PREVIEW: Carolina Panthers EYE Win Streak—Rico Dowdle SETS THE PACE With Saints in Turmoil

PREVIEW: Carolina Panthers EYE Win Streak—Rico Dowdle SETS THE PACE With Saints in Turmoil

The Panthers are sitting at 5-4 for the first time since 2019. And the Saints are sitting at 1-8. But could it be an upset brewing in Carolina? Or will the Panthers show that last week was not a fluke? We’ll break it all down on this locked on NFL crossover Thursday edition of Locked On Panthers and Locked On Saints. [Music] You are Locked on NFL Crossover, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Panthers and Locked On Saints who are part of the Lockdown podcast network where you can listen to me Julian Council and him Ross Jackson breakdown the Carolina Panthers and the New Orleans Saints every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and yes of course Friday your team every day. That’s our motto here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thanks for watching our shows here on YouTube and listening wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Today is Crossover Thursday and as every single Thursday throughout the regular season, Crossover Thursday is presented by our friends over at Price Picks. Download the Price Pick app today and use code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. It’s an NFC South matchup. Let’s not call it a showdown match up on Sunday in Uptown Charlotte as Carolina Panthers sitting at 5 and4 coming off of a massive win last week at Lambeau Field face off against the 1 and8 Saints who there’s at least a slimmer of hope because Tyler Shuck is now the starting quarterback Ross Jackson of lockdown Saints. Good to talk to you. It’s been a while. How you doing my friend? Yeah, man. It’s been great man. Well, it hasn’t been great but it’s great to see you and I’m glad to be here with you. Yeah, I was uh I was on ESPN down in Baton Rouge with uh our friend Matt Mone. I’ve known Matt for a while now and he had been talking about LSU briefly. Oh, let’s talk about that, man. We don’t need to talk about the game. Let’s talk about all that’s going down in Baton Rouge. And for all y’all out there, Matt hosts locked on LSU doing an insanely awesome job covering all the nonsense going on down there. Goodness. Um, so yeah, it’s been kind of crazy if you are a Saints and an LSU fan, but maybe things aren’t will get better soon with Tyler Shuck out there. So, what’s what’s been the storyline aside from Tyler Shuck and the one and eight start for New Orleans that you kind of been looking at want to touch on on the show, RS? Yeah. Yeah. I think the the the big thing is I mean this is the Saints worst start since 1980 through the first nine games of a season, four and a half decades and they’re not going to be turning it around anytime soon. Like this is going to be a rough ride throughout the rest of this eightgame season. And so the biggest story for this team is Tyler Shuck because he is their kind of opportunity for that glimmer of hope. As you mentioned, if he ends up panning out in a way that maybe doesn’t win them out of the first overall selection, then that or that wins them out of the first overall selection, that’s actually kind of a positive for New Orleans, believe it or not, because it means that they might have the quarterback that they’re looking for in Tyler Shuck. And so he has sort of this weight on his shoulder now to over the next eight games try to perform as best as he can. But of course, the Saints just trade away a starting offensive lineman and a starting wide receiver, their most dynamic weapon on offense uh in in the midst of that with their trade that send it that sent uh Rasheed Jah to the Seattle Seahawks where he’s going to absolutely ball out. So, I I think the biggest thing now is how do you evaluate Tyler Chuck with a roster that you’ve now started to gut what you think is the right approach for New Orleans in terms of stockpiling draft picks and how much of that do you really get to look at over the course of the next eight games? I think that’s going to be the biggest thing for this team throughout the rest of the season. Yeah, poor Crystal Lave. There was teams out there that are interested in him and he’s still New Orleans uh being thrown to by a 26-year-old rookie. So yeah, let’s evaluate the guy who’s almost 30 as a rookie and see whether he can be the answer long term. So I guess you’re right. It would be a good thing if the Saints can win some games and not be constantly checking tankathon.com to see where they’re going to be drafting in the top five, which is where they’re bound to be. How long is this rebuild going to take? First of all, First of all, how’d you get access to my my web browser history to know that I’ve been checking Tankathon like that? That’s that’s weird. That’s creepy behavior. No, I’m just kidding. Ross, I I host Locked on Panthers. It’s my It’s my listeners and my viewers favorite website as well. Trust me, we’ve been doing it for years over here. There’s a sense of been there, done that that I that I’m catching there for sure. Yeah. No, I mean, look, I I I think that the rebuild is going to take multiple seasons. Uh I I don’t know how it doesn’t. I mean, you flipped the coaching staff last year and now you got to figure out if you have the right coaching staff, and there’s some signs pointing any any direction in terms of that. You can pull some and say, “Oh, they don’t have the right people in the building.” you can pull some things, oh, they might have the perfect people in the building. It it it’s a challenge to figure that out right now. So, they’re not going to answer that question within the first year. And then flipping this roster is going to be a big time endeavor over the course of 2026. But with what money? Like what are you what are you flipping it with? Like that’s going to be the other big thing, too, because even with the rollover of things that’s coming from this year in terms of unused cap into next year, Julian, $21 million over the salary cap, now it’s better than $111 million over the salary cap. So, it’s progress, but progress isn’t always perfection, right? And so, I think that that’s got to be the next thing is that you’re still looking at a multi-year rebuild here. They should be more competitive in 2026. They should be more competitive in 2027, but there’s there’s a lot of variance to that should word there. Yeah. With what money? That seems to be a question always asked in Louisiana. No one has money apparently. But, we’re all trying to figure out where we need the money to get New Orleans. The city of New Orleans itself just misplaced 150 million. like nobody knows what’s going on. I It feels like Mickey Lumis has been misappropriating funds for over a decade down in New Orleans for them to be in this situation. Yeah, it’s been a lot of restructure, double down on old players, like all this stuff. Like it’s all like the situation that the Saints are in is a situation they created for themselves. Now, obviously the COVID season hurt them quite a bit in terms of salary cap, but the decision-m that followed even that to continue to restructure and everything like that, like that’s the reason why they’re in the situation that they’re in. And now those same people that got them in the situation are the ones that are being tasked to dig them out of it. And you know, we’ll see how long that clock lasts. Ah, so we’re blaming COVID now. And no, no, no. That’s always been the line. That’s always been the line. That’s always been the line. But the decision-m even after that doesn’t, you know, does not exonerate them from the like what happened during the co season does not exonerate them from all the decisions they made after the co season. You know what I mean? Sure. Sure. Sure. And Cam Jordan, speaking of older players, out there looking like Corus Farion, so shout out to him. But looking at Carolina, things are actually bright. Progress is it’s not linear here, but it’s actually playing out in living color, which we’ve been waiting for for a while here around these parts as they’re five and four coming off of what I believe could be a franchise altering win against Green Bay on Sunday. I did not think that was going to happen. I thought they’re going to get blown out again. They hadn’t given me any reason to believe that they could stick with the better teams in the NFL based off of what happened New England and what happened on their own home field the week prior against Buffalo. But what do you know? They found a way to go out there and do it against the Packers. And of course, the story is like, what’s wrong with Green Bay, man? Are the Packers ever going to be dominant? Oh, Tucker Craft towards ACL. Obviously, thoughts and prayers, but like it’s always, oh man, what’s wrong with this team, guys? Maybe maybe Carolina’s gotten better. Maybe they deserve some respect. But it’s like the game against Dallas when they had won two in a row after beating another bad team, Miami. They beat the Cowboys. It’s like, okay guys, cool. That’s all well and good, but you can’t go out there and wash away a good result by losing to the Jets who were winless at that point in time. Kind of the same case with this week. All due respect, New Orleans are one and eight. It’s not a good football team. You cannot lose in this situation. And then you have Atlanta after that. You still have Tampa twice. You still have Seattle. You still have LA. You the Rams that is. And you still have San Francisco. Like those are five potential losses. Not saying they’re going to lose those games. You want to start stacking some wins. And this is a chance to have another three-game winning streak with New Orleans at home on Sunday. Then next week down there in Atlanta, who god knows which Falcons team’s going to show up any given week, which has been a problem here in Carolina. But they finally found some consistency which is a nice thing. And because Rico Dattle Ross has been quite possibly the best running back in the NFL and the last well certainly the last five weeks but going back to the beginning of the season other than Jonathan Taylor who has been better than Rico Dowel. He has been outstanding. So he has been their offense and that really has been the big story for Carolina as finally they’re competent and people are daring to dream again which is nice. Yeah, that’s awesome man. And I think too that like looking across the sideline on Sunday for New Orleans and looking at the Carolina Panthers, there’s a little bit of a hey, that’s what we want to be in a year or two years or whatever kind of feeling that should overcome New Orleans in that situation. Like looking at the uh Carolina Panthers and the the the the quarterback pursuit, but also the patient shown with the quarterback in varying degrees throughout. I know that it’s not, like you said, it’s not linear. Uh, but seeing that, seeing the way that they’ve built, how they’ve invested draft picks into weapons and built their offensive line and built the trenches and all these pieces, like there’s a lot that they’ve done well that New Orleans should look at and try to replicate. Like there should be an aspirational viewpoint for New Orleans as they look across at the Carolina Panthers, who are the reason that Dennis Allen was fired last year and now could be the reason that the Saints in Carolina where they’ve lost three of their last four games, by the way, uh could look across and say, “Oh, maybe that’s what they should be doing.” You know what I mean? Like I I think that’s that’s a massive victory for Carolina and aligns with what we predicted preseason in our uh in our uh divisional previews. Yes. So, we all thought that New Orleans would be terrible. And we thought that maybe Carolina could take a step forward. So, listen, Saints fans, not my words, but Ross’ words saying, “Look at Carolina and aspire to be the Panthers.” That is just tremendous how the mighty have fallen down there in Nola. Um, but yeah, let’s let’s get into some of the matchups in the on this game on Sunday or in this game on Sunday. 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I’m like, you know what? I’m I think you can, but Okay. Yeah, it’s Louisiana. You definitely can down there, which I still have not been to that wonderful state. One day, you got to come through. We got you got to come through. I don’t know what’s taking me so long, but uh I’m excited for that one day to come. It will not be this season later on in the year. U but it will be one day hopefully in the near future. But you’ll be up this way as the Panthers are facing the Saints. Week 10 matchup between these two NFC South rivals. Uh big game obviously for Carolina to come off of a big win last weekend in for New Orleans to see some proof of concept of what Kell Moore is trying to build down there and to see if their 26-year-old rookie uh wasn’t just a wasted second round pick that get guaranteed money. Uh but yeah, looking at the matchups in this game, what’s something that’s sticking out to you for the Saints offensively? Yeah, I think the biggest thing right now is going to be the Saints receiving core and I might even go pass catchers as a whole just going up against the Carolina secondary. Um Carolina and the Saints aren’t far off in terms of yards allowed over on the defensive side. Both have have fared well there. But where Carolina’s been really good is that they don’t allow a lot of passing touchdowns. And here’s the thing, the Saints don’t score a lot of passing touchdowns. They don’t score a lot of touchdowns, period. And so I think that a big part of what you’re going to be looking at is does Tyler Shuck increase the scoring potential of this team? But now of course Rashid Shahid’s been traded away. What’s the impact there in terms of Chris Olive and helping a guy like wide receiver Devon Vele who they traded for before the season? How he ends up stepping in? He’s going to have as Kell Moore told us on Wednesday a quote healthy role for the rest of the season. And I’m like you gave up a fourth round pick for the guy. Why didn’t he have a healthy role before now? But that is what it is. And so now like the doors open for him to be able to kind of step in and be able to provide some assistance. Now all of a sudden you have a 6’4 big time uh you know big body passing opportunity you know pass catcher and a six foot five tall wide receiver for the first time. I think Cam Jordan said like it’s a six foot we have a 6’5 wide receiver for the first time in like 60 years or he made some kind of quip like that about it. But now you have these guys that have an opportunity to maybe you know do something a little bit different than what the Saints were trying to do earlier with all the dimminative fast wide receiver kind of copypaste approach that they were taking at the position. now an opportunity to maybe see if they can mix things up a little bit and find some success. Saints wide receivers in your grandma’s house. Same thing. Having a healthy role, a healthy play to roles at your grandma’s house and maybe a healthy role on Sunday uh for your boy there. Yeah, you like that one. Um yeah, looking at from the Panther side of things, just defensively, of course, it’s what are they going to be able to do against Tyler Shuck making his second career start. And I look at just the pass rush. Carolina’s pass rush has been not good. A lot of fans wanted to see them go out there and spend some draft capital to get a guy who would not materially change their season at the trade deadline. And Dan Morgan said, “Nah, we’re not going to do that. We’re gonna we’re going to stick to what we got here and just ride this baby out over the next eight weeks and see where we go and then what we need once it’s the time to actually be aggressive and go for it, which is in March and in April.” Uh, but looking at Tyler Shug, I honestly like was not the biggest fan. Uh, when he was at Oregon and then when he kept getting hurt at Texas Tech, couldn’t really say anything at Louisville, he was better than Jack Plameumber, former Carolina Panthers, great, but didn’t really stand out to me. And I’m not really a believer that he’s going to be anything in the special in the NFL. Uh, but we’ll see if he can make something happen on Sunday. Now, it’s going to come down to the Saints pass protection. Right now, according to ESPN’s pass block win rate, they’re last in the NFL. Now, good for them. We kind of talked about this with, well, actually, it was the inverse when we talked about the Saints as far as throwing touchdowns and were scoring in general and the Panthers secondary not giving up touchdowns. The Panthers pass rush is 28th in pass rush win rate according to ESPN.com. The Saints last week, I found this very interesting. Uh, they did not get blitzed that much really. That being Tyler Shuck only 8% of the time on the drop backs to the Rams blitz a week ago. Now, there’s only 25 drop backs, so maybe that was something that went into it, but it was still the by far the lowest that we have seen from the Rams this season. The Panthers, they’re a team that is only 19th in the NFL in blitz percentage, those numbers coming from True Media. So, are they just going to sit back and play coverage and allow Tyler Shuck to make a mistake, if there is a mistake to be made on Sunday? That’s something I’m going to be looking out for just from the defensive side for Carolina against the Saints offense. What about the Saints defense? What are you seeing from them and what they matchup wise are going to need to win on Sunday? Yeah, this one all comes down to their run defense for me, man. Like uh the the Saints run defense has been so up and down. They’ve had games where they’ve been really good and then they’ve had games where they’ve surrendered 222 rushing yards to the Chicago Bears in Chicago, for instance. And so it’s not been consistent enough to be able to, you know, hang a hat on or or call it a staple point of their identity or anything like that. But it’s something that they’ve absolutely got to make sure that they’re on point with as best as they can this week because they’re going up against a guy, now I know he missed practice on Wednesday, but I’m not out on him yet. A guy like Rico Dott who is having this enormous breakout season so far. And you know, look, the other thing to mention with this is that when it comes down to the run game, it helps you extend drives. It helps you keep keep the ball in the hands of the offense. The Saints had only 16 minutes and 7 seconds of possession on the in terms of time of possession last week against the Losh Los Angeles Rams. That was the I think the second No, it was the lowest in their team’s history. It was the 13th lowest in NFL history. And they only ran 40 offensive plays, Julian. like they just never even got an opportunity to be out on the football field, nonetheless figure out if Tyler Shuck’s going to be their next next franchise quarterback. And so figuring out a way to make sure to not get dominated in time of possession and in the ground game would sometimes go hand in hand, that’s got to be a big time key for me in this one. Anytime you’re having franchise lows in 2025 for a franchise where their fans used to wear brown paper bags over their heads at games, that ain’t good. Uh, you want to hear some numbers from Rico Dattle that you can look forward to on Sunday, Saints fans. Uh, since week five, Rico Dattle is leading the NFL in rushing. And if you just want to say forget the since week five stuff, what about since week one? All right. Well, he’s third overall in the NFL in rushing with 735 yards. He’s second right now in the NFL in EPA per rush among running backs for at least 100 plus carries. The only guy ahead of him is Jonathan Taylor, who’s been the best back in the league this year. He’s fourth in yards after contact, second in explosive rush percentage, which is runs over 12 yards. He’s fourth in rushing successful play rate, third in su successful play percentage on run plays. Yeah, he’s been good. And that is going to be uh tough to stop. up and yeah, he did not practice on Wednesday. It wasn’t really surprising. I figure that would be the case after he was clearly dealing with something on Sunday in that win against Green Bay where he had 130 yards on the ground on 25 carries. I would expect that who probably and they put the pads on on Thursday. So, we’ll see whether he’s able to go out there or not. At this point in time when clearly this guy’s your offense, there’s really no reason to stress him throughout the week anyway. So, we’ll see how that looks like on Thursday when pads are on. Then on Friday when they kind of have their walk through. Now, one other thing I do want to point out because Rico has been the offense is that Bryce Shock, I want to see what he’s able to do against the Saints secondary. Bryce has only thrown for over 200 yards once this season and it was in really garbage time that turned into Oh, wait. Is this the greatest comeback in franchise history against Arizona in week two? Now, this the Cardinals secondary, they were dropping like flies in that game, mind you. But that was the only time we’ve seen Bryce really excel throwing the ball this season like in a high volume yardage kind of way. But they’ve still won these games without needing Bryce, who he’s won his last four starts if you want to believe that QB wins as a stat. They’ve been able to do this without him throwing for over 200 yards. Now, the Saints, they’re allowing the fourth highest passer rating in the NFL this season. They are 27th in defensive total pass EPA and 24th in defensive pass success rate. Those numbers from True Media. This is the chance against a bad team for Bryce who has a running back who maybe he’s laboring a little bit. Hopefully you can give Rico a week off. This will be the time for Bryce Young to really show what he can do heading to the final half of the season where they’re not going to get away with running for away from they’re not going to get away with him throwing for 102 yards like they did last week against the Packers. I don’t think it’s going to happen and work out against the Rams, against Tampa, against Seattle, and against the 49ers. So, that’s another thing I’m looking at on Sunday in this matchup. Yeah, Saints also giving up the seventh highest completion percentage so far this season and have given up to four different starting quarterbacks a 70% or better completion percentage over on the defensive side. They allow a lot to get caught and they allow a lot of success. What they try to do is play that bend don’t break type of defense, but last week it broke and it broke big time. And I’m curious to see if they’re going to be able to bounce back from that performance against, like you said, a Bryce Young who’s looking to maybe prove I don’t know if it’s prove something or a Bryce Young that’s looking to show consistency here as they continue to move forward in Carolina. Yeah, show me more. I’d like to see more. He’s obviously makes the plays when you need him. He has three gamewinning drives so far this season. When you go back to his first year in the league in 2023, he’s tied for nine game-winning drives, the most in the NFL. Uh, with Patrick Mahomes, Gino Smith, and Jaylen Herz. And I said this yesterday, can you One of those names is not like the other. I know. I’m like, he ain’t gonna be Pat. It’s not He’s never gonna be Pat Mahomes. Gino’s not really working out so far right now. Can you Can you beat Jaylen Herz? Can we get that? Because the Eagles, those guys, you know, AJ Brown every every week, man. He’s he’s not happy. Uh but they’re winning. So, can you do that potentially? So, we’ll see how these matches play out on Sunday here in Uptown Charlotte. What do each team need to do to win? We’ll talk about that here in just a moment on this Locked On NFL Crossover Thursday edition of Locked On Panthers and Locked On Saints. NFL season is back and honestly, there’s nothing better than being in the stadium surrounded by fans cheering on your team. But let’s be honest, getting tickets can be a hassle. between cues, login screens, and prices jumping at checkout. It’s frustrating. 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We’re back here on this locked on NFL crossover Thursday edition of locked on Panthers and Locked On. Sanskin, guys, go over to prize pick. Download the app today and use code locked on NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. We already talked about the biggest story lines, some of the matchups that can change the game. What do each of these teams need to do to win on Sunday? What is one thing, Ross, that the Saints must do to win this game? I mean, goodness gracious. Uh, I I think I think really this comes down to the team figuring out its identity. Uh, right now they don’t have one, and that’s not super surprising. We knew that this was going to be an identity defining season for this team uh here throughout 2025. And so maybe finding something that they feel like they can hang their hat on, right? I made that I made reference to that phrase earlier. A lot of it is that like this team doesn’t have anything that it falls back on that is something that it can always rely on, right? And so whether that becomes Tyler Shuck, whether that becomes the run game, which the Saints haven’t scratched 100 rushing yards as a team for five consecutive weeks now in the NFL, and then they traded away Trevor Penning to the Los Angeles Chargers for next year’s 2026th uh 2027 sixth round pick. um that kind of showed you maybe that that’s where they felt like their weak link was. And so getting Dylan Raidens back in the lineup where they were way more successful with him in the lineup in the early portion of the season, rushing for over 100 yards in two consecutive games to start the year out of the three that he started. Uh maybe there’s something to the way that he plays the position that works more in mesh with the rest of this offensive line, but the offensive line’s also hurt, yada yada. So they got to figure out something that is going to be its their their fallback, their go-to, what it is that they do. So, I think they’ve got to figure that out. And I think that the other piece is just winning on first down. This team consistently is playing behind the sticks on or behind the eightball on third downs and it’s third and seven, third and eight, third and nine, whatever. Those are bad situations to be in when you have a rookie quarterback and a defense that’s going to be looking to pin their ears back because it’s a throwing situation and it’s a clear and obvious throwing situation. All those things. So finding an identity, winning on third downs, extending drives that actually turn into points. I think those are going to be the big things for New Orleans that they would have to do even to get into the conversation about winning this game on Sunday. Ross, I only wanted one thing. You gave me three. That’s finally going to give you three. I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. There’s a lot that this team’s got to do, man. Well, here’s three things that Carolina uh needs to do. Number one, it’s not really like a statistical thing. It’s just a very plainly handle your business. You look at the games that they played against like opponents, which is the Jets and the Dolphins. Those were games where they kind of struggled. They had to come back from 17 points down against Miami before winning that game. They did not look interested in scoring points at all offensively against the Jets. But JC Horn’s like, we’re we’re not going to lose here, guys. Let’s go ahead and take care of this dub and get back home and play Buffalo. Um, so this is one of those things where can you handle handle your business? Can you avoid another one-score game? Can you just show that even if you beat New Orleans? That’s not going to prove to anybody that, oh, the thing last week against Green Bay, that win wasn’t a fluke, but at least show that you’re a serious team, that you’re not going to play it for food, which oh to quote Julian Edelman, uh you don’t want to do that this week. You need to finally find a way to win comfortably. And this is the type of game and the type of opponent that you should do that. You got to give Rico the ball. And hopefully the quad is not going to be a lingering issue for him because if he’s not available moving forward down the stretch, then this is not a team that’s going to be winning very many games. Uh because or very more I what am I going to say? He’s not going to win that much more game. They’re not going to win that much down the stretch. I can’t talk. You know what I’m trying to say, guys. If Rico’s not healthy and Bryce is not throwing the ball for over 200 yards, which has been the case even through the winning streak because the run games won all these games, they’re probably not going to win that many more games. There we go. I saw there go. Nailed it. Nailed it. Got there. Got there. Finally made it. Brought it on home. But yeah, Rico D. Just keep giving that guy the football cuz good things happen when you do that. Especially when you give it to him a lot. Uh three and 0. If you want to do running back wins, there you go. Running back. Running back wins. Is that what we’re doing now? running back wins since he’s been a starter in Carolina. And the last thing, win a turnover battle. You’re three and0 Carolina. Since you’ve done that this season in the games that you’ve done that defensive win. Yeah. Defensive win. So win a turnover battle. The Panthers and Saints have not taken care of the football this season. 13 turnovers to Carolina, 14 for New Orleans. They ranked 28th and 29th, respectively. And they have everything, man. All these stats. Turnover EPA per game. That’s a stat folks. go to True Media and find that out. Uh, but yeah, 28, 29th respectively. Carolina 28th, New Orleans 29th, and turnover EPA per game. Win a turnover battle, you likely win the game like you have throughout the season so far. So, those are the three things among many others the Panthers need to do uh to win on Sunday, but really handle your business. The Panthers, who have been underdogs all year long, are favorites on Sunday. Now they have opened up as underdogs and I know the Jets line shifted to them being a favorite slight. They are favorites in this game against the Saints on Sunday. Do you have a prediction for me, Ross, and how you think this game is going to play out? I do. Yeah, I think this game is going to play out in favor of the Carolina Panthers. Uh right now our friends over at FanDuel have it as a five and a half point spread. I’m taking the uh I’m taking them in the points on this one. I’m going uh Panthers 23, Saints 17. That’s an improvement for the Saints who had one touchdown last week. Now, maybe finding a way to get two touchdowns in this one. I think you’re looking for the incremental progress at the wide, excuse me, at the quarterback position as the number one thing for this team as opposed to the points scored uh by the time that it’s all said and done. But I think the Saints will be coming back here to New Orleans 1 and nine uh after dropping their fourth game in five years to the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, there’s really no excuse for Carolina not to win this game on Sunday. I just none at all. You need to win. This is an opportunity along with the next time they play down there in New Orleans to pick up two what should be standard professionallike wins against a team that isn’t a rebuild of their own and far behind where you’re at at this point in time. So looking at the two games against New Orleans, that should get Carolina up to seven wins at minimum this season. and then can you take care of business against Atlanta next week and then against the better teams that you’ll face are going to be right there on the playoff bubble much like yourselves. Those are games that we’ll see how they go. But I I expect Carolina to win this game. I’m not saying they’re going to win, but I expect them to win this game. Yeah, right. And if they don’t, they beat themselves. Tune in to lockdown Panthers. Yeah, right. Come through and I’ll tell you why. Yeah. Tune in locked on Panthers on Sunday around 5:30 from inside Bank America Stadium. I’ll let you know how I feel about if that happens. Uh but I do not think that will be the case. Um but you can never roll it out in this league. But that’s going to wrap up this edition of Blockton Panthers and the Locked On Saints podcast for our Locked On podcast network. Again, y’all subscribe or follow the shows for free over on YouTube and wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. And be sure to check me out Julian Council every Monday through Friday here on Lockdown Panthers and Ross Jackson over on Lockdown Saints as well as your team every day is our motto here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. In the meantime, be safe, be happy, be whole. As always, keep pounding. And who that gonna beat them Saints? The Panthers, by the way. And we’ll talk to y’all on Friday.

Carolina Panthers surge to 5-4 with Rico Dowdle leading the NFL in rushing since Week 5—are they finally playoff contenders? Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints sit at 1-8, pinning their hopes on rookie QB Tyler Shough amidst roster shake-ups and salary cap woes. Can the Saints capitalize on Shough’s potential turnaround, or will Carolina’s newfound consistency and dominant ground game fuel another decisive victory?

Julian Council and Locked On Saints Ross Jackson break down the NFC South matchup, spotlighting Dowdle’s breakout performances, Bryce Young’s quest for offensive balance, and how Rashid Shaheed’s departure affects New Orleans’ receiver corps. Key topics include the Panthers defensive improvements, the Saints’ run defense instability, and what each team must do to win. Don’t miss insider analysis on Carolina’s playoff path and whether New Orleans is facing a multi-year rebuild.

Timestamps:
0:00 Panthers vs. Saints on Sunday
2:30 Biggest storyline for each team heading into Week 10
13:05 Matchups that could change the game
24:48 Keys to Victory
30:10 Predictions

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