Carolina Panthers may be figuring it out at the right time

Carolina Panthers may be figuring it out at the right time

Hey Chris, just when we think we have the Panthers figured out. Just when we think we have them figured out, I’m just gonna go ahead and say it. I’m going to stop trying. I’m going to stop trying to figure this team out. I I would I would love to have expectations for them uh in New Orleans, but hey, they might prove me wrong no matter what I think. I don’t You know what? Let’s just get this sucker started. Yeah. Get dialed in, Panthers fans. Here comes an indepth look at your team. Exclusive interviews, locker room insight. Let’s huddle up for Panthers Playbook presented by Wake Orthopedics, a Wake Med physician practice. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panthers Playbook. That’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. By the way, our podcast sponsored by Wake Orthopedics. Make sure you hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already. And also, what is your biggest takeaway so far through this season for the Carolina Panthers? We want to know your thoughts in the comments section cuz Chris, you and I said it right there from the top. As soon as we think we have this Panthers team figured out, they come out and do something completely different. By the way, we said that in the G in the podcast going into the Rams game, we weren’t very optimistic and we said if we were wrong, we would point at the scoreboard at Bank of America Stadium and say we were wrong. And that’s what we did. Let it off the show being like, “Yep, Panthers won that one.” I I I just can’t figure them out. Like they go from the Saints game to the Atlanta game to the Niners game to the Rams game. I don’t know. I just don’t know. It it goes back to the consistency that we’ve been talking about. Uh Dave Canales has been talking about that as well. He he sees it, he gets it. Um and one thing I was having a discussion with somebody yesterday, uh Pat Welter atl, uh we we were talking about the Panthers and he he brought up a good point. So I want to give him a shout out on this. He said he doesn’t ever remember seeing a coach go through the growing pains the way that we’ve seen Dave Canalis go through the growing pains real time. Yeah. And like he’s he’s trying to figure it out. Like Bryce throws for 448 versus Atlanta. Oh, we’re going to zip it against the 49ers and we’re only going to run it nine times. And then you go back to the Rams, you’re like, you know, let’s run the ball. and you go back to what wins you games. You really only won one game zipping the ball through the air. Um so it’s it’s very um it’s very interesting to kind of see the Panthers try to put it together real time to see Dave Canales grow as a head coach and as a play caller in real time and to watch Bryce Young try to figure out who he is. I wrote a column at wlsportsfan.com and I compared uh the Carolina Panthers to me at the age of 13. I’m sitting there with, you know, my my baggie clothes, you know what I’m saying? Got my dot eye on, you know what I’m saying? Like the the old school hip-hop wear. Yeah, I feel you. Listening to Juvenile on on my Walkman, you know what I’m saying? With the CDs. Kids don’t know about that these days. You know what I’m saying? and, you know, trying to look hard, trying to be older, but at the same time playing with my yo-yo, doing my little tricks with my ex-brain and all that type of stuff around the world. Oh, there we go. Boom. Like that. And I don’t know who I am. I’m I’m still holding on to being a little kid and being a little immature while trying to show some maturity on the other side. And it really feels like that’s where the Carolina Panthers are. Um, somebody hit me up and said, you know, I was dissing them. I’m not dissing them. We’re literally watching them grow up in real time. That’s all I’m trying to say. Um, and I’m not dissing them by saying it. And so, you’re going to see those, you know, those growth spurts and those growing pains, uh, back and forth. And, and that’s literally what we’re watching, uh, right now with the Carolina Panthers. We’ve used that term growing pains a lot where we, again, like you said, we’ve seen the growth at times. At the same time, we’ve seen the pains like we’ve the Saints game. Like, it’s not dissing when you’re actually calling what it is. It’s just stating simply what it is. And that’s I think that’s a great analogy. It’s just that it’s a young team overall. And I had actually had to remind myself of that a couple days ago. I was like this is still Dave Canal’s thirdyear play caller. It’s Bryce Young thirdyear quarterback. It’s Xavier Leette. Jaylen Coker second year. Javian Sanders second year. It’s Tedro McMillan first year. A lot of super young pieces. Super young piece. At least on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively there’s a little bit more maturity on that on that side. And you know, obviously there’s Prince Umamiell and Nick Scorton and you know, Trevon Wallace. We’ve seen obviously Leaman Ransom getting his first start this past Sunday as well, like team high team in tackles. But we are seeing a term that you used earlier this season, which actually a couple commenters actually used in our last uh game uh in the comment section was like your kids with sleep regressions, right? They sleep all through the night. All of a sudden, they’re just waking up. They’re all fussy. Then they’re going back to sleep through the night. It’s it’s that same type thing. The biggest thing that we can say about this team that is an absolute fact is that they’re inconsistent. Like no one can dispute that. You can say inconsistent roller coaster. Let’s not It’s not because it’s true. I mean, again, look at the look at the last four weeks. the way they played against the Rams the previous week, how they played at the 49ers, then before that against the Falcons, then before that against the Saints, then before that against Green Bay, up, down, up, down. Can this team find stasis? That’s the thing. Can they find a level of steady? Can they even the wings out? That’s the biggest thing. Can you level the wings out for this team going forward? You got a by-week to rest, mentally reset yourself, and it’s a sprint these last four games. If you win the three divisional games you have left, Saints, two against the Bucks, you’re in the playoffs. You simply are. You are in the playoffs. I’ve got a question for you, Dennis, and I I want to relate this to sports, but like, you know, we can also relate this to to real life, too. Like, sometimes when you’re young, you’re trying to figure things out. Kind of what I was talking about before. you know, you’re doing things that aren’t quite you, but you’re still trying to figure out what you are. You want to be this, but then you figure out, I’m better at this. You used to be a coach in lacrosse. Did you ever have a player that maybe tried to emulate a playing style that didn’t suit their particular skill set and you’re like, “Hey, I know that this looks exciting, but if you do these boring things here, I’m I’m promising you your stats and your game will look so much better. Uh because that’s that’s kind of what it feels like where the Panthers are. I really think Dave Canales wants to be that team that is gonna throw for 448 every game. Yeah, it’s not gonna happen with Bryce Young. And that’s not a this. That’s not saying he can’t be a franchise quarterback. It’s just not going to happen. It can happen. We’ve seen it happen. It’s not going to happen every game. No. I’m I’m So you you’ve seen that, right? Oh, yeah. I So, for those who don’t know, I used to coach college lacrosse. I did it for for nine total seasons. And there are definitely some times where I had players that were you see like for example in basketball or any other sport I have players that wanted to just drive to the net. They thought they could just blow past people or work past people and like like that’s just not your game. Like it’s just it’s not working. You’re not scoring on a consistent basis or being effective for our offense. I said learn how to catch and shoot. Learn how to catch and shoot. I said guarantee you’re going to score more if you catch and shoot. And sure enough, they adapted their game. And all of a sudden, I talked to him at the end of the season. I said, “You had the most goals you’ve ever had in a season, in your life, because you decided to buy in.” I said, “Be a catch and shoot. You have other players that are trying to do the things that you’re doing that are just better at it. So, adapt your game.” And they became catch and shoot players and all of a sudden their their stats just went through the roof. So, it’s just the ability to adapt and also the willingness to adapt your game as well. is that sometimes, you know, for example, like you might want to be a receiver that, hey, I just want to run go routes, I want to run deep shots, but no, actually, we need you to run underneath crossers, catch and get yards after the catch. You those kinds of things. So, it’s it’s and it’s same thing with with coaching and coaching style. There are times where I had to, as a coach, again, lacrosse, different sport, but it’s the same mindset. I wanted to play an uptempo, run it style. That was my philosophy as a coach. I was an uptempo, run it style. Now, I didn’t have the players always to do it. So, I had to go into a half field style of game, which is kind of like gotta pound the rock, right, in football. Hey, I gotta grind out. I got to run the ball. Yeah. Whereas for me, I was kind of the equivalent offensively of like tempo, quick to the line of scrimmage, run, go, go, go. Putting pressure on teams. So, again, you have to adapt your style to your personnel and just also to figuring out what fits for you. Like, you know what? You might not be able to do the things you want, but you have to be willing to understand the things that you need to do to win games. Yeah, that’s what the biggest thing. It’s finding out what you want to be, what you need to be, and finding the match between those two. Yeah. Sometimes it can be those can be, you know, two different things. And um you know, I I even this is different. This is not necessarily like a a competitive sport, but as a pro wrestler, you know, uh when I was in the ring, you know, I wanted to be able to pull off certain things that Rey Mysterio did because I thought it was cool. I can’t do that. Now, I do have some athleticism. I could jump high. I could do, you know, springboards from the, you know, standing on a ring apron, boom, top rope, go up looking like AJ Styles. I could definitely do that. Uh, but when it came down to flips and different things like that or certain dives or and all that outside the ring, hey, I tried it. It didn’t look good. It hurt. Uh, and I I figured out uh the crowd wasn’t reacting to it because it didn’t look like anything cool. So, if I did something simple that for me didn’t feel like much, but suited my natural uh skill sets, and it was like, what? I’m getting this is awesome chance by not even leaving my feet, you know. Yeah. I I think sometimes you have to sometimes you have to really understand who you are. It may not be what you have in your head. Just got to understand who you are. And I think this I think we’re hitting the nail on the head on what the Panthers are figuring out. Yeah. Is that sometimes you overthink things just way too much. I I was guilty of it as a coach myself. So I trust me like I overthought things all the time. You know, sometimes it’s just that simple of like, you know what, let’s just line up and run power to the right and pick up four. Yeah. You know, and then sure enough, this last game it was lean heavy on the run game, the good balance of how they mixed in Chuba Hubard and Rico Dowel in terms of how they they split carries and playing time. A good balance that guys were fresh coming in. They were able to change the pace a little bit, use a little bit of different running styles. Then all of a sudden you’re at, hey, it’s third and two or it’s fourth and two, fourth and three. Hey, now we could take a shot here because now we have the defense pressing up and anticipating to stop the run and then hey, Bryce is able to hit Jaylen Coke or Bryce is able to hit Tedar Rollola McMillan because you set yourself up by keeping it simple in terms of philosophy that sometimes it’s just it really is that just don’t overthink it. Sometimes again we try and it’s just it’s it’s human nature where we try and do too much where we just simply try and do too much. I want to stay right there really quick because the the Panthers scored two fourthdown touchdowns. Okay. Yeah. Versus the Rams. Mhm. Which is on the same player by the way. Emanuel Forbes did not have a good game uh in that regard. Um but now teams are going to see that Panthers are going for it. It’s fourth and two and they’re on our 44. Oh, what’s gonna happen? I mean, we got to make sure that we can stop, you know, Rico Dowel or Chuba Hubard, but then Tedroy McMillan or Jaylen Coker might beat us over the top. What do we do? Yeah. And when you get defenses in that mode now, now you’re able to to kind of play your game. Uh to it. And so like you you’re you’re getting to something right there where it’s like now same thing that Shanahan would do like okay we may only be getting you know two to three yards per carry with Christian McCaffrey but we’re going to get you to to you know sell out to stop the run and we’re going to hit you over the top and then now you you’re not sure what’s going to happen or we’re going to use play action uh to get to something else or we’re going to use our screen game and because you’re you’re so into the box right there trying to stop the run looking at Christian McCaffry even though he’s only getting two to three yards per carry. It’s this is it’s starting to get to a point to where and now they have to follow through in every game. Use this to their advantage, but it’s starting to get to the point to where you’re realizing what makes you work. And we heard during the game that the Panthers have the highest fourth down conversion rate in the NFL. Part of that is because, you know, there I think have been some missteps in calling plays in downs one through three. And so you end up getting in desperate situations where you need to have that fourth down conversion so you can stay on the field because you’re you’ve probably punted way more than what you’ve needed to this year. Uh but then the other part of that is having playmakers that’s uh been able to like come up at the right moments. And so uh very very proud with where they’re at right now, but there’s still work to do. And you know I said it on Sunday, we saw what happened the last time you beat a team that you weren’t supposed to beat. You came back and lost to the Saints. Now you got a week to think about it. Yeah. Dang. Don’t come back and lose to the Saints. You got the Saints again. You got the Saints again. Um it’s also speaking of the fourth downs. One of the things that I appreciated from Dave Canales talking after the game. I think it came if he said it Sunday after the game in his presser or if he said it Monday during uh during his availability was that the aggressiveness on fourth down because of the mindset that they have of going for it on fourth down is that some of the fourth downs have been out of necessity. Hey, you’re trailing in the game. There’s four minutes left. We got to go for it. But also he said I had to look on the other sideline and say that’s the Rams offense over there. We can’t give the ball back to them. like we have to extend drives if we can. That’s was part of that was like he understood that you know what in order for us to beat that team we got to keep the ball in our hands and we have to be aggressive going for a fourth down. He didn’t coach scared. He didn’t coach and I know you love it. I know you love I love you aggressiveness. I absolutely do. You remember my coaching philosophy I just talked about a few minutes ago. I love that aggressive style. So the fact that he recognized on the other sidelines like that’s Matt Stafford, that’s Shawn McVey, and that group of receivers, and just that group of talent that’s on the other side of the field. I can’t afford to just lose possessions punting the ball away around midfield. I can’t afford to do it. What is that? What you’re describing because remember what we talked about the first game of the year. We felt like that a first time head coach in his very first NFL game out coached the coach that already has a year. Dave Kalis is learning how to control the game as a coach now. Yeah, he’s learning and and we’re seeing it. Going back to what my guy Pat Walter was saying like it’s it’s been interesting watching somebody go through the growing pains in real time. Yeah. Like and have the amounts of ups and downs that he’s having. And so I would say this, as much as we’ve been hard on Canales, you’re starting to see it. You’re starting to see what what it could be. There’s an argument that maybe he got the job a little bit too early, right? Maybe if he would have been a play caller for a couple more years uh with another team, he could have, you know, gotten himself together and and really understood it because he’s only a play caller, you know, one year before coming to the Carolina Panthers. and you have to learn how to be a head coach and become a better play caller on that. But seeing it and now that he’s had this these two years of experience, I’m excited to see what he’s going to do uh next year and how he grows from this because there’s still some things to figure out from there. How do I get my team ready in the preseason? Because I don’t know if you I don’t think they won a preseason game under him. I think they they went 0 for this year, 0 for last year. Not that it means anything, but it means something because you start in you start the year off sluggish. O 0 and2 last two years. Oh yeah. How do you think it’s more or less the uh like Yeah. How do you adapt your I mean this this would be good offseason conversation, but yeah. In terms of what what do you learn about yourself about what works and what doesn’t? I think that’s why this bye-week is so vital for them because now you can sit there and you can really selfcout. Often times you see coaches in football, what they do is, “All right, the defense like the defensive coaching staff will look at your your your offense and say, “Hey, this is this is how we would beat you. This is how we would defend against you,” whatever it might be. And vice versa, the offensive coaching staff will look at the defense and go, “Or this is how we would beat you. This is what we’re seeing as a flaw,” whatever it might be. So, you’re able to do that self scout and then again, you have this sprint of four games to close out the year. You have a chance to really get healthy. You really do. Hopefully JC Horn is back off his concussion. Merrick’s back off his suspension. Maybe Kay Maize is back then. Maybe Robert Hunt eventually does come back at some point. Now you’re actually looking to look healthy for that final push of the regular season. And then like we said, Chris, they got to win. They got to win three. And it’s got to be the divisional games. They have to win the divisional games. If they win all three divisional games, you’re finishing the season at minimum 10 wins, 10 and seven at minimum, which in that case as well, Tampa Bay is going to be sitting there at the pretty much the same record, but you would have the headto-heads because you’ve beat him twice. You are in the playoffs. It’s real real possibility, Chris. Real possibility. Gotta do it. Gotta do it. I’m trying to find this I’m trying to find this picture because Oh, here we go. You brought up Robert Hunt and I just remembered uh me doing that interview with him just to let people know I’m I’m 5 foot n about 220 20 25 pounds about the size of a running back, right? So, if you look at the size of a running back and you look at the size of this man right here, he’s a massive individual. Like what? We need this back in our line. He’s a massive individual. Look at that. massive. I could literally like he could unzip himself and I could like fit inside. You know what I’m saying? Like it just like like it’s just it’s it’s crazy that that is a massive guy. Robert Hunt, we’re we’re cheering for you. We hope you get back uh you know healthy very soon because look and Jake Kurhan, you’ve done you did a great job. He did. But we need this we need that back. Folks, leave your thoughts in the comments. Can this team make the playoffs? Yes or no? Can they make the playoffs? Sure can. I mean, obviously mathematically it’s there, but realistically, do you think they can make the playoffs? I think they can. Do you think that the team can finish the the last four games off 4 and 0? It’s possible. Seahawks are going to be difficult. Seahawks are going to be difficult. Beat the Rams though. I know. Seahawk Seahawks are at home and that’s a possibility that game get gets flexed to a Saturday night prime time too. So we’ll see. We’ll see about that. Yeah, we shall see. We’ll see you all next week.

Dennis Cox & Chris Lea discuss Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and head coach Dave Canales potentially getting it together to make a run at the NFL Playoffs and the NFC South title.

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