Tre Boston delivers his thoughts on Week 1 | Carolina Panthers

Tre Boston delivers his thoughts on Week 1 | Carolina Panthers

Hey everybody, Kristen Baloni and Panthers legend Trey Boston here with you. Trey, we have got a new show. We’re gonna be doing this every single Wednesday. Talking Panthers, I know you’re hyped up. Oh, we’re hyped up. We’re giving the people what they want. More Trey. That’s what they want. They want more of me. They know one thing I’ll do. I might tell a joke, but I won’t tell a lie to the people. Let’s go. Absolutely. This is going to be a great time. time and Trey, we are going to start off with some of the the Panthers headlines that caught your eye. You have given us three or four things that you really want to talk about that really stuck out to you from this game and one of the things that you wanted to start off off the bat with is missed opportunities in that week one loss against the Jags. So, can you explain that a little bit what you saw when you’re talking about those missed opportunities? Yeah, I mean every game is going to present itself with about five to eight plays that can be winning plays or it could be gamechanging missed opportunities in either way. So for us, I felt like as the Panthers, we’re wondering, hey, what happened with this team? Why do we look the way we look that way? Well, what if I told you there’s only five to six plays that we just happen to not make in that moment? starting here. Let’s run it. That’s right. So, the first one that you wanted to point out was this. On the first drive, it’s this missed throw to Hunter Renfro, which could have gone for seven. The Panthers come away with a field goal on that drive, which is still good. You get points, but not what you want there. It’s a missed opportunity. Again, you would start off this season on your first drive. Everybody’s wondering what does Bryce Young in this new offense look like? Oh, Hunter Renfro in the slot. We brought him back. Oh, he’s wide open. Put that ball on him, Bryce. Let’s go get seven. Now we have Charisma lighting up the sidelines. Everybody’s in it. They’re knowing, oh, we just got it started. And that was that was a good first drive, too. You know, they converted three straight first down or three straight third downs, excuse me. They were really rolling, leaning on the run, leaning on Bryce’s legs, Chuba. Um, and, you know, they looked really good there. It would have been great to see it capped off with a touchdown. So the next play, so then the Panthers defense goes and holds the Jags to a three and out. The next missed opportunity that you want to talk about is on the following drive, which is that interception, that first interception to uh it was intended for Xavier Legette. Let’s look at that one, Trey, and have you talk us through it. Yeah, I mean, you see Bryce right here, man. He had one yard. Could he have got it on his feet? Maybe. So he trusted Xavier Legette to get across that field. I personally would like Xavier to push a little more flat on that route. Keep his speed up. But you get one ball that you don’t want. Next you know it’s a turnover. What does that do to your defense that leads them to have a short field and then the Jacksonville Jaguars go on to score a touchdown. A momentum changer. Another play that ends up hurting us that we weren’t able to take advantage of. The next play that you pointed out as a missed opportunity was the throw on first down to JT Sanders. It’s still in the second quarter. All the plays that you have pointed out were in the second quarter. Unfortunately, Jatavian Sanders just couldn’t come away with this one. And it ended in a punt. Yeah. And one thing I want to let you know, man, people are going to drop passes. People are going to make faults, but these are the plays that we’re searching for and we’re wondering. This is a big play. First down, you end it with a splash. You end it with an explosion. If you can make this play, put the ball on the other side of the on other side of the half, allow Bryce to work with the short field. Man, I think this is what Dave Canales wants for this team. But we’re seeing as the fans what we want, we have. We just got to make the plays. Mhm. All right, next one. It was a drive that, you know, I’m sure the Panthers would love to have back. There were a couple of different mistakes there. So, Corbett, Austin Corbett, the center, gets um an ineligible man downfield penalty. Then we’re going to see it right here. this Xavier Legette catch. He fails to get both feet down. So that is where we are going to start on this drive. Talk us through what happened on this play. I think everybody knows the elephant in the room is we got to get two feet down. Xavier knows that as well of course and that’s a big play. I mean again these are before half. These are putting points on the board. Uh these are not only putting points on the board but keeping momentum allowing your team to keep that energy of what’s going on in a positive way. if we can get those feet down, man, we put points on the board. Man, this is a different Panthers team heading into half. So, so that throw doesn’t uh work out. And then right after that, shortly after that, uh two plays later, uh Bryce fumbles. You know, he gets the ball punched out. Good play by the defender there, but that also leads to a field goal by Jacksonville Jaguars. So, at that point, first half, you got 10 points off of turnovers. Not only do you have 10 points, but I I I keep giving it to you guys. the energy and momentum. It’s going to be so big. We’re going to talk later in this show why that’s so big, but you have to keep that going on a team that’s early trying to find what you see over there on that next screen. Identity. So, you fumble that ball points off the board and then they go down put up three. 23 going in the half. Yeah. 20 to3 going in the half. And you said, and this is something that I think we can all take comfort in. If it weren’t for just a couple of plays here and there, you thought it could have been a one-sore game at the half. It’s there. The ingredients are there. It’s just a couple of little things to fine-tune. Am I hearing you right on that? Yeah, I I think we have them right where we want them. Seven points down at half and then you’re feeling good. You just put points up before half. That means you’re going to win the first four of the middle eight. You go into the third quarter, you win that next middle four. Man, you’re talking about a team that’s building something. That’s finding a rhythm. It’s all about finding what is that rhythm for this team? How can we continue to stack up the successful plays and know that’s our identity? That’s us. And we are certainly going to be talking about identity. But one thing that I also want to mention that you talked a lot about, you and I were sitting here talking before we started the show. Despite those five or six plays that happened in the first half, you and I’ve heard plenty of other players say at Al Wallace, Mike Tolbert, they were on a show with me on Mondays. It’s one game. And that’s what I think we all need to to remember, right? It’s one game. The players certainly know that we got a lot of football in front of us. Absolutely. I mean, one game. Come on, guys. It’s not time to panic. Relax. All right, so let’s talk about the next headline that you wanted to get into, which is run defense. In that game against the Jaguars, uh, Panthers allowed 200 yards on the ground. We have Derrick Brown back. Um, the front office went and solidified that Dline in free agency. So Trey, how does this team take that next step into this kind of gritty, hard-nosed team that can defend the run that we know they can be? Yeah. Uh defending the run, it comes with a mentality first. Uh not only being physical, but it also takes trust. It also takes guys knowing what gap they’re going to be in. Um in this game, I saw that there were guys that were trying to make plays, finding ways to get out of their gaps, and it hurt us. Uh you see this play right here that goes for 74 I believe and 71 and then after that you kind of see the identity of hey guys what are we doing? Well guys I want to let you know besides that 71 yard run at that point you had only let up about 20 yards. So for me it’s the big splash plays for the missed opportunities on us and them getting their big explosion plays that help them. So, we got to limit explosion plays and allow ourselves to know that, hey, we can stop the run, but it comes with an identity, trusting each man is going to do their 111. Guys must fit in their gap. And when guys trust you to be in your gap, you have to make the play. So, we got to get guys who can make the play when it’s their time to make the play. All right. So, making the play, fitting in your gap, those are things that we could see totally change in week two. Absolutely. I’m telling you, you’re going to see a different team week two. We’ll talk about it. Love to hear it. Now one thing we have heard you say a lot of we are getting to it and that’s something that we’ve wanted to talk about a lot is identity. So Trey I I want to know from you when does a team’s identity form? Teams identity forms throughout the season and it can start in the off season training camp the the regular season play I mean it starts the full season. It all matters but identity starts with the foundation. We must find ways to know what our foundation is and what is the regimen that we want? Dave Canales has done that. He has guys who have bought into what we want Panther football to look like. But does the world does the NFL know what the Panther identity is right now? We have to find out what that is. And during this season is another season that we have the opportunity to show the world what is this Panther team about. After week one, we don’t like the showcasing, but wow, can we come out week two and let people understand that, yeah, the Panthers are a resilient team that are going to come back. They’re going to fight every time you play us. If you lo if we happen to take a L, you’re going to feel it. You’re going to lose players that game respectfully, but they’re going to feel pain. That’s what we need from our type of Panthers. And I think they’re trying to build an identity like that. One of the strongest identities that this franchise has had is Thieves A, which you were a huge part of during that time. When did Thieves A become Thieves A? Yeah, Thieves A actually became Thieves A during the season. So, it took us Yeah. to know that, hey, like we’re on a mission. Like, we knew we wanted to take the ball away more than any other team. We came in knowing that this defense stops a run. There’s the number one thing we had on our board. Stop the run. Like it’s there’s no ifs, what’ss, buts about it. It’s not happening with the guys we had in that room. So for us as thieves, once we took on the identity of, oh, we’re stealing this ball back. We’re taking from the rich, giving back to the poor. We’re taking from them and giving it back to our team as opportunity. That’s when our identity stood on our foundation. And we had a rock that we can say, you know what? We know who we are. We know who we want to be. We’re all playing alike. We trust each other. I trust my brother next to me, I know if I leave him in his gap or if this is his play and he has to be there, he’s going to make that play nine times out of 10. And if he doesn’t, it’s because that guy gets paid millions of dollars, too. And he just happened to make a better play. But that’s what it’s about. Guys are going to make plays, but your boys have to have an identity. And the thieves brought an identity that every great team you look at needs to have an identity. When you think about great teams, you know, this is what they do well. We have to find a way that other teams know that as well. I’m looking forward to seeing what this Panthers identity becomes as the season progresses. And I believe that starts in week two. Yeah. Um, let’s talk about a bright spot of this game. Teroa McMillan, the young guy, the Panthers first round draft pick. Trey, I’m watching. I mean, you’re the professional here. I’m watching and I’m like, “Oh, he he could be that guy.” No, I tweeted out like, listen, this is one of the bright stars that I looked at this game and I said, “Wow, this kid knows what he’s doing.” He He’s a bright star. Uh his game in his first game kind of reminded me of Shaq Thompson. Um he just looked fluid. He looked like he was supposed to be there. When I first saw Shaq, I said, “Man, this is a firstrounder who, hey, guys might have said, “This is the guy. This might not be.” He showed why he should be there. T was the exact same way on that field. He showed he could be a big dog. I can’t wait to see how this offense finds its way to get him into a rhythm, get him into these big play opportunities because I saw him able to get open, be physical. I mean, that’s what you want from a young wide receiver and he showed that. So, man, everybody should be excited about what Tech can bring. And speaking of identity, I mentioned this the other day, but Dave Canal, we talked to him in the preseason. He said, “We need to find that number one wide receiver.” And that is where I our identity on offense is going to get solidified of course from Chuba because they want to run the ball as much as possible. Bryce and then who is that number one guy going to be and Trey especially with no Adam Thielen. How quickly can Tedoro McMillan as a rookie step into that role of security blanket of connection with Bryce Young? Yeah, I think it’s going to take practice. Just like we’re talking about identity taking a while. It’s going to take practice. It’s gonna take some game reps. It’s gonna take Bryce to understand, hey, what can T do for me? Obviously, we gotta get other guys involved. Oh, yes. Plenty of good receivers as well. Yeah, I’m not trying. No, no, no. But I think Ted is your umbrella guy eventually. I mean, I seen a play where he said, “Ep Ted’s down there.” Hey, and Ted caught that bad boy. I mean, I mean, you can call it what you want, you know? I say he caught that thing. So for me, I’m just saying those are the plays that when you talk about umbrella guys security, if Ted’s going to be that guy, I mean, I don’t mind feeding him, finding ways to get him the rock and building that chemistry that they already seem like they have and they’ve already built from being younger generations playing with each other in different 707s, stuff like that. All right, we hit the headlines. We talked about week one versus the Jags and now Trey, it is time to turn the page. So, I thought it might be interesting for you to tell everyone if you don’t know exactly how an NFL week goes. And you know, Monday is for is for film study and as as Dave Canal calls it, tell the truth Monday. You really get honest about what’s going on. Tuesday is a little bit of a recovery day and Wednesday, which is today. Yes. Starts the new week. So, it feels really appropriate that that is what we’re doing here today as we’re turning the page. So, talk us through after a loss, how you get right, and what the rest of the week looks like. All right, let’s uh let’s sit up. Let’s go. All right, let’s get let’s get this together. All right, so listen at this week, what I want you to know, it’s Wednesday. It’s time to get over what just happened that we were not feeling bad for ourselves. It’s time to move on. We got out of bed. Everybody put the big boy and big girl pads on today. I’m letting you know once we got these on, we’re locked into the next team. We’re going through meetings. I want us laser light focused this week. I want us laser light focus. I’m not saying don’t have fun. I’m not saying clinch up. I’m saying let’s be focused on what we have at task. This is what the coaches are coming into. We might be a little stern now that Monday’s came and we’ve already been honest. We don’t need to say the same things. By Wednesday, you should know what it is. Everybody should be a professional this day. This is a big day because now Wednesday it’s the clap clap day. That means we putting on pads. I want to see some pads being clapped around because why? Need to release a little bit of tension. That’s what I want from this team. Let’s release a little bit of tension in practice. Let’s make each other better. Iron sharp sharpens iron. And we got to be that team for each other during practice. Practice must be hard. Practice must be hard. I don’t mean it has to be just unbelievably bearable physical, but we must find ways to make it hard on each other so the game is better for us as a team. So this week, hey, we’re going on. We’re moving on. It’s about Arizona. Let’s get to these guys and let’s make it a statement that this is a statement game. not know, oh, we have to do. No, no. This is for us. This isn’t about them. It’s not about the outsiders. It’s not even about fans. This is about us as a Panthers team knowing that this week we will show that we’ve learned a lesson from our losses. That’s what great teams do. And I see us being a great team. So, I look for the Panthers do the same thing this week. I love that. Learn lessons from your losses. I think we can all apply that, right? Yeah. All right. So, you put the call out on Twitter to uh what are some of these questions that people wanted to know as we start the show? And we have some good good questions. So, I’m going to pose all of these to you from your Twitter followers. The first one is from Mandy Mo and she wants to know, what is the biggest gap you see right now between the Panthers and playoff caliber teams? And I just want to point out here, I don’t think anyone is saying the Panthers are not a playoff caliber team as we go down the stretch, but after that performance in week one, what are those gaps that Mandy wants to know about? Yeah. and what will make them a playoff caliber team. Yeah, I I think it goes back to that foundation identity. Uh again, all great teams when you think about teams have them. If you think about the uh 03 Panthers, you’re thinking about Steve Smith. We’re thinking about Moose. We got Foster in the backfield, Jake Del Long on defense. You got Big Ruck, Dan Morgan, Mentor. Like, you got ballers, big names, guys who have identities. You couldn’t run the ball. Big Jinx in the middle. Like, that’s an identity that people fear. 2015. You have Thes, you got Luke Keegley, Charles Johnson, Jared Allen, Peanut Tillman, Roman Harper, Kurt Coleman, like name after name after name after name that when people come to line up, they know they better put on their elite pants for the day because lining up mano immano, it just don’t work against those dogs. So for us, I think a foundation identity of who we want to be is going to be very big for us to become that playoff caliber team. Can we do it? Yes. But it’s going to take us to know who we are, learn who we are. Veterans got to help this team lead. And we got to win some games. If we know we’re a grimy team, be a grimy and gritty team. If Hey, if we know this is how we got to win ball games, win ball games in that fashion. And that’s the identity that great teams have. What will the Panthers identity be? Will it be fearing run stopping offense that scores points? What will it be that was I think is the difference right now that we’re looking forward towards the end of the season? All right. All right. I like to hear that. All right. Next tweet from kiaak_jerk. He wants to know, “What would you like to see differently on defense?” Or she he or she would like to know the answer to that question. And of course, we already talked about stopping the run. So Trey, what else? No man, that got that got to be he. That got to be a he, man. He call himself a jerk. Call himself a jerk. Trying to be an equal opportunist. That got to be a he. Uh what would I like to see different? Uh I would like to see run fits. I would like to see guys in their gaps. Uh gap integrity is something that was is very big. Um when it comes to a defense, can I ask a quick question here? Yes. Why do guys get out of their run fits? Trust. Going back to it. one either you have somebody who is being a little selfish and is trying to make a play and some guys we can allow to do that. Hey, if they make plays, they make plays. But sometimes the guy getting out of their gap trying to make a play or they don’t trust that the next man next to him is going to make the play in their gap. You’re trying to make sure that you fix it, right? And and you cover this, but in that sense, you’re not doing covering your job. Yes. gap integrity. If I said you have the A gap, you have the A gap. If the linebacker has the B gap, he has the B gap. If the safety has a C gap, he has a C gap. Do not get out of these gaps. Know your guy is going to make the play for him. Let’s trust that everybody’s going to be there. But everybody must have integrity of their gap and take care of their job. If you get that job done, I think we have the players at hand that one- on-one they will make plays. That’s great. And I didn’t mean to cut you off there. Is there anything else that you want to see on defense? Like do you have okay if if you’re in that room? Do you say I want to get this many turnovers or is it just like let’s let the game come to us? Yeah, of course. I want to see 10 turnovers. Um I would like to see uh 100 or less rushing yards. Like actually 99 like we don’t do 100 yard rushing yards like like that that doesn’t happen. So 99 yards less. All right. We want to go uhund I think. No. 215 through the air. 250 through the air is okay. 215 is where that like we had a great game. Um I would like to see two turnovers. Two or more turnovers, you’re more than likely to win a ball game. I want to say it’s 64% back in my days when we were playing. So for me, if you can take a ball away two times, you’re already more than half winning this ball game. So turnovers, we got to emphasize on getting that ball out. So, if we can emphasize turnovers, we can stop the run, and we can find a way to stop the pass, which everybody teams is trying to do these things. I I get it, guys. But those are the keys to the game, winning ball games. But first, I’m starting with stop the run. All right, next question from Kamacho Man wants to know, which player do you want to see have a big game in week two? A lot of opportunities for guys to step up here. Kamacho. I love it. All right, Kamacho, man. Let me see. What player would I want to have a big game? I think Xavier Legette is somebody who I’ve been hearing a lot of people talk about from his performance. Um, I think that he will have a big game this this week. I think he hears the chatter. I think he went to those meeting rooms knowing that he had a couple opportunities he could have had at hand. I know the fan bases wanted to see what our last year’s first round pick will do. Can he and T become this tandem that really sets this league on fire? I think they can. Xavier Legette will have a big week this week. Look for him to have a big game week two. I you know who I want to see have a big game? Who you think? I want to see Chuba have a big game because we know he can do it. But if Chuba has a big game, that ensures Panther success in my mind. That is what Dave Canal always says. We want to run the ball. We want to run the ball. We want and Rico D too, right? If those guys are having a great game, I think that bodess very well for the Panthers. Absolutely. Yeah. So, that is who I want to see have a great game. Um, all right. We got another tweet right here, which is, “What message or advice would you give the young guys?” Trey, we know that you’re a motivator, so what would you be saying right now? All right, Miss Mandy Moo, I got you. Uh, what I would say to these young guys, Chris, is something that you said that all the older guys are telling you, it’s only week one. We got 16 games left. I even tweeted out to the fans, “Hey, I know we got 16 games left and you guys are already a little riled up. It’s okay, babies. We got this. This team is going to turn it around again. It starts with an identity. I’mma say it a thousand times until everybody out there knows that we’re trying to build something great and we will. I’m letting you know we will build something great.” So, advice for the young guys, hey, stay in it. Let’s have fun. Dial in. Lock in. Hey, do everything extra this week. 1% better. And this week might even need it to be 2%. Let’s go. All right. I love these questions. So, we definitely want you guys to keep those coming throughout the season. We’ll certainly get online and and post them and ask us your questions. Ask Trey your questions and we’ll answer these every week. We also want everyone’s input on something that’s very important, which is the name of the show. You guys are going to get to decide, help us decide the name of this show. So, go ahead and let us know. We’ve already got some great ones. We’re going to show them to you now, but feel free to give your input on this. You leave them in the YouTube comments right now. You can also go to Trey’s Twitter, which is right up at the top, Trey Boston. Such a good Twitter name. Boston. Oh my gosh. It’s It’s got to be up there. It’s got to be up there. All time Twitter names. Um, these are the ones that you’ve already got, Trey. I like a lot of them. It’s a shame we can’t name them all of these things. I’m just saying, man, there’s some good ones in there. The safety net. I’m I’m I’m not whoever came up with that. That is that’s a good one. There’s a few names in here. Uh uh shout out to Mike Crab because I I I believe he used to have a Panthers pulse back in the days. That’s a good name, too. That’s a good name. We can roll that back for good old times. A talk. Oo, Thieves AB. Y’all are on the block talking with your boy. Okay. Some good stuff in there. It’s so good. So, yeah, like we said, just um those are some great contenders. We are certainly going to keep those in the mix, but make sure that you leave some more names. I think we’re going to have some uh some really really good ones too to choose from and then we’re going to do a poll next week, right, of the top ones and you will get a chance to name this show. All right, guys. Trey, I just want to say this was great. No, this was this was a really great way to start out our Wednesday. We hope you all enjoyed it as well. Like we said, keep those comments coming, keep those questions coming. And Trey, we’ll be back next Wednesday. Come on, man. Every hope day, we got you. Every Wednesday this season. Thank you all so much. And Trey, thank you as always. Come on. Let’s get it. Keep pounding. [Music]

Kristen Balboni and Tre Boston kickoff their new Wednesday show where they hit the hot topics of the week, interview Panthers legends, and read fan questions on air.

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