How will they respond
as well? Can they run the table for the rest
of the season and hold it down for the ACC?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I feel icky looking at this top three it is hey,
this is not trash? Yeah for ky, I love Forky.
I feel like Georgia Tech. I feel like Uva Pitt.
I feel like they're all four ky here at the
top of the conference. Does this feel like a top
four that you want to go into battle with with
the other power for conferences Wes.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, no, especially when you talk about the top of
the top, the Big ten and the secs of the world,
because you feel like, man, you know, let's just say,
especially if Georgia Tech gets smashed by Georgia then you
really feel bad about it because you're like, which one
of these teams do you feel like? And I think
the tail of the tape is with the way things
are looking, do you feel like that there's a they
(11:00):
can go on the road in the first round into
playoffs and win a game and you don't feel that way?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
You know, Clemson had to go on the road.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
They showed well last year against Texas, SMU absolutely got smashed,
and I think we're kind of in that SMU deer
in a headlight's territory for any of these teams that
win the league.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Haynes King is a great college football player at a
university right now that's five and one of the conference.
They're eight and one overall. I should feel a lot
better about that squad representing the ACC and yet I
just can't help it. I don't. I think it's because
of their lack of signature wins that they have, and
then we have some of the other reasons as to
why Miami is falling down. Louisville losing the CAL, I mean,
(11:43):
that's such a tough loss. That's the team I feel
like I would trust the most, but I can't because
you keep losing these games and you lost to Cal.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Specifically, Georgia Tech might be one that you could trust,
just because of Brent Key's ability to win games against
top twenty five opponents. He seems to get his team
up for those types of games. That would be the
only reason I would say you could believe in them, though,
because this team lost to NC State. That's all you
need to know when it comes to trusting them, and.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Even the State loss. Again, I've said this a couple
of times. When you have I think a special talent
at quarterback that still needs to put a lot of
it together with CJ. Bailey, but they have the ability
to randomize the game with just how explosive they can
be with some of the talent they have. I love
the tight end Joe Lee. We've talked about him, so
they can sneak up on you. But even so, Man
Georgia Tech doesn't get sneaked up on right. They are
(12:33):
the team that doesn't seem to fall for some of
those trap games as much as a Miami does, which
happens every single year, and yet it happened to him anyway.
Hard to trust any of these squads.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
All right, when we come back, we're going to get
into the quarterback power rankings. On the other side, this
is Wes and Walker. Welcome back, folks. This is the
West and Walker Show from the channel about the studio
Sports Rady on ninety two seven WFNZ. Reminding you to
(13:06):
follow us on social media WFNZ on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
You can also follow us at HTB, Anthony at Westbron
unders score seventy two at Walker Mail and most important
at West and Walker. Bigcat Dan says on the FANDOL
text line, crazy thing as pitt will probably take Georgia
Tech out right before the finish line. Pat Nardoozi does upsets, well, yes,
(13:26):
we do remember Kenny Pickett and Miami. And that's the
thing about this too, is that we're not done here,
like this is not the AZC has been so off
the chain that we are not done here yet. We're
gonna have some more shocking upsets. There's no telling who's
gonna be in Charlotte at this point.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
If there's one thing the nar Dog's gonna do, Nar
Dog's gonna bite. Yeah, and there's plenty of times for
nar Dog to bite once again. I can't tell you.
It's it's almost a realization, just more so this year,
even though I've teetered on this take before, but I
do feel like Patnaroozy is immortal. I don't think you
can kill him. I think he's always going to stay
(14:06):
at Pittsburgh and he's always going to pull off just
enough upsets to every once in a mon eight nine
games get to the AVERC championship and give us that personality.
I love Patnardoozy. I think he's hilarious and he's good
for college football, except for when he comes in and
beat some of these teams at the top of the
conference and then ruins the ACC's perception.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
All right, So let's get to it. Quarterback Power rankings.
We're going to go there now. We'll start at the bottom.
There's been a little bit of moving and a shift
thing going on right now because I do value wins
on top of statistics as well. But we'll start out
at number five. CJ.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Bailey twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
He's got four to three hundred plus yard passing games
and for the season, he's got twenty four hundred and
thirteen passing yards with twenty three touchdowns that he is
responsible for. At number four, welcome mal. I know the
statement that you made last week. You said you feel
like that the top two is pretty much locked in.
Oh wow, But it is not because of the losses
(15:07):
and the fact that he played at integral part in
this one two picks critical fumble. Darien Menza, come on
down here to the bottom of man number four.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
He had two hundred and twenty two yards.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
He did have three touchdowns, two picks, the aforementioned fumble,
and in twenty twenty five he's got nine games with
two plus passing touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
That ties a Duke record.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Number three, Moving up just a little bit, Mason Heinschel
from pitt for the season. In five starts, he's got
fifteen hundred and forty seven passing yards to go with
twelve touchdowns, he's got three hundred plus passing yards and
four of his last five games, so you're talking about
a guy putting up big time numbers at number two
and moving up, he got his team in position to
(15:51):
potentially get back where they were before. Kevin Jennings versus
Boston College three hundred and twenty six yards to touch
and in his last two games he's got back to
back three hundred plus yard passing games. That's the first
time that that has happened in this young man's career.
And in number one, he had the week off. Talking
(16:14):
about Haines King two six hundred and forty two total yards.
He's got twenty three touchdowns he's responsible for, and he's
also responsible for seventeen and a half points per game.
That is six and All College Football who was number three.
Number three was Mason Heinschaal mains pit Mason Heinschel. Yeah,
a dog, it's his guy, of course. Yep, it's been
(16:35):
a while.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
West. I don't think we got I don't think we
got a surprise ranking all year long that change.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Okay, I like that because it was the same guy's
different order it.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Was so I appreciate that. I think Darien Menso should
be top two. Still. Well, I mean, I know he's
got taken als.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I know, I know he's got bad losses, and you know,
he's got some bad turnovers.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
He's got bad turnovers. He still has five less interceptions
than Kevin Jennings. He has five less interceptions than Jks,
three less than CJ. Bailey. It had been a while
since he thrown interceptions. He's throwing downfield, he's completing passes
at a high rate, had a seventy percent efficient. He's
really efficient. And it's the defense that is absolutely atrocious.
(17:19):
And they do not subscribe to the theory of complimentary football.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, but you know, also, I had this debate earlier
in the week with the coworker from the ACC Digital Network.
I am a quarterback win lost that guy and we
had a big debate about that. He's like, I don't
think that should be a quarterback stat and I said, yeah,
I think it should be. And so yes, even though
he's put up some guarding numbers and he's done some things,
(17:42):
but also even though the defense is giving up a
lot of points, he's also had empty drives where the
offense could have come through and saved the day.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Hasn't done that.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And again, like I said, you know, just bad turnovers
in that last game, and he's had other games where
he's had some critical turnovers as well. So you know,
I value into this equation too, and so that's one
of the reasons that he took a tumble.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
All right there, You're gonna have to ask your defense
to help you because you can do everything you can.
The two interceptions are bad, yeah, and the fumble at
the end of the game that cost them on the
game winning drive. Now, I just see so many zeros
before four or five games without an I int his
defense not helping him and he and.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Again too, I look at empty drives as well in
critical junctures too. But yeah, to your point, dolt Walker,
when you talk talent wise, numbers wise and what he's
been doing. Yeah, he's right up there. There's no question
about him.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Last thing some people have asked about Mensa as an
NFL draft prospect, I honestly don't know, like I he
All I know is the dude throws downfield with incredible accuracy.
He's done it at two different levels. Now. I don't
know what NFL draft scouts are saying about him, but
he is pretty damn good here at Duke is like
(18:55):
a size thing. I don't know, Like, is there something
I'm missing with Menso what do you think he'll up?
That's that's interesting draft. The scouts due like they might
have somebody that has all the tools. There might be
some Josh Allen type prospect in Minto.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Mean, he's six three, two oh five, so he's got
that box check though.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's not bad.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I think that when you look at Menta, I think
after the season that he's had, I would imagine that
he's probably gonna be pretty high up when you talk
next year when we start talking big prospects, I think
he will probably be a projected first rounder. I would
I would say, so, I mean, what's there not to like?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
He doesn't necessarily have that Hawlitzer of an arm, but
he's got good enough arm strength, very accurate. So yeah,
I don't see any reason why Darien Menza couldn't be
a first or second round play.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
The type of size does he bring sixty three six
six three five, that should be good.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I'm good with that, And I mean he'll probably put
on waiting off season come back next year two fifteen
to twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You never know again with what NFL teams like, is
there something that I just am not seeing? But in
terms of what I watch every time Duke Place and
all the highlights that he has, I think he has
more NFL caliber accuracy downfield than you see from a
lot of these other guys that deservedly deserve to be
up towards the top of the acc But I mean
Kevin Jennings or Darien Mensa. I'm taking Mensa, Haines King
(20:16):
or Darien Mensa. I'm taking Mensa in terms of an
NFL pro style offense, what I would want to run,
how I'm how accurate my QB is like.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
From a pure talent standpoint, I do love Mensa, But
that is an intriguing argument you bring to the table.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
When you talk about him and Kevin Jennings, I like.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I was gonna say, Haines King, there ain't no way
in hell man, I mean he Gosh Dudel basically is
he t bow lights.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Tebow light very much. So that's the thing that worries
about him. In the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I mean, you're going to go to I don't know,
somewhere cold with a big, nasty defensive line and he
about to be running that thing twenty times and throwing
it all over the yall. I mean Johnny Man's did,
and he wasn't a big quarterback either, but I mean
text A and them didn't go to the playoffs. It
wasn't around then when he was there, so we wouldn't
have gotten a chance to see that. But Hans King,
(21:09):
he's a lot more, you know, measured with his play
than Johnny Manzell.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
But that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I'm like, how long can he keep physically taking this pound?
And so there is your quarterback power rankings for the week,
your conference power rankings. You can etch your boy at
West Brown Underscore seventy two if you got a problem,
or hit me up on the FanDuel text line seven
oh four or five seven oh ninety sixty.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Have you put your rankings out on social media yet? No? Yeah,
the Power rankings are out. How many angry commenters have
you had on this?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I can't wait. It just drops. I'm going to see
very soon what people are saying. But I love it
because when I look and see my notifications and it's over,
really over five, but then when it starts hitting fifteen
twenty stuff like that, and I like to see how
the people are arguing inside of the thread because they're
arguing with each other.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Who's this West Pride guy?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, and that they're arguing with each other, because then
you get the people who will say stuff like that.
But then you'll have like because when I kept Miami
at number one, then you have people that'll be backing
me up and not necessarily me individually, but they'd be like,
well they should be there because of da da da
da da da da dah.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So look, that's the thing that's fun. Rankings are not
meant to be lauded, that's right. They are meant to
be criticized. Every time you post something like it, all
you can do is bring out the angry people, and
that's what you do now.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
They're angry birds, all right, talking about Panthers Falcons and
what could change from this game or as far as
from the last time these two saw each other to
this time. When you look at some of the key
highlights from what happened during their first matchup. Obviously Carolina
wins that thirty to zip, but Cuba Hubbard was just
starting running back then. He had seventy three yards on
(22:42):
the ground and he and Cuba, he and Rico Daldo
combined for one hundred and thirteen yards to the row.
I had forty eight yards receiving. The Panthers only had
one hundred and twenty one yards passing. But Rights Young
was very good against the blitz and that's going to
come into play when we talk about this coming game,
because that Atlanta passed rushes hot. They had a sixty
three percent blitz rate against the Panthers, and Bryce was
(23:04):
able to get the ball out in under twenty a
half seconds.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
He was nine and fourteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Two yards versus the blitz in that game and the
Panthers they held the Falcons to one hundred and thirty
two rush yards two hundred and one passing yards But
the thing that you look at is, but John Robinson
only had thirteen carries because the game script kind of
dictated that they had to get out of that. So
if we just look and we don't go into any
numbers or statistics, if we just want to shoot from
(23:30):
the cuff right here and say, what do we think
will be different with Atlanta this time around?
Speaker 1 (23:36):
What would you point to? Well? I don't think Michael
Pennix is going to play as bad against Carolina as
he did the first time, because I think our defense
played well. But also Pennix was helping us out quite
a bit, throwing up ducks for Mike Jenden the ball
forever Smith Wade being able to jump that route after
staring at his guy for a while and then eventually
(23:57):
pulling the trigger, smith Wade taking it to the crib.
I don't know if he's going to be that bad.
So what's gonna be different? Look, Pennis had been good,
right I think Atlanta fans are a little scared about
what they have in their quarterback right now, But he
hadn't been as bad as he was against Carolina. So
better quarterback play automatically is going to allow the Falcons
to score more than zero like the time that they
(24:18):
played the Panthers the first time.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, and the thing I can't wait to see is
for one against the Panthers, what was the biggest thing
that he was doing was holding the football and taking
too long to make decisions. Well, against the Coats, even
though they showed well, he recorded an average time of
three point three six seconds to throw the ball. That's
his first career game recording an average time to throw
over three seconds. So he can't be holding the ball
(24:41):
that long. Yeah, you gotta make him pay for that
if you're the Carolina Panthers, and that could result maybe
in some mistakes. But I do expect him to play
a little better. But the biggest thing for me is
I expect them to feed bea John the ball. I
would imagine if they win the coin toss, they may
want to take the football to start this game. But
I mean, this guy, he's having career year thus far
(25:01):
in his young career. But fifteen runs of ten plus
yards five hundred and sixty seven yards after contact, and
he's also Atlanta's second leading receiver. He's got forty three
catches for four hundred and sixty seven yards.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And two touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
So I think if you're an Atlanta team and you
look at, man, what can we do better in this
game and we didn't do the first time, I think
you would have to get but John Robinson at least
twenty touches in this one. That's just for starters, maybe
even more if you want to win this game. So
when I look at it and I say, well, how
would they attack the Panthers offensively? Yeah, man, I just
(25:35):
said it as far as Bajohn, But if I wanted
to go to something else, I mean Michael Pennix and
Drake London have the second most yards for a quarterback
wide receiver duo since Week sixteen of twenty twenty four. Man,
So he was another guy that didn't have a ton
of impact on the first matchup. But I think that
that's gonna be fun to see who the Panthers match
up with Drake London, if they even try to do that,
(25:57):
or they just let him whatever side he goes, who
they just let Mike Jack or j C.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Horn guard him.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
But I think they're going to be looking for that
as well, because they're going to see what Tyler Shuck
was able to do. But I think it's going to
start for them with the run.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
That's what's going to happen, though, Like Atlanta's gonna be
able to dictate where they want to put Drake London,
and it wasn't happening nearly as much earlier in the
season for Atlanta. But Zack Robinson wasn't putting Drake London
in the slot to free him up, and he was
pretty quiet the first three weeks of the season. You
look at him, he had a twenty three point three
slot percentage the first week, it went up to forty two,
(26:32):
the second week below twenty against Carolina Boom. Now we're
right back up at fifty. And this is something they
had been doing in the first year with Zach Robinson,
what Drake was doing a lot last year. And man,
you're talking about fifty five yards. Forty nine to fifty five.
Those are the first three weeks of the season. He
hasn't had anything less than one hundred yards except for
once since then. Drake London is scary. He's an awesome
(26:55):
wide receiver. Pennix is zeroing in on him. What's interesting
is that you men some of the lack of weapons
around him in the passing game. Kyle Pitts, you know,
I have to give up on him. I've given up
on him for a whe No, I'm a big fan
of Darnell Mooney. I like him a lot more. But
the thing he has, right, that's the thing I don't mind.
I like him. I think he's a really useful, slash
(27:15):
good wide receiver. A lot of drops from Mooney, if
I'm not mistaken, I need to pull up the drop
numbers on him. But you just mentioned it, But Jean
Robinson is the second leading receiver on this team. I
don't know if that should be the case if you
have Kyle Pitts and Darnell Mooney to supplement Drake London.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I think that you know when you look at but John,
he's such a special talent. So you're like, all right,
I can understand you wanting to get him the ball
in multiple ways. It's kind of like the uh, you know,
the Kristan McCaffrey effect, where they just run him into
the ground throwing and catching the ball. He does have
five drops on the season, does Darnell Mooney. And he's
right now PFF's eighty first rated wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
And with the drops, just to put that in perspective,
Moody has missed a decent amount of games, so his
five drops compared to Tamax five drops are different. And
that team ac has played every game and Mooney has not.
And so you have a big time drop percentage with
what he's doing right now, which again drops are a little
hit or miss, like he can still burn you and
then you still want to take your chances with them.
(28:12):
But not been as effective as he was last year,
all right.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
And so when we look at Atlanta defensively and how
they view this Panthers offense, and I think that once
again I don't see them maybe dialing back some of
the pressure that they tried to apply in the last game.
I think they're certainly going to take a page out
of the Saints book. And that's why I think it's
going to be intriguing to see how the Panthers attack.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Do they try to go deep?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
This is gonna be another big offensive line game, because
you know, I thought that they played really well the
first go round, but Atlanta's pass russ They've got twenty
nine sacks. You talk about a team that's made a
jump that's fifth in the league, and they were near
the bottom last year in sacks, but against the coats
Man they got after them. They had sixteen pressures on
thirty nine drop backs for them. They had seven sacks
(28:57):
in that game. It was their highest pressure sack ratio
this season. And when you look at James Pearce, he
was kind of the ring leader there. He had five
pressures in there as well, and he also had a
sack fumble on Daniel Jones. And then Jaalen Walker has
been He's been a little bit of a surprise. He's
been a little bit better this year than I thought
he was going to be. But I think that certainly
(29:19):
this Atlanta pass rush has to be licking their chops.
But I think also too, and maybe something that Carolina
could exploit is that these guys are going to be
so hungry to be able to get up the field
and get after bys, especially if they try some five
to seven step drop stuff going down the field early,
that they could end up making them pay either through
(29:40):
the screen game or getting the ball to Rico Dowdle
in some of those running lanes open up because Atlanta's
so hungry to get sacks and get up field.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
You know, you brought up yesterday. You think that Bryce
Young has about four deep shots in this game, this
probably isn't the game to try it. That's what I
was going to ask. Do you think that they should
narrative around Carolina is that they can't do it? And
so then you would expect to combat that. We'll just
go ahead and do it the next game. Except you
(30:09):
have talented corners, you have talented secondary players. You know
how much we both love us some Jesse Bates. It
comes down to why Atlanta's three and six man because
they can't stop the run. And it was something I
was not fearful of. It's something I thought was going
to be an issue for them as soon as we
played they They drafted edge rushers that are light in
(30:30):
the keyster and didn't get a whole lot of defensive
tackle help. They're the fourth worst graded rush defense in
all the football and everybody gets to run on them.
Man Washington. The Commanders with Marcus Mariota at quarterback, Jay
I knows what Jonathan Taylor did to him, just destroyed them.
Jacorey Krosky Merritt was able to run all well. It
was Chris Rodriguez who actually ran Chris Rodriguez had a
(30:53):
nice healthy yards per Carrie. It doesn't matter who they play.
Miami had a lower yards per Kerrie, except you go
back and look at what happened in that game. They
destroyed Atlanta, So then they're stacking the box and they're
just running you for two yards at the end of
the game to kill clock. That game is already decided.
This team can't stop the run. So if you're Carolina,
now we got ric o' dawdle. This is where Dave
(31:15):
Canalis and that coaching staff needs to come together and
says who rules this team? Is it the fan base
who wants to see more deep shots or is it
this coaching staff? Because the game plan should be we
want to use Rico Daddle a lot, We want to
use Tuba Hubbard, maybe even a little bit more. I
would like to see the passing game get going, just
from a comfort standpoint moving on. But Atlanta cannot stop
(31:36):
the run. Run against these guys. That's the way to
beat them. And as long as you got that game
script on your side, I think you can move the
football against this team.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
And I think that's not a bad strategy. I think
that the problem comes with Atlanta. When you look at
teams being able to run the ball on them is
that they've played teams that have been balanced, and so
they had to kind of stay honest. Even though Atlanta
has the second highest Blisz percentage. So I feel like
you gotta be able to try to exploit that somehow,
some way, if you're the Panthers with some shots down
(32:05):
the field to kind of, you know, put a little
bit of you know, some bread for the peppers, so
to speak, when you eat a pepper and it's real
hot and they say you should eat some bread.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
And just eat some bread. So maybe that run could
be that bread.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
But when you look at them to coach the Patriots,
the Dolphins, the forty nine ers, these are offenses that
you know are kind of multifaceted and they can hurt
you in two ways. And so for the Panthers, I
just feel like that they're going to say, yeah, we
have been good against the run, but we're going to
be good today against y'all because we're going to sell
out for it more than we have against the opponents.
But I think with this heavy blitz percentage that you
(32:39):
get from Atlanta forty one percent, that's number two in
the league behind the Minnesota Vikings. It's like being you
got to try something early to be able to back
them down. And I think trying to take a couple
of shots, and especially if you're able to convert one,
can go a long way towards that.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, I think the way that Atlanta wins this game
and any game really you go back and you look
at that Buffalo win, which, by the way, you know,
talking a little crazy about Atlanta after that victory over Buffalo,
They've lost every single game since that includes a blowout
they suffered to Miami, a bad football team. So the
way they beat Buffalo, it wasn't because they stopped the run.
(33:16):
James Cook, he was actually running pretty well. Josh Allen.
Josh Allen can get going on the ground as well.
He had forty two yards on six carries in that game.
But remember how big of a lead they got off
to in that one. I mean, the offense was clicking easily.
It took everything for Buffalo. I think Drake London, if
I'm not mistaken, barely didn't stay in bounds on a
(33:37):
last second at the end of the first half touchdown,
I think, and that score was Negati because it was
I mean just a second or so that he wasted.
That could have been useful there, but Buffalo had to
throw the football. They had to throw it to come
back in that one, and Atlanta knew it. They have
talented pass rushers. That's what they honed in on. And
by that time it was night night for the Bills,
but one because they couldn't run. I think you're right.
(33:59):
The offense limit the guys from scoring. Man, can this
defense show up? And for the large part, I think
the defense kind of has Can you show up against Atlanta?
And I do think Carolina's probably going to run the
football again. As much as people want to see this
passing attack really go off, I want to see it too,
And if they can do it, great, I just think
conventional wisdom you start to attack weaknesses. What are the
(34:21):
weaknesses for Atlanta? It's running up the gut. Do we
want to go away from that because the fan base
wants you to do a particular thing or do you
want to do the smart thing?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
In my opinion, smart thing is letting Rico loose again.
All right, So Jack on the fandue a text line.
He's got the right game plan. He says, ten men
in a box and one coin on tech is how
you stop the Panthers.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
See I think though too.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
The last thot I'll say before we go to break
is that you know when you put a couple of
deep shots on film too, that's messages also to other
teams to say that, A, you know, we're a little
bit more faceted than that, and you do need to
be aware of this.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I get it. No, you're not wrong. Like, I'm with
you on that. I would like to see him do
it even just for okay, you have to be multifaceted.
You gotta be balanced. You're one hundred percent right about that.
I just I thought the Saints game was going to
be the passing game. Yeah, that was the one. That's
why it's so concerning to see what did and didn't happen.
(35:17):
It's that's the time because the Saints run defense actually
pretty good. Yeah all right, so let's attack weaknesses with
a bad football.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Say you have been rocked asleep by what you have
been doing well so good before that that you're like, hey,
we've been winning doing this, let's not If it ain't broke,
don't fix it.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Well that yes, and they ran it. It's like unstoppable
force meets immovable objects and the Saints won. They were
the ones that won that game. And with the Falcons,
they are not an immovable object in the run game.
But you're right, like, I'd like to be balanced. I'd
like to feel comforted going into the final games of
the season. And the way I do that, the way
(35:53):
I feel that is by Bryce having two hundred and
twenty yards passing feels like three point fifty in this Yeah,
all right.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Did Louisville prove last night that they are the team
to beat this season in the ACC? On Sports Radio
ninety two seven w FNZ, and we are at the
end pretty much of the one o'clock hour to two
o'clock hour is just around the corner here on the
(36:22):
Western Walker Show. From the Chandler Vote to studios. We
talked a little bit about college basketball from last night
and a lot of ACC matchups going on, some big,
some little, but none bigger than Louisville taking on Kentucky
last night. And they get them at home in the
KFC Young Center and they shoot forty five percent from
(36:42):
the field, thirty three percent from three. So nothing that's
going to blow you away, but very efficient with the basketball.
And they get twenty nine points from Michael Brown junior,
They get twenty four points from Ryan Conwell, and this
group looked like a well oiled machine that was focused
from the word go. They took care of hated in
state rival and also a top ten national team. We
(37:04):
know Kentucky will be in the mix of things when
it's all said and done, but I thought last night
they made a tremendous statement to the league as well.
We've gotten Carolina beating Kansas to start the year as well.
I thought that that was something to be said there.
But I think Louisville showed last night in a team
that many people are picking to win this league this year,
for them to go a long, long way, maybe even
(37:26):
national championship worthy, I thought last night that was a
strong statement from Pat Kelsey and the crew.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
It absolutely was. I mean, there's so much talent on
this team, so a lot of people were expecting them
to accomplish great things coming into the year, and it
feels like all of your transfers and your stars are
playing like excellent transfers and excellent stars. Here with the
guy that you brought up with twenty nine points last night, MIKEL.
Brown Junior eight of sixteen from the field. It's not
even a great shooting day from him. But how about
(37:54):
three separate guys taking twenty seven combined three point shots
and you trust all them to do it? Not on
top of the ten free throw attempts. Conwell and Brown
got to the foul line twenty three times combined. So okay,
you have all this talent, they're taking the right kind
of shots. Even somebody like McNeely, who was very good
at Virginia and can shoot with the best of them.
(38:17):
He had a nice three point percentage on not as
much volume inside the three point arc, but just so many.
They're so dynamic offensively Wes and Pat Kelsey. As a coach,
I trust a ton so Louisville their team to be very, very,
very fearful of. I think maybe in other acc years
they would have proven last night, Hey, we're the team
(38:38):
to go through, we're the team to beat. But I
still have a lot of respect for Duke even if
they're not as good as last year, and I got
a lot more respect for North Carolina. It doesn't seem
to be like one team carries the reputation of the
conference anymore, like maybe what would have happened in the
last couple of years. So I don't know if they've
proven it quite yet. I don't know if you can
(38:59):
prove it until you get to conference play, which is
wild to say, but I'm not sure that you can
do that this season.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah, ah, man, Do I think that they're the team
to be after that performance last night? I wonder because
the play down inside for them. They don't have a
ton of size just from what I've seen, and so
I feel like that there are a couple of teams
that you know, I'm gonna go in the boat with
you and say no, I don't think that they prove
they're a team to beat last night. I think Carolina's
(39:25):
made statements. I think Duke has come out and showing
themselves to be a pretty good team as well, And
so that's why I will say no. Myron Goodwin says
on the FANDE text line, I think Louisville had the
best win so far this season of any ACC school,
But do you and c NC State have a chance
to stake their claim with tough games before ACC play?
And n C State is another team I'm gonna put
(39:46):
into that mix too, and who knows what my Demon Deacons.
You know, I'm not sure I can't go into that
bag again and say yeah, they're gonna be a team
in the mix too until I see more games from them.
But speaking of Wake Forward, did you feel like or
did you get the feeling coming out of that game
that Wake Forest put the ACC on notice with their
performance to say, hey, we're going to be better than
(40:08):
the eleventh best team we were perceived to be in
the preseason post.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I don't think so. I don't think so. Man. I
got to see them get these victories before. We believe
in them like that. They've played close games before, they've
lost close games before. I think it's great that you
didn't get run out of the gym. I really do.
But isn't Steve Forbes always right on the line? Isn't
he always the sixty ninth, seventieth best team? Could you know?
(40:35):
I wish I could say different? I know, man, I Look,
this is how it is. We feel very similarly about
each other's college basketball programs. I would love for Wake
to be right up here with everybody else atop the ACC.
I do think it's possible. I think I well, I
think that you have your your top three or four
figured out. I think that's going to play out the
(40:55):
way we expect. But I Wake does have a shot
to be a very very good college basketsketball team. Does
last night's game prove that they're going to be? Now? Man,
I've seen them lose close games against big time opponents
plenty of times in the Forbes era. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
I like the athleticism of this Wag team. I think
that they are going to be long and pesky defensively.
And when you look at last night, man, they just
didn't finish at the rim. They were five of seventeen
on layups last night and maarra and that Michigan defense
had a lot to do with it. But one thing,
you know, they can be very feisty defensively. They help
(41:29):
Michigan four of twenty five from three last night. Now,
they did shoot forty five percent from the field, But
I think defensively they are going to be a bunch
that's going to be pesky. We know a hallmark of
coach Forbes's defenses is they do force turnovers.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
They forced seventeen of those last night.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
I would have liked to seem better three point shooting
because from what I was told them, what we saw
preseason from this team, the shooting looks like it was
there from what you've been reading about them, and so
the shooting last night didn't necessarily show up. And that's
also a credit to Michigan defense. I mean, that's the
thing I knew coming down the stretch. It was also
going to be tough because this is a Michigan team
that's top six in the country and you have to
(42:07):
earn those wins. And so Duke, even though we weren't
talking about them a ton because they just did what
they were supposed to do against Army. But did this
strike you as a team that's just super talented and
on autopilot right now, just looking like a well oiled
machine the way that they were able to come out
and play. They shoot fifty seven percent from the field,
(42:28):
they shoot forty three percent from three point territory. They
had twenty five assists on thirty seven made field goals.
Nobody had a crazy monstrous night, but they're just getting
contributions from everybody, and Cad and Boozer off the bench
goes ten points and eight assists. I feel like it
won't be long now before he supplants Caleb Foster. I
(42:49):
know that that was a concern I had before, but
I feel like at this point, with the way that
he's playing, it won't be long before he's taking that
starting point guard role.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I agree. I think he has the skill set to
become the tap set it for that team with the
one that you trust that's a little more dynamic than
what you have in Caleb Foster. First game of the
season against a program like Texas, maybe you air on
the side of giving that title, that starting title to
a veteran, But I think Kyden Boozer is going to
take over and you're seeing it happen in the first
couple of games of the year. Everybody's got to catch
(43:18):
up to Duke. Are they operating like a well oiled machine. Yes,
this is what they do, and it's up to the
ACC to catch up to Duke at this point now,
I think North Carolina has at least four this season.
I think Louisville has in talent. I think NC State
has as well. I think all of the rest of
these teams that you would like to be good and
you would like to represent the ACC that historically have
(43:39):
done that. I think they've at least closed the gap
and they are at least right there with Duke, but
everybody still is catching up to him. Yeah, this is
you talk about who do you feel the best about
every single year? Duke is that team that shoots right
up the top of the conference and everybody has to
catch up to them.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
All Right, we start the took like ow and turn.
This is the Wessel Walker Show.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Listen to The Wes and Walker Show week t is
from noon to three only on Sports Radio ninety two
point seven FM WFNZ, the official home of the Charlotte
Sports Fan
You were listening to the West and Walker Show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We didn't start to show off with it like we
needed to, but we know you need it out there
in the city.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Okay, it's West Cheese, sandwiches, uncrustables, whatever kind of sandwich
you got it, the sandwich with your sour cream and
shadow ruffles, you know what I'm saying. Wow, Yeah, that's
that's pretty good. I got a little descriptive right there.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And Walker, on account of three, we're gonna yell like
hell baby one two, three corns.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We're going drinking baby in the cabbage garden. Oh wow.
Sorry only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM
w FNC. Sorry, Oh my god, I'm sorry. I drank
too much. Monster. Let's go to the corner quickly.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Welcome back, folks, this is the West walk A Show,
Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ to b Exach. Welcome
to the one o'clock hour from the tail of about
the studio, Cvinjurylaw dot Com.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
That's Cvinjurylaw dot Com. One call.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
That's all Carolina's personal injury lawyers. A lot of teasers
and trailers for sequels dropping today. I just saw the
Devilwaar's product too, And then we talked earlier Toy Story five.
That teaser just dropped as well. So there's a lot
of sequels going around, right, Devilware's product too.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
I have to imagine if anybody has a significant other
out there, you're probably gonna go to the theaters and
watch Devilware's product too. That's that's it what you get.
And had the classic you know, Oh, I think I've
seen the movie. It's a five. I mean, I'm not.
There are worst movies to go see. It's there are
worst movies to see. Toy Story five. Now, there's not
many better movies to see than some of the movies
(01:52):
in the Toy Story franchise? Are you Quentin Tarantino in
the way that you don't want to watch anymore? After
the trilogy was complete? That's what he had to say
that it thought. He thought it was such a great trilogy,
it had the perfect ending, and he didn't watch Toy
Story four no matter how good it was, And let
me just go ahead and give you a spoiler. It
was excellent. Yeah, I am not that I will watch
Toy Story five. What say you?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's too hard not to not to watch, because especially
if they're really good. If the trilogy's great, then you're
gonna feel like that they aren't gonna fail. You're like, man,
the first three was so good, how can the fourth
one be bad? So you're gonna check it out.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I understand what Tarantino was talking about, that the trilogy
is so great. I do want there to be an ending,
and then they just decide because they want money, that
they're going to drum it up again for toy Story four.
But as long as you do a great job with it,
I can't get too mad at it. And four key
four Ky one of the best Pixar characters of all time.
I'm trash. Oh, I'm surprised that Jeff has not been
(02:47):
played everywhere on sports radio before. Anyways, shout out to toyste.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
All right, something that has been a sequel for weeks
and weeks and weeks now, there's no ending to this thing.
Okay until the end of football season. Let's get to it.
It's time for the campus coda see power Hour. Let's
get it. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
All right. We're gonna start you out.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
We're gonna go three by three, and then we'll figure
it out towards the end.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
How we want to giv you this thing up.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But the bottom three Boston College still holding it down
at seventeen, Syracuse at sixteen, they got stuff going to
coaches talking crazy. It's just too much going on in
Syracuse right now and a lot of losing.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
And then Virginia what did the coach say, Yeah, yeah, okay,
I want to keep on job. They're going here, let's
do that all right?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Then Virginia Tech at number fifteen. So that's your bottom three,
Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Boston College.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Yeah, I mean, I don't have any problems with it.
What do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Virginia Tech's probably I mean, Boston College is pretty feisty too,
but Virginia Tech I would maybe say that the feistiest
of the bunch.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
But I guess one question in a way that we
would discuss this with Miami being so bad without Tua
because of a lack of preparation in backup quarterback and
just your offense being so dependent on one guy. I mean,
I get it, it's hard to get one good quarterback
in college littlone two. Should syracusepy this awful without their starting?
You win things? So?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
So I it's say in college football with the spacing
and you know how teams can score. I mean, it
feels like even an average team can get you twenty
four points in today's college I mean it is atrocious
like that.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
That's the worst. Talk about a passing attack. That's bad.
That's the worst passing attack without angelal question about it. All.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Right After that, we go Stamford at fourteen. Again, just
another feisty bunch. They tried to fight North Carolina, but
just not enough going on there. Then we've got Florida
State at number thirteen. They take the loss to Clemson
and they get beat handily after handily handling my Demon Deacons.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
There you go, all right.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Then at number twelve and continuing to rise, the North
Carolina tar Heels. They're playing pretty good football. I wanted
to put them a little bit higher, but I didn't
want to jump the gun. I know, we talked about
that a little bit this week, so I didn't want
to jump the gun. But they are playing pretty good
ball when you talk defensively, they're as hot as anybody
right now. So we've got Stamford, Florida State UNC at fourteen, thirteen,
(05:05):
and twelve.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, the conversation about UNC. I think if there was
something you were holding on hope to at the beginning
of the season, it was the fact that Bill Belichick
is smarter than you when it comes to x's and o's.
I have real concerns about his talent evaluation. Those problems
propped up or they popped up in the NFL, the
hirings and the firings like, there are some real issues
(05:26):
that I'm not sure Bill Belichick has figured out. But
one thing that you can't deny is he smarter than
you when coming up with the defensive game plan. So
even with talent that I don't find to be as adequate,
And maybe that's changing too. Some of the intrushers. I
know you've talked about those guys. They should be highlighted.
That's starting to rear its head as the season goes on,
and that's something I'm willing to buy into. That the
(05:48):
guys are picking up the game plan and the tutelage
coming from Bill Belichick. That's something that I can buy into.
Are they great? No, Are they going to beat the
better teams down the stretch? I don't think so. But
are they better because of that thing that we thought
was gonna bear out at some point that I can
buy into. All right.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Next up at number eleven, we've got the Clemson Tigers
and it just kind of end that gray area there
where they're not very good, but they're not as bad
as the.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Teams under them, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I mean Clemson, they've got the talent, but they just
kind of play up and down to the talent all
season and it's resulted in a lot of losses. Number ten,
NC State they were off this past week. We'll see
what they offer coming back to the thick of things
after they beat Georgia Tech and had a huge victory,
so we'll see if that ignites their season. And then
(06:37):
the Duke turnover, I mean Blue Devils, the Duke Blue
Devils are at number nine. This is a team that, yes,
they've got a lot to like Cooper bar Kate leading
the acc and receiving yards, Darren Minca throwing it all
over the yard.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And we'll see where he lands.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
And this week's quarterback power Rink is because we do
value winning there as well. So that's your next three,
number eleven, Clemson, number ten, INC State eight, number nine.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Yeah, this is an interesting group. Some of the teams that, yeah,
you could highlight all of them, I would say I
have Duke needs to fall down. I mean, I respect
the talent, but if they're just gonna turn it over
during winning time, then you can't trust this team as
a whole. The defense is pretty bad. That's surprising, yes
from Amanny Diaz coach grew allent. What's going on with
(07:22):
Duke's defense? They're terrible. I have no problem with them
being nine. If you wanted to put I don't know,
State's probably in the right spot. I think you did
a nice job here. I think Clemson is the team
that I can't help but go to as like the
best of the bad slash slightly mediocre squads. But they
still need to show us some more things, all.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Right, Next up the next I'll go four here. So
number eight the cow God Golden Bears one of the
more perplexing teams that you have, because they can play
good enough to beat Louisville, but then they can have
games where they you know, turning it over and they
lose to Virginia Tech. So you don't know what you're
gonna get from this bunch.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Every week. I hate watch that team. I don't enjoy.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Number seven and climbing the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. I
would love if their offense was better, I would have
them a little bit higher than seven, but their defense
has carried them to their last two victories, and that
Florida State blowout is just hard to ignore. Number six,
I've got the Louisville Cardinals sitting there after they lose
two col second loss of the season for them. And
(08:25):
then at number five, I've also got two lost Miami
who may have the most talent, but it hasn't shown
up for them, and they are falling in the critical
junctures of the season, like they've done with plenty of
other teams.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yet Louisville falling to number six. I don't know where
they were last week, but they certainly weren't at three. Yeah,
I can't help but feel the best about this team
where they were five, even with some of the other
squads that would be ahead of them. Like I like
Louisville more than I like SMU, But Louisville is behind
SMU at four and two. With SMU the must things
(09:00):
being five and one? Who do I trust more? For
some reason, I can't help but go back to the
Cardinals their losses have been close. I do think Jeff
Brohm is a fantastic coach, but I also can't argue
with the fact that they lose to Cal a team
I just said, I hated watching so Louisville being here
at six.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Louivo was two, Big Joe number two. Yeah, that is
a big job for them, all right. The final four.
I'm not talking March madness, but I've got SMU at four.
Virginia who and I initially made this, I had them
at seven because I wasn't sure about their quarterback situation,
but I looked it up and they could have Channel
(09:36):
Morris this week against Duke. I don't feel super confident,
but I had to respect the record. I had to
respect some of the quality wins on their resume, and
so for now I'll keep them at three.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
But I did have them at seven.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Then I've got Pitt sitting there in the number two
spot right now. Disruptive defense. They do give up some points,
but they are a disruptive group. When you talk sacks,
tackles for loss, Mason heinschrew, throwing it all over the park.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
He did.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
I have a couple of picks the last time we
saw him. But this offense is explosive as well. And
at number one Georgia Tech Yellowjackets, they're getting it done,
only one loss on the season. How will they respond
as well? Can they run the table for the rest
of the season and hold it down for the ACC?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I feel icky looking at this top three it is hey,
this is not trash? Yeah for ky, I love Forky.
I feel like Georgia Tech. I feel like Uva Pitt.
I feel like they're all four ky here at the
top of the conference. Does this feel like a top
four that you want to go into battle with with
the other power for conferences Wes.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, no, especially when you talk about the top of
the top, the Big ten and the secs of the world,
because you feel like, man, you know, let's just say,
especially if Georgia Tech gets smashed by Georgia then you
really feel bad about it because you're like, which one
of these teams do you feel like? And I think
the tail of the tape is with the way things
are looking, do you feel like that there's a they
(11:00):
can go on the road in the first round into
playoffs and win a game and you don't feel that way?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
You know, Clemson had to go on the road.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
They showed well last year against Texas, SMU absolutely got smashed,
and I think we're kind of in that SMU deer
in a headlight's territory for any of these teams that
win the league.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Haynes King is a great college football player at a
university right now that's five and one of the conference.
They're eight and one overall. I should feel a lot
better about that squad representing the ACC and yet I
just can't help it. I don't. I think it's because
of their lack of signature wins that they have, and
then we have some of the other reasons as to
why Miami is falling down. Louisville losing the CAL, I mean,
(11:43):
that's such a tough loss. That's the team I feel
like I would trust the most, but I can't because
you keep losing these games and you lost to Cal.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Specifically, Georgia Tech might be one that you could trust,
just because of Brent Key's ability to win games against
top twenty five opponents. He seems to get his team
up for those types of games. That would be the
only reason I would say you could believe in them, though,
because this team lost to NC State. That's all you
need to know when it comes to trusting them, and.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Even the State loss. Again, I've said this a couple
of times. When you have I think a special talent
at quarterback that still needs to put a lot of
it together with CJ. Bailey, but they have the ability
to randomize the game with just how explosive they can
be with some of the talent they have. I love
the tight end Joe Lee. We've talked about him, so
they can sneak up on you. But even so, Man
Georgia Tech doesn't get sneaked up on right. They are
(12:33):
the team that doesn't seem to fall for some of
those trap games as much as a Miami does, which
happens every single year, and yet it happened to him anyway.
Hard to trust any of these squads.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
All right, when we come back, we're going to get
into the quarterback power rankings. On the other side, this
is Wes and Walker. Welcome back, folks. This is the
West and Walker Show from the channel about the studio
Sports Rady on ninety two seven WFNZ. Reminding you to
(13:06):
follow us on social media WFNZ on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
You can also follow us at HTB, Anthony at Westbron
unders score seventy two at Walker Mail and most important
at West and Walker. Bigcat Dan says on the FANDOL
text line, crazy thing as pitt will probably take Georgia
Tech out right before the finish line. Pat Nardoozi does upsets, well, yes,
(13:26):
we do remember Kenny Pickett and Miami. And that's the
thing about this too, is that we're not done here,
like this is not the AZC has been so off
the chain that we are not done here yet. We're
gonna have some more shocking upsets. There's no telling who's
gonna be in Charlotte at this point.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
If there's one thing the nar Dog's gonna do, Nar
Dog's gonna bite. Yeah, and there's plenty of times for
nar Dog to bite once again. I can't tell you.
It's it's almost a realization, just more so this year,
even though I've teetered on this take before, but I
do feel like Patnaroozy is immortal. I don't think you
can kill him. I think he's always going to stay
(14:06):
at Pittsburgh and he's always going to pull off just
enough upsets to every once in a mon eight nine
games get to the AVERC championship and give us that personality.
I love Patnardoozy. I think he's hilarious and he's good
for college football, except for when he comes in and
beat some of these teams at the top of the
conference and then ruins the ACC's perception.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
All right, So let's get to it. Quarterback Power rankings.
We're going to go there now. We'll start at the bottom.
There's been a little bit of moving and a shift
thing going on right now because I do value wins
on top of statistics as well. But we'll start out
at number five. CJ.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Bailey twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
He's got four to three hundred plus yard passing games
and for the season, he's got twenty four hundred and
thirteen passing yards with twenty three touchdowns that he is
responsible for. At number four, welcome mal. I know the
statement that you made last week. You said you feel
like that the top two is pretty much locked in.
Oh wow, But it is not because of the losses
(15:07):
and the fact that he played at integral part in
this one two picks critical fumble. Darien Menza, come on
down here to the bottom of man number four.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
He had two hundred and twenty two yards.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
He did have three touchdowns, two picks, the aforementioned fumble,
and in twenty twenty five he's got nine games with
two plus passing touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
That ties a Duke record.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Number three, Moving up just a little bit, Mason Heinschel
from pitt for the season. In five starts, he's got
fifteen hundred and forty seven passing yards to go with
twelve touchdowns, he's got three hundred plus passing yards and
four of his last five games, so you're talking about
a guy putting up big time numbers at number two
and moving up, he got his team in position to
(15:51):
potentially get back where they were before. Kevin Jennings versus
Boston College three hundred and twenty six yards to touch
and in his last two games he's got back to
back three hundred plus yard passing games. That's the first
time that that has happened in this young man's career.
And in number one, he had the week off. Talking
(16:14):
about Haines King two six hundred and forty two total yards.
He's got twenty three touchdowns he's responsible for, and he's
also responsible for seventeen and a half points per game.
That is six and All College Football who was number three.
Number three was Mason Heinschaal mains pit Mason Heinschel. Yeah,
a dog, it's his guy, of course. Yep, it's been
(16:35):
a while.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
West. I don't think we got I don't think we
got a surprise ranking all year long that change.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Okay, I like that because it was the same guy's
different order it.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Was so I appreciate that. I think Darien Menso should
be top two. Still. Well, I mean, I know he's
got taken als.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I know, I know he's got bad losses, and you know,
he's got some bad turnovers.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
He's got bad turnovers. He still has five less interceptions
than Kevin Jennings. He has five less interceptions than Jks,
three less than CJ. Bailey. It had been a while
since he thrown interceptions. He's throwing downfield, he's completing passes
at a high rate, had a seventy percent efficient. He's
really efficient. And it's the defense that is absolutely atrocious.
(17:19):
And they do not subscribe to the theory of complimentary football.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, but you know, also, I had this debate earlier
in the week with the coworker from the ACC Digital Network.
I am a quarterback win lost that guy and we
had a big debate about that. He's like, I don't
think that should be a quarterback stat and I said, yeah,
I think it should be. And so yes, even though
he's put up some guarding numbers and he's done some things,
(17:42):
but also even though the defense is giving up a
lot of points, he's also had empty drives where the
offense could have come through and saved the day.
Speaker 1 (17:49):
Hasn't done that.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
And again, like I said, you know, just bad turnovers
in that last game, and he's had other games where
he's had some critical turnovers as well. So you know,
I value into this equation too, and so that's one
of the reasons that he took a tumble.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
All right there, You're gonna have to ask your defense
to help you because you can do everything you can.
The two interceptions are bad, yeah, and the fumble at
the end of the game that cost them on the
game winning drive. Now, I just see so many zeros
before four or five games without an I int his
defense not helping him and he and.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Again too, I look at empty drives as well in
critical junctures too. But yeah, to your point, dolt Walker,
when you talk talent wise, numbers wise and what he's
been doing. Yeah, he's right up there. There's no question
about him.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Last thing some people have asked about Mensa as an
NFL draft prospect, I honestly don't know, like I he
All I know is the dude throws downfield with incredible accuracy.
He's done it at two different levels. Now. I don't
know what NFL draft scouts are saying about him, but
he is pretty damn good here at Duke is like
(18:55):
a size thing. I don't know, Like, is there something
I'm missing with Menso what do you think he'll up?
That's that's interesting draft. The scouts due like they might
have somebody that has all the tools. There might be
some Josh Allen type prospect in Minto.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Mean, he's six three, two oh five, so he's got
that box check though.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
That's not bad.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I think that when you look at Menta, I think
after the season that he's had, I would imagine that
he's probably gonna be pretty high up when you talk
next year when we start talking big prospects, I think
he will probably be a projected first rounder. I would
I would say, so, I mean, what's there not to like?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
He doesn't necessarily have that Hawlitzer of an arm, but
he's got good enough arm strength, very accurate. So yeah,
I don't see any reason why Darien Menza couldn't be
a first or second round play.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
The type of size does he bring sixty three six
six three five, that should be good.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
I'm good with that, And I mean he'll probably put
on waiting off season come back next year two fifteen
to twenty.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
You never know again with what NFL teams like, is
there something that I just am not seeing? But in
terms of what I watch every time Duke Place and
all the highlights that he has, I think he has
more NFL caliber accuracy downfield than you see from a
lot of these other guys that deservedly deserve to be
up towards the top of the acc But I mean
Kevin Jennings or Darien Mensa. I'm taking Mensa, Haines King
(20:16):
or Darien Mensa. I'm taking Mensa in terms of an
NFL pro style offense, what I would want to run,
how I'm how accurate my QB is like.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
From a pure talent standpoint, I do love Mensa, But
that is an intriguing argument you bring to the table.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
When you talk about him and Kevin Jennings, I like.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
I was gonna say, Haines King, there ain't no way
in hell man, I mean he Gosh Dudel basically is
he t bow lights.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Tebow light very much. So that's the thing that worries
about him. In the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
I mean, you're going to go to I don't know,
somewhere cold with a big, nasty defensive line and he
about to be running that thing twenty times and throwing
it all over the yall. I mean Johnny Man's did,
and he wasn't a big quarterback either, but I mean
text A and them didn't go to the playoffs. It
wasn't around then when he was there, so we wouldn't
have gotten a chance to see that. But Hans King,
(21:09):
he's a lot more, you know, measured with his play
than Johnny Manzell.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
But that's the thing.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
I'm like, how long can he keep physically taking this pound?
And so there is your quarterback power rankings for the week,
your conference power rankings. You can etch your boy at
West Brown Underscore seventy two if you got a problem,
or hit me up on the FanDuel text line seven
oh four or five seven oh ninety sixty.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Have you put your rankings out on social media yet? No? Yeah,
the Power rankings are out. How many angry commenters have
you had on this?
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I can't wait. It just drops. I'm going to see
very soon what people are saying. But I love it
because when I look and see my notifications and it's over,
really over five, but then when it starts hitting fifteen
twenty stuff like that, and I like to see how
the people are arguing inside of the thread because they're
arguing with each other.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Who's this West Pride guy?
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, and that they're arguing with each other, because then
you get the people who will say stuff like that.
But then you'll have like because when I kept Miami
at number one, then you have people that'll be backing
me up and not necessarily me individually, but they'd be like,
well they should be there because of da da da
da da da da dah.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
So look, that's the thing that's fun. Rankings are not
meant to be lauded, that's right. They are meant to
be criticized. Every time you post something like it, all
you can do is bring out the angry people, and
that's what you do now.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
They're angry birds, all right, talking about Panthers Falcons and
what could change from this game or as far as
from the last time these two saw each other to
this time. When you look at some of the key
highlights from what happened during their first matchup. Obviously Carolina
wins that thirty to zip, but Cuba Hubbard was just
starting running back then. He had seventy three yards on
(22:42):
the ground and he and Cuba, he and Rico Daldo
combined for one hundred and thirteen yards to the row.
I had forty eight yards receiving. The Panthers only had
one hundred and twenty one yards passing. But Rights Young
was very good against the blitz and that's going to
come into play when we talk about this coming game,
because that Atlanta passed rushes hot. They had a sixty
three percent blitz rate against the Panthers, and Bryce was
(23:04):
able to get the ball out in under twenty a
half seconds.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
He was nine and fourteen seventy.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Two yards versus the blitz in that game and the
Panthers they held the Falcons to one hundred and thirty
two rush yards two hundred and one passing yards But
the thing that you look at is, but John Robinson
only had thirteen carries because the game script kind of
dictated that they had to get out of that. So
if we just look and we don't go into any
numbers or statistics, if we just want to shoot from
(23:30):
the cuff right here and say, what do we think
will be different with Atlanta this time around?
Speaker 1 (23:36):
What would you point to? Well? I don't think Michael
Pennix is going to play as bad against Carolina as
he did the first time, because I think our defense
played well. But also Pennix was helping us out quite
a bit, throwing up ducks for Mike Jenden the ball
forever Smith Wade being able to jump that route after
staring at his guy for a while and then eventually
(23:57):
pulling the trigger, smith Wade taking it to the crib.
I don't know if he's going to be that bad.
So what's gonna be different? Look, Pennis had been good,
right I think Atlanta fans are a little scared about
what they have in their quarterback right now, But he
hadn't been as bad as he was against Carolina. So
better quarterback play automatically is going to allow the Falcons
to score more than zero like the time that they
(24:18):
played the Panthers the first time.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, and the thing I can't wait to see is
for one against the Panthers, what was the biggest thing
that he was doing was holding the football and taking
too long to make decisions. Well, against the Coats, even
though they showed well, he recorded an average time of
three point three six seconds to throw the ball. That's
his first career game recording an average time to throw
over three seconds. So he can't be holding the ball
(24:41):
that long. Yeah, you gotta make him pay for that
if you're the Carolina Panthers, and that could result maybe
in some mistakes. But I do expect him to play
a little better. But the biggest thing for me is
I expect them to feed bea John the ball. I
would imagine if they win the coin toss, they may
want to take the football to start this game. But
I mean, this guy, he's having career year thus far
(25:01):
in his young career. But fifteen runs of ten plus
yards five hundred and sixty seven yards after contact, and
he's also Atlanta's second leading receiver. He's got forty three
catches for four hundred and sixty seven yards.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
And two touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
So I think if you're an Atlanta team and you
look at, man, what can we do better in this
game and we didn't do the first time, I think
you would have to get but John Robinson at least
twenty touches in this one. That's just for starters, maybe
even more if you want to win this game. So
when I look at it and I say, well, how
would they attack the Panthers offensively? Yeah, man, I just
(25:35):
said it as far as Bajohn, But if I wanted
to go to something else, I mean Michael Pennix and
Drake London have the second most yards for a quarterback
wide receiver duo since Week sixteen of twenty twenty four. Man,
So he was another guy that didn't have a ton
of impact on the first matchup. But I think that
that's gonna be fun to see who the Panthers match
up with Drake London, if they even try to do that,
(25:57):
or they just let him whatever side he goes, who
they just let Mike Jack or j C.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Horn guard him.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
But I think they're going to be looking for that
as well, because they're going to see what Tyler Shuck
was able to do. But I think it's going to
start for them with the run.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
That's what's going to happen, though, Like Atlanta's gonna be
able to dictate where they want to put Drake London,
and it wasn't happening nearly as much earlier in the
season for Atlanta. But Zack Robinson wasn't putting Drake London
in the slot to free him up, and he was
pretty quiet the first three weeks of the season. You
look at him, he had a twenty three point three
slot percentage the first week, it went up to forty two,
(26:32):
the second week below twenty against Carolina Boom. Now we're
right back up at fifty. And this is something they
had been doing in the first year with Zach Robinson,
what Drake was doing a lot last year. And man,
you're talking about fifty five yards. Forty nine to fifty five.
Those are the first three weeks of the season. He
hasn't had anything less than one hundred yards except for
once since then. Drake London is scary. He's an awesome
(26:55):
wide receiver. Pennix is zeroing in on him. What's interesting
is that you men some of the lack of weapons
around him in the passing game. Kyle Pitts, you know,
I have to give up on him. I've given up
on him for a whe No, I'm a big fan
of Darnell Mooney. I like him a lot more. But
the thing he has, right, that's the thing I don't mind.
I like him. I think he's a really useful, slash
(27:15):
good wide receiver. A lot of drops from Mooney, if
I'm not mistaken, I need to pull up the drop
numbers on him. But you just mentioned it, But Jean
Robinson is the second leading receiver on this team. I
don't know if that should be the case if you
have Kyle Pitts and Darnell Mooney to supplement Drake London.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I think that you know when you look at but John,
he's such a special talent. So you're like, all right,
I can understand you wanting to get him the ball
in multiple ways. It's kind of like the uh, you know,
the Kristan McCaffrey effect, where they just run him into
the ground throwing and catching the ball. He does have
five drops on the season, does Darnell Mooney. And he's
right now PFF's eighty first rated wide receiver.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
And with the drops, just to put that in perspective,
Moody has missed a decent amount of games, so his
five drops compared to Tamax five drops are different. And
that team ac has played every game and Mooney has not.
And so you have a big time drop percentage with
what he's doing right now, which again drops are a little
hit or miss, like he can still burn you and
then you still want to take your chances with them.
(28:12):
But not been as effective as he was last year,
all right.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
And so when we look at Atlanta defensively and how
they view this Panthers offense, and I think that once
again I don't see them maybe dialing back some of
the pressure that they tried to apply in the last game.
I think they're certainly going to take a page out
of the Saints book. And that's why I think it's
going to be intriguing to see how the Panthers attack.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Do they try to go deep?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
This is gonna be another big offensive line game, because
you know, I thought that they played really well the
first go round, but Atlanta's pass russ They've got twenty
nine sacks. You talk about a team that's made a
jump that's fifth in the league, and they were near
the bottom last year in sacks, but against the coats
Man they got after them. They had sixteen pressures on
thirty nine drop backs for them. They had seven sacks
(28:57):
in that game. It was their highest pressure sack ratio
this season. And when you look at James Pearce, he
was kind of the ring leader there. He had five
pressures in there as well, and he also had a
sack fumble on Daniel Jones. And then Jaalen Walker has
been He's been a little bit of a surprise. He's
been a little bit better this year than I thought
he was going to be. But I think that certainly
(29:19):
this Atlanta pass rush has to be licking their chops.
But I think also too, and maybe something that Carolina
could exploit is that these guys are going to be
so hungry to be able to get up the field
and get after bys, especially if they try some five
to seven step drop stuff going down the field early,
that they could end up making them pay either through
(29:40):
the screen game or getting the ball to Rico Dowdle
in some of those running lanes open up because Atlanta's
so hungry to get sacks and get up field.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
You know, you brought up yesterday. You think that Bryce
Young has about four deep shots in this game, this
probably isn't the game to try it. That's what I
was going to ask. Do you think that they should
narrative around Carolina is that they can't do it? And
so then you would expect to combat that. We'll just
go ahead and do it the next game. Except you
(30:09):
have talented corners, you have talented secondary players. You know
how much we both love us some Jesse Bates. It
comes down to why Atlanta's three and six man because
they can't stop the run. And it was something I
was not fearful of. It's something I thought was going
to be an issue for them as soon as we
played they They drafted edge rushers that are light in
(30:30):
the keyster and didn't get a whole lot of defensive
tackle help. They're the fourth worst graded rush defense in
all the football and everybody gets to run on them.
Man Washington. The Commanders with Marcus Mariota at quarterback, Jay
I knows what Jonathan Taylor did to him, just destroyed them.
Jacorey Krosky Merritt was able to run all well. It
was Chris Rodriguez who actually ran Chris Rodriguez had a
(30:53):
nice healthy yards per Carrie. It doesn't matter who they play.
Miami had a lower yards per Kerrie, except you go
back and look at what happened in that game. They
destroyed Atlanta, So then they're stacking the box and they're
just running you for two yards at the end of
the game to kill clock. That game is already decided.
This team can't stop the run. So if you're Carolina,
now we got ric o' dawdle. This is where Dave
(31:15):
Canalis and that coaching staff needs to come together and
says who rules this team? Is it the fan base
who wants to see more deep shots or is it
this coaching staff? Because the game plan should be we
want to use Rico Daddle a lot, We want to
use Tuba Hubbard, maybe even a little bit more. I
would like to see the passing game get going, just
from a comfort standpoint moving on. But Atlanta cannot stop
(31:36):
the run. Run against these guys. That's the way to
beat them. And as long as you got that game
script on your side, I think you can move the
football against this team.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
And I think that's not a bad strategy. I think
that the problem comes with Atlanta. When you look at
teams being able to run the ball on them is
that they've played teams that have been balanced, and so
they had to kind of stay honest. Even though Atlanta
has the second highest Blisz percentage. So I feel like
you gotta be able to try to exploit that somehow,
some way, if you're the Panthers with some shots down
(32:05):
the field to kind of, you know, put a little
bit of you know, some bread for the peppers, so
to speak, when you eat a pepper and it's real
hot and they say you should eat some bread.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
And just eat some bread. So maybe that run could
be that bread.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
But when you look at them to coach the Patriots,
the Dolphins, the forty nine ers, these are offenses that
you know are kind of multifaceted and they can hurt
you in two ways. And so for the Panthers, I
just feel like that they're going to say, yeah, we
have been good against the run, but we're going to
be good today against y'all because we're going to sell
out for it more than we have against the opponents.
But I think with this heavy blitz percentage that you
(32:39):
get from Atlanta forty one percent, that's number two in
the league behind the Minnesota Vikings. It's like being you
got to try something early to be able to back
them down. And I think trying to take a couple
of shots, and especially if you're able to convert one,
can go a long way towards that.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Yeah, I think the way that Atlanta wins this game
and any game really you go back and you look
at that Buffalo win, which, by the way, you know,
talking a little crazy about Atlanta after that victory over Buffalo,
They've lost every single game since that includes a blowout
they suffered to Miami, a bad football team. So the
way they beat Buffalo, it wasn't because they stopped the run.
(33:16):
James Cook, he was actually running pretty well. Josh Allen.
Josh Allen can get going on the ground as well.
He had forty two yards on six carries in that game.
But remember how big of a lead they got off
to in that one. I mean, the offense was clicking easily.
It took everything for Buffalo. I think Drake London, if
I'm not mistaken, barely didn't stay in bounds on a
(33:37):
last second at the end of the first half touchdown,
I think, and that score was Negati because it was
I mean just a second or so that he wasted.
That could have been useful there, but Buffalo had to
throw the football. They had to throw it to come
back in that one, and Atlanta knew it. They have
talented pass rushers. That's what they honed in on. And
by that time it was night night for the Bills,
but one because they couldn't run. I think you're right.
(33:59):
The offense limit the guys from scoring. Man, can this
defense show up? And for the large part, I think
the defense kind of has Can you show up against Atlanta?
And I do think Carolina's probably going to run the
football again. As much as people want to see this
passing attack really go off, I want to see it too,
And if they can do it, great, I just think
conventional wisdom you start to attack weaknesses. What are the
(34:21):
weaknesses for Atlanta? It's running up the gut. Do we
want to go away from that because the fan base
wants you to do a particular thing or do you
want to do the smart thing?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
In my opinion, smart thing is letting Rico loose again.
All right, So Jack on the fandue a text line.
He's got the right game plan. He says, ten men
in a box and one coin on tech is how
you stop the Panthers.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
See I think though too.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
The last thot I'll say before we go to break
is that you know when you put a couple of
deep shots on film too, that's messages also to other
teams to say that, A, you know, we're a little
bit more faceted than that, and you do need to
be aware of this.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I get it. No, you're not wrong. Like, I'm with
you on that. I would like to see him do
it even just for okay, you have to be multifaceted.
You gotta be balanced. You're one hundred percent right about that.
I just I thought the Saints game was going to
be the passing game. Yeah, that was the one. That's
why it's so concerning to see what did and didn't happen.
(35:17):
It's that's the time because the Saints run defense actually
pretty good. Yeah all right, so let's attack weaknesses with
a bad football.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Say you have been rocked asleep by what you have
been doing well so good before that that you're like, hey,
we've been winning doing this, let's not If it ain't broke,
don't fix it.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Well that yes, and they ran it. It's like unstoppable
force meets immovable objects and the Saints won. They were
the ones that won that game. And with the Falcons,
they are not an immovable object in the run game.
But you're right, like, I'd like to be balanced. I'd
like to feel comforted going into the final games of
the season. And the way I do that, the way
(35:53):
I feel that is by Bryce having two hundred and
twenty yards passing feels like three point fifty in this Yeah,
all right.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Did Louisville prove last night that they are the team
to beat this season in the ACC? On Sports Radio
ninety two seven w FNZ, and we are at the
end pretty much of the one o'clock hour to two
o'clock hour is just around the corner here on the
(36:22):
Western Walker Show. From the Chandler Vote to studios. We
talked a little bit about college basketball from last night
and a lot of ACC matchups going on, some big,
some little, but none bigger than Louisville taking on Kentucky
last night. And they get them at home in the
KFC Young Center and they shoot forty five percent from
(36:42):
the field, thirty three percent from three. So nothing that's
going to blow you away, but very efficient with the basketball.
And they get twenty nine points from Michael Brown junior,
They get twenty four points from Ryan Conwell, and this
group looked like a well oiled machine that was focused
from the word go. They took care of hated in
state rival and also a top ten national team. We
(37:04):
know Kentucky will be in the mix of things when
it's all said and done, but I thought last night
they made a tremendous statement to the league as well.
We've gotten Carolina beating Kansas to start the year as well.
I thought that that was something to be said there.
But I think Louisville showed last night in a team
that many people are picking to win this league this year,
for them to go a long, long way, maybe even
(37:26):
national championship worthy, I thought last night that was a
strong statement from Pat Kelsey and the crew.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
It absolutely was. I mean, there's so much talent on
this team, so a lot of people were expecting them
to accomplish great things coming into the year, and it
feels like all of your transfers and your stars are
playing like excellent transfers and excellent stars. Here with the
guy that you brought up with twenty nine points last night, MIKEL.
Brown Junior eight of sixteen from the field. It's not
even a great shooting day from him. But how about
(37:54):
three separate guys taking twenty seven combined three point shots
and you trust all them to do it? Not on
top of the ten free throw attempts. Conwell and Brown
got to the foul line twenty three times combined. So okay,
you have all this talent, they're taking the right kind
of shots. Even somebody like McNeely, who was very good
at Virginia and can shoot with the best of them.
(38:17):
He had a nice three point percentage on not as
much volume inside the three point arc, but just so many.
They're so dynamic offensively Wes and Pat Kelsey. As a coach,
I trust a ton so Louisville their team to be very, very,
very fearful of. I think maybe in other acc years
they would have proven last night, Hey, we're the team
(38:38):
to go through, we're the team to beat. But I
still have a lot of respect for Duke even if
they're not as good as last year, and I got
a lot more respect for North Carolina. It doesn't seem
to be like one team carries the reputation of the
conference anymore, like maybe what would have happened in the
last couple of years. So I don't know if they've
proven it quite yet. I don't know if you can
(38:59):
prove it until you get to conference play, which is
wild to say, but I'm not sure that you can
do that this season.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Yeah, ah, man, Do I think that they're the team
to be after that performance last night? I wonder because
the play down inside for them. They don't have a
ton of size just from what I've seen, and so
I feel like that there are a couple of teams
that you know, I'm gonna go in the boat with
you and say no, I don't think that they prove
they're a team to beat last night. I think Carolina's
(39:25):
made statements. I think Duke has come out and showing
themselves to be a pretty good team as well, And
so that's why I will say no. Myron Goodwin says
on the FANDE text line, I think Louisville had the
best win so far this season of any ACC school,
But do you and c NC State have a chance
to stake their claim with tough games before ACC play?
And n C State is another team I'm gonna put
(39:46):
into that mix too, and who knows what my Demon Deacons.
You know, I'm not sure I can't go into that
bag again and say yeah, they're gonna be a team
in the mix too until I see more games from them.
But speaking of Wake Forward, did you feel like or
did you get the feeling coming out of that game
that Wake Forest put the ACC on notice with their
performance to say, hey, we're going to be better than
(40:08):
the eleventh best team we were perceived to be in
the preseason post.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I don't think so. I don't think so. Man. I
got to see them get these victories before. We believe
in them like that. They've played close games before, they've
lost close games before. I think it's great that you
didn't get run out of the gym. I really do.
But isn't Steve Forbes always right on the line? Isn't
he always the sixty ninth, seventieth best team? Could you know?
(40:35):
I wish I could say different? I know, man, I Look,
this is how it is. We feel very similarly about
each other's college basketball programs. I would love for Wake
to be right up here with everybody else atop the ACC.
I do think it's possible. I think I well, I
think that you have your your top three or four
figured out. I think that's going to play out the
(40:55):
way we expect. But I Wake does have a shot
to be a very very good college basketsketball team. Does
last night's game prove that they're going to be? Now? Man,
I've seen them lose close games against big time opponents
plenty of times in the Forbes era. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
I like the athleticism of this Wag team. I think
that they are going to be long and pesky defensively.
And when you look at last night, man, they just
didn't finish at the rim. They were five of seventeen
on layups last night and maarra and that Michigan defense
had a lot to do with it. But one thing,
you know, they can be very feisty defensively. They help
(41:29):
Michigan four of twenty five from three last night. Now,
they did shoot forty five percent from the field, But
I think defensively they are going to be a bunch
that's going to be pesky. We know a hallmark of
coach Forbes's defenses is they do force turnovers.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
They forced seventeen of those last night.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
I would have liked to seem better three point shooting
because from what I was told them, what we saw
preseason from this team, the shooting looks like it was
there from what you've been reading about them, and so
the shooting last night didn't necessarily show up. And that's
also a credit to Michigan defense. I mean, that's the
thing I knew coming down the stretch. It was also
going to be tough because this is a Michigan team
that's top six in the country and you have to
(42:07):
earn those wins. And so Duke, even though we weren't
talking about them a ton because they just did what
they were supposed to do against Army. But did this
strike you as a team that's just super talented and
on autopilot right now, just looking like a well oiled
machine the way that they were able to come out
and play. They shoot fifty seven percent from the field,
(42:28):
they shoot forty three percent from three point territory. They
had twenty five assists on thirty seven made field goals.
Nobody had a crazy monstrous night, but they're just getting
contributions from everybody, and Cad and Boozer off the bench
goes ten points and eight assists. I feel like it
won't be long now before he supplants Caleb Foster. I
(42:49):
know that that was a concern I had before, but
I feel like at this point, with the way that
he's playing, it won't be long before he's taking that
starting point guard role.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
I agree. I think he has the skill set to
become the tap set it for that team with the
one that you trust that's a little more dynamic than
what you have in Caleb Foster. First game of the
season against a program like Texas, maybe you air on
the side of giving that title, that starting title to
a veteran, But I think Kyden Boozer is going to
take over and you're seeing it happen in the first
couple of games of the year. Everybody's got to catch
(43:18):
up to Duke. Are they operating like a well oiled machine. Yes,
this is what they do, and it's up to the
ACC to catch up to Duke at this point now,
I think North Carolina has at least four this season.
I think Louisville has in talent. I think NC State
has as well. I think all of the rest of
these teams that you would like to be good and
you would like to represent the ACC that historically have
(43:39):
done that. I think they've at least closed the gap
and they are at least right there with Duke, but
everybody still is catching up to him. Yeah, this is
you talk about who do you feel the best about
every single year? Duke is that team that shoots right
up the top of the conference and everybody has to
catch up to them.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
All Right, we start the took like ow and turn.
This is the Wessel Walker Show.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Listen to The Wes and Walker Show week t is
from noon to three only on Sports Radio ninety two
point seven FM WFNZ, the official home of the Charlotte
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