January 7, 2025 • 15 mins
In this episode we discuss the week 18 over time victory against the Atlanta Falcons. We discuss the offseason outlook for the Panthers, and for this podcast. We can't wait for the 2025 season, but the offseason will give us plenty to talk about. We're looking forward to the playoffs, and looking forward to being there this time next year. Thank you so much to everyone who works for the Carolina Panthers!!! Players, coaches, front office, administration, training, and stadium staff! #everyone Thank you for all your hard work on the 2024 season, and we look forward to another fun season in about 9 months :) Keep Pounding!!!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Carolina Panthers football in my mind podcast.
(00:05):
I'm your host Luke Farber and what is in this mind today?
Well, that's a wrap folks.
The 2024 season is over and man, could it have ended in a better way?
I don't really think so.
And maybe my week 18 beard had had something to do with it.
And I carved this in right before game time and man, did it work?
(00:30):
No, anyway, I mean, actually going into the game, I didn't have a lot of hope
that we were gonna have a chance to win, especially what we put on tape last week
against Tampa Bay, I knew we would rebound and play better and play harder and
execute better just because that's what we've seen from this team in the second
(00:51):
half of the year.
And boy, did they and it's hard to win a game when you're down to your sixth and
seventh string, string green dot linebacker.
But once Chandler Wooten gets hurt in the first quarter, that's where we're at.
And somehow the defense held it together enough to give us a chance to win the game.
(01:15):
Beforehand, I think I was talking to my dad when I said that, hey, for us to win,
it's gonna take multiple turnovers and Bryce playing his best game as a professional.
Well, Bryce only needed one turnover because he sure as shit played his best
game as a professional on the road against a potential playoff team,
(01:39):
five touchdowns, no turnovers, no sacks.
He was in control the entire game and took it to the Falcons who had a possible
playoff spot on the line.
And this is what I mean by saying the Falcons are soft and
their whole quarterback conundrum this year was the reason why they didn't make
(02:05):
the playoffs.
You can't tell me that Kirk Cousins doesn't find a way to win these games as a
veteran quarterback.
I mean, Michael Pennings has got a lot of talent, don't get me wrong, but he's
inexperienced.
And I'm not sure why you switch to a backup quarterback who's a rookie, who's
never played it down in the NFL when you're leading a division with three weeks
(02:28):
to go left in the season.
I mean, is that not the reason why they lost the division?
Yeah, I think it is, personally.
Obviously, their defense did not play up to snuff this year.
It hasn't played up to snuff in a long time because they don't have any pass
rushers.
I figure once they traded for Matthew Judon from the Patriots in the preseason,
(02:52):
that that would take care of it.
It hasn't.
So I love to see the Falcons just be soft like they always are.
And we took it to them.
Anyway, yeah, the defense held its own in the first quarter, obviously started
getting pushed around in the second and gave up 38 points.
But luckily, the offense was able to outscore them 44-38 in overtime.
(03:17):
I mean, that was the formula for us in the second half of the year is can we
outscore teams that are going to run up the score on our defense?
And we came up with two victories in the last three weeks over potential playoff
teams in the Arizona Cardinals.
We knocked them out.
And the Atlanta Falcons, obviously, Tampa Bay winning, knocked them out.
(03:40):
But they wouldn't have had a shot if they lost to us, which they did.
So yeah, an amazing game.
Let's start with the offensive line.
Obviously, Robert Hunt wasn't out there.
But they still and Chuba Hubbard wasn't out there.
Great to see Miles Sanders get back and have some running lanes behind a really
(04:04):
good offensive line.
And hopefully that unit comes back healthy and ready to go next year.
They also gave up no sacks with Bryce.
And we got to give Bryce some credit there too, because if you look at any
quarterback that's worth assault and you look at Caleb Williams, who is perhaps
about ready to set the rookie record for most sacks taken, if you listen to ex
(04:27):
quarterbacks and offensive linemen, they view the sack as a quarterback stat.
And if you can't get the ball out of your hands in X amount of time, then that's
on you, right?
So seeing Bryce being able to get the ball out of his hands, be decisive,
nowhere to go with it.
(04:50):
That's exactly what we want to see.
That's exactly the type of progression from the young quarterback, because yeah,
we want to see better deep ball throws.
We want to see big plays.
We want to see explosives.
But where we're going to win games and where we're going to be a consistent
winning franchise is those in between moments, is those in between plays.
(05:11):
It's the check down instead of throwing an interception.
It's a tossing the ball out of bounds instead of taking a sack.
It's no pre snap penalties.
It's all the little things that are going to add up to make those big things happen.
Because if we're staying on schedule and we're staying ahead of the change, then
(05:34):
we're going to have so many more opportunities for big plays.
So it was great to see all that this week.
Bryce played out of his mind, 251 yards passing out as another 20 something
rushing, three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns.
And like I said before, the biggest thing about this is that we got the win on the
(05:57):
road in overtime against a potential playoff team.
They showed a stat before the game that we were one in 15 in our last 16 road
games.
Now we got two in 15.
So and you know that that may seem small and petty to some, but it's not to me.
(06:19):
That was exactly what we wanted to see to carry momentum into the off season.
Obviously the defense is challenged right now.
They didn't, we didn't have JC and Josie again, but man, did some of those guys
make some big plays.
A Sean has made big plays all year.
Clowney, uh, Gromody even made some plays shy, Tuttle.
(06:44):
Like it's, it's been a really group, a real group effort on the D line.
Obviously there've been some real challenges this year, but all those guys
met those challenges.
We've kept fighting.
We've kept pounding and we're seeing the results.
We're seeing good things.
Uh, also Dane Jackson, Caleb Farley, uh, some good play in the secondary, a pick
(07:05):
by Mike Jackson, you know, we're looking for that unit to progress and get better
as well.
I assume that we will be adding pieces, you know, in, in free agency in the
draft, both the defensive line and the secondary.
And, and obviously we're going to have some guys coming back and we're going to
have some guys departing.
(07:25):
So we don't know what that looks like yet.
Uh, but for me, this should be a very exciting off season just because of the
potential and the progress that was shown in the second half of the season by
Bryce, by the coaching staff, by the front office and the fact that we kept
(07:45):
fighting, we kept pounding.
That's the thing about this franchise that even in our shitty years, we found
ways at the end of the season to spoil somebody's party most all the time,
because well, one, nobody takes us seriously.
And two, we ain't going out like that.
So it was great to see it again.
(08:06):
And the momentum of the second half of the year culminated in this victory in
week 18 and we got great things to build on going into the off season, which I'm,
I couldn't be more excited about.
In fact, let me see.
I got, I got it here on my phone, my countdown with all of our good off
(08:30):
season dates, only 106 days till the draft and only 242 days till next season.
I can't wait.
I'm ready to go right now.
But I guess we all need a little bit of a break and off season.
I mean, the players need a lot more than we do.
They've been grinding for months and months and months.
And, uh, you know, they'll be back at it before you know it.
(08:52):
So it'd be interesting to see what everybody has to say.
I haven't checked out the end of the year press conferences yet,
but I'm sure I'll do that today.
I'm actually shocked.
I haven't watched them yet.
I'm shocked.
I haven't watched our, the replay of our victory like six times by now.
I do have the NFL plus, so I get all the games on, uh, demand, uh, all year.
(09:15):
So it's actually been a few years since I could go back and watch a positive game
that was projecting towards the future.
Hell, I mean, even last year in our two wins, I went, I've gone over this a bunch of time.
We only scored 24 total points in our two wins last year.
Can't go back and watch those games and feel rah rah.
(09:37):
Not all of it anyway, but anyway, we got something good to watch during the off
season, not only with what'll be happening, uh, in free agency and the draft and off
season workouts, but our last couple of victories and we're, we're excellent.
So give us something to reflect on at the end of this season and give us hope going
(10:01):
into next year.
So that was wonderful.
Uh, you know, as I've taken to many things,
over this time, I actually, I was at the gym after the game.
I've been going to the gym after the games for a while now.
It just helps whether we win or lose.
And, uh, I found a song, uh, I posted it on, on my YouTube and Facebook and all that
(10:28):
stuff.
If you haven't subscribed to everything, check it out, subscribe.
Um, so Akon, beautiful day just came up randomly on some of the news.
Came up randomly on something I was listening to and it was perfect.
It was perfect in the moment.
It was a beautiful day, hope, love, all this sort of stuff.
(10:50):
And you know what?
I've been such a negative person for so much of my life and, and it seeped into
everything and my fandom as well.
Well, I'm not putting up with that anymore.
I don't want to be a negative person.
In fact, last year when we picked Bryce Young, I was a CJ Stroud guy at first,
but during the process I got convinced on Bryce and most of it had to do with
(11:16):
the makeup as a person that he has and his positivity and his fighting through
everything and being the same guy every day.
And all of that stuff has been incredibly hard for me in my life.
And so honestly, I take Bryce as an inspiration for my life and how
(11:38):
I can be a better person and coming in, Coach Canales seems to have that same
makeup and they seem to be fitting together real nice right now.
I'm very happy for everybody in that locker room.
And I think we got great things coming ahead, but I'll tell you, man, that
beautiful song, beautiful day song, Akon, check it out.
(12:00):
I mean, I started to well up with tears in my eyes thinking about it
as I'm walking at the gym.
I mean, and that's kind of fan I am.
I'm a little emotional, but you know, I love my Panthers.
I've only gotten to go into the bank one time in my life to see a game.
And luckily it was that epic Monday night football game in 2015 where we paid
(12:27):
Andrew Luck back for avoiding us in the draft in the monsoon that was pouring
down in Charlotte that night.
It was a blast.
Stayed through everything.
I don't leave early, but yeah, the overtime Ted Ginsburg drop and then his
subsequent catch on the final drive.
Man, that was epic.
(12:48):
And yeah, when I walked up those stairs and saw the field for the first time,
I teared up for sure.
You know, it's, you know, having passion in your life, having things to cheer
for, root for, hope for, it is a beautiful thing.
And, and the Panthers have always given me that.
(13:10):
And, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
And I thank this team, all the work you put in all the late nights, all the
early mornings, obviously the weekends, but no, from the bottom of my heart and
the bottom of all fans hearts, thank you so much for everything you do to bring
some joy and excitement to our lives.
(13:33):
Anyway, this is not the end of the year for the podcast for me.
You know, football is a year round thing.
Panthers will be doing things all year round.
I'm going to be talking Panthers and NFL football all off season.
I absolutely loved the draft.
Fell in love with it when I was 21 years old, back when it was on a Saturday
(13:58):
and all seven rounds were in one day.
And I, you know, I randomly, randomly came across it on ESPN and only the
second year I had cable television.
And I just ended up watching it all day.
I couldn't stop and man, I love it.
So we're going to be talking plenty of draft.
(14:20):
We're talking plenty of free agency.
We're going to be talking playoffs too.
I w you know, I love to watch football.
It, you know, obviously the Panthers are far and above everybody else as
enjoyment to watch, but I love watching good football, so I'm going to be
talking playoffs on here and we'll just, we'll just have a fun off season together.
(14:42):
I'm looking forward to it.
Thanks for joining me for my first season doing this podcast.
And it's been a blast.
I'm really enjoying myself.
It's, it's cathartic.
I get to get my thoughts out of here and hopefully during the off season
two, I want to start having guests on.
We'll start having interviews and, and I'd love to hear from any of you
(15:06):
who might want to come on to a zoom podcast with me, we can just sit
and bullshit and enjoy ourselves.
So anyway, thank you Panthers fans.
Keep pounding.
Love y'all and I'll see you soon.
Hello and welcome to the Carolina Panthers football in my mind podcast.
(00:05):
I'm your host Luke Farber and what is in this mind today?
Well, that's a wrap folks.
The 2024 season is over and man, could it have ended in a better way?
I don't really think so.
And maybe my week 18 beard had had something to do with it.
And I carved this in right before game time and man, did it work?
(00:30):
No, anyway, I mean, actually going into the game, I didn't have a lot of hope
that we were gonna have a chance to win, especially what we put on tape last week
against Tampa Bay, I knew we would rebound and play better and play harder and
execute better just because that's what we've seen from this team in the second
(00:51):
half of the year.
And boy, did they and it's hard to win a game when you're down to your sixth and
seventh string, string green dot linebacker.
But once Chandler Wooten gets hurt in the first quarter, that's where we're at.
And somehow the defense held it together enough to give us a chance to win the game.
(01:15):
Beforehand, I think I was talking to my dad when I said that, hey, for us to win,
it's gonna take multiple turnovers and Bryce playing his best game as a professional.
Well, Bryce only needed one turnover because he sure as shit played his best
game as a professional on the road against a potential playoff team,
(01:39):
five touchdowns, no turnovers, no sacks.
He was in control the entire game and took it to the Falcons who had a possible
playoff spot on the line.
And this is what I mean by saying the Falcons are soft and
their whole quarterback conundrum this year was the reason why they didn't make
(02:05):
the playoffs.
You can't tell me that Kirk Cousins doesn't find a way to win these games as a
veteran quarterback.
I mean, Michael Pennings has got a lot of talent, don't get me wrong, but he's
inexperienced.
And I'm not sure why you switch to a backup quarterback who's a rookie, who's
never played it down in the NFL when you're leading a division with three weeks
(02:28):
to go left in the season.
I mean, is that not the reason why they lost the division?
Yeah, I think it is, personally.
Obviously, their defense did not play up to snuff this year.
It hasn't played up to snuff in a long time because they don't have any pass
rushers.
I figure once they traded for Matthew Judon from the Patriots in the preseason,
(02:52):
that that would take care of it.
It hasn't.
So I love to see the Falcons just be soft like they always are.
And we took it to them.
Anyway, yeah, the defense held its own in the first quarter, obviously started
getting pushed around in the second and gave up 38 points.
But luckily, the offense was able to outscore them 44-38 in overtime.
(03:17):
I mean, that was the formula for us in the second half of the year is can we
outscore teams that are going to run up the score on our defense?
And we came up with two victories in the last three weeks over potential playoff
teams in the Arizona Cardinals.
We knocked them out.
And the Atlanta Falcons, obviously, Tampa Bay winning, knocked them out.
(03:40):
But they wouldn't have had a shot if they lost to us, which they did.
So yeah, an amazing game.
Let's start with the offensive line.
Obviously, Robert Hunt wasn't out there.
But they still and Chuba Hubbard wasn't out there.
Great to see Miles Sanders get back and have some running lanes behind a really
(04:04):
good offensive line.
And hopefully that unit comes back healthy and ready to go next year.
They also gave up no sacks with Bryce.
And we got to give Bryce some credit there too, because if you look at any
quarterback that's worth assault and you look at Caleb Williams, who is perhaps
about ready to set the rookie record for most sacks taken, if you listen to ex
(04:27):
quarterbacks and offensive linemen, they view the sack as a quarterback stat.
And if you can't get the ball out of your hands in X amount of time, then that's
on you, right?
So seeing Bryce being able to get the ball out of his hands, be decisive,
nowhere to go with it.
(04:50):
That's exactly what we want to see.
That's exactly the type of progression from the young quarterback, because yeah,
we want to see better deep ball throws.
We want to see big plays.
We want to see explosives.
But where we're going to win games and where we're going to be a consistent
winning franchise is those in between moments, is those in between plays.
(05:11):
It's the check down instead of throwing an interception.
It's a tossing the ball out of bounds instead of taking a sack.
It's no pre snap penalties.
It's all the little things that are going to add up to make those big things happen.
Because if we're staying on schedule and we're staying ahead of the change, then
(05:34):
we're going to have so many more opportunities for big plays.
So it was great to see all that this week.
Bryce played out of his mind, 251 yards passing out as another 20 something
rushing, three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns.
And like I said before, the biggest thing about this is that we got the win on the
(05:57):
road in overtime against a potential playoff team.
They showed a stat before the game that we were one in 15 in our last 16 road
games.
Now we got two in 15.
So and you know that that may seem small and petty to some, but it's not to me.
(06:19):
That was exactly what we wanted to see to carry momentum into the off season.
Obviously the defense is challenged right now.
They didn't, we didn't have JC and Josie again, but man, did some of those guys
make some big plays.
A Sean has made big plays all year.
Clowney, uh, Gromody even made some plays shy, Tuttle.
(06:44):
Like it's, it's been a really group, a real group effort on the D line.
Obviously there've been some real challenges this year, but all those guys
met those challenges.
We've kept fighting.
We've kept pounding and we're seeing the results.
We're seeing good things.
Uh, also Dane Jackson, Caleb Farley, uh, some good play in the secondary, a pick
(07:05):
by Mike Jackson, you know, we're looking for that unit to progress and get better
as well.
I assume that we will be adding pieces, you know, in, in free agency in the
draft, both the defensive line and the secondary.
And, and obviously we're going to have some guys coming back and we're going to
have some guys departing.
(07:25):
So we don't know what that looks like yet.
Uh, but for me, this should be a very exciting off season just because of the
potential and the progress that was shown in the second half of the season by
Bryce, by the coaching staff, by the front office and the fact that we kept
(07:45):
fighting, we kept pounding.
That's the thing about this franchise that even in our shitty years, we found
ways at the end of the season to spoil somebody's party most all the time,
because well, one, nobody takes us seriously.
And two, we ain't going out like that.
So it was great to see it again.
(08:06):
And the momentum of the second half of the year culminated in this victory in
week 18 and we got great things to build on going into the off season, which I'm,
I couldn't be more excited about.
In fact, let me see.
I got, I got it here on my phone, my countdown with all of our good off
(08:30):
season dates, only 106 days till the draft and only 242 days till next season.
I can't wait.
I'm ready to go right now.
But I guess we all need a little bit of a break and off season.
I mean, the players need a lot more than we do.
They've been grinding for months and months and months.
And, uh, you know, they'll be back at it before you know it.
(08:52):
So it'd be interesting to see what everybody has to say.
I haven't checked out the end of the year press conferences yet,
but I'm sure I'll do that today.
I'm actually shocked.
I haven't watched them yet.
I'm shocked.
I haven't watched our, the replay of our victory like six times by now.
I do have the NFL plus, so I get all the games on, uh, demand, uh, all year.
(09:15):
So it's actually been a few years since I could go back and watch a positive game
that was projecting towards the future.
Hell, I mean, even last year in our two wins, I went, I've gone over this a bunch of time.
We only scored 24 total points in our two wins last year.
Can't go back and watch those games and feel rah rah.
(09:37):
Not all of it anyway, but anyway, we got something good to watch during the off
season, not only with what'll be happening, uh, in free agency and the draft and off
season workouts, but our last couple of victories and we're, we're excellent.
So give us something to reflect on at the end of this season and give us hope going
(10:01):
into next year.
So that was wonderful.
Uh, you know, as I've taken to many things,
over this time, I actually, I was at the gym after the game.
I've been going to the gym after the games for a while now.
It just helps whether we win or lose.
And, uh, I found a song, uh, I posted it on, on my YouTube and Facebook and all that
(10:28):
stuff.
If you haven't subscribed to everything, check it out, subscribe.
Um, so Akon, beautiful day just came up randomly on some of the news.
Came up randomly on something I was listening to and it was perfect.
It was perfect in the moment.
It was a beautiful day, hope, love, all this sort of stuff.
(10:50):
And you know what?
I've been such a negative person for so much of my life and, and it seeped into
everything and my fandom as well.
Well, I'm not putting up with that anymore.
I don't want to be a negative person.
In fact, last year when we picked Bryce Young, I was a CJ Stroud guy at first,
but during the process I got convinced on Bryce and most of it had to do with
(11:16):
the makeup as a person that he has and his positivity and his fighting through
everything and being the same guy every day.
And all of that stuff has been incredibly hard for me in my life.
And so honestly, I take Bryce as an inspiration for my life and how
(11:38):
I can be a better person and coming in, Coach Canales seems to have that same
makeup and they seem to be fitting together real nice right now.
I'm very happy for everybody in that locker room.
And I think we got great things coming ahead, but I'll tell you, man, that
beautiful song, beautiful day song, Akon, check it out.
(12:00):
I mean, I started to well up with tears in my eyes thinking about it
as I'm walking at the gym.
I mean, and that's kind of fan I am.
I'm a little emotional, but you know, I love my Panthers.
I've only gotten to go into the bank one time in my life to see a game.
And luckily it was that epic Monday night football game in 2015 where we paid
(12:27):
Andrew Luck back for avoiding us in the draft in the monsoon that was pouring
down in Charlotte that night.
It was a blast.
Stayed through everything.
I don't leave early, but yeah, the overtime Ted Ginsburg drop and then his
subsequent catch on the final drive.
Man, that was epic.
(12:48):
And yeah, when I walked up those stairs and saw the field for the first time,
I teared up for sure.
You know, it's, you know, having passion in your life, having things to cheer
for, root for, hope for, it is a beautiful thing.
And, and the Panthers have always given me that.
(13:10):
And, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
And I thank this team, all the work you put in all the late nights, all the
early mornings, obviously the weekends, but no, from the bottom of my heart and
the bottom of all fans hearts, thank you so much for everything you do to bring
some joy and excitement to our lives.
(13:33):
Anyway, this is not the end of the year for the podcast for me.
You know, football is a year round thing.
Panthers will be doing things all year round.
I'm going to be talking Panthers and NFL football all off season.
I absolutely loved the draft.
Fell in love with it when I was 21 years old, back when it was on a Saturday
(13:58):
and all seven rounds were in one day.
And I, you know, I randomly, randomly came across it on ESPN and only the
second year I had cable television.
And I just ended up watching it all day.
I couldn't stop and man, I love it.
So we're going to be talking plenty of draft.
(14:20):
We're talking plenty of free agency.
We're going to be talking playoffs too.
I w you know, I love to watch football.
It, you know, obviously the Panthers are far and above everybody else as
enjoyment to watch, but I love watching good football, so I'm going to be
talking playoffs on here and we'll just, we'll just have a fun off season together.
(14:42):
I'm looking forward to it.
Thanks for joining me for my first season doing this podcast.
And it's been a blast.
I'm really enjoying myself.
It's, it's cathartic.
I get to get my thoughts out of here and hopefully during the off season
two, I want to start having guests on.
We'll start having interviews and, and I'd love to hear from any of you
(15:06):
who might want to come on to a zoom podcast with me, we can just sit
and bullshit and enjoy ourselves.
So anyway, thank you Panthers fans.
Keep pounding.
Love y'all and I'll see you soon.
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