Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. children of all ages, Panthers Playbook podcast proudly brings to you your NFC South Division champions of the world. Carolina Panthers, baby. Keep rising, keep rising, keep rising. Let’s put it together. A T L A N T A G A N C, let’s go. You know, Chris, I had to break out the old Erickson Stadium t-shirt today because that’s where the Panthers are gonna have a playoff game coming up this weekend. We don’t know date, time, or the opponent as of right now because we still gotta wait for the Rams and the Arizona Cardinals to play, but who cares right now? Who cares, Chris? Let’s react. Let’s have some fun. 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 Panthers Playbook presented by Wake Orthopedics, a WakeMed physician practice. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to a live episode of Panthers Playbook. That’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. Good friends sponsored by Wake Orthopedics. Folks, the, the, the comment, the chat’s already going off. If you’re going back and watching this, again, leave your thoughts in the comment section on the Panthers making the playoffs, even at 8 and 9. It doesn’t matter. We have the live chat going right now. You can actually see it right there on the screen. So we are live. We’re up and running. Appreciate everyone for tuning in. And, and joining us here on this Sunday afternoon, Chris, I know a lot of people are still steamed by the officiating on on Saturday, which was awful. We all can acknowledge that about how bad the offense has looked over the last 4 weeks. Doesn’t matter the fact that the Panthers had every opportunity to win this division on their own. Doesn’t matter. They’re in the playoffs, and when you get there, everything resets at 0 and 0. That is the thing that’s most important. Dennis, who am I? What a gift. What a gift. What a gift. What a gift opportunity. It’s a great, it’s a great opportunity to play some championship football, yeah. Make sure that we, you know, stick to our identity and, and, and run the football. Um, everything that’s here, and, and one of the things that I, I love about this is that right now, there’s legit no expectations, right? You could go to the playoffs, you could get blown out, it doesn’t matter. The Panthers made the playoffs, right? Um. Now, it would be a bonus. You would like for them to win, you would like for them to move on, you would like for them to see how far they can go, maybe play 4 games in the postseason, maybe, right? Hey, 1 at a time, but hey, you never know. You got to play 1 at a time. But at the end of the day, if you look at where we were when we started this show, Dennis. This team was bad, and I’m talking about they compliment probably should have been 0 and 17 that year, right? Bad, bad as a compliment compared to how awful they were in 2023. It was real, they should have been 0-17 2 years ago, but they were 2 and 15, so they were able to sneak out too. And last year, they’re able to sneak out 5, and they went on that nice little run at the end of the year last year. This year, you know, we, we get, you know, 2 losses in a row sandwiched at the end of the year, at the beginning and also at the, at the very end, and we’re able to Win enough and win the right games as we’re in an 8-8 tie with two other teams in the division to get us the champion, get us to the playoffs. And Dennis, I believe this is only the Carolina Panthers are the first team. In the NFC South to ever win a division twice with a losing record. I mean, that is stuff that legends are made of, baby. Like this is what we do. We keep pounding and like, like I’m not being mean with the Panthers. I’m being serious right now. When, when the chips are down, like when, when everything is against us, when it looks like we’re counted out, what do we do? We keep guys up. They rise up. We do that too. They rise up. That’s exactly what happened. By the way, shout out Dee Alford. Uh, someone should pay his tab at, um, a certain city tonight, maybe. I don’t know. Give, give him all listen, lemon pepper wings, whatever you gotta do. Hey, listen, he gets free whatever at Magic City tonight, you know, people down at Magic City. You know what, take care of him. Take care of him. And by the way, shout out to all the former Panthers like Jamie Robinson, big pump lock recovered by Felipe Franks, former Panther, like Zane Gonzalez kicking field goals, rising. Look at all the, look at all the former Panthers getting it done, rising. You know, uh, here’s the thing to keep in mind as well. Maybe you weren’t rooting for the Falcons. I like to maybe thought of it actually. I posted this earlier today. No, you can just root against the Saints. Like think of it that way. Hey, I’m rooting against the Saints. That is so easy to do. It really is. It’s one of the easiest things to do. It, it genuinely is. Um, so nonetheless, the, the Panthers, they find their way, even though they’ve, since the byeweek, they’re just 1 and 3. They’re sputtering to the finish line. But the fact they still got there first, like you said, Chris, 3-way tie, 8 and 9, but you got it done. You got it, you did enough to get there. Now the question is, what can this team correct and fix going forward? We’re still gonna have another episode on Thursday. So again, thanks everyone for watching. Make sure you subscribe if you haven’t already. You guys are awesome. We’re doing this thing live. You might be again watching this on replay, but it’s an exciting thing to think about that on Saturday or Sunday, even possibly Monday night. You’re gonna get a rematch. You’re either gonna get the 49ers or the Rams. You’re either gonna get a Rams team that you beat, which was, was your best and most complete game of the season. That 31-28 win, which you won at Bank of America Stadium. The defense got 3 turnovers, including the pick 6 by Mike Jack. You had the 4th-down touchdown catches, uh, by passes by Bryce Young, one to Coker, one to McMillan. He was 15 to 20 in that game. Overall, a complete team win against the Rams. But then also you potentially also have the Forty-Niners as well who struggled offensively against the Seahawks. Sound familiar? The Seahawks are the number one seed in the NFC. But it’s also a 49ers team that you struggled against. You lost 20 to 9. The defense gave you 3 turnovers and you only got 3 points out of it in that game. It’s a rematch. You’re gonna get someone again. Either you’re looking for redemption against the Niners or the Rams are looking for redemption against you, but at least it’s on your turf, and that’s to me is what matters. Yeah, and you know, I love the fact that this could be a rematch. I, I guess, I guess what the situation is if the Rams win, essentially it’s gonna be the Rams. Um, you could probably get the Rams, you know, just say that the Rams are gonna win since they’re going against the, the Cardinals. Uh, but we can just go ahead and assume either, either one though, I would love to see it, especially if it was that 49ers matchup, having Christian McCaffrey come back to Bank of America Stadium. He was a part of the Panthers team in 2017 that went. That was his rookie year, and that was the, the only time he was, he saw some, a little bit of success as a Carolina Panther, as far as a winning record. Um, he had individual success the whole time, but as far as, uh, a team, uh, success, that was the only time we really saw it here in Carolina, and I would love to see him there almost as a part of reverence, right? Like, You know, the fans never wanted him to go. The fans were never on this, you know, we need to trade away CMC type of thing. Uh, that was something that the front office and David, David Tepper ended up doing. So, it’ll be cool almost as a way to like reach out like, hey, look how far we’ve come since you’ve been gone, and now, let’s play against each other to see who’s gonna have the opportunity to go to the next round. That would be cool for me. Um, but either the way it goes, um, I, I think that this is, the Panthers should go into this situation playing like there’s nothing to lose. Everything that you feel like, if you feel like you’ve held anything back, if there’s something that you’ve wanted to pull the trigger on, that you haven’t done yet, defensively, offensively, whatever. Now is the time to show it, especially if you have the right looks in in the right situations to go forward, uh, and, and with versus whoever you play in the playoffs. Uh, I’m excited to see what happens, and, and more importantly, outside of the actual game that’s gonna be played at Bank of America Stadium. Football is back in Charlotte, yeah. Facts, football is back, and at least it’s, it’s back for right now. I hope it continues to be back as we, you know, go on later on in the fall, but right now, football is back. This is something that we’ve been dying for here, just playing relevant games. And the, even if the, the Falcons would have lost today and the, and the Saints would have won. Look at the excitement that was at Bank of America Stadium over the last few games that were there, especially the last two, right? I mean, what, what a gift. Seriously, what a gift. And it’s, it’s good to go to games and cover games where everybody’s excited to, to be there. The stands are full of Panthers fans. Instead of it being, you know, a lot of empty blue seats out there, and the stands are full of teams, uh, fans from other teams. So, um, I’m excited just to see what the atmosphere is like, and then however this team can potentially build on this. So, I’m, I’m hoping, I’m hoping, Chris, I’m hoping that going forward, since the last 4 weeks. Since the byeweek. Again, the, the Rams game, which again, looks like we’re staring the Rams in the eye. We’re assuming that they beat, I don’t even know what the score is right now as, as we’re recording this. I I’m gonna look it up real fast. Uh, the Rams are currently up 3-0 in the first quarter against the Cardinals. We’re, again, we’re assuming it’s the Rams, but either way, since they beat the Rams, had the bye-week since then. The offense has sputtered This offense has sputtered for Carolina. You just look at total yards, they’re only averaging 245 yards in the last 4 games. That’s, that’s total. That’s not 245 yards. Passing, that’s 245 total yards. That’s rushing. That’s passing. That’s all of it. You also look at the amount of points that have been scored. They’ve only have scored 64 points in those games. You had 17 against New Orleans and you lost. You had 23 against Tampa, you won. You only had 10 against the Seahawks, and you have 14 back yesterday. That’s 64 points. I’m gonna pull up the old calculator to make sure I do my honor. That’s 16 points a game. They’re averaging 16 points a game. The last 4 games since the bye-week, which is mind-boggling, Chris, in the sense of, I thought after that Rams game with the bye-week, I thought there was so much momentum that could propel them into the final 4 weeks of the year, but we’ve seen them sputter. But you can erase all of that with one game. Like you can erase all of that. It literally just takes one. You can erase all of it. You can seriously, done. Erase it in 1 week. That’s the only thing that matters. By hook or by crook, you find a way to get it done. And as our, our man, um, I don’t, I don’t wanna say that, uh, Semgasum, whatever, uh, Sem Seasastum just said. You could steal one You could steal one. And that’s what matters. This team could definitely steal one because they’ve shown and proven to themselves, hey, we can go on the road and beat a Green Bay in a, in a, in a low scoring game. We can have our defense show up and play well and our quarterback make some throws against the, one of the best teams in the NFL and the Rams. You’ve proven to yourself that you could do it. You can. Yeah, um, and as, as Full Metal Ginger says, great moments are born from great opportunity. Thank you, Herb Brooks. There might be a miracle this coming weekend of the playoffs. Just say it. You know, once you get to this point, literally, you know, anything can happen. Um, the, the playoffs, um, you know, you don’t know what could, how teams can, you know, show up when it comes to that. Um, maybe teams are, uh, a little tight playing, maybe, you know, you just don’t know what could end up happening with everything, and you just don’t know, uh, you know, as you said, miracles can absolutely happen, um. If the Panthers were to make a nice little run. I’m just saying if, if, boy. Boy, can you just imagine what, what it’s gonna be like? I think that this, if they were to make a run, that, that might be the catalyst to get Cam Newton back inside of Bank of America stadium to finally, uh, you know, just be there and get his, get com uh memorized or or uh commemorated, excuse me, I was gonna. Put two different words together, uh, get commemorated in front of the fans and actually kind of publicly make up with David Tepper. How, how cool would, would that be? That’d be pretty awesome to see, to see that happen and to possibly have him, you know, come around as like a guy who helped lay this foundation, because really, I mean, we talk about the alternating, the 10 weeks of alternating wins and losses, uh, that the Carolina Panthers had. If you look at their history. Uh, really before Cam Newton, there was a lot of alternating seasons. It was like, yeah, we’re good this season, now, we’re not good this season. No, we’re good this season, well, we’re not good this season. It was, it was literally back and forth, there wasn’t consistency. They got to the playoffs three straight years, 1314, 15, skip 16 was there 17. That was the best stretch of football in in Panthers history. It was the best stretch of football right there in those 5 years. Um, so, you know, and, and you wanna bring back those guys that, that, you know, helped bring that together. And, uh, and make that happen. Jonathan Stewart’s there all the time. We saw D’Angelo Williams was, was there this past time. Luke Kuechly is always there. It’s, it’s great to see that, and I hope they can bring in Cam Newton for that as well. I mean, we, we’ve talked to Jake Delom just up there in the press box like between, like during halftime and things along those lines. Well, he wasn’t on those teams, but he did lay the foundation for the first, for the first Super Bowl. So yeah, but nonetheless, I mean, like those legends are, are generally around as, as Tyler Hall suggests here, Chris. Have Cam bang the drum at the game. Oh man. Like, are you kidding me? That place would be rocking, man. I mean, like, Tyler, fantastic suggestion. We’ll text some people if you want to win, like, because think about the energy that’s gonna bring to start the game. If you have Cam Newton as the one banging the key pounding drum. And, and the Panthers themselves see that, and Cam is on the sideline with his hat, with his great outfit, and he is like, him and coach Darren Bates right there typing the team up. What? What? I would, oh my gosh, I would have went through, run through a wall right now. I can’t even talk right now. Shout, shout out Tyler on that suggestion. You got Chris all steamed up over here. Um, you know. That’s why he needs to cool me down. No, no, stay, stay hot, man. Stay hot. Stay hot. Stay hot all week. That’s fine. Stay hot all week. need to stay hot. Yes, well, get hot. They need to get hot is what they need to do. They haven’t won consecutive games since weeks 56, and 7. The Last, uh, that’s, that’s the thing. They haven’t won consecutive games since weeks 56, and 7. I mean, if you want to replicate that, now is the time to do it in January, right? Now’s the time. Now’s the time. Go ahead, Chris. You have something. 56, and 7. Let’s say the season started over after the bye week. This will be week 5, right? It would be actually. Would be. They did go 1 and 3 to start the season. 567. That takes us to the NFC championship game. Well, if you win 56, and 7, that takes you to the Super Bowl, sir. The divisional round, if you win, this is the wild card round, the division round, and NFC championship. You know what I’m saying, if you win 560 yeah, yeah, OK, so I see what you’re saying. Yeah, if you win 56, and 7. I was thinking about just getting to the, getting to the 3rd. You’re right, you’re right. Wow. Yeah. Oh, you know what’s staying alive? The whole, the whole like Jennifer Lopez divorce thing, Ohio State wins the national championship the next year, the Panthers make it to the Super Bowl. That’s still in play. That is still in play. That is still in play. Thank you, Ohio State. Thank you, JLo’s love life. Thank you Atlanta Falcons. Thank you, Atlanta Falcons. I’m gonna, I’m gonna make a nice little Atlanta playlist and I’m just gonna look like, thank you guys. I mean, Playboy Carty all week. I don’t know what you gotta do. Probably not him, but you know, I’m talking about the, the classics. Young folks, don’t get on me because I know Playboy Cardi is a classic to those guys. It’s just, it’s not my, not, not for me either. It’s not for me either. Uh, someone actually suggested. Here, oh, by the way, uh, uh, C Lawrence 7 said if Cambria bangs the drum next weekend, the place is gonna go nuts. Absolutely. Whatever you gotta do to get Bank of America Stadium is going to be, by the way, I hope every seat is full. I hope every seat is full, uh, this coming weekend, whatever it might be. Yeah, for real. I know people probably already are. People are already, already doing that. We don’t know what time slot yet that the NFL hasn’t announced that. I don’t have any inclination in terms of what it’s going to be. Uh, I just, I just simply don’t, uh, I would not be shocked if it’s a Saturday 4:30 game or a Monday night game, which is, just what my gut is telling me. I just would not be shocked. But someone actually brought up here, I wanna, I wanna make sure I referenced the person here. You think it’ll be a Monday? I, I wouldn’t be surprised. For, for that game. I almost feel like it’s, it’s either Saturday afternoon slot. Or the Sunday one o’clock slot. I feel like the, I feel like the, the Monday night, the Sunday night, um, and the Saturday night games will be, uh, slated for other, maybe. Higher notoriety teams or you know higher more, you know, bigger profile teams. Let’s see because you have Jacksonville’s gonna be hosting a game because I always look at, you know, in terms of Like a location of teams. Like, you know, Philadelphia is probably gonna get one of the primetime games. Philadelphia most likely they are because they’re gonna host either the Rams or the Forty-Niners. That’s gonna be, my guess is gonna be one of the primetime. One, wouldn’t shock me if that’s Sunday Night Football. Then you have the Chicago Bears are gonna be hosting. As well, they’re gonna be hosting it, actually, they’re gonna be hosting Green Bay. That’s a rivalry game. Wouldn’t shock me if they got a Saturday night time slot, just to be honest with you. They have New England and Jacksonville are gonna be hosting along with, uh, along with Carolina. So those are all gonna be the. Teams that are hosting this weekend. It would not surprise me again if, if Carolina got, like you said, Chris, now they’re looking back at it, it wouldn’t surprise me if they got the 1 o’clock Sunday game or if they got the Saturday 4:30 time, but it would not surprise me if that’s the one that they got. It wouldn’t surprise me that if New England, If it’s New England, Buffalo or New England versus the LA Chargers, that gets a Monday Night Football game. That would not surprise me at all because that’s a short travel for like, for Buffalo to go make. So if it’s New England versus Buffalo, I could see that being a Monday night game just because of the short travel and all that stuff in there. These are all things that the league always takes into consideration with this stuff. So yes, uh, in terms of that, I don’t know, um, exactly what it’s gonna be, but again, that’s just. What my gut is telling me so far about who they’re gonna play. By the way, everyone, thanks for, for joining us right now here on Panthers Playbook. We’re just doing a live reaction. Panthers are the playoffs. You’re NFC champions. You’re an NFC South champion. Some folks in the chat, they’re bringing up some good points, uh, and we’ll, we will get into whatever the matchup is and what that means, uh, on our Thursday episode. But also, do we see Robert Hunt, this is something that was brought up in the chat. Do we see Robert Hunt? And, uh, maybe even do we see David Moore come back for the Carolina Panthers and Robert Hunt definitely would be a welcome sight. I would venture to say this, and this might sound like a stretch. Dave Canales likes David Moore and, uh, I think that David Moore had a chance to, I, I don’t wanna say be like one of the top receivers, but maybe have that number 4, maybe even 3 role if let’s say things still went the same way it went with Xavier Leette, um, this year, like if David Moore had been there available, uh, maybe he’s taken XL’s spot. Um, you know, so it’s, uh, somebody just put that down there too. Um, and so we have to see kind of what happens, but you, you have a guy now who’s, um, hasn’t been there since the beginning of the season. Maybe it gives the Panthers a fresh new look, maybe it opens up different parts of the playbook for them, uh, if, if he’s able to come back, um, I’m excited to see what that possibly looks like. And then also just having, um, Robert Hunt there, I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if both of these guys are just a little rusty. Uh, coming off of injury, but also just their presence, I think will be very big, uh, for the team if they’re both able to, to, uh, get that play and get it, get win, get in there and help the Panthers get a win. I think the biggest impact is gonna be uh, Robert Hunt. That’s gonna be the biggest impact if he comes back. That’s gonna be the biggest impact because we saw the Panthers he’s literally the biggest impact. Yeah, he’s a massive human being, but we’ve seen the last couple of weeks that the offensive line for the Carolina Panthers get pushed around. Got pushed around, especially against Seattle. They got pushed around. But I would like to see if, if David Moore comes back, I see that in a, in terms of a, uh, just a special teams role because I think trying to work him into the offense because there’s the timing element to all of that. So you gotta, you gotta work that back in, which I think Robert Hunt is, there might be some plays though, there might, some be packages. Maybe. I, I just think that for my, this, again, my opinion on this is that There isn’t, there’s more opportunities for your top guys that are being left out there. Like I think there’s more for Jalen Coker than what’s being used. I think there’s maybe even more for Jimmy Horn Jr that’s being used. I, I mean, even Terrell McMillan, I know he’s the focal point. So I, I, I don’t like the idea of possibly inserting someone else into that mix when there’s so many other guys that are kind of already being left behind that should be. Um, and as our guy, uh, Joe said, time to unleash Jimmy Horn. Good God, please. Uh, I 100% agree. So I, I, so to me, I think the running game is what’s been lacking over the last few weeks. Again, over the last 4 weeks, the Carolina Panthers have rushed for, they rushed for 127, they rushed for 101, they rushed for 99, and they rushed for 19. That’s also including Bryce Young’s scrambles. That’s, that’s overall is generally not good enough. That’s just not because that’s including Bryce Young’s scrambles. You just look over the last two weeks between Rico Dowdell and, and Chuba Hubbard, just 91 yards rushing between those two guys. That’s it. That’s it. So I would actually like to see them emphasize getting Trimble or Evans more involved as in Jalen Coker as opposed to. Possibly inserting David Moore. I don’t know also, who do you take out of the lineup for David Moore? That’s also a big question as well. Like, do you want to take away the speed element? One thing about Bryson Tremaine is that he’s one of your core 4 special teamers, which, OK, I can see you can insert David Moore into that role, but we’ve seen Bryson Tremaine out there on those 3. Tight end sets a lot with, and, and that’s a run-heavy formation. Like, do you insert David Moore to that because Bryson Tremaine being used as a blocking wide receiver though you do see some play action out of that. But I honestly think maybe what Michael Green just said, I mean, there’s also they really get. Just saying I mean, honestly, if, if you’re gonna keep getting in the lineup. I’m gonna say it out loud, Chris. The, the guy might as well just be a kick returner right now because he isn’t providing much for you in the offense. The guy might as well be a kick returner. I’d be 100% OK. I even said it live at halftime on YouTube during Saturday’s game. Go Coker, go McMillan, go to tight ends. That should be your personnel heavy going forward. I, I do have stuff to say about him. I think I wanna, I want that to wait, um, until the season is over, like for, for real over for the Panthers, um, and it’s more so on the side of, of League, but I am addressing some, some real issues like they’re like. You know, so I, I wanna wait. I wanna hold what I have to say, uh, for there, there’s a longer discussion for us to have about Xavier Lee, and, but, you know, longer discussions for a lot of, a lot, I mean, there’s a lot of subjects to talk about when it comes down to the future of this team. Like this team, this team could, I don’t think it’s gonna happen. They could go off and win a Super Bowl, and there’s still so much to fix because you just don’t wanna be like, you know, the Trent Dilfer Ravens and win the Super Bowl and then like. You’re not really heard of again, right? Like you, you wanna get there and hopefully be, uh, a huge part of, of the NFL, uh, top of the NFL going forward, at least for the next, you know, 34 years. Uh, but Before we get all, get there, we’ve got a game that we’re gonna be playing next, next weekend where we have a game at Bank of America Stadium and I hope all these guys are locked in. Um, my guy Rico got an extra million dollars yesterday because all he needed was like what, 7 yards, 7 scrimmage. He got 30. It wasn’t a good game. He should take, he should take a little bit of that and, and, and pay the tab for Dee Alford. Just saying, go pay D off for staff with a little bit of that million dollars. Make it, make it rain. Somebody who could, who could chip in on that, Mike Jackson, because the Panthers clinched the playoffs, he gets an extra half of a million dollars, man. Mike Jackson deserves that. Mike Jackson, I, I am, listen, Mike Jackson is low-key one of the best signings that we’ve made. In the last few years. What a fantastic deal. You traded your 7th-round pick, Michael Barrett from, from Michigan. You traded him because like, uh, we’re not gonna keep this guy. Let’s trade him to Seattle. Seattle doesn’t even hold on to him. And you got a starting corner out of that, who, by the way, I think he led the NFL or at least came into this final weekend, leading the NFL in pass breakups. That’s a hell of a move by Dan Morgan. He’s playing at an all-pro level this year. Hell of a move, literally playing at an all-pro level right now. Um, so I, I’m really excited for Mike Jack. He gets that extra 500 million, uh, Rico gets the extra million, um. Right now, let’s get back to work, and I, I hope, I hope guys are texting each other right now. Um, we didn’t, uh, also, I saw somebody put in Kelvin Benjamin, we didn’t get a chance to acknowledge, uh, uh, uh, Teddy Roy McMillan getting 1000 yards and breaking that, um, that record. Um but I hope guys are texting each other right now, I hope. That they’re gonna be fiercely game planning, uh, soon and, and guys are, are all locked in and ready to go. Like they’re gonna need everybody, everybody on the practice squad, everybody who’s injured right now, um, everybody in the front office, everybody needs to come together right now. Uh, this is, this is a big moment and honestly, win or lose, I’m happy because this exceeded expectations. We said at the beginning of this year. Don’t expect the playoffs until 2026, or at least to be in a playoff picture. We set a picture. Yeah, this team is in the playoffs. Yeah, we said like, yeah, kind of like maybe like on the fringe, not mathematically eliminated, but OK, I, I anticipated that Tampa Bay was probably gonna go 10 and 7 this season. That was my anticipation going into the year and that Carolina is gonna finish and we talked about 7 to 10, I’m sorry, 7 to 9 wins. You said 8 and 9, I said 77 and 10. So again, you were correct on that. But it’s interesting, and I wanna give a shout out to all of our listeners and shout out to people that, that comment and stuff on, on our videos and everything. There are some people that say, you know what, 89, as bad as this NFC South is, might win it for you. They were right. Quite a few people did say that. And you know what, you’re right, because it’s the NFC South, and I’m happy that they were right, Chris. I’m happy that they were right. I’m happy they’re right, but I’m with you on what you said at the beginning. I was expecting Tampa to be a lot better than what, like, I would have said Tampa would have been 11 and 6, and, uh, especially with the way they started the season, like you start at 6 and 2. And you end up 8 and 9. What a bad last half of the season that is for, uh, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s an epic collapse, honestly, and, uh, I mean, even if they got into the playoffs, like maybe that would have made them feel better, but there’s still a lot of, like, they still feel worse about themselves than what the Panthers feel just missing the playoffs at 8 and 9. Right, like, it’s, it’s two completely different, completely different 8 and 9s, and I would even say that Atlanta’s 8 and 9 is not as good as our 8 and 9 because Atlanta was expecting to take a little bit of a step up this year, and you have your, your starting quarterback. Who didn’t play well, and he, you know, ended up getting injured, but he was also on his way of getting benched, and, you know, Kirk Cousins has to step in and with all of the great offensive pieces, I feel like they have like one of the better skill rooms in the NFL probably for a couple of years, the best, yeah, with Robinson, Algier, Drake London, Kyle Pitts, yes, like they have a good group of of skilled guys over there, and they do nothing with it. Like it doesn’t matter to the coaching staff, they do nothing with it. And, um, I, I even think that 8 and 9 is not even, so right now we’re gonna look at all the positives. Carolina Panthers 8 and 9 is greater than Falcons and Bucks 8 and 9. That’s right, because the Panthers are in the playoffs, and, and they’re in the playoffs. Let’s go. Uh, by the way, if keep leaving comments down here. I know we got a lot of people that are watching right now, so shout out to every single one of you that are watching right now. Again, Pace playbook sponsored by Wake Orthod Dis. Again, thanks for tuning in with us live. Uh, if you got questions about us, about going forward, whatever it might be, keep dropping them in the chat section. Um, a lot of people are, are, are commenting on Dave Canales and, and play calling and situational play calling, in particular, calling that, that, that flea flicker on Saturday, which There at that spot on the field in the rain. That’s the thing. I don’t, I don’t get it. I don’t, I don’t get it either, because we, we, we even said it yesterday. The weather sucked. Pudding was bad. Let’s not forget, the very first play of the game, Rico Dowdell slips, very first play of the game, and then Tampa got called for like an unsportsmanlike right after the play and Carolina got, got the ball right there at midfield, basically one play into the, into the first drive. But he slipped multiple times in the game. Even though they changed cleats and all that kind of stuff. Maximum slippage You also have guys just not able to fully handle the ball. Let’s not forget there was a moment in the game where Baker Mayfield going to throw a pass and the ball literally just slipped out of his hands, just going to throw the ball, just completely dropped it. So it’s difficult enough just going with it one exchange from one to the other, right? From one person to the next, whether it’s a handoff or a pass. One exchange is difficult enough as is with the conditions. Why are you gonna triple the amount of exchanges on one play? Cause you have a handoff, the tossback, and then the pass downfield. I, again, it’s, it’s just awareness. I understand that, hey, we have a look, we saw the single high safety, we thought we had a chance, all that kind of stuff, but Have better awareness of what’s around you. And by the way, Carolina was moving on that drive too. Again, it’s just situational, just awareness. Also flea flicker at your own twenty-yard line. It’s not like you have a whole lot of field deep that you could beat somebody with. I, I, I don’t know. I just didn’t get it. I didn’t get it. There’s a lot to discuss, we said after the season, but I’ll, I’ll say this part though that I want to say about Dave Canales. Um, and this isn’t like to rag on anybody on in the coaching staff. This isn’t like a personal attack on anybody on the coaching staff. I do think that Dave Canales, like you have, um, Uh, what’s my guy’s name? I’m, I’m forgetting names right now. You have Dom Capers, um, on the, on the Jim Caldwell and Jim Caldwell. Um, we see, we see those guys up in the press box all the time, but they’re just senior assistants, right? I think that like if you look at this, uh, this coaching staff, who are the future head coaches. That’s the problem. Mm. That’s the problem, and I think that’s a big part of the problem when it comes down to the offense, right? Now, we’ve heard Brad Idzik’s name. But like there’s gonna have to be a lot of things proven. I, I saw an article with his name in it, you know, a couple of weeks ago, um, but I, that’s, that’s also after the Panthers beat the Rams. So I mean, I remember a couple of years ago the time Kellen Moore, the, the, the Eagles offensive coordinator, was being mentioned for head coaching jobs, and he got fired. So anyway, all right, but yes, go on, but it’s, it’s, um. There’s, I, I think that there, there’s probably should be a little bit of a shakeup. I think there needs to be, now, I’m not, I’m not suggesting a Frank Reich situation, right? Just don’t bring people in because they’re a big name and they’re a future star or whatever. Like they’ve got, they’ve got gel with what Dave Canales wants to do. But I also think that like, Dave is a potential future star as a coach. He still needs development. We’re watching him develop real time, and so we’re seeing the ups and downs. We talked about the team and the, you know, the, the sleep regression and stuff like that. Dave Canales is dealing with that as well. We’re seeing him having his great spikes, having a great time, and then taking a couple of steps back because that’s what happens when you’re growing, um. To help him grow, I think he needs more mentorship. And what way to have more mentorship than to have people on the roster that will probably only be there 2 or 3, maybe only 2 years before they’re getting a head coach job somewhere else. And uh, you need, you need more of those guys on, on, on your coaching staff. I’ll just leave it at that. We can’t do anything about it between now and next weekend. That’s the part that we got to think about going towards in the future. How much does Dave Canales and this coaching staff learned from these last 4 weeks and just really just the season as a whole? Again, some of it again could be personnel. If Robert Hunt’s able to come back, I think that’s gonna be massive. But our good friend Mike Kay of the Charlotte Observer actually posted this out earlier this afternoon. Uh, actually, a little bit before noon today about the Carolina Panthers comparing their offense from 2024 to 2025. I don’t know if you saw this post, Chris. I’m gonna share it with the people, right? Was it on Twitter? It was. Well, that’s right. I’m still hacked, still hacked, baby. So in 2024. The Panthers averaged 20.1 points per game. That was 22nd in the NFL. This year, 18.3. It’s gonna finish in the bottom seven yards per game. Last year, 298, 29th in the NFL. This year, 295.6. Now, it’s gonna be 27th in the NFL, so the ranking is a little higher even though the yards per game is a little bit lower. But again, you’re looking at finishing 27th. One third of the NFL. Passing yards per game. Last year, 187.5, 30th in the NFL. This year, 179.3, 26th in the NFL. So again, a, a higher ranking, but a lower overall total from last year in terms of the passing yards per game. Rushing yards per game last year was 110.5. Finished 18th. This year, 1 16.3. So they got, you know, about 6 yards more per game. They’ll finish around 20th in the NFL. So you’re looking in like the middle, middle of the pack. Third-down percentage. Last year was 36.02%. This year, 36.1%. Basically exactly the same. Last year was 26th in the league, this year, 25th. Where they improved the most. was actually 4th down percentage. 46.6% last year, 26% in the league. This year, 67.5%. Right now, 4th, they’re gonna finish probably in the, in the top five in, in 4th-down conversion percentage. And then the red zone touchdown percentage. This is a big one here. They were 9th in the NFL last year in red zone touchdown percentage, 62%. So 62% of the time they got in the red zone, they converted for a touchdown. This year, that number dropped to 53.3%, 25th in the NFL. So, pretty much all those categories, Chris, with the exception of 4th-down conversion percentage, bottom third of the league, bottom third of the league offensively. And imagine, What those numbers might look like and what that record might look like if we don’t have a 1000 yard receiver or a back that had 1,300+ yards from scrimmage. Yeah. Again, All of that and you still are in the playoffs. You still made it. You still made it. And RA RE LL L2G said, just made the damn playoffs, y’all speaking on negative, damn. We’ve been talking for 40 minutes. I need people to to listen with nuance. I need people to listen with nuance. This whole, this whole 40 minutes has been nothing but positive, right? And, and honestly, a lot of what me, like, Dennis and I played sports growing up, so a lot of times after games. Even after a win, I don’t know about any of you guys, but coaches would also point out, hey, we could have done this better, let’s not rest on this because this could have bit us in the butt and, you know, we could have potentially lost this game, but let’s build on it and we’re gonna go forward. That is our way that we approach this show. That is also what happens to us when Dennis is doing radio and I’m doing television. We talk to our bosses, hey, the ratings are good. It’s very high. We are here, but also let’s look out for this because I think we were weak on explaining this. We were weak on doing this. We need to be first on getting this. Like that’s all, that’s all that we’re doing right now. We’re talking about how the Carolina Panthers could get better. If you see that as a negative. Then go somewhere else, cause that’s not like we’re talking about how the Carolina Panthers can get better and having an honest conversation. If you don’t want an honest conversation. With positivity because that’s what we’re doing that we’re excited they’re making the playoffs, this may not be, this may not be the show for you. I’m sorry. As TW said, it’s not negative, it’s corrective criticism. That’s, that’s exactly what we’re here for. That’s exactly it. That’s, and also, I know I took a lot of from people about, I said that the reason why the Panthers lost on Saturday was not because of the officials, even though the officials were bad. and negatively impacted the game. I come from a coaching and player standpoint. Hey my little dog just jumped down here. Um, I come from a coaching and player standpoint, where it’s like, to me, I never blamed officials, just never did, because I’ll always look at and say, what could I have done better to handle, OK, I got a negative call or like something that didn’t go my way. How do I handle it, you know? How do I? handle it. That’s just how I look at it. Now, the refs were part of the game yesterday, massively. By the way, I don’t get how, I don’t get how you can rip off Tommy Trimble’s helmet and throw it back to the twelve-yard line and then not get called. I even tweeted out today. I said, that’s where in my opinion, replay assists should come in. Like this is where the NFL as a whole really needs to take a look at that. Like, if there’s something egregious like that, be like, Hey guys, the guy just got his helmet ripped off and thrown downfield. Flag on number 8, 15 yards, keep it moving. That’s gotta happen. Like it, it simply does. If you can have replay assists, say, hey, actually, the ball is at the 39 yard line, not the 41. Why can’t they do that? That’s, that’s what I want to see. But anyway, that’s also completely down a different path. But also, but it’s a good point to stick on right here though. Also, the referees had nothing to do with 19 rushing yards from the Carolina Panthers. The referees had nothing to do with, with what, 1 of 11 on 3rd down. Like, there, there are things that the team could have done better themselves, and like, unless like all statistical categories are even, it comes down to the Panthers having the ball at the very end, and they have the opportunity to kick, and something crazy is called and it’s legit on the refs, just the way I was taught. You don’t blame the refs because there’s always something we could have done. That’s just, that’s just, that’s how my mindset and all that stuff, you know, so, um, here’s a name being mentioned. Mark Garver just mentioned a name here, Chris. If Dan Morgan can cook as good this offseason, we’re a serious contender next year. Like, by the way, Dan Morgan. That guy, Dan Morgan. That guy. But, you know, you know who’s been playing valuable reps right now? Bobby Brown the 3rd. Been playing some valuable reps, especially with the Turk Wharton injury. He’s been playing very valuable reps. That was a heck of a find. By the way, Bobby Brown the 3rd is still only what, 24, 25 years old. Like he’s still, like, he’s still overall young and still has some upside to grow. Turk Wharton. When he plays, I think he’s been effective. Unfortunately, he’s just been nicked up a little bit too much this season, but he found some gems. Like, I’m sorry, Jalen Poker is your number 2 receiver right now. Let’s go, let’s go back to Pat Jones. If he didn’t mess up his back, imagine having Pat Jones for this last half of the season because I felt like Pat Jones was starting to make some plays. He was starting to make some plays, man, and his length, his size, I mean, that guy is. He’s 6’5, but he’s one of those 65s that seems taller than 6’5, you know, like the locker room, it’s like Cam Newton is 6’5, but Cam Newton is the type of 65 that’s like, this feels like 7. I know it’s not 7, but it feels like 7, but like that guy was, was altering passes, he was knocking down passes, he was starting to try to get it, get to the quarterback. Um, hopefully he comes back, uh, next year, healthy and can make a good impact. But yes, I’m with you. Um, Dan Morgan, I, I think has a great opportunity to really cook up and solidify a lot of big parts of this team. You know, this is still on paper, one of the oldest teams, uh, in the league, but they really, really relied on a lot of their younger players. They’re, they’re relying on, on a lot of rookies, a lot of 2nd-year players, a lot of 3rd-year players. So, hopefully, Um, you know, the Panthers, um, you know, can use that, add some, some more, you know, great, um, pieces in the offseason when it comes down to free agency, and then also the draft and the unsigned free agents, uh, undrafted free agent class, because Coker’s doing his thing, Ryan Fitzgerald. I, I wanted to make that that 50 yarder, but I like Ryan Fitzgerald. I, I think there’s a future there as well. Oh yeah, I mean, he’s, he’s still a rookie. I, I, he kind of slipped from that field goal and all that slipped, yeah, and it was wet outside. Um, Joe said Dan also found Coker. Question mark. Yeah, I, he was part of that first class. He was an undrafted free agent. He found Coker, by the way, Nick Skorton been a heck of a find so far, I think. I think that dude’s gonna be a solid player for a long, long time. Nick Swton is, yeah, Dave, actually he is right now. I got, yeah, Dave Canales is actually is talking right now. Um, I’m, I’ve, you know, unfortunately I’ve, I didn’t get the email until like right as I didn’t notice it until after I was like, oh, look at that. Dave Canales is talking right now. No wonder some of our viewers have, have jumped over, listened to Dave Canales, but that’s totally fine, um. Anyway, uh, we can go listen to it, we can go listen to it and, and, and send these and talk to you guys on, on on Thursday, right? Yeah, so yeah, we’ll listen to it. We’ll have another, uh, All that kind of stuff. Oh, Brown has a concussion now. He got one last game. OK, actually, I missed that. Yeah, he, he, he was out with a concussion. I, I didn’t want to say anything because I wasn’t sure, like, you know, he could still possibly clear the, the protocol depending on when the game is played and all that. Um, but you know, I, I’m not sure. I, I doubt he’s gonna play this weekend, but it’s still possible he could, he could clear the protocol, so he very well could. Uh, another rookie that we didn’t, we didn’t mention, by the way, Cam Jackson, big field goal block. Oh, yeah, Cam Jackson, big time field goal block, and he hasn’t gotten a lot of opportunities this year. So, yeah, uh, by the way, it’s an audio only. I actually, uh, I, I pulled up the Zoom, uh. To be part of it, uh, we got that link, so I’m, I’m technically in, in Dave Canales’s presser right now, Chris, just saying, uh, just enjoy multitasking here. It’s OK. I’ll go back and listen to it and all that kind of stuff in a little bit. But, uh, Chris, I know we’ve been, we’ve been doing this the refs calls in your last video. Rewind. We, we. Oh, you guys really downplayed the refs calls your last video. No matter if we up. Yes, I, you may have just joined. Rewind about like 7 minutes or so, 8 minutes. Just rewind back a little bit. Uh, someone said Chuba needs to step up, has had so much potential but isn’t producing much. That’s also maybe a byproduct of how poor the offensive line has played lately. As it’s offensive line, also, here’s something I meant to say earlier, and it slipped my mind, um, That first drive in the Buccaneers game two weeks ago, me and you both mentioned on the show and also together that that drive and play calling from Dave Canales was probably his best when it came down to using his running backs in tandem, um, and it was the best. Variety of runs, uh, that we’ve seen, uh, from Dave Canales in that time period. So, uh, I think that, you know, we can get back to that like using Chuba and Rico in tandem, using power, uh, toss, using counter, using jet sweep, using zone, you know what I’m saying, like there’s, there’s so many different things that we can, we can do to kind of switch things up, so. Uh, it’s, it’s a little bit on Cuba, but I think there’s other factors as well. I mean, honestly, the, the ideal, like the blueprint of how this, this team has played their best this season, and it might be a rematch. It’s the Rams game. C Thuba Hubbard, 17 carries, 83 yards in that game. Rico Dowdell, 18 carries, 58 yards in that game. That’s 35 carries for 100 and do my math here, 141 yards combined. And then also they each had a couple of passes in the receptions in the passing game. Chuba Hubbard had the 135 yard touchdown on that swing route. Um, he had 2 catches, 41 yards, had the touchdown. Rico Dowdell had 2 catches for 21. Like that’s the blueprint. And then Bryce Young. Once again, uh, also. Um, I just wanna make sure I’m actually like, Muted over here in the zoom. Um, people aren’t listening in. But one thing about, uh, the passing game and that, well, the efficiency, 15 to 20, Bryce Young hitting the two deep shots, the one to McMillan, one to Coker for, for touchdowns on 4th down. That was the blueprint offensively for how this team operates the way it is currently constructed right now. That Rams game was the blueprint of how this team can be their best. It was, and they might get that rematch, and I’m hoping they do. I’m hoping they do. It it’ll be amazing if that were to happen. Um, Thursday, we’re gonna be back here Thursday? Yes, we are. Do that. Let’s, let’s get into some, some real talk and, you know, we’ll be able to actually see who the Panthers are going to be going against, we’ll know for sure, we’ll have game times and we can get into the matchup, what needs to be done. I’m excited, man. Uh, by the way, right now, Cardinals, Rams, tied at 6 late in the 2nd quarter. Rams are in the red zone right now. That’s 6-6 right now. So if the Rams win, Panthers play the Rams. Rams lose, Panthers play the 49ers. Plain and simple. OK, plain and simple. And you know what, even if this Panthers team goes one and done, I don’t care. The fact that they’re playing in the playoffs is the most important thing for this young team to experience that, experience meaningful games in December and January, that is the thing this team needs in order to go forward. They need to learn from these opportunities and from these experiences, plain and simple. Football is back in Charlotte, baby. We’re excited. Yep. Progress, growing pains. We felt some pains this weekend, but hey, playoffs. You cannot deny. Hang the banner. 89, I don’t care, hang it. Oh man, I’m excited to see what happens. We’ll see you all, you beautiful people on Thursday. Thanks y’all for locking in, tapping in. We’re gonna close this thing out. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Continue to leave the comments. Y’all rock. Chris, enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Y’all be good.
