December 22, 2025 • 43 mins
In the final hour of the show, Walker and Flounder further discuss the idea of extending Bryce Young this offseason if he closes the season strong, talk about the possible return of Robert Hunt to the offensive line and look ahead to how important the Seattle game actually is.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Listening to the Wes and Walker Show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
And a big thanks to Kyle as well, because he
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's Wes.
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Speaker 1 (00:26):
I like Big Newtons.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM WFNZ. Also,
I want to thank my smoking hot girlfriend Olivia from
Wess and Walker Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ. Hurricane
(00:49):
Mart puts it well on the fan Duel text line.
I just want to say, it's nice to be able
to have this conversation about potentially paying Bryce as opposed
to which QB we're gonna be looking for this offseason.
A man, can we agree on that like I do?
Wonder I know I'm inviting the people on the other
side that absolutely hate Bryce. I'm inviting them to the party,
(01:12):
but I do just want to know, are you really
in favor of looking for a different QB entirely still?
And I get maybe everything comes crashing down these next
two games. They're going to be playing a phenomenal defense
against Seattle. I get that they'll have Tampa Bay again,
and a gotta have a situation. I mean, I don't
think Bryce is going to fall short of that. He's
(01:33):
given us every single scenario before that suggests that he
is going to live up to the hype. He is
going to deliver on the got to have it situations.
But as of right now, are there really people out
there that are still?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Man, you got to look for a QB this offseason.
Everything that we've seen so far that's hogwashed. We got
to look for a different QB.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We can't. We can't be there, right, No, No one should.
If you are. If you are there, you're not watching.
That's that's really what you're telling me, is that you
are someone that's blinded by the hate. You turn the
game on and you sit there and look at your phone,
or you do something else. You're not watching. You're not
watching the game, there's no way.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
People writing in FanDuel text line seven oh four or
five seven oh ninety six to ten. Chappelle from Columbia says,
gotta let Bryce rip it. He's a dog and you
can't cage a dog.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
He spells at aw by the way ye takes the
appropriate way to spell dog. North Star Race Fans says,
Compare Jordan Love the contract extension that he got, for instance,
QB and waiting approach versus Bryce thrown in rookie season.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
He's ahead of schedule. I like that. He brought up
Jordan Love.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Now, Jordan Love showed us a lot of one just
raw tools, and he played on a team that was
just overall successful. And so the Packers gave him a
whole bunch of money based off of one year sample.
But Packers don't regret that deal. They don't regret that
even with him maybe being weird every once in a while.
We can compare Bryce to the Steph Curry of quarterbacks
(02:58):
with Jordan Loves almost to James Harden. If you will,
like there will be some turnovers, There's gonna be turnovers.
To James Harden, He's gonna throw some step backs. We
know James Harden is fantastic at step backs, but also
James Harden was an MVP. The issue you the thing
you don't want to do is be James Harden in
the postseason if you're Jordan Love and he hasn't shown
us to be that. But that's the comparison I like
(03:20):
either way. That's something that would be interesting to see.
Oh hoo's your Bobby's here? Shout out to whos your
Bobby feel in Fester had on? Oh the hoodies nice
as well. Huge shout out to hoos your Bobby who
stops by the Chandler vault to studios here.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
He missed my Fernando Mendoza not necessarily.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
No, he's saying he heard it. Oh okay, he's saying
he heard you.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
That's okay.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I'm like him at the college a little, and I
have questions. I have questions, That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Not a big slight to Mendoza, but just a little slug.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
It makes sense. But I'm pulling for you. It's crazy
to see what they're doing. But Jordan Love, James Harden,
Steph Curry, Bryce Young, they both get contract extensions early
in this case, that we're discussing. Man, if it happens
like I get bringing him into the equation because they
don't regret that and they're very different qbs. I mean
Bryce Young. I do not want him throwing like he
(04:13):
could throw off platform. I don't want him throwing fadeaways.
I don't want that. The thing is, if you pay
him and then you're able to continue to upgrade the
roster around him, perhaps as long as he finishes out
the season the way that he's been performing, then maybe
that's the thing to do. If you're Dan Morgan, Brent Tillis,
(04:35):
and all the shot callers that exist over the area.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Somebody said, why would you pay him this offseason because
you've got him at the fifth year extension price. Yeah,
that makes a little bit of sense because if you're
going all in for next year. But my thing is
is are you going all in next year and expecting
to make a run to a Super Bowl. That's the
only way that to me, it makes sense not to
pay him because you want to get him at a
(04:59):
little bit of a lay price because it's like we said,
he goes out next year and just absolutely goes off
in a contract year. Maybe he's one of those guys.
We've seen plenty of guys like that before. He's going
to demand fifty five sixty million dollars if you can
go ahead and sign him now. And let's say he's
(05:19):
he's in that camp where, yeah, he's got some leverage,
but you can say, hey man, we still have some moments,
you know, like we had during this season where you know,
you weren't playing your best football. Maybe we can get
you down to forty five million or something like that
that's gonna help you in the long run when you're
trying to ultimately win the Super Bowl or whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Because I mean, you're with me right.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Next year, we want to see this team make the playoffs,
make it pretty comfortably, probably like you know, ten and seven,
eleven and six, a little bit more comfortably than they're
gonna make it this year, and the expectation is just
see what happens once you get to the playoffs. We're
not thinking this team is a year away from a
super Bowl, right.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, I think so? Okay, Well, no that's not the expectation. No,
it's today.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It makes sense to sign him long term, have some
money down the road that you have at your expense
that you can then use to build your roster into
being a super Bowl contender.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
We are you seeing what I'm saying?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Are they a super Bowl contender in the way that
Washington was a super Bowl contender last year?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Are you a super Bowl contender in the way that
New England might be this year by having a week
strength to schedule, capitalizing on the moments that you need,
beating the Bills earlier in the year, beating the Ravens
last night? Are you that kind of super Bowl contender?
Not a super Bowl favorite? There's a difference. So I
wouldn't say that they'd be a super Bowl favorite. No,
I would not.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Right, they're not going to be Philly. They're not going
to be Kansas City. Like, you're not gearing up and
signing veterans to say, hey, this is we're going for
a super Bowl title this year. If it happens, great,
But that's to me why, Okay, it makes sense to
pay him long term so that you do have money
down the line where if you have to pay a
big piece, let's say three years from now, when you're
(07:09):
gearing up and saying we're one of the best teams
in the NFC, you have that money to be able
to pay that guy.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Let's read some comments coming in from Dave. During media availability.
Spoke a little while ago. Dave Canalis says that he
will not keep up with the Bucks Dolphin score on
Sunday while he's coaching versus Seattle. He says, we all
have to be locked in. We can't afford to do that.
Call me naive, I'll be that. I believe him. I
do now. He was watching Tampa Bay lows to Atlanta
(07:38):
leading up to the Saints Panthers matchup. He did say that,
but he's not coaching ran. He's at home Watson Thursday
night football like the rest of us. So you can't
ask this man to not watch that meaningful of a
game to Carolina, as meaningful of a game as it
gets without one that without being one that you're participating in.
I do believe him, though, don't think he's going to
keep up to date with it. Maybe some people tell
(07:59):
him what's going on, but I don't think he is
going to be looking at his phone like that. Dave
Canalis also says it's not a certainty, but there's a
real possibility that the Panthers open up Rob Hunt's twenty
one day practice windows this week, so very interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
What's happening here?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Rob Hunt comes over as the twenty million dollars a
year man they pay him right there at guard in
his second season.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Right at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Week two, Rob Hunt goes down with an injury, tearing
his biceps against Arizona. He underwent surgery. When you see
torn biceps usually see that those guys just don't come back,
and we see just how close to the finish line
that he might return before they cross it. Canalis did
say that Hunt made progress the past several weeks. So
(08:44):
if Rob A. Hunt is back, do you put him
in right away? I would think they probably do, especially
with all the different combinations that they've had. Cad May's
Austin Corbett, Cad playing center, Corbett moving to right guard,
having Damian Lewis at left, and then your tackles are
icky and TEAMO. I think you probably do just plug
and play Rob Hunt pretty immediately, as long as he's
(09:05):
one hundred percent, That's what I would guess.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Well, you look at Austin Corben in this last game.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Lowest graded offensive lineman also allowed four quarterback pressures, including
one sack, so he's kind of struggling there.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We saw that earlier in the season as well.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
If Robert Hunt is ready to go, now again, to me,
he's got to almost be one hundred percent. This can't
be we're rushing him back to try to get him
on the field. But if he's close to one hundred percent,
I'd make the move. I'd go with him.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It is a little precarious of a situation because here
you are with two games left to go in the season.
You have a game against a great defensive line in Seattle,
and you have a game. I mean, it's the ultimate.
It couldn't be more of a storybook ending either tragedy
(10:00):
or a triumphant story. Last game. Do you win it? Congratulations,
you're in. No, you're sending home packing in one of
the most immoralizing ways that game, putting a guy in
that hasn't played since Week two. He's the better overall
offensive lineman that you have at that right guard spot.
And as much as West likes to clown him and
(10:21):
I get it, he really legitimately struggled in past protecting situations.
Sometimes last year and even at the beginning of this season,
one thing that we do need to give him credit for.
He's a really good run blocker.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
He is yep.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
So if Chuba Hubbard looking healthier but even still not
getting going all that much, Rico Daddle seems to have
lost some of the magic that he had at the
beginning of the year. Man, Can you just put him
in there and the running game gets better because of
him and you don't lose any You get better in
pass protection with Rob Hunt. That's why I think you
probably just put him out there. If that wasn't good
(10:56):
enough reason alone to put him out there with the starters.
The other one is, hey, we're paying him twenty million dollars.
If he's active, he's playing, and that's just how it goes.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, I think that's the strategy that you got to
go with. You got to ask yourself, what is the
best case scenario for us, What is the best five
that we can put out there? And do we believe
that Rob Hunt is that big of an upgrade over
Austin Corbett. I believe that, As you said in the
run Game, I think it's going to help you immensely.
And we've talked about how much we want this team
(11:25):
to be able to run the football and run it
successfully to help out this passing game. And then I mean, yeah,
in pass protection, he's going to be better than what
we're seeing from Austin Corbett, even if.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
He might not be perfect.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
And yeah, that's one of the things that we do
see a lot from Wes when he goes in on him,
is that he's not necessarily perfect in pass protection. Even still,
I think he's going to be better than what you've
seen here recently from Austin Corbett. So if you can
limit the pressure on your quarterback, then why would you
not throw that guy back out there unless he is
really pushing it to come back. That's the only reason
(12:01):
I would say, Okay, hold on to him for another
week or something like that, and then maybe we see
in that game against Tampa.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Just generally, as a philosophy, I usually like waiting for
guys to be one hundred percent because I don't like
risking further injury. Even if it is a really important player,
I don't like bringing them back too soon. More comments
from Dave Canalis. More updates on the offensive line. Dave
Canalis does feel confident that Iki Ekwanu will be able
to practice and play this week, but they have to
see how his knee is responding. So good news not confirmed,
(12:31):
but the feeling is that we'll get some good news
on Iki Kwanu who missed this past game against Tampa. Man,
that's a big time storyline here cause you you being
without your starting left tackle. It's a big deal in
the NFL if that guy doesn't play. That is enough
of an injury, a single injury to completely swing a game.
Quarterback is one of those injuries for sure that'll change
(12:53):
the line in a huge way. Short of quarterback, what
else do you think what other player that it is
an above average player to a star that might not
play in that single game. What other player, what other
player or position absence would have a huge impact on
the line. I think it's quarterback clearly number one by
(13:13):
leaps and bounds. Like to me, I put a lot
of stock into an absence at left tackle because just
think about all there.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, but probably edge rusher if you had a significant
edge rusher.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I think those are the two right wide receiver You
can game plan a special wide receiver being out is huge,
but you can game plan in other ways a really.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Special running back.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, how much does that come down to just you
blocking really well?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Edge rusher can't replace a really talented edg rusher. You
can have different blitz packages, but we've seen we've tried
to make up for it here a million different times
over the last couple of years, and the Panthers are
still towards the bottom and sacks dead last last year.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Either way.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
To bring this point home, to get the win that
you did with yosh Niman out there, that's huge. It's
just a huge thing that happened without ikey Ikwanu. We'll
continue to talk about this game coming up next. Two
more segments to go. WESN. Walker Flounder filling in Sports
Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Yeah, I want to
(14:22):
tell you what the vibes are like in the Chandler
Voltsa Studios. CB Injury Law dot Com, CEB Injury Law
dot Com.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
One call.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That's all the Carolina's personal injury lawyers. Here's what the
attitude is around here. It's very Derek Brown asked, I
asked Smoke how he was feeling today. He said, I'm
feeling pretty good. But the job's not done. Smoke is ready, man,
all ready victory Monday. They're not allowed to have him
over there. I feel like we're allowed to have them here.
(14:50):
It's probably better radio. But Smoke said, Nope, job's not done.
Got a game against Seattle next weekend. We got a
game against Tampa at the very end in order to
take care of business to win the NFC South. And
I will say this, I did ask Smoke. I heard
him say this on the Kyle Bailey Show too. I've
referenced that a couple of times. Good stuff from Kyle
on Friday as I was driving home. But when we
(15:11):
ask the biggest rivals, who are they? We do this
all the time, right, Smoke is somebody that hates the
Bucks more even going back to the really good football
teams here in Carolina early two thousand, two thousand and three,
the big time rivalry that the Panthers had with Tampa
Bay where they made their team kind of in the
image of Tampa having this nasty defense, a phenomenal defensive line,
(15:35):
those guys just going out on an all at war
when they would play one another. Smoke still garners a
lot of hate from that era, more so than he
has the hate for the Saints and the Falcons. So
I imagine that he feels pretty good today. I imagine that
it's only going to be turned all the way up
once we get to the very last game of the season.
That's what I love, man, the fact that we got
(15:57):
through a really impressive game from Caroline. I know that
wasn't perfect, but now what it does is it gives
us a hell of a belated Christmas present come Week eighteen.
At all the stakes on the line, assuming people do
what they need to do in Week seventeen, it doesn't
even really matter Panthers. Yes, the Panthers could get to
(16:18):
the postseason if they beat Seattle and Tampa Bay loses
to Miami, But in all likelihood, what's going to happen
is it's all going to come down to that final
game of the season.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Oh, Quinn, viewers didn't inspire yesterday. I can't say that
I was surprised. Now, No, he did not, absolutely not. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So I just love the fact that we're going to
be set up. We're guaranteed interesting content in Week eighteen
and the first week of the playoffs because of what
the Panthers did or did not do. All the stakes
on the line, baby, it's all you can ask for.
It's a game seven essentially.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, I mean that's the thing. And for them, they
seem to have the right mindset. Now I'm hoping that
it doesn't mean that they have to take a loss
in this game to sort of keep that mindset and
get it ready for the game against Tampa. But you know,
I think this is this is exactly what you could
have I mean, it's more than you could have hoped for,
(17:13):
but it's what you could have hoped for at mid
season if you were a Panthers fan, where it looks like,
hey man, Tampa, Tampa's probably gonna win this division, and
you thought to yourself, yeah, we'll probably still have a
good year. I don't know if anybody imagined that Tampa
would fall apart the way that they did, And now
all of a sudden you are in the driver's seat
to be able to win this division.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
That is insane.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I hope that next week, somehow the Dolphins can pull
it out and the Panthers can find a way to
beat Seattle and we it would just be one of
those games that ends up being meaningless.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
But more than likely that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So hopefully you know this will be a game that
you know, for Panther fans, I mean, I know they
were wanting the night game to be here.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
But hopefully the NFL us the right.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Thing, puts that game in primetime, gives it the proper stage,
and this team will show up in primetime and be
able to pull off a huge victory to be able
to win this division.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
How much does this game matter to Panthers fans? Let
me know, Fandal text line, this is a weird one
seven oh four, five, seven oh ninety six to ten,
and I want to continue to recap the game. It
was an excellent performance from Carolina in terms of doing
what they needed to do in order to extend their
season here. But this is a very weird situation because
in all likelihood, I mean, look, maybe I just need
(18:32):
to stop myself dead in my tracks because Tampa they
are reeling unlike really a team I've seen before. At
Philadelphia comes to mind the way that they reeled a
few years ago. But even then, Philadelphia still did enough
on the front end to make the postseason, and it
was Tampa, oddly enough, that beat Philadelphia in the first
round of the playoffs. Philadelphia just fell flat on their face.
(18:55):
I'm sure we've seen teams do this before, but boy,
Tampa Bay just can't help but lose every single football
game that they play.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
They've lost the last three.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The only win that they have recently is a three
point victory against the Cardinals. Even with Jacobe Brissett and
that offense putting up impressive numbers, Cardinals aren't a good
football team. They continue to lose a million different ways.
They just lost to the Falcons this weekend. Yep, so
you lost to the Pats, the Bills, the Rams, I
guess acceptable, except then you lose to the Saints, the Falcons,
and the Panthers. All they do is lose every single game.
(19:30):
Baker Mayfield is not thrown for very many yards. The
running attack was nice, ran the ball pretty well on
this Panthers defense. Not great when it tighten that up.
Even Still, Ben don't break that was at play here,
like for them to stop the run the next time out.
Still the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fhind a way to lose, Like,
is there a shot that Miami can get this done?
Quin Eewers does not inspire me. I'm not telling you that,
(19:52):
But what I am telling you is that neither does
Tampa or this Baker Mayfield led offense the way that
they've been performing.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, it's fair.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I mean, there's an opportune, I think for it to happen,
But it's very, very slim because I think the thing
is is that when you were he looks like the
what was he Was he undrafted or was he an
end of the draft type of game? It was low
If he I think he got selected in the seventh round.
Maybe this is not going to be Brock Party. I
(20:20):
can promise you that he is not going to come
out here and all of a sudden be the franchise
quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. And I'm a dude that
was a big when you were supporter when he was
at Texas, I thought he got way too much flak
for a guy that was incredibly successful. But I think
in this game you're looking at it. I mean, is
it impossible for Miami. No, Because you look at some
(20:41):
of their other wins that they've had recently Whenkua was
in there, there were some improbable wins in there, games
that you did not think that Miami would be able
to win, allah their win over the Buffalo Bills, so
it's not impossible. But if you're the Panthers, you have
to go in with the mind set that, hey, it's
all on us to take care of business. We've got
(21:03):
to find a way to, you know, win this game
against Seattle. Ultimately, the game probably doesn't matter when we
look at it, because it'll all come down to that
Week eighteen matchup. But you've got to make sure that
you still have that right mindset. Let's build a win
streak here at the end of the season. Yeah, let's
go into that game with two straight wins. You just
potentially beat I mean where Seattle sits right now?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Are they?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I mean they just beat the Rams. They're the best
team in the NFC, right they might be. I think
they are. They could be the best team in football.
If you think the Rams are the best team in
the NFL, then Seattle might be.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah, because I think you saw yesterday that we don't
know exactly what the Denver Broncos are, So Seattle might
be the best team in football. You've shown up for
these types of games, though, so maybe you can get
a win in that game and be feeling really good
going into that game against Tampa. Feel like your team
is in a little bit of a rhythm. That's what
you're hoping for from Carolina. But yeah, it's all gonna
(22:03):
come down to that Week eighteen matchup. Man, That's that's
what I think is gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Just so people.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I don't know if anybody else feels this way, but
I do want to clarify something because we didn't have
somebody ask about Tampa beating Miami saying that, hey, Week
eighteen doesn't necessarily guarantee fireworks if Miami. If Tampa beats
Miami then and Carolina loses to Seattle, then there won't
be any fireworks. I mean, yeah, that's uh, that's not true, right,
(22:32):
Like you're still going to have fireworks.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, so that it comes down to that game regardless,
come down to.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
That game, which is why I'm asking the question. Yeah,
this game like it matters. It could Panthers still need
to win this one just in case Miami beats Tampa.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
But it is.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I am going to be watching with a very not
weird feeling. It's just a weird situation to be in.
So okay, it's not a bye. It still matters. You
don't want to do the rest of the starters, God forbid,
save that conversation for the preseason. Not that anybody or
anybody would truly suggest that. I'm just saying, let's save
that conversation for the preseason, But I'm just there's not
(23:13):
a lot of stock in this one for me.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You're gonna you're.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Gonna be watching knowing that if you lose this game,
there's a good chance that the sea or there is
a chance that the season is not over.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Not even a chance, it's it's the truth that it
is not.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Over, right, So all of a sudden, so you know, hey,
you know, especially with how good this team has been
at bouncing back from some of their lesser performances, you
would still probably be feeling pretty confident.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So that's the thing that I think is amazing.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
You can go into this week with the feeling that, hey,
even though we're in a very pressure pack time of
the year, pressure is kind of off for this game.
So if you go out and win, great, that helps
you can build momentum.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
You'd like to see that.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Just from a you know, just from the standpoint of
the fact that we haven't seen them really be able
to build any sort of winning streak this year. But
It's not the end of the world if they end
up losing that game. So, yeah, it's gonna be it's
gonna be a weird feeling inside a Bank of America stadium.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, I do. How are you approaching this one? I'm
getting some interesting answers here. Bagel Guy says, I may
be wrong in doing this, but I'm treating the Seattle
game kind of like a bye week. Another banged up
another banged up is not playing. I don't know a
big banged up player. I'm putting Bagel Guy your text
all the time. I need you to be better than this.
I love you, Bagel Guy. I'm just kind of joking,
(24:33):
but he's basically saying he's putting all of the eggs
into the Tampa basket. When I get that, and I
do like that, that's what I I don't know how
to handle this. I want to beat Seattle. If they
don't win and they give you a poor showing, even
this game is muddied, more so because of how inconsistent
Carolina has been. It's the classic they win when they
(24:53):
lose one. If they lose to Seattle, then do we
just continue this trend? It feels stupid to say that's
feeling great.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Either way is kind of how I think you'll be
feeling going into that final week pretty good, because either
they built on the momentum and this is the first
time this year that you can feel like that, or
they lose and you say to yourself, this is gonna
be the motivator for this game.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I think that's the mindset that Panther fans should be taking.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Matt in Greensborough, by the way, I was asking about
the Tampa collapse. He said, this might be the biggest
collapse since the Panthers started six and two and then
missed the playoffs. Touchet sir, that might be one of
the bigger collapses that I've said.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Way, why are we doing this today?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Can we save the negative stuff for Tuesday through Friday?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I think Matt Greensborough's okay.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
I think he was just bringing up the old pat
But it's why flounder we appreciate this day so much
is because of the pain that we've gone through. Yes,
we've gone through a lot of pain, and now here
we are, December twenty second, talking about the Panthers actually
not needing week seventeen and only needing week eighteen. In
order to get to the postseason. Crazy talking about Carolina
(26:01):
hosting a postseason game, hosting one as the four seed.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Who could come here.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
I don't know that'll be interesting, but I will say this,
they already beat the Rams. We'll see how they perform
against Seattle, who looks to be an absolute Juggernautally.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
That could be the team that you see as well.
So that's another reason why you'd like to win this
one as well. So you know, hey, we beat that
team already, you have confidence if you got to see
him again.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
That's right. Seven oh four says I hate Seattle. I
want to win next Sunday, and if we lose, I'm
going to be pissed. I'll just get over it a
lot faster and look forward to Tampa. Now here's the
one thing that I've been talking about, me wanting more
so than maybe even the postseason appearance, being above five hundred.
If you beat Seattle, you're guaranteed to be above five
(26:46):
hundred this year. And you know how badly I want
to be above five hundred for back to back seasons
for the first time in franchise history. So if you
can do that, and you just go ahead and lock
that away, that'll be nice. Above five hundred matters. To
think about how much we're talking about Mike Tomlin never
having a below five hundred year, the narrative moments there
being able to say that that's nice.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
People go to that all the time, And what.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Are people starting to do with that team, starting to
believe again that hey, maybe there is something that this
team can do when they get to the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, so when you get to say that Dave Canalis
finished above five hundred, when Bryce Shung led his team
to an above five hundred record, I think saying that,
I think those words above five hundred. I think that matters.
And so if you're able to say that for two
straight years, you're able to build something here in Carolina,
have a level of sustainability that we've not had in
(27:41):
quite some time since the Cam Newton constant playoff years.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Man, did we take that for granted?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
But I don't even know if we did. We I
won't say that. Man, I can't believe that it was
so long. I don't think we took it for granted.
I think we celebrated appropriately so when they were going
on those special runs. It's just been so long, so
the fact that you have a possibility of it here.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
A couple of just finishing observations here before we give
you the walk off. On the other side, I wanted
to give you some rapid fire topics here floundy. Okay,
I haven't talked a lot about t MAC, who was
very good, and yesterday's.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Guy performed a meccag buka for sure.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
How much does that matter because they're not guarding one another.
It's the classic QB matchup. Who wins between both guys
when they don't have anything to do with stopping the
opponent on the other side, a mechabuka T MAC, Team
MAC clearly having the better game in a race for
offensive Rookie of the Year. How much does it matter
that the Panthers get to point to the receiver that
had the better game over Tampa.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Oh, it definitely matters because you had a chance to
select this guy over Team MAC. And if he comes
out and goes ballistic and all of a sudden, we're
sitting here talking about him having some unbelievable performance while
T MAC was relatively quiet, then you would be feeling like, man,
did we select the right guy?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
You don't feel like that.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Today you feel like, yes, we definitely selected the best
fit for us. And I think one of the things
that you like to see is that in the biggest
games of the year, you have a guy in teamac
that's stepping up and making plays. This was the biggest
game that you would played all season long, doesn't matter
on any of the other games that you've played. You
could say the Rams game was big for them, whatever.
(29:20):
This was the biggest game of the season, and he
stepped up and played really well yesterday, made a couple
of difficult of difficult catches as well, So I mean, yeah,
he did everything that he needed to do. And you
could say with with Abuka, well, you know, he was
playing in an offense where they had Chris Godwin and
Mike Evans.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Mike Evans didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Outside of the first drive of this game and then
a little bit on that final drive they completely took
him away. So you would think Abuka would be the
guy that would step up.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Never really happen.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
So credit to Carolina for taking you know, the credit
to the defense for taking him out of it. But yeah,
it does mean a lot when these two rookies are
matched up together and t Mak is the one that
ends up out performing him.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
T MAC having the seventy yards, getting back on track
to finish with over one thousand yards in his rookie season,
a Mecca only having the one catch, and it was
on a blown assignment. As we talked about earlier, j C.
Horn cover three. Maybe West went full John Gruden QB
camp on the board because I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Looking at it right now.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
The breakdown is still up there of exactly what happened
on that play, but I will say the advanced stats
do credit it to Nick Scott. So there is a
debate that's going on in the football community as to
who exactly this was.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
A Is this a thing on Twitter?
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I don't know, Okay, okay, either way, Outside of a
blown assignment, It's not like I saw a mecha Buka
win a whole bunch of matchups. In fact, I didn't
see him win really any of them. And the passing
game was kind of non existent in this one outside
of the Mike Evans touchdown. So the fact that t
MAC did have a couple of tough catches the first
(31:01):
down where Bryce shung his blitz and then puts it
right on the chest of team Mak who makes a
really difficult catch. His quarterback was draped all over him.
There was a chance that it might pop off of
the chest and then possibly be intercepted, but he still
comes down with it. I think we had wanted to
see that. We wanted to see the inner We wanted
to see the tough catches, the contested catches, and the
(31:22):
fact that T Matt gave us a touchdown, he forced
some mistackles. Here's the thing I'll want to give Dave
canal was credit for, and we haven't given a lot
of credit to him. There's just so many things to
talk about, but Dave deserves credit for I think sticking
with the run, but also allowing Bryce to throw it.
I think picking and choosing the right times when Bryce
let it go downfield. But man, I was asking Dave
(31:47):
Canalis to use t mac in a way that he
was using him earlier this year before he completely abandoned it.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Can I get some.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Deep throws to him where we take some shots outside
of him just being open against zone and can you
give him some of those go balls or some shots
down the field with a one on one opportunity.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
They did that he had a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
They tried again where he does the one handed thing,
but whatever, he got the touchdown afterwards. And then also
you put it right on his chest past the sticks.
Team Mac comes up with a tough catch there. They
threw a screen to him. I like that, forcing a mistackle.
Didn't get a ton of yact, but showed you a
little bit of that ability. Let's do more of that
and then have Jalen Cocher eat opposite. I really like
(32:31):
the way that they used Tmac in this game.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Yeah, they used him in a variety of different ways.
It wasn't just this is the type of receiver that
he is. We have to do that. And the first
down throw that you're talking about, I mean, that's a
ball he does not catch.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Earlier in the season.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Remember we talked about it in training camp, and then
we talked about it again early in the season. There
were plays that the ball just kind of ate him up.
That was another play where it was a timing route.
Bryce threw it before he was even looking, and there's
a chance at that moment when he turns and looks, hey,
ball's already coming, it might be might eat you up.
(33:06):
And all of a sudden you have an incompletion there
that was absolutely perfect from both quarterback and wide receiver.
And then yeah, you said it, it used him in
a variety of different ways getting the ball into his hands.
So I loved everything that I saw from him. I
loved everything that I saw from Jalen Coker. I thought
Jalen Coker was tremendous, and you saw the moment where
(33:28):
he needed to.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Step up and make a big play.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Great throw again by Bryce, but Jalen Cocher making a
play that we saw it was the same play had
to be or it was similar to the play that
he made in the preseason against the Browns. That was
the first thing that I thought of. It looked like
a little wheel route and he just did a great
job of bringing it in. So, I mean, both receivers
I thought were really good. Xavier Legett not so much.
(33:55):
But you know, when you got two guys that are
playing well, I think that's certainly something that you leave
this game feeling good about overall, is the wide receiving core,
because you at least have two guys you can rely on.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
All Right, we got the walk off coming up next
with Flounder filling in for Wes here on Western Walker
Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Are you challenging me to a walk off? Oh yeah,
that's a walk off challenge, my friend, it's a walk off.
It's a walk off.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Last segment for West and Walker. I don't want to
say for a while because Wes is going to be
back tomorrow with flound Dog, who's pulling triple duty tomorrow.
But I'm gonna be gone the rest of the week,
and then Wes after the Tuesday show is going to
be gone for the rest of the week. And then
next week Wes isn't going to be in, so I'm
gonna be filling in on Monday. And it is officially
holiday radio schedule season around here, and holiday radio will say,
(35:00):
I do love because it's the only time and I
don't know if I'm do it this time, but usually
it's the only time I wear sweatpants into the studio
because we're all just hanging. It's holiday radio. It's a
good time. There are no rules for holiday radio. I
think after like, it's all business today. Job's not done.
We got to take care of Seattle, but really we
(35:21):
got to take care again of Tampa Bay. The last
week of the season, so we can get to the
postseason around here. But at the same time Holiday Radio.
Maybe next week is sweatpants edition of West Wall, But.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
It is going to be a panther Monday that you're
going to be back with us. Correct, It is gonna
be panther Monday, So it'll still be business.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
It will still be business. You're right about that.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I guess we're and then we're off New Yek'say January second.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, I guess you could come in with some with
some sweatpants.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Just give me one sweatpants show, just one.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Swamtpants all the time, and you guys like to point
it out to me.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
You do. Yeah, it is kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Even though if them is athletic pants, they're not exactly
sweatpant material.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
It's a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
So well, the one thing I will say I used
to try during COVID doing Lockdown Hornets when I was
hosting a solo show for seven thirty and I was
working at home during that time, I tried out sweatpants radio.
Let me tell you, I have to dress for the occasion.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I can't. I am one of these people.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
I cannot wear comfort clothes and just work in the
comfort clothes because to me, it's like, no, this is
what I do when I'm totally being lazy.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I'm being a couch potato. I can't do that. Or
were you like not an off during the show or something.
I'm just just not focused.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
So this is just just not That's just that's me,
though I'm not that's not everybody.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Also, are you Are you someone that can thrive working
at home like if you had?
Speaker 1 (36:52):
If you absolutely not? Yeah, see, I think.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
That's just you need to come in here, be around
your boys and let's get let's let's do radio show
together you guys.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yeah that and that's fair. But you would you thrive
doing work from home or not?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Really?
Speaker 3 (37:07):
I mean, I'd like to think it wouldn't be that
bad because I do do a podcast from the house.
But I yeah, I do like coming in here though.
I do like coming in the camaraderie and being able
to share opinions with each other.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
I like that aspect of it for sure.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Excel Defender says, sweatpants radio that sounds more like the
morning Show. Yeah, they do some sweatpants radio. It feels
like even if they wear jeans, it feels like Mac
and Bone.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
They've partied feel like bones shown up in sweatpants quite
a few times.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense to me, which
it is. Okay, Mack and Bone are great. What's on
Tap presented by Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks has locations in
Concord and forth Mill. Twin Peaks is a local sports lodge.
Come in from May from Scratch Food and Signature twenty
nine degree draft Beers. Monday Night Football Tonight we get
to see old Man Rivers Philip Rivers and his second
start for the Indianapolis Colts. They will be hosting the
(37:58):
San Francisco forty nine Colts are eight and six, saying
Franz ten and four, Philip Rivers oh and one on
his first start. But it was still a very good
game that he played, I don't want to say very good.
Did enough to keep the Colts in it last second
field towards the end of the game to actually take
the league, and then Seattle ends up winning. Still, if
we're discussing Seattle as potentially the best team in football
(38:22):
and having given you potentially the best defense in football,
solid performance from Old Man Rivers, I would still pick
San Francisco to win tonight on the road.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Yeah, I would say San Francisco as well.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
There still is believe it or not, a way that
they can win the division, and so I think with
that on the line, you'll see a motivated team here.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Just feels like, man, the Colts magic.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
It was there early in the season, but once you
lost Daniel Jones for the season, I think that was
pretty much Yet Jonathan Taylor, Hey, this is the one thing,
Jonathan Taylor.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I need you, buddy, my fantasy. I need you.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
I'm exact opposite. No, I need him to do anything.
I need him to not do anything. But the thing is,
I will say this knock on wood for the Big
Boy League, which I don't want to say anything about
because I only get called boogie. Want to bring up
the buy in, But yeah, it's tough and that league.
I am up forty nine point eighty five points, so
(39:18):
I don't need him to go that nuts, so fair enough,
that's fine. But I will say Jonathan Taylor did go
off for forty nine points earlier this year against Atlanta,
So I'm not completely out of the woods just yet.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
You're still sweating.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
But if I make the championship, I'm guaranteed some money,
and so that's what's I already got my money back
by having the weekly high score, because I know people
wanted to tune in for fantasy football breakdowns. But I
will say I've already made the money back. I'm guaranteed
money at some point in some way, shape or for him.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
It is.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
It really is, and honestly is I'm guaranteed money even
if I get second.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I just need to get to second. That's what I need.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
So anyways, Monday night football tonight between the Seattle not
Seattle Shawks to Indianapolis Cults and the San Francisco forty
nine ers. All right, what do you have in store
for the week?
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Here? Flownder?
Speaker 2 (40:09):
You want to you want to pub the young guns
the prod squad panther down.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Did want to point out there is a college basketball
game tonight walker carrollan and does play East Carolina. East
Carolina stinks they are pretty bad, so Carolina should be
able to handle them pretty easily.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
You guys gave them a preview on Heel Tough Blog
slash Fourthrners.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
That's right, we were on there last night. We'll be
there the whole week for you guys. As well, we
got to talk podcast wise tonight. He'll talp blog podcasts
also on tap because we do have a little Bobby
Petrino news that we got to talk about. So that
should gonna be that's gonna be fun. And wait, don't
the Hornets play tonight?
Speaker 2 (40:47):
They do. I was just gonna say that you could
pub your show. But yes, the Hornets also played tonight.
They played the Cleveland Cavaliers and they won already their
last matchup against the Cabs in overtime. Maybe they can
do it again. It is on the road. Was the
other victory that they had against the Calves. It too
was on the road. So the Hornets are nine and nineteen,
Calves fifteen and fourteen. They've kind of been reeling. Calves
(41:08):
are a nine and a half point favorite. Look pretty
terrible time out against the Detroit Pistons for Charlotte after
what was a phenomenal win against Atlanta where I was
feeling all sorts of great. They laid a stinker, especially
in the fourth quarter against Detroit. Lamel Right's still good though,
very good.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, okay, that makes you feel a little better, No,
it does.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
I'd rather them not play as horribly as they did
fourth quarter. But even so, you're right, Hornets still seem
to be turning a corner around here, and if they
can get another win. Calves almost five hundred. That is
not a team that should be this.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Right down the standing were when the Hornets won.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
So yeah, they've been capitalizing on some of the reeling
teams in the Eastern Conference. Maybe you could do it again,
although again the Calves are at home a nine and
a half point favorite. The injury report, Colin Sexton is
out with a quad injury call, Prenner out with the yelbow.
Grant Williams he's out, but it's just a great sign
that he's on the injury report because that means that
he's soon to come back. He's on the injury report
(42:07):
with nie soreness, which is a lot better than my
knee got absolutely destroyed, which is what it used to be.
I'll take knee soreness over absolutely destroyed knee. So the Hornets, yeah,
this is kind of how it goes. You get somebody
back from injury, somebody has to be sacrificed. I do
think that we're overall profiting on some of the guys
getting healthier on the squad.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Yeah, and the pregame show will be here at six
o'clock for you guys to listen to. I believe it's
going to be Kyle and Bone who will be doing
this one before, of course, the holiday schedule gets here,
and then it's I don't know whoever shows up right
is allowed to host the Hornets pre and postgame shows.
Willie p W'll be back later in the night to
do the postgame show, and again that starts at six
(42:48):
right here on Sports Radio ninety two seven w FN's.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
I do want to stress though, we will be providing
local programming all throughout the holidays right safe, but right
here ninety two to seven FM Sports Radio WFNZ. We
appreciate everybody listening. I won't be here tomorrow, so I'll
just go ahead and wish you guys a happy holidays.
Thank you so much for supporting us here on Western
Walker and Sports Radio. Really really appreciate it. Can't wait
to talk about a potential Panthers dub on the other
(43:13):
side of the week, and also gets you ready for
that last game against Tampa where it's for all the marbles, Baby,
I'm excited. Fun Panthers victory breakdown today on Western Walker,
Kyle Bailey, Smoke Ludwig coming up next. Sports Radio ninety
two seven FM. Listen to the Wes and Walker Show
(43:34):
Wee Tis from noon to three only on Sports Radio
ninety two point seven FM.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Com UFNZ, the official home of the Charlotte sports fan
Listening to the Wes and Walker Show.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
And a big thanks to Kyle as well, because he
reminded me that I need to thank my sponsors today.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's Wes.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Just a big shout out to Wonderbread building strong bodies
eight different ways since the forties, Old Spice, Believe in
your smell, and Walker Nextell doing such a great job
hosting us here in Charlotte, Power Ray, Laughing Clown, Malt Liquor, Domino's, Pizza, Checkers,
Country Croc Make your Table, Legendary Coca Cola, Budwiser, the
King of Beers, Applebee's, Big Newton your darn tooting.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I like Big Newtons.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Only on Sports Radio ninety two point seven FM WFNZ. Also,
I want to thank my smoking hot girlfriend Olivia from
Wess and Walker Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ. Hurricane
(00:49):
Mart puts it well on the fan Duel text line.
I just want to say, it's nice to be able
to have this conversation about potentially paying Bryce as opposed
to which QB we're gonna be looking for this offseason.
A man, can we agree on that like I do?
Wonder I know I'm inviting the people on the other
side that absolutely hate Bryce. I'm inviting them to the party,
(01:12):
but I do just want to know, are you really
in favor of looking for a different QB entirely still?
And I get maybe everything comes crashing down these next
two games. They're going to be playing a phenomenal defense
against Seattle. I get that they'll have Tampa Bay again,
and a gotta have a situation. I mean, I don't
think Bryce is going to fall short of that. He's
(01:33):
given us every single scenario before that suggests that he
is going to live up to the hype. He is
going to deliver on the got to have it situations.
But as of right now, are there really people out
there that are still?
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Man, you got to look for a QB this offseason.
Everything that we've seen so far that's hogwashed. We got
to look for a different QB.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We can't. We can't be there, right, No, No one should.
If you are. If you are there, you're not watching.
That's that's really what you're telling me, is that you
are someone that's blinded by the hate. You turn the
game on and you sit there and look at your phone,
or you do something else. You're not watching. You're not
watching the game, there's no way.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
People writing in FanDuel text line seven oh four or
five seven oh ninety six to ten. Chappelle from Columbia says,
gotta let Bryce rip it. He's a dog and you
can't cage a dog.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
He spells at aw by the way ye takes the
appropriate way to spell dog. North Star Race Fans says,
Compare Jordan Love the contract extension that he got, for instance,
QB and waiting approach versus Bryce thrown in rookie season.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
He's ahead of schedule. I like that. He brought up
Jordan Love.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Now, Jordan Love showed us a lot of one just
raw tools, and he played on a team that was
just overall successful. And so the Packers gave him a
whole bunch of money based off of one year sample.
But Packers don't regret that deal. They don't regret that
even with him maybe being weird every once in a while.
We can compare Bryce to the Steph Curry of quarterbacks
(02:58):
with Jordan Loves almost to James Harden. If you will,
like there will be some turnovers, There's gonna be turnovers.
To James Harden, He's gonna throw some step backs. We
know James Harden is fantastic at step backs, but also
James Harden was an MVP. The issue you the thing
you don't want to do is be James Harden in
the postseason if you're Jordan Love and he hasn't shown
us to be that. But that's the comparison I like
(03:20):
either way. That's something that would be interesting to see.
Oh hoo's your Bobby's here? Shout out to whos your
Bobby feel in Fester had on? Oh the hoodies nice
as well. Huge shout out to hoos your Bobby who
stops by the Chandler vault to studios here.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
He missed my Fernando Mendoza not necessarily.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
No, he's saying he heard it. Oh okay, he's saying
he heard you.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
That's okay.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
I'm like him at the college a little, and I
have questions. I have questions, That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Not a big slight to Mendoza, but just a little slug.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
It makes sense. But I'm pulling for you. It's crazy
to see what they're doing. But Jordan Love, James Harden,
Steph Curry, Bryce Young, they both get contract extensions early
in this case, that we're discussing. Man, if it happens
like I get bringing him into the equation because they
don't regret that and they're very different qbs. I mean
Bryce Young. I do not want him throwing like he
(04:13):
could throw off platform. I don't want him throwing fadeaways.
I don't want that. The thing is, if you pay
him and then you're able to continue to upgrade the
roster around him, perhaps as long as he finishes out
the season the way that he's been performing, then maybe
that's the thing to do. If you're Dan Morgan, Brent Tillis,
(04:35):
and all the shot callers that exist over the area.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Somebody said, why would you pay him this offseason because
you've got him at the fifth year extension price. Yeah,
that makes a little bit of sense because if you're
going all in for next year. But my thing is
is are you going all in next year and expecting
to make a run to a Super Bowl. That's the
only way that to me, it makes sense not to
pay him because you want to get him at a
(04:59):
little bit of a lay price because it's like we said,
he goes out next year and just absolutely goes off
in a contract year. Maybe he's one of those guys.
We've seen plenty of guys like that before. He's going
to demand fifty five sixty million dollars if you can
go ahead and sign him now. And let's say he's
(05:19):
he's in that camp where, yeah, he's got some leverage,
but you can say, hey man, we still have some moments,
you know, like we had during this season where you know,
you weren't playing your best football. Maybe we can get
you down to forty five million or something like that
that's gonna help you in the long run when you're
trying to ultimately win the Super Bowl or whatever.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Because I mean, you're with me right.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Next year, we want to see this team make the playoffs,
make it pretty comfortably, probably like you know, ten and seven,
eleven and six, a little bit more comfortably than they're
gonna make it this year, and the expectation is just
see what happens once you get to the playoffs. We're
not thinking this team is a year away from a
super Bowl, right.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, I think so? Okay, Well, no that's not the expectation. No,
it's today.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It makes sense to sign him long term, have some
money down the road that you have at your expense
that you can then use to build your roster into
being a super Bowl contender.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
We are you seeing what I'm saying?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Are they a super Bowl contender in the way that
Washington was a super Bowl contender last year?
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Are you a super Bowl contender in the way that
New England might be this year by having a week
strength to schedule, capitalizing on the moments that you need,
beating the Bills earlier in the year, beating the Ravens
last night? Are you that kind of super Bowl contender?
Not a super Bowl favorite? There's a difference. So I
wouldn't say that they'd be a super Bowl favorite. No,
I would not.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Right, they're not going to be Philly. They're not going
to be Kansas City. Like, you're not gearing up and
signing veterans to say, hey, this is we're going for
a super Bowl title this year. If it happens, great,
But that's to me why, Okay, it makes sense to
pay him long term so that you do have money
down the line where if you have to pay a
big piece, let's say three years from now, when you're
(07:09):
gearing up and saying we're one of the best teams
in the NFC, you have that money to be able
to pay that guy.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Let's read some comments coming in from Dave. During media availability.
Spoke a little while ago. Dave Canalis says that he
will not keep up with the Bucks Dolphin score on
Sunday while he's coaching versus Seattle. He says, we all
have to be locked in. We can't afford to do that.
Call me naive, I'll be that. I believe him. I
do now. He was watching Tampa Bay lows to Atlanta
(07:38):
leading up to the Saints Panthers matchup. He did say that,
but he's not coaching ran. He's at home Watson Thursday
night football like the rest of us. So you can't
ask this man to not watch that meaningful of a
game to Carolina, as meaningful of a game as it
gets without one that without being one that you're participating in.
I do believe him, though, don't think he's going to
keep up to date with it. Maybe some people tell
(07:59):
him what's going on, but I don't think he is
going to be looking at his phone like that. Dave
Canalis also says it's not a certainty, but there's a
real possibility that the Panthers open up Rob Hunt's twenty
one day practice windows this week, so very interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
What's happening here?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Rob Hunt comes over as the twenty million dollars a
year man they pay him right there at guard in
his second season.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Right at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Week two, Rob Hunt goes down with an injury, tearing
his biceps against Arizona. He underwent surgery. When you see
torn biceps usually see that those guys just don't come back,
and we see just how close to the finish line
that he might return before they cross it. Canalis did
say that Hunt made progress the past several weeks. So
(08:44):
if Rob A. Hunt is back, do you put him
in right away? I would think they probably do, especially
with all the different combinations that they've had. Cad May's
Austin Corbett, Cad playing center, Corbett moving to right guard,
having Damian Lewis at left, and then your tackles are
icky and TEAMO. I think you probably do just plug
and play Rob Hunt pretty immediately, as long as he's
(09:05):
one hundred percent, That's what I would guess.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Well, you look at Austin Corben in this last game.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Lowest graded offensive lineman also allowed four quarterback pressures, including
one sack, so he's kind of struggling there.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We saw that earlier in the season as well.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
If Robert Hunt is ready to go, now again, to me,
he's got to almost be one hundred percent. This can't
be we're rushing him back to try to get him
on the field. But if he's close to one hundred percent,
I'd make the move. I'd go with him.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
It is a little precarious of a situation because here
you are with two games left to go in the season.
You have a game against a great defensive line in Seattle,
and you have a game. I mean, it's the ultimate.
It couldn't be more of a storybook ending either tragedy
(10:00):
or a triumphant story. Last game. Do you win it? Congratulations,
you're in. No, you're sending home packing in one of
the most immoralizing ways that game, putting a guy in
that hasn't played since Week two. He's the better overall
offensive lineman that you have at that right guard spot.
And as much as West likes to clown him and
(10:21):
I get it, he really legitimately struggled in past protecting situations.
Sometimes last year and even at the beginning of this season,
one thing that we do need to give him credit for.
He's a really good run blocker.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
He is yep.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
So if Chuba Hubbard looking healthier but even still not
getting going all that much, Rico Daddle seems to have
lost some of the magic that he had at the
beginning of the year. Man, Can you just put him
in there and the running game gets better because of
him and you don't lose any You get better in
pass protection with Rob Hunt. That's why I think you
probably just put him out there. If that wasn't good
(10:56):
enough reason alone to put him out there with the starters.
The other one is, hey, we're paying him twenty million dollars.
If he's active, he's playing, and that's just how it goes.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Yeah, I think that's the strategy that you got to
go with. You got to ask yourself, what is the
best case scenario for us, What is the best five
that we can put out there? And do we believe
that Rob Hunt is that big of an upgrade over
Austin Corbett. I believe that, As you said in the
run Game, I think it's going to help you immensely.
And we've talked about how much we want this team
(11:25):
to be able to run the football and run it
successfully to help out this passing game. And then I mean, yeah,
in pass protection, he's going to be better than what
we're seeing from Austin Corbett, even if.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
He might not be perfect.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
And yeah, that's one of the things that we do
see a lot from Wes when he goes in on him,
is that he's not necessarily perfect in pass protection. Even still,
I think he's going to be better than what you've
seen here recently from Austin Corbett. So if you can
limit the pressure on your quarterback, then why would you
not throw that guy back out there unless he is
really pushing it to come back. That's the only reason
(12:01):
I would say, Okay, hold on to him for another
week or something like that, and then maybe we see
in that game against Tampa.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Just generally, as a philosophy, I usually like waiting for
guys to be one hundred percent because I don't like
risking further injury. Even if it is a really important player,
I don't like bringing them back too soon. More comments
from Dave Canalis. More updates on the offensive line. Dave
Canalis does feel confident that Iki Ekwanu will be able
to practice and play this week, but they have to
see how his knee is responding. So good news not confirmed,
(12:31):
but the feeling is that we'll get some good news
on Iki Kwanu who missed this past game against Tampa. Man,
that's a big time storyline here cause you you being
without your starting left tackle. It's a big deal in
the NFL if that guy doesn't play. That is enough
of an injury, a single injury to completely swing a game.
Quarterback is one of those injuries for sure that'll change
(12:53):
the line in a huge way. Short of quarterback, what
else do you think what other player that it is
an above average player to a star that might not
play in that single game. What other player, what other
player or position absence would have a huge impact on
the line. I think it's quarterback clearly number one by
(13:13):
leaps and bounds. Like to me, I put a lot
of stock into an absence at left tackle because just
think about all there.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, but probably edge rusher if you had a significant
edge rusher.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
I think those are the two right wide receiver You
can game plan a special wide receiver being out is huge,
but you can game plan in other ways a really.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Special running back.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Okay, how much does that come down to just you
blocking really well?
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Edge rusher can't replace a really talented edg rusher. You
can have different blitz packages, but we've seen we've tried
to make up for it here a million different times
over the last couple of years, and the Panthers are
still towards the bottom and sacks dead last last year.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Either way.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
To bring this point home, to get the win that
you did with yosh Niman out there, that's huge. It's
just a huge thing that happened without ikey Ikwanu. We'll
continue to talk about this game coming up next. Two
more segments to go. WESN. Walker Flounder filling in Sports
Radio ninety two to seven WFNZ. Yeah, I want to
(14:22):
tell you what the vibes are like in the Chandler
Voltsa Studios. CB Injury Law dot Com, CEB Injury Law
dot Com.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
One call.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That's all the Carolina's personal injury lawyers. Here's what the
attitude is around here. It's very Derek Brown asked, I
asked Smoke how he was feeling today. He said, I'm
feeling pretty good. But the job's not done. Smoke is ready, man,
all ready victory Monday. They're not allowed to have him
over there. I feel like we're allowed to have them here.
(14:50):
It's probably better radio. But Smoke said, Nope, job's not done.
Got a game against Seattle next weekend. We got a
game against Tampa at the very end in order to
take care of business to win the NFC South. And
I will say this, I did ask Smoke. I heard
him say this on the Kyle Bailey Show too. I've
referenced that a couple of times. Good stuff from Kyle
on Friday as I was driving home. But when we
(15:11):
ask the biggest rivals, who are they? We do this
all the time, right, Smoke is somebody that hates the
Bucks more even going back to the really good football
teams here in Carolina early two thousand, two thousand and three,
the big time rivalry that the Panthers had with Tampa
Bay where they made their team kind of in the
image of Tampa having this nasty defense, a phenomenal defensive line,
(15:35):
those guys just going out on an all at war
when they would play one another. Smoke still garners a
lot of hate from that era, more so than he
has the hate for the Saints and the Falcons. So
I imagine that he feels pretty good today. I imagine that
it's only going to be turned all the way up
once we get to the very last game of the season.
That's what I love, man, the fact that we got
(15:57):
through a really impressive game from Caroline. I know that
wasn't perfect, but now what it does is it gives
us a hell of a belated Christmas present come Week eighteen.
At all the stakes on the line, assuming people do
what they need to do in Week seventeen, it doesn't
even really matter Panthers. Yes, the Panthers could get to
(16:18):
the postseason if they beat Seattle and Tampa Bay loses
to Miami, But in all likelihood, what's going to happen
is it's all going to come down to that final
game of the season.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Oh, Quinn, viewers didn't inspire yesterday. I can't say that
I was surprised. Now, No, he did not, absolutely not. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
So I just love the fact that we're going to
be set up. We're guaranteed interesting content in Week eighteen
and the first week of the playoffs because of what
the Panthers did or did not do. All the stakes
on the line, baby, it's all you can ask for.
It's a game seven essentially.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, I mean that's the thing. And for them, they
seem to have the right mindset. Now I'm hoping that
it doesn't mean that they have to take a loss
in this game to sort of keep that mindset and
get it ready for the game against Tampa. But you know,
I think this is this is exactly what you could
have I mean, it's more than you could have hoped for,
(17:13):
but it's what you could have hoped for at mid
season if you were a Panthers fan, where it looks like,
hey man, Tampa, Tampa's probably gonna win this division, and
you thought to yourself, yeah, we'll probably still have a
good year. I don't know if anybody imagined that Tampa
would fall apart the way that they did, And now
all of a sudden you are in the driver's seat
to be able to win this division.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
That is insane.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I hope that next week, somehow the Dolphins can pull
it out and the Panthers can find a way to
beat Seattle and we it would just be one of
those games that ends up being meaningless.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
But more than likely that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
So hopefully you know this will be a game that
you know, for Panther fans, I mean, I know they
were wanting the night game to be here.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
But hopefully the NFL us the right.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Thing, puts that game in primetime, gives it the proper stage,
and this team will show up in primetime and be
able to pull off a huge victory to be able
to win this division.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
How much does this game matter to Panthers fans? Let
me know, Fandal text line, this is a weird one
seven oh four, five, seven oh ninety six to ten,
and I want to continue to recap the game. It
was an excellent performance from Carolina in terms of doing
what they needed to do in order to extend their
season here. But this is a very weird situation because
in all likelihood, I mean, look, maybe I just need
(18:32):
to stop myself dead in my tracks because Tampa they
are reeling unlike really a team I've seen before. At
Philadelphia comes to mind the way that they reeled a
few years ago. But even then, Philadelphia still did enough
on the front end to make the postseason, and it
was Tampa, oddly enough, that beat Philadelphia in the first
round of the playoffs. Philadelphia just fell flat on their face.
(18:55):
I'm sure we've seen teams do this before, but boy,
Tampa Bay just can't help but lose every single football
game that they play.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
They've lost the last three.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
The only win that they have recently is a three
point victory against the Cardinals. Even with Jacobe Brissett and
that offense putting up impressive numbers, Cardinals aren't a good
football team. They continue to lose a million different ways.
They just lost to the Falcons this weekend. Yep, so
you lost to the Pats, the Bills, the Rams, I
guess acceptable, except then you lose to the Saints, the Falcons,
and the Panthers. All they do is lose every single game.
(19:30):
Baker Mayfield is not thrown for very many yards. The
running attack was nice, ran the ball pretty well on
this Panthers defense. Not great when it tighten that up.
Even Still, Ben don't break that was at play here,
like for them to stop the run the next time out.
Still the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fhind a way to lose, Like,
is there a shot that Miami can get this done?
Quin Eewers does not inspire me. I'm not telling you that,
(19:52):
But what I am telling you is that neither does
Tampa or this Baker Mayfield led offense the way that
they've been performing.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Yeah, it's fair.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
I mean, there's an opportune, I think for it to happen,
But it's very, very slim because I think the thing
is is that when you were he looks like the
what was he Was he undrafted or was he an
end of the draft type of game? It was low
If he I think he got selected in the seventh round.
Maybe this is not going to be Brock Party. I
(20:20):
can promise you that he is not going to come
out here and all of a sudden be the franchise
quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. And I'm a dude that
was a big when you were supporter when he was
at Texas, I thought he got way too much flak
for a guy that was incredibly successful. But I think
in this game you're looking at it. I mean, is
it impossible for Miami. No, Because you look at some
(20:41):
of their other wins that they've had recently Whenkua was
in there, there were some improbable wins in there, games
that you did not think that Miami would be able
to win, allah their win over the Buffalo Bills, so
it's not impossible. But if you're the Panthers, you have
to go in with the mind set that, hey, it's
all on us to take care of business. We've got
(21:03):
to find a way to, you know, win this game
against Seattle. Ultimately, the game probably doesn't matter when we
look at it, because it'll all come down to that
Week eighteen matchup. But you've got to make sure that
you still have that right mindset. Let's build a win
streak here at the end of the season. Yeah, let's
go into that game with two straight wins. You just
potentially beat I mean where Seattle sits right now?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Are they?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I mean they just beat the Rams. They're the best
team in the NFC, right they might be. I think
they are. They could be the best team in football.
If you think the Rams are the best team in
the NFL, then Seattle might be.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Yeah, because I think you saw yesterday that we don't
know exactly what the Denver Broncos are, So Seattle might
be the best team in football. You've shown up for
these types of games, though, so maybe you can get
a win in that game and be feeling really good
going into that game against Tampa. Feel like your team
is in a little bit of a rhythm. That's what
you're hoping for from Carolina. But yeah, it's all gonna
(22:03):
come down to that Week eighteen matchup. Man, That's that's
what I think is gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Just so people.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I don't know if anybody else feels this way, but
I do want to clarify something because we didn't have
somebody ask about Tampa beating Miami saying that, hey, Week
eighteen doesn't necessarily guarantee fireworks if Miami. If Tampa beats
Miami then and Carolina loses to Seattle, then there won't
be any fireworks. I mean, yeah, that's uh, that's not true, right,
(22:32):
Like you're still going to have fireworks.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah, so that it comes down to that game regardless,
come down to.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
That game, which is why I'm asking the question. Yeah,
this game like it matters. It could Panthers still need
to win this one just in case Miami beats Tampa.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
But it is.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
I am going to be watching with a very not
weird feeling. It's just a weird situation to be in.
So okay, it's not a bye. It still matters. You
don't want to do the rest of the starters, God forbid,
save that conversation for the preseason. Not that anybody or
anybody would truly suggest that. I'm just saying, let's save
that conversation for the preseason, But I'm just there's not
(23:13):
a lot of stock in this one for me.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
You're gonna you're.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
Gonna be watching knowing that if you lose this game,
there's a good chance that the sea or there is
a chance that the season is not over.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Not even a chance, it's it's the truth that it
is not.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Over, right, So all of a sudden, so you know, hey,
you know, especially with how good this team has been
at bouncing back from some of their lesser performances, you
would still probably be feeling pretty confident.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So that's the thing that I think is amazing.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
You can go into this week with the feeling that, hey,
even though we're in a very pressure pack time of
the year, pressure is kind of off for this game.
So if you go out and win, great, that helps
you can build momentum.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
You'd like to see that.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Just from a you know, just from the standpoint of
the fact that we haven't seen them really be able
to build any sort of winning streak this year. But
It's not the end of the world if they end
up losing that game. So, yeah, it's gonna be it's
gonna be a weird feeling inside a Bank of America stadium.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, I do. How are you approaching this one? I'm
getting some interesting answers here. Bagel Guy says, I may
be wrong in doing this, but I'm treating the Seattle
game kind of like a bye week. Another banged up
another banged up is not playing. I don't know a
big banged up player. I'm putting Bagel Guy your text
all the time. I need you to be better than this.
I love you, Bagel Guy. I'm just kind of joking,
(24:33):
but he's basically saying he's putting all of the eggs
into the Tampa basket. When I get that, and I
do like that, that's what I I don't know how
to handle this. I want to beat Seattle. If they
don't win and they give you a poor showing, even
this game is muddied, more so because of how inconsistent
Carolina has been. It's the classic they win when they
(24:53):
lose one. If they lose to Seattle, then do we
just continue this trend? It feels stupid to say that's
feeling great.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Either way is kind of how I think you'll be
feeling going into that final week pretty good, because either
they built on the momentum and this is the first
time this year that you can feel like that, or
they lose and you say to yourself, this is gonna
be the motivator for this game.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I think that's the mindset that Panther fans should be taking.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Matt in Greensborough, by the way, I was asking about
the Tampa collapse. He said, this might be the biggest
collapse since the Panthers started six and two and then
missed the playoffs. Touchet sir, that might be one of
the bigger collapses that I've said.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Way, why are we doing this today?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Can we save the negative stuff for Tuesday through Friday?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
I think Matt Greensborough's okay.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
I think he was just bringing up the old pat
But it's why flounder we appreciate this day so much
is because of the pain that we've gone through. Yes,
we've gone through a lot of pain, and now here
we are, December twenty second, talking about the Panthers actually
not needing week seventeen and only needing week eighteen. In
order to get to the postseason. Crazy talking about Carolina
(26:01):
hosting a postseason game, hosting one as the four seed.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Who could come here.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
I don't know that'll be interesting, but I will say this,
they already beat the Rams. We'll see how they perform
against Seattle, who looks to be an absolute Juggernautally.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
That could be the team that you see as well.
So that's another reason why you'd like to win this
one as well. So you know, hey, we beat that
team already, you have confidence if you got to see
him again.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
That's right. Seven oh four says I hate Seattle. I
want to win next Sunday, and if we lose, I'm
going to be pissed. I'll just get over it a
lot faster and look forward to Tampa. Now here's the
one thing that I've been talking about, me wanting more
so than maybe even the postseason appearance, being above five hundred.
If you beat Seattle, you're guaranteed to be above five
(26:46):
hundred this year. And you know how badly I want
to be above five hundred for back to back seasons
for the first time in franchise history. So if you
can do that, and you just go ahead and lock
that away, that'll be nice. Above five hundred matters. To
think about how much we're talking about Mike Tomlin never
having a below five hundred year, the narrative moments there
being able to say that that's nice.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
People go to that all the time, And what.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Are people starting to do with that team, starting to
believe again that hey, maybe there is something that this
team can do when they get to the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, so when you get to say that Dave Canalis
finished above five hundred, when Bryce Shung led his team
to an above five hundred record, I think saying that,
I think those words above five hundred. I think that matters.
And so if you're able to say that for two
straight years, you're able to build something here in Carolina,
have a level of sustainability that we've not had in
(27:41):
quite some time since the Cam Newton constant playoff years.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Man, did we take that for granted?
Speaker 2 (27:47):
But I don't even know if we did. We I
won't say that. Man, I can't believe that it was
so long. I don't think we took it for granted.
I think we celebrated appropriately so when they were going
on those special runs. It's just been so long, so
the fact that you have a possibility of it here.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
That's great.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
A couple of just finishing observations here before we give
you the walk off. On the other side, I wanted
to give you some rapid fire topics here floundy. Okay,
I haven't talked a lot about t MAC, who was
very good, and yesterday's.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Guy performed a meccag buka for sure.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
How much does that matter because they're not guarding one another.
It's the classic QB matchup. Who wins between both guys
when they don't have anything to do with stopping the
opponent on the other side, a mechabuka T MAC, Team
MAC clearly having the better game in a race for
offensive Rookie of the Year. How much does it matter
that the Panthers get to point to the receiver that
had the better game over Tampa.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Oh, it definitely matters because you had a chance to
select this guy over Team MAC. And if he comes
out and goes ballistic and all of a sudden, we're
sitting here talking about him having some unbelievable performance while
T MAC was relatively quiet, then you would be feeling like, man,
did we select the right guy?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
You don't feel like that.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Today you feel like, yes, we definitely selected the best
fit for us. And I think one of the things
that you like to see is that in the biggest
games of the year, you have a guy in teamac
that's stepping up and making plays. This was the biggest
game that you would played all season long, doesn't matter
on any of the other games that you've played. You
could say the Rams game was big for them, whatever.
(29:20):
This was the biggest game of the season, and he
stepped up and played really well yesterday, made a couple
of difficult of difficult catches as well, So I mean, yeah,
he did everything that he needed to do. And you
could say with with Abuka, well, you know, he was
playing in an offense where they had Chris Godwin and
Mike Evans.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Mike Evans didn't do anything.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Outside of the first drive of this game and then
a little bit on that final drive they completely took
him away. So you would think Abuka would be the
guy that would step up.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Never really happen.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
So credit to Carolina for taking you know, the credit
to the defense for taking him out of it. But yeah,
it does mean a lot when these two rookies are
matched up together and t Mak is the one that
ends up out performing him.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
T MAC having the seventy yards, getting back on track
to finish with over one thousand yards in his rookie season,
a Mecca only having the one catch, and it was
on a blown assignment. As we talked about earlier, j C.
Horn cover three. Maybe West went full John Gruden QB
camp on the board because I'm.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Looking at it right now.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
The breakdown is still up there of exactly what happened
on that play, but I will say the advanced stats
do credit it to Nick Scott. So there is a
debate that's going on in the football community as to
who exactly this was.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
A Is this a thing on Twitter?
Speaker 2 (30:40):
I don't know, Okay, okay, either way, Outside of a
blown assignment, It's not like I saw a mecha Buka
win a whole bunch of matchups. In fact, I didn't
see him win really any of them. And the passing
game was kind of non existent in this one outside
of the Mike Evans touchdown. So the fact that t
MAC did have a couple of tough catches the first
(31:01):
down where Bryce shung his blitz and then puts it
right on the chest of team Mak who makes a
really difficult catch. His quarterback was draped all over him.
There was a chance that it might pop off of
the chest and then possibly be intercepted, but he still
comes down with it. I think we had wanted to
see that. We wanted to see the inner We wanted
to see the tough catches, the contested catches, and the
(31:22):
fact that T Matt gave us a touchdown, he forced
some mistackles. Here's the thing I'll want to give Dave
canal was credit for, and we haven't given a lot
of credit to him. There's just so many things to
talk about, but Dave deserves credit for I think sticking
with the run, but also allowing Bryce to throw it.
I think picking and choosing the right times when Bryce
let it go downfield. But man, I was asking Dave
(31:47):
Canalis to use t mac in a way that he
was using him earlier this year before he completely abandoned it.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Can I get some.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Deep throws to him where we take some shots outside
of him just being open against zone and can you
give him some of those go balls or some shots
down the field with a one on one opportunity.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
They did that he had a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
They tried again where he does the one handed thing,
but whatever, he got the touchdown afterwards. And then also
you put it right on his chest past the sticks.
Team Mac comes up with a tough catch there. They
threw a screen to him. I like that, forcing a mistackle.
Didn't get a ton of yact, but showed you a
little bit of that ability. Let's do more of that
and then have Jalen Cocher eat opposite. I really like
(32:31):
the way that they used Tmac in this game.
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Yeah, they used him in a variety of different ways.
It wasn't just this is the type of receiver that
he is. We have to do that. And the first
down throw that you're talking about, I mean, that's a
ball he does not catch.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Earlier in the season.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Remember we talked about it in training camp, and then
we talked about it again early in the season. There
were plays that the ball just kind of ate him up.
That was another play where it was a timing route.
Bryce threw it before he was even looking, and there's
a chance at that moment when he turns and looks, hey,
ball's already coming, it might be might eat you up.
(33:06):
And all of a sudden you have an incompletion there
that was absolutely perfect from both quarterback and wide receiver.
And then yeah, you said it, it used him in
a variety of different ways getting the ball into his hands.
So I loved everything that I saw from him. I
loved everything that I saw from Jalen Coker. I thought
Jalen Coker was tremendous, and you saw the moment where
(33:28):
he needed to.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Step up and make a big play.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
Great throw again by Bryce, but Jalen Cocher making a
play that we saw it was the same play had
to be or it was similar to the play that
he made in the preseason against the Browns. That was
the first thing that I thought of. It looked like
a little wheel route and he just did a great
job of bringing it in. So, I mean, both receivers
I thought were really good. Xavier Legett not so much.
(33:55):
But you know, when you got two guys that are
playing well, I think that's certainly something that you leave
this game feeling good about overall, is the wide receiving core,
because you at least have two guys you can rely on.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
All Right, we got the walk off coming up next
with Flounder filling in for Wes here on Western Walker
Sports Radio ninety two seven WFNZ.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Are you challenging me to a walk off? Oh yeah,
that's a walk off challenge, my friend, it's a walk off.
It's a walk off.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Last segment for West and Walker. I don't want to
say for a while because Wes is going to be
back tomorrow with flound Dog, who's pulling triple duty tomorrow.
But I'm gonna be gone the rest of the week,
and then Wes after the Tuesday show is going to
be gone for the rest of the week. And then
next week Wes isn't going to be in, so I'm
gonna be filling in on Monday. And it is officially
holiday radio schedule season around here, and holiday radio will say,
(35:00):
I do love because it's the only time and I
don't know if I'm do it this time, but usually
it's the only time I wear sweatpants into the studio
because we're all just hanging. It's holiday radio. It's a
good time. There are no rules for holiday radio. I
think after like, it's all business today. Job's not done.
We got to take care of Seattle, but really we
(35:21):
got to take care again of Tampa Bay. The last
week of the season, so we can get to the
postseason around here. But at the same time Holiday Radio.
Maybe next week is sweatpants edition of West Wall, But.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
It is going to be a panther Monday that you're
going to be back with us. Correct, It is gonna
be panther Monday, So it'll still be business.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
It will still be business. You're right about that.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I guess we're and then we're off New Yek'say January second.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, I guess you could come in with some with
some sweatpants.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Just give me one sweatpants show, just one.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Swamtpants all the time, and you guys like to point
it out to me.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
You do. Yeah, it is kind of funny.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Even though if them is athletic pants, they're not exactly
sweatpant material.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
It's a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
So well, the one thing I will say I used
to try during COVID doing Lockdown Hornets when I was
hosting a solo show for seven thirty and I was
working at home during that time, I tried out sweatpants radio.
Let me tell you, I have to dress for the occasion.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
I can't. I am one of these people.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
I cannot wear comfort clothes and just work in the
comfort clothes because to me, it's like, no, this is
what I do when I'm totally being lazy.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
I'm being a couch potato. I can't do that. Or
were you like not an off during the show or something.
I'm just just not focused.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
So this is just just not That's just that's me,
though I'm not that's not everybody.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Also, are you Are you someone that can thrive working
at home like if you had?
Speaker 1 (36:52):
If you absolutely not? Yeah, see, I think.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
That's just you need to come in here, be around
your boys and let's get let's let's do radio show
together you guys.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yeah that and that's fair. But you would you thrive
doing work from home or not?
Speaker 1 (37:06):
Really?
Speaker 3 (37:07):
I mean, I'd like to think it wouldn't be that
bad because I do do a podcast from the house.
But I yeah, I do like coming in here though.
I do like coming in the camaraderie and being able
to share opinions with each other.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
I like that aspect of it for sure.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Excel Defender says, sweatpants radio that sounds more like the
morning Show. Yeah, they do some sweatpants radio. It feels
like even if they wear jeans, it feels like Mac
and Bone.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
They've partied feel like bones shown up in sweatpants quite
a few times.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense to me, which
it is. Okay, Mack and Bone are great. What's on
Tap presented by Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks has locations in
Concord and forth Mill. Twin Peaks is a local sports lodge.
Come in from May from Scratch Food and Signature twenty
nine degree draft Beers. Monday Night Football Tonight we get
to see old Man Rivers Philip Rivers and his second
start for the Indianapolis Colts. They will be hosting the
(37:58):
San Francisco forty nine Colts are eight and six, saying
Franz ten and four, Philip Rivers oh and one on
his first start. But it was still a very good
game that he played, I don't want to say very good.
Did enough to keep the Colts in it last second
field towards the end of the game to actually take
the league, and then Seattle ends up winning. Still, if
we're discussing Seattle as potentially the best team in football
(38:22):
and having given you potentially the best defense in football,
solid performance from Old Man Rivers, I would still pick
San Francisco to win tonight on the road.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Yeah, I would say San Francisco as well.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
There still is believe it or not, a way that
they can win the division, and so I think with
that on the line, you'll see a motivated team here.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Just feels like, man, the Colts magic.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
It was there early in the season, but once you
lost Daniel Jones for the season, I think that was
pretty much Yet Jonathan Taylor, Hey, this is the one thing,
Jonathan Taylor.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I need you, buddy, my fantasy. I need you.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
I'm exact opposite. No, I need him to do anything.
I need him to not do anything. But the thing is,
I will say this knock on wood for the Big
Boy League, which I don't want to say anything about
because I only get called boogie. Want to bring up
the buy in, But yeah, it's tough and that league.
I am up forty nine point eighty five points, so
(39:18):
I don't need him to go that nuts, so fair enough,
that's fine. But I will say Jonathan Taylor did go
off for forty nine points earlier this year against Atlanta,
So I'm not completely out of the woods just yet.
Speaker 1 (39:31):
You're still sweating.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
But if I make the championship, I'm guaranteed some money,
and so that's what's I already got my money back
by having the weekly high score, because I know people
wanted to tune in for fantasy football breakdowns. But I
will say I've already made the money back. I'm guaranteed
money at some point in some way, shape or for him.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
It is.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
It really is, and honestly is I'm guaranteed money even
if I get second.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
I just need to get to second. That's what I need.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
So anyways, Monday night football tonight between the Seattle not
Seattle Shawks to Indianapolis Cults and the San Francisco forty
nine ers. All right, what do you have in store
for the week?
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Here? Flownder?
Speaker 2 (40:09):
You want to you want to pub the young guns
the prod squad panther down.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Did want to point out there is a college basketball
game tonight walker carrollan and does play East Carolina. East
Carolina stinks they are pretty bad, so Carolina should be
able to handle them pretty easily.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
You guys gave them a preview on Heel Tough Blog
slash Fourthrners.
Speaker 3 (40:28):
That's right, we were on there last night. We'll be
there the whole week for you guys. As well, we
got to talk podcast wise tonight. He'll talp blog podcasts
also on tap because we do have a little Bobby
Petrino news that we got to talk about. So that
should gonna be that's gonna be fun. And wait, don't
the Hornets play tonight?
Speaker 2 (40:47):
They do. I was just gonna say that you could
pub your show. But yes, the Hornets also played tonight.
They played the Cleveland Cavaliers and they won already their
last matchup against the Cabs in overtime. Maybe they can
do it again. It is on the road. Was the
other victory that they had against the Calves. It too
was on the road. So the Hornets are nine and nineteen,
Calves fifteen and fourteen. They've kind of been reeling. Calves
(41:08):
are a nine and a half point favorite. Look pretty
terrible time out against the Detroit Pistons for Charlotte after
what was a phenomenal win against Atlanta where I was
feeling all sorts of great. They laid a stinker, especially
in the fourth quarter against Detroit. Lamel Right's still good though,
very good.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Yeah, okay, that makes you feel a little better, No,
it does.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
I'd rather them not play as horribly as they did
fourth quarter. But even so, you're right, Hornets still seem
to be turning a corner around here, and if they
can get another win. Calves almost five hundred. That is
not a team that should be this.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Right down the standing were when the Hornets won.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
So yeah, they've been capitalizing on some of the reeling
teams in the Eastern Conference. Maybe you could do it again,
although again the Calves are at home a nine and
a half point favorite. The injury report, Colin Sexton is
out with a quad injury call, Prenner out with the yelbow.
Grant Williams he's out, but it's just a great sign
that he's on the injury report because that means that
he's soon to come back. He's on the injury report
(42:07):
with nie soreness, which is a lot better than my
knee got absolutely destroyed, which is what it used to be.
I'll take knee soreness over absolutely destroyed knee. So the Hornets, yeah,
this is kind of how it goes. You get somebody
back from injury, somebody has to be sacrificed. I do
think that we're overall profiting on some of the guys
getting healthier on the squad.
Speaker 3 (42:28):
Yeah, and the pregame show will be here at six
o'clock for you guys to listen to. I believe it's
going to be Kyle and Bone who will be doing
this one before, of course, the holiday schedule gets here,
and then it's I don't know whoever shows up right
is allowed to host the Hornets pre and postgame shows.
Willie p W'll be back later in the night to
do the postgame show, and again that starts at six
(42:48):
right here on Sports Radio ninety two seven w FN's.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
I do want to stress though, we will be providing
local programming all throughout the holidays right safe, but right
here ninety two to seven FM Sports Radio WFNZ. We
appreciate everybody listening. I won't be here tomorrow, so I'll
just go ahead and wish you guys a happy holidays.
Thank you so much for supporting us here on Western
Walker and Sports Radio. Really really appreciate it. Can't wait
to talk about a potential Panthers dub on the other
(43:13):
side of the week, and also gets you ready for
that last game against Tampa where it's for all the marbles, Baby,
I'm excited. Fun Panthers victory breakdown today on Western Walker,
Kyle Bailey, Smoke Ludwig coming up next. Sports Radio ninety
two seven FM. Listen to the Wes and Walker Show
(43:34):
Wee Tis from noon to three only on Sports Radio
ninety two point seven FM.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Com UFNZ, the official home of the Charlotte sports fan
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