Speaker 1: This week on the Happy half Hour. I am very
Speaker 1: excited to see these all black uniforms, especially with it
Speaker 1: being a night game, and know the people internally worked
Speaker 1: really hard to get this through and and to make
Speaker 1: it happen. I think it makes a difference in how
Speaker 1: excited the players are, how hyped up. You know, you
Speaker 1: look good, you feel good. Text it's time for the
Speaker 1: Happy Half Hour with your friends Kristen Balboni, Augusta Stone
Speaker 1: and Darren Gannon. That's right, it's that time of the week.
Speaker 1: It's the Happy half Hour podcast with your friends Darren,
Speaker 1: Augusta and Kristen. And we're taping this episode on a
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning because it is Thursday Night Football week, which
Speaker 1: means everything gets truncated into a few days. Darren's already
Speaker 1: of course, this is a podcast you can't see. But
Speaker 1: Darren's already laughing. Yeah, I'm glad you said it was
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning, because I've kind of lost track of time anymore. Week.
Speaker 1: The only reason I know it's Wednesday morning is because
Speaker 1: it's the day before a game. That's the only and
Speaker 1: it's Thursday Night football, so that's the only way I
Speaker 1: couldn't place it. They even threw us in the cafeteria. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: Jackie wrote waffle Wednesday on the board at breakfast and
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, what, huh what? No, you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't Wednesday yesterday, It's Wednesday today. But yeah, football coaches,
Speaker 1: it's football. Weeks are built on routine. So you know,
Speaker 1: on Monday you watch the film from the previous game.
Speaker 1: Tuesday's player's day off. Wednesdays the big practice day, and
Speaker 1: Thursdays the next big practice day. Friday, you're just polishing
Speaker 1: stuff up, walking through and then you're out the door. Well,
Speaker 1: on a short week, Monday was both a Monday in
Speaker 1: a Tuesday and a little bit of Wednesday, and Tuesday
Speaker 1: was Wednesday and Thursday combined. And so I guess that
Speaker 1: makes today Friday. Today is Friday. Technically according to the
Speaker 1: football it's Wednesday. So I mean, listen, I have pants on,
Speaker 1: I have I am at confirmed. So we've got that
Speaker 1: going for us. That's about his best you can hope
Speaker 1: for during a short week. Ben McAdoo laughed. He was
Speaker 1: talking about something unrelated the other day and he said,
Speaker 1: it's about putting ten pounds and you know what in
Speaker 1: a five pound bag, And that's what a short week
Speaker 1: in the NFL, you do six days worth of work
Speaker 1: in three and make the best of it. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know, we landed on Sunday night. We all are
Speaker 1: lucky enough to fly on the team plane when we travel.
Speaker 1: We landed on Sunday night, UM, and the players had
Speaker 1: to report to the stadium for treatment. You know, That's
Speaker 1: that's part of this truncated week, which is everything is
Speaker 1: so condensed. They've got to turn their bodies around. They
Speaker 1: gotta turn the page mentally after the game in Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and be ready to play UM in twenty four plus
Speaker 1: hours from the time of this recording. AUGUSTA, how's it
Speaker 1: been for you? This is your first Thursday night football turnaround? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been fun, chaotic. It feels definitely kind of rushed.
Speaker 1: I think the weirdest part was how late the practice
Speaker 1: was on Monday, and then given the time change, which
Speaker 1: I know we're all also that's another element of everything.
Speaker 1: It gets dark at like five o'clock. Now it's dark
Speaker 1: at five o'clock. So we're out here and the sun's
Speaker 1: going down at practice, and these shadows are super long
Speaker 1: and it's Golden Hour and got some amazing photos are
Speaker 1: photographer Kenny did and Darren tweeted about them. But they
Speaker 1: were just gorgeous because it was golden our practice. But
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you go from last week where
Speaker 1: it's the middle of the day practice that we're used
Speaker 1: to go out and it's like the sun is going
Speaker 1: down and it's Monday and why are we out here?
Speaker 1: And everything is kind of twisted. But um so at
Speaker 1: the time change on top of that, everything is kind
Speaker 1: of weird. It feels like we've entered a new, a
Speaker 1: new dimension right now. And I'll be interested to get
Speaker 1: your take on the actual day of game as well,
Speaker 1: because it is a very I'm certainly again for us,
Speaker 1: it is so much less than for the players, right
Speaker 1: But but even from our perspectives, writers, reporters, waiting until
Speaker 1: eight kickoff, it's a it's a different thing. You know,
Speaker 1: it's game day, um, And we had it a little
Speaker 1: bit in the preseason. We saw it a couple of times.
Speaker 1: But there's this you've got the whole day, but you
Speaker 1: know you don't have the whole day because you've got
Speaker 1: to be the stadium at this time. There's a game
Speaker 1: that's coming. But that's its own kind of thing too,
Speaker 1: because it's uh, it's late. It's just the whole week
Speaker 1: is just totally different. You see a little aunty, but
Speaker 1: in the good way, you know where It's like I
Speaker 1: look up and it's two o'clock and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have something very important in six hours, and I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna I'm just gonna not think about it too much,
Speaker 1: don't get in your head too much. I wonder how
Speaker 1: I need to ask that to some of the players,
Speaker 1: like how do you go with the whole day routine?
Speaker 1: Because I think like when you have a one pm
Speaker 1: or four pm, you don't have a ton of time
Speaker 1: to get in your head. But an a p M.
Speaker 1: If I was in their shoes, my goodness, I'd be like, cool.
Speaker 1: The good news is you're young, so you can probably
Speaker 1: still sleep. You know. It's like when I talk to
Speaker 1: my daughter who's in college, you'll wake up at the
Speaker 1: crack eleven, and um, I can't do that anymore. I'm
Speaker 1: up all night anyway. But um yeah, I mean it
Speaker 1: is it's a day, it's an event, and I've often
Speaker 1: you know, the worst thing is a night game on
Speaker 1: the road, because then you wake up in a hotel
Speaker 1: and it's like what do I do in this place?
Speaker 1: All that was us last year in Houston. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: stuck and you're like, you go to the stadium like
Speaker 1: seven hours early. You know, why not let's go for
Speaker 1: a walk or something. Yeah, I mean it's it is bizarre,
Speaker 1: but players do and and I've heard Jake talk about
Speaker 1: this before. He's like he would get antie on game
Speaker 1: days and it's like, what do I do with myself?
Speaker 1: There's only so much film you can watch, you know,
Speaker 1: you end up just killing time and uh, and you know,
Speaker 1: but before we know what, it'll be Thursday night football.
Speaker 1: It's the rematch of Falcons Panthers, all black uniforms, black helmets.
Speaker 1: I do want to talk about all of that, but oh,
Speaker 1: we gotta go back to the Sunday game. Put a
Speaker 1: little bow on it before we I think so, I
Speaker 1: think so. What I would like to know is, um,
Speaker 1: what did you both learn from that game? What are
Speaker 1: your big takeaways from that game? Even if it's just
Speaker 1: about how everyone's putting it behind them, Like, what are
Speaker 1: your big impressions coming out of this week? From that standpoint,
Speaker 1: the short week is good news because it's not an
Speaker 1: extra couple of days talking about how bad that was
Speaker 1: what Austin Corbett told me. He was like, that's a
Speaker 1: great thing about having a Thursday night football game. To
Speaker 1: turn the page that much in a sixteen seventeen games season,
Speaker 1: there is going to be one every year where any
Speaker 1: team just looks like a flat tire. And to be fair,
Speaker 1: the Bengals had that game the game before the Panthers
Speaker 1: against the Browns. Although the Panthers appear to be some
Speaker 1: kind of gooch that whoever plays them, whoever they play,
Speaker 1: loses the next week, they are they are teams that
Speaker 1: play the Panthers one week are o and eight the
Speaker 1: next week, So it's got to count for something. Bes
Speaker 1: the Bengals were screwed, so um yeah, I mean, there's
Speaker 1: one of those every year, and I didn't necessarily expect
Speaker 1: it to be last week, especially with the way they
Speaker 1: played the previous two weeks and beating the Bucks the
Speaker 1: way the fourth quarter in overtime went down in Atlanta
Speaker 1: the other week. You thought they were playing hard, they
Speaker 1: were fighting, but there's just an emotional pitch of those
Speaker 1: two weeks that's hard to sustain over a long period
Speaker 1: of time. And you knew eventually the Wheels would fall
Speaker 1: off and the guys just wouldn't play well. But I
Speaker 1: didn't expect it to happen the way it did that
Speaker 1: quickly and all at once. That that was one of
Speaker 1: the damnest first halfs of football I've ever seen in
Speaker 1: my life. There down thirty five to nothing. They didn't
Speaker 1: move the ball at all. What nine yards passing in
Speaker 1: the first half. PJ threw a couple of picks. He
Speaker 1: was bad PJ again. Um, they just the only first
Speaker 1: down they achieved was by Ingles penalty. So it was
Speaker 1: that kind of day and everything went wrong. So you know,
Speaker 1: Baker goes in the second half, and I kind of
Speaker 1: laughed in the post game because to his credit, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's you know, anytime there's a quarterback change, people are
Speaker 1: gonna want to talk about that, and people somebody asked
Speaker 1: Baker something about, well, you had a really good second half,
Speaker 1: and he kind of laughed, like, come on, this wasn't real.
Speaker 1: It was a real defense. I was playing. Told their
Speaker 1: starters it was very great inflation the fact that he
Speaker 1: did anything at all. You know, they were just trying
Speaker 1: to get out of there. So to his credit, he
Speaker 1: wasn't putting too much on that three touchdown drive second half.
Speaker 1: He was able to author there. So it was a
Speaker 1: mess and it's over and again those guys are glad
Speaker 1: to be able to talk about anything else because that
Speaker 1: was awful. That's true, O Gausta, what have you heard
Speaker 1: and talking to the players, So basically right now, it's
Speaker 1: it is like you said what Corbett said, just kind
Speaker 1: of moving forward. I was going to point out too,
Speaker 1: I know I talked about glows and grows last week.
Speaker 1: I was gonna talk about two glows from a very
Speaker 1: a game full of opportunities to grow. But Terris Marshall
Speaker 1: and Rheim last year both had their first career touchdowns
Speaker 1: and I talked with both of them. I talked with
Speaker 1: Terris after the game for terrorists. It was I got
Speaker 1: to try to preview right before it. But you know,
Speaker 1: he was, uh he was seeing some of his college teammates.
Speaker 1: He saw Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase and and uh so,
Speaker 1: so getting to do that, it's like, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: memorable for him. So if you look at it from
Speaker 1: an individual standpoint, that cool. And then Raheem Black Share
Speaker 1: just one of the most just grateful players to just
Speaker 1: be here on this roster. I love talking with him.
Speaker 1: We saw him yesterday in the hallway and he was like,
Speaker 1: that was Jonathan Taylor, like over there was so cute,
Speaker 1: so uh, you know all these things so um but yeah,
Speaker 1: I think uh that that that that they're moving forward,
Speaker 1: Like even talking with her him this week, you know,
Speaker 1: what was it like in your first touch on He
Speaker 1: was like, I mean we lost. I really don't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, talk too much about it, Like he was
Speaker 1: very honest about it. Um, just moving forward, also moving
Speaker 1: forward with p J kind of keeping some consistency with
Speaker 1: a short week. Um that I you know, Steve Wilkes
Speaker 1: explained that decision. It's a short week and Sam's activated,
Speaker 1: but you know, we'll have time to actually practice because
Speaker 1: that's what's interesting is that they're not actually going through
Speaker 1: like padded practices right now. It's just a bunch of walkthroughs,
Speaker 1: a bunch of walkthroughs, um, which makes sense. So it's
Speaker 1: it's it feels like truncated almost like in a way
Speaker 1: where it's like, okay, moving forward, not making a ton
Speaker 1: of adjustments that kind of thing. Yeah, I mean that
Speaker 1: is the nature of a short week and Thursday night
Speaker 1: football is that you have got to go with what's
Speaker 1: already there for the most part, because there is As
Speaker 1: you said, I guess there's no time to um get
Speaker 1: too crazy and make too many different adjustments. So Darren, Okay,
Speaker 1: I know this isn't question that you can't answer, but
Speaker 1: I always like to ask you these cords. If you're
Speaker 1: a fan, you're coming out to this game, what do
Speaker 1: you expect? Like? What should you expect? Is it the
Speaker 1: team that faced Atlanta uh eleven days ago or is
Speaker 1: it the other than a tropical storm that? Um, but
Speaker 1: those games often get weird, and weird isn't always bad
Speaker 1: in the NFL. I mean, sometimes some things happen and
Speaker 1: you can never account for the conditions in advance. But um,
Speaker 1: I truly think. I mean, they have been so competitive
Speaker 1: the two previous weeks, and Steve Wilkes does appear to
Speaker 1: have this bunch's attention, uh, And I think with what
Speaker 1: happened earlier this week, they come on from Cincinnati and
Speaker 1: change out two coaches, let a couple of guys go.
Speaker 1: I think if anyone's focus wasn't on Steve and and
Speaker 1: what he's trying to get across, it probably should be
Speaker 1: after that. So I would be surprised if they played
Speaker 1: the way they did in the first half again, since
Speaker 1: now I really would, uh, and in the absence of
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey and the absence of all the stuff that
Speaker 1: was normal the first part of the year, you know,
Speaker 1: go back to what they did the two weeks prior,
Speaker 1: which was a whole lot of Deonte Foreman Cuba Hubbard
Speaker 1: has practiced. This week's a little better, so because so
Speaker 1: I think they could have a little more of a
Speaker 1: run game established this week, and especially if it's gonna
Speaker 1: be raining, I think that's gonna be a priority, is
Speaker 1: is getting that part of it established. You know, we
Speaker 1: know they made improvements on the offensive line. They've shown
Speaker 1: signs against the Bucks and the Falcons that they can
Speaker 1: run the ball, and when those two things happen, then
Speaker 1: p J can occasionally make some plays downfield. But that's
Speaker 1: the first thing that needs to happen, and it never
Speaker 1: happened up in Cincinnati the other day. So I think
Speaker 1: they should bounce back. I think they're getting closer to it. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're gonna have to stop some people
Speaker 1: on defense. They're gonna have to keep Marcus Marriott in
Speaker 1: the pocket and keep him from rambling around for thirty
Speaker 1: yard scrambles like he did in overtime. And and you know,
Speaker 1: it feels like a hundred years ago, but it was
Speaker 1: what ten days ago when Brian Burns missed that tackle
Speaker 1: and could have forced them to point, could have forced
Speaker 1: you know, whatever would have happened next in that game. So, um,
Speaker 1: I think they're in decent shape considering, I mean as
Speaker 1: good as shape as a two and seven team that's
Speaker 1: already fired a head coach and a couple of assistants
Speaker 1: and traded its best offensive players going to be. It's
Speaker 1: a well said, well said, great caveats right there. Like that.
Speaker 1: Another thing that that I know internally we're all excited about.
Speaker 1: And um, you know the results of last week notwithstanding,
Speaker 1: I think the fans are excited about is it is
Speaker 1: the black helmet game in all caps black helmets, something
Speaker 1: that the fans have wanted to see for years now. Um.
Speaker 1: I know there are former players that are jealous that
Speaker 1: they don't get to wear the all black uniform and
Speaker 1: the black helmets. And and that's a big deal. You know,
Speaker 1: it's Thursday football. Amazon has eighty five trucks here, you know,
Speaker 1: production trucks. Um, this is a big game. UM, I
Speaker 1: have a question for for you too, Darren. You've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of Panthers games, a lot of uniforms. Are
Speaker 1: you a uniform guy? We know? We know will we
Speaker 1: know Panthers stats guys. Um the uniform aficionado of the Panthers.
Speaker 1: He's always got the unique combos when they come out.
Speaker 1: Is that something that interests you at all, Darren? Only vaguely,
Speaker 1: you know, I see. And that's one of the interesting
Speaker 1: things about this is talking to some of the guys
Speaker 1: around the locker room. It's not as huge a deal
Speaker 1: for some of the younger guys because anybody that's played
Speaker 1: in college the last now you've got eight thousand univers
Speaker 1: combinations used to alternate helmets, they are used to J. J.
Speaker 1: Jansen's played nearly two hund games here and they've all
Speaker 1: been in a silver helmet. So, I mean he's kind
Speaker 1: of looking around like, oh, this is different, you know,
Speaker 1: And he admitted, I don't know what it's gonna be like.
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge uniformed guy. I'm kind of, as
Speaker 1: you might have guessed, a little bit of a traditionalist
Speaker 1: about this. I kind of like silver Bridges black jerseys.
Speaker 1: I think that kind of the Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of when I think of what a panther's uniform
Speaker 1: looks like. That's kind of what's in my mind. And
Speaker 1: over the years, I know a lot of people really
Speaker 1: like those alternate blue jerseys, and yeah, and I love
Speaker 1: the color Rush the blue owned blue for the Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: game the other year. I just looked at it that
Speaker 1: kind of it's like a shock to your eyeballs. Um
Speaker 1: and and that might be a little much, but the
Speaker 1: white Bridges blue jersey is kind of growing on me.
Speaker 1: I mean, when guys wear white shoes with that, they
Speaker 1: look fast, so it's kind of a neat look. But
Speaker 1: I'm not a huge jersey guy, so the black on
Speaker 1: black on black is uh, maybe lost on me. But
Speaker 1: I also understand I'm not the target demographic. I'm also
Speaker 1: not a big uniform person. You know that people say, well,
Speaker 1: what what combo are they gonna wear? And this, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know, whatever combo they come out with,
Speaker 1: you know, is that's going to be on the field.
Speaker 1: But I did love the Thanksgiving color Rush jerseys. Those
Speaker 1: really stand out to me, and I am very excited
Speaker 1: to see these all black uniforms, especially with it being
Speaker 1: a night game. You know, I know the people internally
Speaker 1: worked really hard to to get this um through and
Speaker 1: and to make it happen, and Augusta, you know, coming
Speaker 1: from college, I do think it. I think it makes
Speaker 1: a difference in how excited the players are, how hyped up.
Speaker 1: You know, you look good, you feel good, you know
Speaker 1: kind of a thing. I do think that it gives
Speaker 1: them a little extra bounce for this game, exactly exactly. Well,
Speaker 1: it's funny because I went to Georgia as it was
Speaker 1: so funny. On Saturday when we were traveling, I was
Speaker 1: warning my Georgia share because George played Tennessee and it
Speaker 1: was awesome. Shot Thompson that game. It went excellent. Shaq
Speaker 1: Thompson gets off the elevator and he goes, Augusta, we
Speaker 1: get it. You went to Georgia, which I think is
Speaker 1: just the funniest thing ever because yeah, yeah, he was
Speaker 1: like just stopped. But I can't. But anyway, it's funny
Speaker 1: that we're talking about black helmets, black jerseys, because that
Speaker 1: was something during my time at Georgia. Anytime they brought
Speaker 1: out the black jerseys, it was like the whole world
Speaker 1: stopped and everyone was so excited. And and I will say,
Speaker 1: at least in Georgia's case, it was one of those
Speaker 1: things where the black jerseys. We were always kind of
Speaker 1: pinsive about it because we were like, oh, those games
Speaker 1: were always very close for no reason. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think they look really cool. I love seeing the
Speaker 1: helmets up close there, like Matt Black really cool looking. Um,
Speaker 1: I am with Darren and you, Kristen. I'm not like
Speaker 1: a huge uniform person. My favorite thing about uniforms is
Speaker 1: tweeting about them and getting the reactions in my mentions
Speaker 1: when people get so upset about the sock color, and
Speaker 1: you know, they'll be like, I can't believe the socks
Speaker 1: are white and the shoes and I'm just like, I
Speaker 1: don't get this, but I admire this for something so fun,
Speaker 1: You're putting it out there for engagement. I like, I
Speaker 1: like this is gonna get of replies. I love it,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what they're talking. Like, I'll take
Speaker 1: a photo of Eddie Pinero and I'll be like, all
Speaker 1: right here they're in a white jersey again, and someone
Speaker 1: will be like, why is his suck that way? I
Speaker 1: just I love it. I love it so I love
Speaker 1: watching how people get about it, and I want to
Speaker 1: be a part of that. Maybe someday, maybe I'll analyze
Speaker 1: my photos of the jerseys and figure out my my
Speaker 1: deep opinion. I do like the font that they put
Speaker 1: on the back of the jerseys here. It looks very
Speaker 1: block and cool. I agree with that. I agree with that. Alright, well,
Speaker 1: we are gonna report back from the other side after
Speaker 1: this Thursday night football game. We know that we'll have
Speaker 1: a lot to talk about next week no matter what.
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, everybody, enjoy Thursday night football, enjoy
Speaker 1: the mini bye week for all the fans on the
Speaker 1: back end of it, and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.