Episode Transcript
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Welcome to the Carolina Panthers In My Mind podcast.
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I am your host Luke Farber.
And what is in my mind today?
Well, last week was the Chargers, obviously.
And I was down in Portland watching at my younger brother's new place.
And I remember mentioning to him in the last five minutes of the game, come on, Bryce,
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come on offense.
Give me something to talk about on the pod this week.
Well, as you know, we didn't score.
But we obviously have plenty of things to talk about.
First of all, we're not going to start with Bryce.
We're not going to start with the bad.
We're going to start with the good.
We're going to reflect on the growth from week one to week two.
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Because as much as it feels like it felt like it on Sunday, this season is not over.
And I'm sorry, but I'm not throwing in the towel and just assuming that we're going to
end up in the bottom of the league again.
I can't believe that.
I do believe this roster is better than that.
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What's going to happen?
I don't know.
But we'll see.
Anyway, the good from last week.
Let's go defensively first.
Obviously we gave up over 200 yards rushing.
So the run defense was not good.
However, it did improve from week one to week two.
As far as I'm concerned, the defensive line did not get shoved around nearly as much.
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There were not nearly as many missed tackles.
Sure, we gave up a long TD run to Dobbins.
You can't do that.
But I think that's the thing that is skewed with defensive stats, especially these days.
Last year, we were third in the league in past defense, I think, and yards allowed.
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But of course, we were the worst team in the league.
So how does that compute?
Well it computes because we were always behind because the offense couldn't score, typically
would turn the ball over.
And there's only so much a decent defense can do with that, especially if they're worn
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down by the end of the first half.
It's just going to look ugly on the scoreboard at the end.
So yeah, we didn't give up very many pass yards on Sunday, but we sure as hell gave
up the rush yards.
And at five yards a carry, that's too much.
So there was improvement, not nearly enough, obviously, but improvement and without Derrick
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Brown.
And I expect the defense to continue to improve, the tackling to continue to improve, and the
communication in the secondary to continue to improve, which was better this last week.
We also forced three turnovers.
I know the box score only says two, but the officiating call on that catch fumble on the
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first drive of the game was horrific.
It was a catch and a fumble.
And because the next play was a touchdown pass, the officials put us behind out of the
gate.
And as far as I'm concerned, you know, I listened to my Move the Sticks podcast recap of our
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game and DJ, who's actually the Chargers announcer, you know, makes some stupid comment about
the Panthers being four players away from being six players away from being a decent
team.
Give me a break.
I'm sorry, but that was a defense that after getting run over by the Saints on the road
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in the first game, came back in the second game and held your beloved Chargers and Justin
Herbert to without that bogus touchdown, 20 points.
And 20 points given that their offense only held the ball for 23 minutes and only scored
three points and their quarterback had under 100 yards passing.
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So for a defense to do that, that means they made some plays and it also probably means
they've got some players.
So give me a break, DJ.
Come on.
Obviously, it's not a perfect performance.
Run defense has to get better.
Past defense was much better.
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Turnovers caused much better.
We'll see how it goes this week.
We're on the road again.
We're in a dome again.
You know, we're going up against Gardner-Minshew.
So it's definitely probably the lowest quality quarterback we have gone up against so far.
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So we'll see what kind of effort and execution the defense gets in Vegas.
Anyway, moving on to the offense, what was good that we saw?
Well, we saw the running game come alive.
You know, I think I wanted 25 carries for Hubbard.
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He got 10.
He averaged 6.4 carries.
So they were opening up holes.
And you know, Chuba is not Christian McCaffrey.
He's not Saquon Barkley, but he is an effective one-cut runner with power and speed.
And they opened up plenty of holes for him on Sunday, which is a great sign because we
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need the running game if the passing game is going to do anything.
And if we can hold the ball for longer than 23 minutes, which was our time of possession
in the first two games.
So it was great to see the offensive line opening up some holes.
It was great to see Chuba hitting them.
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We didn't run the ball enough, in my opinion.
Keep pounding the rock.
You know, especially if your quarterback is having difficulty even completing screen passes.
But that's the problem.
If we can't get anything out of the passing game, which was pretty much the case on Sunday,
the running game only has so much effect it can take.
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Also, you know, everybody's complaining, oh, you're not throwing the ball down the field.
You're not throwing it like, well, if the offense can't get into a rhythm, then how
are we supposed to elongate those drops?
How are we supposed to make effective play action?
How are the DBs supposed to respect any routes or the routes that may come off of those if
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we can't complete the simple comeback to make the stop and go effective?
There's a lot of things and why the passing game hasn't materialized to this point.
And you know, I know some, I'm not an expert and I'm not going to say that I'm in the
headset hearing the play calls and knowing exactly what's going on.
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So there's obviously a lot to fix.
And given the fact that the run game did get traction and given the fact that we were at
home against a team with a first year head coach, even though I know everybody thinks
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Jim Harbaugh is football Jesus and lots of turnover, you know, defensive injuries, there
should have been some room to move the ball.
There wasn't.
And whose fault is that?
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You know, everybody deserves fault.
You know, Bryce is out front, he's he's in the media, he gets benched.
Everybody you know, it's funny how everybody before was kind of blaming him and now everybody
since he's been benched is blaming the franchise for their mishandling of him and the roster
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and whatnot.
And I'm not I'm personally not going to give anybody, you know, skirt and responsibility.
Everybody you know, we live in a community, we work together, we all share certain responsibilities
when things don't go well.
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That being said, I read something this morning that was actually kind of the first poignant
thing I've heard anybody say when it comes to the benching of Bryce Young and it was
Steve Young.
And you know, his message to Bryce is imploring to Bryce is ignore the outside noise.
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Even if it's inside the building, you know, because the report was Bryce was pissed when
this happened.
And and you know, every you know, with everybody blaming the franchise and their lack of support
of Bryce, you know, who knows maybe it'd be really easy for Bryce to blame everybody else
in the building.
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And maybe that's the initial reaction.
And you know, there's nothing wrong with initial reactions.
But I think Bryce is smart enough and what I know about him and his father being a psychologist
and this whole mental health thing, if anybody is equipped and prepared to handle this, hopefully
it's him.
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Does he have a future in Carolina?
That that remains to be seen.
However, the thing that Steve really said about Bryce that, you know, tied it together for
me is, hey, worry about you.
Look in the mirror, take care of everything you can in your power.
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Don't blame anybody else and things are going to work out.
And that's the type of thing I believe in in life, because I think in this day and age,
everybody is so quick to try to point the finger at somebody else.
When something goes wrong, let's figure out who to blame.
Who is to blame besides me, because it can't be me.
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Let's find out who's what specific person or what group in society or or who can I blame
for my situation?
You know, like I said before, we live in a community and we all share responsibility
when things don't go well.
However, the only person we can control is us.
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And that is the best way, in my opinion, to move forward amicably.
So you know, if I was given a message to Bryce, it'd be the same thing.
Hey, man, work on you.
You do you.
You take care of everything you can to make this right.
And it will be especially because.
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You know, a lot is talked about about quarterbacks, especially ones that possibly face some adversity
and ones that don't.
And the growth that it may afford them in being a more complete person, more complete
quarterback and being more resilient because obvious Bryce has faced a lot of troubles
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in his first 18 starts in the league.
So I think sometimes when a guy like that who has probably never been benched in his
life before, probably never even come close to it before.
Now he's obviously received hard coaching because he played for Nick Saban.
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But he probably wasn't that close to ever losing his job.
And I found the remarks that he said he was he was surprised to be interesting.
You know, not surprised as a competitor.
I get that, you know, and maybe they hadn't given him any indication that his job was
on the line.
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But honestly, if you perform like that, you should know that your job is on the line.
And if you don't know that your job is on the line, maybe you should be told.
And maybe you need to be told strongly, as in a benching.
We'll see.
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I don't know.
I like Bryce.
I think Bryce has enough talent, enough moxie, enough everything to succeed in this league.
But he obviously was not succeeding.
Whose fault is that?
It's a little bit of everybody's.
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Whose job is it to fix?
It's a little bit of everybody's.
But I think it starts with Bryce.
It has to.
So anyway, buddy, I'm rooting for you.
Be a great scout, QB, until you get back on the field.
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I don't think it's going to take too long.
However, moving on to week three preview, we got a new starting quarterback.
And I guess we'll start there.
Andy Dalton, 14 year vet, came in actually in the same draft with Cam Newton.
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The Red Rocket or the Red Rifle, depending on, you know, your nickname per se.
Anyway, what do I expect from Dalton?
He's a veteran, so hopefully he should just have a little bit more understanding of what's
coming as far as pressures and protections and checking in and out of plays and just
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being ready to release the ball on a hot route, which it seemed like Bryce was just slow on,
honestly.
So I expect more than one third down conversion per game, which was the allotment in the first
two.
I expect the passing game to work more functionally.
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I expect it to work more functionally off the play action with the running game that
we found last week.
Now we are going against a really, really tough defensive line in Vegas.
And that is going to be the matchup of the day.
Our offensive line versus their defensive line.
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You know, everybody wants to talk about the quarterback, wants to talk about Bryce and
Andy.
We need our offensive line to set the tone.
We need Chuba to run the ball 25 times.
How about that?
Let's give that 25 times and see if he can hit up that 6.4 a carry.
Anyway, yes, I expect to see much better offense this year or this week out of Dalton, just
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because let's be honest, the last two weeks were historically bad.
So, we'll see what happens today.
I expect better.
It's not going to be easy.
No game in the NFL is.
And honestly, that's so much of this team and this season is, I don't know.
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I don't know what's going to happen.
There's been so much new and the coach and the players and the front office and trying
to get Bryce going and obviously, we've laid a couple eggs to start the year.
I expect a lot of fight out of this team.
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You know, that is something that is never in short order in Carolina.
We are not going to quit.
We are going to keep pounding.
And I think we have a decent showing in Vegas.
Do we win the game?
I don't know.
It's another one of those toss up thing, you know, but yes, I think that will tell the
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tale of the game is their defensive line versus our offensive line.
If they're able to stop the run and Max Crosby and Christian Wilkins and company can get
to Dalton, it's going to be a long day for our offense.
I don't expect a ton out of their offense.
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I mean, they have Devante Adams and Brock Bowers.
Those are two really good receiving options, not to mention their second tight end mayor,
which will allow them to be in 12 personnel and run effective play action to the tight
end.
So Shaq and Josie and the safeties are really going to be have to have to be on their game
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in the middle of the field.
And obviously, the run defense has to be better.
Let's look for more improvement with that this week.
Hopefully lower yards per carry, lower total yards.
And if if the team is functioning right, if the offense is doing its job and scoring points
and the defense is doing its job and limiting scoring opportunities and hopefully causing
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turnovers, it's it's probably going to be a low scoring game, I would assume.
But I have been wrong about my prediction so far this year.
Well, I was right last week for the Chargers winning and almost right with their final
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score of 20.
Anyway, two first year head coaches.
Let's let's see what happens in Vegas.
I'm going to go ahead and predict a Panthers win.
Actually, I think we're inspired.
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I think the offense does enough.
I think the defense makes some key plays.
And I'm also not a believer in Minchoo Magic.
I may be very wrong.
They just went on the road and beat the Ravens.
So hopefully, coming back home, they're a little tired, they're a little self confident
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and we can catch them napping.
So I'm going to go ahead and go 1713 Panthers win.
Finally we get a victory Monday.
And hopefully something to build off of because I understand why they bench Bryce.
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I don't know if I would have done it.
But after last year, after the last six years, and after those two swoop ins to start the
year, it's hard not to have your heart sink and feel like the season's over and whatnot.
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But you know, obviously, we want to win the division, we want to make the playoffs, we
want to win the Super Bowl, but we want to be competitive.
We want the season not to be over by the time we get to November.
I don't want to have to be wondering about where our draft position is in the third week
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of the season.
In that vein, let's head out to Vegas, let's whoop some ass, keep pounding, enjoy the game.