One, Chris, the numbers one. That’s how many games the Panthers are back in the NFC for a wild card spot. One game back in the win Gollum through 6 weeks. Are you telling me? That there’s a chance. Don’t lose to the damn Jets and there’s a damn good chance. Let’s get this sucker starts. Get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in-depth look at your team. Exclusive interviews locker room insight. Let’s huddle up for Panther’s 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 Coxy with you. Panthers Playbook sponsored by Wake Orthopedics. Leave your thoughts in the comment section down below. Can this Panthers team. Challenge for a playoff spot. What do I mean by challenge? Maybe it’s, you know, week 15. Still have a mathematical chance, week 16, mathematical chance. In my eyes, that’s challenging for a playoff spot. Not, not, not necessarily that they make it, but still, as we’re late in the season, December, hey, you know what, there’s an outside or even some sort of chance. I don’t know. But real quick, Chris, I, I wanna. It’s 67. I just. I just wanna I was gonna bring up something fun, uh, Chris. Shout outs to my Gen Z nephews. And all the Gen Zers that are watching this as well. Uh, Chris, we have at 999 the fan on where it’s where people watch this on YouTube, 999. The fan. If you haven’t subscribed already, make sure that you do. We’ve had over 20,000 followers on 999 the Fan’s YouTube page. So thanks to each and every one of you so far that has subscribed, but also please subscribe because Chris, um, If you, if you subscribe and you watch here on our 99 on the YouTube channel, by the way, if you’re listening on any of your favorite podcast platforms, pop on over to YouTube because we’re doing a giveaway. We’re actually giving away. I can’t, I can’t fully say what it is. We’re gonna put a video out, but we’re giving away, uh. An item that is signed by a current Carolina Panther. I won’t say who or what. Give it away, give it away, give it away now type it to me in the chat just so I can react to it. OK, alright, I’ll just I’ll go and I I won’t say a word, but you know, my reaction is gonna be everything. OK. But yeah, it’s it’s a pretty good one. It’s a pretty good one right? Oh. OK, OK. OK. But, uh, Chris, I know, uh, after the last game against the Dallas Cowboys, where they, again, went to 3 and 3 on the season. You and I talked about, I, I mentioned the term growing pains. I think we focused maybe, especially with the way people reacted in, in the comment section out of the game. We maybe we focus on the pains a little bit too much, but we didn’t necessarily focus enough on the growth. What we’re seeing from this team so far, and I know you’ve alluded to it there towards the end of the podcast. I think we did a sandwich. We, we kind of did, we kind of did the compliment. I, I think that people, we wanna make sure that we’re not getting too high, too low. I think we’re gonna try and make sure that we, you know, try and keep a fair balance here. That’s, that’s how we want to look at this and we want to present that to you, uh, to each and everybody that watches this. But I will say you brought up a really good point. And we’re gonna get into Pat Jones and stuff here in a second. But the additions that Dan Morgan has made, including Pat Jones, have all contributed in some way, shape, or form over the last couple of years. And that I’m talking about, again, for the most part, draft picks, free agents, there are guys that we’re starting to see contribute, and especially really, really young guys. Again, there are growing pains, but the key word part of that is growth, Chris, that’s the key part of it, growing. Yeah, and you know, it goes back to a conversation I think we’ve been having before about draft picks and stuff like that. They’ve had to replace the bad draft picks with people that they brought in because those guys just weren’t working out. Um, so you bring in these new guys and I would say even Jadeveon Clowney, like he served his purpose. It was a good signing for last year. He served the purpose that he was, he needed to be there for because we didn’t have him. It’s gonna be DJ Johnson starting in that spot? DJ Johnson, is he in the NFL? Did he ever get signed anywhere? No, he never got claimed off waivers. So he So it, it was needed. So he was, he was better than what we had, um, and I think, of course, Dan Morgan’s done a great job. I, I can’t wait to see, uh, what he does in the offseason, but we still have so much more season left this year’s a lot, and I’m excited to see what the guys do this year for the rest of the year. We’re basically 13 of the way through the year, 6 out of 17 games. We’re basically 13 of the way, yeah, it’s. I swear, I swear. If he could punch me, he would. Where? And I swear. By the 6 or the. Uh, I swear by the moon and the stars in the sky, we better beat the damn Jets this weekend, um, because. You talk about it again, you mentioned the growth and the new guys brought in. One of those guys is Pat Jones. We found out on Wednesday that he actually suffered a low back injury, woke up pretty sore on Monday, got imaging and stuff done. He has to have season-ending back surgery, which is a pretty big blow to a defense in my eyes that Chris, we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, shut down the run game, shut it down, especially for what we saw the defense last year and even week one against Jacksonville, we’re like, same damn thing because We gave up 200 yards rushing against the Jacksonville Jaguars in week one, but the last two weeks, only 50 yards rushing allowed combined, combined. And Devonte Williams played this past Sunday, who was one of the leading rushers in the NFL, not the number one guy, but he’s still one of the top guys in the league, and you gotta get that defensive front a lot. Yeah, you gotta give that defensive front a lot of credit for shutting down the run game so far, which is again, been an Achilles heel over recent years under Ijaro Evero. Yeah, it’s gonna he’s gonna be a huge miss. Um, one of the things we interviewed him a couple of games back and we had a one on 11 of the things I thought was cool was just like actually seeing him up close and seeing his size. Like that’s that’s a big guy. Like if you told me that uh. He is the Charlotte Hornets’ new wing. I’m like, man, that’s that’s it’s a nice size wing, pause, you know, it’s he’s he’s a big dude, and so I think we saw him, he sets the edge really well. I think he’s also, he has one he’s one of the 5 sacks that they have this year. Uh, so far, which that’s, you know, that’s another thing we have to talk about, um, that came in the Miami game, by the way, that pretty much sealed it because Miami had a pun after that and Carolina ran out the ball, and I’ll say that like a couple of, uh, plays from this past Sunday, uh, late in the game, uh, when Dallas for some reason was trying to throw, um, horizontal instead of vertical, like he was, he was altering some of those throws from from Zach Prescott with his size and his length and and, you know, getting his hands up and You know, even if he’s not making a tackle, he’s done a good job of like leading uh back into Derrick Brown or Ahaan Robinson’s arms and so they can just go down. So, um, also the veteran presence that he’s had there, um, you know, the, the leadership that he’s had on the field, he’s definitely gonna be somebody that’s gonna be missed. Great off-season acquisition, um, somebody that, you know, if he comes back next year and plays well. I’d be interested in in trying to, you know, extend them for another year or two after that. So, you know, just from what I’ve seen so far in 6 games, um, I like Pat Jones, so. Uh, hope that he’s able to recover well and, uh, able to come back next year, you know, with a vengeance. So with the injury was injuries, we should say with Turk Warton, he had the hamstring injury earlier on, came back, played for a game, then has a toe injury, though he was back at practice on Wednesday, limited participant, but still back. But we saw when Turk Wharton has been out in those pass rushing situations, we’ve actually seen Pat Jones slide inside alongside Derrek Brown, and then you’ve seen. Wannam or Princeley Umam Y Yellen and Nick Skorton, a combination of those three on the outside. Hopefully with Turk Wharton coming back, it, it still allows Turk Wharton to play in those situations, still keep scoring and Umami Ellen and, and DJ Wanam on the outside. But I mean, this is a defense that still needs to get pressure on the quarterback. In 6 games this season, Chris, they’ve only registered a sack in 3 of them. That’s. it and just 3 and 3 sacks against the Miami Dolphins a few games ago. But this is something that is still a major concern for this team. The, the Carolina Panthers are dead last in the NFL and sack percentage, dead last in the NFL at 2.6% of dropbacks by the opposing team, they get a sack. Dead last in the NFL 2.6%. That’s it. Even you look at, at, at pressure rate, pressure percentage, they’re dead last in the NFL just 9.4% of pressures, or I’m sorry, 9.4% of dropbacks. They’re actually getting pressure on the quarterback. The, the percentage of hurries and stuff, it’s one of the worst in the entire NFL. So for a team that’s still starving to get to the quarterback, Pat Jones is a big miss, but this is an opportunity for Umam Yellen to get more. Snaps for Nick scoring to get more snaps, take advantage and hopefully these young guys can do so and get some pressure in the backfield because it’s sorely lacking as great as the run stuffing has been over the last couple of weeks, getting to the quarterback, it just really hasn’t been there overall. And an opportunity maybe for Thomas Num to work his way up a little bit more, you know, maybe he’ll get a few more opportunities because of that, maybe even. Uh, boogie bash him. I don’t know if they they’ll end up elevating him again, he was elevated a couple of games ago. Um, so I mean those are those are guys to look at. Um, that’s, I would say that, you know, right now. Teams that can uh throw over the top. I’m not too worried about that from from the Jets right now. Um, but teams that can throw over the top and uh also teams with good protection if they keep a clean pocket. Like we can’t, we have a hard time covering really good receivers, have a hard time getting to the quarterback. Those are probably the Achilles heels of our defenses. And even though I will say, shout outs to the defense, uh, 10th and, and, uh, total defense right now in the NFL, uh, it’s still early in terms in terms of yards, it’s still early, things can change and shift, but this early, getting back to the top 10 at number 10, uh, is, is a good sight. I just hope that um, That uh Iro Evero uh is able to come up with a with a good plan to put people in position, um, to, to get to him. I mean, you have, uh, Justin Fields who, you know, he’s a, he’s an athlete, he has the escapability, he has the possibility to get some yards on you, uh, on the ground, um, but, uh, he’s, he’s somebody that I feel like if you have a good plan against him, you can get to him. Um, and, and I’m hoping that there’s a, there’s a good plan for, uh, from Iro Eo for his guys, uh, to, to stop them. I will say this, don’t let him. Don’t let him get running. I was gonna say the the run game is like right now the Panthers are what, like 4th in the NFL in rushing yards or something like that, uh, behind them is are the Jets and their 5th. So, um, you know, the Jets can absolutely extend. Uh, drives on, on the ground as well. Uh, and so if they, if they’re doing that to us, and we’re not stopping to run like we have been the last two weeks, um, you know, also expect the, the, the rush, the rush towards the quarterback when they do drop back not to be as good. Speaking of the, let’s flip to the other side of the ball. Steve Wilkes, defensive coordinator for the Jets. Revenge game? Revenge game for Steve Wilks. I, I mean. I love Steve Wilks. I love Steve. This is the one week I’m not cheering for Steve Wilks. This is the one week I don’t want Steve Wilks to look good. And and but here’s the thing though, um. Steve Wilks can bring some exotic pressures. Oh yeah, you know, you talk about some of the things that we want to see sometimes from Iiro Evero. Steve Wilks does that, and uh, I, I, I kind of some part of it makes me wonder, and right now the Panthers are only 1.5 point favorites right now, at this point, it could change, um, and they should be favored in this game for sure. They’re better than the Jets in every metric, even if just by a little bit, right? Um, but Um, They can, he can absolutely cause some confusion, and the Panthers have played two really bad defenses over the last two weeks. Um, the Jets aren’t like the best defense. They’re like they’re actually really not that good. They’re 20th overall, um, but in terms of yards, so like you can score on these guys, but I also feel like there could be opportunities, especially with when, um, you know, Bryce Young decides to hold on to the ball. There could be opportunities for them to get sacks and, and to, you know, create those big plays for them. There’ll be momentum plays for them. So I absolutely feel like in this game, uh, whatever, you know, Canaless is planning. Let’s call some some plays to get the ball out of Bryce’s hand really quickly, um, and, and let’s let’s keep their defense back on their heels, uh, as much as as as much as possible, and that run game, hopefully Cuba’s back, we, we, you know, alluded to some guys potentially being back. You might have that 12 punch, uh, this week, and we haven’t really seen that this year, a true 12 punch, and I think Rico has forced his way into it. So now the Jets, if, if the Panthers are able to do that, that’s the advantage we have, because nobody knows what that really truly looks like from the Carolina Panthers this year. We know a good game from Chuba Hubbard. We know great games from Rico Dado. We don’t know what it looks like with both of them having really good games so far this year, and this could be a good opportunity for both of them to get 100 yards on the ground. I think with Cuba coming back off of the, the calf injury and the way Rico Dale is played, you can Lack of a better term, you can ease Cuba back into it. You can still give the lion’s share to Rico Dale in this game and like, hey, Cuba, to because again, soft tissue injury, lower body, we don’t need to give you 18 carry save. We can give you 12 and Rico can still, you know, run for, you know, 22, get 22, 23 touches of the ball, and guys can stay fresh. I’m for it. I’m for it, especially the way Rico can handle things in the past game as well. They could really confuse some defense as well. I actually like the idea of using both of them on the field, which we’ve seen at moments, even in the preseason, we’ve seen that, or even how Miles Sanders was used at moments last year with Cuba Hubbard in the back there when he was healthy. So the defense, go ahead, Chris, go ahead. I’m sorry, it’s something that just popped in my head. I was looking at. Film today, um, the, the touchdown that Rico scored, I realized looking back at it, that’s the same play that Miles Sanders had against the Falcons. I was like, yo, this thing works, sorry, keep going. No, it really was, it really was. So you’re talking about again the Jets defense that overall. isn’t that good. So in terms of pressure on the quarterback, they’re 3rd worst in the NFL and quarterback pressure. 3rd worst. Now Panthers are the worst, but Jets are 3rd worst in the NFL. In terms of sack percentage, they’re 26th in the NFL. You also just look at, this is, I think it’s something that actually gets overlooked is when we talk about overall defensive play. Is that how many drives by a defense. End up, or I guess an opponent by defense, ends up in scores, whether it’s a field goal or a touchdown. The Jets give up a score on 49.2% of their drive. So basically every other drive, they’re giving up a score in some way, shape, or form. That’s fourth highest in the NFL. The, the, the horse is the Dolphins at 60%. The third worst is the Dallas Cowboys at 53.2%. So that’s who the Panthers are playing this week. That’s what I said earlier, don’t lose with the damn Jets. You, you actually are better. I, I want to see this offense obviously continue to lean on the run game, 100%. But if, if it’s not there. Because it’s not gonna be there every week. You can’t expect your running backs to pop off for 200+ yards from from scrimmage each week. If it’s not there, what’s the plan? That’s my question going forward for this team. If it’s not there, what’s the plan? Because we’ve seen Bryce excel when he has a good run game. They can go play action. That’s when he’s at his best. But if it’s not there, what can they do? I, I was gonna say that, um, I, I feel like he’s starting to get a groove with Jimmy Horn. I wanna see what that looks like, uh, get him a few more touches, uh, to, you know, maybe stretch those edges a little bit, maybe also, you know, get some deep shots. If possible, And I think somebody we haven’t talked about a lot, Mitchell Evans. Yo. 5th round pick Listen, I, I, I was looking at it and, you know, maybe Jattaian Sanders comes back, maybe not, but whenever he does come back and we have a full complement of Jata Sanders, Tommy Turnbull, Mitchell Evans, if we can keep that core for a little bit, we ain’t got to worry about tight end for a little bit, you know, just bring in some good guys to have some competition and push them, and you know, maybe if somebody comes up and ends up taking a job, cool, because those guys are all looking good, um. I, I, I wanna see more shots, uh, to the tight ends. And here’s something I forgot to bring up on the other side of the ball for for defense, um, when we’re talking about coverage. Garrett Wilson looks like he’s not gonna play this game. Yeah, he’s not, and I mean one of one of the better wide receivers in my eyes in the NFL. This, I think, makes things so much easier, uh, for, for the Carolina Panthers cause it’s it’s not as much to worry about, like, you know, Garrett Wilson has the ability to come out there and have uh a George Pickens type of day. So you have that guy not available, OK. Sounds good to me. Let’s go out there and and get a win. I, I think that Um, this is a good opportunity. I, I want to see the Panthers. I don’t think they’re gonna shut out the Jets. Jets are gonna be at home and all that. The way that we’ve seen them win this year has been a shutout, a come from behind, and a back and forth. I want to see them get ahead early, maintain the lead, and just keep it like that. Like the Jets may answer, but you gotta answer right back for them, and you know, they may get within 3 or within 4. But then you go ahead, you know, you’re back ahead by 10 or 14 or something like that, and at the end of the day, we can walk away with something like a 27 to 13 win. That to me will show uh signs of maturity. We haven’t had that type of a game yet, and if you can have that type of a game against this team, um, you end up being 4 and 33 game win streak, winners of 4 of 5 games, um, over 500 for the first time in 4 years, and And I don’t want to look too far ahead, but the bills are sputtering right now. Week to week league, man. The Bills are sputtering. Now they can get that fixed by the time they get to Charlotte, because people will love to have get right games against the Panthers, but Bill was but go. They are right now. They are right now, but as I say, it’s week to week in this league this season, it’s just. It’s hard to actually say who’s great, like, who’s actually really, who is a great team in the NFL is you really can’t say it, you know, you know. Leave your thoughts in the comments again in the You know, You know, You feel me? I, I do. There’s a lot of this in the NFL. Yeah, there’s a, you know, it’s funny how the, the Jets are week 6 and the Bills are week 7, Chris, just saying. Shout out to Wake Orthopedics, our sponsor. Shout out to them. Some good ice. I’ll see you guys after the game on Sunday.
