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00:00:01
Speaker 1: Now to Jim Sokey with the Panthers postgame show presented by Marco's Pizza on the Carolina Panthers Radio Network.
00:00:10
Speaker 2: All right, tough one for the Panthers, 26-21, a game with many opportunities each way, but the Panthers unable to get over the top and beat Denver here. Welcome on board along with Mike Pacheco, Jonathan Stewart, the great Ted Ginn is joining us here tonight for this first segment as well, and we appreciate you dropping by. Ted, we have a loss like that where you have so many opportunities. How frustrating is that in the moments after the game when you know that you had penalties, you had some turnovers, you had some questionable officiating out there? How is it as a player in moments like this?
00:00:42
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's always tough.
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Speaker 4: You always got to go back and you got to look at film, you know, see what you did right, see what you did wrong. Penalties is always a hard deal to deal with, you know what I'm saying? And you always get questionable calls when it comes down to the refs. But, you know, you always was told you go out to play against 11 plus three more refs, four more refs. So, you know, you try to take it out their hands as much as possible. But once you get behind the eight ball, it's kind of hard to fight back. And then when you do fight back like we was, you know, one or two players can really put you behind the sticks.
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Speaker 5: Ted, one of the big strengths of this team this year has been the wide receiving core. What do you see when you see guys like T-Mac and Jalen Coker and what they bring to this offense?
00:01:24
Speaker 2: Well, you know, you just got to stay engaged.
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Speaker 4: You know, you play, you know, all these guys every week, you know, great guys every week. So just continue to go out and work out your craft, you know, and do the little things to make the big things be easier.
00:01:39
Speaker 3: Ted, you are a head coach for the Columbia Aviators, right? As a head coach, in your words, how do you get this team to overcome challenges a game like this. This is not the first time that the Carolina Panthers have had games where penalties have been a huge issue. What is the messaging and how do you get through to a team like that, like this? It's a talented team. But if you don't have the ability to get over the shortcomings of shooting yourself in the foot, you're not going to get anywhere.
00:02:13
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I think it all comes first. You know, you got to go at your coaches. You know, you start with your coaches and then you go down the line.
00:02:20
Speaker 2: You know, you take care of every room.
00:02:22
Speaker 4: By, by itself, you know, we go in and we identify what's really going on, why we keep doing it, who keep doing it, you know, and then, then you can, you able to, you know, attack the players, you know, but I think it start within your, your coaches, you know, and then you go down the line, but you have to stay engaged. You know, this is football, you know, it's any given Sunday, you know, so you just go out and you just got to continue just to fight, you know, but we can see that we, we want, we want our two players away.
00:02:49
Speaker 3: We want our two penalties away.
00:02:51
Speaker 4: So we get less penalties, uh, we make more plays, you know, so, you know, protecting the ball is always the biggest thing in this deal, you know, so you just have to go in and identify what we're doing wrong, you know, and attack it, but you got to attack it throughout the week, and if you see something ain't working throughout the week, it's not going to work on Sunday, and I'm a very, very big person of that, I mean, I hate to really say this, but Sean Payton was a very, you know, detailed person when it came down to that, like, if I don't see it in practice, I might not run it in the game, and You can't just go in there wishing.
00:03:24
Speaker 3: You got to go in there knowing.
00:03:26
Speaker 2: Well, coaching obviously runs in your family with your dad. How much are you enjoying it? What's that been like as a career now for you getting into the coaching world? Oh, man, it's been great.
00:03:34
Speaker 4: You know, first of all, who's going to get to, again, a head coaching job at the UFL, you know? So I've been able to, you know, go out and bring different guys up with me that I play ball with, you know, from a kid's aspect to college to pros, you know, Captain Munner is my defensive coordinator. You know, I have a guy named Larry Grant that's my special teams coordinator. You know, I'm looking for an OC right now, you know, going into year two.
00:04:01
Speaker 3: J-Stew, aren't you?
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Speaker 6: J-Stew.
00:04:03
Speaker 2: You want to run that rock?
00:04:06
Speaker 3: 13 personnel? 12 personnel?
00:04:08
Speaker 4: I don't know about 13, but we can go 12 or 21 for sure.
00:04:12
Speaker 3: We get some big limb guys.
00:04:14
Speaker 4: But, you know, it all starts with, you know, like he say, running a rock, being able to open up the pass game, man. You know, on the defensive side, you've got to stop the rock to be able to, you know, win ballgames. And then when you put that other element in there as a special teamer, you know, and you can win on that in some type of way, you know, either a good return or, you know, a block or whatever it may be, you've got to have all three phases of the game.
00:04:40
Speaker 7: Talk about your time here.
00:04:41
Speaker 5: I know you had some big games here, of course, with Jay Stu here as well. But what are some of your fondest memories of playing here in Carolina?
00:04:48
Speaker 3: Well, you know.
00:04:50
Speaker 3: There's so many.
00:04:51
Speaker 4: I mean, me and Jay Stu really talked about that Monday night, that Monday night against the Patriots.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:04:56
Speaker 4: You know, when I only had one catch for one touchdown for 25 yards. And
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the game is supposed to always come to you. And that's what happened that night. You know, so that's a big one. Playing against the Cardinals when I came back.
00:05:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, you came back.
00:05:09
Speaker 4: In that playoff game. And they opened the playbook up for me and let me, you know.
00:05:13
Speaker 2: There were a few points in that game. I remember that one.
00:05:15
Speaker 4: You know, let me get a little revenge. I'll probably say 2013. when we beat the Saints to go over and win the division. It's a lot of memories, you know, especially off the field. You know, these are my brothers. When I came to the Panthers, I was on my last leg, you know, and to have a guy like Ricky Pearl that's opposite coaching me now, that we both are head coaches at the same time.
00:05:42
Speaker 2: But for him to give.
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Speaker 4: Me the opportunity to come in here and just play the receiver spot, not look at me as a punt returner or a kickoff returner, you know.
00:05:49
Speaker 7: Being able to sit next to a guy like Steve.
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Speaker 4: Smith every day, you know, and learn from him ins and outs of, you know, how to be a real, true receiver. And we just had a great time.
00:06:01
Speaker 5: How much did, you know, kind of that role that you had here and then kind of growing back into being a receiver, like how much does that help you in your coaching role? Because there were times when you really had to become a student of the game as opposed to just going out and.
00:06:13
Speaker 4: I mean, that's my message every day, you know, especially dealing with the guys that I'm dealing with right now.
00:06:18
Speaker 2: Your way back into.
00:06:19
Speaker 4: The NFL is to be able to be a special teamer. I don't care how many passes that you catch in this league. I don't care how many rushing yards that you have. There's three or four other guys in that position on another team, on 32 teams that's already made. So I tell them every time, if you don't get special teams, then you don't have nothing.
00:06:39
Speaker 3: And I have, what, eight guys go.
00:06:40
Speaker 4: To the NFL this year, three stuck around, one made to 53, other two made practice squad. And, you know, your dream continues to continue, you know. You just never know where you put yourself at or where you're going to be, where you might fall into a guy like me or you fall into a guy like Ricky Paul.
00:06:59
Speaker 3: Yeah. Ted, you know, players play, coaches coach, right? And you've been on both sides. How much of a responsibility does a coach take for a loss, you know, as far as the weight that you put on yourself, as far as the preparation for, getting your guys ready and the responsibility in that mindset?
00:07:21
Speaker 4: You know, going through this season, I was 3-7, so I had more losses than I had wins, you know. You got to sit there and you got to look yourself in the face first. It all goes off of how you feel and what you're doing. And, you know, throughout the week, what we was good at, what we wasn't good at, what we can get better at. And you just got to take accountability. If you don't take accountability, then your team.
00:07:44
Speaker 3: Don't ever grow. Yeah, because when as a player, I feel like when we sense that a coach is not taking accountability and sometimes it comes in different forms. It doesn't have to be finger pointing, but it can be it can all it can also be hands off.
00:07:59
Speaker 2: Right.
00:07:59
Speaker 3: You know, a guy that needs developing. Right. It's your job to develop a younger guy. He has promise. He's on our roster. You've got to give him a shot in practice. Got to find situations in the game to put him in a position to succeed, right?
00:08:12
Speaker 2: For sure.
00:08:13
Speaker 3: Seeing today the defensive coordinator situation change, right? What did you see in the glimpse that you saw today from the defensive line? You know, this is a defensive line coach that gets an opportunity to be a defensive coordinator. What did you see today from that position group that stood out the most?
00:08:34
Speaker 4: Well, you know, you always want to figure out who can really rush the pass in. You know, in the game of football, you got to have somebody rush the passer. We kind of seen that at the end of the game, you know. No matter how many DBs or line breakers that you have, that front four has to be able to rush the passer. I done seen a lot of people, you know, in the game, just like, you know, I hate to say it, but we lost today by a pass rusher.
00:08:57
Speaker 3: You know, so identifying who that is, attacking.
00:08:59
Speaker 4: Who that is, and making plays be able to adjust for that guy to be able to have one-on-ones, to be able to, you know, be a game changer or close the game out and You know, it's tough because, you know, throughout the week you don't get that live action to be able to showcase what I can do. And that's what really makes it hard as a coach sometimes and that's what makes it harder on a player sometimes is stay off the quarterback, you know. And we can never get the full tilt until you get to real live action. And I think, like you said, you always got to go out and you have to identify what we're good at and what we're not good at. And then harp on what we good at and get better at what we not good at.
00:09:40
Speaker 2: All right, last thing we'll let you go. Jay Stu, you played with a lot of really fast players, college and pro. Where does Ted rank with the fastest guys you've ever seen?
00:09:49
Speaker 3: Man, Ted getting the fastest football player in the world. Stu, I feel like you still got about like a 10-16. Party show. See, I told you. And that's not like this is world. this is world-class speed, ladies and gentlemen. To be, I wish we had a Ted Ginn out there today. When they punted that ball off to us, we won't need an offense if we have somebody like Ted getting back there to return it back. Because that's one
of the things that you have when you have a guy like Ted and that speed. The world's your oyster. When you need an explosive play, when you need something, a jet sweep to the house against the Cardinals, have a quarterback down there blocking for you. You know what I'm saying?
00:10:39
Speaker 2: It scared me, too.
00:10:40
Speaker 3: I almost scared you out of the touchdown. For sure. But, you know, I mean, Ted Ginn, top-notch speed in the world, man. And I'm sorry about your Ohio State Buckeyes. I knew he was coming with that. Of all the days.
00:10:52
Speaker 2: Of all the days for you to be here.
00:10:53
Speaker 7: I know.
00:10:54
Speaker 2: Of all the days, it.
00:10:56
Speaker 3: Was divine and adventurous.
00:10:59
Speaker 4: I usually text him, you know, and talk smack to him. But, you know, they got the best of us last night.
00:11:04
Speaker 7: So go Oregon.
00:11:06
Speaker 3: I'd like to hear that, man. Y'all got that on film.
00:11:08
Speaker 2: He said, go Oregon.
00:11:10
Speaker 3: Go Oregon.
00:11:11
Speaker 2: Also, the Buckeyes are pretty injured right now. But anyways, Ted, great to see you, man. Thank you. Thank you, Ted Ginn. Appreciate you being here. We got Jonathan Stewart. We got Mike Pacheco. We got more coming up on the postgame show. Panthers come up short 26-21 on the Carolina Panthers Radio Network. Welcome back, 26-21. Broncos win over the Panthers. We've now lost three games in a row and so many moments in this game, so many factors into what was a close game. Disappointing finish when the Panthers get the ball back in their hands one last time. Give up the fumble on the strip sack of Bryce Young. Jonathan Stewart joining us for the whole postgame show. And Jay, it's too great to have you here. Everyone's talking about what was your thought on that crazy interception, Tommy Tremble, the end zone. A couple of things like possible pass interference, possible that, you know, how they got the review after a play was snapped. What was the whole thing for you?
00:12:06
Speaker 3: None of it's possible if you run the rock. And I know it's, listen, when they first designed football, I'm pretty sure they said, hey, hand it off and run somebody over, right? You had a drive where everything was working well. Coming off of scoring before you go into the half, the momentum's rolling. You have a chance to go down there and do it again and again and again. I don't know if you guys saw Monroe Freeling. Freeling on that drive was feeling himself. He was dominating at the point of contact in these runs. And when you start seeing an offensive lineman start figuring it out, especially our rookie tackle, playing right tackle, And he's destroying guys. Grown men feed into that. I thought for certain when we got down there to the goal line that we were absolutely just going to walk it in right behind Monroe Freeling. And I think sometimes as coaches, sometimes you start getting in rhythm and you start getting excited and you want to run certain plays. And here we are being too cute. On the goal line for no reason.
00:13:18
Speaker 2: Over-engineered, right?
00:13:19
Speaker 3: Over-engineered. And that was a heads-up play by that DB. That was crazy. And I remember, I mean, we were up in the booth, and I'm sitting there looking at the screen saying, no, that's an interception. And then, lo and behold, the red flag's out there. And that's what loses games, right? You shoot yourself in the foot, whether it's situations like that, situational balls. whether it's the penalties. You know, I feel like today our defense played well enough for us to win this game. And if you're going to take anything positive from this, that's a positive.
00:13:58
Speaker 2: It felt like made adjustments, right? Because we go down 10-0. You could see the change. They started slamming that door, got the momentum back.
00:14:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, Sean Payton's a pro. He's been doing this for so long, right? And I feel like he probably has a little swagger when he walks into this place, right? Like, ah, this is my spot. And you can tell he knew what he was going to do coming out in the game, you know, attacking Thornton. He knew he was going to attack deep shots throughout the course of the game. He had his mind made up and game planning. And then I feel like, you know, for the first couple of drives, it was just him kind of figuring things out. showing different formations, getting guys in motion, just to kind of figure out what it is that Todd Walsh was all about. And then you settle in, but there's a flip side to that. I think Todd Walsh was doing the same thing, right? And you start seeing the defense starting to play free. I love how downhill and how, you know, just straight to the point we were in our philosophy, whether it was– run stops. I mean, we had three at one point in the game. I'm not really sure what we ended up with, but having three tackles for loss, that's huge, right? Especially when you see a team start finding momentum. How do we get them behind the sticks without having to have you guys in a pass set and finding a set or a sack in a pass set? And so there's a lot of good things that I saw today, but it just was good enough. And Coach Rivera used to say, Good enough is good enough to get beat.
00:15:32
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah.
00:15:34
Speaker 5: And, you know, when you look at the interceptions in this game, they were both turning points, right? The first one that the Panthers had, it was a turning point because then they were able to get down and score. And then, you know, you go into the half and it's a really close game. You come out at halftime and you get that first touchdown. And then you're thinking everything is great. And, of course, then the second one, you know, you get a touchdown there and you're thinking this is the happiest place on earth, right?
00:15:57
Speaker 7: I mean, things are going, things are rolling, things are really good. And then all of a
sudden... You know, I think the.
00:16:02
Speaker 5: One question, and I'm sure the pool reporters will talk about this with the referees, but I'd like to.
00:16:07
Speaker 7: Get the timeline on the challenge flag, because I think there was some.
00:16:11
Speaker 8: Yeah.
00:16:11
Speaker 7: Because they ran a play after that.
00:16:12
Speaker 2: They ran a play.
00:16:12
Speaker 7: And then they said, hey, oh, by the way, now we're going to go back.
00:16:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, they ran a play, and then they were like, oh, wait, sorry, that play doesn't count. Yeah. Technically, it should still count, right?
00:16:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think there are some exceptions, so it'll be interesting to see how they rule that.
00:16:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, if the challenge flag came out in time and they missed it, that's a bad officiating. To me, that's more of a technicality. If it actually came out in time, then that's fair to me. Yeah, it did. That's the biggest thing.
00:16:37
Speaker 7: And I will say this. We hear this a lot.
00:16:39
Speaker 2: He said it already. Run the ball, right? We talk about it in every pregame show. I've never done a pregame hit with Jonathan Stewart where run the ball wasn't featured in the first 10 seconds.
00:16:49
Speaker 3: You'd be a fool to think that that was not a key to the game. No, absolutely. You've got to run the ball, stop the run. Every single... And you've got a.
00:16:56
Speaker 2: Running back that breaks tackles. So even if he doesn't get a block, he still wins one-on-one matchups and gets in.
00:17:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, we call that be your own blocker. He's like, Chuba Hubbard is a B-Y-O-B.
00:17:05
Speaker 2: Be your own blocker.
00:17:07
Speaker 3: Bring your own block.
00:17:10
Speaker 2: It's tough. Last aspect of that play, because there's different aspects to that play. Pass interference or not pass interference defensively on that?
00:17:18
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah. But You're not the ref. You can't go into every play thinking to yourself, oh, if we throw it up, we'll get another shot at it because it's pass interference.
00:17:30
Speaker 2: Gotcha.
00:17:31
Speaker 9: Right?
00:17:31
Speaker 3: You don't ever leave it into the hands of a ref. If you leave it into the hands of the ref, that's losing football.
00:17:36
Speaker 2: Right. I tell you, I hate the strip sack fumble at the end because I wanted to see how it was going to play out because you just had to make completion to get to about 35 or whatever.
00:17:46
Speaker 3: Darren Waller was wide open, and you can tell it was just going to be, oh, just a little dump off.
00:17:51
Speaker 10: Yep.
00:17:52
Speaker 3: Darren Waller, he's going to get out of bounds, 12-yard pickup, easy peasy. We were about to win that game.
00:17:59
Speaker 2: It was moving.
00:18:01
Speaker 3: That's how the Broncos have been winning all season long. You play good enough to win the game, you will get beat by the Denver Broncos. The Chiefs found out. We found out. Whoever it was last week found out. And they're real.
00:18:17
Speaker 2: And the bounce of the ball that Jonah Coleman pitched. He tracks down. Like, he's actually back here trying to hold back the Panthers defender, and he somehow gets in front of him and recovers his own fumble on that.
00:18:27
Speaker 3: Hopefully Patrick Jones, man, he was a little faster.
00:18:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:18:32
Speaker 7: We need to channel Ted Ginn there.
00:18:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, if we had Ted Ginn out there, we would have scored on a fumble.
00:18:36
Speaker 2: It would be weird to have him on defense, but I'm willing to try it.
00:18:38
Speaker 7: Hey, if he's still got a 10-6 in the 100, maybe.
00:18:41
Speaker 3: We should talk to him. Come back and play for the Carolina Panthers.
00:18:45
Speaker 2: It's frustrating, though. It's three losses in a row. Team played better today overall.
00:18:49
Speaker 10: Yeah.
00:18:50
Speaker 2: So it's done. We'll do the 24-minute rule, so the 24-hour rule, because we have a short show here. You've got to let it go. You let it go. Now you go on the road to New Orleans, which beat Cleveland by one in overtime, as it turns out today. Can you build off of this? I guess this is what I'm saying. Even though you didn't get the win we were talking pregame about, you kind of had to figure out yourself a little bit today with the coaching changes and all that. Despite how this feels right now, is this something buildable for going to New Orleans with?
00:19:14
Speaker 3: Absolutely. And if I'm any other team, if I'm a team that hasn't played the Panthers yet this year, you're kind of like scratching your head like, oh, this is a different team in my opinion. The defensive line and how they play and how they're allowed to now just get up field and stop reading at the point of contact and having things just fall into their lap. You're seeing Turk Wharton. Look, my man's unlocked. He had a really good showing today. Patrick Jones had a good showing today. Lee Hunter. I mean, was out there, you know, quick feet and all. Like, we haven't really seen guys chasing after a quarterback the way we were chasing after a quarterback.
00:19:56
Speaker 2: So the scheme fits what they're doing.
00:19:57
Speaker 3: I believe so. I believe so. And, man, you got to think to yourself, what should we be excited about? Jalen Phillips, he's going to come back at some point. J.C.
00:20:06
Speaker 6: Horne.
00:20:07
Speaker 3: We're going to say it every week until they get back because when they do, it's going to be a completely different defense. Bobby Okereke we didn't have today. Sean Payton's game plan doesn't look the way it does today if we had those guys out there. He's not picking on DBs.
00:20:24
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully some good things to carry and create maybe some momentum headed down to New Orleans. Take a timeout here. When we come back, Michael catches up on the NFL scoreboard. A lot of interesting games, some games in
progress too as we continue getting the final score here At Bank of America Stadium, Broncos 26 and the Panthers 21.
00:20:40
Speaker 1: This is the Panthers postgame show presented by Marco's Pizza.
00:20:45
Speaker 6: Zone read. Gibbs straight up the middle. Touchdown. Touchdown Carolina.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: Reaction and analysis to today's game with special guests, highlights, and updates from around the league. Complete.
00:20:58
Speaker 6: Touchdown right side.
00:20:59
Speaker 3: Makes the catch.
00:21:00
Speaker 6: Touchdown Panthers.
00:21:02
Speaker 8: Now what? How about it?
00:21:03
Speaker 6: Now what?
00:21:04
Speaker 1: Now to Jim Zoki with the Panthers postgame show exclusively on the Carolina Panthers radio network.
00:21:15
Speaker 7: And we are back here for the fifth quarter. North Lounge.
00:21:17
Speaker 5: Panthers falling 26-21 to the Denver Broncos. This drive around the league brought to you by the Honda dealers of the Carolinas. And we'll start with an overtime game for New Orleans. They knock off the Cleveland Browns 23-22. Tough day for the state of Ohio.
00:21:34
Speaker 3: I mean, Ohio fans.
00:21:37
Speaker 7: Tough 24 hours. I mean, you had the Ducks and then the Browns losing today.
00:21:40
Speaker 3: The Browns and Philly.
00:21:42
Speaker 2: Can we just focus on this one loss right now?
00:21:45
Speaker 7: But here's where it gets even tougher for the Browns. They had a touchdown. The two-point fails, which would have given them a.
00:21:55
Speaker 4: Tie.
00:21:55
Speaker 7: Well, no, essentially a win.
00:21:56
Speaker 2: So they were going for the win.
00:21:57
Speaker 7: They were going for the win, and they didn't get it. They kick it. They keep overtime. And you know why? There's still a minute left to go in overtime.
00:22:03
Speaker 2: I looked at the box score because they threw the ball.
00:22:05
Speaker 9: See? See?
00:22:06
Speaker 2: They didn't even run the ball. We should do a Sanders at quarterback. Would you run the ball or would you pass the ball? I would run the ball.
00:22:12
Speaker 3: Jenkins.
00:22:13
Speaker 10: Right.
00:22:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:22:14
Speaker 5: But Shader Sanders, to your point, 19 of 31, 297 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions in that game. Tyler Shuck, 21 of 35, 265. He had a touchdown and no interceptions either. Detroit over Miami, 19 to 9. Kansas City, 35 to 12.
00:22:32
Speaker 7: Over the New York Jets.
00:22:33
Speaker 5: Patrick Mahomes, 22 of 31, two touchdowns, 242 yards passing.
00:22:37
Speaker 7: There was a play where... He got kind of.
00:22:39
Speaker 2: I thought his arm fell off his body.
00:22:40
Speaker 5: I know, he got crunched and his arm's like going back and getting twisted and then he's back in there, so.
00:22:46
Speaker 7: The resilient Patrick Mahomes.
00:22:48
Speaker 5: Dallas beats Indianapolis 27-23, so maybe a lost season for Dallas isn't so lost.
00:22:54
Speaker 2: Well, they found a team trying less than they are, the Colts. Indeed.
00:22:59
Speaker 7: Cincinnati over Atlanta.
00:23:00
Speaker 5: That game was earlier today in Spain, 34-17, the final in that game. Rams over the Commanders 20-13, and the Giants pick up the win over Philadelphia.
00:23:11
Speaker 7: This is a bizarre score, 19-11.
00:23:16
Speaker 2: Is that a score I got me?
00:23:18
Speaker 7: I'll research that.
00:23:19
Speaker 2: We'll do it during the break.
00:23:20
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, we had a lot going on with Ted Gann. We're keeping you busy today. I feel like this was election night. We got returns coming in from all over the country.
00:23:29
Speaker 2: You want a whiteboard to put it on?
00:23:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're Steve Kornacki when we need them. But find out if that one is a score I got me. But, of course, in the Thursday night game, Jacksonville 33-10 on the road in Baltimore. My son was at that game, and he and his buddies got up on the jumbo board because there was a They were the only ones.
00:23:47
Speaker 7: Left in that one.
00:23:48
Speaker 5: Tampa Bay at Chicago is your Sunday night game, and Buffalo, Minnesota is your Monday night football game coming up. Of course, the games right now, Green Bay a two-touchdown lead over New England right now, 14-0. Houston over the Chargers, 10-3. And Seattle trailing it home to Arizona, 3-0. San Francisco, 7-0 over Las Vegas.
00:24:08
Speaker 2: So, Jay Stu, when the Panthers aren't playing on a Sunday, which was last week, actually the Thursday game, You got the family and the kids. Do you have time to watch football? Are you guys just out with the family, or what's going on?
00:24:18
Speaker 3: We're watching football. You know, it's interesting. I never really considered myself a true football fan until I retired. I've gotten, obviously, way more interested into this game following the Carolina Panthers. And you actually, like, once you really, I've become more of a student of the game. I know that sounds weird, right? It's like, well, you played football all your life. Shouldn't have you been a student? I was a student of my craft, right? I worked on my craft day in and day out. Everything that made me better as a running back is way different than being a student of the overall encompassing portion of the game, right? I don't have any responsibilities anymore, right? So now I can actually give time to understanding the safety's role and the offensive tackle's role and just so many different points of emphasis that when it comes to the track and football. So watching other teams play and watching different plays, especially watching the Chicago bears right now, it's one of my favorite teams to watch because I mean, it's different, right? It's different. And I think they're bringing it to teams and embracing that whole, okay, well, if you want to give this to us, then we'll take it approach because everyone's in that bend. Don't break defense. Well, they're like, okay, well we'll take the bend and eventually we'll crack you and
score. Um, I love watching the Chicago Bears, no doubt.
00:25:42
Speaker 2: And I've always thought, again, you can't do everything the same way all the time, but football a lot of times is finding the mismatch, just to the point of what you're making. Find the mismatch, find that open spot, whatever the case, you're giving us this mismatch or whatever. Is that kind of like a simple way of saying it?
00:25:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. I mean, you look at today's game, we knew that the Broncos on defense, there's two safeties we're going to be out. So going into that, knowing the information, tracking it throughout the week, You know, licking your chops, thinking to yourself, okay, the tight ends should be able to eat pretty heavy. And they did. We took full advantage of their two safeties being out because that's a mismatch across the middle of the field. So I think, you know, looking at that in, you know, the run game, right, they're, you know, lacking a defensive end. So the run support on getting outside, I think we kind of took advantage of that today.
00:26:34
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:26:34
Speaker 3: I don't think their strong points are run-stop with their defensive ends. I think it's definitely pass rush, obviously. They're leading the top five in the league in getting to sacks. But, yeah, it's just always looking for the mismatch. That's what football is all about.
00:26:50
Speaker 2: And they did the same likewise with 31 and 35 today. They found the two corners out there early and often, whether it was a pass interference or maybe just winning the play overall. But a lot of penalty flags came from those two positions today.
00:27:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, 13 penalties, it's not winning football. I mean, you basically have a whole football field worth of yards that you've given up. And you talk about field position, and we gave it up today. And I think that happens, right? We're down to our fifth string cornerback. Somebody has to play. Somebody has to play. And there's a level, there's a reason why there's a depth chart. And Sean Payton went in and said, okay, this is their depth chart. We're going to take it to the depth. We're not going to mess around with anything else. And that's how they won this game. The deep curls and we sit back there in zone, soft zone. Bo Nix did a good job of just picking us apart there. I think that's what they've really done throughout the course of the year. Wait till the fourth quarter, stay hanging around, might have the lead. could strike whenever you're hot and ready. Defenses play those soft zone coverages. And if you're waiting, if your defense is good enough to keep you in arm's reach, that's a good way to win football games.
00:28:10
Speaker 5: And I think, too, sometimes when things aren't really going your way, the football finds you, right? Like, you know, in baseball, sometimes that happens. If a guy has an error, all of a sudden maybe he has a second or a third error. And I think that was the same thing kind of with those passing interference calls.
00:28:22
Speaker 7: I mean, it was just like.
00:28:23
Speaker 5: It just kind of kept compounding and compounding, and then it almost got to like, oh, here we go again kind of a deal.
00:28:31
Speaker 2: All right, tough one today for the Panthers. Had there plenty of opportunities to come up short 26-21. We'll visit more with Jonathan Stewart. We'll listen back to some highlights. We'll hear from Coach Canales and some of these players here. More to come as we continue from the North Lounge. Come join us on the Carolina Panthers Radio Network.
00:28:48
Speaker 7: Wait, what came first?
00:28:53
Speaker 2: Back in the North Lounge, Panthers and Broncos. Denver wins 26-21. Let's listen back to three of the highlights from this game. Two favorable, one unfavorable at the end. This is Bryce Young and the touchdown pass to Darren Waller comes in the third quarter, gives the Panthers their last lead of the game at that moment, 14-13.
00:29:16
Speaker 10: McMillan split out to the left. Sertan plays off of him. A trips look to the right. Shotgun snap. Here's the blitz. Bryce in the pocket. Throws to the end zone.
00:29:25
Speaker 6: Waller reaches up. Holds up for a touchdown.
00:29:30
Speaker 2: Then the Tommy Trumbull play would happen. We already covered that. So they come right back down the field. Denver scores on an 80-yard drive because, of course, the touchback in the end zone. Go for the two-point conversion. Don't get it after the Jonah Coleman nine-yard touchdown. So it's 19-14 at that point. And then Denver gets another touchdown, the Pat Bryant 26-yard touchdown. That makes it 26-14 with 5.41 to go. But then the Panthers start to mount an unlikely comeback. And here with just over three minutes to play, It's Bryce Young to T-Mac. Four-yard touchdown to make it a five-point game.
00:30:04
Speaker 6: Young out of the gun. Hovered left hip. Here's the snap. Bryce looking.
00:30:09
Speaker 8: Throws.
00:30:10
Speaker 3: End zone.
00:30:11
Speaker 10: Caught by McMillan. A diving, tumbling catch for a touchdown. He beats Sertan. It's 26-20. 3.05 to go.
00:30:21
Speaker 6: In the fourth.
00:30:22
Speaker 2: Thank you for saying Sertan. I hear Sertane all the time. I know it's spelled that way, but it's Patrick Sertan. The second, by the way.
00:30:28
Speaker 7: I am certain that that's the right way to pronounce it.
00:30:30
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:30:30
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:30:32
Speaker 2: I see what you did. You butchered the word certain to make your point, which is a great idea. Panthers use their timeouts wisely. They get the ball back. They force a punt. And then they're marching. And then this happens. Bryce Young in the pocket after they get down to about the 35-yard line.
00:30:49
Speaker 6: He's in the gun. The snap. Bryce looking around. Looking. Hit from the backside.
00:30:55
Speaker 2: The ball is out.
00:30:59
Speaker 6: That is a fumble. Denver emerges from the scrum.
00:31:03
Speaker 2: Hard to listen to that. Man, it was just like we had no right to be in the ballgame at that point. And here we are, the ball in our hands, almost to the high red zone there. And then, ah, I just wanted to see the alternate ending to at least see how we continued the drive. Whether it worked out or not, I wanted to see more. Could we push it all the way down in there?
00:31:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, we would have. We would have scored. We would have won. Sorry to tell you that.
00:31:26
Speaker 2: Because all the momentum was now in the Panthers' direction suddenly. Oh, yeah.
00:31:30
Speaker 3: I mean, whenever you have a, you know, the fumble there with the running back, Jonah Coleman, you know, that takes the wind out of your sail in a heartbeat. And, you know, Like, that was the perfect setup. That was, like, something that you're thinking to yourself as a fan watching. It's like, oh, we need to pick six. Hey, toss the ball and fumble it.
00:31:51
Speaker 8: Well, that's what happened.
00:31:53
Speaker 3: I know.
00:31:54
Speaker 2: If we recovered that at the five.
00:31:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you wanted to write a script, it would have been fumble, recovery, touchdown. But, man, going back to that Waller touchdown, you know, 6-6, that's a big frame.
00:32:08
Speaker 9: Mm-hmm.
00:32:09
Speaker 3: You know, that was a cover three look. He's one-on-one with the safety, middle of the field. You take that all day.
00:32:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. Right?
00:32:17
Speaker 3: They brought five. I don't know what they were thinking, leaving the safety in the red zone, one-on-one with a 6'6 guy. Right? But that, to me, is something that we got to keep on with. You know, don't run away from it. I know that was a game plan with this injured– secondary for the Broncos, but going forward, that's an indicator there that you can't win that battle.
00:32:45
Speaker 2: And Bryce threw that high.
00:32:46
Speaker 9: Yeah.
00:32:46
Speaker 2: It was like a linebacker in between, so he throws over him.
00:32:49
Speaker 3: He throws over.
00:32:50
Speaker 2: To only wear a 6'6 guy that can jump could make the catch.
00:32:53
Speaker 3: And I look at this, you know, the rest of the year, you know, You get down the red zone, you just can't compete with that as a defender because, A, you either get a pass interference or it's a touchdown. Right. Darren Wall is going to catch it. And then, you know, Tommy Trimble, you know, this is a guy that we, I think we kind of forgot about in the offseason because last year, you know, he had coming off of a back surgery.
00:33:23
Speaker 10: Yep.
00:33:23
Speaker 3: And all those types of things. This is a guy that they've had him hang around here because they knew what he was capable of. And, yeah, he can catch the ball. He scores touchdowns. But, man, when he's on the edge blocking, that's the type of guy that you want that's going to secure the edge and willingly do it, right? But there was a lot of good schemes that we saw today that were being drawn up. And just unfortunately, we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.
00:33:50
Speaker 2: All right, we're going to call that touchdown to Waller, the Whataburger. What a moment of the game, grilling delicious food for 75 years. Whataburger, just like you like it. You know, Mike, you and I did some basketball together. You're still doing the basketball I'm talking about here. And a coach would use the phrase, woulda, coulda, shoulda.
00:34:08
Speaker 7: Woulda, coulda, shoulda, yeah.
00:34:09
Speaker 2: And this had a lot of woulda, coulda, shouldas in this game as far as. almost maybe winning this game.
00:34:14
Speaker 5: Yeah, and we've seen now in back-to-back weeks, and there have been, I think, three times this year where Panthers have lost with one possession game, whether it's by eight or less, and there's so many things have to go right in the game, right? I mean, there's generally, what, about 120, 130 plays, and so when you think about that, I mean, so many things have to go right, and the games necessarily don't necessarily boil down to one or two plays, but really they do because it You know, that interception doesn't happen in the end zone.
00:34:45
Speaker 7: Panthers get a score, and they score there, right? You have to make that assumption. Forget about it. This game's pretty much over.
00:34:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, even special teams. Fitzgerald, right? Missing a field goal. Like, when you see your field goal kicker miss a field goal.
00:34:58
Speaker 2: First time he's missed a field goal all year.
00:35:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, he missed some extra points.
00:35:01
Speaker 2: He's not good at 33 all the time. But he hits all the other numbers.
00:35:05
Speaker 5: That's a great point, though, because if he kicks that field goal, then maybe it's a little bit of a different complexion.
00:35:08
Speaker 2: Don't forget, too, the kickoff out of bounds led to a scoring drive.
00:35:11
Speaker 3: After you score, right?
00:35:12
Speaker 8: Yeah.
00:35:13
Speaker 3: And as a player, when you see those types of things happen, you're just like, huh?
00:35:16
Speaker 7: Yeah.
00:35:17
Speaker 3: What are we doing here?
00:35:18
Speaker 2: This is the easy part of the game, right?
00:35:19
Speaker 8: Yeah.
00:35:20
Speaker 3: It's a routine thing. Like, you go to a circus, and you see guys throwing knives at a guy, and they don't miss, right?
00:35:26
Speaker 2: It's like they practice.
00:35:28
Speaker 3: It's like life or death out there, but we can't seem to... Hit the uprights.
00:35:33
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a great way of putting it. It's funny. Well, the circus left town.
00:35:37
Speaker 7: Well, no stuffed animals were handed out.
00:35:41
Speaker 1: No.
00:35:41
Speaker 2: All right, so when we come back, let's hear from Coach Dave Canales. The guys had to say and hear from Coach Dave Canales following this tough 26-21 loss to the Denver Broncos. Stick with us here in the North Lounge. Back to the
Panthers postgame show. or order online today. All right, we continue from the North Lounge, fifth quarter show, Jim Zocchi along with Mike Pacheco and Jonathan Stewart. Before we chop it up a little bit more, Panthers Locker Room Show is brought to you by Marco's Pizza. Ready for a game day dinner? Visit your local Marco's Pizza or order online today as we send it back to Anish and the gang and their interview with head coach Dave Canales.
00:36:23
Speaker 10: Anish, Rob, Luke Hickley joined by Panthers head coach Dave Canales. Dave, let's start with the fight that you guys showed down two scores late to get that stop defensively and get the ball back.
00:36:36
Speaker 3: What did that say to you?
00:36:38
Speaker 11: It's something that we've learned to expect. We're going to finish with great effort and always give ourselves a chance to be in these games, but I can't say that without talking about just the early execution, the penalties, minimizing those types of things. Some of the mistakes that kind of showed up in different spots at different times and finding a consistency of play, especially when you're playing a team like the Broncos.
00:37:02
Speaker 8: That's how they get it done.
00:37:03
Speaker 11: That's how they win is by executing and by doing things well for four quarters. We have to find our way to do that, to find our way to be able to execute at a high level, play clean football so that it can show up the way we want.
00:37:15
Speaker 10: Dave, the tight end group collectively just seems to produce with a pretty significant level of consistency. What do you think the secret sauce is right there?
00:37:26
Speaker 8: It's chemistry.
00:37:27
Speaker 11: It's Bryce learning the guys how to present the ball to them and those guys just really being dialed in on running their routes full speed, finishing when they get opportunities and I was really pleased with the way that those guys played.
00:37:41
Speaker 12: Coach Luke here, obviously frustrating game but I think there's a lot of positives. I feel like the energy with the team overall was great and how do you kind of How do you kind of match the good with the stuff that you guys have to improve on? Because I feel like there are so many positive things from the game today.
00:37:57
Speaker 8: Absolutely, Luke.
00:37:58
Speaker 11: And that's exactly what I went to in the locker room. And just reminding the guys, like, we have everything we need in this locker room right here. We have, we got playmakers and we got scheme and the aggressive style of play and physicality. I was really pleased with that part, you know, but it comes down to execution, Luke. And that's the part that I just challenged a group on is like, This stuff happens on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
00:38:20
Speaker 3: This is where we get our football right.
00:38:21
Speaker 11: So we're certain about what happens and our techniques and those different things. And we got to find a way to play that kind of
ball, Luke, because you're right. There's really good stuff happening right here. And I'm really hopeful. I'm hopeful that our best football is right in front of us. But we just got to eliminate some of the mistakes against a really good opponent, especially.
00:38:39
Speaker 8: Yeah, absolutely. And just when you go.
00:38:42
Speaker 12: out to practice this week, when you talk to guys during the week as a head coach, who are a couple guys, you know, on both sides of the ball that you lean on to kind of continue that message for you?
00:38:50
Speaker 8: Oh, certainly Bryce.
00:38:52
Speaker 11: Chuba, you know, just the way that he approaches his work every day and, you know, making sure that the guys are approaching the work the right way and throwing themselves into it. Devin Lloyd on the other side. And, you know, Nick Scott's been in the back just making sure the guys are tied in together and that they're talking, that they're communicating. And certainly Derek, you know, up front with the type of physicality and the effort coming out of the stack and all those things. Those are the things that are going to matter for us. So again, we've got to take the next step together and just make sure we can minimize some of the early mistakes.
00:39:24
Speaker 10: Dave, last thing before we let you go, what was your assessment of how Todd Walsh called the defense?
00:39:30
Speaker 11: He kept us aggressive you know had some good solutions for you know how they were using different guys in their personnels challenging the guys to take the grass with energy and I saw that and you know that was my big hope coming out of this game was that we take the grass the right way that we finish plays the right way with great effort with great strain and physicality and.
00:39:48
Speaker 2: And I saw that.
00:39:49
Speaker 8: Are there things we've got to clean up? Absolutely.
00:39:51
Speaker 11: But I thought we were in a good spot with our guys, understanding the plan and being able to play fast and physical.
00:39:57
Speaker 10: Thanks, Dave.
00:39:58
Speaker 4: All right.
00:39:58
Speaker 10: Thanks, guys.
00:39:59
Speaker 2: Coach Dave Canales as the Panthers 26-21 fall behind 10-0 in the game. 13-7, they're down at halftime. Take the lead on that Darren Waller touchdown to get it to 14-13. But then back-to-back touchdowns by Denver pushes their lead to 26-14. Panthers with just over three minutes to go. Get a touchdown. Bryce Young, his second one of the day to TMAC to make it 26-21. Then driving in the final, less than a minute to play, a strip sack fumble. And the Panthers turned it over on the Denver side of the field. So frustrating loss for the Panthers. Coach, Stu, and we've talked about it before obviously here, referenced the penalties in this game. 13 for 119 yards. Obviously a large amount of that was, you talked about the depth of the depth chart, came in the defensive secondary defense. as both Marco Wilson and Corey Thornton had a lot of those flags, pass interference, things like that. We don't get J.C. Horn back next week. We don't get Mike Jack back next week. We'll see on Will Lee and maybe some other guys. We've got to figure this out because that's going to be like, obviously, radar city for Tyree Shuck and the Saints next week.
00:41:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, when's the trade deadline?
00:41:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, this week.
00:41:05
Speaker 8: Tuesday, right?
00:41:06
Speaker 3: Tuesday, yeah. You know, that's always, you know, in the deck of cards. And you just got to get better. The guys that are on this roster today, we played good enough to get beat, but also good enough to win this game. So we weren't far away from a win despite what we were doing to ourselves. Right. One of the things that I do like is our defensive coordinator, you know, listening to his presser this week, there was some passion there.
00:41:40
Speaker 2: He got choked up. Yeah.
00:41:42
Speaker 3: And when you have a coach that loves this game like that, the apple does not fall too far from the tree. So what you do hope is that guys start to understand why they are playing this game, right? You want football players. You don't want guys that are here just to get a check, right? There's a lot of guys in this league that play football because they love the game. You think Pat Mahomes? could just play the game for a check? Yeah, he could. But he's playing the game still today, getting bent backwards because he loves the game. You're doing your job because your brother next to you needs you and depends on you to do it as well. I think that's the type of identity that you're starting to see and you will continue to see out of this group. And I think he's the type of coach that will be able to get more out of our younger players, our guys that are low on the depth, right? Hey, what is it going to look like this week? Him controlling the defensive meetings. What's it going to look like when he's, you know, on a Monday, you have to watch the film. Hey, you, what are you doing here? Were you running away from contact? Hey, we needed you here.
00:42:57
Speaker 2: We're chasing geese with a rake.
00:43:00
Speaker 3: And it's the little things, right? You know, why didn't you take off when you saw the play develop when you saw this was a run play why were you still in your back level right when you saw him catching when you saw him lowering his body to come into a break for a curl route why didn't you react right it's the little things and the challenges and you got d'angelo hall there as well right he's there to help the defensive secondary so going into next week i'm still hopeful I'm still opportunity. I feel I feel like we have a really good opportunity to go in there and cause some ruffles, especially if we figure out how to not shoot ourselves in the foot. Last year we were in New Orleans. We did the same thing. Yeah. Right. That's got to be the message this week. I know a lot of times people say when you
coach, you don't say don't do this. Don't fumble. Why do you fumble? You're supposed to say the opposite, right? So I think there's got to be a little bit of signaling and messaging as far as the ownership that the players have to take upon themselves to be able to relay that messaging as well.
00:44:08
Speaker 2: Create some positive energy, hopefully, and snap what is now a three-game losing streak for the Panthers, who are 3-5 headed down to New Orleans. But a division game win on the road would make a lot of that go away. When we come back, we'll hear from Darren Waller at a terrific game at the tight end position. A touchdown, eight catches, 90 yards, his best game. in a short stay with the Carolina Panthers so far. That's coming up next. Again, the Panthers come up short against Denver, 26-21. This is the North Lounge fifth quarter show continuing next on the Carolina Panthers Radio Network. We're going to catch up with Darren Waller here in just a moment. Before we do that, let's remind you that at Belk you can score game day gear from your favorite teams and shop brands like Adidas, Nike, Under Armour, bring home the win with big deals today. And exclusive coupons, Belk, a proud partner of the Panthers and your hometown favorite in the fashion game since 1888. Back upstairs we go. Let's hear from Darren Waller.
00:45:02
Speaker 10: Anish Raft, Luke Kuechly, joined by Panthers tight end Darren Waller. Darren, this team showed a lot of fight, especially late. I know this was a challenging week for you guys. What do you feel brought the team together for Sunday?
00:45:20
Speaker 9: Just understanding, just having a sense of urgency as far as... you know, the type of football that we want to be playing. Game in, game out, day in, day out, from practices building into games. The last two outings that we had were not reflective of the type of product we want to put on the field at all. And I think from our leadership, coaches, players, and, you know, down in the position rooms, I think everybody was taking that seriously and really brought a fight today. I don't think it ended the way we would have wanted to. And there were a lot of portions of the game where, especially offensively, we can look at ourselves and think, hey, we can do a lot of things better. But as far as how guys play today, effort and all those things, like I don't think you can ask for much more.
00:45:58
Speaker 6: No, I think you're right.
00:45:59
Speaker 10: And from our feeling, just watching the game unfold, especially at the end, we kind of thought once you guys got the ball back and cross midfield, it looked like you guys were on a mission. You were moving the ball consistently for most of the last three quarters. Was that same feeling shared on the sideline by you guys?
00:46:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think.
00:46:18
Speaker 9: You know, offensively, like I was saying, this has been a tough last couple games for us. And I think towards the end of that first half
and into the third quarter and even through that drive where it ended in that crazy interception in the end zone, I think it just became fun for the offense. It hasn't been fun in a few weeks, just like moving the ball down the field, everybody executing their job and just building momentum and just igniting the sideline and everybody wearing black today. So that's something that I think we can really build off. I mean, Nick Benito is a monster and made a play down the stretch for their team, but i like what we were doing offensively.
00:46:49
Speaker 12: Yeah darren luke here i just you talk about exciting and having fun i love watching you guys tight end room you and and tommy and mitchell evans and all those guys just kind of talk about the energy that you guys bring you guys can kind of do everything great blockers obviously two touchdowns in the passing game today just kind of talk about your room and how much fun you guys have with that group yeah i.
00:47:09
Speaker 9: Mean i think it starts from uh There's a balance of like looseness in the room, but also an urgency of like we're going to be on top of all of our responsibilities because we're going to be asked to do a whole bunch of different things, line up in a whole bunch of different places and to set that standard for our room. I think we carry that day in, day out. And we just pride ourselves on efficiency with our opportunities. You know, there may be some games where as a unit we may get more opportunities, some games less as far as like pass game and things like that. But it's knowing that everything that we do is important and we can go out there and do it and have a smile on our faces when we do it so that's just the kind of attitude that we try to bring to each snap.
00:47:43
Speaker 12: Yeah Darren I got one more question for you I think one of the most impressive things about I think your year this year is the conditioning and your ability to pick up the playbook I feel like the past couple weeks you know obviously it's impressive that your conditioning has been to the level it has and the ability to use you in so many different ways just kind of talk about how you got yourself in shape and how you learned the playbook so quickly I think it's I think.
00:48:03
Speaker 8: It's really cool.
00:48:05
Speaker 9: I think it got me getting out of my comfort zone and not doing just what's familiar in the offseason for me because the last season since 2021, I've had injuries and time missed in those seasons. So I was like, all right, I've got to change some things up. So credit to everybody that was helping me to be able to train through the offseason and the Panthers as well as far as how they managed me with practice, the strength staff.
00:48:29
Speaker 3: I mean, everybody in the building plays a role in me.
00:48:32
Speaker 9: Continuing to feel good every time I step onto the field and to just be reliable as far from a longevity standpoint. So I got a lot of people to thank and, uh, yeah, just coming into the building and knowing that it's a sense of urgency. Like they're going to put me on the field. I want to be somebody that's going to know their responsibility and somebody that everybody knows that they can trust when they're out there on the field. And, uh, I owe that to guys here and I just want to follow, just follow through on that.
00:48:55
Speaker 3: Awesome.
00:48:55
Speaker 8: Thanks, Darren.
00:48:56
Speaker 10: Darren, I'll leave you with this eight catches, 90 yards targeted 10 times. Describe your trust in chemistry with Bryce.
00:49:03
Speaker 9: Um, Yeah, no, I mean, I think we have a lot of conversations where I try to make sure I'm like overly on the same page with what he wants and what he's expecting. So when it comes to when he when it's time for the defense does something to where it's I'm the read on that play for the ball to go to, it's like. he trusts putting that ball there and trusts that I'm going to be there. So it's a lot of little conversations, you know, last minute pointers on Fridays. Like, we really talk that stuff through. And then, you know, he puts some faith in me, throws some balls up, and it's on me to honor that faith that he has in me. And I think that's helped our relationship grow. So I appreciate that. Panthers tight end Darren Waller.
00:49:39
Speaker 8: Darren, thank you.
00:49:41
Speaker 3: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
00:49:42
Speaker 2: Well, we're in that room right there, J. Stu. First time all year J.T. Sanders was activated today. Didn't really have a big role there, but interesting that, and again, roster attrition. There's only so many guys you can elevate each week to be active, and at least he got out on the field today, but that tight end room collectively with Tremble and Mitchell Evans had the first catch of the game. We count Felipe Franks in there at times as a 13 personnel kind of guy, so it's a nice Rounded room of different kind of talents that are in the tight end group, right?
00:50:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you have a room where you have options and you have a game plan like we had today, which was strictly 12 personnel, 13 personnel, but you have pass catchers that are willing to block, right? Tommy Trimble, Mitchell Evans, those are your guys that are going to go in there and make sure they secure the edge, make sure they stay on top of their guys. And then you have Felipe Franks, right? He's a special teams warrior, but also a guy that's going to make sure he gets his head in there as well and crack somebody. And the willing and ableness to do that, especially when you have an offensive line that has had some struggles along the way, you get those heavy sets, you get those heavy personnels in a game, that's where your protection really comes from, right? You have a guy that can take up the distance and Darren Waller and be a large target, especially when you get in the red zone. And then you have a guy in Mitchell Heavens that's going to
catch a ball and doesn't matter if it's in traffic or not, he's going to try to catch it. And then Tommy Trimble, a guy that's, you know, yards after catch, right? He's always looking not just to, you know, be content with catching the ball where he is. He's looking to get yards after catch. And that's a, you know, that's a wear and tear on linebackers, safeties. I don't want to see that, you know, play after play. So I think, you know, this was obviously a tight end focused day going in. And I think this is where, you know, there's a lot to be, you know, happy about, you know, going forward. We don't want to peak, right? Right. You know, if we were sitting here saying like, oh, man, we're hitting all cylinders, that would be scary. And I think there's a lot of upside, you know, looking ahead. And I think that's where this– Carolina team has to be preparing for. They have to be patient. They can't outgrow their wheels right now. Right now you have a spare. So don't put an engine in there yet that's not ready to turn and burn.
00:52:15
Speaker 5: And the missing component right now on the offense is getting that cohesiveness and turning the offensive line into a strength. And that's why it was a good thing to see Morgan Freeling really come into his own a little bit today and now you need to step that up because if if you can look at that offense and say every every spot is solid you know that offense is gonna be in terrific shape now the flip side of that is getting the defense right and then when you have that complementary football going you know that's when you can stack up you know two three four wins in a row and you know you look down the stretch here i mean new orleans baltimore uh tampa bay i mean the next three are games that you know should scare you. I mean, those are three games that we could easily walk off those next three wins and be, and now you're looking at, you know, what, a five or a six and four record.
00:53:04
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:53:05
Speaker 2: As we say in almost every conversation, we're in the NFC South, so anything is possible. So Atlanta lost today, and we'll talk a little bit about New Orleans coming up next week. Two segments to go. We'll make them quick ones here and wrap up things here. As we continue next, Panthers come up short against Denver, 26-21. Back to Jim Zoki. game day dinner, visit your local Marcos Pizza or order online today. The beauty of being in the NFC South where we left off last segment is you're never truly out of it. So Tampa Bay, they play what, tonight you said?
00:53:41
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:53:41
Speaker 2: Buccaneers are 3-5. Yeah, they play Chicago, so that's not... Okay, that'll be an upset if they win.
00:53:46
Speaker 3: 3-6, hopefully.
00:53:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, Panthers are 3-5, Saints 1 in overtime by a point. over Cleveland. Of course, we go to New Orleans next week. They're 3-5. Atlanta with a loss is 3-6. And this whole thing's getting upside down every week because we thought when
Atlanta got on a roll there for a while, oh, it's a team to beat. And now they're currently behind everybody else right now. But again, yeah, it's like a corgi race. It's the corgi race. I was just going to say.
00:54:07
Speaker 3: It's for corgis.
00:54:09
Speaker 2: It is the corgi race, though. You beat me to it.
00:54:15
Speaker 3: Like a corgi, you beat me to the finish line.
00:54:18
Speaker 2: It's kind of a corgi.
00:54:23
Speaker 3: Race.
00:54:24
Speaker 2: I know we went in 7-8-1, obviously, playoffs one year. Has anyone ever gone 7-10? I don't think since we've gone to 17, anyone's gotten to the postseason at 7. This might be the year where the NFC South really shows them what we're made out of. Somebody wins this division with a 7-10 record. Our first goal every year is what? Win the division. They don't ask you what your record is. Our first goal isn't to go 10-7. It's to win the division.
00:54:49
Speaker 7: It's like your GPA when you go for a job interview.
00:54:54
Speaker 2: It's floating.
00:54:55
Speaker 3: I'll tell you this.
00:54:55
Speaker 2: I took a lot of electives.
00:54:56
Speaker 3: Tampa Bay is definitely going to lose tonight. They can't.
00:55:01
Speaker 7: Chase Duloc of the week.
00:55:02
Speaker 9: Wow.
00:55:03
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:55:03
Speaker 3: They can't throw the ball. They haven't thrown the ball in a couple weeks.
00:55:06
Speaker 2: No, they have not.
00:55:06
Speaker 3: They're a little rusty there.
00:55:07
Speaker 2: At some point, someone's going to load the box.
00:55:08
Speaker 7: They might need to.
00:55:09
Speaker 2: If you tackle Bucky Irving, you might beat the Buccaneers.
00:55:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, but, you know, the Chicago Bears has an offense that's a little potent. Look, we go into New Orleans, and we win that game. That says a lot about who we are. Yep. Right? I don't think we're as bad as what this conference actually says.
00:55:27
Speaker 2: No, and we're going to be, I hate to say this, win or lose. a week closer to being fully healthy. So if we could come out, again, we lost this week. If we win next week, we get to four and five, and we're that close to getting a lot of healthy guys back, you would take that right now. I like that for the stretch run. A long way to go. We're eight games into a 17-game regular season right now.
00:55:44
Speaker 7: And remember, three losses have been by possession or less.
00:55:47
Speaker 5: In a league that's kind of even, the parity, the Panthers are kind of right in the middle, right here.
00:55:57
Speaker 10: Yeah.
00:55:57
Speaker 7: People on the radio can't see me, but my hands are in the middle.
00:55:59
Speaker 2: We are the parody part of the parody.
00:56:01
Speaker 8: Yeah.
00:56:02
Speaker 3: We've been playing bad football in situations where we should have been playing just good football. Like, not great football.
00:56:10
Speaker 2: Right.
00:56:10
Speaker 3: Just play good, sound football. Yeah. And you win games.
00:56:15
Speaker 1: Yep.
00:56:15
Speaker 9: Yep.
00:56:16
Speaker 3: And I look at the Cleveland Brown game, right? That's one of those games that got away from us because we were in an environment, kind of, you know, it got stale, I guess.
00:56:24
Speaker 9: Yeah.
00:56:26
Speaker 3: And then you look at, you know, the Philadelphia game to me is one of those games where it's like you escaped something. I don't know what that was, but we escaped and we didn't address. And we addressed certain things going forward on the defensive side of the ball, but there's still got to be a little bit of DNA. What's your DNA on offense? Is it the tight ends? If it is, let's take control of it.
00:56:54
Speaker 2: I know you're going to say Chuba.
00:56:55
Speaker 3: Chuba for sure is a big part of it. Chuba is a huge part of that because you can't lean on the tight ends without a running back like Chuba that's going to go in, break tackles, and make guys miss. If you just have a jag back there, your tight ends are going to be out there blocking and they go out for a pass. It's nothing to actually defend because we know that they're not going to get open because there's no threat. Shuba gives that threat for that look.
00:57:27
Speaker 2: He's old school, man. We don't see Jermaine just one back offenses, which is essentially what he is. We have one more final segment. We're going to pick our hardest working player of the game, and we'll do that when we come back next as we put the wraps on this show from the North Lounge in the fifth quarter. 26-21, Broncos win the game here today in Charlotte.
00:57:45
Speaker 1: The Panthers Post Game Show. continues. Ready for your game day dinner? Visit your local Marcos Pizza or order online today.
00:57:55
Speaker 2: Alright, final score 26-21. Broncos win over the Carolina Panthers. Before we pick our hardest working player of the game, let's send it back to Anish and Luke and get their final thoughts.
00:58:08
Speaker 10: Final score from back of America's stadium. Broncos 26, Panthers 21. Carolina's now lost three in a row. They dropped to 3-5. There's still a chance they could be in first place by the end of the weekend. But what stings about this one was the way things unfolded. Starting with that second quarter, Carolina started to move the ball against a very good Denver defense. Darren Waller, 15-yard touchdown catch early in the third quarter gave Carolina the lead. Defense got a stop. Luke Kuechly, Panthers drive down. They're at the one-yard line. Looks like they may go in for a score here. What seemed to be a slow developing play, Bryce Young flips it in the end zone to Tommy Tremble. He was covered. Ball was juggled. It's ruled incomplete. It hits the ground, or so we thought. Panthers run another play, and then a challenge flag that was spotted on the field. The challenge got in before the play. Replay looks at it. We see what we didn't see the first time, which was when that ball was juggled around. Devin Key
grabbed it and it never hit the ground. So it turns into an interception. Denver goes down and scores. Despite that, the Panthers still had a chance to win at the end.
00:59:21
Speaker 12: Well, there's certainly no quitting this team. And you kind of mentioned it. We had all the momentum. The crowd was into it. We were driving, had the ball in the one-yard line. Obviously, a fluky play. And then they go down and drive and score a touchdown. And it feels like all the air got taken out of this building. But I'll tell you what. We got the ball back, go down and score. And we get the big stop at the end of the game. And like we talked about, had the opportunity with the ball in our hands, with two.
00:59:45
Speaker 8: Timeouts, plenty of time left on the clock.
00:59:47
Speaker 12: To go down and score and just, just not, we just weren't able to make enough plays. And I'm starting to think you starting to really see, you know, the, the value of the guys that.
00:59:59
Speaker 8: Are on the sideline, how much it's, how much it's hurt us.
01:00:01
Speaker 12: You know, JC horn, Mike Jackson, Taylor moon, Nikki Aquano, Damian Lewis, you know, I felt like Bryce was under, under pressure. And they got sacked three times a day, which is great, but I felt like there wasn't a huge clean pocket. They're not really able to step up into the pocket and, It didn't hurt us a ton until that last drive with the Nick Benito sack, but, man, I just feel like we're so close on both sides of the ball. I think the defense played well today, excellent in the run game. I felt like we were very vertical in attacking in the run game. We tackled well. Obviously, Corey Thornton had the big interception. Then we get the stop at the end of the game, and, you know, I felt like on the drive before the last drive, we go down and score a lot of, a lot of confidence. We're feeling good team act on the touchdown and we get the ball back. And I think everybody in this building and certainly on the sideline, obviously up here in the booth, we thought, Hey, this is exactly where Bryce shows up. This is where he's at his best. And, you know, you complete that ball to team act to get the drive going. And then, you know, you talk to Jake, what Jake mentioned is, is Darren Waller was uncovering and Bryce was getting ready to throw the ball to him to get the ball out of bounds.
01:01:08
Speaker 8: And Just feel like we're right there, and if.
01:01:12
Speaker 12: We could have just protected for a hair longer, I think things would be a little bit different.
01:01:17
Speaker 6: Yeah, that was the tough part.
01:01:18
Speaker 10: They're down 26-14, and Tedaro McMillan scores a touchdown with a little more than 3.05 to go. They've got all three timeouts, got the two-minute warning. Denver gets the ball back. A pitch to Jonah Coleman on second down results in a fumble, and it rolls inside the 10-yard line. They pick it up. It's third and 26. As you said, you get the ball back, and you're thinking, all right, not only do you get the ball back, you've got the ball back near midfield with two timeouts, and there's a chance to win, and it's Bryce, and the strip sack fumble kind of takes the air out. But I think the bigger point, you look at 13 penalties, a lot of them were against the secondary, and it's easy to pick on Marco Wilson or Corey Thornton. These are two practice squad guys who were elevated, asked to play against Cortland Sutton and Jalen Waddell, and I know Waddell left the game Troy Franklin, who was a high-round pick. Patrick Bryant, who's had success in the NFL.
01:02:15
Speaker 2: No J.C. Horn.
01:02:17
Speaker 10: No Mike Jackson. No Will Lee. Caleb Evans is out. You're down your top four corners. That's difficult for anybody. You had Bobby Okereke to the injury list this week. This is a team that's beat up. No Jalen Phillips. Nick Skorton's been out all season. I keep coming back to this, and we mentioned this on the pregame. If Luke, they can find a way to hold the fort, find a way to get some wins here, be around. 500 when the reinforcements come. There is a chance. This team looks a lot different, a lot healthier in December, and the way the NFC shapes up this year, I'm not putting anything out of the question, but you have to find a way now. You have to find a way until those guys come back because it's not just the Panthers. Everybody in the NFL deals with injuries. We've been hit particularly hard this year, but they've got to figure out some way over these next few weeks to hold the fort and figure it out.
01:03:14
Speaker 3: 100%.
01:03:15
Speaker 12: Like you mentioned, you nailed it, Anish, because everybody in the NFL is banged up to some extent at this point in the year. And the best thing for us is we get to go down to New Orleans and play an NFC South opponent next week. And it's still very much all in front of us, Anish, and hopefully we get some of those starters back sooner rather than later.
01:03:34
Speaker 10: We hope so. We will talk to you next week from New Orleans. For now, let's get back to Jim.
01:03:39
Speaker 3: And the guys.
01:03:39
Speaker 1: All right.
01:03:39
Speaker 2: Thank you, Anish and Luke. Hardest working player of the game brought to you by Sunbelt Rentals, the official rental equipment partner of the Carolina Panthers. Fellas, what do you got?
01:03:50
Speaker 7: I say we go wall of the baller.
01:03:53
Speaker 2: Oh, nice. Volleyball.
01:03:54
Speaker 4: Yeah.
01:03:56
Speaker 3: I say Pat Jones.
01:03:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:03:59
Speaker 2: Good to see him get that sack and be disruptive back there today, too.
01:04:02
Speaker 7: Yeah, both good choices.
01:04:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like the Darren Waller pick, too, but I don't want to overrule Stewart, so I'm not going to pick one. We've read the read.
01:04:09
Speaker 7: Wise choice.
01:04:09
Speaker 2: Really, the point was to read the card. So thank you, Sunbelt Reynolds, for the opportunity to speak of the hardest working players of the game. We've got one for offense and one for defense.
01:04:17
Speaker 3: Absolutely. I like it.
01:04:18
Speaker 8: I like it.
01:04:19
Speaker 2: And we'll work on our special teams next week. That was not a category that we added for consideration.
01:04:25
Speaker 7: No, that was not in the cards.
01:04:27
Speaker 2: For the hardest-working player because of a bit of a setback there today. I'm surprised you didn't say the Corgis. The Corgis were great, too, as the description was of the NFC South. And we're still in it very much with that New Orleans game coming up next week. Again, the final score, thanks for joining us, 26-21, Broncos over the Panthers.
01:04:44
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers football is brought to you by Harris Teeter, the official grocery store of your Carolina Panthers. Bank of America, what would you like the power to do? Marco's Pizza, ready for your game day dinner? Visit your local Marco's Pizza or order online today. Mount Olive, the official pickle juice of the Carolina Panthers. This is the Carolina Panthers Radio Network.