Carolina Panthers complete season sweep of Atlanta; Carolina Hurricanes embark on four-game road …
the Jackal and Hyde Carolina Panthers in which if you’re a Panthers fan or if you’re Bryce Young, you were wishing the NFL would change its scheduling formula to where you could play the Atlanta Falcons, I don’t know, four to six times a season as opposed to the just two. But you’re happy in how it happened. You’re happy how it was. It wasn’t the prettiest, but it wasn’t the worst either. And the Panthers getting an overtime win in Atlanta 30-27. bouncing back from the New Orleans debacle and getting themselves now just a half a game out of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South. I’ll say that again for those of you who can’t quite swallow that one and gave up on this team a while ago. And remember, it was never about the team. It’s always been about one player, maybe two players, maybe some coaching. Nobody questioned the team. They questioned certain individual efforts and the Panthers now again thanks to Tampa’s loss to Buffalo which Josh Allen went absolute superhero are now just a half a game out of Tampa Tampa Bay and imagine if they had taken that game against New Orleans at home but we don’t get to have that one back. There are no gimmies, no mulligans when it comes to the NFL. Not that Bryce Young would take one of those. I mean, he might, but after yesterday showing up and still having to sling the ball 45 times and doing it for 448 yards, you can thank Tommy Tremble for not getting tackled for 54 of those yards. His offensive line did not help him at all, but he managed to gut one out, getting stepped on and pushed around and having the smile erased from his face and then having it plastered back on him once again in an effort that may have changed a few minds, may have not. Head coach Dave Canales, I don’t know if there were minds that had to be changed with him, but by honestly, he thought Bryce had a very, very gritty performance. It was truly one of the most gritty um what I just said character depth fire uh performances that I’ve been a part of. Um and I’ve been around some awesome quarterbacks and just the way that he uh weathered through uh the injuries, is he in or he out? Is he out? He comes back in, leads us on drives, distributes the ball well. Um and just really just found wins any way, shape, or form. And uh I’m just really proud of the way that Bryce played today. Well, who’s the uh who’s the guy that sings I had some help? Had me some help. Had a little bit of help. You hear the all the damn Canes games. He plays it all the time. Um Post Malone when he went country. Post Malone. I had some help. Bryce Young had some help. Had some help with Teno McMillan who just kept running his routes and kept scrambling when Bryce had to scramble himself and move around. Provide I mean that’s that’s it. Feed feed the beast, right? Xavier Legette made some deep catches, got some redemption for himself as well and plenty of compliments all the way around. Bryce Young had some help. There’s no doubt about it. In spite of some decisions that were made during this football game, especially in that first half where you were kind of like, did they shake off Carol? Did they shake off the New Orleans hangover at all? Just sluggish and stacked the box, right? Rico Dattle, Chuba Hubard, even ETN got a little bit of look like they were ineffective. If it weren’t for Young and continually trying to move and hat tip to him, it was gritty. There’s no doubt about it. They get a win and they get good feelings. And Canalis in the locker room afterwards, you know, gave his big fiery speech or whatever it was, still read off the card, you know, shouted out Young for his history-making performance. This was history making. You cannot deny that. That’s what it was. It was an all-time mark for Carolina and he shouted out his defense in the second half which finally showed some signs of life. Made some plays. You know, they couldn’t draw the full square with the fingers. You know, the whole, hey, you can’t come into this zone, thumbs down kind of thing. But they did just enough. They did just enough. And when Michael Pennock Jr. had to leave in that game and Drake London had to leave in that game, they pouched. They did all the right things at that point, taking advantage of a very cold Kirk Cousins and an Atlanta team that just kind of lost its way all of a sudden. I feel like Atlanta stopped leaning on Bejian Robinson as much as they were, as much as they should have because he was playing really well, especially in the first half, but the Panthers defense did ratchet it up a little bit there in the second half and and was able to keep the team in it and allow them to kind of come back. And uh you know it’s unfortunate for for Michael Penn to go down and they have to bring in Kirk Cousins because uh unlike the the first game against Atlanta where the Panthers, you know, shut them out and Michael Penn did not look great in that game, he actually looked very competent uh in this one to start out. So then when he has to exit, that’s kind of a bit of a momentum shift. And um Panthers defense was again able to adjust, kept them in the game enough for Bryce Young to to sling it around and allow him to to lead them back. Um you know, there’s a couple miscues still as well. I mean, they had the the fourth and one where he tries to scramble out and get the first down and got tackled just short. Um but even then, you didn’t feel like they were out of it. Like, oh, they it didn’t feel like, oh, they blew their chancer. It’s like, okay, like not ideal. you’re going to have to to bounce back and and try to lead another drive. And the fact that it was still a one-sore game, you know, uh it felt like it was very attainable. Again, I don’t know if that’s just the effect of something about playing against Atlanta or or what, but you had seen from Bryce Young all day that he was in a in a in a zone like in a in a mode that gave you confidence that they were still in this game. and uh they came down were able to take the lead, eventually ended up still going to overtime because of the kick return. And it wasn’t the only game uh that happened in where a team kind of took the lead. It happened in the Bears game as well where uh a team takes the lead and they kick off and the return puts the other team right back in position to either tie or retake the lead. Uh there’s also a ton of walk-off field goals and field goal attempts yesterday. I I’d have to bring up the whole list, but I want to say it was at least five, six, seven games that ended with someone trying to either walk it off or successfully walking it off with a field goal. Just crazy stuff. But Panthers again, and this is what, the third game this year that they’ve won in a walk-off field goal. Third or four. You’ll take you’ll take old Chase rolling out there. It’s fine. Look, you’ll take the wins however you can get them. You have six You have six. Six wins. And it and it feels good to say that at this point and to be above 500 here in in mid November, but uh and I I don’t want to I don’t want to rain on the Panthers pray because I’m thrilled with this win. I’ve I had a blast watching. I was celebrating just like you know every other Panthers fan and it’s great to be six and five and squarely in the hunt. But every win is a walk-off field goal and scraping by and feels like a lot of the losses are 40 to9 or um you know just it’s either win very close or kind of get blown off the field. Uh so but it’s that’s kind of how it builds up, right? First you you start by you’re getting waxed in every game. Then you’re kind of losing close. Then you start to win close and that’s where you start to build up, you know, shore up the areas that are falling a little bit short. And that’s when you can start kind of comfortably winning a few more games and really being competitive. So, uh, where does it go from here for the Panthers at at six and five? And as you mentioned, a half game out of the division lead. Uh, you know, Bucks have a tough game next week as well. The Bucks are I think they’re going on the road to play the Rams. Uh, the Panthers will be out there in California as well for Monday Night Football against the 49ers. So, if Carolina can somehow win that game, I mean, there’s a chance they could be in first place in the NFC South. Um, not at this time next week, but eight days from now, uh, with it being the Monday night game. So, uh, it’s just it’s thrilling to be able to be in this spot. It it’s signs of of things working out well and the rebuild kind of, you know, taking shape a little bit. Obviously, there are areas they’ll still need to improve, but uh man, just what a great win and what a great performance from from Bryce Young. Just it’s the epitome of uh just when I thought I was out, he pulls you back in. He drags you back in. He drags you back in. And he did. He did last year, he did it towards the end of last year. Same team. The same team. Like he is the Falcons kryptonite. It is the wildest thing. Maybe he’s kind of like Jordan Love where it’s like uh once it hits like Toyotaon or whatever point in this this part of the season, that’s when he really starts to ramp it up and show you what he’s got. I mean, I wouldn’t mind if you if you’re going to be uh like a better version of yourself at any point in the season. I’d rather it be down the stretch than right at the beginning. So, it’s it’s a build. It’s a slow buildup, but you know, we’re we’re getting there. And then, um just a franchise record, man. They’re doing something no Panthers quarterback has ever done. 448 passing yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions. I need him to do it again. I would love it. Now I need him to do it again. Like you everybody gets one, right? Jacobe Brassette. I mean, I very, you know, say what you will. I’m sure a lot of it was kind of garbage time, but Jacob Brassette threw for over 400 yards and set an NFL record for completions against this 49ers defense yesterday. So, the chances will be there to continue this momentum for the downfield passing game if they keep allowing the playbook to be opened up like it was yesterday for Bryce Young where he can take those shots and build up that confidence as well as you you balance it with your run game with Rico D who you know really has kind of been bottled up a little bit in these last few games. They’re stacking the box. Yeah. So, he’s hasn’t been able to to go off as much as he did uh in that stretch kind of against Miami and and Dallas earlier this season, which you know, we obviously we know that they’re not the best run defenses in the NFL, but I mean, he was just getting anything he wanted then. So, uh, it’ll be interesting to see if San Francisco tries to, you know, hedge their bets a little bit more and drop back and and see if the run game kind of, you know, pokes his head back out here uh, on Monday or if they’re just going to dare Bryce to keep throwing it and maybe test to see how healthy he’s feeling after getting kind of beat up yesterday. Yeah. Got stepped on. Yeah. Jacobe Brassette. Geez. Yeah. Uh, San Francisco, by the way, shut down Arizona’s rushing attack. That’s why he had to throw 57 times in that game and wasn’t even touched. Wasn’t even touched. But it was Brock Pur’s return too as well. San Francisco offense just started doing what it normally does when Brock Pury operates that offense. Just really rock solid. Uh San Francisco is up next. Got a full week. There is no victory Monday. There’s no days off for the Carolina Panthers and no days off for Bryce Young in terms of rehab. Bryce was asked afterwards and again he went down a couple of times in this game. Asked about how his ankle was feeling. Good, good, good. Um, yeah, it it’s good. Finished the stuff. Uh, you know, God is good. It was, uh, again, able to go through it. Uh, and, uh, training staff did a great job. So, okay. I don’t know. It’s good. It’s good. It’s good. It’s good. It’s good. It’s like wishful thinking, I think, more than anything. I I don’t know if I was fully convinced, especially when he says that it was immediately after he kind of hobbled up to the podium for his uh his postgame availability. But hey, I mean, look, he was able to finish the game uh for as much as he was probably battling through it, you know, the the the numbers speak for themselves. So, if he’s able to put up those kind of numbers while also being banged up or uh you know, after getting his his feet stepped on and getting landed on and getting sacked by a zero, not a zero blitz, but just a unchecked guy flying through the line of scrimmage. I mean, if Bryce Young is a warrior, there’s no doubt about it. It was definitely a gritty win. And hopefully, if anybody deserves a day off today, it’s him. So, he can kind of get that ankle back to full strength or 50% or 75% or whatever it is that it’s going to take for him to be on the field because, uh, clearly the key for the Panthers to be able to compete and and maybe even have an outside shot at these playoffs, they need him on the field. though. Uh yeah, hopefully they got the the cold tubs going and the the wraps on it and maybe some Icy Hot or you whatever it takes to to get him back on the field uh on Monday against the Niners. Little acupuncture. Find someone who’s into feet. That would that would be my my thing. [Music] I’m Max Gordon with three things you need to know right now from 999 the fan. It’s a hockey night in Carolina. After a 1-1 and1 stretch at home last week, the Hurricanes will embark on a four-ame road trip starting in Boston tonight against the Bruins. Storm Watch with Adam Gold begins at 6:30 ahead of a 7:00 puck drop right here on 999. The Fan. It was a career day for Bryce Young in Atlanta yesterday as he threw for a franchise record 448 yards to go along with three touchdowns as the Carolina Panthers defeated the Falcons 30 to27 in overtime. With the win, Carolina completes the season sweep of Atlanta and improves to 6-5 on the year. It was a rough weekend in Triangle College football. Duke dropped out of ACC title contention with a 3417 loss to Virginia. UNCC was defeated 28 to2 at Wake Forest and NC State was blown out at Miami 41 to7. In Greenville, ECU celebrated senior night by defeating Memphis 31 to27. Find these stories and more on wlportsfan.com and the 999 the fan app. Uh hockey time. Carolina Hurricanes back on the ice tonight after backto backs Friday and Saturday against the Canadian teams. The Vancouver Conucks pulling one out against the Canucks and then the next night dragging themselves to an overtime loss against the Oilers. Again, overtime in both in I mean, how much extra hockey do you want? Do you want more extra hockey? Are you not entertained? You’ll take all the overtimes. Uh it means points for the other teams, but that doesn’t matter. So, Carolina, you know, still working things out. I’m like, I don’t know how many times we can get hurt during a game, but I think the Carolina Hurricanes are trying to find out uh with sticks to the face and guys getting crosschecked and goalies getting mashed. But it’s the Bruins tonight. The Bruins tonight after again an an uneven weekend at home. You you’ll take what you can get. Uh the Yes. Spring Cook and Yummy listed as dayto-day, which okay. And the Boston Bruins are not as bad as everybody wanted them to be. In the preseason, the Boston Bruins were not supposed to be a very good hockey team at all. Oh, they’re they’re I don’t know if I want to say like frisky or frisky is a good word. Well, it’s just they’ve got uh I mean at a certain point like the the level of talent they have in in a number of their players, right? Like when you have a David Pastnok and you have Charlie Makavoy who you know part of the reason why kind of down the the stretch last year and after the trade deadline when they sold off a lot of their pieces kind of part of the reason why they were struggling so much because Charlie Makavoy missed like the last three or four months of the season because he had suffered a an injury had a medical situation uh after four nations and wasn’t able to return and he’s the cornerstone of their decor and now he’s back and he’s healthy and it shows what a what a difference it makes to have your your number one defenseman that you know the Hurricanes kind of know something about that right now with Jacob Slavven having been out since the since the second game of this regular season. He was in the booth on Friday. Yeah, it it makes a big difference to be able to have your your number one guy in the lineup, but they have such a good baseline level of talent with guys like that. They’ve still got Swayman back there in the net. Um, and they have systems and it’s it’s not the same systems that led them to uh historical regular season success a few years ago because they’ve they’ve moved on now from um you know Montgomery as as the coach, but uh they’re able to it just seems like the bottom uh the Bruins never really bottom out like they’re just still able to be competitive and they’ve been kind of streaky too like they started off hot this year then they kind of went on a losing streak uh and now they’ve kind of heated back up again and now they’re you know right in the thick of the Atlantic playoff contention, but everything in that division is kind of crazy right now other than Buffalo still in last because that’s just kind of what you can come to expect out of the Atlantic. But uh there’s no free ones in Boston, that’s for sure. I mean, the Canes have already played up there couple weeks ago, lost two to one. So, um you know, hopefully they can they can pull it out on uh on this one and and get this road trip off to a good start. Yeah, that was a super clean game, too. an afternoon game which makes it kind of weird but that shouldn’t take it. I mean there were only two penalties in that game. Carolina had so many shots and plenty of opportunities. The problem was it was Alexander Nikesh that scored the only goal which meant everybody else got shut out or couldn’t create any opportunities and the Bruins are in first place by the way in the Atlantic. That’s not a thing. They’ve already played a quarter to their season. A quarter of the season is already in the books and they are streaking. That is for sure. Un like they’ve won six in a row at home. six in a row home. So, you know, they’re going to bring their best effort. Canes have four games here on this road trip that kicks off tonight in Boston. Four games in seven days. And coming off the two overtime extra hockey games or extra hockey periods that we had against Vancouver, which turned into a winner thanks to Sebastian Aaho and the the point that they managed to scrge out of Edmonton because Edmonton does Edmonton things in overtime with I mean literally they they shuffle the lines, put Dryidle and McDavid on a line and change their change the just change the effects of that hockey game on Saturday night when everyone was trying to pay attention to college football. Ah, it’ll take care of take care of Edmonton. Not a problem. So, who’s going to get the run tonight? Who Who goes tonight? Cuz I can’t imagine it’s Freddy again. Probably not Freddy. I mean, given the rotation, it I think maybe it’ll be Brandon Busy to start this one. Is I It’s going to be him or Kachkov. I’m not sure which. I don’t think it’ll be Freddy to start this one. Um I I I think they’re really monitoring how much they want to lean on him now. Um hasn’t been the best couple of games for Freddy, so hopefully he’ll he’ll be able to bounce back here soon with a with a good one. Uh, I think it’s one of those weird things with with Kane’s goalies, right, where usually the shot volume is not going to be incredibly high. So, the margin for error is very thin because they allow so few of shots is when you start facing that action on your end, you have to be sharp. You have to be ready for it. Um, so it can be hard to kind of get into your rhythm. It’s like, uh, when we talk about football and we talk about running backs, right? Like we talked about Chuba Hubard and and Rico Dao, right? When Rico was kind of breaking out, it’s like, oh, running backs like they kind of want to get into a lather. They want to get into a rhythm. The same can kind of be said for goalenders. Now, it’s not like you want to be, you know, having shots rung at you constantly because, you know, that’s not a recipe for success. That’s what the Canes want to do on offense is have the, you know, the lion share of the of the scoring chances and and the shot attempts. But um it’s just a unique challenge sometimes, especially when you have a kind of a makeshift decor right now with all the injuries. Uh so it can just it can be tough to get into a rhythm, but uh you know, hopefully whoever goes tonight is is locked in and uh they can be on the right side of one of those two to one victories or who knows, maybe they can throw a few more goals in the net. It’s not like scoring has necessarily been a problem for the Hurricanes this year, but not at all. uh you know it never hurts to have a nice little like offensive explosion and uh just put it out of reach. So milestones to mark for the Canes coming up. Boston tonight as they take on the division leaders there. Minnesota midweek kind of a middling team in Minnesota. Winnipeg the return of Nick Eers back to the Jets and Buffalo over the weekend and another one of those afternoon tilts. So four games here on the road before they come back home. So it’ll be road Warriors. Hopefully they can keep clicking. Hopefully Eers can keep his uh his scoring pace uh and uh and point pace uh hot. He’s he’s been on a tear. He’s been on him and and Fetchnikov, two guys that were were pretty cold to start the year, have really really ramped it up. And then I don’t know how much of that is due to the the line shuffling, throwing with Stankovven and Blake, and then eventually landing on this top line of uh Fetch with Aaho and Jarvis. kind of like the the core line, you could say, of just guys that have kind of helped be crucial parts of the the rebuild of this team into a yearly contender. Uh Carolina and Boston here, I mean, two of the two of the top five teams in the league in terms of goals per game. So, uh kind of seems like a bit of an anomaly that when they faced off earlier, it was a two to one game. Likely to see more goals tonight, but you know, anything can happen. But you want to you want to get off on the right foot when you have uh three other road games with some decently significant travel uh on the horizon as well. Well, right now we’ll see if uh Seth Jarvis can make this team make the Canadian team as an extra based on his there’s there’s been a lot of talk right now that’s in the back of a lot of players minds as they get ready for Cortina in Italy here in three months is can they stay healthy and because there’s a a monster moment coming for a lot of these guys right now. Jarvis is being thought of as at least an extra forward to make team Canada, which would be great for him. Uh he’s he’s kind of it’s funny for me, just kind of shifting gears here to see, you know, Jarvis, first of all, playing in the four nations gave him that experience and he got some time and whatnot, but he’s he’s playing incredibly well right now, but he’s also being kind of overshadowed by Mlin Celbrini’s all of a sudden like emergence as an NHL professional hockey player. like he’s going bonkers with the Sharks and the Sharks are also benefiting from that because they they’re playing their best hockey in like a decade and Conor Bard who all of a sudden has become a little bit more of a refined professional in Chicago and younger guys younger than Seth Jarvis he’s not the old dude on the on the list he just he just has one of those kind of uh when it comes to a team Canada play you know he it’s weird that he could find himself the odd man out based on the season that he’s having. Yeah, that’s the downside of there’s some of these it’s Canada, right? Yeah. I mean, they’re always going to have a stacked roster, but some of these young guys that are really starting to break out, like Connor Bard is really coming into own his own this season in his third year and uh starting to kick into an extra gear and you know, Celebr’s been fantastic as well, but uh it’s already tough to make a team candidate uh squad that’s it’s going to be stacked with talent among the likes of, you know, Conor McDavid and McKinnon and uh you know, Sydney Crosby. Cydney Crosby is not even the topline guy. Yeah, but he’s he’s like captain Canada for them. He’s been so experienced there. Um, but Jarvis, I mean, you know, I think what will help his case to probably make it is that he’s so defensively responsible and plays that two-way game like Canada has no shortage of guys who are elite scoring talents. Uh the couple I just mentioned like you know McDavid and McKinnon, they need a couple guys that uh while you have that scoring touch are also able to play that defensive game. Like they could have an all-star, you know, roster all they want, but you need guys that are willing to play that role and willing to be checking guys, third line forwards, uh defensive forwards, penalty killers. And Seth Jarvis does that. like him and guys like Anthony Celli and and Brandon Hegel kind of fit more into that mold. So that kind of helps their chances into making it versus uh you know some of these young studs who are going off. I I I wrote uh for my weekly uh column in the 999 the fan app last Friday trying to project out like which hurricanes will make Olympic rosters. I landed on it’s probably gonna be five maybe six uh as uh Cooki actually probably still has an outside chance of making it on team Finland as again kind of being in that depth role and right I think he’s played that role pretty well for the Canes this season. You know, it’s not like he’s scoring a crazy amount of points but that’s not what they’re asking of him right now. And again, every team, even in a tournament like that where you can load up on all kinds of guys, although for Finland, not as much the case because they don’t have as many NHL players to choose from, guys. They still need those bottom six forwards and they still need those penalty killer and and and checking forward types. So, uh it’ll be interesting to see. It’s kind of getting closer. I think we’re about three months away, a little little bit less. I think the first Olympic hockey game is February 11th and and team rosters are going to be coming out here in the next two months or so, probably early January. So, uh something to kind of keep uh back in mind as we continue through this stretch of the regular season. Canes tonight Boston 7 o’clock puck drop right here on 999. Definitely.
Paul Ihander & Max Goren recap the Carolina Panthers’ 30-27 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons- after a historic performance by Bryce Young, what is the Panthers’ outlook for the rest of this season? Also, they preview the Carolina Hurricanes’ first stop of a four-game road trip against Boston.
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