November 12, 2025 • 18 mins
This week on Sideline Pass, Kristen and Sharon react to the Panthers loss to the Saints, preview this weekend's matchup against the Atlanta, discuss how they each prepare for gameday, and so much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Years.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Kristin Balboni and Sharon Thorpe's love it with your Sideline pass.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
That's right, it's time for sideline pass with your panther
Sideline reporters Sharon and Kristen.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Sharon, It's Wednesday. How's your week going so far?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
It is going just great. How about you? I'm loving
this little snap of cold weather.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I you know what, as as sideline reporters, we're going
to talk about weather, whether people want to hear about
it or not.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And I have to say that.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I mean, it was a beautiful day on Sunday seventy four,
seventy five. Actually had to break out my summer gear
a little bit. You know, I got kind of got
all my sweaters in the closet. But I was while
I was grateful that it was still hot on Sunday
for the game. I like a little forty degree weather
every now and then, and that's what it's been the
last couple of days here.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah, it was great fun and to have we got
some snow around where I live near town, and we
got a pretty decent amount of snow swirling around.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
On Monday night. So that was unusual to see in
early November.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I will say yes.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
So I was here for an event at the stadium
late that night, and I was sitting in the suite
waiting for my little part to host an event, and
all of a sudden, you see this snow swirling. And
I have never seen snow on the field at Bank
of America Stadium. You may have, I have, but it's
not November, no, no, But he's kind. It was like
a little magical winter wonderland. So crazy days here in
(01:24):
November in Charlotte. But that's that's North Carolina for you. Absolutely, absolutely,
So you know, the weather was great on Sunday. Unfortunately,
the final score of that game was not in the
panthers favor. They lose seventeen to seven to the Saints.
But you know, Sharon, there there's not much to say
that hasn't been said already. And with the fact that
(01:47):
it's Wednesday, I thought, you know, we could look ahead
and kind of go ahead and focus on the Falcons,
because that has been the Panthers. That's been the real
kind of message that has come out of this team,
win or lose. They want to turn the page by Wednesday.
You know, there were maybe some questions last week about
the week of preparation. We heard some of the players
say that, We heard Canalis saying, I'm going to go
(02:08):
back to the drawing board on a couple of things
and see if it was the victory Monday or if
it was the way we prepared the guys. So I
think they're working on all of that in order to
have a great week of practice. So I thought, why
don't we do the same and kind of look ahead
to a very interesting Falcons matchup.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Absolutely another division game, and I think we've seen in
the past you can't count anybody out, no matter what
their record is, especially when it's a division rival. And
this Atlanta team has been in so many games and
lost a bunch of games by you know, just a
couple of points. And then they've also been on the
opposite end event like when we beat them Panthers beat
(02:43):
them thirty to nothing. So they're coming off a tough
loss to the Colts over in Berlin and have to
travel all the way back and now turn around and
play a game already, which is unusual. I normally try
to give you a you know, a bye week or
something afterwards, but no such luck for the.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Can I ask you, they're going to can I ask
you about that really quick.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you did the overseas
trip last year.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
What is that light?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I mean, that seems very tough for a team to
come back because you're adjusting to local time when you
get there.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Correct or did everyone try to stay on the same schedule?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You know, it was it was tough.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
They were trying to make us get to local time,
you know, trying to make everybody sleep on the airplane.
You know, when you landed, it was nine o'clock in
the morning in Munich, so they tried to get you
on the local schedule as much as possible. But then
we left late at night, which was really very probably
late afternoon, you know, local time in Charlotte, and so
(03:37):
we landed literally in the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Tough to get back on schedule for a couple of days.
And we had a buy coming after that, so it
was a much nicer but yeah, it was tough when
you get home basically Monday, in the middle of the night,
and trying to just come back to the real world.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
It was tough.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
It took a couple of days to reacclimate, so I'm
sure that the Falcons are having a bit of a
tough time with that, and they might be reacclimated by
but that's certainly a tough turnaround and it's really exhausting.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, there are world class athletes, they're young, but still
that's a big turnaround, like you said, to then come
back and play the next week.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So I'm sorry to interrupt you on that.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I just, you know, I just had to ask about
that because, like you said, it's kind of a cruel
even though they are our opponent this week, it's it's
a little bit of a cruel move to have them
playing this week right after that big turnaround, and it
was an overtime game, so they've you know, I'm sure
they're putting in all the work and they'll be ready,
but not easy. But Sharon, like you said, this team
has been competitive, and I gotta imagine they certainly want
(04:35):
to avenge that loss at home, that thirty to nothing
shut out in week three.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Oh you know it. They're just three and six on
this season.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
They've lost four in a row, so they are I'm
sure just really dying to get back in the win column.
And I mean a lot of their they've had well
several problems. But Michael Pennings Junior's sort of gone backwards
a little bit in his second year. He's struggled a
little bit, can't seem to connect with a whole lot
of receivers except Drake London is his star of the
game the team with six six receptions and you know,
(05:03):
so they're they're having a little bit of struggles. They're
moving the football and a lot of trouble on special teams.
Are on their third kicker now, In fact, Zane Gonzalez
is their their latest kicker, familiar face antheteers.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So they've been.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Having some some troubles in both of those two areas.
But they've got an unbelievable running attack with Bijean Robinson
and Tyler Algiers. They combined for over one hundred and
forty yards last week. Uh, they've got eight touchdowns together.
And then Bijon is also just a phenomenal receiver. He's
second on the team for them in receiving years and catches. So, uh,
they've got a ton of talent on that offense. And
(05:38):
the thing about Panics, which is unusual too. I don't
know if a lot of people realize this. He's a
left handed quarterback, and that's not something you see a
lot in the NFL or in college.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
You just you just don't see a lot of them.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
And I know that some of the some of the
Panther defenders, defenders called him a unicorn because it's he's
sort of got a mirror image everything with what you're
used to doing and coverage and stuff like that, and
just so that that's something that'll be interesting too to
look at. But the Falcons defense, they're bad against the
run and really good against the pass effect. They're number
one against the pass in the NFL right now. And
(06:10):
they've got some studs back there in that secondary. You
know Jesse Bates who went to college here Downe at
Wake Forest. Of course they've got him back there. They've
got their rookies. Avi or Watch is doing a tremendous job.
He has two interceptions. So they've got a lot of
guys in that secondary who are really shutting things down
for opposing quarterbacks. And they've got some guys up front too,
(06:30):
some rookie pass rushers James Pierce Junior, Jalen Walker. I
know a lot of Panther fans thought that the Panthers
might end up with him. They've combined for five and
a half sacks, three four s fumbles, so they're being
really disruptive up there, even though that line they are
giving up a lot of running yards per game, one
hundred and forty six per game actually, So hopefully that
will bode well for we Goo Dowtle and company and
(06:51):
get that run game back on track this week against
a team that's a little susceptible to that.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So that would be great.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
But like you said, they're going to be itching to
get a little revenge for that thirty point smack down
here at Bank of America Stadium, and it's not the
easiest place to play down there. The Falcons fans can
get loud, then get a little rowdy, and that doome
certainly makes it even louder than it normally would be. So,
you know, I don't think anybody's going to be taking
this team lightly or looking past this Falcon team at all,
(07:18):
because they're going to be a tough challenge.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And it's interesting what you said about about that they are.
You know, they're great at defending the pass, not so
much the run, and you think that bodes well for
this team. But you know what, that was the Bills.
The Bills were awful against the run, and we weren't
able to do anything. So I know that that is
not something that the Panthers team will overlook. But I
also know that I think Rico Dowdle, who was not
(07:42):
able to get anything going with, you know, he and
the offensive line were just really stifled by that Saints defense, which.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Looked really good.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
They are good, they are talented, as you said last week,
and they were really able to stop the rushing attack.
And Rico is one of those guys that I mean,
as is true, but as is the offensive line, and
they don't want that to happen a second time, you know.
And so hopefully this is, like you said, this is
an opportunity for them to tee off against a Falcons
team that is, like you said, averaging one hundred and
(08:10):
fifty yards a game, giving it up.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That Yes, that would be outstanding.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I know Rico has ticked off about only that fifty
eight yards last week, and you know you're better be
You know that this Falcons team is looking to that
Saints game though, to see exactly what the Saints defense
did to bottle up that run game. And it's you know,
gotta get Bryce Young and that passing offense move in
to take advantage of it. If they do try to
do the exact same thing, but that certainly would be
(08:36):
a tall task against that number one passing defense. So
hopefully they can't get this run game going and going
early and really set the tone offensively that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Way exactly exactly, that is exactly what they are going
to want to do. So, Sharon, I thought one thing
that we've never in two this being our second season,
we always try to let people peek behind the curtain.
That is why it's called sideline pass and kind of
take them through our process, maybe let you know about
some things that you wouldn't normally hear about on maybe
a different Panthers podcast. But one thing that I don't
(09:04):
know that we've ever done is talk through our sideline
prep And I would be so interested to know how
you approach preparing for a game. You are, you are
the og at this and I might be able to
pick up some tips. And I wonder how similar our
processes are or how different.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Well, I start in going to I go to open
locker room whenever there's an availability with the with the
Panthers I'm there so I can try to talk to players,
because that's where.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I get the bulk of my information.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
First, though, I start out with what you just heard
me saying there, with this scut and report, I start
scouting the other team to see who their go to
guys are on both sides of the ball, and you know,
what they're known for and sort of the history that
the Panthers might have with them, Like this week with
Michael Pennix Junior, focusing on the fact that he's a
lefty quarterback. I plan to talk to some of the
guys today about facing him and what if that changes
(09:56):
their approach or how that makes their life easier or
more difficult or something like that. So that's one of
the things that I'm looking at. So I get some
of my ideas that way, just from my scouting reports
in terms of, you know, doing research on the other team.
But then when I go into the locker room, I
might have an idea of like, Okay, I think I'm
going to talk to Kide May's about taking over that
starting center role again and what the adjustment's been like.
(10:17):
And so I sort of think think through some things
like that and try to you know, go with what's
the hot story you know of the week, and that
kind of thing too, like you know with Rico Dawdle
and how he's been running the football, and also things
that happen in practice, like of JC Horn and Mike Jackson.
They go out each other every Friday doing these They
(10:39):
try to defend each other on deep routes and they
have a really good time out there doing that. So
I think that's something fun to talk about. I try
to find a mix of things that are really specifically
game oriented, but also are more just sort of like
fun facts that people might not know about that you
can bring in, especially you know, in a fun game
where we're winning and doing some fun stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
It's fun to have those kind of hits to give people.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
A little better idea of what you know, a guy
might be like as as a person as opposed to
just a football player, or some quirky habit they might have,
or some background like Josh Nyman talking to him before
the Packers game realized that he took ballet. It was
a ballet dancer in high school on a singer. So
there's some interesting tidbits you can find out from guys
when you're talking to him, and I try to bring
(11:20):
some of that out there. And so I spend a
lot of time talking with guys and doing research on
the other team, and then a lot of the times I do
research on our own players too, especially new guys when
they're coming in, to find out what makes them tick,
where they're from, you know, what kinds of things they've
done over their career, where they went to college, things
like that. And then I compile this ridiculous list of
(11:41):
sideline notes. It's about five pages long, with all sorts
of different potential sideline hits on it. So David Langton,
our producer, I'm sure just laughs to me every week
because of the ridiculous amount of notes that I come
up with.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I don't even use a fraction of them.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Because, as you know, probably ninety percent of what you
do on the sidelines comes from what's.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Going on in the game.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
You know, what players are saying to each other, what
coaches are doing, you know something that you know, celebration
that happened or whatever maybe, and of course the injuries.
So you spend a lot of time doing it, you know,
getting your hits from that. But in terms of the
game prep, that's the kind of stuff that I do.
So I always have something in my pocket. I never
want to have David yell down to me, Hey, Sharon,
you got anything on the defense and me say no.
(12:23):
So I've always got something, even if it might not
be specific to that game or that moment at the time.
I've always got something to pull out of my back
pocket to talk about.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I love it. I love it. Yes, our processes are
very similar.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I have a great fortune of getting to sit down
with Dave Kanalis earlier in the week and do our
interview for the Panthers huddle, and I always I get
so much information from that one and I have them
send me the row file because sometimes for time, a
lot of times for time we cut down that interview
for what people see on the TV show is you know,
(12:55):
we might talk to him for ten minutes and maybe
there's room for six minutes when it comes to what's
gonna make it. And so I always ask them to
send me the raw file of all the things that
we talk about, because if he says it, you know,
and there's a camera in his face, then it's something
that I can report and I get just a lot
of great information and sometimes even going back a week,
you know, I'll go back in reference and say, hey,
(13:16):
he said this, you know, like you said, the passing
game wasn't really going this past week, but here is
what he said about it two weeks ago and something
that they're trying to you know, or he said this
about Xavier Legette and it still applies, you know, about
his ability to he's improving on hands catching or something
like that, and okay, we saw it, and so I
try to have those. I also have a little bit
of a watch list during the game of Okay, this
(13:38):
may not have been a pregame hit, where like you said,
jac is working on his eyes or something like that,
or he said that might not be a pregame hit,
but let's see what he does against Drake London, for instance,
and if he's you know, let me watch that, or
let me watch the interaction with the captains and see
what they have going on, or you know, of course,
(13:59):
when when Bryce is out, okay, what's he doing on
the sideline? And so I always have like my little
watch list of things that aren't quite full stories, but
this is what I want to watch in the game,
And like you said.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Maybe ninety percent of it doesn't you.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Know, if if.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
X rookie has a huge game, I have a tidbit
from them, it may never happen, or it might happen
three weeks down the road, and you go, oh yeah,
I talked to them about this. And so, like you said,
there's this kind of it's kind of like the tip
of the iceberg in terms of things that hey, if
this happens, let me talk about it, and if not,
then we'll save it and potentially see if there's a
(14:33):
use for another time or maybe it's something that never
sees the light of day. Another thing that I do,
and again, you know it's a bummer. Part of our
job are the injury reports, and you know you follow
you can't just follow what has happened, who's in and
who's out.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You know at eleven thirty five on a Sunday.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You also can't just follows who's called out on Friday
because you see stuff. There's a lot of talk that
we do and and I'm sure that you do it,
like you said, with our amazing producer David Langton, which
I'll say, hey, you know this guy popped up on
the injury report earlier this week. He was full practice,
but he's listed and that's really starting to bother him,
you know, and that might be something that makes it
(15:13):
up to the guys, hey, wat watch if he doesn't
go in in this series. And that's something that we
use our judgment on in terms of we don't want
to put anyone's health information out there until we necessarily have,
until they go into the injury tent or we have
an official designation from the team. But you know, you
(15:34):
see a guy warming up for another guy and then
you go, or you see a guy grab oh, that
might you know, that might be something that another defense
kind of uses against they saw him limping a little bit.
So just we need to keep an eye out for it.
And and so a lot of times you'll see stuff
that comes up on the injury report that isn't official
or doesn't seem to bother someone at the time that
you know, I try to make really comprehensive notes of that.
(15:56):
I'd say, you know, how we talk about our pages,
I'm about the same as you in terms of number
of pages. I might be more of a four if
you're going five, I'm probably more four pages. But the
first half of my first page is just Hey, these
are these are the injuries, and these are the ones
to watch, even if they're not an official designation.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
And again, you don't want to.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Ever report those things, but unfortunately, in this physical game,
it happens a lot. And so that's really that's really
where I do spend a bulk of time.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Yeah, that's I agree with you on the injury thing too,
because I mean that clearly, unfortunately plays such a huge
role in the game. And you know, that's been an
ongoing saga unfortunately with this offensive line this year. So
that's just a constant storyline is who's in, who's out,
and you know, who's moving overwhere, and the fact that
they've done such a great job of it for this
(16:43):
entire season. So yeah, you hate to have to discuss injuries,
but it's a key part of the game.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
So you got to stay up on that for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
And Sharon, you know, especially with the offensive line.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And this is no disrespect to any other position because
all of these guys are tough, all of these guys
are taking hits. But I'll report you know, hey, David,
you know this guy is just I mean, he's wrapped
up in four heating pads and you know they're working
on this and that, and I just want to let
you know in case and then he's right back out there,
you know, right after that, it's that you know, you
can you can literally give give your producer off off
(17:14):
the air. I always just try to keep them arrest
the guys upstairs of what's going on. And I could
tell you, you know, three things are wrong with X player,
and it's it doesn't matter. You know, they're so tough,
and so that's always it's always great to see them.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, get back out there.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
When when you say that, the first person that comes
to mind is Tailor.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I was just gonna say, does not right.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Arm, left arm, left knee, right ankle.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
He's always like he's wrapped up, yes, and he just
sheds it and popped right back out there.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
He is so tough.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And one is, like you said, one of the players
that in Panthers history's certainly in this latest tenure, has
played the most games. So I mean, it's just it's
absolutely amazing. Well, Sharon, this was fun. I hope everyone
enjoyed kind of getting a sneak peek about what goes
into our process.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And I always appreciate you sharing.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
All of that wisdom with me and yeah, we'll we'll
talk again next Wednesday after the Falcons game.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
That sounds great. Thanks Kristen
Speaker 1 (18:10):
H.
Years.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Kristin Balboni and Sharon Thorpe's love it with your Sideline pass.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
That's right, it's time for sideline pass with your panther
Sideline reporters Sharon and Kristen.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Sharon, It's Wednesday. How's your week going so far?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
It is going just great. How about you? I'm loving
this little snap of cold weather.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I you know what, as as sideline reporters, we're going
to talk about weather, whether people want to hear about
it or not.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
And I have to say that.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I mean, it was a beautiful day on Sunday seventy four,
seventy five. Actually had to break out my summer gear
a little bit. You know, I got kind of got
all my sweaters in the closet. But I was while
I was grateful that it was still hot on Sunday
for the game. I like a little forty degree weather
every now and then, and that's what it's been the
last couple of days here.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
Yeah, it was great fun and to have we got
some snow around where I live near town, and we
got a pretty decent amount of snow swirling around.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
On Monday night. So that was unusual to see in
early November.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I will say yes.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
So I was here for an event at the stadium
late that night, and I was sitting in the suite
waiting for my little part to host an event, and
all of a sudden, you see this snow swirling. And
I have never seen snow on the field at Bank
of America Stadium. You may have, I have, but it's
not November, no, no, But he's kind. It was like
a little magical winter wonderland. So crazy days here in
(01:24):
November in Charlotte. But that's that's North Carolina for you. Absolutely, absolutely,
So you know, the weather was great on Sunday. Unfortunately,
the final score of that game was not in the
panthers favor. They lose seventeen to seven to the Saints.
But you know, Sharon, there there's not much to say
that hasn't been said already. And with the fact that
(01:47):
it's Wednesday, I thought, you know, we could look ahead
and kind of go ahead and focus on the Falcons,
because that has been the Panthers. That's been the real
kind of message that has come out of this team,
win or lose. They want to turn the page by Wednesday.
You know, there were maybe some questions last week about
the week of preparation. We heard some of the players
say that, We heard Canalis saying, I'm going to go
(02:08):
back to the drawing board on a couple of things
and see if it was the victory Monday or if
it was the way we prepared the guys. So I
think they're working on all of that in order to
have a great week of practice. So I thought, why
don't we do the same and kind of look ahead
to a very interesting Falcons matchup.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
Absolutely another division game, and I think we've seen in
the past you can't count anybody out, no matter what
their record is, especially when it's a division rival. And
this Atlanta team has been in so many games and
lost a bunch of games by you know, just a
couple of points. And then they've also been on the
opposite end event like when we beat them Panthers beat
(02:43):
them thirty to nothing. So they're coming off a tough
loss to the Colts over in Berlin and have to
travel all the way back and now turn around and
play a game already, which is unusual. I normally try
to give you a you know, a bye week or
something afterwards, but no such luck for the.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Can I ask you, they're going to can I ask
you about that really quick.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you did the overseas
trip last year.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
What is that light?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
I mean, that seems very tough for a team to
come back because you're adjusting to local time when you
get there.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Correct or did everyone try to stay on the same schedule?
Speaker 3 (03:15):
You know, it was it was tough.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
They were trying to make us get to local time,
you know, trying to make everybody sleep on the airplane.
You know, when you landed, it was nine o'clock in
the morning in Munich, so they tried to get you
on the local schedule as much as possible. But then
we left late at night, which was really very probably
late afternoon, you know, local time in Charlotte, and so
(03:37):
we landed literally in the middle of the night.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And yeah, it was.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Tough to get back on schedule for a couple of days.
And we had a buy coming after that, so it
was a much nicer but yeah, it was tough when
you get home basically Monday, in the middle of the night,
and trying to just come back to the real world.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
It was tough.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
It took a couple of days to reacclimate, so I'm
sure that the Falcons are having a bit of a
tough time with that, and they might be reacclimated by
but that's certainly a tough turnaround and it's really exhausting.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Yeah, there are world class athletes, they're young, but still
that's a big turnaround, like you said, to then come
back and play the next week.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
So I'm sorry to interrupt you on that.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
I just, you know, I just had to ask about
that because, like you said, it's kind of a cruel
even though they are our opponent this week, it's it's
a little bit of a cruel move to have them
playing this week right after that big turnaround, and it
was an overtime game, so they've you know, I'm sure
they're putting in all the work and they'll be ready,
but not easy. But Sharon, like you said, this team
has been competitive, and I gotta imagine they certainly want
(04:35):
to avenge that loss at home, that thirty to nothing
shut out in week three.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Oh you know it. They're just three and six on
this season.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
They've lost four in a row, so they are I'm
sure just really dying to get back in the win column.
And I mean a lot of their they've had well
several problems. But Michael Pennings Junior's sort of gone backwards
a little bit in his second year. He's struggled a
little bit, can't seem to connect with a whole lot
of receivers except Drake London is his star of the
game the team with six six receptions and you know,
(05:03):
so they're they're having a little bit of struggles. They're
moving the football and a lot of trouble on special teams.
Are on their third kicker now, In fact, Zane Gonzalez
is their their latest kicker, familiar face antheteers.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
So they've been.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Having some some troubles in both of those two areas.
But they've got an unbelievable running attack with Bijean Robinson
and Tyler Algiers. They combined for over one hundred and
forty yards last week. Uh, they've got eight touchdowns together.
And then Bijon is also just a phenomenal receiver. He's
second on the team for them in receiving years and catches. So, uh,
they've got a ton of talent on that offense. And
(05:38):
the thing about Panics, which is unusual too. I don't
know if a lot of people realize this. He's a
left handed quarterback, and that's not something you see a
lot in the NFL or in college.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
You just you just don't see a lot of them.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
And I know that some of the some of the
Panther defenders, defenders called him a unicorn because it's he's
sort of got a mirror image everything with what you're
used to doing and coverage and stuff like that, and
just so that that's something that'll be interesting too to
look at. But the Falcons defense, they're bad against the
run and really good against the pass effect. They're number
one against the pass in the NFL right now. And
(06:10):
they've got some studs back there in that secondary. You
know Jesse Bates who went to college here Downe at
Wake Forest. Of course they've got him back there. They've
got their rookies. Avi or Watch is doing a tremendous job.
He has two interceptions. So they've got a lot of
guys in that secondary who are really shutting things down
for opposing quarterbacks. And they've got some guys up front too,
(06:30):
some rookie pass rushers James Pierce Junior, Jalen Walker. I
know a lot of Panther fans thought that the Panthers
might end up with him. They've combined for five and
a half sacks, three four s fumbles, so they're being
really disruptive up there, even though that line they are
giving up a lot of running yards per game, one
hundred and forty six per game actually, So hopefully that
will bode well for we Goo Dowtle and company and
(06:51):
get that run game back on track this week against
a team that's a little susceptible to that.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
So that would be great.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
But like you said, they're going to be itching to
get a little revenge for that thirty point smack down
here at Bank of America Stadium, and it's not the
easiest place to play down there. The Falcons fans can
get loud, then get a little rowdy, and that doome
certainly makes it even louder than it normally would be. So,
you know, I don't think anybody's going to be taking
this team lightly or looking past this Falcon team at all,
(07:18):
because they're going to be a tough challenge.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
And it's interesting what you said about about that they are.
You know, they're great at defending the pass, not so
much the run, and you think that bodes well for
this team. But you know what, that was the Bills.
The Bills were awful against the run, and we weren't
able to do anything. So I know that that is
not something that the Panthers team will overlook. But I
also know that I think Rico Dowdle, who was not
(07:42):
able to get anything going with, you know, he and
the offensive line were just really stifled by that Saints defense, which.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Looked really good.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
They are good, they are talented, as you said last week,
and they were really able to stop the rushing attack.
And Rico is one of those guys that I mean,
as is true, but as is the offensive line, and
they don't want that to happen a second time, you know.
And so hopefully this is, like you said, this is
an opportunity for them to tee off against a Falcons
team that is, like you said, averaging one hundred and
(08:10):
fifty yards a game, giving it up.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That Yes, that would be outstanding.
Speaker 4 (08:14):
I know Rico has ticked off about only that fifty
eight yards last week, and you know you're better be
You know that this Falcons team is looking to that
Saints game though, to see exactly what the Saints defense
did to bottle up that run game. And it's you know,
gotta get Bryce Young and that passing offense move in
to take advantage of it. If they do try to
do the exact same thing, but that certainly would be
(08:36):
a tall task against that number one passing defense. So
hopefully they can't get this run game going and going
early and really set the tone offensively that.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Way exactly exactly, that is exactly what they are going
to want to do. So, Sharon, I thought one thing
that we've never in two this being our second season,
we always try to let people peek behind the curtain.
That is why it's called sideline pass and kind of
take them through our process, maybe let you know about
some things that you wouldn't normally hear about on maybe
a different Panthers podcast. But one thing that I don't
(09:04):
know that we've ever done is talk through our sideline
prep And I would be so interested to know how
you approach preparing for a game. You are, you are
the og at this and I might be able to
pick up some tips. And I wonder how similar our
processes are or how different.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Well, I start in going to I go to open
locker room whenever there's an availability with the with the
Panthers I'm there so I can try to talk to players,
because that's where.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I get the bulk of my information.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
First, though, I start out with what you just heard
me saying there, with this scut and report, I start
scouting the other team to see who their go to
guys are on both sides of the ball, and you know,
what they're known for and sort of the history that
the Panthers might have with them, Like this week with
Michael Pennix Junior, focusing on the fact that he's a
lefty quarterback. I plan to talk to some of the
guys today about facing him and what if that changes
(09:56):
their approach or how that makes their life easier or
more difficult or something like that. So that's one of
the things that I'm looking at. So I get some
of my ideas that way, just from my scouting reports
in terms of, you know, doing research on the other team.
But then when I go into the locker room, I
might have an idea of like, Okay, I think I'm
going to talk to Kide May's about taking over that
starting center role again and what the adjustment's been like.
(10:17):
And so I sort of think think through some things
like that and try to you know, go with what's
the hot story you know of the week, and that
kind of thing too, like you know with Rico Dawdle
and how he's been running the football, and also things
that happen in practice, like of JC Horn and Mike Jackson.
They go out each other every Friday doing these They
(10:39):
try to defend each other on deep routes and they
have a really good time out there doing that. So
I think that's something fun to talk about. I try
to find a mix of things that are really specifically
game oriented, but also are more just sort of like
fun facts that people might not know about that you
can bring in, especially you know, in a fun game
where we're winning and doing some fun stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
It's fun to have those kind of hits to give people.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
A little better idea of what you know, a guy
might be like as as a person as opposed to
just a football player, or some quirky habit they might have,
or some background like Josh Nyman talking to him before
the Packers game realized that he took ballet. It was
a ballet dancer in high school on a singer. So
there's some interesting tidbits you can find out from guys
when you're talking to him, and I try to bring
(11:20):
some of that out there. And so I spend a
lot of time talking with guys and doing research on
the other team, and then a lot of the times I do
research on our own players too, especially new guys when
they're coming in, to find out what makes them tick,
where they're from, you know, what kinds of things they've
done over their career, where they went to college, things
like that. And then I compile this ridiculous list of
(11:41):
sideline notes. It's about five pages long, with all sorts
of different potential sideline hits on it. So David Langton,
our producer, I'm sure just laughs to me every week
because of the ridiculous amount of notes that I come
up with.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I don't even use a fraction of them.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Because, as you know, probably ninety percent of what you
do on the sidelines comes from what's.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Going on in the game.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
You know, what players are saying to each other, what
coaches are doing, you know something that you know, celebration
that happened or whatever maybe, and of course the injuries.
So you spend a lot of time doing it, you know,
getting your hits from that. But in terms of the
game prep, that's the kind of stuff that I do.
So I always have something in my pocket. I never
want to have David yell down to me, Hey, Sharon,
you got anything on the defense and me say no.
(12:23):
So I've always got something, even if it might not
be specific to that game or that moment at the time.
I've always got something to pull out of my back
pocket to talk about.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I love it. I love it. Yes, our processes are
very similar.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I have a great fortune of getting to sit down
with Dave Kanalis earlier in the week and do our
interview for the Panthers huddle, and I always I get
so much information from that one and I have them
send me the row file because sometimes for time, a
lot of times for time we cut down that interview
for what people see on the TV show is you know,
(12:55):
we might talk to him for ten minutes and maybe
there's room for six minutes when it comes to what's
gonna make it. And so I always ask them to
send me the raw file of all the things that
we talk about, because if he says it, you know,
and there's a camera in his face, then it's something
that I can report and I get just a lot
of great information and sometimes even going back a week,
you know, I'll go back in reference and say, hey,
(13:16):
he said this, you know, like you said, the passing
game wasn't really going this past week, but here is
what he said about it two weeks ago and something
that they're trying to you know, or he said this
about Xavier Legette and it still applies, you know, about
his ability to he's improving on hands catching or something
like that, and okay, we saw it, and so I
try to have those. I also have a little bit
of a watch list during the game of Okay, this
(13:38):
may not have been a pregame hit, where like you said,
jac is working on his eyes or something like that,
or he said that might not be a pregame hit,
but let's see what he does against Drake London, for instance,
and if he's you know, let me watch that, or
let me watch the interaction with the captains and see
what they have going on, or you know, of course,
(13:59):
when when Bryce is out, okay, what's he doing on
the sideline? And so I always have like my little
watch list of things that aren't quite full stories, but
this is what I want to watch in the game,
And like you said.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Maybe ninety percent of it doesn't you.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Know, if if.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
X rookie has a huge game, I have a tidbit
from them, it may never happen, or it might happen
three weeks down the road, and you go, oh yeah,
I talked to them about this. And so, like you said,
there's this kind of it's kind of like the tip
of the iceberg in terms of things that hey, if
this happens, let me talk about it, and if not,
then we'll save it and potentially see if there's a
(14:33):
use for another time or maybe it's something that never
sees the light of day. Another thing that I do,
and again, you know it's a bummer. Part of our
job are the injury reports, and you know you follow
you can't just follow what has happened, who's in and
who's out.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
You know at eleven thirty five on a Sunday.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You also can't just follows who's called out on Friday
because you see stuff. There's a lot of talk that
we do and and I'm sure that you do it,
like you said, with our amazing producer David Langton, which
I'll say, hey, you know this guy popped up on
the injury report earlier this week. He was full practice,
but he's listed and that's really starting to bother him,
you know, and that might be something that makes it
(15:13):
up to the guys, hey, wat watch if he doesn't
go in in this series. And that's something that we
use our judgment on in terms of we don't want
to put anyone's health information out there until we necessarily have,
until they go into the injury tent or we have
an official designation from the team. But you know, you
(15:34):
see a guy warming up for another guy and then
you go, or you see a guy grab oh, that
might you know, that might be something that another defense
kind of uses against they saw him limping a little bit.
So just we need to keep an eye out for it.
And and so a lot of times you'll see stuff
that comes up on the injury report that isn't official
or doesn't seem to bother someone at the time that
you know, I try to make really comprehensive notes of that.
(15:56):
I'd say, you know, how we talk about our pages,
I'm about the same as you in terms of number
of pages. I might be more of a four if
you're going five, I'm probably more four pages. But the
first half of my first page is just Hey, these
are these are the injuries, and these are the ones
to watch, even if they're not an official designation.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
And again, you don't want to.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Ever report those things, but unfortunately, in this physical game,
it happens a lot. And so that's really that's really
where I do spend a bulk of time.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Yeah, that's I agree with you on the injury thing too,
because I mean that clearly, unfortunately plays such a huge
role in the game. And you know, that's been an
ongoing saga unfortunately with this offensive line this year. So
that's just a constant storyline is who's in, who's out,
and you know, who's moving overwhere, and the fact that
they've done such a great job of it for this
(16:43):
entire season. So yeah, you hate to have to discuss injuries,
but it's a key part of the game.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
So you got to stay up on that for sure.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
And Sharon, you know, especially with the offensive line.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And this is no disrespect to any other position because
all of these guys are tough, all of these guys
are taking hits. But I'll report you know, hey, David,
you know this guy is just I mean, he's wrapped
up in four heating pads and you know they're working
on this and that, and I just want to let
you know in case and then he's right back out there,
you know, right after that, it's that you know, you
can you can literally give give your producer off off
(17:14):
the air. I always just try to keep them arrest
the guys upstairs of what's going on. And I could
tell you, you know, three things are wrong with X player,
and it's it doesn't matter. You know, they're so tough,
and so that's always it's always great to see them.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Yeah, get back out there.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
When when you say that, the first person that comes
to mind is Tailor.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I was just gonna say, does not right.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Arm, left arm, left knee, right ankle.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
He's always like he's wrapped up, yes, and he just
sheds it and popped right back out there.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
He is so tough.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And one is, like you said, one of the players
that in Panthers history's certainly in this latest tenure, has
played the most games. So I mean, it's just it's
absolutely amazing. Well, Sharon, this was fun. I hope everyone
enjoyed kind of getting a sneak peek about what goes
into our process.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
And I always appreciate you sharing.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
All of that wisdom with me and yeah, we'll we'll
talk again next Wednesday after the Falcons game.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
That sounds great. Thanks Kristen
Speaker 1 (18:10):
H.
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