0, Chris. That’s the number. 0. You talking about turnovers or the points that the Panthers allowed? Yes, OK, that’s the big thing. As you see on the score behind us, you see Panthers win. Let’s break it all down. Let’s get the sucker started. Get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in-depth look at your team. Exclusive interviews, locker room insight. Let’s huddle up for Panthers Playbook. 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. Panthers playbook presented by Wake Orthopedics. We’re here at Bank of America Stadium where the Panthers get a 30 to 0 shutout win over the Atlanta Falcons. First of all, Chris, I’ll admit I was wrong. Listen, I was wrong listen way wrong on this one. I was completely wrong. I mean we talked about scores. I said 3413. And listen, I said 3121 Atlanta. Anybody who watches this, anybody who’s gonna clip me up, who’s gonna say like, hey, Chris Lee didn’t give us any, hey, listen, I was wrong. Carolina Panthers absolutely showed up today and they did something that they hadn’t done since 2014 and that’s win a game by 30 or more points. So congratulations to them. They absolutely did their job today and the thing is it could have been more. And you, you don’t wanna say it was more, but let’s actually get, let’s get to the good part of it first, which is the fact that this team didn’t hurt themselves. That’s the biggest thing outside of the muff punt by Trevor ETN that we saw in the first quarter, which, by the way, Atlanta did not score on that when they missed a field goal. Outside of that, a couple of 3rd down penalties that pushed them outside of more manageable 3 downs, it was overall a mistake-free game in that regard, which is something that has plagued this team the first two weeks. It’s imagine that. You don’t commit the big mistakes or you limit them and the other team fumbles themselves or fumbles over themselves, I should say. And for you know, you’re walking away with a dominant 30-0 win. It’s exactly what we wanted to see from the Panthers and I said to you in the press box upstairs that this could be teach tape the other way. Like, hey guys, look at how. Their mistakes benefited us and think about it on the other end. What if we threw the pick 6 inside of our own 20, you know, what if we, uh, threw another, uh, interception? What if we, uh, lost a fumble late in the game as we’re trying to make it at least somewhat respectable? What if we also kept muffing punts and kickoffs and things like that? I mean, Atlanta really hurt themselves in many different ways also penalties, you know. Things like that, um, that didn’t give put them in the best positions and the Carolina Panthers can actually watch that and see how it impacts another team so they know that this isn’t what we wanna do, uh, later on. But congratulations to the team. Coach Canalla said it was, it was, uh, it was definitely a team wins complimentary football and that’s exactly what we saw from the game and they played with the lead which changes everything and we actually had a chance to talk with Chuba Hubbard in the locker room and he talked about. Hey, playing with the lead just makes things so much easier. You can kind of see we start to, you know, get into ourselves a little bit and how we actually wanna play our style of ball so it was uh it was a good feeling like I said, we just continue always use the analogy hear me say like many times chopping at the tree chopping at the tree till it falls so still ain’t fallen yet but we’re getting there so I’m, I’m proud of this group. Chris, I think my favorite stat of the game, my favorite stat of this game. The Falcons never reached the Panthers’ 30 yard line. The furthest they got downfield was the 31. That’s it. That’s it. Now again, they missed a couple of long field goals and all that stuff. Parker Romo shoutouts. But other than that, young Hoku, shout outs or You Waiku, him too. Him too. Shout outs to them. But the fact that the, the, the Falcons never even got to the 30 yard line of the Carolina Panthers is pretty remarkable. The tackling is way improved from where it was in week one. Like you gotta get, like, for example, Mike Jackson coming over with a tackle on BJan Robinson or if Mike Jack doesn’t come up with that tackle, it was very Cockley was in the first half, he’s gone. He’s gone, and you never know what the game’s gonna look like from that point on, but Michael Pennix never got settled. Never got like it just even though the Panthers finished with 0 sacks in the game, 0 sacks, just 2 quarterback hits, 3 tackles for a loss, created all the turnovers so they came with it. Michael Pennix never felt comfortable, at least he never looked comfortable in the pocket at all today, Chris. Like, even though the pressure when it wasn’t there, he’s still spraying the ball all over the place. It, it felt like the Panthers defense caused a little bit of havoc, even though, like you said, there’s no, uh, sacks from this game, but they did pressure him. They made him. Easy and he didn’t know what he was looking at and also I would say it was great coverage too by the secondary because like there were some really tight windows and they made him like hey you’re gonna have to be accurate you’re gonna have to throw dots to to your guys today and um honestly like those guys were covered they had a hard time getting to it he wasn’t on the same page with his receivers we talked about this two weeks ago with uh with Bryce Young. The operation was bad for them. I mean you’re talking about calling time. having to take delay of game penalties after a time out right after it’s all bat, not knowing exactly where you are on the field. We talk about the end of the half, not having great, uh, clock awareness and, and spatial awareness, uh, on the field. I mean it was so much and like that might be a part of Atlanta’s deficiencies, but it’s also a part of the Carolina Panthers defense, uh, you know, putting some fear in their heart. So listen, we’ve been hard on Iiro Ero. He got his guys ready today. They were ready for this team. And, and you have to give credit where credit is due them. And it was a lot of young guys too. We saw Shaw Smith wave with the interception early in the third quarter, which I think really is what separated the game away because it was only 10-0 at halftime. That made it 17-0, and I think that’s when really Atlanta just couldn’t overcome 3 or 3 possession game. But Nick Sportton getting his first real, real, real game reps I should say. I know he played with some obviously in the first two games, but being called upon to start with Pat Jones not there. And then we saw actually. Last week against Arizona when Turk Worton not in the lineup on certain passing situations, especially when they would go dime package 6 defensive backs, we saw Pat Jones slide inside to where Turk Wharton normally would be, and we saw Skorton playing on the edge. Well, Skorton would actually move inside a lot in this game, and then you allowed Prince Umambiela and TJ Wanham out there along with, with, uh, with Derrek Brown out there and you saw again the pressure we saw, uh, Nick Skorton got credit with a pass defense because he knocked the arm of Michael Pendix when he. Trying to make a pass, ball flutters away. That’s a pass defense and a pressure for, for Nick Scororton, which is a good thing. The fact that you’re seeing the young guys make contributions. Heck, even at the end of the game, even though it’s inconsequential, Latham Ransom punching the ball out and Damani Richardson jumping on the ball. These are 1st and 2nd year guys that actually made plays for you today, and then you throw in the Mike Jack pick as well. I mean, overall, the young guys on defense. I mean, there’s a reason why you drafted Scoring in the 2nd round and Umami Ellen in the 3rd round. We were. Falling for it. Play the young guys and guess who made big plays for you? The young guys. I imagine that this was a game where you could, you saw exactly what it could possibly be when things are working well, when the guys are prepared, when they’re working together and all that. There was only a couple of times where maybe, uh, JC and his secondary weren’t quite on the same page, but luckily in those plays, nothing really happened. But other than that, like everything seemed to really fit for the defense. This is probably. I don’t wanna jump out the window here. Probably one of the best defensive performances I think I’ve seen from the Carolina Panthers probably since 2023, because I don’t think there’s, there’s any game from last year where we can point to the defense and say. That game right there, this is what it could be. There was a couple of flashes sometimes, but there was never that game. This was that game for them, and I’m look, I’m looking forward to seeing like what that does for the team as far as, uh, their confidence with each other, their motivation, and how they, uh, improve from week to week going into next week. Speaking of JC Horn, he talked about how the defense stepped up today, including. How they’ve heard the noise about I Ero. We’ve been part of that noise and that and that criticism towards their defensive coordinator and they stepped up their game today. So we see everything people say, you know, after the week one performance they’re calling for coach EJ Jobs and stuff like that, but like Dare said at the end of the game we all stay together in this locker room, um, we went out there today and put out a dominating performance, you know, coach he called a perfect game down there uh it’s like every, every play call you call work, um, so we just decided to, you know, keep stacking like I said we’re trying to get better every week. All right, Chris, let’s get to the other side of the football. Let’s go to the offense. I, I. I’ll be honest, I thought it was an average day overall for the offense. They got that first touchdown drive where they moved the ball down the field, did pretty well, but after that, the offense really sputtered. The only other time they scored a touchdown was after Mike Jack’s interception and they got the ball at the Atlanta 30 yard line. It still took them 9 plays Enricodados gets his first touchdown as the Panthers scoring on 4th and goal from the goal line. But I mean, Overall, I thought the offense basically just didn’t hurt themselves and that’s all it was just didn’t hurt themselves and that was enough for today. Didn’t this feel like if you were at the Atlanta Falcons, this was a game that the Panthers’ defense probably played two years ago where it’s like we didn’t do anything wrong. We kind of came in here and did our job. We held the other team to 220 something yards. We got a sack. We didn’t force any turnovers, which the Panthers didn’t really do that a lot in 2023, right, but we didn’t necessarily hurt ourselves yet. We look up and we lost 30 to 0, right? Atlanta’s defense, give it up to them, played a pretty good game, uh, but when it came down to it, they just, when the Panthers were in the red zone, they didn’t keep him from scoring. They’re able to hit 3 field goals, uh, you know, take away 7 honestly from the pick 6. Really the defense only gave up 23 yeah and and so this was one of those games if you look at the opposite side uh for for the Falcons this is what the Panthers defense was going through two years ago, uh, with this team, uh, but the, the offense getting back to that, um, not the best game but the best thing was. They didn’t hurt themselves as you said we talked about the turnovers. I was worried once Trevor ETN this was technical and special teams, but when he muffed that punt and turned the ball over, I was like, oh, that might be that might be the game. So I have to go back again on something I’ve said before and said that they’re not good enough to overcome turnovers, obviously yes they are they did because they did it today and um you know the offense kept it steady, the defense kept it steady and after that the special teams didn’t make uh uh didn’t make any um. Any mistakes, so you know, all around everything looked good. I would want the offense to look a little bit better moving forward, um, only 1 110 passing yards for Bryce Young somewhere around that area, it was more than that. It was it was some left on the table, for sure, but it wasn’t it wasn’t a bunch. So I’m, I’m just hoping that things look better, um, you know, moving forward for the Panthers offense. So, it was 121 for Bryce on 16 to 24, so 121, it was 110 yards 110 yards rushing as a whole. So actually in this game, we saw two long pass plays. We saw a 23 yard and a 21 yard passes to Tedderro McMillan in this game. The next longest play after that for Carolina is a 12 yard completion of Tommy Trimble. Those were the only three plays that went 10+ yards. The longest run of this game was 8 yards, and there’s a few of them by both, you know, Rico Dowd and Chuba Hubbard, but that’s it. So the, the explosives really weren’t there. But again, it’s one of those things where you just didn’t hurt yourself. And I, I honestly thought that the way Carolina played in the first half, they should have been up more than 10-0. And, and, in all honesty, this is, this is the learning point. Hey guys, I understand that we’re up 100. We won 30-0, but I think against an offense that’s better than what Atlanta is right now, at least what they showed, or maybe against a better team. You leave that door open? They can easily, can easily come back because let’s, let’s not forget the first possession of the second half was the Carolina Panthers possession. 5 plays, you’re putting the football. So I, there’s still things about the offense again. They won the game 30-0, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t still be better, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. Not gonna be perfect, but at least it’s a step in the right direction, which is encouraging. So last night, Dennis, you and I were at NC at Duke as NC State played at. Duke, uh, and one of the big things that Duke talked about was the middle eight, the last 4 minutes of the first half, 1st 4 minutes of the second half, how important it is to use that time to possibly flip a game. The Panthers did have that opportunity. They got the ball a little bit 2 and some change left, 236 left in the first half, and you’re thinking, OK, I turned around and looked at you. OK, 2 minute drill, what you’re gonna do here? And they ended up punting the ball right there. That was a great opportunity to, uh, to run the clock. Down and come away with some points even if it’s just 3 points come away with some points because you’re getting the ball back in uh with the second half, uh, beginning and as you said right there 5 plays and and they’re done, um, those are the opportunities that were left on the table right there. If you add in just those right there, if you finish with a touchdown at the end of the first half, possibly start the second half with a touchdown, you’re talking about this is a 44 point game for the Carolina Panthers, and if the Falcons still do what they did. This is 44 to nothing Dennis. All of us, we’re talking about them a little bit differently even with this, I mean we’re still excited about what they’re doing, but now we’re talking about them just a little bit different like the Panthers put up 44 on the Falcons and and they gave up 0, and so those are the things I think the Panthers can still get better at it’s still week 3. I think they will get better with it because now you have that win and you have that confidence, but that would be what I would want them to work better towards, uh, for next week. And there were a couple of penalties that that made 3 downs that were manageable that pushed them back. I remember, um, in the first half they had a 3rd and 2. They had a false start penalty. Now it’s 3rd and 7, and I thought the position where they were on the field that if they didn’t get the 3rd and 2, they could have gone for it. So they’re probably thinking, hey, 2 plays here, but you push them back a little bit further than now you’re having to punt the ball or. You pick up a 1st down, holding penalty brings you back. Now again, you’re looking at 3rd and long as opposed to either 3 or, you know, a short yarded situation or even a 1st down. So those mistakes were there again. They didn’t score an offensive touchdown after the opening drive until into the 4th quarter again after Mike Jack had that long interception return, took the ball all the way back to the Atlanta 30 yard line. It was just a couple of field goals. The other touchdown again was a defensive touchdown by Shaw Smith Waite. So again, still improvement that needs to be made from the offense, but. The biggest thing was Bryce Young did not turn the football over. What grade would you give the offense? What grade would you give the defense? Defense A plus. You scored more points than you allowed. Defense A plus in that regard. Um, I would say offensively C+. I would say offensively a C+ grade for them today. I, I was gonna give them a B flat, um, just mainly because, uh, even though it wasn’t the best looking game on offense, as we said, they didn’t hurt themselves and maybe that’s me grading on a curve for them, uh, but it was sometimes. You just need your quarterback to be a game manager, yeah, and that’s OK and that is, that is perfectly OK that’s OK because you know most of the quarterbacks in this league, that’s what they are, you know, like you can’t, you can’t the great ones are game managers. You can’t just, you know, expect every quarterback, every game to go out and just gun sling it and win it for you, right? So the fact that they didn’t hurt themselves was absolutely perfect for them today, but I’ll give them a B. There’s more to be left on the table, more to be desired. But they did exactly what they had to do to get a win for today and that’s what matters. All right, we’ll see what they are going for, by the way, speaking of the, the young rookie Tedderro McMillan that we mentioned earlier, Moss them, he did actually, he did, he did have one of those today. He did have one of those today, you know, it wasn’t a big passing day overall, but overall, but he. He had a couple of nice catches today and he even talked about what it was like to actually see this team play with a lead. Versus Cardinals, you see that we got punched in the mouth early, so you know the emphasis going into this week was just to start fast and you know make sure we played the full 60 minutes and um that was a huge emphasis for us and you, you can definitely see that, you know, we, we had a big, we had a big uh reason why why we did that and um you know we went out there and scored the first drive and man that’s. You know, that’s just a huge momentum right there. So just being able to do that and continue to play like that for the uh the rest of the 60 minutes is, is a blessing for sure. All right, Chris, we’re on to New England. We’re on to New England. See what happens, uh, with our boy Drake May back there, North Carolina from Charlotte from right here in Charlotte, you know, uh, we’ll have to see kind of what ends up going on, but you know, New England, what they lost today, right? They lost 2114 to the Steelers Steelers. They turn the ball over 5 times, by the way, listen, 5 times if you’re coming off of this game where you forced 3 turnovers and you look on tape and you see that team turn the ball over 5 times, OK. How can we add on to that? You know that that’s gonna be a point of emphasis. They’re probably gonna be really thinking about that next week. How can we help turn the ball over for them and, and get another big time win this time on the road? Hey, you know, when’s the win, uh, the, the, the number was, I think since 2015, Chris, that only one team since 2015 has made the playoffs that started 0 and 3. The Panthers are not 0 and 3. Got that 11 and 2 for the 2nd time in 2 years. I’ll take it. I’ll take a win. I will take a win. You better as well. Again, leave your thoughts in the comment section. Thanks everyone for tapping in with us once again. Big shout out to our sponsor, Wake Orthopedic for bringing us Panthers Playbook. Make sure you subscribe and like as well all the good things. This is our layer, folks. Our layer
