Tre Boston answers fan questions and previews Carolina Panthers vs Green Bay Packers | The Avenue
Welcome to the Avenue. Kristen Baloni here with our thief in residence, Trey Boston. Trey, I want to get your reaction to this 40-9 loss against the Bills. Yes. Uh reaction to this game, it’s not what everybody wanted. Uh I think it’s what nobody wanted in matter of fact. But not if you’re a Panthers fan, I will tell you that. No. But what I saw in this game, um Andy Dalton, obviously last week, I told you we needed him to play well. I don’t believe he was as efficient as we wanted him to be. Uh when it came to this defense, I was proud earlier in this game, how they were handling uh the the not only the early drives, but ending those with field goals, but that can only hang on for so long. I thought they did well with sudden change at the beginning. Uh but this team has to play complimentary football, and we didn’t quite see that from all three phases when it comes to playing football. So, quick reaction. Hey, this team will be okay. I told you every week, this team knows itself. We have the identity. We have the faith. We’re going to go back to the X’s and O’s and identify what we did wrong. But this week, know the guys are going to take it seriously and they’re going to get back to playing good ball just like they’ve been doing. Yes, I agree. All right, let’s start with Andy Dalton. So, uh, the latest on Bryce Young as of Wednesday morning, so we haven’t seen a practice this week yet, but as of right now, the team is hopeful that he will be back. He is dayto-day right now. They’re going to bring him out in practice, see how things are going. But Trey, say Andy Dalton is the starter this week against the Packers. What do you want to see from him? Uh, what I want to see from Andy Dalton, uh, again, I told you about effectiveness. When you’re that backup quarterback, can you at least be a backbone of this offense? Play well. Uh, I thought there was a few throws earlier in this game that he missed on third down. Uh, again, you see right here the fumble. We have to be able to take care of the ball, especially our veteran quarterback. This is why I love Andy because he’s been there. He’s done it. He’s been uh the best in this game at one point. So, for me, I want to see that. I want to see that veteran leadership. I want to see ball security. I want to see the throws that we know you can make. You being able to make. I think there was two to Jimmy Horn, one to T-Mac on a third down that if we execute those, we’re giving our offense a little bit more life and we’re keeping one of the best player, if not the best player, reigning MVP Josh Allen off the field. All right, speaking of keeping guys off the field, that wasn’t the case with James Cook. He ran for 216 yards in this game. And Trey, we know this run defense is a strength of this team this game aside. This was not the way this run defense typically operates. So, I’m excited about this. You were going to take us through exactly what happened and how the Panthers can adjust this week. Yeah. You know, looking at this week, you know, I saw that the inside zone really hurt us early in this game. I want to believe that they had seven of in the inside runs go for about 96 98 yards and a touchdown. So, I want to break down to us how that affected us with the defense that we just happen to be in. I think one thing coaches do a great job of scheming each other. They know what you’re going to get each week. So, if we look at the board right here, I’m going to be looking. Y’all look with me. What we have here to the left, we have a numbers game. All right. We have a shade and we have a what do we have? A four and a three to our right with either a seven on the back on on the right side as well. So, numbers game is this. To the left of the center, how many people for us are within five yards? We have three. They have two. All right. To their right. How many people are within the five yards? Because why don’t we want to count 21? 21’s going to be out the five yards. And you’re going to see why because he’s going to be the post safety. So the numbers right here are just three to their how many? 1 2 3 four. And the running back is the add-on guy. Roll the tape. They’re going to get a body on body. And if this center can reach this m linebacker, the play is wide open for an explosive play. So what do you see? You see the reach, body on body, man on man explosive play to start the game with their first inside zone. Now we come back, we keep that same under defense. Now you can see a little bit of a bear. Uh you get a zero, you get a on this side, you’re going to get a four. On this side, you’re going to get a four as well. You get two sixes on the side. Now numbers game, guys. I want you to see what are the numbers to the left within those five yards. We have one, two, three to the left. That center’s already offset. They have five guys for R3. Seven’s going to be what I believe post safety. Why? You’ll see his angle to the ball. I think gets a little lost in that angle, but roll the tape. They have numbers. It was just a numbers game if they can get a hat on a hat. So going into this game, we seen that inside zone really hurt us. This last play right here again, numbers, roll the tape. I don’t got to show you numbers game. Your safety has to take a better angle here as well. They go to the right. One, two, three, four. They got five guys now. Six. Safety takes a bad angle. Touchdown. Listen guys, we will learn from our mistakes. Inside zone really hurt our team. But what I will say is coach Ever came out in the second half for that inside zone. He went with over fronts. What I’ll tell you is what I believe over fronts does compared to underfronts is underfronts allows our interior linemen to play off what they see and what they feel. Meaning they have optional gaps, which they’re never wrong and that’s okay. But what these overfronts do is they make sure we have gap integrity. They give a man a gap. Hey, you take care of your B gap. Whether you get doubled, whether you get reached, it is your gap. Letting every man know, hey, your job is this soon as the play starts. Now, obviously, it can change inside the play with different shifts and motions, but the overfront allowed us to get hat- on hat on them and penetrate the line of scrimmage. So, what we want to see simply done is we have to figure out our numbers games when it comes to when we know teams are going to inside zone us if they’re going to be better hat-on hat type teams. And for us, if we can go to the over and allow our guys to know what their gap is and have that gap integrity, you’ll find guys doing their 111. So, this week, I know, coach, we’ll get back to the drawing boards. The last four games before the Bills games, our defense was averaging 44 yards of rushing. That’s amazing. This game, listen, I’mma give you good news. Even after this game, the last five games were averaging 94 yards. I’ve told y’all less than 100 yards is winning football. Can we continue to stop the run? I believe we can. This is a hiccup in the road, but this is one of those games that you learn from and you come back to the tape and you say, “Ah, I seen how they did it. They got us this game, but they won’t get us next game.” So, I look forward to going back to the defense. We’ve continued to see taking care of the line of scrimmage, stopping the run, and now can we get after the quarterback and get turnovers? You talk about watching the tape. Certainly the Packers have watched the tape, too. So, Trey, you’re on the opposing offense. You are the Packers. Are you going to that inside zone more? How does that work if you’re the opponent? Yeah. Yeah. I Well, listen, I I believe we got some numbers that we can show you when it comes to what the Packers run. Um, the Packers are more of an outside zone team, but I can think that, hey, you might end up going to that inside zone. Here are the numbers right here. Oh, hey, according to PFF, outside zone is 33%. Now, knowing that the inside zone hurt us this week, I would think that they’re going to come out in these first 15 plays, any team that’s going to let up over 200 yards rushing, I’m pretty sure you can just do what you want when it comes to your rushing game. But I can bet you in those first 15, we’ll see an inside zone in those scripted plays to see will it work if their bread and butter is not being as successful as they wanted to be knowing that last week the Bills gutted us with that inside zone. Okay. Now, you brought up some points about, hey, overall this team’s run defense is is really really good. The Panthers run defense. So, I want to take a look a broader look at overall. to see four and four on the season, three and one in the last four. And I think sometimes as fans we go, “Oh my gosh, that last game, that last game, but really looking at the season so far, Trey, what do you see?” Yeah. If I told you guys midway in the season, you’d look up at the NFC playoff picture and you’d see your Carolina Panthers in the hunt. Love it. Would you be upset? No, you would not. Would you be surprised? Let’s be honest, a few of you guys would. So, us be four and four, that that’s that’s beautiful. You want to know why it’s beautiful? Because again, we are trending in our last four games. We’re three and one. The Panthers are three and one in our last four games. Guys, we got the season right where we want it. We’re in the NFC South, baby. We know that if we got four wins right now, we can go get another four more. Let’s go play good football. It’s about playing quarterly football. How are you guys looking at the out view? I want you guys as fans not to get too high and not to get too low because again, this is a team who’s identified themselves. They have faith in theirel. They’re having the belief in the system. Now, sometimes your system does get punched in the mouth, but listen, it’s not about getting punched in the mouth. It’s how you react to it. So, looking at these next four games, that means it is time to turn the page. Trey, it starts with this Packers game at Lambeau. How can this team turn the page? Yeah, this is a good Green Bay Packers team. And how do you turn the page? Knowing what just happened last week, you fuel that allow you to come back just like the professionals you are and you get after these Green Bay Packers who are just coming off of a nice win versus the Steelers. Hey, this is a team that you can find identity after. I want guys to understand that you win a game like this and you go five and four, now your season’s upside down. The fans, yeah, they believe, but let’s give them even more reason to believe that this team is on the up and up. But we got to go into this game knowing that this is a good football team, but we can get the job done in Lambo. All right, we love to hear it. Great challenge for this Panthers team. Let’s talk about some of the challenge that this Packers team presents. Starting with Micah Parsons. Trey, how do you counteract what he can do? All right. So, Micah Parsons is a uh bonafide dog. And what do you do when you have defensive ends like him who are disruptive? I mean, they line him up all over the board. Sometimes he’s in the interior, sometimes outside, sometimes at linebacker. He’s moving around. So, what you do is you have to identify this guy. Where is he at every single play? Knowing that he can affect the play. Listen, I still have nightmares of Von Miller. This guy reminds me a lot of him. a guy who can straight up dominate a ball game. He’s been that guy since he’s moved to the Packers. He was always that guy from the Cowboys. So, can we chip? Can we double, how will we affect this game knowing that he’s a guy? If we’re going to put one-on-one, hey, we got to have belief those guys are going to win their one-on- ones. I’m going tell you, Michael Parson is a guy who you’re going to have to throw different looks at him. You can’t allow him to know that he could just have a free way to the quarterback every single play. But I do like our tackles. Our tackles will get the job done. We will help them. We’ll find ways to limit what Michael Parsons can do when it comes to affecting the offense. You look at just how effective he has been. But he’s due. He’s due. Yeah. For this Panthers O line to let him know what time it is. I love that. Just our week. That’s it. You know, take take a off week this week, baby. That’s it. That’s right. That’s right. I like to hear it. Yeah. All right. Let’s move now to the offensive side of the ball. Tucker Craft is emerging as just a true weapon for Green Bay. We saw him two touchdowns, 143 yards against the Steelers. And Trey, right now the Panthers guarding the tight ends is not something that they are known for. They’re giving up the fifth most yards in the NFL, two tight ends. How do you fix that this week? Well, for Craft, watching that game, he was very impressive. Uh, all I saw the commentary say is how well he used his hands when it came to running his routes and being physical when it came to these yak yards. He’s not easy to take down. But every time you see him release, you’re seeing offman releases. You’re seeing no hands put on him. He’s a big man. Once he gets started, it’s hard to keep that train from rolling. So, I believe we got to find hands on him. Again, another free release. Hands aren’t really on him. It’s to the side. He pushes off. Got this off hand like they talk about. and he gets physical after the run. We have to at the line of the scrimmage, again, hands-on. We got to be able to give him uh we got to be able to reroute him, allow the quarterback to think, will he be open? Instead, the quarterback sees him in his route. He knows exactly where he wants to go. He’s been a safety umbrella for Jordan Love this season. And Craft is a guy who has continued to show why he might just be an allp pro this season the way he’s playing, but we can stop that. Not only with, hey, do we got to double him and respect him? No, I don’t think so. I think Mary can stop him. But again, what did I tell y’all? Hands-on is a must if you’re going to reroute this guy and slow him down from his route progression. I forgot about those Steelers uniforms. Um, all right. So, we talked about it a little bit already, but Trey, diving a little bit deeper into those Packers run concepts. Yeah. What are they going to do? Yeah. Uh, I think again, you know, when you go into this game and a team has rushed for over 200 yards the last game, I think you have to go with your bread and butter. I mean, I I don’t think you have to change up anything that you’re doing. So, inside these first 15, like I said earlier, you might see a little inside zone, but look for this team to just give Brandon Jacobs the ball and allow him to work. I mean, Brandon Jacobs is one of the best running backs in this league. Or Josh Jacobs, sorry, is one of the be Oh, I’m talking my big Brandon Jacobs. 6’2, baby. Hey, I’m out here having nightmares myself. Hey, but Josh Jacobs is out here balling. And one thing about it, you know, is again, they’re going to find ways to get him the ball. And the inside zone is something that they run a little bit of and he is familiar with. So, don’t look for them to shy down. Look for them to know they’re coming into this game. Just like I told y’all with Josh Allen, Josh Allen was great this last season and this season because they’re starting to become a running team. Not only do teams fear his arm, but he has a running game to open it up for him. Jordan Love is getting the same type of respect from his offensive coordinator when it comes to running the ball with Josh Jacobs and then finding a way to pass the ball after that. Look for these guys to do exactly that. Outside zone is their bread and butter. They’re going to run outside zone. All right. Uh coming up we have got your fan questions. Always one of my favorite parts of the show. But right now Panthers players had some fun for Halloween. Uh Mitchell Evans Claude Cherless dressed up to do a little scaring at Scar Wednesday. Let’s take a look. Columbia Bush look like my my pant leg got burnt. But this fly in high waters. My phone won’t recognize me. Crazy. This is crazy. I think I think they’re good to scare. I I think they’ve passed the test. Yeah. Are you guys ready? Go ride your gold rusher. You are not scary, darling. But that outfit is my good. I can’t. He just big dogged me. When your iPhone won’t recognize you, that’s some good makeup right there. That is some good makeup, they say. Or you just ugly. Nah, but it was the makeup that made them. You know what I mean? That’s my crib right there. I love it. I love it. That was a lot of fun. I know those guys had fun. All right, let’s get to your questions right now. This first one is from KD Russell 82. Okay. Wants to know I’m not going to read the whole thing here. I’m just going to read the part where he says, “Why doesn’t coach ride the hot hand with Rico?” I’ll let you read the rest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, listen. Uh, I’ll say this. I believe that coach and this offense and the coaches have evaluated. It’s what he said they were going to do this week. I think we can look to see Rico getting the ball more this week. Uh, again, he he respects Chuba and we all do. in this organization. So to give him the rights to come back and fulfill his role is exactly what he did. Right now we kind of see that the hot hand is Rico. He’s averaging six yards per carry. Right now Chuba’s averaging three. Uh it’s nothing to say, you know, hey, we respect Chuba, but right now Rico Dat is the guy who I think we have to roll with knowing that he’s giving us the most product and the explosive plays that come off him. This this offense just finds ways to keep the chains rolling. So this week you can look for that to happen and coach even said so. Yeah. And Trey, what a great problem to have, especially considering the injuries at other positions. We’ve got two healthy running backs that we know can go in and affect the game and we know they want to run the ball. All right, next question from at TV Coy. I always hope I’m getting these right. Let me know. After seeing how this game went, is it justified that Bryce has earned and deserves more respect? All right, that might be Tacoology, maybe. Uh, let’s see. Seeing how this game went makes me hungry. Yeah, I know. For real. All right. Bryce, uh, I think this is a loaded question because one, Bryce has played well this season when we’ve been able to run the ball just like I’m telling you for the best quarterbacks in the league. Uh, when we’ve been able to run the ball, um, and some games we would say maybe it’s not a lot of production from being able to just do what we do best. I mean, this is what they used to talk about Cam Newton. Oh, Cam, you’re only throwing for 170. You’re rushing for another 100. But it’s like that’s good football. That’s a winning recipe. So, I will say there is respect to Bryce Young because he has been helping us win ball games. This is a team sport. Um, I think disrespect comes in when we play too much into game verse game. Like guys, we got to continue to let this fold out. Um, and let the game develop itself. Let the team develop itself. And as fans, we have to be okay with how we win football games. But we got to make sure that’s what we do is win football games. All right, next question from Charlie Beasley3 says, “When dealing with reserve linemen, do you still have access to your entire playbook or does the play calling have to scale back?” And just for confidence, we saw three different injuries to O linemen in that game, including Brady Christensen being out for the season. And at one point, Trey, at the end of the game, Jake Curran was a fourth string guard kind of thrust into action there. So, assuming that some of these injuries will stick and you won’t have, you know, your fully healthy guys out there. That’s the question. Yeah, I I will start this off with saying, hey, every guy runs the same plays in training camp. Again, when we talk about the plays that we are efficient at our bread and butters, those same first, second, third, fourth string, we everybody runs those plays. Now, what I will say once you are on your third and fourth guy and they have a guy in front of them, let’s say Micah Parsons, you do have to find ways to help those guys out because there, if we’re being honest, there is a reason why they’re third and fourth string. So on one accord is you would love to still be able to be the team that you are. You want to be that team. You’re not shying away from being who you’ve always been. But you also want to be smart and say, “Hey, how long can this happen? Or can we disguise it into doing what we want and give it some a look that hey, maybe they’re not thinking of this is coming out of.” So coaches have smart ways of finding ways out. I think you have to do a little bit of both. You have to be authentic to yourself, but you have to be smart knowing who are your guys. Can they handle the task at hand? And if they can’t, be smart enough to take the pride away, be humble, and say, “Hey, we might have to double these guys.” Or, “Hey, we might have to switch the game plan around to get the job done.” So, I hope I answered your question. Did especially I love what you’re saying about being smart, especially with Micah Parsons lining up across from you. All right, last question from Connors Lens. And Trey, I like this one because he went and did some research. All right. Okay. Looks like you’ve played four times at Lambeau Field. Where does it rank on toughest road stadiums to play? Okayoo. I believe this is at least top five stadiums I can think of. Tough to play at Seattle back in the days. Kansas City. I want to say Lambo might be like three, four right there because one thing you know and you feel when you get into Lambo is tradition. You know, you’re coming off of the buses, you’re going through a town, you’re going through like a nice neighborhood. Next thing you know, like whoa, Lambo Fields just in the middle of a field for real. And then you get inside of it and you feel the tradition, you see the names, you get the crowd, they they have the faithful uh, you know, cheese heads. And then you see that man playing there is not easy. Now I have one there in December with it snowing to let you know it is possible to beat these guys even in their own element. So when you go into here I want to let you guys know they’re not thinking much. They’re thinking that this is another game in the road. We got to go in there be a thorn in their behind. That means being a tough football brand team. tough, fast, and physical running around letting these guys know we can care less about tradition and more about today. Let’s get the job done. Everybody you have is in that locker room. All you got is all you need. Love that. And I talked to Canales a little bit earlier this week. He said the same thing. He said, you know, you can take a minute to appreciate the history there, but that football field is the same size, man. Listen, I’m going let you know coming out of Lambo with a win, you’ll have forever. I love it. I love it. We’re speaking it into existence and Trey just showed us how the Panthers can get it done. This was great as always. Thank you to our thief. Thank you to all of you for watching and for these questions. We’ll see you next Wednesday on the app.
Kristen Balboni and Tre Boston look back at what bothered Tre about the Panthers performance in Week 8 against the Buffalo Bills. Also, they answer fan submitted questions including the Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard situation.
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