December 11, 2025 • 22 mins
Today on the Happy Half Hour, Darin and Kassidy preview this week's game vs the New Orleans Saints, discuss the injury report heading into Sunday, share their thoughts on Austin Corbett being named the Panthers' Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee, and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Happy Half Hour. Hello friends, and welcome to a I
don't know playoff potential edition of The Happy half Hour.
I mean, don't pay no attention to this one over here.
I promise she hasn't been in the Deep Eddy. We
appreciate our friends from Deep Eddie sponsoring the Happy half Hour,
(00:22):
but that's not why she's laughing like that. It's a
different story, and I'll tell y'all in another podcast, maybe
not basically someday when I'm working somebodys else. At any rate,
everybody's in a good mood because Carolina Panthers are playing
meaningful football games in December. How about that?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey, we'll take it anytime you can say that that
that's the case. That's a good place to be in.
And like we said on Monday, you don't know what's
going to happen in these next four games, but the
fact that you've put yourself in this position for the
last four games to be very very meaningful, to have
possibly a Cinderella season, possibly a rebuilding season either way,
(00:59):
really really exciting times around this building. Guys are excited,
coaches are excited, and not not in like an overwhelming
like other two excited sort of way, but in a
comfortable like, yeah, we knew we'd get here, and we're
here now.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
They are the appropriate amount of excited, I think, and
I think a lot of that's got to do with
the the kind of the character of this team. I mean,
Dave Canalis and Dan Morgan built this thing, and we've
talked about it a lot over the last couple of years.
Look at don't listen to what they say, look at
what they do. Dan Morgan becomes GM. First thing he does,
extends Derek Brown. Yeah, comes in the next off season,
(01:37):
extends JC Horn. The first movie make was extending Chewba Hubbard,
or first during last season he extended Chewba Hubbard. When
you've got these personality guys who are your grinders, when
your best players are your hardest workers, that's coach's dream
come true. That's what Dave Canalis has got right now.
And having a quarterback and Bryce Young who kind of
(01:58):
embodies that. I mean, it's all I want to make
a bingo card game for Bryce press conferences because every
time he says, well, I don't really look back. If
you ask Bryce about something that happened to him at
Alabama or something that happened to him last week. Yeah, well,
I'm not really wanting to look back. I mean, they've
got a bunch of dudes who are pretty good at
(02:19):
that weird little football compartmentalization thing.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's a unique talent. Couldn't be me, I lived my
life in the past. But you know, good for them.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
There is so much to unpack in this episode of
The Happy Half Hour, and we're only about three and
a half minutes into it. Lord only knows what's going
to happen next. But what's happening next is those guys
are out there on the field right now, walking through
and getting ready to practice. They're working on New Orleans Saints.
And that's the thing that was evident walking through the
locker room listening to press conference yesterday is everything is
(02:52):
Saint Saint Saints. Everybody outside this buildings think about man
next week home game. Look, you know, play al these
guys cause of that character that we were talking about
a second ago. They've got a bunch of dudes who
are able to plug into that Saints thing. And based
on the way the last Saints game went, that shouldn't
be hard. I've got to say those guys walked in
(03:13):
here and punched his team in the face, took their
lunch money, that weren't able to run, and and when
the Carolina Panthers aren't able to have that kind of
sustainable run game, all of the other stuff falls apart.
I mean, I did a little math. Look at that.
Look at that again. There's a little longhand math couldn't
be this one over here. But I did the math
for when the Carolina Panthers win games this year, they're
(03:37):
averaging thirty three point four rushing attempts per game to
twenty eight pass attempts. When they lose games six of them,
they're running twenty two point seven times a game, throwing
thirty four.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
We would call that a trend.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It certainly looks like that, and it ain't. And it
ain't like let's make the whole plane out of black box.
You just can't come out and run the first twenty
five plays of the game and guarantee yourself.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Darn was the coach.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oh bye i babe. Let me tell you. We talked
to Canalis and those guys about it yesterday and Brad
eds this morning. It's about having that balance on offense.
And there were several plays over the last couple of
weeks where you saw, you know, Chewba Hubbard come in
be on the field on third down because he's the
better pass protector and you hand him the ball on
(04:21):
third down instead, he converted a couple of those when
he didn't convert third downs on the ground. Bray Shunk
follows up by throwing yolo balls on fourth down and
scoring touchdowns. So the Panthers have to be in that
kind of balanced mode offensively to be the kind of
team they want to be. And Canalis said, listen, that's
the way the Carolina Panthers played football. That's what we've
(04:43):
got to be. And so I think it's a reasonable
expectation when you think about the Saints coming in here
that are going into the Saints building this weekend, they're
going to try to run it.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And the Saints game back in Week ten was the
first game to my reckle. And I'm wondering if you
would say the same thing where a team, a defense
did come in and just straight up say you're not
running this ball on us today. You can pass it
all over the yard if you want to, but you're
not gonna run it. And up to that point, the
(05:16):
Panthers had been running the ball pretty well, and the
Saints were just like, Nope, if nothing else, we're gonna
stop the run today. And Dave Canalis, Bryce Young they
all kind of admitted afterwards it was a little bit
of like knocked them back on their heels a little
bit because they didn't necessarily have an answer yet for that,
and because they had been running it so well all
season up to that point. And then you saw the
(05:39):
pendulum swing the other way, and you go into Atlanta
the next week and it was like, Okay, well, if
they are going to shut down the run and if
they try to mimic what the Saints did, we're gonna
pass it all over the place, set a franchise record
for passing yards in a game. And then forty nine
ers was just a weird game. I think in the
past week or so, you've really kind of seen or
in that Rams game, you really saw the balance look
(06:02):
like they wanted it to look for the first time.
How many times did they run in that game? I
should have had it four.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, it's right here. They ran it forty times and
threw it twenty Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I run to say thirty seven because three of those
were kneel down.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Now that is an appropriate ratio of run to pass.
Friends and Darren Gant football, if you can run it
forty times and only throw it twenty, that's a good day.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah. And so that's where you saw the balance really
kind of finally hit. It's the way they wanted it to.
And now what do you do because one would assume,
I don't know, football's weird, but one would assume the
Saints will try to mimic the blueprint they saw work
in Week ten. But you also have to see what
this offense has become in the past couple of weeks
(06:44):
as well. You talked too about like everybody wants to
look ahead, look ahead, look ahead, look at those Tampa games,
those two Tampa games. This building this week, like you said,
are very very focused on the Saints almost because of
that Week ten loss, right, like they know what happens,
and not to say they overlooked them in Week ten,
but they know what happens if you don't take it seriously.
(07:05):
And the Saints have three wins and two of them
are division wins.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
They are first exactly, they are relishing the role of spoiler,
and that makes them a dangerous little team, and so
they know this team, this building has seen what happens
if you are not on your p's and q's. For
this particular New Orleans Saints team, they have a little
bit more to go off of this week now too,
because when they played Tyler Shuck back in Week ten,
(07:31):
that was only his second game starting. You've got more
tape on him now. You see how they get him
involved in the run game. So it should Everro said
this morning, he was like, you know, that Week ten game,
that was just not our best day at all. We
didn't have our best day at all. And he was like,
for a lot of different reasons. I think they gave
up six explosive pass plays against the Saints.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Jac it was.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Seven too many. J C.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Horn to steal the old John Fox phrase about Jake
DeLong and picked a bad day to have a bad day. Yeah,
it was very UNJC like in that first game.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And there were a couple of plays he was just
on the ground.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
He was on the ground and people were running beyond him,
Chris Ola making big plays. But I think you're right
because of the way that game unfolded. This one's got
everybody's attention and that's kind of the lesson. You know,
I keep thinking of this season thematically rather than specifically,
because this is such a young team and everything about
(08:26):
what they're doing now is a building to what they
eventually want to become. I mean, that's the way they've
talked about this. Back in training camp, people asked Dan
Morgan if he thought this team could go to the playoffs,
and it was like, not really thinking about that, just
trying to get better. Dave Canalis, you know, we're just
trying to get better every day, which is the Dave
Canalis thing to say. But that's the way they've been
(08:47):
looking at it, is just keep it on that trajectory.
You were at two wins, then you were at five.
What comes next? Now you're at seven and beyond. So
there's a temptation to say, hey, everything here from this
points house money. But the Carolina Panther have to learn
to put those consecutive games together. They've got to learn
to be mature about games that matter. And when you know,
(09:09):
you talk about coming off the Green Bay game, losing
a stinker to the Saints, you know, then you go
down to Atlanta and beat the pants off the Falcons
and then you go to San Francisco and layon egg
out there, and then you come home and beat the
Rams and everybody's like, oh wow, this team's good again.
It's like, what are they going to do the next
time out? Can they be the kind of team that
(09:32):
gets better, builds on that kind of thing rather than
reverting to previous trends.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Mina comes on Monday Night Football after the Rams game,
made the comment or made the joke really she said,
she said, once the key is to stop picking Panthers games.
She said, once you realized that you were finally free,
that's right, you just can't. No, She's like, nobody knows
who this team is this year, and that's not the
it's not what, it's not where you want to be,
(09:59):
but it's better than where you and so we'll see
what happens the next week. But yeah, Turk called this
a get back game, not meaning get back to form,
but get them back for what they did to them.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, and you.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Know for some people that work some people, some guys
hate that mindset. You know, they're like, I can't think
about week ten, I got to think about week fifteen.
Some guys need that, they need that little motivation they
need that little dirt on the back of their neck.
To borrow a former coaches phrase that, and so they
need a little bit of that like umph and reminder
of what happened to them in Week ten when they
just straight up got embarrassed. And maybe that's where you
(10:37):
start to find consistency. You know, if Canalys has said
it once, he said it a thousand times over the
past month, that the best teams played their best football
in December. And you've got four games ahead of you
in December and first week of January. And so if
you can find your consistency now, if you can take
everything you've learned from the highs and the lows and
(10:59):
start to find the consistency in these next four games,
that's how this season is going to be remembered more
than anything.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And that's gonna be the lesson learned. I was sitting
around yesterday finishing up some work outside the players cafeteria,
and one of the coaches walked by. He said, what
are you working on? I said, what can on? A
story about the passing game and how you got a
quarterback and four receivers playing now who can't get together
and rent a car? Oh no, what happened to Chuck?
What happened here? That's not an omen Yeah, that can't be.
(11:25):
We gotta put our We got to put our friend
back up there.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I don't know what happens blew hivolve it was the ghost.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
There's a ghost in this.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
But uh anyway, sorry, it was rent a car.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
No. I was like, we got a crazy We're talking
about a passing game with a quarterback and four receivers
who can't get together and rent a car because none
of them hit twenty five years old. And and that's
what I'm talking about. The learning that's happening right now
is going to be valuable to this team right now
in the context of the twenty twenty five season, but
down the road in terms of the kind of team
(11:56):
they're trying to be.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, and it makes it interesting too, just kind of
keeping an eye on the Saints, Like to that point,
you've got a rookie quarterback in New Orleans that's twenty six,
I mean, and Bryce Shung is in his third year
and he's twenty four, and so it's a lot of
different types of training, it's a lot of different types
of play in defense. Talk to Mike Jackson about that
(12:18):
this week. Like you know, usually you can disguise things
a little easier and to confuse a rookie quarterback, but
what do you do when he's twenty six years old.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
But on that same point, this man's off his parents insurance, right,
you can't surprise him, right, he's got back pain. You
can't rattle a man like that.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He starts a day with two advil. But to your
point too, on the flip side of that, it makes
it exciting when you realize you've got a quarterback, receivers, coach,
an offense that are all young and that are growing together.
Because that bodes really really well for the future. And again,
I know I keep saying it like so much focus
is going on right now, as it should be, but
(12:59):
look at what this could be next year and the
year after that. That's when that window really starts to
get exciting and feels wide open, at least in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yep. And there's a lot, there's a lot happening this week.
I mean, we were out there on the practice field yesterday,
saw a bunch of dudes coming back. You saw J. C.
Horn and Clawing cher Lists back on the field. They
were kind of limited in their work because they're still
in the concussion protocol. The hope is crush fingers, knock
on wood, that they're going to be able to get
back and play this week. That's going to add to
(13:30):
it all. Fifty three players on the active roster were
practicing yesterday and that is amazing when you think about
week fifteen of an NFL season. Now, you just had
a buy and everybody had a chance to come back.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
But iye was perfectly timed behind side.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
You got Cad May's back on the field, which allows
Austin Corbett slide back over to right guard, where he's
played most of his life. By the way, congratulations to
Austin Corbett, your Carolina Panthers club, winner of the NFL
Walter Payton Man of the Year Award and nobody more
deserving it that cat. This is my twenty second time
out to talk about Austin Corbett. He is something else.
(14:06):
I mean, a Austin Corbett will go anywhere and do
anything that is off the field. He doesn't center his
work around one foundation or anything like that. He just
goes and helps everywhere. Yeah, and he plugs in all
over the place, and it's like Wow, it's an analogy
to what he does on a football field where he's
a right guard. He's a sinner. Damian Lewis has heard
(14:28):
he can go play left guard for a week for
the first time in six years and have an acceptable result.
Austin is just one of those dudes who always plugs in.
We love Austin around here because he'll do all that stuff.
And also, and I joked with him about this the
other day and I told it to him to his face,
and he weighs three hundred pounds, so I don't mind
saying it on the air. Austin Corbett's a gigantic softy. Friends,
(14:50):
if you saw the video about the Walter Payton nomination
and heard his son Ford voicing over the end of it,
it's like that man was ball on the back side
of that. It was so great. I love it when
my football players are also human beings, and Austin Corbett
is one of the most human human beings I've encountered
in this building walking through here for a long long time.
(15:13):
So Austin is back at right guard, K's back at center.
Things are normalizing a little bit. I don't get to
build on my favorite stat of the year, which is
ten offensive line combinations in thirteen weeks.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It's sorry they messed up for a repeat.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I don't know what to do with myself, but that
as that kind of settles in, as the run game
begins to settle in, then the impis is going to
turn to the other side of the ball and getting
those guys back and having a JC back, having a
Rose Boom back out there running around next to Trevin Wallace. Yea,
it is just going to help solidify everything on the
other side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
This will be the first time since that Week ten
game that rose Boom and Wallace have been out on
the field together right same time.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, so exciting to get them back off there because
they had hit a stride, buddy when they made those
shit what was it three four weeks into the season, Yeah,
and made the shift at linebacker to put the green
dot on Trevin let Roseboom kind of play a little freer.
You saw those two really really just starting to hit
their stride. I saw this meme on Twitter, I don't know,
(16:15):
around week six or seven, and shared it with Luke
in the radio booth before a game one day and
cracked him up. It was a picture of Keikley and
Thomas Davis and it said Trevin Wallace and Christian rose Boom.
Ever since they switched.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Positions aim high boys and hard.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It was getting it was getting around on social media.
But yeah, those two had really really kind of hit
a stride. So excited to see what the defense was
and not to say that the other guy stepping in hatting.
You know, can't say enough about Claude in Cherless and
what he had done when he stepped in for Trevin
Wallace and then taken on the Green Dot too before
he got hurt and uh, but excited to see Rosebum
(16:57):
and Wallace back out there together.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
No doubt. And that's another one of the cool things
about this team. As you watch him go through the
course of a long season. It takes a Chris Barnes,
it takes a called and chaerir List, it takes a
Jake kerrhand, it takes all these dudes stepping up and
Plaoith Thornton, Yeah, Corey Thornton, Bryson, Tremaine's made plays. I mean,
you know, fourth and Renfro Hunter. Renfro ain't been active
(17:21):
in about six or seven weeks, but he's one of
those dudes who steps up in very particular places and
makes play for this team. And that's the sign of
a cool team, I think. And these guys have a
little bit of a vibe right now and they kind
of are building that kind of belief that they do
deserve to be considered a good team. They do deserve
to be seriously considered in all this playoff talk that's
(17:43):
going to be happening for the next four weeks.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Real quick. Aside about Bryson Tremaine, you saying that just
made me think of this. They've started doing something with
him that's that's so fun to watch and just see
kind of when they deploy it. When they do that
big line a lot of times where they have like
three tight ends out there and it's like there's one
receip and it's always Bryson. Every single time they do
that big line, it's Bryson's the single receiver out there,
(18:05):
and you're like, oh, they're gonna run it. But then
every like four or five times, they just chuck it
right over the middle of the field for like a
twenty yard or to Bryson and he pulls it in
pretty much every time, like he makes it to where
they can trust him to do that, and it keeps
the defense honest. And so it's fun to watch those
(18:25):
little quirks kind of get put into this offense and
see Dave Canal start having a little bit more fun
with it and figure out what he can do. And
you can do it to your point because of guys
like Bryson Germaine who step up and are ready when
they're called upon.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah, a lot of dudes stepping up playing their roles. Hey,
you mentioned our friend Luke Keigley the other day. He
what you got. I thought you were.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
About to ask if I watched it, and I forgot.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
To watch it. That's okay. I was teeing up one
of my own stories. I've ever do that. Speaking of
our friend Luke Keigley, which you mentioned a second ago,
his name was on my mind the other day as
I filled out a prof Football Hall of Fame ballot
that I'm gonna have to fill out again. It's time
to cut from twenty six to fifteen. That's due on Monday.
(19:08):
That'll be announced later on this month. Keep your fingers
crossed for our friends Luke Keithleen Steve Smith to be
back in the Final fifteen. I like their chances, but
I'm gonna have to submit my ballot again. Why because
mine had Philip Rivers.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Oh no, now a does his timeline get reset?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Now? Yes, it does if he is activated for that game.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I just don't know if that's worth it in his mind.
But it could be fun, you know what I mean.
I'm very I don't know if Matt asked me this
question before we got started and we decided. I don't
know if I think it's necessarily a good idea, but buddy,
I'm excited to see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I think it's an incredible idea. I'm here for old
dudes proving to all you young whipper snappers out there
what it takes to do this thing.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Lady grandchild, you know what, that's the one that kills me.
He is he is a real young grandfather, but still.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
He is forty four years old. I asked JJ Jansen
yesterday if he could imagine playing forty four, and he said, sure,
but not if I take five years off in the middle, right.
I think a lot of people are like that. I
just keep flashing back to Vinny Testaverdi here in two
thousand and seven, one of my favorite chapters in Panthers
franchise history. But Phil's gonna do some cool stuff. I mean,
if you're the Indianapolis Colts, your season had kind of
(20:22):
taken a little dip there, and would you rather trust
some rookie or some guy who's never been in the
spot or a guy like Philip Rivers who's been around,
done all the things and seen them all.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
You have to wonder, at least I have to wonder
if part of the Colt's decision was influenced by the
fact that Joe Flacco came in too Cincinnati this year
and did what he did to kind of help them along.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I think there's a component of that. I mean, but
Shane Stykin and Philip Rivers go way back. I mean,
Phil's out here running Shane Steikin's offense with a high
school team. He's helping coach, right.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
He was coaching a high school team in Alabama.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, and so yeah, he is amazing. This is a
pro Philip Rivers account. I think Philip will one day
be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
It's gonna be at least five years from now.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Now, Yeah, it's gonna be twenty thirty one at the
soonest because as soon as he gets activated. Now if
he doesn't get activated, and he wouldn't have signed there
if they weren't gonna activate him and play him, let's
be honest with ourselves. So once he's activated, clock will
reset on Phil to twenty thirty one. But that just
clears one name off the deck. Somebody else will take
(21:28):
that spot in my final fifteen.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
You know, that's really what Philip Rivers was doing. He
was being kind and bowing out so that someone else
could take that spot.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, no doubt. So hopefully that'll be Luke Keigley this
year and we'll see how that goes. But all kind
of stuff going on. We'll have more for you here
on Panthers dot com throughout the rest of the week.
Keep it locked on the dot com watch the YouTube
channel for all the cool video content that's going to
be coming your way throughout the week, and we'll talk
to you on Monday. Heading into some big couple of
(22:00):
home games in the next two weeks against the Bucks
and the Seahawks as the Carolina Panthers are talking playoffs, friends,
and we'll be here with you. Thanks to our friends
from Deep Eddy on the next happy half hour,
Happy Half Hour. Hello friends, and welcome to a I
don't know playoff potential edition of The Happy half Hour.
I mean, don't pay no attention to this one over here.
I promise she hasn't been in the Deep Eddy. We
appreciate our friends from Deep Eddie sponsoring the Happy half Hour,
(00:22):
but that's not why she's laughing like that. It's a
different story, and I'll tell y'all in another podcast, maybe
not basically someday when I'm working somebodys else. At any rate,
everybody's in a good mood because Carolina Panthers are playing
meaningful football games in December. How about that?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey, we'll take it anytime you can say that that
that's the case. That's a good place to be in.
And like we said on Monday, you don't know what's
going to happen in these next four games, but the
fact that you've put yourself in this position for the
last four games to be very very meaningful, to have
possibly a Cinderella season, possibly a rebuilding season either way,
(00:59):
really really exciting times around this building. Guys are excited,
coaches are excited, and not not in like an overwhelming
like other two excited sort of way, but in a
comfortable like, yeah, we knew we'd get here, and we're
here now.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
They are the appropriate amount of excited, I think, and
I think a lot of that's got to do with
the the kind of the character of this team. I mean,
Dave Canalis and Dan Morgan built this thing, and we've
talked about it a lot over the last couple of years.
Look at don't listen to what they say, look at
what they do. Dan Morgan becomes GM. First thing he does,
extends Derek Brown. Yeah, comes in the next off season,
(01:37):
extends JC Horn. The first movie make was extending Chewba Hubbard,
or first during last season he extended Chewba Hubbard. When
you've got these personality guys who are your grinders, when
your best players are your hardest workers, that's coach's dream
come true. That's what Dave Canalis has got right now.
And having a quarterback and Bryce Young who kind of
(01:58):
embodies that. I mean, it's all I want to make
a bingo card game for Bryce press conferences because every
time he says, well, I don't really look back. If
you ask Bryce about something that happened to him at
Alabama or something that happened to him last week. Yeah, well,
I'm not really wanting to look back. I mean, they've
got a bunch of dudes who are pretty good at
(02:19):
that weird little football compartmentalization thing.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's a unique talent. Couldn't be me, I lived my
life in the past. But you know, good for them.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
There is so much to unpack in this episode of
The Happy Half Hour, and we're only about three and
a half minutes into it. Lord only knows what's going
to happen next. But what's happening next is those guys
are out there on the field right now, walking through
and getting ready to practice. They're working on New Orleans Saints.
And that's the thing that was evident walking through the
locker room listening to press conference yesterday is everything is
(02:52):
Saint Saint Saints. Everybody outside this buildings think about man
next week home game. Look, you know, play al these
guys cause of that character that we were talking about
a second ago. They've got a bunch of dudes who
are able to plug into that Saints thing. And based
on the way the last Saints game went, that shouldn't
be hard. I've got to say those guys walked in
(03:13):
here and punched his team in the face, took their
lunch money, that weren't able to run, and and when
the Carolina Panthers aren't able to have that kind of
sustainable run game, all of the other stuff falls apart.
I mean, I did a little math. Look at that.
Look at that again. There's a little longhand math couldn't
be this one over here. But I did the math
for when the Carolina Panthers win games this year, they're
(03:37):
averaging thirty three point four rushing attempts per game to
twenty eight pass attempts. When they lose games six of them,
they're running twenty two point seven times a game, throwing
thirty four.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
We would call that a trend.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
It certainly looks like that, and it ain't. And it
ain't like let's make the whole plane out of black box.
You just can't come out and run the first twenty
five plays of the game and guarantee yourself.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Darn was the coach.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Oh bye i babe. Let me tell you. We talked
to Canalis and those guys about it yesterday and Brad
eds this morning. It's about having that balance on offense.
And there were several plays over the last couple of
weeks where you saw, you know, Chewba Hubbard come in
be on the field on third down because he's the
better pass protector and you hand him the ball on
(04:21):
third down instead, he converted a couple of those when
he didn't convert third downs on the ground. Bray Shunk
follows up by throwing yolo balls on fourth down and
scoring touchdowns. So the Panthers have to be in that
kind of balanced mode offensively to be the kind of
team they want to be. And Canalis said, listen, that's
the way the Carolina Panthers played football. That's what we've
(04:43):
got to be. And so I think it's a reasonable
expectation when you think about the Saints coming in here
that are going into the Saints building this weekend, they're
going to try to run it.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And the Saints game back in Week ten was the
first game to my reckle. And I'm wondering if you
would say the same thing where a team, a defense
did come in and just straight up say you're not
running this ball on us today. You can pass it
all over the yard if you want to, but you're
not gonna run it. And up to that point, the
(05:16):
Panthers had been running the ball pretty well, and the
Saints were just like, Nope, if nothing else, we're gonna
stop the run today. And Dave Canalis, Bryce Young they
all kind of admitted afterwards it was a little bit
of like knocked them back on their heels a little
bit because they didn't necessarily have an answer yet for that,
and because they had been running it so well all
season up to that point. And then you saw the
(05:39):
pendulum swing the other way, and you go into Atlanta
the next week and it was like, Okay, well, if
they are going to shut down the run and if
they try to mimic what the Saints did, we're gonna
pass it all over the place, set a franchise record
for passing yards in a game. And then forty nine
ers was just a weird game. I think in the
past week or so, you've really kind of seen or
in that Rams game, you really saw the balance look
(06:02):
like they wanted it to look for the first time.
How many times did they run in that game? I
should have had it four.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Yeah, it's right here. They ran it forty times and
threw it twenty Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
I run to say thirty seven because three of those
were kneel down.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Now that is an appropriate ratio of run to pass.
Friends and Darren Gant football, if you can run it
forty times and only throw it twenty, that's a good day.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah. And so that's where you saw the balance really
kind of finally hit. It's the way they wanted it to.
And now what do you do because one would assume,
I don't know, football's weird, but one would assume the
Saints will try to mimic the blueprint they saw work
in Week ten. But you also have to see what
this offense has become in the past couple of weeks
(06:44):
as well. You talked too about like everybody wants to
look ahead, look ahead, look ahead, look at those Tampa games,
those two Tampa games. This building this week, like you said,
are very very focused on the Saints almost because of
that Week ten loss, right, like they know what happens,
and not to say they overlooked them in Week ten,
but they know what happens if you don't take it seriously.
(07:05):
And the Saints have three wins and two of them
are division wins.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, and so.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
They are first exactly, they are relishing the role of spoiler,
and that makes them a dangerous little team, and so
they know this team, this building has seen what happens
if you are not on your p's and q's. For
this particular New Orleans Saints team, they have a little
bit more to go off of this week now too,
because when they played Tyler Shuck back in Week ten,
(07:31):
that was only his second game starting. You've got more
tape on him now. You see how they get him
involved in the run game. So it should Everro said
this morning, he was like, you know, that Week ten game,
that was just not our best day at all. We
didn't have our best day at all. And he was like,
for a lot of different reasons. I think they gave
up six explosive pass plays against the Saints.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Jac it was.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Seven too many. J C.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Horn to steal the old John Fox phrase about Jake
DeLong and picked a bad day to have a bad day. Yeah,
it was very UNJC like in that first game.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And there were a couple of plays he was just
on the ground.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
He was on the ground and people were running beyond him,
Chris Ola making big plays. But I think you're right
because of the way that game unfolded. This one's got
everybody's attention and that's kind of the lesson. You know,
I keep thinking of this season thematically rather than specifically,
because this is such a young team and everything about
(08:26):
what they're doing now is a building to what they
eventually want to become. I mean, that's the way they've
talked about this. Back in training camp, people asked Dan
Morgan if he thought this team could go to the playoffs,
and it was like, not really thinking about that, just
trying to get better. Dave Canalis, you know, we're just
trying to get better every day, which is the Dave
Canalis thing to say. But that's the way they've been
(08:47):
looking at it, is just keep it on that trajectory.
You were at two wins, then you were at five.
What comes next? Now you're at seven and beyond. So
there's a temptation to say, hey, everything here from this
points house money. But the Carolina Panther have to learn
to put those consecutive games together. They've got to learn
to be mature about games that matter. And when you know,
(09:09):
you talk about coming off the Green Bay game, losing
a stinker to the Saints, you know, then you go
down to Atlanta and beat the pants off the Falcons
and then you go to San Francisco and layon egg
out there, and then you come home and beat the
Rams and everybody's like, oh wow, this team's good again.
It's like, what are they going to do the next
time out? Can they be the kind of team that
(09:32):
gets better, builds on that kind of thing rather than
reverting to previous trends.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Mina comes on Monday Night Football after the Rams game,
made the comment or made the joke really she said,
she said, once the key is to stop picking Panthers games.
She said, once you realized that you were finally free,
that's right, you just can't. No, She's like, nobody knows
who this team is this year, and that's not the
it's not what, it's not where you want to be,
(09:59):
but it's better than where you and so we'll see
what happens the next week. But yeah, Turk called this
a get back game, not meaning get back to form,
but get them back for what they did to them.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, and you.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Know for some people that work some people, some guys
hate that mindset. You know, they're like, I can't think
about week ten, I got to think about week fifteen.
Some guys need that, they need that little motivation they
need that little dirt on the back of their neck.
To borrow a former coaches phrase that, and so they
need a little bit of that like umph and reminder
of what happened to them in Week ten when they
just straight up got embarrassed. And maybe that's where you
(10:37):
start to find consistency. You know, if Canalys has said
it once, he said it a thousand times over the
past month, that the best teams played their best football
in December. And you've got four games ahead of you
in December and first week of January. And so if
you can find your consistency now, if you can take
everything you've learned from the highs and the lows and
(10:59):
start to find the consistency in these next four games,
that's how this season is going to be remembered more
than anything.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
And that's gonna be the lesson learned. I was sitting
around yesterday finishing up some work outside the players cafeteria,
and one of the coaches walked by. He said, what
are you working on? I said, what can on? A
story about the passing game and how you got a
quarterback and four receivers playing now who can't get together
and rent a car? Oh no, what happened to Chuck?
What happened here? That's not an omen Yeah, that can't be.
(11:25):
We gotta put our We got to put our friend
back up there.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I don't know what happens blew hivolve it was the ghost.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
There's a ghost in this.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
But uh anyway, sorry, it was rent a car.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
No. I was like, we got a crazy We're talking
about a passing game with a quarterback and four receivers
who can't get together and rent a car because none
of them hit twenty five years old. And and that's
what I'm talking about. The learning that's happening right now
is going to be valuable to this team right now
in the context of the twenty twenty five season, but
down the road in terms of the kind of team
(11:56):
they're trying to be.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, and it makes it interesting too, just kind of
keeping an eye on the Saints, Like to that point,
you've got a rookie quarterback in New Orleans that's twenty six,
I mean, and Bryce Shung is in his third year
and he's twenty four, and so it's a lot of
different types of training, it's a lot of different types
of play in defense. Talk to Mike Jackson about that
(12:18):
this week. Like you know, usually you can disguise things
a little easier and to confuse a rookie quarterback, but
what do you do when he's twenty six years old.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
But on that same point, this man's off his parents insurance, right,
you can't surprise him, right, he's got back pain. You
can't rattle a man like that.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
He starts a day with two advil. But to your
point too, on the flip side of that, it makes
it exciting when you realize you've got a quarterback, receivers, coach,
an offense that are all young and that are growing together.
Because that bodes really really well for the future. And again,
I know I keep saying it like so much focus
is going on right now, as it should be, but
(12:59):
look at what this could be next year and the
year after that. That's when that window really starts to
get exciting and feels wide open, at least in my opinion.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yep. And there's a lot, there's a lot happening this week.
I mean, we were out there on the practice field yesterday,
saw a bunch of dudes coming back. You saw J. C.
Horn and Clawing cher Lists back on the field. They
were kind of limited in their work because they're still
in the concussion protocol. The hope is crush fingers, knock
on wood, that they're going to be able to get
back and play this week. That's going to add to
(13:30):
it all. Fifty three players on the active roster were
practicing yesterday and that is amazing when you think about
week fifteen of an NFL season. Now, you just had
a buy and everybody had a chance to come back.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
But iye was perfectly timed behind side.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
You got Cad May's back on the field, which allows
Austin Corbett slide back over to right guard, where he's
played most of his life. By the way, congratulations to
Austin Corbett, your Carolina Panthers club, winner of the NFL
Walter Payton Man of the Year Award and nobody more
deserving it that cat. This is my twenty second time
out to talk about Austin Corbett. He is something else.
(14:06):
I mean, a Austin Corbett will go anywhere and do
anything that is off the field. He doesn't center his
work around one foundation or anything like that. He just
goes and helps everywhere. Yeah, and he plugs in all
over the place, and it's like Wow, it's an analogy
to what he does on a football field where he's
a right guard. He's a sinner. Damian Lewis has heard
(14:28):
he can go play left guard for a week for
the first time in six years and have an acceptable result.
Austin is just one of those dudes who always plugs in.
We love Austin around here because he'll do all that stuff.
And also, and I joked with him about this the
other day and I told it to him to his face,
and he weighs three hundred pounds, so I don't mind
saying it on the air. Austin Corbett's a gigantic softy. Friends,
(14:50):
if you saw the video about the Walter Payton nomination
and heard his son Ford voicing over the end of it,
it's like that man was ball on the back side
of that. It was so great. I love it when
my football players are also human beings, and Austin Corbett
is one of the most human human beings I've encountered
in this building walking through here for a long long time.
(15:13):
So Austin is back at right guard, K's back at center.
Things are normalizing a little bit. I don't get to
build on my favorite stat of the year, which is
ten offensive line combinations in thirteen weeks.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
It's sorry they messed up for a repeat.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I don't know what to do with myself, but that
as that kind of settles in, as the run game
begins to settle in, then the impis is going to
turn to the other side of the ball and getting
those guys back and having a JC back, having a
Rose Boom back out there running around next to Trevin Wallace. Yea,
it is just going to help solidify everything on the
other side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
This will be the first time since that Week ten
game that rose Boom and Wallace have been out on
the field together right same time.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, so exciting to get them back off there because
they had hit a stride, buddy when they made those
shit what was it three four weeks into the season, Yeah,
and made the shift at linebacker to put the green
dot on Trevin let Roseboom kind of play a little freer.
You saw those two really really just starting to hit
their stride. I saw this meme on Twitter, I don't know,
(16:15):
around week six or seven, and shared it with Luke
in the radio booth before a game one day and
cracked him up. It was a picture of Keikley and
Thomas Davis and it said Trevin Wallace and Christian rose Boom.
Ever since they switched.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Positions aim high boys and hard.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
It was getting it was getting around on social media.
But yeah, those two had really really kind of hit
a stride. So excited to see what the defense was
and not to say that the other guy stepping in hatting.
You know, can't say enough about Claude in Cherless and
what he had done when he stepped in for Trevin
Wallace and then taken on the Green Dot too before
he got hurt and uh, but excited to see Rosebum
(16:57):
and Wallace back out there together.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
No doubt. And that's another one of the cool things
about this team. As you watch him go through the
course of a long season. It takes a Chris Barnes,
it takes a called and chaerir List, it takes a
Jake kerrhand, it takes all these dudes stepping up and
Plaoith Thornton, Yeah, Corey Thornton, Bryson, Tremaine's made plays. I mean,
you know, fourth and Renfro Hunter. Renfro ain't been active
(17:21):
in about six or seven weeks, but he's one of
those dudes who steps up in very particular places and
makes play for this team. And that's the sign of
a cool team, I think. And these guys have a
little bit of a vibe right now and they kind
of are building that kind of belief that they do
deserve to be considered a good team. They do deserve
to be seriously considered in all this playoff talk that's
(17:43):
going to be happening for the next four weeks.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Real quick. Aside about Bryson Tremaine, you saying that just
made me think of this. They've started doing something with
him that's that's so fun to watch and just see
kind of when they deploy it. When they do that
big line a lot of times where they have like
three tight ends out there and it's like there's one
receip and it's always Bryson. Every single time they do
that big line, it's Bryson's the single receiver out there,
(18:05):
and you're like, oh, they're gonna run it. But then
every like four or five times, they just chuck it
right over the middle of the field for like a
twenty yard or to Bryson and he pulls it in
pretty much every time, like he makes it to where
they can trust him to do that, and it keeps
the defense honest. And so it's fun to watch those
(18:25):
little quirks kind of get put into this offense and
see Dave Canal start having a little bit more fun
with it and figure out what he can do. And
you can do it to your point because of guys
like Bryson Germaine who step up and are ready when
they're called upon.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Yeah, a lot of dudes stepping up playing their roles. Hey,
you mentioned our friend Luke Keigley the other day. He
what you got. I thought you were.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
About to ask if I watched it, and I forgot.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
To watch it. That's okay. I was teeing up one
of my own stories. I've ever do that. Speaking of
our friend Luke Keigley, which you mentioned a second ago,
his name was on my mind the other day as
I filled out a prof Football Hall of Fame ballot
that I'm gonna have to fill out again. It's time
to cut from twenty six to fifteen. That's due on Monday.
(19:08):
That'll be announced later on this month. Keep your fingers
crossed for our friends Luke Keithleen Steve Smith to be
back in the Final fifteen. I like their chances, but
I'm gonna have to submit my ballot again. Why because
mine had Philip Rivers.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Oh no, now a does his timeline get reset?
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Now? Yes, it does if he is activated for that game.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I just don't know if that's worth it in his mind.
But it could be fun, you know what I mean.
I'm very I don't know if Matt asked me this
question before we got started and we decided. I don't
know if I think it's necessarily a good idea, but buddy,
I'm excited to see how it goes.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
I think it's an incredible idea. I'm here for old
dudes proving to all you young whipper snappers out there
what it takes to do this thing.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Lady grandchild, you know what, that's the one that kills me.
He is he is a real young grandfather, but still.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
He is forty four years old. I asked JJ Jansen
yesterday if he could imagine playing forty four, and he said, sure,
but not if I take five years off in the middle, right.
I think a lot of people are like that. I
just keep flashing back to Vinny Testaverdi here in two
thousand and seven, one of my favorite chapters in Panthers
franchise history. But Phil's gonna do some cool stuff. I mean,
if you're the Indianapolis Colts, your season had kind of
(20:22):
taken a little dip there, and would you rather trust
some rookie or some guy who's never been in the
spot or a guy like Philip Rivers who's been around,
done all the things and seen them all.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
You have to wonder, at least I have to wonder
if part of the Colt's decision was influenced by the
fact that Joe Flacco came in too Cincinnati this year
and did what he did to kind of help them along.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
I think there's a component of that. I mean, but
Shane Stykin and Philip Rivers go way back. I mean,
Phil's out here running Shane Steikin's offense with a high
school team. He's helping coach, right.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
He was coaching a high school team in Alabama.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, and so yeah, he is amazing. This is a
pro Philip Rivers account. I think Philip will one day
be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
It's gonna be at least five years from now.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Now, Yeah, it's gonna be twenty thirty one at the
soonest because as soon as he gets activated. Now if
he doesn't get activated, and he wouldn't have signed there
if they weren't gonna activate him and play him, let's
be honest with ourselves. So once he's activated, clock will
reset on Phil to twenty thirty one. But that just
clears one name off the deck. Somebody else will take
(21:28):
that spot in my final fifteen.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
You know, that's really what Philip Rivers was doing. He
was being kind and bowing out so that someone else
could take that spot.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, no doubt. So hopefully that'll be Luke Keigley this
year and we'll see how that goes. But all kind
of stuff going on. We'll have more for you here
on Panthers dot com throughout the rest of the week.
Keep it locked on the dot com watch the YouTube
channel for all the cool video content that's going to
be coming your way throughout the week, and we'll talk
to you on Monday. Heading into some big couple of
(22:00):
home games in the next two weeks against the Bucks
and the Seahawks as the Carolina Panthers are talking playoffs, friends,
and we'll be here with you. Thanks to our friends
from Deep Eddy on the next happy half hour,
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