October 16, 2025 • 29 mins
Today on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy preview this weekend's game against the New York Jets, discuss the running back situation in Carolina, continue their look back at the 2015 season, and so much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Happy Half Hour. Hello friends, and welcome back to
the Happy Half Hour, which is considerably happier than it's
been in weeks past, but everybody's still in a good mood.
I am constantly amazed as I moved through the city
of Charlotte, the place I call home, the place I love.
How much easier life is when the Carolina Panthers win
(00:22):
a couple of football games in a row. People let
you in in traffic, they wave when you let them in.
It's life is good.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
The sky is bluer, the sweet tea is sweeter. Everything
is happy and better when you're winning.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
The sky is blue in Charlotte, North Carolina, always anyway,
because we are, after all, the center of the universe,
and we appreciate you. We appreciate you guys joining us
here in the center of the universe. Because this episode
of the Happy Half Hour is brought to us by
our friends at Deep Eddie. Those guys should have a
song or something, because they've got some cool stuff going
(00:54):
on between that a contest between now and October twenty six.
You can devise your cut some cocktail using Deep Eddy
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in October twenty six, clock's ticking. You got ten days
to get that entry in to win two count them,
two tickets to the November nine Saints game, access to
the one Carolina Lounge. Matt's throwing stuff at me in
(01:16):
the background, But it's okay, because it's all right here,
baby steal trap. I remember this read like it's the
back of my head.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I was literally just about to say, you're doing this
without the Q card.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
That's right. I don't need que cards, I don't need notes.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
We could just uh, okay, we could just get crazy,
we throw all.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
This right out the window and everything would just be
just buying what can possibly go wrong? Yeah, a lot
of cool stuff going on, so don't forget get your
entry in Sweet Sip sweep Steaks with our friends at
Deep Eddy. We appreciate them sponsoring this fine radio program.
I don't know why I called it that, but that's
what we're going with for right now. Yeah, busy week.
(01:55):
It has just been all kind of stuff going on.
People were winning awards and left bard people are winning
awards left and right. Ryan Fitz money because your NFC
Special Teams Player of the Week t MAC is the
Rookie of the Week sponsored by some person who doesn't
sponsor me, so I'm not going to say their name.
And Rico Dudel is also the ground Player of the Week,
(02:18):
sponsored by somebody who doesn't sponsor me, so I'm not
gonna say their name. So so many awards and all.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well deserved and interesting. You know, it's funny because I
was looking at the who they were going against for
both Rico and t Mac those are fan votes awards
as well. The NFL decides on the finalist and this
fan vote, and I was looking over and they were
going against guys that also had really really good weeks,
but kind of proves to you how vital what they've
been doing has been to their team and fans appreciate that. Yeah,
(02:48):
and uh, you know, I think Rico shared his with
Cam Skataboo because there's always two winners for Aaron ground.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
You just wanted to say Cam Scataboo because he's such
a fantasy team.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
He is my fantasy team. And that was a great
coaching decision by me. That's why we don't listen to
Darren anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
At any rate. Uh, Tino, I think you told.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Me to bench. We got three touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, I mean you know, when your option is Dereck Henry,
I always enjoy a known commodity.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Call me crazy, risk it to get the biscuit. Yeah, sorry,
what you?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Then team back wins Rookie of the Week today that
was announced this morning.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You count them two touchdowns after having zero going into
last week. We can finally stop talking about that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Interestingly enough, like he had not played a game yet
where I think he had less than forty yards. I
think forty was the fewer, then fewer then forty ish
the family of forty yards.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
He was forty eight maybe somewhere he was in that range,
and that day averaging about seventy yards a week. Yeah,
get you good, twelve hundred yards for the season.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
And then Sunday, I think he had his fewest yards
of the season. I want to say twenty eight yep total,
but it included a nineteen yard touchdown and four yard
touch to four four yard touchup.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
You get in a box. Couple of times, we'll forgive
the yard numbers.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I think he would take it too. So that was
a cool moment for him, for his family, his entire family.
News here from Hawaii. His Granddad's birthday was on Sunday.
He gave him the game, He gave him his first
touchdown ball.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Sometimes the universe is talking to you, friends, and you
just got to listen.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is that from a movie?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know, I just up. But uh, anyway, all
kind of good stuff going on. The Rico Dudle thing. Uh,
it has actually been almost a source of amusement to
me because people are trying to turn this into some
kind of thing, and people are trying to turn this
into a fake problem. It's as if fans of the
Carolina Panthers, which you all are, of course, if you're
(04:44):
watching or listening to The Happy Half Hour, don't remember
De'angelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, or don't remember Deshaun Foster
and Stephen Davis. We've seen this movie before. Gang you
need more than one?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, and I it can so easily be done, and
I think these are two guys that can do it,
because again, let's just say it again and and again
and again. They're both such strong runners, but they do
have different running styles. They see different holes. Cuba is
so good in the middle of the field. Rico is
so good bouncing out. You can use both. Cuba even
(05:20):
said yesterday he was like dreams because asked him, like,
you know, you knew you when you put two thousand
yard rushers on a roster together, there was a chance
this could happen. So like, what is your dream scenario here?
And he was like, dream scenario, Let's put Trevor out
there too and have three running backs on the field.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Right, I'm perfectly content to go wish bamb you know.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And I've been going back and watching the twenty fifteen games.
There was a game earlier in the twenty fifteen season
where at one point it was Cam Newton, Jonathan Stewart,
Mike Tolbert and somebody else that was also a running
of the running back.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Variety maybe, and there were if you count Cam as well,
there were essentially four rushers in backfield.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And I was like, wow, this is fun. So all
that to say it can be done. You've got who
was the other group? You said, the older running back Duocy.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
The older ones Stephen Davis and Deshaun Foster.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Would they have been here under dom capers.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'm learning This is me putting my head down on
the disc because my friend here thinks things that happened
in two thousand and three to two thousand and five
are ancient his Oh no, they were not here with
Dom Capers. They were here with John Fox. They were
the running backs for the first Super Bowl team in
franchise history.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I mean, and the reality is, pologies for anybody that's
about to get bad of me. I'm trying to learn.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
No, it's okay. I mean the young ones, they they
sometimes they don't know what they don't know. Right, here's
the data and the long way, you know, the easy
way to describe what this shows is that a lot
of times, when you've got two running backs, one of
them is going to miss a game every now and then.
And that's what happened. I mean, Cuba's out with the injury.
He's been practicing this week, seems to be better, seems
(07:04):
to be excited. I can always tell when Cuba is
feeling good because he's he's bouncing around. He goes and
stretches with the defensive guys just so he can to
on him and talk all the trash. But guys missed time.
And there were there were like five instances during those
big runs of Stephen Davison Sean Foster in a season
where one or the others not available, and that's when
(07:27):
you got a lean on the other way. And I
think you know, and and Rico mentioned this yesterday. He
talked about listen, man, I've had to come out with cramps. Yeah,
each of the last two weeks. So maybe if there's
another running back, right, that wouldn't be as much of
a problem.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
No disrespect to Trevory tn who has handled the job
admirabra when Rico has come out, but he is still
a rookie and he's had six games in his NFL
career thus far, and it is a long season. And
so if if you have a you know, if Rico's
cramping and Cuba can go in, or vice versa. Or
this is the point Rico was making yesterday. Simply splitting
(08:03):
the snaps during the game should keep him from cramping
up in the fourth quarter because he's got less stress
on his legs because he was running a lot. I
mean two hundred and thirty four yards from scrimmage, two
hundred and thirty nine yards from scrimmage out there almost
every play blocking it builds up in your body. You know,
you can't help it, and so or you know, there's
(08:25):
things you can do, but still it's a lot on
your body. So if you're if you're splitting some of
those reps with another guy, I think what's going to
be more interesting to me that I want to watch
is before Cuba's injury, they were rotating them in that
if it was a Cuba drive, he got first and
second down, Rico got third if it was a Rico drive,
(08:46):
and then they would trade off drives and so then
Rico would go out for first and second down, Cuba
would go out for third, and then they would trade
off like that pretty much the whole game. Is that
still gonna be the rhythm? Or is it more Cuba
Chuba Cuba Rico Rico Rico, Wait say that again, chibchubco.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I just kind of enjoyed that.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
There was like a fan edit. I remember last year
one of the local radio stations put it to that
old song.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, I think our friends you're responsible for that. Thank
you very much, boys, We appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
All that to say, what does the rotation look like
now that you do know what Rico can do a
little more within this offense? Does that change even just
who goes in when it.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Just gives you so many more opportunities. It gets you know,
Canal has talked yesterday about opening up the whole call
sheet when certain things are working, and when you've got
the opportunity to run a lot of different stuff with
two different guys, it just multiplies what you're able to
do as an offense. And right now they're in a
spot where they're continuing to build. You know, obviously the
(09:49):
turnovers a couple of weeks ago, we're a big deal.
The way you're running it right now takes some of
that pressure off of Bryce Young. It keeps it from
being all about what is Bryce Young going to do
this week? But you know, it just allows everybody to
kind of breathe. And that's always been my thing about
the run game. When you can do that, when you
can shorten games, and Canal has said it the other day,
(10:11):
when you're getting as many first downs and they're top
ten in the league in first downs gained, which you
wouldn't necessarily think about with the Carolina Panthers offense right now.
But when you're getting more plays and more opportunities, it
allows you to do more stuff. And I just think
it creates such a stability I mean, listen, this is
the old man talking again. Everybody understands where I'm coming from.
(10:34):
There's three things that happens when you pass. How many
of them are bad? Cas too who are bad? That's right.
It can be incomplete or it can be intercepted. And
when you're running the ball, I mean sure, bad things
can happen occasionally, but you're controlling the clock, You're leaning
on your opponents, You're being more physical and wearing them down.
You're giving your defense an opportunity to get a drink
(10:54):
a gatorade. It's just the way to football. In my opinion,
it doesn't sound cool, and I'm never gonna get invited
to the San Sports Conference with this kind of take.
But if you can run, and you can stop the run,
you've got a real chance to win football games. And
that's been true for about one hundred years now.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
That hasn't changed her. Edwards said the other night on
Monday Night football And this is not a crazy idea.
This has been again. I tell his oldest time when
it comes to football. But I just I love a
well placed quote. He said, the only way you give
the other team the football is a kick love it
a kick off? For a punt. He said, that's the
(11:33):
only way the other team should ever get the football.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Love that and so yeah works there.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
As you said, the best way to win is to
run the football and stop the run. That is definitely
what this defense has been doing the past few weeks
as well. They are top ten, they are ninth overall
and rushing deal rushd Darren. They have done that while
facing three of the league's top six rushers and four
of the top twelve. Oh and by the way, they're
going to be facing five of the top twelve after
(11:59):
this week because Breeze Hall is ver eleven.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Breese Hall is pretty good. It is too, and by.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
After next week it will be four of the top six,
six of the top twelve. Because James Cook the third.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Isn't very few things I enjoy more in this job
than watching you do math live.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It just makes me happy. You should have seen us,
I think I might have said this Monday on the podcast.
Apologize if I did, but like Darren goes downstairs early
to get ready, and like you should have seen us
trying to like do the seen me doing the math
to see if Reco got to two. Because we knew
Christian McCaffrey had to the record for a franchise record
(12:37):
at to thirty seven. How much did Rico need to
tie it to get above it? And it's like he
got a nine yard run and I'm sitting there going like, okay,
did that do it? Like, oh, now, I gotta do math.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
This is like the GalF and Aciss meme. It's numbers
flying all around. The head cast is over here doing
math on her fingers. It's outstanding. I trust her implicitly
as far as she knows, and don't double check her
math anytime it comes up.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But I don't tell me that. I hope you do.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes, I do. Don't worry. Okay, good, But yeah, it's amazing.
And we've talked about this before. I didn't come into
this season anticipating this turning into a top ten defense
or this being the ninth ranked run defense in the NFL,
just based on what happened last year. But here we
are fifty yards on the ground the last two weeks combined.
(13:26):
It's just not anything I expected. That defense, however, took
a major hit this week. When you lose a Pat Jones.
Pat finished the game on Sunday. He was in a
little bit of discomfort. Some of his teammates said, you know,
you could tell he wasn't right, But Pat's a hard,
hard guy to get off the field. Nick Gorton said,
he's like I always tease him about making his life
(13:48):
harder than it has to be, because he loves adversity.
We must have been in plenty because he woke up
Monday morning and realized his back was so painful that
they got him checked out. Test revealed he needed surgery.
End of the season for Pat Jones, So that creates
a new problem for the Carolina Panthers. As you may
have noticed, they're not exactly sacking the quarterback at record pace,
(14:08):
and now you're without Pat Jones, who had eight last
year with the Vikings. He's a guy who builds so
many roles. So now it's on Nick Scrting to grow
up a little bit to take on more of a role.
I mean they anticipated it for Nick when he was
drafted in the second round. He's a mature guy himself
to be one of the youngest players on the team,
and he more is going to be expected of him.
(14:31):
I mean, you're going to have him, DJ Wanham and
Prince Lely out there for the foreseeable future. You know,
maybe mix a little boogie bash him in here and there,
but there's no real replacing Pat Jones. You just have
to kind of hope that those guys can fill in
the gaps and create a little pressure around him.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, and to add as well, like hearts go out
to Pat Jones, one of the great ones in the
locker room. Such a good guy, always fun to talk to.
You know, we had so much fun going out to
his grandma's place with him this all season doing that
story and how important it was for him to play
for the Panthers so that he could be back with
his family. All that to say, yes, season ending surgery.
(15:11):
What does this mean for the defense as well? You know,
do you start seeing maybe some more exotic blitzes just
to kind of feel that a gio Evro said today,
he kind of admitted He's like, you know, I don't
want to give away the game plan, but like, yeah,
it could take two guys to replace Pat, because even
though they weren't necessarily getting to the quarterback in sacks
a lot, they were still affecting the quarterback pretty well
(15:33):
and push in the pocket, causing like quarterback curries like
erratic throws things like that, and so they were getting there,
and Pat was showing up in the run game as
well a lot, and so that's something that both That's
something that Nick does well, is show up in the
run game. Princely has been doing it a lot more
as well. The past couple of weeks, he's talked about
(15:55):
how watching film he realized that that was definitely something
missing from his and he's trying to put an emphasis
on that. And so I think we see them try
to go with a rotation, you know, keep DJ Wantam
out there, let the young guys kind of take the
other side. You've got Boogie bash on Thomas en Kuhn, right,
guys like that. What does it look like? I think
(16:16):
that they feel like there's enough there to continue to
do what they're doing. But it does hurt from a
production standpoint and from a leadership point of view. Pat
had had become a really good mentor for I think
he had been paired with Princely, but for both guys,
and I think he'll stay around. You know, like we said,
his families here, his parents live here now, his entire
(16:38):
family lives in Charlotte. I don't think Pat will be
too far away.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
No, I don't think so either. But you know what,
I would rather light a candle than curse your darkness. Here,
guess who's coming back. He Shaun Wharton. Ladies, Oh, gentle man,
he's He's been on the practice field in the last
couple of days, you know, after missing three games or
two games rather. And Turk is a guy who can
contribute to that as well. I mean, he had the
opportunity to rush a lot from inside last year with
(17:04):
the Chiefs. I think he had eight and a half
sacks including the playoffs. And Turk is a guy who's
been limited with some injuries, but when he's out there
on the field, he's a difference maker. And when I
think about what the Panthers have been able to do
up front, I mean Ashawn Robbins and Bobby Brown, Derek
Brown have been doing a job run defense wise, Turk's
a different athlete. I mean, if you look at him,
(17:26):
he's kind of short, he's wide, he's got calves about
this bigger Brown. He's just got enormous legs, low center
of gravity, a lot of power. But he's an explosive player,
and so I think as they get him reincorporated into
the defense. That's going to help a little bit take
some of that slack, because you've got a bunch of
(17:47):
dudes now who can do a lot of different things.
We were talking about Princely a second ago. He's really
caught my eye the last couple of weeks learning to
play the run and making some plays that effect in
the run game. Because he was a effectively drafted as
third down as a pass rush specialist. I mean, that's
effectively the role that I think they had in mind
(18:07):
for him his rookie year. But he's actually jumped in
there and made a few plays against the run where
it's like, okay, young fella. I you know, I feel
like Shack, I was not familiar with.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Your game, and you know that's not anything that you
weren't even unfamiliar with. Because Princely himself said like he
was like, I came, I was brought here to be
out there on passing downs, and he was like, that's
kind of what I did, and that's what they expected
me to do. So credit to Princely as well for
watching the tape and realizing like he could be doing
(18:37):
more than what he was and that he had the
capability to do so and decided to put effort into it. Princely,
I've covered him since he was sixteen years old in recruiting.
He is an incredible athlete. It's always going to be
what is he really like? Does he realize how incredible
of an athlete he is? And I think he realized
(18:58):
the past few weeks, Hey, I can blow up a
run and that's what he's done. So it's been fun
to watch.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And they and they're gonna need that move them forward.
But a lot of moving parts this week. Like I said,
Wednesday was a super busy news day. You look up
at the at front page of Panthers dot Com at
a certain point it's like, man, all of today's stuff
is not fitting on this page. So make sure you're
updating that throughout today because there's always something happening around here.
(19:25):
One of the other developments this week, think we're going
to get Jalen Cocher back on the field, and so
that'll be good news. That'll kind of add a layer
to the offense too. We've talked a lot about the
run game and the strides they've made there, but getting
Jaalen Cocher back on the Field's big because much in
the same way Rico and Chewba can play off of
each other, Having a jail and Cocher gives you another
(19:47):
big body, another explosive athlete, and a guy who can
play in multiple spots so you can move them around.
It's just one of the shames of the early part
of the season. The day after Adam Thielens traded, Jalen's
out there in practice running individual, you know, routes and
kind of pulls that quad running round against j. C.
(20:07):
Hornet's like what, you know, he just he just felt terrible.
You could see it on his face, and it's taking
him a couple of weeks to get back. Canalys has
talked about wanting to build up that stamina because they're
going to get in a game at some point where
it's going to be a shootout again. They're going to
need him to run fifty sixty routes downfield, So they
got to make sure that Jalen's right from a physical standpoint.
(20:31):
But he said yesterday he looks he feels good. He
looks good. He's back wearing his own number in practice
instead of a scout team jersey. Yeah, he doesn't have
to pretend to be George Pickens. He can just be
the original Jalen Coker. And that's a good thing because,
like I said, as last year developed, he really was
one of the deep threats on this team and could
(20:51):
get the ball downfield. And that's the thing where this
offense feeds itself. When you're running the ball, that opens
up play action, that opens up downfield. It's just one
works off the other. So getting him back is gonna
be good news.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
One of the in hindsight silver linings of Bryce, you know,
going and Andy starting, Bryce going to the bench for
a few weeks is that Bryce started to run some
of the scout team stuff and with the twos, and
so he got a lot of time with Jalen Cocher
before Cocher kind of really got elevated to the active
roster after Adam Felen's injury. And it wasn't it wasn't
(21:27):
a ton a ton of time, but it was enough
time for the two of them to really kind of
like this sounds so cliche because we say it all
the time, but like they really developed a chemistry together.
If you notice a lot of times, if you go
back and watch them last year, if Bryce went out
on a scramble drill. If it wasn't Thlan, it was Coker,
and that was that became his safety blanket. And we
(21:50):
saw it even in that that preseason game where you
know when Xcel had to come out and Coker goes
in and Bryce had that scramble touch scramble drill for
the touchdown. It was Coker who pulled that in those too.
Just they figured each other out during that time early
last season when they were both running with the twos
together and it's it's paid dividends on the field, and
so that's exciting to get back to.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, a lot of exciting stuff. So tune in Sunday
one pm from what do they call that place now?
Is it's still met Life met Life State MetLife Stadium.
I'll call it the meadow Lands because I'm a million
years old. Look forward to getting up there. We'll see
our old friend Steve Wilkes, native Charlotte, Tian and one
of the good ones in this business. We love Steve,
(22:32):
so it'll be good to see him. He's got a defense.
It can be a little salty, create a little problem,
hopefully not too many on Sunday. You're a big New
York person. You love going to the city. Don't you
love going to New York?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Anytime I have a chance or the money, I will,
I'll go.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That was Cassidy asking for a race live during that podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I'm gonna put my venmo QR code right here next week.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Know you are not.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, the city, It's it's just it's one of those
that gets in your bones and so excited. I've been
in every season. I've been several times every season, but
never the fall. And if there's anything like Nora Ephrom
from Movies taught me, is that New York is at
its best during the fall and so.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Parking fall.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
So I'm very excited going up a little even know.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
You were getting Wayne Newton on this podcast today?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Did you never know what I'm getting?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Well, let's go straight from Wayne Newton to Cam Newton.
You said you.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Watch, Yes, I did, Sunday Night football against the Philadelphia Eagles.
They were the Panthers were one of three teams that
was still six and oh at that point of the season.
It feels like we lost all our undefeated teams really
early this season. So to have the three six and
O teams at Week seven was impressive Sunday night football
(23:50):
meant they were doing the player intros, and it was
so funny, like when the by this point, I'm familiar
with this Panthers team, but the Eagles team starts introducing
themselves and I'm like Sam, like forgot, forgot he existed.
And then I was like Riley Cooper, and then I
was like Georgan, and then it was our old friend
Jordan Matthews. She was the starting tight end. There were
(24:10):
actually a ton I'm a Florida fan, I lived in
Gamesville for ten years cover them. There were actually a
ton of Florida guys on this Eagles roster for that game,
because in addition to Cooper, there was Trey Burton, Caleb Surgis,
the kicker, I think, a couple others. And it reminded
me because Chip Kelly was the coach of that Eagles
team that Chip Kelly once used Florida as leverage to
get the UCLA job, and I will never forgive him
(24:32):
for that. Exactly, it went bad for everybody. This was
a crazy like first quarter because Cam and the offense
went right down the field on their first drive scored
a touchdown. It was an impressive touchdown and then Philadelphia
on their next drive gets the like Jordan Matthews actually
(24:55):
popped it up. It was a weird interception. It was
like it landed back. Then on the first play of
the next drive, Panthers had an even weirder interception where
they were already down in the red zone. Cam trust
to get I think it was Ted Gin and he
like went he went to land on his back and
he fumbled the ball, but since he was going on
his back, the ball fumbled upwards and somebody caught it. It
(25:19):
was a really weird interception. It took him like twenty
minutes to figure it out. It was it was weird.
It was, Oh my gosh, that's what I really need
to be singing right now. NBC kept doing these split screens.
It was so funny of either Sam Bradford and Luke
Keighley or Jason Kelcey and Luke Keighley because they were
going it was kind of like that was the match
up there, and this was a young Jason Kelcey, but
(25:41):
it was fun to watch that match.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Up before he became podcaster.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Jason Kelsey before he became the great podcaster of his time,
and Fletcher Cox of course showed up in this game
as he used to do. Fletcher Cox was my very
first interview as a sports reporter, and last year when
we were in Philadelphia, I saw him on the field
and I kind of st I was like, hey, you
were just kind of joking. It was like you were
my very first interview and he's like, oh, yeah, I
(26:05):
remember you. I think he was lying, but it was
sweet of him to say so. And then Tedgin had
an insane catch down the field and then he had
a reverse earlier in that game too that went like
fifty yards, almost went the whole way. Okay, through the
first few weeks, we have seen me grow in an
appreciation for Jonathan Stewart. This was the game where I
(26:26):
really grew to appreciate Mike Tolbert. And it was a
lot of fun to watch him because it was like, Hey,
what if we give this mac truck a football and
see what happens. And he even had like a two
yard touchdown where like Cam threw like a little screen
out to him and there were like four Eagles players
between him and the end zone and guess what he
(26:46):
got in the end zone, Like he just drug them
on his way to there. And got the touchdown. So
there were a lot of turnovers in that game, not
all of them the quarterback's faults. And then there was
a play to where he clearly jumped over a guy
that was trying to tackle him and he just hurtled him,
kept his balance and then went to tackle the running
(27:09):
back for the loss. It was just and then the
very next play he drops into coverage in the end
zone and like has it wasn't technically a pass break
up like he had the defense that caused it to
be an incompletion in the end zone. And I was like, wow,
that was quite an.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Experience, pretty good at football?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, somebody should you heard it here first? And then
Jay Stu got one hundred yards against a Philly defense
that had not given up one hundred yards for a
rusher in eighteen games.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
So imagine that running the ball with multiple people.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, look at how it works two different runners too. Brad,
it is it? Kind a great quote today? He said,
good things happens when you run the ball well, and.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, I love it so yeah, And there's.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
No better advice than that. And I don't know, maybe
we can get Rico to gain thirty five or forty pounds. Yeah,
become mild Tolbert fully realize himself. I don't actually want
Rico to do that. I want what's best for Rico.
So running the ball is never a terrible idea of
When you've got multiple people that can do it, it's
even better. Yeah, that's what happened in twenty fifteen. That's
(28:13):
what's hopefully gonna happen for your Carolina Panthers this weekend
in New York. So that'll take care of us for
this episode. We will circle back on Monday, hopefully to
tell you about a successful trip to New York. I
don't know. Maybe you'll go see Wicket or something. Maybe
I'll go.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I've drugged my mom to Wicket on Broadway three different times.
I think I've reached my limit.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
You've reached your limit.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, I think we're gonna go do Lion King this weekend.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
There you go, all right, Well, you have fun in
New York. I'll be there working kidding, she'll be working too.
I don't have to worry about this one. So until Monday,
we will see you. Thanks to our friends at Deep Eddy.
Don't forget you've got ten days to enter the sweet
SIP sweepstakes. Make sure to get those entries in so
you can join us here on November ninth for that
Saints game in the Deep Eddy Sweet, So until Monday,
(28:58):
we will see you guys later here on the Happy
Half Hour
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Mucking
The Happy Half Hour. Hello friends, and welcome back to
the Happy Half Hour, which is considerably happier than it's
been in weeks past, but everybody's still in a good mood.
I am constantly amazed as I moved through the city
of Charlotte, the place I call home, the place I love.
How much easier life is when the Carolina Panthers win
(00:22):
a couple of football games in a row. People let
you in in traffic, they wave when you let them in.
It's life is good.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
The sky is bluer, the sweet tea is sweeter. Everything
is happy and better when you're winning.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
The sky is blue in Charlotte, North Carolina, always anyway,
because we are, after all, the center of the universe,
and we appreciate you. We appreciate you guys joining us
here in the center of the universe. Because this episode
of the Happy Half Hour is brought to us by
our friends at Deep Eddie. Those guys should have a
song or something, because they've got some cool stuff going
(00:54):
on between that a contest between now and October twenty six.
You can devise your cut some cocktail using Deep Eddy
vodka and enter the Sweet Sip Sweep Steaks between now
in October twenty six, clock's ticking. You got ten days
to get that entry in to win two count them,
two tickets to the November nine Saints game, access to
the one Carolina Lounge. Matt's throwing stuff at me in
(01:16):
the background, But it's okay, because it's all right here,
baby steal trap. I remember this read like it's the
back of my head.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
I was literally just about to say, you're doing this
without the Q card.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
That's right. I don't need que cards, I don't need notes.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
We could just uh, okay, we could just get crazy,
we throw all.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
This right out the window and everything would just be
just buying what can possibly go wrong? Yeah, a lot
of cool stuff going on, so don't forget get your
entry in Sweet Sip sweep Steaks with our friends at
Deep Eddy. We appreciate them sponsoring this fine radio program.
I don't know why I called it that, but that's
what we're going with for right now. Yeah, busy week.
(01:55):
It has just been all kind of stuff going on.
People were winning awards and left bard people are winning
awards left and right. Ryan Fitz money because your NFC
Special Teams Player of the Week t MAC is the
Rookie of the Week sponsored by some person who doesn't
sponsor me, so I'm not going to say their name.
And Rico Dudel is also the ground Player of the Week,
(02:18):
sponsored by somebody who doesn't sponsor me, so I'm not
gonna say their name. So so many awards and all.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well deserved and interesting. You know, it's funny because I
was looking at the who they were going against for
both Rico and t Mac those are fan votes awards
as well. The NFL decides on the finalist and this
fan vote, and I was looking over and they were
going against guys that also had really really good weeks,
but kind of proves to you how vital what they've
been doing has been to their team and fans appreciate that. Yeah,
(02:48):
and uh, you know, I think Rico shared his with
Cam Skataboo because there's always two winners for Aaron ground.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
You just wanted to say Cam Scataboo because he's such
a fantasy team.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
He is my fantasy team. And that was a great
coaching decision by me. That's why we don't listen to
Darren anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
At any rate. Uh, Tino, I think you told.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Me to bench. We got three touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, I mean you know, when your option is Dereck Henry,
I always enjoy a known commodity.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Call me crazy, risk it to get the biscuit. Yeah, sorry,
what you?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Then team back wins Rookie of the Week today that
was announced this morning.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You count them two touchdowns after having zero going into
last week. We can finally stop talking about that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Interestingly enough, like he had not played a game yet
where I think he had less than forty yards. I
think forty was the fewer, then fewer then forty ish
the family of forty yards.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
He was forty eight maybe somewhere he was in that range,
and that day averaging about seventy yards a week. Yeah,
get you good, twelve hundred yards for the season.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
And then Sunday, I think he had his fewest yards
of the season. I want to say twenty eight yep total,
but it included a nineteen yard touchdown and four yard
touch to four four yard touchup.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
You get in a box. Couple of times, we'll forgive
the yard numbers.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I think he would take it too. So that was
a cool moment for him, for his family, his entire family.
News here from Hawaii. His Granddad's birthday was on Sunday.
He gave him the game, He gave him his first
touchdown ball.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Sometimes the universe is talking to you, friends, and you
just got to listen.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is that from a movie?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know, I just up. But uh, anyway, all
kind of good stuff going on. The Rico Dudle thing. Uh,
it has actually been almost a source of amusement to
me because people are trying to turn this into some
kind of thing, and people are trying to turn this
into a fake problem. It's as if fans of the
Carolina Panthers, which you all are, of course, if you're
(04:44):
watching or listening to The Happy Half Hour, don't remember
De'angelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, or don't remember Deshaun Foster
and Stephen Davis. We've seen this movie before. Gang you
need more than one?
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, and I it can so easily be done, and
I think these are two guys that can do it,
because again, let's just say it again and and again
and again. They're both such strong runners, but they do
have different running styles. They see different holes. Cuba is
so good in the middle of the field. Rico is
so good bouncing out. You can use both. Cuba even
(05:20):
said yesterday he was like dreams because asked him, like,
you know, you knew you when you put two thousand
yard rushers on a roster together, there was a chance
this could happen. So like, what is your dream scenario here?
And he was like, dream scenario, Let's put Trevor out
there too and have three running backs on the field.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Right, I'm perfectly content to go wish bamb you know.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
And I've been going back and watching the twenty fifteen games.
There was a game earlier in the twenty fifteen season
where at one point it was Cam Newton, Jonathan Stewart,
Mike Tolbert and somebody else that was also a running
of the running back.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Variety maybe, and there were if you count Cam as well,
there were essentially four rushers in backfield.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
And I was like, wow, this is fun. So all
that to say it can be done. You've got who
was the other group? You said, the older running back Duocy.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
The older ones Stephen Davis and Deshaun Foster.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Would they have been here under dom capers.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I'm learning This is me putting my head down on
the disc because my friend here thinks things that happened
in two thousand and three to two thousand and five
are ancient his Oh no, they were not here with
Dom Capers. They were here with John Fox. They were
the running backs for the first Super Bowl team in
franchise history.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I mean, and the reality is, pologies for anybody that's
about to get bad of me. I'm trying to learn.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
No, it's okay. I mean the young ones, they they
sometimes they don't know what they don't know. Right, here's
the data and the long way, you know, the easy
way to describe what this shows is that a lot
of times, when you've got two running backs, one of
them is going to miss a game every now and then.
And that's what happened. I mean, Cuba's out with the injury.
He's been practicing this week, seems to be better, seems
(07:04):
to be excited. I can always tell when Cuba is
feeling good because he's he's bouncing around. He goes and
stretches with the defensive guys just so he can to
on him and talk all the trash. But guys missed time.
And there were there were like five instances during those
big runs of Stephen Davison Sean Foster in a season
where one or the others not available, and that's when
(07:27):
you got a lean on the other way. And I
think you know, and and Rico mentioned this yesterday. He
talked about listen, man, I've had to come out with cramps. Yeah,
each of the last two weeks. So maybe if there's
another running back, right, that wouldn't be as much of
a problem.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
No disrespect to Trevory tn who has handled the job
admirabra when Rico has come out, but he is still
a rookie and he's had six games in his NFL
career thus far, and it is a long season. And
so if if you have a you know, if Rico's
cramping and Cuba can go in, or vice versa. Or
this is the point Rico was making yesterday. Simply splitting
(08:03):
the snaps during the game should keep him from cramping
up in the fourth quarter because he's got less stress
on his legs because he was running a lot. I
mean two hundred and thirty four yards from scrimmage, two
hundred and thirty nine yards from scrimmage out there almost
every play blocking it builds up in your body. You know,
you can't help it, and so or you know, there's
(08:25):
things you can do, but still it's a lot on
your body. So if you're if you're splitting some of
those reps with another guy, I think what's going to
be more interesting to me that I want to watch
is before Cuba's injury, they were rotating them in that
if it was a Cuba drive, he got first and
second down, Rico got third if it was a Rico drive,
(08:46):
and then they would trade off drives and so then
Rico would go out for first and second down, Cuba
would go out for third, and then they would trade
off like that pretty much the whole game. Is that
still gonna be the rhythm? Or is it more Cuba
Chuba Cuba Rico Rico Rico, Wait say that again, chibchubco.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I just kind of enjoyed that.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
There was like a fan edit. I remember last year
one of the local radio stations put it to that
old song.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, I think our friends you're responsible for that. Thank
you very much, boys, We appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
All that to say, what does the rotation look like
now that you do know what Rico can do a
little more within this offense? Does that change even just
who goes in when it.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Just gives you so many more opportunities. It gets you know,
Canal has talked yesterday about opening up the whole call
sheet when certain things are working, and when you've got
the opportunity to run a lot of different stuff with
two different guys, it just multiplies what you're able to
do as an offense. And right now they're in a
spot where they're continuing to build. You know, obviously the
(09:49):
turnovers a couple of weeks ago, we're a big deal.
The way you're running it right now takes some of
that pressure off of Bryce Young. It keeps it from
being all about what is Bryce Young going to do
this week? But you know, it just allows everybody to
kind of breathe. And that's always been my thing about
the run game. When you can do that, when you
can shorten games, and Canal has said it the other day,
(10:11):
when you're getting as many first downs and they're top
ten in the league in first downs gained, which you
wouldn't necessarily think about with the Carolina Panthers offense right now.
But when you're getting more plays and more opportunities, it
allows you to do more stuff. And I just think
it creates such a stability I mean, listen, this is
the old man talking again. Everybody understands where I'm coming from.
(10:34):
There's three things that happens when you pass. How many
of them are bad? Cas too who are bad? That's right.
It can be incomplete or it can be intercepted. And
when you're running the ball, I mean sure, bad things
can happen occasionally, but you're controlling the clock, You're leaning
on your opponents, You're being more physical and wearing them down.
You're giving your defense an opportunity to get a drink
(10:54):
a gatorade. It's just the way to football. In my opinion,
it doesn't sound cool, and I'm never gonna get invited
to the San Sports Conference with this kind of take.
But if you can run, and you can stop the run,
you've got a real chance to win football games. And
that's been true for about one hundred years now.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
That hasn't changed her. Edwards said the other night on
Monday Night football And this is not a crazy idea.
This has been again. I tell his oldest time when
it comes to football. But I just I love a
well placed quote. He said, the only way you give
the other team the football is a kick love it
a kick off? For a punt. He said, that's the
(11:33):
only way the other team should ever get the football.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Love that and so yeah works there.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
As you said, the best way to win is to
run the football and stop the run. That is definitely
what this defense has been doing the past few weeks
as well. They are top ten, they are ninth overall
and rushing deal rushd Darren. They have done that while
facing three of the league's top six rushers and four
of the top twelve. Oh and by the way, they're
going to be facing five of the top twelve after
(11:59):
this week because Breeze Hall is ver eleven.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Breese Hall is pretty good. It is too, and by.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
After next week it will be four of the top six,
six of the top twelve. Because James Cook the third.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Isn't very few things I enjoy more in this job
than watching you do math live.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It just makes me happy. You should have seen us,
I think I might have said this Monday on the podcast.
Apologize if I did, but like Darren goes downstairs early
to get ready, and like you should have seen us
trying to like do the seen me doing the math
to see if Reco got to two. Because we knew
Christian McCaffrey had to the record for a franchise record
(12:37):
at to thirty seven. How much did Rico need to
tie it to get above it? And it's like he
got a nine yard run and I'm sitting there going like, okay,
did that do it? Like, oh, now, I gotta do math.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
This is like the GalF and Aciss meme. It's numbers
flying all around. The head cast is over here doing
math on her fingers. It's outstanding. I trust her implicitly
as far as she knows, and don't double check her
math anytime it comes up.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
But I don't tell me that. I hope you do.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yes, I do. Don't worry. Okay, good, But yeah, it's amazing.
And we've talked about this before. I didn't come into
this season anticipating this turning into a top ten defense
or this being the ninth ranked run defense in the NFL,
just based on what happened last year. But here we
are fifty yards on the ground the last two weeks combined.
(13:26):
It's just not anything I expected. That defense, however, took
a major hit this week. When you lose a Pat Jones.
Pat finished the game on Sunday. He was in a
little bit of discomfort. Some of his teammates said, you know,
you could tell he wasn't right, But Pat's a hard,
hard guy to get off the field. Nick Gorton said,
he's like I always tease him about making his life
(13:48):
harder than it has to be, because he loves adversity.
We must have been in plenty because he woke up
Monday morning and realized his back was so painful that
they got him checked out. Test revealed he needed surgery.
End of the season for Pat Jones, So that creates
a new problem for the Carolina Panthers. As you may
have noticed, they're not exactly sacking the quarterback at record pace,
(14:08):
and now you're without Pat Jones, who had eight last
year with the Vikings. He's a guy who builds so
many roles. So now it's on Nick Scrting to grow
up a little bit to take on more of a role.
I mean they anticipated it for Nick when he was
drafted in the second round. He's a mature guy himself
to be one of the youngest players on the team,
and he more is going to be expected of him.
(14:31):
I mean, you're going to have him, DJ Wanham and
Prince Lely out there for the foreseeable future. You know,
maybe mix a little boogie bash him in here and there,
but there's no real replacing Pat Jones. You just have
to kind of hope that those guys can fill in
the gaps and create a little pressure around him.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, and to add as well, like hearts go out
to Pat Jones, one of the great ones in the
locker room. Such a good guy, always fun to talk to.
You know, we had so much fun going out to
his grandma's place with him this all season doing that
story and how important it was for him to play
for the Panthers so that he could be back with
his family. All that to say, yes, season ending surgery.
(15:11):
What does this mean for the defense as well? You know,
do you start seeing maybe some more exotic blitzes just
to kind of feel that a gio Evro said today,
he kind of admitted He's like, you know, I don't
want to give away the game plan, but like, yeah,
it could take two guys to replace Pat, because even
though they weren't necessarily getting to the quarterback in sacks
a lot, they were still affecting the quarterback pretty well
(15:33):
and push in the pocket, causing like quarterback curries like
erratic throws things like that, and so they were getting there,
and Pat was showing up in the run game as
well a lot, and so that's something that both That's
something that Nick does well, is show up in the
run game. Princely has been doing it a lot more
as well. The past couple of weeks, he's talked about
(15:55):
how watching film he realized that that was definitely something
missing from his and he's trying to put an emphasis
on that. And so I think we see them try
to go with a rotation, you know, keep DJ Wantam
out there, let the young guys kind of take the
other side. You've got Boogie bash on Thomas en Kuhn, right,
guys like that. What does it look like? I think
(16:16):
that they feel like there's enough there to continue to
do what they're doing. But it does hurt from a
production standpoint and from a leadership point of view. Pat
had had become a really good mentor for I think
he had been paired with Princely, but for both guys,
and I think he'll stay around. You know, like we said,
his families here, his parents live here now, his entire
(16:38):
family lives in Charlotte. I don't think Pat will be
too far away.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
No, I don't think so either. But you know what,
I would rather light a candle than curse your darkness. Here,
guess who's coming back. He Shaun Wharton. Ladies, Oh, gentle man,
he's He's been on the practice field in the last
couple of days, you know, after missing three games or
two games rather. And Turk is a guy who can
contribute to that as well. I mean, he had the
opportunity to rush a lot from inside last year with
(17:04):
the Chiefs. I think he had eight and a half
sacks including the playoffs. And Turk is a guy who's
been limited with some injuries, but when he's out there
on the field, he's a difference maker. And when I
think about what the Panthers have been able to do
up front, I mean Ashawn Robbins and Bobby Brown, Derek
Brown have been doing a job run defense wise, Turk's
a different athlete. I mean, if you look at him,
(17:26):
he's kind of short, he's wide, he's got calves about
this bigger Brown. He's just got enormous legs, low center
of gravity, a lot of power. But he's an explosive player,
and so I think as they get him reincorporated into
the defense. That's going to help a little bit take
some of that slack, because you've got a bunch of
(17:47):
dudes now who can do a lot of different things.
We were talking about Princely a second ago. He's really
caught my eye the last couple of weeks learning to
play the run and making some plays that effect in
the run game. Because he was a effectively drafted as
third down as a pass rush specialist. I mean, that's
effectively the role that I think they had in mind
(18:07):
for him his rookie year. But he's actually jumped in
there and made a few plays against the run where
it's like, okay, young fella. I you know, I feel
like Shack, I was not familiar with.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Your game, and you know that's not anything that you
weren't even unfamiliar with. Because Princely himself said like he
was like, I came, I was brought here to be
out there on passing downs, and he was like, that's
kind of what I did, and that's what they expected
me to do. So credit to Princely as well for
watching the tape and realizing like he could be doing
(18:37):
more than what he was and that he had the
capability to do so and decided to put effort into it. Princely,
I've covered him since he was sixteen years old in recruiting.
He is an incredible athlete. It's always going to be
what is he really like? Does he realize how incredible
of an athlete he is? And I think he realized
(18:58):
the past few weeks, Hey, I can blow up a
run and that's what he's done. So it's been fun
to watch.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And they and they're gonna need that move them forward.
But a lot of moving parts this week. Like I said,
Wednesday was a super busy news day. You look up
at the at front page of Panthers dot Com at
a certain point it's like, man, all of today's stuff
is not fitting on this page. So make sure you're
updating that throughout today because there's always something happening around here.
(19:25):
One of the other developments this week, think we're going
to get Jalen Cocher back on the field, and so
that'll be good news. That'll kind of add a layer
to the offense too. We've talked a lot about the
run game and the strides they've made there, but getting
Jaalen Cocher back on the Field's big because much in
the same way Rico and Chewba can play off of
each other, Having a jail and Cocher gives you another
(19:47):
big body, another explosive athlete, and a guy who can
play in multiple spots so you can move them around.
It's just one of the shames of the early part
of the season. The day after Adam Thielens traded, Jalen's
out there in practice running individual, you know, routes and
kind of pulls that quad running round against j. C.
(20:07):
Hornet's like what, you know, he just he just felt terrible.
You could see it on his face, and it's taking
him a couple of weeks to get back. Canalys has
talked about wanting to build up that stamina because they're
going to get in a game at some point where
it's going to be a shootout again. They're going to
need him to run fifty sixty routes downfield, So they
got to make sure that Jalen's right from a physical standpoint.
(20:31):
But he said yesterday he looks he feels good. He
looks good. He's back wearing his own number in practice
instead of a scout team jersey. Yeah, he doesn't have
to pretend to be George Pickens. He can just be
the original Jalen Coker. And that's a good thing because,
like I said, as last year developed, he really was
one of the deep threats on this team and could
(20:51):
get the ball downfield. And that's the thing where this
offense feeds itself. When you're running the ball, that opens
up play action, that opens up downfield. It's just one
works off the other. So getting him back is gonna
be good news.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
One of the in hindsight silver linings of Bryce, you know,
going and Andy starting, Bryce going to the bench for
a few weeks is that Bryce started to run some
of the scout team stuff and with the twos, and
so he got a lot of time with Jalen Cocher
before Cocher kind of really got elevated to the active
roster after Adam Felen's injury. And it wasn't it wasn't
(21:27):
a ton a ton of time, but it was enough
time for the two of them to really kind of
like this sounds so cliche because we say it all
the time, but like they really developed a chemistry together.
If you notice a lot of times, if you go
back and watch them last year, if Bryce went out
on a scramble drill. If it wasn't Thlan, it was Coker,
and that was that became his safety blanket. And we
(21:50):
saw it even in that that preseason game where you
know when Xcel had to come out and Coker goes
in and Bryce had that scramble touch scramble drill for
the touchdown. It was Coker who pulled that in those too.
Just they figured each other out during that time early
last season when they were both running with the twos
together and it's it's paid dividends on the field, and
so that's exciting to get back to.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, a lot of exciting stuff. So tune in Sunday
one pm from what do they call that place now?
Is it's still met Life met Life State MetLife Stadium.
I'll call it the meadow Lands because I'm a million
years old. Look forward to getting up there. We'll see
our old friend Steve Wilkes, native Charlotte, Tian and one
of the good ones in this business. We love Steve,
(22:32):
so it'll be good to see him. He's got a defense.
It can be a little salty, create a little problem,
hopefully not too many on Sunday. You're a big New
York person. You love going to the city. Don't you
love going to New York?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Anytime I have a chance or the money, I will,
I'll go.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That was Cassidy asking for a race live during that podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I'm gonna put my venmo QR code right here next week.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Know you are not.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah, the city, It's it's just it's one of those
that gets in your bones and so excited. I've been
in every season. I've been several times every season, but
never the fall. And if there's anything like Nora Ephrom
from Movies taught me, is that New York is at
its best during the fall and so.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Parking fall.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
So I'm very excited going up a little even know.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
You were getting Wayne Newton on this podcast today?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Did you never know what I'm getting?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Well, let's go straight from Wayne Newton to Cam Newton.
You said you.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Watch, Yes, I did, Sunday Night football against the Philadelphia Eagles.
They were the Panthers were one of three teams that
was still six and oh at that point of the season.
It feels like we lost all our undefeated teams really
early this season. So to have the three six and
O teams at Week seven was impressive Sunday night football
(23:50):
meant they were doing the player intros, and it was
so funny, like when the by this point, I'm familiar
with this Panthers team, but the Eagles team starts introducing
themselves and I'm like Sam, like forgot, forgot he existed.
And then I was like Riley Cooper, and then I
was like Georgan, and then it was our old friend
Jordan Matthews. She was the starting tight end. There were
(24:10):
actually a ton I'm a Florida fan, I lived in
Gamesville for ten years cover them. There were actually a
ton of Florida guys on this Eagles roster for that game,
because in addition to Cooper, there was Trey Burton, Caleb Surgis,
the kicker, I think, a couple others. And it reminded
me because Chip Kelly was the coach of that Eagles
team that Chip Kelly once used Florida as leverage to
get the UCLA job, and I will never forgive him
(24:32):
for that. Exactly, it went bad for everybody. This was
a crazy like first quarter because Cam and the offense
went right down the field on their first drive scored
a touchdown. It was an impressive touchdown and then Philadelphia
on their next drive gets the like Jordan Matthews actually
(24:55):
popped it up. It was a weird interception. It was
like it landed back. Then on the first play of
the next drive, Panthers had an even weirder interception where
they were already down in the red zone. Cam trust
to get I think it was Ted Gin and he
like went he went to land on his back and
he fumbled the ball, but since he was going on
his back, the ball fumbled upwards and somebody caught it. It
(25:19):
was a really weird interception. It took him like twenty
minutes to figure it out. It was it was weird.
It was, Oh my gosh, that's what I really need
to be singing right now. NBC kept doing these split screens.
It was so funny of either Sam Bradford and Luke
Keighley or Jason Kelcey and Luke Keighley because they were
going it was kind of like that was the match
up there, and this was a young Jason Kelcey, but
(25:41):
it was fun to watch that match.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Up before he became podcaster.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Jason Kelsey before he became the great podcaster of his time,
and Fletcher Cox of course showed up in this game
as he used to do. Fletcher Cox was my very
first interview as a sports reporter, and last year when
we were in Philadelphia, I saw him on the field
and I kind of st I was like, hey, you
were just kind of joking. It was like you were
my very first interview and he's like, oh, yeah, I
(26:05):
remember you. I think he was lying, but it was
sweet of him to say so. And then Tedgin had
an insane catch down the field and then he had
a reverse earlier in that game too that went like
fifty yards, almost went the whole way. Okay, through the
first few weeks, we have seen me grow in an
appreciation for Jonathan Stewart. This was the game where I
(26:26):
really grew to appreciate Mike Tolbert. And it was a
lot of fun to watch him because it was like, Hey,
what if we give this mac truck a football and
see what happens. And he even had like a two
yard touchdown where like Cam threw like a little screen
out to him and there were like four Eagles players
between him and the end zone and guess what he
(26:46):
got in the end zone, Like he just drug them
on his way to there. And got the touchdown. So
there were a lot of turnovers in that game, not
all of them the quarterback's faults. And then there was
a play to where he clearly jumped over a guy
that was trying to tackle him and he just hurtled him,
kept his balance and then went to tackle the running
(27:09):
back for the loss. It was just and then the
very next play he drops into coverage in the end
zone and like has it wasn't technically a pass break
up like he had the defense that caused it to
be an incompletion in the end zone. And I was like, wow,
that was quite an.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Experience, pretty good at football?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah, somebody should you heard it here first? And then
Jay Stu got one hundred yards against a Philly defense
that had not given up one hundred yards for a
rusher in eighteen games.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
So imagine that running the ball with multiple people.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Yeah, look at how it works two different runners too. Brad,
it is it? Kind a great quote today? He said,
good things happens when you run the ball well, and.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, I love it so yeah, And there's.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
No better advice than that. And I don't know, maybe
we can get Rico to gain thirty five or forty pounds. Yeah,
become mild Tolbert fully realize himself. I don't actually want
Rico to do that. I want what's best for Rico.
So running the ball is never a terrible idea of
When you've got multiple people that can do it, it's
even better. Yeah, that's what happened in twenty fifteen. That's
(28:13):
what's hopefully gonna happen for your Carolina Panthers this weekend
in New York. So that'll take care of us for
this episode. We will circle back on Monday, hopefully to
tell you about a successful trip to New York. I
don't know. Maybe you'll go see Wicket or something. Maybe
I'll go.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I've drugged my mom to Wicket on Broadway three different times.
I think I've reached my limit.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
You've reached your limit.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, I think we're gonna go do Lion King this weekend.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
There you go, all right, Well, you have fun in
New York. I'll be there working kidding, she'll be working too.
I don't have to worry about this one. So until Monday,
we will see you. Thanks to our friends at Deep Eddy.
Don't forget you've got ten days to enter the sweet
SIP sweepstakes. Make sure to get those entries in so
you can join us here on November ninth for that
Saints game in the Deep Eddy Sweet, So until Monday,
(28:58):
we will see you guys later here on the Happy
Half Hour
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Mucking
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