Over 500, baby. Over 500, 4. 3. Dennis, do you realize that last year, it took us to week 16 to get the 4 wins? Here we are, week 7. Let’s go, baby. Uh, I’m surprised there’s no 67 joke in there, but hey, 4 and 34 and 3. It wasn’t, gosh, it was not pretty, but we’ll take 4 and 30, we’ll break it down. Let’s get this 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 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 Panther’s Playbook. That’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. Panthers Playbook sponsored by Wake Orthopedics. There’s a lot to get into in this game, uh, including Bryce Young, leaves the game, doesn’t come back, ankle injury looks like he stepped on when he was trying to avoid a sack. I’m not sure if that’s exactly what it was or the ankle got twisted. Dave Canalla is a little coy with the postgame. Defense, awesome, but let you know, let us know your thoughts in the comment section. Uh, yes, there’s a win. Are you satisfied with how the team played today? There’s, there’s a difference. You’d be happy that they won, but still not satisfied with how they got there, Chris, but let’s focus on the positive. The defense did exactly what it was supposed to do against a bad offense, plain and simple. The defense did exactly what it was supposed to do against a bad team. Is this the defense? Is this the part of the podcast where I’m supposed to say the Panthers won, all is well. Everything looks good. It’s amazing. OK, I got it out the way. Defense was great though. We definitely gonna start with the positive. And I, I think it was cool seeing. Uh, the two, interceptions basically was him robbing Josh Reynolds, and that shows why you need to put him on the other team’s best receiver who’s available. Garrett Wilson, uh, was not, uh, playing today. And you know, I thought Mike Jackson had a really good game himself, but he had a breakup in the end zone himself. JC Horn has the closing speed. I mean, he was beat in the end zone and that probably should have been a touchdown for the New York Jets, but he came away with that one-handed interception and then he was able to rob them again in the 4th quarter and so it was cool seeing the way that they were able to get together. Also, I mean, the Jets are not good, but being able To get 6 sacks when before this you only had 5 for the entire season. I mean this was a get right game. This is, this is the type of game that bad teams used to have on the Carolina Panthers. Now the Carolina Panthers are having to get right games against other teams. And so being able to walk away with 6 sacks, um, I thought, uh uh EJ Evero had a really good game calling plays himself as far as Um, you know, getting certain pressures, getting certain blitzes at certain times, um, you know, uh, it was a blitz that, uh, uh, Trevon Merrick, uh, was able to get his sack on. So it was really cool to, to see those things and kind of like switch things up. Um, this is one of those games where you use a tape, you build on it. How can you, uh, replicate this as much as possible against the better teams? You’re gonna have Green Bay coming up in 2 weeks. You have Buffalo coming up next week. So how can you help try to replicate that against those types of teams, but great great job by the defense. Um, this is probably outside of, I, I, I don’t understand still some of the soft coverage and and situationally, I don’t understand why you’re letting the Jets get behind you in certain circumstances, uh, but I thought this was the best, uh, you know, performance from the, from the Panthers defense that I’ve probably seen in a while. Yeah, it’s phenomenal overall because only 81 yards rushing total for the, the New York Jets, uh, in this game, which is great. Derek Brown gets two sacks. Nick Gordon gets, uh, gets his first sacks of the year. He had sack and a half. Prince Princeton Umami Yellen, half sack. Trayvon Merrick, like you said, had a sack in there as well. Um, whom else am I missing that also had a sack today? Uh, Ahaan Robinson. Ahaw Robinson had a sack today. So you’re getting sacks from. Guys on different parts of the field, like they’re used in different ways, which I think was a great thing to see because the Jets’ defense, I’m sorry, the Jets offensively last week gave up 9 sacks over in London. Now they gave up 6 this week. So that’s what you want and you expect when you’re going against a bad team to have a game like that. I will say on. JC’s first interception, it looked like he was set to play underneath coverage because Nick Scott was over the top. So it looked like he, he was set to have the underneath coverage, I guess you can say, like, hey, safety’s coming over the top to help me. I play underneath and it ended up working out. But overall, That was the bright spot of this game. The Jets couldn’t do anything. Now Jets are a terrible team, but you also have to make terrible teams look terrible, and that’s what the Panthers did defensively. On the other side of the ball though, Chris, this is this is where we get into the, hm, question marks. Going forward. What the hell was up with the offense today? What the heck was up with that offense today? That was putrid. When the running game isn’t going, we’ll talk about Bryce Young and the injury and all that stuff here and what that might mean down the line, but The run game ain’t going. Price is just average. Plain and simple. First off, I wanna start with Dave Canales. Like, well, that’s a big part of it too. Let’s let’s go there. Let’s go there. Um, you know, I, I was worried during the week. I didn’t want to say it out loud because I, I just wanted to see what was gonna happen today, but during the week you had Jake Delo. Going crazy over him, like, oh, you know, even Luke Kuechly said he didn’t know what was going on, and he said, told me that Dave Canales is a good play caller and everybody started tweeting how good of a play caller Dave Canalas really is. And I don’t know if he saw that, I don’t know if he got if he got to him or whatever, and he was just trying to throw some some razzle-dazzle at some people today, but um I, I understand going back and forth, you know, every other series, um. With your running backs, why didn’t Rico Dado start? Also, you had situations where you’re trying for these certain plays on first down, where you could just run the ball and then you end up being behind the sticks. Now you have to continue to throw. And we’ve talked about like, you know, when Bryce Young is dropping back, if he didn’t get injured in this game, he would have thrown more than 30 times. That that is a recipe for disaster for the Carolina Panthers. He had 25 passes by the time he left in the middle part of the 3rd quarter. He threw the ball only 25 times at the whole game last week. That would have been a disaster for the Carolina Panthers and, and, you know, so it’s, it’s one of those things where, um, you know, I, I don’t know if he was trying to get too cute with things, but clearly when you’re trying to go, uh, inside zone or you go toss plays or different things like that, uh, with Uh, Rico Dodo, things end up working out a little bit more. I know that Chuba Hubbard’s coming off of injury, so he may not be as fresh. He’s still probably trying to get his bearings and maybe not trusting his, uh, his calf or his legs, uh, as much right now. But, you know, this wasn’t uh Chuba Hubbard’s finest day. And if we didn’t have Rico Dado in this game, if we did not have Rico Dale, um, Jets may have gotten their first win, no matter what the defense did on the other side, just because the offense may not have been able to stay on the field. It it was not. A good looking day uh for the offense as a whole. We go with the opportunities he he had looked really good. Shout outs to Xavier Legat. My man had a game, had a really good game, and this is a good bounce back game for him, and this is the kind of kind of game that you want to see from somebody who’s supposed to be your #2. Poker came backed a roa McMillan, didn’t really have, um, you know, a lot of opportunities because he was, you know, kind of getting locked up there. So X Xavier Legat responded, and that’s what you want to see from your guy. Uh, but I think a lot of this really starts with the play caller slash head coach Dave Canales, because I don’t think he had his finest day today. This is where we we talked about over the last few weeks about what’s sustainable for this team, and like what’s sustainable for the offense. We’ve seen the offense over the last week, cook with Rico Dowd. Like, absolutely cook Ricodado, but it took two of the best performances by a running back in Panthers history to make the offense look like it did the last couple of weeks. And then today, he had again 17 carries, 79 yards. That’s a 4.6 yard average. It’s it’s a solid day, but if they’re not click, you know, running at a high clip. Again, it’s just kind of there, the offense. It’s just, it just, it was just average in the sense. I understand the mindset of, OK, why Rico didn’t start. A lot of football coaches have the mindset of you don’t lose your starting spot because of injury. I totally get that. That’s why Cuba Hubbard goes out there for the first series. But that doesn’t mean you can’t feed Rico more during the course of the game. Simple as that. We didn’t even see a lot of two back sets. I was hoping that we’d see that. And when you did see two back sets, it was with Trevor ETN. Yeah, it was exactly, it was with ETN. I was like, why aren’t you using, I think there was, I think it was one, the 4th downplay or maybe it was the 3rd downplay, I can’t remember what it was, where Cuba was lined up as the fullback and Rico was the tailback and like kind of offset eye and they did that one time, but I’m wondering why you mentioned with Canalus like, why don’t you continue to do the things that are working for you? That’s the big question is that you don’t have to make it rocket science. You just don’t have to. Don’t go analysis, you know, paralysis by analysis. This is like my coach used to say, when you’re overthinking stuff too much, my bio canals, when you’re overthinking things too much. And some of the play designs and stuff that were out there with like some of the, you know, fake toss and kind of roll out. I was like, I don’t know what the intent was here. It was just sometimes, sometimes too complex is actually debilitating. It just, it really can be. It’s like, you know what, like you said, Chris. Inside zone, toss play for Dole. Make it work because you know it can, even though you’re without Damian Lewis today, which again, that’s, that’s we haven’t really addressed the fact that you’re down Damian Lewis today, but you had Austin Corbett come back and start at left guard. It was, uh, there’s the reason why Damian Lewis is a starter. It was OK. It was, it was, yeah. He, he caused the sack, um, yeah, that, that Bryce got hurt on, but, and also even down there in the red zone that very first drive, it’s just he, he, he went the wrong way. I know Mark Slayer pointed out it’s like, uh, he pulled and Grady Christensen pulled, and then they ran into each other. I was like, well, based off how everyone else was blocking where the running back was trying to go, Corbett screwed up on that play, plain and simple. But there are things about the offense that I. Still don’t know our sustainable long term. Again, you just played the Dolphins, the Cowboys, and the Jets, 3 of the worst defenses in the entire NFL, like 3 of the worst. I know the Panthers are sitting out 4 and 3. We’ll see how the rest of the games all shake out during the course of the rest of the the NFL Sunday and Monday, and we’ll see where they stand after this. But when you, like you said, when you gotta play Buffalo, like you, if you have that offensive performance against Buffalo, you’re getting blown out. You’re getting blown out because Buffalo’s gonna move up and down the field, plain and simple. You go up against the the The Packers, you’re getting blown off the field in that kind of game. And then reality is really gonna hit you. The one thing I hope that this team doesn’t do is that Hey, hey, look, just because we won, that means everything worked and everything’s OK. Uh, that’s something that we want to cry and cautious people about because we’re keeping the same energy that we had last week, Chris. We really are. We’re keeping that same energy because what if it, if it eventually does get to that point. We’re gonna, we’re gonna say, all right, we were here the whole time. This is so I, I, I still have major questions about Canales. I still have major questions about Bryce because before Bryce got hurt. It’s not like he did anything special, and he didn’t. He underthrows a pass that should have been a touchdown as they really get. They had to settle for a field goal. Mitchell Evans under throws it. Mitchell Evans saved him also on his, uh, first down catch where he basically threw it in the dirt and Evans was able to, you know, get it, you know, before he hit the ground and, and run for a touchdown. 15 for 25, 138 yards, um, you know, 88.4 passer rating. Um, here’s the thing too, and, and I, I, you know, I guess I’m kind of coming to Bryce’s, uh, you know, defense here, um. When Dave Canales was first hired, and those first few press conferences where he’s talking about his style, what he wanted, um, you know, Bryce Young to do, he kept saying 2.3 seconds, get the ball out. And so I assumed, and look, this may be Bryce’s fault, but also I don’t think that the play calling is helping him. I assume that there will be some of these easy kind of dink and dunk type of uh passes, but quickly to get to open receivers or a tight end or a running back or whatever, and that’s not the case. When we talk about Bryce Young averaging less than 10 yards per attempt, that’s him dropping back, looking, surveying, figuring out, then going in with the safe option. There’s rarely the it snapped. I’m gonna make the quick decision, this is designed to go here to get quarterbacks in, you know, uh a rhythm without it being a screen. I mean, sometimes, you know, you have the Dave Canal screen and it doesn’t quite work. Although there’s a few screens that work today. Cuba had a pretty good one today. Um, it’s it’s, I’m wondering where some of those plays are. It doesn’t feel like, uh, Bryce is ever being put in a position. To be in a good rhythm as a passer, if that makes sense. And, and then also like, I don’t think that the the running backs were ever in a good rhythm uh today with with the back and forth and all of that. Here’s also where I’m concerned going forward. What is the status of Bryce Young? Because I don’t know if I trust Andy Dalton as the starter. We know that he could probably throw for 350 yards potentially, depending on You know, what’s going on. He does that mean a win? I don’t, I don’t necessarily think so. I don’t know if Andy’s I don’t know if the Red Rockets doing that anytime that we were talking about this a few weeks ago and I was just saying like this is where the Panthers, I said I was like, you know, Panthers need to get somebody like a Tyrod Taylor um to back up Bryce Young. This is where they need, they absolutely need somebody who can who can push Bryce. And not only somebody who can push Bryce, but somebody that when if Bryce were to go down, you get the feeling of like, oh, I, I don’t know if I want that guy stepping on the field. He’s still a backup, but man, he can if he gets hot, he can do something, um, because that’s what I felt when Tyrod Taylor came on. His, his, uh, receivers and his offensive line failed him today because everything around him is is bad, but. And but and also JC Horn just happened to make two amazing plays. But, you know, other than that, like, everybody around Tyrod Taylor, you know, absolutely failed him. Um, this is something that I guess looking forward, um, if you’re figuring out if you want to go with Bryce, cool, bring somebody in who could potentially take his spot, or Don’t go with Bryce, you know what I’m saying? Like you, you gotta figure out how to push that, and they talked about getting competition at every spot. They haven’t given Bryce real competition yet, and I think that’s gonna be better for Bryce in the long run, honestly, if you decide that he is the guy. Yeah, that’s, that’s a, that’s a long term question, but looking in the short term from, you know, after this win going into the next week. Is what is his status, you know, for for next week? Because what’s Bryce, if, if there’s an area of the game where I think Bryce excels at and from a physical standpoint, is he actually is pretty good on, on rollouts and throwing on the run. He’s actually pretty good at that in my eyes. That’s why I think he actually does excel. And, and Dave Canal talked about run game, pass game feeds off play action, bootlegs and all those kinds of things. If he’s limited with his mobility with the ankle. Now he has to stand in the pocket. Which I don’t think he’s, that’s not his forte. It’s just not. It’s just not his forte. But we will say this about when Dalton came in, the offense really didn’t look that much different. Like it really didn’t in terms of this, its effectiveness. It really didn’t look any different. I think that’s uh. A blessing, I guess you could say, the fact that you don’t have to limit what you call with Andy Dalton in there. So if Dalton does have to start against Buffalo this coming Sunday, again, we’ll see what, you know, Bryce’s status and all that is, but I feel like that looks different though if if we know Dalton comes in as a starter. Yeah, it is, it is very true, very true, but I don’t think that there’s I don’t think the offense is gonna change, is, is basically what I’m saying. I don’t think the offense changed because we saw when Dalton came in last year when Bryce got benched. Offense started actually lighten it up a little bit last year. So we’ll see what Bryce’s status is. It didn’t look like anything crazy. I know he got, again, he got stepped on on the play, but Chris, I don’t know, it just didn’t seem like a whole lot. It just really didn’t. It didn’t, they played the shot of him walking back to the locker room. It didn’t look like he had much of a limp. I also said that um two years ago when he was down with an ankle injury in week 2 or 3, whatever, um, but, uh, you know, me and you was me and you walked right past him in the locker room, or was it just me by myself? Well he was in Seattle. Well, I’m talking about I’m talking about the game that he played and then afterwards we heard it was an ankle injury. I think the locker room and there was no limp there. Um, and you know, again, a little, you could tell it was a little ginger, but it didn’t feel like somebody um Who, you know, may, you know, may not play, but then you have to see what happens tomorrow. Like, usually those things get worse like the next day or two or whatever after that. So, uh, I, I hope it’s better, but I think also like this, uh, this also exposes the weakness of the Panthers quarterback situation behind Bryce Young, so, um, and I’d also wonder what that looks like potentially for Hendon Hooker. Shout out to Greensboro. So we’ll have to see. We’ll have to wait and see as the week goes along. But hey, Chris, again, hey, 4 and 3.3 above 500, above 500 for the first time since week 5 of 2021, 3 game winning streak for the first time since week 3 of 2021. Um, yeah, I mean, this, this is all good and right now, the next stretch of games, um, you know, Buffalo, we’ll see what ends up happening with them. Um, and we’ll see what ends up happening with Green Bay. Those teams are, are better teams, but it feels like those are teams that can be beat if you play the play the game the right way. Um, but if you, if you lose the next two weeks, I’m not gonna be upset, especially if you don’t get blown out. Don’t get blown out. Um, any of those games. But then you also have the Saints. You gotta win that one, right? Because you gotta make the layups. And so, uh, you gotta win that one. So there’s a chance that you can come through in the 1st 10 games of the of the year and be at 5 and 5. That’s a really good position to be in at that point of the year. And then so from there on out then, you know, you see what happens for the rest of the year, see if you can. Uh, get some wins, maybe potentially knock off Tampa Bay, maybe once, maybe we’ll see, maybe have a good showing on the road at San Francisco. That’s a team that’s kind of had some, some weird issues going on as well. Um, so, you know, you just never know what could happen. So I, I think this is a good game to, to build off of, especially on the defensive side. I think this is a game on the offensive side where you look at it, notice what you did wrong, throw it away and get back to what you did right. And that is run the ball. With Rico Dado and and quite as kept. Mitchell Evans might be tied at number one. Mitchell Evans I talk about that a little bit more this week. Might talk about that just a little tight end, number one, bit more. Leave your thoughts in the comments, let you know your thoughts on this game. Shout out to Wake Orthopedics, our sponsor. If you have not subscribed, make sure that you do so, Chris, 4. And 3, It’s weird being above 500. I don’t know how to react. It’s so weird. I, I don’t know how to react to it. Because I love it. Wait a second. I know it’s like, I look at the standings and I’m like wait a second, there’s a lot of other teams that have 4 wins that are. You know, like, San Francisco has 4 wins, Seattle has 4 wins, Detroit has 4, again, that to Chicago, but again, that’s as of us recording this right now, but still, like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, weird things have happened. Let’s enjoy it, man. Hey, at this point, at this point, we’re gonna have more happier Mondays in this season. Then sad Mondays. Crazy. Think about that, people. Think about it. Crazy. Man, I love it. I love it. I love it. Again, I love those 4 and 3. It doesn’t mean you have to be satisfied with how the game play, but you can still love the results. That’s the thing that matters. It’s the result. Chris See you on Thursday. On to victory Monday.
