Hey, Chris, Just when we think we have the Panthers figured out, just when we think we have them figured out. I’m just gonna go ahead and say it. I’m gonna stop trying. I’m gonna stop trying to figure this team out. I will, I would love to have expectations for them, uh, in New Orleans, but hey. They might prove me wrong no matter what I think. I don’t, you know what, let’s just get this sucker started, yeah. 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, and that’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. By the way, our podcast sponsored by Wake Orthopedics. Make sure you hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already. And also, What is your biggest takeaway so far through this season for the Carolina Panthers? We want to know your thoughts on the comment section cause Chris, you and I said it right there from the top. As soon as we think we have this Panthers team figured out. They come out and do something completely different. By the way, we said that. In the game in the podcast going into the Rams game. We weren’t very optimistic and we said if we were wrong, we would point at the scoreboard at Bank of America stadium and say we are wrong and What we did, letting off the show, being like, yep. Panthers won that one. I, I, I just can’t figure them out. Like they go from the Saints game to the Atlanta game to the Niners game to the Rams game. I don’t know. I just don’t know. It, it goes back to the consistency that we’ve been talking about, uh, Dave Canalis has been talking about that as well. He he sees it, he gets it. Um, and one thing, I was having a discussion with somebody yesterday, uh, Pat Walter at WRO and uh we were talking about the Panthers, and he, he brought up a good point, so I want to give him a shout out on this. He said he doesn’t ever remember seeing a coach. Go through The growing pains, the way that we’ve seen Dave Canals go through the growing pains real time. And like he’s he’s trying to figure it out like Bryce throws for 448 versus Atlanta. Oh, we’re gonna zip it against the 49ers, and we’re only gonna run it 9 times. And then you go back to the Rams, you’re like, you know, let’s run the ball, and you go back to what wins you games. You really only won one game zipping the ball through the air. Um, so it’s, it’s very, um, it’s very interesting to kind of see the Panthers try to put it together real time to see Dave Canalas grow as a head coach and as a play caller in real time, and to watch Bryce Young try to figure out who he is. I wrote a column at WRLSportsfan.com and I compared Uh, the Carolina Panthers to me at the age of 13. I’m sitting there with, you know, my, my baggy clothes, you know what I’m saying, I got my dadda on, you know what I’m saying? I like the old school hip hop wear, listening to Juvenile on on my Walkman, you know what I’m saying, with the CDs. Kids don’t know about that these days, you know what I’m saying? And you know, trying to look hard, trying to be older, but at the same time playing with my yo yo, doing my little tricks. With my ex-brain and all that type of stuff around the world. Oh, there we go, boom, like that. And I don’t know who I am. I’m I’m still holding on to being a little kid and being a little immature while trying to show some maturity on the other side. And it really feels like that’s where the Carolina Panthers are. Um, somebody hit me up and said, you know, I was dissing them. I’m not dissing them. We’re literally watching them grow up in real time, that’s all I’m trying to say. Um, and I’m not dissing them by saying it. And so you’re gonna see those, you know, those growth spurts and those growing pains, uh, back and forth, and and that’s literally what we’re watching. Uh, right now with the Carolina Panthers, uh, we’ve used that term growing pains a lot where we get like you said, we’ve seen the growth at times at the same time we’ve seen the pains like we’ve, the Saints game, like it’s not dissing when you’re actually calling what it is. It’s just stating simply what it is. And that’s, I think that’s a great analogy. It’s just that it’s a young team overall, and I had actually had to remind myself that a couple of days ago. It’s like this is still Dave Canalis’s 3rd year play caller. It’s Bryce Young’s 3rd year quarterback. It’s X Xavier Liguette, Jalen Coker’s 2nd year, Jata Sanders’ 2nd year, it’s Terrell MacMillan 1st year. A lot of super young pieces, super young pieces he’s on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, there’s a little bit more maturity on that, on that side, you know, obviously there’s Princeton Umamiella and Nick Skorton, and, you know, Trevin Wallace. We’ve seen obviously Lathan Ransom getting his first start this past Sunday as well, team high team in tackles, but We are seeing a term that you used. Earlier this season, which actually a couple commenters actually used in our last, uh, game, uh, in the comment section, was like your kids with sleep regressions, right? They sleep all through the night, all of a sudden they’re just waking up, they’re all fussy, then they’re going back to sleep through the night. It’s, it’s that same type thing. The biggest thing that we can say about this team that is an absolute fact is that they’re inconsistent. Like no one can dispute that. You can say inconsistent, roller coaster, that’s that’s Mr. Hyde. It’s not because it’s true. I mean, again, look at the, look at the last 4 weeks, the way they played against the R Rams the previous week, how they played at the 49ers, and before that against the Falcons, then before that against the Saints, then before that against Green Bay. Up, down, up, down. Can this team find stasis? That’s the thing. Can they find a level of steady? Can they even the wings out? That’s the biggest thing. Can you level the wings out for this team going forward? You gotta buy a week to rest, mentally reset yourself, and it’s a sprint these last 4 games. If you win the 3 divisional games you have left, Saints, 2 against the Bucks, you’re in the playoffs. You simply are. You are in the playoffs. I’ve got a question for you, Dennis, and I wanna relate this to sports, but like, you know, we can also relate this to to real life too, like sometimes. When you’re young, you’re trying to figure things out, kind of what I was talking about before, you know, you’re doing things that aren’t quite you, but you’re still trying to figure out what you are. You want to be this, but then you figure out I’m better at this. You used to be a coach in lacrosse. Did you ever have a player that maybe tried to emulate a playing style that didn’t suit their particular skill set and you’re like, hey, I know that this looks exciting, but if you do these boring things here. I’m, I’m promising you, your stats and your game will look so much better, uh, because that’s, that’s kind of what it feels like where the Panthers are. I really think Dave Canales wants to be that team that is gonna throw for 448 every game. Yeah, it’s not gonna happen with Bryce Young, and that’s not a this. That’s not saying he can’t be a franchise quarterback. It’s just not going to happen. It can happen. We’ve seen it happen. It’s not gonna happen every game. No. I’m, I’m, so you, you’ve seen that, right? Oh yeah, I, so for those who don’t know, I used to coach college lacrosse. I did it for, for 9 total seasons, and there are definitely some times where I had players that were, you see, like, for example, in basketball or any other sport, I have players that wanted to just drive to the net. They thought they could just blow past people or work past people and like like that’s just not your game. Like it’s just, it’s not working. You’re not scoring on a consistent basis or being effective for our offense. I said, learn how to catch and shoot. Learn how to catch and shoot. I said, guarantee you’re gonna score more if you catch and shoot. And sure enough, they adapted their game and all of a sudden I talked to them at the end of the season. I said, you had the most goals you’ve ever had in a season in your life. Because you decided to buy in. I said be a catch and shoot. You have other players that are trying to do the things that you’re doing that are just better at it, so adapt your game, and they became catch and shoot players and all of a sudden, their their stats just went through the roof. So it’s just the ability to adapt and also the willingness to adapt your game as well, is that sometimes, you know, for example, like you might wanna be a receiver that, hey, I just wanna wanna go. Ros wanna run deep shots, but no, actually we need you to run underneath crossers catch and get yards after the catch, you know, those kinds of things. So it’s, it’s, and it’s same thing with, with coaching and, and coaching style. There are times where I had to as a coach again, lacrosse, different sport, but it’s the same mindset. I wanted to play an up tempo run it style. That was my philosophy as a coach. I was an up tempo run it style. Now, I didn’t have the players always to do it, so I had to go into a half field style of game, which is kind of like, Got to pound the rock, right in football. Hey, I got to grind out. I gotta run the ball. Whereas for me, I was kind of the equivalent offensively of like tempo, quick to the line of scrimmage, run, go, go, go, putting pressure on teams. So again, you have to adapt your style to your personnel and just also to figuring out what fits for you. Like, you know what, you might not be able to do the things you want, but you have to be willing to understand the things that you need to do to win games. That’s what the big thing, finding out what you want to be, what you need to be, and finding the match between those two. Yeah, sometimes those can be those can be. You know, two different things and um, you know, I, I even, you know, this is different, this is not necessarily like a competitive sport, but as a pro wrestler, you know, uh, when I was in the ring, you know, I wanted to be able to pull off certain things that Rey Mysterio did because I thought it was cool. I can’t do that. Now I do have some athleticism, I could jump high, I could do, you know, springboards from the, you know, standing on a ring apron, boom top rope, go up looking like AJ Stys. I could definitely do that. Uh, but when it came down to flips and different things like that, or certain dives or and all that outside the ring. Hey, I tried it, it didn’t look good, it hurt, uh, and I figured out, uh, the crowd wasn’t reacting to it because it didn’t look like anything cool. So if I did something simple that for me didn’t feel like much but suited my natural skill sets, and it was like, what? I’m getting this is awesome chance by not even leaving my feet. You know, I think sometimes you have to sometimes you have to really understand who you are. It may not be what you have in your head, you just gotta understand who you are. And I think this, I think we’re hitting the nail on the head on what the Panthers are figuring out, is that Sometimes you overthink things, just way too much. I, I, I was guilty of it as a coach myself, so I trust me, like, I overthought things all the time. Because sometimes it’s just that simple, of like, you know what, let’s just line up and run power to the right and pick up 4. Yeah, you know, and then sure enough, this last game, it was lean heavy on the run game. The good balance of how they mixed in Cuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle in terms of how they, they split carries in playing time. A good balance that guys were fresh coming in, they were able to change the pace a little bit, use a little bit of different running styles, then all of a sudden you’re at, hey, it’s 3rd and 2. Or it’s 4th and 2. 4th and 3. Hey, now we could take a shot here because now we have the defense pressing up and anticipating to stop the run and then, hey, Bryce is able to hit Jalen Coker Bryce is able to hit Teta roll McMillan because you set yourself up by keeping it simple in terms of philosophy. That sometimes it just, it really is that just don’t overthink it. Sometimes again we try and it’s just it’s it’s human nature where we try and do too much where we just simply try and do too much. I’m gonna stay right there really quick because the the Panthers scored 2 4th down touchdowns, OK? versus the Rams on the same player, by the way, Emmanuel Forbes did not have a good game, uh, in that regard, um, but Now teams are gonna see that. Panthers are going for it. It’s 4th and 2, and they’re on R 44. Oh, what’s gonna happen? I mean, we gotta make sure that we can stop, you know, Rico Dodo or Cuba Hubbard, but then Ted Roy McMillan or Jaylen Coker might beat us over the top. What do we do? Yeah. And when you get defenses in that mode. Now, now you’re able to kind of play your game. Uh, everything’s all to it. And so like you you’re you’re getting to something right there where it’s like now, same thing that Shanahan would do. Like, OK, we may only be getting, you know, 2 to 3 yards per carry with Chris McCaffrey, but we’re gonna get you to, to, you know, sell out the stop the run and we’re gonna hit you over the top, and then now you’re not sure what’s gonna happen, or we’re gonna use play action. Uh, to get to something else or we’re gonna use our screen game and because you’re, you’re so into the box right there trying to stop the run, looking at Christian McCaffrey even though he’s only getting 2 to 3 yards per carry. It’s, this is, it’s starting to get to a point. To where, and now they have to follow through in every game, use this to their advantage, but it’s starting to get to the point to where you’re realizing what makes you work. And we heard during the game that the Panthers have the highest 4th down conversion rate in the NFL. Part of that is because, you know, there, I think have been some missteps in calling plays in downs 1 through 3, and so you end up getting in desperate situations where you need to have that 4th down conversion. So you can stay on the field because you’re, you’ve probably punted way more than what you needed to this year. Uh, but then the other part of that is Having playmakers that’s uh been able to like come up at the right moments. And so, uh, very, very proud with where they’re at right now, but there’s still work to do. And, you know, I said it on Sunday, we saw what happened the last time you beat a team that you weren’t supposed to beat. You came back and lost to the Saints. Now you got a week to think about it. Don’t come back and lose to the Saints. You got the Saints again. You got the Saints again. Uh, it’s also speaking of the 4th downs, one of the things that I appreciated from Dave Canales talking after the game. I think it can be if he said it Sunday after the game in his presser or if he said it Monday during, uh, during his availability was that the aggressiveness on 4th down because of the mindset that they have of going forward on 4th down is that some of the 4th downs have been out of necessity. Hey, you’re trailing in the game, there’s 4 minutes left. We gotta go for it. But also, he said, I had to look on the other sideline and say, that’s the Rams offense over there. We can’t give the ball back to them. Like we have to extend drives if we can. That’s was part of that. I was like he understood that, you know what, in order for us to beat that team, we gotta keep the ball on our hands and we have to be aggressive going for a 4th down. He didn’t coach scared. He didn’t coach. I know. I know you love it. I love the aggressiveness. I absolutely do. You remember my coaching philosophy I just talked about a few minutes ago. I love that aggressive style. So the fact that he recognized on the other sidelines like that’s Matt Stafford, that’s Sean McVeigh, and that group of receivers and just that group of talent that’s on the other side of the field. I can’t afford to just lose possessions punting the ball away around midfield. I can’t afford to do it. What is that? What you’re describing, because remember when we talked about the first game of the year, we felt like that a first time head coach in his very first NFL game outcoached the coach that already has a year. Dave Kals is learning how to control the game as a coach now. He’s learning and and we’re seeing it going back to what my guy Pat Walter was saying, like, it’s it’s been interesting watching somebody go through the growing pains in real time. And like and have the amounts of ups and downs that he’s having, and, and so I would say this. As much as we’ve been hard on Canales. You’re starting to see it. You’re starting to see what what it could be. There’s an argument that maybe he got the job a little bit too early, right? Maybe if he would have been a play caller for a couple more years, uh, with another team, he could have, you know, gotten himself together and really understood it because he’s only a play caller, you know, one year before coming to the Carolina Panthers, and you have to learn how to be a head coach and become a better play caller on that. But seeing it, and now that he’s had these, these two years of experience, I’m excited to see what he’s gonna do next year and how he grows from this, because there’s still some things to figure out from there. How do I get my team ready in the preseason? Because I don’t know if you, I don’t think they won a preseason game under him. I think they, they went 0 for this year, 0 for last year, not that it means anything, but it means something because you start and you start the year off, sluggish, 00 and 2. Last two years. Oh yeah, I think it’s more or less the, uh, like, yeah, how do you adapt your, I mean, this, this would be good offseason conversation, but yeah, in terms of what, what do you learn about yourself, about what works and what doesn’t, I think that’s why this biweek is so vital for them. Because now you can sit there, you can really self scout and oftentimes you see coaches in football, what they do is, uh, the defense, like the defensive coaching staff will look at your, your, your offense and say, hey, this is, this is how we would beat you. This is how we would defend against you, whatever it might be. And vice. Versa, the offensive coaching staff will look at the defense and go, or this is how we would beat you, this is what we’re seeing as a flaw, whatever it might be. So you’re able to do that self scout and then again you have this sprint of 4 games to close out the year. You have a chance to really get healthy. You really do. Hopefully JC Horn is back off his concussion. Merrick’s back off his suspension, maybe Kay Mays is back. Then maybe Robert Hunt eventually does come back at some point. Now you’re actually looking to look healthy for that final push of the regular season, and then like we said, Chris, they gotta, they gotta win 3, and it’s gotta be the divisional games. They have to win the divisional games. If they win all 3 divisional games, you’re finishing the season at minimum 10 wins. 10 and 7 at minimum, which in that case as well, Tampa Bay is gonna be sitting there at this pretty much the same record, but you would have the head to heads cause you’ve beat them twice. You were in the playoffs. It’s real, real possibility, Chris, a real possibility. Go do it. Go do it. I’m trying to find I’m trying to find this picture because, oh, here we go, you brought up Robert Hunt and I just remembered me doing that interview with him, just to let people know I’m I’m 5’9, about 220, 25 pounds, about the size of a running back, right? So if you look at the size of a running back and you look at the size of this man right here, he’s a massive individual. Like what? We need this back in our line. He’s a look at that. Look at that, massive. I could literally like he could unzip himself and I could like fit inside, you know what I’m saying, like just like like it’s just, it’s crazy, that was a massive guy. Robert Hunt, we’re cheering for you, we hope you get back, uh, you know, healthy very soon because Look, and Jay Curhan, you’ve done, you did a great job. He did, but we need this. We need that back. Folks, leave your thoughts to the comments. Can this team make the playoffs? Yes or no? Can they make the playoffs? Sure can. I mean, obviously, mathematically it’s there, but Realistically, do you think they can make the playoffs? I think they can. Do you think that the team can finish the, the last four games off, 4-0? It’s Possible. Seahawks are gonna be difficult. Seahawks are gonna be definitely beat the Rams though. I know Seahawks Seahawks are at home, and that’s a possibility that game get gets flexed to a Saturday night prime time too, so we’ll see, we’ll see about that. We shall see. We’ll see you all next week.
