The Panthers Huddle: Ready for Prime Time Players | Carolina Panthers

The Panthers Huddle: Ready for Prime Time Players | Carolina Panthers

The following is an exclusive presentation of the Carolina Panthers and the National Football League. On this episode of the Panthers Huddle, the Panthers are playing in prime time. Coach Canal is here as the team gets ready for a Monday night matchup with the 49ers. Plus, step inside TV’s film room as the Panthers legend breaks down a familiar face. Welcome inside the Panthers Huddle. Hey everyone, thanks for joining us inside the Panthers Huddle. Kristen Baloni alongside Panthers legend Thomas Davis. TD, we have got to start out this show with a big congratulations to Bryce Young, NFC offensive player of the week after that incredible performance he put up last week. Listen, I absolutely love what I saw from this kid. A lot of talk the previous week about the passing game and Bryce not performing well and then you go and you watch his press conference KB from the last game. Watching Bryce sling the ball around. I mean in multiple receivers, you know, you you see him, you get banged up a little bit and you start to question, all right, well, is is he going to be able to finish this game? He comes back and he finished the game in a big way, finding guy after guy. I mean, I I wonder if it was something that was in his head going into this game, like, I have to show up. I have to perform. But when you watch him, the way that he ended that press conference, KB, against the Saints, right? Knew against the Saints after watching him after that press conference, I knew that we were going to see a different Bryce. Look at him. Just watch him. We’ve never seen Bryce Young look like this at any point. No matter how the game went, no matter how bad um things may have gone or ma no how no matter how good they were going, Bryce never changes his emotion. But to see that face right there, I knew that he was going to come out and he was going to perform at a high level and he was going to have a great game. I Yeah, I mean, you never see that from him. You know that that focus is in his eyes. I want to talk to you about what he did. So, 448 passing yards. That sets a new team record there. and he did it all while going down with a hurt ankle as one of the toughest players to ever play in the NFL. What did you think about the way that he came back and he didn’t even miss a series? Listen, the the way that he was able to bounce back cuz when he stayed down, I’m like, man, that doesn’t look good. No, it didn’t. You know, we knew we know that he’s dealt with an ankle before with the high ankle sprain that he had a few weeks ago. But when you see him go out and as a as a teammate as a teammate, you see your quarterback go out and and just put it all on the line. He fights through things. He’s out there getting the job done. Knowing that he’s not feeling his best, knowing that he’s in a position where at any point if it get tweaked again, he may not be able to finish the game, but he’s still out there slinging the ball around, putting us in great position to win the football game. It makes you perform better as a teammate. It makes you want to give your all to finish that game, and that’s what these guys did. They sure did. Now, as we look at this Monday night, the Panthers are going out west to play the 49ers under the bright lights, facing off against Christian McCaffrey. You know, Coach Canelis calls these championship opportunities. TD, what do you see in terms of opportunities for this big game? Listen, it this is an opportunity for this team to put on full display what they’ve done this season. You know, the world hasn’t had the opportunity to see the Carolina Panthers. the local media shows it and you know certain games are are being showcased at certain times but this is a game where the entire world will be watching. We haven’t had a prime time game in a very long time. So it’s very important not only for us to win this game but to go out and perform at a level that forces the NFL to want to put the Carolina Panthers on more prime time games. So we got to have a great showing against the San Francisco 49ers. I mean, it’s been built up as the Christian McCaffrey revenge game. So, it’s going to be a great opportunity for these players to get after CMAC. And certainly, he is going to want to have a big game, but our team also wants to have a big game. Like you said, first opportunity in prime time for this young team. I want to ask you about this team overall. Six and five right now after starting out the season 0 and2. I mean, we’re talking about they’re in the conversation. We’re starting to pick up on the national media. As a player, what does it feel like in that locker room? You know, it’s it’s a great feeling to know that now at this point in the season, you control your own destiny. You don’t have to sit and wait on somebody else to win games, to see if this is going to happen, that’s going to happen, to let you in. Albeit, it’s a tough schedule that we’re facing, but there’s no better way to to go out and secure and solidify your spot in the playoffs than doing it with a tough schedule with nobody else on the outside has any faith or belief that you can get it done. This team just keeps turning away, keeps coming up with ways and finding ways to win football games. That’s what I love about the resolve of this football team. Like you said, toughest schedule in the NFL ahead of them. I know those were the type of opportunities that you relished as a players and certainly those players in the locker room will as well. And it all starts with San Francisco right now. Let’s hear from the team on what they are expecting from this 49ers matchup. when you think of Christian McCaffy as a player, man. Uh, not not just a great player, one of the best guys I’ve seen lace him up, but um just a just all he did for this organization. Um, the type of leader he was for me as a young player, uh, coming in here, just everything. He did everything right, you know, pre-practice, postpractice, um, did everything right, taking care of his body, his diet, you know, as a young guy. It meant a lot, you know, watching him um, uh, while I was while I was rising here. Um, but yeah, I’m excited to play him. You know, he’s a hell of a player. Um, I know I know he going to be trying to get us get back. Um, he going to be running the ball hard, but you know, we ready for the challenge and it’s going to be fun. Christian’s a a soldier, so he’s just going to work every single week. I know. Uh, it’s just attack, attack, attack, and win regardless of who he’s playing. Obviously, he has a lot of history here. He’s done great things in Carolina. Um, the best back I’ve ever seen and and been able to work with. So, um, regardless of all the other stuff, I know he has love for Carolina. you know, they got weapons, uh, like everyone else. Um, physical, um, they can, you know, attack you in many different ways. So, you got to be prepped for it. And, uh, you know, they got the quarterback back, so, you know, you got to be ready for that. I don’t know what it feel like to play on a Monday. So, uh, whatever time I ain’t. So, man, I I’m just trying to see what else. But, is it crazy that that you’ve been here two years and this will be your first prime time game? I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s crazy. Uh, that’s how them folk made the skis. Are you excited for it? For sure. Coming up, coach Dave Canales joins host Kristen Belone in the studio to talk Bryce, our defense, the Niners, and more on the Panthers Huddle. This exclusive presentation of the Carolina Panthers television network is brought to you in part by Bank of America, the official bank of the Carolina Panthers. [Music] [Applause] Listen, listen. Hey, this is your team. I try to mess it up for you a couple times. Okay. But you wouldn’t let it happen. Okay? It didn’t matter. You just kept playing ball. You just went to the next series, guys. We had some trashy stuff in there, didn’t we? And we have some beautiful stuff happen. Welcome back to the huddle. Joined now by head coach Dave Canales. Coach, we just watched part of that locker room speech after the Falcons win. And the thing that stuck out to me is you said, “This is your team. In what ways have the players made this team theirs?” Ownership. Everything we do, our processes throughout the week, each day has a purpose. While it’s my job to set the foundation and expectation, and make sure that there’s accountability for what we’re doing, it becomes special when the players take that, when the players uh talk to each other, hold each other accountable, make sure that the standards are being met for how we prepare, how we practice, how we go about our week. Um, calling each other out if you’re not doing the same thing you normally would do, taking care of your body, all those things, um, in a good way. and it shows up on the field. The ownership shows up. I can tell how much it means to them by how hard they play consistently with great effort as long as it takes. And that game, while there were some challenges in the game, the opportunities that we took advantage of, and then just fighting, just fighting the whole time to get us the ball back in overtime, the offense to make a big play, Tommy with the huge 54 yard reception, breaking tackles, the physical finish of that play by Tommy to get down there into position, and then of course Ryan coming through and making another game-winning field goal for us. But the whole group, I can feel the shift. I can feel the ownership coming alive from this group and I’m really excited about it. It was an exciting one, that’s for sure. So, last week when we sat here, you talked about the emphasis being on the passing game and then you come out in this game and Bryce breaks a franchise record for passing yards with 448. What changed or what went well in this game for the passing game? The rhythm and execution felt great. It felt like a group that’s been time on task, that’s spent that time talking to each other, working on it. I’ve been seeing it happen for weeks now. We keep getting better and better, and I’m watching it happen in practice, watching the little subtle body language and the cues that they’re taking from each other, using our signals when we need to. Um, and then just executing. It all starts up front. The protection was excellent. They got us on a couple of nice blitzes. Um, but when it was fourman rushes, our guys did an excellent job allowing Bryce to get through his progressions so that he can find number two and sometimes like Tommy’s play, number three in progression. That starts with protection and they did a great job up front. Bryce delivered and the guys made the plays when they needed to. How would you describe Bryce’s season so far? What I’m most proud of with Bryce is he continues to lead this group and the product that we’re seeing on the field is because of his leadership, the way that he talks to the guys, the way that he’s on the side. They’ll go down during a defensive period and he’ll give team one more rep of this route or Jimmy, I want to see you on this one so I know exactly how you’re going to do this all across the board with all the guys in different ways. And it’s that that’s what it takes. That’s what it takes to continue to improve the football the way that we want to. this defense. You know, the first half started out probably not in the way that you wanted it. They gave up three touchdowns. Then they come out of the second half and just absolutely dominated. What changed? Tackling first and foremost. We made a couple of tweaks here and there. Some some minor adjustments that we needed to make. Felt pretty good about how the game plan was set up to be effective against the run, but it really came down to tackling. Got to give Bejian Robinson a lot of credit. He made some unbelievable runs in that first half. We settled in. We group tackled. We got him down for the most part in the second half. Um, you know this 49ers team well. You were just saying that before we had the cameras start rolling. Uh, it all starts with Kyle Shanahan on the offense. Brock Perie is back and of course Christian McCaffrey, George KD. When this offense is operating to the highest potential that they have, who are they? Multiple. They use different personnels. They shift in motion before the snap trying to get the ideal look. So they’ll spend a good amount of time trying to get the runs to a specific front the way that they want it. When they throw their passes, they want to get the rotation exactly how they want it to by shifting and motioning. And then it’s just the attacking mindset. They get to the huddle fast. They operate quickly. And then when they got the ball in their hands, it’s an aggressive style of play. Something that I really respect. I’ve been studying Kyle for years. Yeah. Um all the way back to the Houston Texans in ’09. and um a guy that I really respect because of the way that he presents offenses. And so um another great opportunity for our guys to a championship moment as we continue to get deeper and deeper into the season. We need these types of opportunities against these types of opponents under the big lights. Monday Night Football, there’ll be more cameras. The field will be the same size, but it’ll feel right. It’ll be at night and a great opportunity for our guys. And finally, coach, as we look at your offense in this game, we know that you want to run the ball. Panthers are very capable of running the ball, but then we also saw the passing game go off last week. What does your offense ideally look like against the 49ers? Well, the 49ers are a bend don’t break type of defense and they’re very aggressive. They don’t call a lot of things. What they do call, they do it really well. Robert Salah, unbelievable coach and someone that you know well as well. Yes. And uh Robert Saul and I started off as quality controls together in Seattle in 2010. And a guy, another guy that I really respect and and understand his scheme and understand what he’s asking them to do while you know what they’re doing, their execution, they see it all from one spot. There’s a saying that says see a little, see a lot. And that’s kind of the approach. If you’re in the same spot, you can evaluate whatever the offense is trying to do. So for us, we have to be efficient, we have to be patient, and we have to be opportunistic because he will give us some opportunities in different ways to have single high with some matchups out there, and we have to make sure we take advantage of those. Um, and the rest of the time, we got to block runs well. They’re going to play hard and we got to make sure that our completion percentages are, you know, are efficient so that we can just continue to move the chains and have more opportunities. Coach, we are certainly looking forward to Monday night. Thank you as always. Thank you. Up next, step inside TV’s film room as Thomas Davis draws up a plan to slow down San Fran’s dynamic offense on the Panthers huddle. [Music] Time now for TD’s film room. And TD, of course, we are going to start with Christian McCaffrey. Leads all players in yards from scrimmage. Of course, Panthers fans know him well, but you’re going to update us on what he has been doing with the 49ers this season. Yes, KB. He’s been doing the CMAC thing with the 49ers this year. A lot of people tried to write CMAC off after last year because he got banged up again. But once again, Kristen McAffrey is a guy and he was my teammate for a little while, KB. And one of the things when he first came in as a rookie, he wanted to show people that he was capable of running between the tackles. That’s what that was a lot of things that people questioned with him coming in if he would be able to hold up in the NFL being able to do that. And he takes pride in doing just that. So, we’re going to show you Christ McCaffrey running in between the tackles. You don’t see a fullback leading the way a lot of times in the NFL anymore, but the 49ers have one, they have a good one. He just gets in the way just enough for CMAC to find the lane to turn this into a long run. And you know, Christian McCaffrey finds ways time and time again. So, we’re gonna have to make sure, KB, that we have eyes on him at all time. We know where he is at all times because time and time again, if there’s a crease, he’s going to find it. And it’s not just that. Again, as Panthers fans know well, he is a big threat in the passing game, too. Absolutely. That’s why I said we have to have eyes on these guys at all times because they don’t just line him up in the back field. They flex him out. They line him up out wide in spread sets and you definitely cannot leave him wide open. That’s something you can’t do. But on this play right here, he gets a little help from one of his teammates. If you watch right here, watch KD on this play right here. He’s going to come. This guy right here is responsible for Cmac. As you see, eyes locked in exactly how you would expect. But once Chris McCaffrey starts to shuffle, we have to be in tune and we got to shuffle with them. And if you don’t, you’re gonna end up, if you’re late, because you’re gonna see KD on this play, he’s gonna go forward. This guy’s gonna start working towards him and he’s going to get caught up in the trash. And you can never do that when you have a guy like Cmac because especially in the red zone area as a passing threat, they’re looking to get the ball to him. So, as you see on this play right here, he gets caught up in the trash. He takes a hesit he hesitates for one moment. And as you see, Cmack is celebrating in the end zone. So, we have to be in tune. We got to know who this guy is because most running backs are like a a second or third look. Christian McCaffrey has been their first look a lot of times. So, we got to make sure that we have a game plan for where he is. Sort of. We might have to end up vicing him, keeping the eyes of the corners on the outside, linebackers inside, you know, just make sure we don’t allow him to go off on us. Don’t get caught up in the trash. I love that expression. All right, let’s talk about this 49ers defense. They have been hit with some big injuries. Bosa, Fred Warner, but there are still some guys that you really like on this team, especially Malik Mustafa. Listen, Malik Mustafa is a guy that went to Weddington High School. I know him very well. He played on the seven on 17 with my kids. But to watch him go to wake and then now have some questions coming in about his stiffness, his movement, but to be able to get over all of that KB get drafted by the 49ers and become a starter and become a starter at a high level. He is a he is one of those guys that sets the tone for this defense. If he is able to line you up and get a good hit on you is you’re going to feel it. And that’s what I love about guys that that are really tone setters that guys that are really go out and make sure that the entire defense knows the style. But on this particular play, we’re going to see him come away with an interception cuz as a safety, you have to be able to do both. And Mallet Mustafa is one of those players. But I told you about the physicality and how tough he can be. Just watch what happens when guys run into him. His own teammate gets knocked out on this play. So, we have to be in tune to where Malik Mustafa is at all times. He’s got to go check on him. I mean, he was celebrating. He was like, “Man, look, I don’t even care about fine. I got the interception.” All right, TD, thank you so much for that. We appreciate it. All right, coming up, we know that Bryce set a big record for this Panthers franchise last week. There he is celebrating. Will he be celebrating again against the 49ers? We’re talking about it when we come back. [Music] Close captioning for the Panthers Television Network is provided by Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Associates, providing premier eye and EMT care to North and South Carolina. [Music] Welcome back. Now, it is time for our Coke Spotlight. TD, I always love to know who or what are you spotlighting for this big prime time game against the 49ers? JB, without a doubt, it starts with the head of the snake in essence. And I’m starting with Bryce Young. You know, the team goes as the quarterback goes. Any team in the NFL, but especially this team. When Bryce Young plays well, we usually win football games. So, Bryce had an amazing game last week against Atlanta. How are he how does he follow that game up? Do we come out? Do we call the same plays? Do we call it a different way to make sure that Bryce is comfortable? He’s going back to California, having the opportunity to go back to your home state to play. What kind of game are we gonna see from Bryce Young? It’s a prime time game. I just hope that he’s able to go out and mirror this performance that he just had without getting his ankle banged up again. Just being able to see that kind of confident Bryce. I think that that’s going to propel us in a big way. I wanted to ask you about confidence because obviously he’s been in a lot of big situations in college and here. He’s had some some great games. This one being the best, even in your third year, does that give you confidence? Absolutely. Whenever you’re struggling or whenever you haven’t had the success that you expected to have, in particular passing the football, when you can go out and have that kind of success, set a franchise record throwing the football. That that for any player would be huge, but especially for Bryce Young right now in this early maturation process, he’s still growing. He’s still getting better every time that he takes the field. So, I absolutely expect and hope that he has an amazing game this week. All right, my coke spotlight is going to be the veterans and the leadership on this team as this team goes out and has a big opponent under the lights. A lot of young guys on this team. So, TD, there’s no better veteran to talk to than you. What can the older guys do to settle the young guys? You know, you got to you make sure these guys understand and know the magnitude of this game. Don’t make it bigger than what it is, but understand it’s a lot different than any other game because you got to go out and you got to perform under the lights. The world is going to be watching you. Everybody’s going to be locked in. Your family, your friends, everybody’s going to be locked in on this game. So, you got to have a great performance. And like you said, what a great opportunity. As Dave Canals likes to say, a championship opportunity. If you want to play in those playoff games, this is the way to do it. All right. Thank you so much everybody for watching. We’ll see you next time on the Panthers Huddle. But until then, keep clowning. You’ve been watching the Panthers Huddle, a copyrighted presentation of the Carolina Panthers and the NFL. [Music]

On this episode of the Panthers Huddle, the Panthers are playing in prime-time! Coach Canales is here as the team gets ready for a Monday Night match-up with the 49ers. Plus, step inside TD’s film room as the Panthers legend breaks down a familiar face. Welcome inside the Panthers Huddle!

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