November 26, 2024 • 33 mins
This week on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy detail Bryce Young's steady improvement over the last few weeks, react to the Panthers' Week 12 loss to the Chiefs, discuss the team's final six games and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This week on a Happy half Hour, he was getting better.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The progress was steadily going in one direction, but the
increments were very small.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Sunday he took a huge jump.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The game he played in Germany compared to the game
he played here on Sunday, it was two different sports.
I mean it was yeah, you know, Trevon Wallace said it.
That was Alabama Price.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
What's the cow?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Whoa?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's time for the Happy Half Hour, presented by Southern Star,
an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers. Here are your hosts,
Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hello, friends, Welcome to this week's Happy Half Hour. I
gotta tell you missed the show. Within the show, we
might have to have podcasts. Matt Splice in the director's
cut with the bonus footage.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I don't like this. It's making fun of me.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, no, we'll treat this like a Burt Reynolds Dom
Delawi's movie The boot Blooper reel. At the end, we
got you know, they're they're just things. Cassidy, bless her heart,
does not know yet. It's not our fault.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
She's just young.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So anyway, this is the Happy Half Hour presented to
you by Southern Star, an official bourbon partner of the
Carolina Panthers. Celebrate the spirit of the Carolinas and my friends,
we almost all.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Of those people in the stadium the other day.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
All most had something big to celebrate, didn't they.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
When when they kept getting a chance for another for
a two point conversion and it got moved up to
the one yard line, I looked at I looked at
the guy sitting next to me, and I was like,
this is are we about to win this game? But
alast you forget Patrick Mahomes is on the other side
and he does Patrick Mahomes things. But what a game?
(01:52):
What a great football game.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, it was just an.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Entertaining, well played game from beginning to end.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And I was joking, We're half joking last week when
I said this, and I mentioned this as Oki in
the pregame show, I said, you just got to kind
of unburden yourself of expectations, so you kind of go
in and you don't know, I mean, there was no
empirical reason for that game to turn out the way
that game turned out. Kanas City Chiefs from nine to one.
They got Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid in the top five defense.
(02:19):
Carolina Panthers were three and seven and struggled to beat
Saints and the Giants the last two weeks. That one
shouldn't have gone the way it went. But the amazing
thing about that is, and this that game contained multitudes
because the easiest thing to do and the easiest thing
for Dave Canalis and Bryce s Young to grab hold
of would be dang, we almost.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Did that, right.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
That was awesome and we almost did that awesome thing.
But the reaction from those guys was we got to
get that one in the future, and both of them
in the aftermath of the game, that was kind of
the consistent message of if anybody was thinking about moral victory,
they were heading that off fit the past.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, you know, I believe it was Ikey who said
yesterday when we were talking to him on Monday, you know,
we all play in the same NFL like, we've got
to win that and that's just a good reminder and
that's what we're here for to kind of to dap
up and say, hey, let's look at the good parts
and this and that and the other. But in that
(03:21):
locker room that you know, throw the record out the window.
We're all in the same NFL. We're all one of
thirty two teams, right, we should be able to go
out there and finish that off, right, But there is
still something to be said about going toe to toe
with the defending Super Bowl champs. Two time MVP, like
you said, a top five defense, and I think a
lot of what went well on Sunday, you know, players
(03:44):
told us that Bryce Shong gave a speech after the game,
which is which is not all that common, so it
kind of stood out just that he did that. And
jac Horn said that Bryce said, this wasn't a fluke,
this is who we are and we can win these games,
and that he was right, Like it wasn't like, oh,
they just had some weird things break their way to
(04:06):
keep that game close. They played their way into keeping
that game close. And a lot of what went well
were things that you have seen them building on to
this point and trying to address and working on and
getting better at the things that didn't go well, or
the things that they've been pretty open about need to
get better. And you know, it's you kind of saw
(04:30):
a clear line of demarcation the other day, like these
are the things we're doing well. Keep building on that
these are the things that we need to bring along
to kind of get us over the hump to win
those sort of games.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Right, And that's one of the things.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And I've been thinking about this a lot in the
last couple of days because overthinking things is the.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Thing I do.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Wow, the Carolina Panthers did things that they hadn't been doing.
I think that was to me when we look back
at that game a year from now, if the situation
is very different with this team, if this team's something
other than three and eight going into the last six
games of the season, I think we're going to look back.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
On that game.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Is normally for the Carolina Panthers to have a chance
to win that game, Chewba Hubbard's got to run for
one twenty five or one fifty. The defense has got
to get a bunch of stops beyond what you think
they're going to do, and they've got to, you know,
kind of bottle things up a little bit, keep Patrick
Mahomes in.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Front of them. They did things that were out of character.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Bryce Young was throwing passes that we haven't seen him throw,
or at least haven't seen him complete all season. Chewba
Hubbard was not a factor until middle of the third quarter.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
In on, which I mean the Chiefs sold out to
stop the run.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
And listen, if I was game planning to play Dave
Canalison and Carolina Panthers, that's exactly where I would begin
to because that's the thing most likely to give me trouble.
Juba wasn't a factor until he was. The defense was
getting strafed early on. They allow the Chiefs score five
straight possessions. Granted two of those were field goals, and
(06:09):
that was huge because anytime you get a red zone
stop on Patrick Mahomes, that's a win. Anytime you make
you know whoever kick, whether it's Harrison Butcker when he's healthier,
Spencer Trader the other day, if Spencer Trader's on the
field instead of Patrick Mahomes, that's a w for your defense.
And that defense got stops in the fourth quarter. Yeah,
they sacked Patrick Mahomes five times. This team had twelve
(06:33):
sacks and ten games.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
That's not what they do.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And to me, that's the biggest sign of progress is
Bryce Young did things Bryce Young hadn't done. That defense
did things that defense hadn't done. And if you're looking
for a path forward, for the Carolina Panthers. Those are
the two areas to me where you see the most
hope for the future.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And of course we talk all the time too about
complimentary football. That's what the offense the defense did, and
that's what the offense did within itself as well. Oh,
they were able to run you, but more in the
second half because the Chiefs had to start dropping back
and protecting the past more because of what Bryce did
in the right And we've seen him slowly ever since
(07:13):
he came back after the benching, we've seen him start
to be more confident with those throws. You know, he
had a couple of throws in Denver where it was like, oh, okay,
he uncorked that and just you know, he and the
receiver weren't on the same page, or sometimes they were,
and you know, but it didn't end up making a difference.
At the end of the day. We've seen him steadily
(07:34):
get more and more confident, which is what they wanted.
And they also wanted him to get the ball out
quicker and buddy, did he do that on Sunday. He
was blitzed more on Sunday than he ever has been
in a game in his career. He was blitched forty
percent of his dropbacks. That's an insane number. And all
he did was go eleven to fourteen for I think
one hundred and twenty plus yards in a touchdown against
(07:55):
the Blitz.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, I mean that was the thing.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And I keep going back to with Bryce over the
last month and again part of you know, I've been
standing here in one place doing this thing for thirty years,
and they all sort of start to blend together. But
I think it's worth kind of stepping back and looking
at things from a wider lens.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Every now and then, if.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Andy Dalton doesn't get hit by a car on a
Tuesday before we go to Denver, none of this happens.
There was no indication that anything other than Andy Dalton
playing out the season was going to be what happened
for the Carolina Panthers. So if not for a traffic
accident on a Tuesday, Bryce doesn't get back on the field,
and since then the progress And you can't see this,
(08:42):
but this go theater of the mind with me. I'm
holding my fingers just a little bit apart, like a
finger's with a part. Bryshung was getting better that much
at a time. The first three weeks, when you go Denver,
New Orleans the Giants.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
He was getting better.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The progress was steadily going in one direction, but the
increments were very small.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Sunday he took a huge jump.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I mean, and it's just the game he played in
Germany compared to the game he played here on Sunday,
it was two different sports. I mean, it was this,
you know, Trevon Wallace said it. That was Alabama Bryce.
We've seen that that was the guy who was dealing confidently,
and he really was, I mean, standing in the face
(09:23):
of that pressure making some of those throws. I mean
when they go zero and everybody's coming and he hits
lega for the first down, It's like.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Whoof Yeah. I think that was maybe the most impressive part.
And I think we also just asn't decide to have
to maybe give some credits to the fact that being
able to sit back and catch his breath for those
five weeks that Andy did play probably worked. Wonders just
being able to focus purely on the game book, the
(09:54):
playbook and practice without necessarily having to I don't want
to say worry about the game, but because he was
still prepared, you never know what Obviously, you never know
what's going to happen and when you have to step in.
But being able to focus on what he needed to do,
I think took a lot of weight off his shoulders
and now we're seeing play more free year because of it.
But to your point, I mean, you look at, for example,
(10:16):
that Green Bay game last year where he technically had
his best statistical game, right that he still had more
yards in that game than he did on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
M hm.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But that was a lot of running for his life
and dumping it off and and had the advantage of
playing against a defense that wasn't there to cover things.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
What a what a wonderful way of saying that.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Something came up the other day and somebody said, that's
a real rider way to explain that. And I think
that's another example of that. You described the Packers defense accurately.
There they weren't there to cover things.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
But then you see on Sunday, I mean he had
a conversion to Adam Thingland. I think it was a
third or fourth down conversion. I mean the guy was
draped on him. He got a PI call as well
a DPI call, but that ball was perfectly placed to Thielen,
and he was not scared to kind of put it
over there and let his guy make a catch. He
(11:15):
had a play to get down the right sideline at
one point that was not the one that got dropped,
But this one was a conversion as well. It got
him down close to the red zone and he threw
that ball. He never left the pocket and there was
a blitz coming. He knew it was coming, he saw it.
He never left the pocket. He stood in there. He
(11:36):
delivered that ball as he took a massive hit. I
don't know if he makes those plays a year ago.
I don't know if he makes those plays two months ago.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, I mean, and it's fair to ask. And again
I try to take the longer view of these things.
Playing quarterback in the NFL is really hard. There's a
reason Andy Dalton's good at it. He's done it for
a long long time. Bryce has done it for a
very short amount of time. And because we have this
tin and now in our modern culture, to every day
is a referendum on forever, and so whatever it is
(12:06):
right now is the thing everybody assumes it has to be.
And after the way last year when everybody assumed Bryce
is always going to be bad at football.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Everybody assumed that CJ.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Stroud's always going to be great at football. Early this year,
Caleb Williams has four or five good games and they're like,
oh my god, look at Caleb Williams. Now, you know,
there's this thing called regression to the mean and people
start to it takes time for people to become what
they are, and I think Bryce is still very much
in the evolution of his own game. And I also
(12:38):
don't want to get caught in the trap of assuming
Bryce is always going to look like this. In anybody's season,
there high points, low points. That's why I like averages,
and I just want to see what it looks like
six weeks from now, built on this. I want to
see how he takes this and turns it into the
next six weeks of the season, because that was it.
(13:00):
One of the other big takeaways is Dave Canalis has
always been one week at a time, and ask me
again on Wednesday, who's going to start Sunday. He was like,
I don't need to say anything. Bryce told you everything
you needed to see out there today. I mean, and
Dave just you know, it's reached the point where you
just kind of shrugged and it was like, well, yeah,
he's starting.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Of course, did you see the game he just played.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
So now it's on Bryce to see how he can
build on it, to see what's next for him, because
we're getting back to the brice a lot of people
were expecting a year and a half ago when he
was drafted based on everything we had seen in Alabama,
because again, as Trevon Waller said, that was Alabama.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Bryce, right now that he has seen himself do it too,
very curious what Sunday looks like because this Tampa Bay defense,
the secondary figuring out the right way to put this. Okay,
let's just use the numbers this The Tampa Bay secondary
is twenty eighth in the league overall. Now that Bryce
has kind of seen what he can do, and that's
(14:00):
not to say he's going to go out there and
light him up and toward the place, but it is
can he take another step forward right now that he
has seen the tape and he and his receivers are
getting closer on the same page in chemistry because some
of those incompletions on Sunday too were drops.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Xavierally Get told us yesterday that when he went home
Sunday night and kind of watched the film. He ended
up texting Bryce about that play that was down the
left side line and apologize and he's like, you put
it in the perfect spot. I should have caught that,
Like that was on me.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Well.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
And one of the things against the Bucks, I mean,
you mentioned are they at top five defense?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
They are not.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They're a bottom five defense.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Is Todd Bowles really good at coaching ball?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
He absolutely is.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And Todd's one of those coaches who is great at
coaching any one particular game. I just love the way
I love his approach to it. I think he is
one of those coaches who is good for long stretches
of time. If you want to raise the level of
your organization, Todd Bowles is the kind of coach you
want to have around he is. He is so good defensively.
(15:07):
He can turn the screws on you in one particular
week and make anybody look see Canalis. Yep, he certainly
does that. So it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
But I think that you know you're gonna hear it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And it started to creep in a little bit, in
the little bit that people were allowing themselves to think
positively about that game that that unfolded. You know, somebody
with I think it was Rob Hunt, said hey, we're
three and eight, we got stuff to play for.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yeah, which, mathematically.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yes, congratulations, you're in the still in the Hunt graphic
because you haven't been eliminated and you have the good
fortune of playing in the NFC South, the trailer park
of the NFL. Uh.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I've said it all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Every trailer park gets haveing hoa, somebody's got to be
the president. So uh, it's still right there in front
of you. There are three games out of the division
league with six to play, and I've seen weirder things happen.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
In this you know, yess of a division.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
So way division games to play too.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, I mean, anything can happen. But I think, to me,
I tend to look at this as what is this
doing to set this team up for next year? And
I think being in a game like Sundays, seeing how
close how far away they are from how close they
need to be because there's still a lot of stuff
(16:27):
going wrong. They you know, coaches love winning games where
they've got object lessons to show people in concrete things.
They lost that game, but all Dave Canal's got to do. Say, Hey,
you want to beat the Chiefs, be better in the
red zone, you want to beat the Chiefs, get off
field on third down. He's got those very tangible teaching
(16:47):
points to lean on coming out of this game, and
I think that's going to serve these guys well, because
these guys have started to figure something out. This reminds
me so much of two thousand and two when John
Fox came in first as a head coach. They won
their first three games based on a defense that was
hard from day one. I mean, you walked into a
group with Dan Morgan, Chris Jenkins, Julius Peppers, and it's like, oh,
(17:10):
they're pretty good. And then they went through a long
stretch and eight game losing streak in the middle of
the season where they couldn't score a point, couldn't do
anything right. And then at the end of the year
you saw that turn. They go up to Cleveland, they
win an ugly game in Cleveland and win like whatever
it happened to be for their last five I think
it was finish seven and nine.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, turned a three and eight into a seven and nine.
So for the last.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Five and they started to find out a personality, and
we all know what happened. The next year, they got
on a run, went to the Super Bowl, which at
dilom a quarterback. I don't know that they're necessarily anticipating
a quarterback change right now, but this team is starting
to figure out a personality. And if Bryce being confident
in making throws like he made Sunday as part of
(17:56):
that personality, there is definitely some stuff to build on
for them.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
On that note, can we talk about the defense for
equipment we should how much stock do you put in
I don't want to say like a game changer, but
one guy being a lynch pin.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You're talking about DJ Watts, Yes, yeah, I mean, And
that's the thing in a three to four defense, at
outside linebacker position is the most important position on the field.
And if you've got a guy like Jadavian Clowney out
there run around by himself, there ain't so much he
can do. You put a guy on the other side,
and that's that force multiplayer. It's the guy who makes
(18:32):
everything else work a little better around him.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
And I just I do I look at this team.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I mean, when the Carolina Panthers going to the offseason
We've got a lot of time to talk about offseason stuff,
but I think one of the keys is going to
be adding dudes on defense, people who chase quarterbacks around
in the front seven specifically, is going to be one
of Dan Morgan's focuses this offseason. But DJ Wadham's done
a job in a couple of weeks. He's got a
(18:58):
sack in each game, and he frees things up on
the other side. And you've seen a more active Clowney.
You've seen you know, Ashawn Robinson continuing to do the work.
I mean, my guysh that guy he left the game,
came out. Uh, he was clearly hurt. I saw him
leading the stadium with a cast on his hand.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
We'll see what happens this week. But you know, football
players call cats like that war daddies.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, and he is one.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
He's he's that old head who is going to go
no matter what, and again to a lesser degree of
what's happening on the other side of the ball. But
you can kind of see that path forward. You put
Deareck Brown on the field next day, Shawn Robbinson next year,
You add another couple pass rushers, you fortify some other
areas of that defense. See, you know, Trevin will be
(19:45):
a year better next year.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You can sort of see where this group's going to get.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, and listen, do they need more dudes and more
time they do? Uh? Do they need this defensive coaching
staff come back another year smarter about these pieces. They've
gotten the pieces they need. Yep, that helps too.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
But I'm not saying there there yet.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But they are in that spot that the two Panthers
were in coming out of Cleveland in December, where it's like,
all right, we're not there, but I can at least
see the map.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
So it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
It was good stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I mean, it's just and I joked about this the
other week in the mail bag, the Panthers have kind
of escaped the oh my god, is it over part
of the league. I mean that, you know, Sunday's result
against Washington notwithstanding, Dallas is ready to curl up and
for this thing to be over. Other teams in the
(20:44):
league have reached that point where they're only thinking about
draft position and how do we extract ourselves from this mess.
The Carolina Panthers suddenly have got stuff to play for,
even if it's you know, twenty twenty five stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
And that's cool. It's different.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It's not something that we've experienced the last couple of
years around here.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Right. It's like like I said a minute ago, you
can see kind of what Dan Morgan's vision is and
makes you excited to see what they can do this
off season two and where they can take it next year.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
So anyway, so I guess you could. I guess you
could say they have a lot to be.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Thanks they have a lot to be thankful.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
And there's our segue. It's Thanksgiving Week, everybody, and I
hope it.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Is your favorite Thanksgiving side.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
My favorite Thanksgiving side is a correct answer. Well, I I.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Celebrate the entire catalog of Thanksgiving. It's my absolute favorite holiday.
I hate Halloween. I got no business with it. I
don't care for the people who go straight to Christmas
after Halloween.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Wow, shots fired.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I want a month of gratitude. It's kind of my thing.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I you know, get your people around you, eat a
bunch of food, do things that make you happy, help
other people as you can. That's kind of my aesthetic
at this point in my life. So I just love
everything about Thanksgiving. I love green bean casserole. I love
those sausage and cheese biscuits my mom makes out of
three ingredients biscuit, sausage, cheese that we eat before we eat.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Does she make them as biscuits or as.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Balls balls but smaller than a golf ball so you
can eat a whole bunch.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Of them breakfast.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
So, I mean I love everything about it. My sister
in law makes this weird wild rice thing with cream
of something, soup and green peppers in it. Uh, it's great,
the whole thing. I mean, I I just love mostly
I like having my people around me. I mean that's
the key. But I dig and I think it's a
perfect compliment to everything else on the table. Cranberry sauce
(22:43):
out the can, because it even gives you lines so
you know how to cut it. I mean, everything's right
there for you. They've even given you instructions with this
food product.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
So it don't look like much.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
But I think it's perfect because it's got that sweet
tart compliment to all this savory deliciousness that hits your plate.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Right. I do love cranberry sauce. I had grew up
eating it out of a can, and then I spent
about ten years while working as a sports reporter, I
also worked at a bed and breakfast in Gainesville, Florida,
and nothing came out of that kitchen that wasn't homemade.
And once you've made homemade cranberry sauce for about seven
or eight years and you've tasted that, it's hard to
(23:25):
have anything else here.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
You and I had that, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
But I just like there is something solid and stable
and predictable about that.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah that I like certainty this time of year.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So if I I know, I can open that, can
hear that come out on one end, cut it along
those lines, and I know exactly what I'm gonna get.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
The correct answer though, was sweet potato casserole.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
That sure great, love it, love sweet potatoes. Here's the
key to Thanksgiving. Get around your people, eat food that
you enjoy in a responsible amount.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Perhaps commit some physical activity.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Earlier in the days so you can do it without compulsion,
but mostly just don't steal the land of indigenous peoples
and enslave them. If you can pull that off on Thanksgiving,
I think that's the key.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
That's all you can ask for it.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah, that's my moment of political activism for Thanksgiving. Actually no,
it's not, because I gave you the assignment of all
assignments this week, but you got to experience Alice's Restaurant
by Arlo Guthrie in all its eighteen and a half
minute glory.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
You know what's funny is like I when you said
that song, I had no idea what you're talking about.
And then and then it was playing. I was listening
to it in the car and it got to the
first little you can Have Anything you Want at Alice's
rest and I was like, I know this song. I
at least know that riff. It's either been used in
commercials or movies or something, and so I knew that
(24:56):
little riff. It was definitely entertaining. It's not one that
I would listen to over. I'm a big If I
find a song I like, I'll listen to it seven
times in a row in the car. Yeah, that's one
that I'm obviously probably not gonna do that with just
because who has that kind of time. But it made
time fors rivee around. I gotta get a full tank
(25:16):
of gas and then drive around and listen to it
seven times. But it was definitely entertaining. I liked the story.
I liked how it really took us on a ride
and then came back to the beginning. It could have
been half the time if he didn't repeat everything seventeen times.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Maybe that was fun.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
That was part of the fun.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
You're you're starting to get a window into my soul here,
because if you listen to that song carefully, there are
lines in that song that have become part of.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
The Darren Gamp vernacular.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Okay, when he talks about how Officerobi, you know, there
were a couple of things that could have happened. He
could have brought him down to the station and given
him a medal and thanked him for how brave and
honest they were. And he says, but that wasn't very
likely and we didn't expect it.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
That's a thing that just.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Now falls out of my mouth when I'm talking about things.
You know, something will happen about football, and I'll say
it wasn't very likely and we didn't expect it.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
So, yeah, know, there are things about it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's a protest song. It's about ending the draft. It's
about that. Yeah, I mean that's the whole thing. It's
a Vietnam protest song he.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Definitely went to he tried to enlist.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
No, he didn't try to enlist. He was he was drafted.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That's why he went to Whitehall Street to get inspected, detected.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And see what I thought?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
That was a volunteer.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
This was this was all context. He was trying to
get out of the draft. And and the point of
the song is how ridiculous is it that I am
not moral enough to go burn women and children's villages
down in Vietnam after littering in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So he was saying, Okay.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Now you got to go back and it again. I
have sentenced you to another drive. So by the way,
you had me listening to Kristin.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Chinawell, Oh yeah, I forgot what I gave you.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I find delightful. By the way, you're so fun.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
You might not peg me as a show tunes kind
kind of guy, but I like a show tune every
now and then. And she she is amazing to me.
She's like the Steve Smith of singers. It's hard to
believe anything that big comes out of something that little.
She has got a gigantic voice. She's an incredible performer.
And Taylor the Latte Boy is a cute little song.
(27:33):
Uh fun, Yeah, it was fun. It was nice and
while I got down one of the things happens to
me when I tend to listen to a lot of
music on YouTube, and so it gives you the next thing. Yea,
and there is I saw a response to this from
the perspective of Taylor the Latte Boy, and it was basically,
get this crazy woman away from me, I need a
(27:53):
restraining order, which I find cool because it flipped that
story on its head.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
That's a fun one. And the first guy that ever
did it, he was a comedian. He did it as
part of his stand up and he put on a
Starbucks apron to do it. So, yeah, it was it
was cute. So but I sing that song to myself
a lot when I go in Starbucks.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah, there you go. What what you got for me
this week? What am I listening to on my Thanksgiving break?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Question Mark, We're gonna just do it. I've been holding
this one. I've been thinking about it, and I've been
slightly hesitant because up what you're gonna say. But we're
about to get into a very happy time of the year,
So let's just get this last sad one out. Of
the way, oh boy, because you need to do it.
(28:38):
This was listed as Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone said this
will be one of the top one hundred songs of
all time when it's all said and done. Your good
friend Rob Demoski laughed at me when I said that,
and then he went and listened to the song, and
he came to me the next day and said, you
were right. I said, okay, all right, what you got
all too well? Mm hmm. Taylor's version ten minute version
(29:02):
ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
See, this is payback for making you listen Alice's Restaurant.
Now you got to listen to it again, now that
you know what it's actually about.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
That you have to make sure you're listening to the
ten minute version.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
All right, fair enough, Well, since you since you're doing that,
it's Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
There are things.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
There are a couple of cultural signifiers for me when
I get to Thanksgiving week. Number one is I'm gonna
listen to Alice's Restaurant seven or eight times in my car,
even if I have to drive around extra to do it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I used to torment the kids.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I'd say, give me the ax cord, I only want
to hear one song, and I'd listen to that, and
they would squall, so I'd listen to it again. Maybe
that's why they don't ride around with me. But the
other one that it's just a staple of this week for.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Me is the Last Waltz.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
The band is the greatest American band, even though only
one member of the band was American.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
That would be over ter the band.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, the band. Levon Hilm was the drummer in the
cornerstone of the band. It's the greatest American band, even
though everybody other than Levine in the band was Canadian.
Their last show was captured by Martin Scorsese for the
movie The Last Waltz.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Okay, Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
They brought in an all star cast of all their friends.
Eric Clapton was there, Bob Dylan was there, Neil Young,
Johnny Mitchell, a star studded cast was there. But the
Last Waltz is The concert itself was on Thanksgiving Night
at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in nineteen seventy six,
(30:32):
So I just have always associated the Last Waltz with
Thanksgiving Friday Night. Here's a PSA Friday Night at the
Visualite Theater. Here in Lovely Elizabeth Josh Daniel and friends
do an annual Last Waltz tribute show that me and
my smart friend Kelly's smart friend Anne and some other
friends will be in attendance for it's a great time.
And coming down the stretch of that show. Coming down
(30:56):
the stretch of the movie, two of the last three
songs You're Gonna Hear are Forever Young by Bob Dylan.
That song under that name's been recorded by a lot
of different people, different songs, but the Bob Dylan Forever
Young with the band from the Last Waltz. Look it
up on the youtubes. And then they closed the show
with I Shall Be Released. And when you think about
(31:16):
the band and the scope of their career, what Robbie
Robertson and Levon Hilm were able to do together as
musicians along with an incredible band, I mean I could
go on and on all day about Garth Hudson and
Rich Danko and the boys, and it was just an
incredible band. And to see it all come together in
that way, captured in the way Martin Scorsese captured it
(31:37):
was just moving. For lack of a better word, I
associate it with Thanksgiving and all good things. So I
am a complete sucker. It's a miracle. I don't start
crying every week every year during Thanksgiving because I love
it that much. I mean, I just think that's the holiday.
These are the people we're supposed to be in life,
(31:58):
so let's go be it.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
You know what My favorite part of our Thanksgiving is
tell me watching the old w KRP Turkey Drop video.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Because God is my witness. I thought turkeys could fly.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Me and my dad and my uncles, we are the
only ones in our family that find it funny. My
cousins think we're ridiculous, but it is. And my dad
and his brother can quote the entire thing from beginning
to end, and they do every year around this time.
My dad from the ground like sacks of the not
since the Hindenburgh tragedy is my dad will call me
(32:34):
on Thanksgiving Day to recite it to me, and then
he'll hang up the phone.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
That's amazing. I love that about the Hill family. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So she knows WKRP a sitcom from the seventies.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
I know that scene, and yet she doesn't know this.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
We'll play you out with with podcast Matt, going back
to the clips from the beginning of the show, the
blooper reel of things Cassidy Hill does not know.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
La la la la, la la la. Hello on my baby, Honey?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Is that a hooter song? O?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
That's Michigan Jay Frogg from Looney Tunes. Wait a minute,
you don't. We almost have to leave that in at
the top of the show. It's, uh, what are we doing,
Cassidy sweet.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Art, are you even recording? Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:26):
That's great, we'll drop that in bonus cuts, the director's
cut of The Happy Half Hour. Oh boy, On that note,
have a great Thanksgiving. Everybody, Go be around your people,
help where you can. We'll see you next week on
The Happy half Hour.
This week on a Happy half Hour, he was getting better.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The progress was steadily going in one direction, but the
increments were very small.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Sunday he took a huge jump.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The game he played in Germany compared to the game
he played here on Sunday, it was two different sports.
I mean it was yeah, you know, Trevon Wallace said it.
That was Alabama Price.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
What's the cow?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Whoa?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's time for the Happy Half Hour, presented by Southern Star,
an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers. Here are your hosts,
Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hello, friends, Welcome to this week's Happy Half Hour. I
gotta tell you missed the show. Within the show, we
might have to have podcasts. Matt Splice in the director's
cut with the bonus footage.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I don't like this. It's making fun of me.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, no, we'll treat this like a Burt Reynolds Dom
Delawi's movie The boot Blooper reel. At the end, we
got you know, they're they're just things. Cassidy, bless her heart,
does not know yet. It's not our fault.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
She's just young.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
So anyway, this is the Happy Half Hour presented to
you by Southern Star, an official bourbon partner of the
Carolina Panthers. Celebrate the spirit of the Carolinas and my friends,
we almost all.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Of those people in the stadium the other day.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
All most had something big to celebrate, didn't they.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
When when they kept getting a chance for another for
a two point conversion and it got moved up to
the one yard line, I looked at I looked at
the guy sitting next to me, and I was like,
this is are we about to win this game? But
alast you forget Patrick Mahomes is on the other side
and he does Patrick Mahomes things. But what a game?
(01:52):
What a great football game.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, it was just an.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Entertaining, well played game from beginning to end.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And I was joking, We're half joking last week when
I said this, and I mentioned this as Oki in
the pregame show, I said, you just got to kind
of unburden yourself of expectations, so you kind of go
in and you don't know, I mean, there was no
empirical reason for that game to turn out the way
that game turned out. Kanas City Chiefs from nine to one.
They got Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid in the top five defense.
(02:19):
Carolina Panthers were three and seven and struggled to beat
Saints and the Giants the last two weeks. That one
shouldn't have gone the way it went. But the amazing
thing about that is, and this that game contained multitudes
because the easiest thing to do and the easiest thing
for Dave Canalis and Bryce s Young to grab hold
of would be dang, we almost.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Did that, right.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
That was awesome and we almost did that awesome thing.
But the reaction from those guys was we got to
get that one in the future, and both of them
in the aftermath of the game, that was kind of
the consistent message of if anybody was thinking about moral victory,
they were heading that off fit the past.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, you know, I believe it was Ikey who said
yesterday when we were talking to him on Monday, you know,
we all play in the same NFL like, we've got
to win that and that's just a good reminder and
that's what we're here for to kind of to dap
up and say, hey, let's look at the good parts
and this and that and the other. But in that
(03:21):
locker room that you know, throw the record out the window.
We're all in the same NFL. We're all one of
thirty two teams, right, we should be able to go
out there and finish that off, right, But there is
still something to be said about going toe to toe
with the defending Super Bowl champs. Two time MVP, like
you said, a top five defense, and I think a
lot of what went well on Sunday, you know, players
(03:44):
told us that Bryce Shong gave a speech after the game,
which is which is not all that common, so it
kind of stood out just that he did that. And
jac Horn said that Bryce said, this wasn't a fluke,
this is who we are and we can win these games,
and that he was right, Like it wasn't like, oh,
they just had some weird things break their way to
(04:06):
keep that game close. They played their way into keeping
that game close. And a lot of what went well
were things that you have seen them building on to
this point and trying to address and working on and
getting better at the things that didn't go well, or
the things that they've been pretty open about need to
get better. And you know, it's you kind of saw
(04:30):
a clear line of demarcation the other day, like these
are the things we're doing well. Keep building on that
these are the things that we need to bring along
to kind of get us over the hump to win
those sort of games.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Right, And that's one of the things.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And I've been thinking about this a lot in the
last couple of days because overthinking things is the.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Thing I do.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Wow, the Carolina Panthers did things that they hadn't been doing.
I think that was to me when we look back
at that game a year from now, if the situation
is very different with this team, if this team's something
other than three and eight going into the last six
games of the season, I think we're going to look back.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
On that game.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Is normally for the Carolina Panthers to have a chance
to win that game, Chewba Hubbard's got to run for
one twenty five or one fifty. The defense has got
to get a bunch of stops beyond what you think
they're going to do, and they've got to, you know,
kind of bottle things up a little bit, keep Patrick
Mahomes in.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Front of them. They did things that were out of character.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Bryce Young was throwing passes that we haven't seen him throw,
or at least haven't seen him complete all season. Chewba
Hubbard was not a factor until middle of the third quarter.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
In on, which I mean the Chiefs sold out to
stop the run.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
And listen, if I was game planning to play Dave
Canalison and Carolina Panthers, that's exactly where I would begin
to because that's the thing most likely to give me trouble.
Juba wasn't a factor until he was. The defense was
getting strafed early on. They allow the Chiefs score five
straight possessions. Granted two of those were field goals, and
(06:09):
that was huge because anytime you get a red zone
stop on Patrick Mahomes, that's a win. Anytime you make
you know whoever kick, whether it's Harrison Butcker when he's healthier,
Spencer Trader the other day, if Spencer Trader's on the
field instead of Patrick Mahomes, that's a w for your defense.
And that defense got stops in the fourth quarter. Yeah,
they sacked Patrick Mahomes five times. This team had twelve
(06:33):
sacks and ten games.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
That's not what they do.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
And to me, that's the biggest sign of progress is
Bryce Young did things Bryce Young hadn't done. That defense
did things that defense hadn't done. And if you're looking
for a path forward, for the Carolina Panthers. Those are
the two areas to me where you see the most
hope for the future.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
And of course we talk all the time too about
complimentary football. That's what the offense the defense did, and
that's what the offense did within itself as well. Oh,
they were able to run you, but more in the
second half because the Chiefs had to start dropping back
and protecting the past more because of what Bryce did
in the right And we've seen him slowly ever since
(07:13):
he came back after the benching, we've seen him start
to be more confident with those throws. You know, he
had a couple of throws in Denver where it was like, oh, okay,
he uncorked that and just you know, he and the
receiver weren't on the same page, or sometimes they were,
and you know, but it didn't end up making a difference.
At the end of the day. We've seen him steadily
(07:34):
get more and more confident, which is what they wanted.
And they also wanted him to get the ball out
quicker and buddy, did he do that on Sunday. He
was blitzed more on Sunday than he ever has been
in a game in his career. He was blitched forty
percent of his dropbacks. That's an insane number. And all
he did was go eleven to fourteen for I think
one hundred and twenty plus yards in a touchdown against
(07:55):
the Blitz.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Yeah, I mean that was the thing.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
And I keep going back to with Bryce over the
last month and again part of you know, I've been
standing here in one place doing this thing for thirty years,
and they all sort of start to blend together. But
I think it's worth kind of stepping back and looking
at things from a wider lens.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Every now and then, if.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Andy Dalton doesn't get hit by a car on a
Tuesday before we go to Denver, none of this happens.
There was no indication that anything other than Andy Dalton
playing out the season was going to be what happened
for the Carolina Panthers. So if not for a traffic
accident on a Tuesday, Bryce doesn't get back on the field,
and since then the progress And you can't see this,
(08:42):
but this go theater of the mind with me. I'm
holding my fingers just a little bit apart, like a
finger's with a part. Bryshung was getting better that much
at a time. The first three weeks, when you go Denver,
New Orleans the Giants.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
He was getting better.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
The progress was steadily going in one direction, but the
increments were very small.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Sunday he took a huge jump.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I mean, and it's just the game he played in
Germany compared to the game he played here on Sunday,
it was two different sports. I mean, it was this,
you know, Trevon Wallace said it. That was Alabama Bryce.
We've seen that that was the guy who was dealing confidently,
and he really was, I mean, standing in the face
(09:23):
of that pressure making some of those throws. I mean
when they go zero and everybody's coming and he hits
lega for the first down, It's like.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Whoof Yeah. I think that was maybe the most impressive part.
And I think we also just asn't decide to have
to maybe give some credits to the fact that being
able to sit back and catch his breath for those
five weeks that Andy did play probably worked. Wonders just
being able to focus purely on the game book, the
(09:54):
playbook and practice without necessarily having to I don't want
to say worry about the game, but because he was
still prepared, you never know what Obviously, you never know
what's going to happen and when you have to step in.
But being able to focus on what he needed to do,
I think took a lot of weight off his shoulders
and now we're seeing play more free year because of it.
But to your point, I mean, you look at, for example,
(10:16):
that Green Bay game last year where he technically had
his best statistical game, right that he still had more
yards in that game than he did on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
M hm.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But that was a lot of running for his life
and dumping it off and and had the advantage of
playing against a defense that wasn't there to cover things.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
What a what a wonderful way of saying that.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Something came up the other day and somebody said, that's
a real rider way to explain that. And I think
that's another example of that. You described the Packers defense accurately.
There they weren't there to cover things.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
But then you see on Sunday, I mean he had
a conversion to Adam Thingland. I think it was a
third or fourth down conversion. I mean the guy was
draped on him. He got a PI call as well
a DPI call, but that ball was perfectly placed to Thielen,
and he was not scared to kind of put it
over there and let his guy make a catch. He
(11:15):
had a play to get down the right sideline at
one point that was not the one that got dropped,
But this one was a conversion as well. It got
him down close to the red zone and he threw
that ball. He never left the pocket and there was
a blitz coming. He knew it was coming, he saw it.
He never left the pocket. He stood in there. He
(11:36):
delivered that ball as he took a massive hit. I
don't know if he makes those plays a year ago.
I don't know if he makes those plays two months ago.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, I mean, and it's fair to ask. And again
I try to take the longer view of these things.
Playing quarterback in the NFL is really hard. There's a
reason Andy Dalton's good at it. He's done it for
a long long time. Bryce has done it for a
very short amount of time. And because we have this
tin and now in our modern culture, to every day
is a referendum on forever, and so whatever it is
(12:06):
right now is the thing everybody assumes it has to be.
And after the way last year when everybody assumed Bryce
is always going to be bad at football.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Everybody assumed that CJ.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Stroud's always going to be great at football. Early this year,
Caleb Williams has four or five good games and they're like,
oh my god, look at Caleb Williams. Now, you know,
there's this thing called regression to the mean and people
start to it takes time for people to become what
they are, and I think Bryce is still very much
in the evolution of his own game. And I also
(12:38):
don't want to get caught in the trap of assuming
Bryce is always going to look like this. In anybody's season,
there high points, low points. That's why I like averages,
and I just want to see what it looks like
six weeks from now, built on this. I want to
see how he takes this and turns it into the
next six weeks of the season, because that was it.
(13:00):
One of the other big takeaways is Dave Canalis has
always been one week at a time, and ask me
again on Wednesday, who's going to start Sunday. He was like,
I don't need to say anything. Bryce told you everything
you needed to see out there today. I mean, and
Dave just you know, it's reached the point where you
just kind of shrugged and it was like, well, yeah,
he's starting.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Of course, did you see the game he just played.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
So now it's on Bryce to see how he can
build on it, to see what's next for him, because
we're getting back to the brice a lot of people
were expecting a year and a half ago when he
was drafted based on everything we had seen in Alabama,
because again, as Trevon Waller said, that was Alabama.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Bryce, right now that he has seen himself do it too,
very curious what Sunday looks like because this Tampa Bay defense,
the secondary figuring out the right way to put this. Okay,
let's just use the numbers this The Tampa Bay secondary
is twenty eighth in the league overall. Now that Bryce
has kind of seen what he can do, and that's
(14:00):
not to say he's going to go out there and
light him up and toward the place, but it is
can he take another step forward right now that he
has seen the tape and he and his receivers are
getting closer on the same page in chemistry because some
of those incompletions on Sunday too were drops.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
You know.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Xavierally Get told us yesterday that when he went home
Sunday night and kind of watched the film. He ended
up texting Bryce about that play that was down the
left side line and apologize and he's like, you put
it in the perfect spot. I should have caught that,
Like that was on me.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Well.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
And one of the things against the Bucks, I mean,
you mentioned are they at top five defense?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
They are not.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
They're a bottom five defense.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Is Todd Bowles really good at coaching ball?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
He absolutely is.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
And Todd's one of those coaches who is great at
coaching any one particular game. I just love the way
I love his approach to it. I think he is
one of those coaches who is good for long stretches
of time. If you want to raise the level of
your organization, Todd Bowles is the kind of coach you
want to have around he is. He is so good defensively.
(15:07):
He can turn the screws on you in one particular
week and make anybody look see Canalis. Yep, he certainly
does that. So it's going to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
But I think that you know you're gonna hear it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
And it started to creep in a little bit, in
the little bit that people were allowing themselves to think
positively about that game that that unfolded. You know, somebody
with I think it was Rob Hunt, said hey, we're
three and eight, we got stuff to play for.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Yeah, which, mathematically.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yes, congratulations, you're in the still in the Hunt graphic
because you haven't been eliminated and you have the good
fortune of playing in the NFC South, the trailer park
of the NFL. Uh.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
I've said it all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Every trailer park gets haveing hoa, somebody's got to be
the president. So uh, it's still right there in front
of you. There are three games out of the division
league with six to play, and I've seen weirder things happen.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
In this you know, yess of a division.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
So way division games to play too.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, I mean, anything can happen. But I think, to me,
I tend to look at this as what is this
doing to set this team up for next year? And
I think being in a game like Sundays, seeing how
close how far away they are from how close they
need to be because there's still a lot of stuff
(16:27):
going wrong. They you know, coaches love winning games where
they've got object lessons to show people in concrete things.
They lost that game, but all Dave Canal's got to do. Say, Hey,
you want to beat the Chiefs, be better in the
red zone, you want to beat the Chiefs, get off
field on third down. He's got those very tangible teaching
(16:47):
points to lean on coming out of this game, and
I think that's going to serve these guys well, because
these guys have started to figure something out. This reminds
me so much of two thousand and two when John
Fox came in first as a head coach. They won
their first three games based on a defense that was
hard from day one. I mean, you walked into a
group with Dan Morgan, Chris Jenkins, Julius Peppers, and it's like, oh,
(17:10):
they're pretty good. And then they went through a long
stretch and eight game losing streak in the middle of
the season where they couldn't score a point, couldn't do
anything right. And then at the end of the year
you saw that turn. They go up to Cleveland, they
win an ugly game in Cleveland and win like whatever
it happened to be for their last five I think
it was finish seven and nine.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, turned a three and eight into a seven and nine.
So for the last.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Five and they started to find out a personality, and
we all know what happened. The next year, they got
on a run, went to the Super Bowl, which at
dilom a quarterback. I don't know that they're necessarily anticipating
a quarterback change right now, but this team is starting
to figure out a personality. And if Bryce being confident
in making throws like he made Sunday as part of
(17:56):
that personality, there is definitely some stuff to build on
for them.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
On that note, can we talk about the defense for
equipment we should how much stock do you put in
I don't want to say like a game changer, but
one guy being a lynch pin.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You're talking about DJ Watts, Yes, yeah, I mean, And
that's the thing in a three to four defense, at
outside linebacker position is the most important position on the field.
And if you've got a guy like Jadavian Clowney out
there run around by himself, there ain't so much he
can do. You put a guy on the other side,
and that's that force multiplayer. It's the guy who makes
(18:32):
everything else work a little better around him.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
And I just I do I look at this team.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
I mean, when the Carolina Panthers going to the offseason
We've got a lot of time to talk about offseason stuff,
but I think one of the keys is going to
be adding dudes on defense, people who chase quarterbacks around
in the front seven specifically, is going to be one
of Dan Morgan's focuses this offseason. But DJ Wadham's done
a job in a couple of weeks. He's got a
(18:58):
sack in each game, and he frees things up on
the other side. And you've seen a more active Clowney.
You've seen you know, Ashawn Robinson continuing to do the work.
I mean, my guysh that guy he left the game,
came out. Uh, he was clearly hurt. I saw him
leading the stadium with a cast on his hand.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
We'll see what happens this week. But you know, football
players call cats like that war daddies.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, and he is one.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
He's he's that old head who is going to go
no matter what, and again to a lesser degree of
what's happening on the other side of the ball. But
you can kind of see that path forward. You put
Deareck Brown on the field next day, Shawn Robbinson next year,
You add another couple pass rushers, you fortify some other
areas of that defense. See, you know, Trevin will be
(19:45):
a year better next year.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
You can sort of see where this group's going to get.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Yeah, and listen, do they need more dudes and more
time they do? Uh? Do they need this defensive coaching
staff come back another year smarter about these pieces. They've
gotten the pieces they need. Yep, that helps too.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
But I'm not saying there there yet.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
But they are in that spot that the two Panthers
were in coming out of Cleveland in December, where it's like,
all right, we're not there, but I can at least
see the map.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
So it's exciting.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
It was good stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I mean, it's just and I joked about this the
other week in the mail bag, the Panthers have kind
of escaped the oh my god, is it over part
of the league. I mean that, you know, Sunday's result
against Washington notwithstanding, Dallas is ready to curl up and
for this thing to be over. Other teams in the
(20:44):
league have reached that point where they're only thinking about
draft position and how do we extract ourselves from this mess.
The Carolina Panthers suddenly have got stuff to play for,
even if it's you know, twenty twenty five stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
And that's cool. It's different.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It's not something that we've experienced the last couple of
years around here.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Right. It's like like I said a minute ago, you
can see kind of what Dan Morgan's vision is and
makes you excited to see what they can do this
off season two and where they can take it next year.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
So anyway, so I guess you could. I guess you
could say they have a lot to be.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Thanks they have a lot to be thankful.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
And there's our segue. It's Thanksgiving Week, everybody, and I
hope it.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Is your favorite Thanksgiving side.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
My favorite Thanksgiving side is a correct answer. Well, I I.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Celebrate the entire catalog of Thanksgiving. It's my absolute favorite holiday.
I hate Halloween. I got no business with it. I
don't care for the people who go straight to Christmas
after Halloween.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Wow, shots fired.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I want a month of gratitude. It's kind of my thing.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
I you know, get your people around you, eat a
bunch of food, do things that make you happy, help
other people as you can. That's kind of my aesthetic
at this point in my life. So I just love
everything about Thanksgiving. I love green bean casserole. I love
those sausage and cheese biscuits my mom makes out of
three ingredients biscuit, sausage, cheese that we eat before we eat.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Does she make them as biscuits or as.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Balls balls but smaller than a golf ball so you
can eat a whole bunch.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Of them breakfast.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
So, I mean I love everything about it. My sister
in law makes this weird wild rice thing with cream
of something, soup and green peppers in it. Uh, it's great,
the whole thing. I mean, I I just love mostly
I like having my people around me. I mean that's
the key. But I dig and I think it's a
perfect compliment to everything else on the table. Cranberry sauce
(22:43):
out the can, because it even gives you lines so
you know how to cut it. I mean, everything's right
there for you. They've even given you instructions with this
food product.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
So it don't look like much.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
But I think it's perfect because it's got that sweet
tart compliment to all this savory deliciousness that hits your plate.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Right. I do love cranberry sauce. I had grew up
eating it out of a can, and then I spent
about ten years while working as a sports reporter, I
also worked at a bed and breakfast in Gainesville, Florida,
and nothing came out of that kitchen that wasn't homemade.
And once you've made homemade cranberry sauce for about seven
or eight years and you've tasted that, it's hard to
(23:25):
have anything else here.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
You and I had that, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
But I just like there is something solid and stable
and predictable about that.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah that I like certainty this time of year.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So if I I know, I can open that, can
hear that come out on one end, cut it along
those lines, and I know exactly what I'm gonna get.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
The correct answer though, was sweet potato casserole.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
That sure great, love it, love sweet potatoes. Here's the
key to Thanksgiving. Get around your people, eat food that
you enjoy in a responsible amount.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Perhaps commit some physical activity.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Earlier in the days so you can do it without compulsion,
but mostly just don't steal the land of indigenous peoples
and enslave them. If you can pull that off on Thanksgiving,
I think that's the key.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
That's all you can ask for it.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah, that's my moment of political activism for Thanksgiving. Actually no,
it's not, because I gave you the assignment of all
assignments this week, but you got to experience Alice's Restaurant
by Arlo Guthrie in all its eighteen and a half
minute glory.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
You know what's funny is like I when you said
that song, I had no idea what you're talking about.
And then and then it was playing. I was listening
to it in the car and it got to the
first little you can Have Anything you Want at Alice's
rest and I was like, I know this song. I
at least know that riff. It's either been used in
commercials or movies or something, and so I knew that
(24:56):
little riff. It was definitely entertaining. It's not one that
I would listen to over. I'm a big If I
find a song I like, I'll listen to it seven
times in a row in the car. Yeah, that's one
that I'm obviously probably not gonna do that with just
because who has that kind of time. But it made
time fors rivee around. I gotta get a full tank
(25:16):
of gas and then drive around and listen to it
seven times. But it was definitely entertaining. I liked the story.
I liked how it really took us on a ride
and then came back to the beginning. It could have
been half the time if he didn't repeat everything seventeen times.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Maybe that was fun.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
That was part of the fun.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
You're you're starting to get a window into my soul here,
because if you listen to that song carefully, there are
lines in that song that have become part of.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
The Darren Gamp vernacular.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Okay, when he talks about how Officerobi, you know, there
were a couple of things that could have happened. He
could have brought him down to the station and given
him a medal and thanked him for how brave and
honest they were. And he says, but that wasn't very
likely and we didn't expect it.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
That's a thing that just.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Now falls out of my mouth when I'm talking about things.
You know, something will happen about football, and I'll say
it wasn't very likely and we didn't expect it.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
So, yeah, know, there are things about it. I love it.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's a protest song. It's about ending the draft. It's
about that. Yeah, I mean that's the whole thing. It's
a Vietnam protest song he.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
Definitely went to he tried to enlist.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
No, he didn't try to enlist. He was he was drafted.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That's why he went to Whitehall Street to get inspected, detected.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
And see what I thought?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
That was a volunteer.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
This was this was all context. He was trying to
get out of the draft. And and the point of
the song is how ridiculous is it that I am
not moral enough to go burn women and children's villages
down in Vietnam after littering in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So he was saying, Okay.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Now you got to go back and it again. I
have sentenced you to another drive. So by the way,
you had me listening to Kristin.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Chinawell, Oh yeah, I forgot what I gave you.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I find delightful. By the way, you're so fun.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
You might not peg me as a show tunes kind
kind of guy, but I like a show tune every
now and then. And she she is amazing to me.
She's like the Steve Smith of singers. It's hard to
believe anything that big comes out of something that little.
She has got a gigantic voice. She's an incredible performer.
And Taylor the Latte Boy is a cute little song.
(27:33):
Uh fun, Yeah, it was fun. It was nice and
while I got down one of the things happens to
me when I tend to listen to a lot of
music on YouTube, and so it gives you the next thing. Yea,
and there is I saw a response to this from
the perspective of Taylor the Latte Boy, and it was basically,
get this crazy woman away from me, I need a
(27:53):
restraining order, which I find cool because it flipped that
story on its head.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
That's a fun one. And the first guy that ever
did it, he was a comedian. He did it as
part of his stand up and he put on a
Starbucks apron to do it. So, yeah, it was it
was cute. So but I sing that song to myself
a lot when I go in Starbucks.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Yeah, there you go. What what you got for me
this week? What am I listening to on my Thanksgiving break?
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Question Mark, We're gonna just do it. I've been holding
this one. I've been thinking about it, and I've been
slightly hesitant because up what you're gonna say. But we're
about to get into a very happy time of the year,
So let's just get this last sad one out. Of
the way, oh boy, because you need to do it.
(28:38):
This was listed as Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone said this
will be one of the top one hundred songs of
all time when it's all said and done. Your good
friend Rob Demoski laughed at me when I said that,
and then he went and listened to the song, and
he came to me the next day and said, you
were right. I said, okay, all right, what you got
all too well? Mm hmm. Taylor's version ten minute version
(29:02):
ten minutes.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
See, this is payback for making you listen Alice's Restaurant.
Now you got to listen to it again, now that
you know what it's actually about.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
That you have to make sure you're listening to the
ten minute version.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
All right, fair enough, Well, since you since you're doing that,
it's Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
There are things.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
There are a couple of cultural signifiers for me when
I get to Thanksgiving week. Number one is I'm gonna
listen to Alice's Restaurant seven or eight times in my car,
even if I have to drive around extra to do it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I used to torment the kids.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I'd say, give me the ax cord, I only want
to hear one song, and I'd listen to that, and
they would squall, so I'd listen to it again. Maybe
that's why they don't ride around with me. But the
other one that it's just a staple of this week for.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Me is the Last Waltz.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
The band is the greatest American band, even though only
one member of the band was American.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
That would be over ter the band.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, the band. Levon Hilm was the drummer in the
cornerstone of the band. It's the greatest American band, even
though everybody other than Levine in the band was Canadian.
Their last show was captured by Martin Scorsese for the
movie The Last Waltz.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Okay, Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
They brought in an all star cast of all their friends.
Eric Clapton was there, Bob Dylan was there, Neil Young,
Johnny Mitchell, a star studded cast was there. But the
Last Waltz is The concert itself was on Thanksgiving Night
at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco in nineteen seventy six,
(30:32):
So I just have always associated the Last Waltz with
Thanksgiving Friday Night. Here's a PSA Friday Night at the
Visualite Theater. Here in Lovely Elizabeth Josh Daniel and friends
do an annual Last Waltz tribute show that me and
my smart friend Kelly's smart friend Anne and some other
friends will be in attendance for it's a great time.
And coming down the stretch of that show. Coming down
(30:56):
the stretch of the movie, two of the last three
songs You're Gonna Hear are Forever Young by Bob Dylan.
That song under that name's been recorded by a lot
of different people, different songs, but the Bob Dylan Forever
Young with the band from the Last Waltz. Look it
up on the youtubes. And then they closed the show
with I Shall Be Released. And when you think about
(31:16):
the band and the scope of their career, what Robbie
Robertson and Levon Hilm were able to do together as
musicians along with an incredible band, I mean I could
go on and on all day about Garth Hudson and
Rich Danko and the boys, and it was just an
incredible band. And to see it all come together in
that way, captured in the way Martin Scorsese captured it
(31:37):
was just moving. For lack of a better word, I
associate it with Thanksgiving and all good things. So I
am a complete sucker. It's a miracle. I don't start
crying every week every year during Thanksgiving because I love
it that much. I mean, I just think that's the holiday.
These are the people we're supposed to be in life,
(31:58):
so let's go be it.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
You know what My favorite part of our Thanksgiving is
tell me watching the old w KRP Turkey Drop video.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Because God is my witness. I thought turkeys could fly.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Me and my dad and my uncles, we are the
only ones in our family that find it funny. My
cousins think we're ridiculous, but it is. And my dad
and his brother can quote the entire thing from beginning
to end, and they do every year around this time.
My dad from the ground like sacks of the not
since the Hindenburgh tragedy is my dad will call me
(32:34):
on Thanksgiving Day to recite it to me, and then
he'll hang up the phone.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
That's amazing. I love that about the Hill family. That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
So she knows WKRP a sitcom from the seventies.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
I know that scene, and yet she doesn't know this.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
We'll play you out with with podcast Matt, going back
to the clips from the beginning of the show, the
blooper reel of things Cassidy Hill does not know.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
La la la la, la la la. Hello on my baby, Honey?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Is that a hooter song? O?
Speaker 2 (33:07):
That's Michigan Jay Frogg from Looney Tunes. Wait a minute,
you don't. We almost have to leave that in at
the top of the show. It's, uh, what are we doing,
Cassidy sweet.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Art, are you even recording? Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:26):
That's great, we'll drop that in bonus cuts, the director's
cut of The Happy Half Hour. Oh boy, On that note,
have a great Thanksgiving. Everybody, Go be around your people,
help where you can. We'll see you next week on
The Happy half Hour.
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