Speaker 1: This week on the Happy half Hour.
Speaker 2: What they've tried to do in general is teach master's
Speaker 2: level classes to a freshman. And he's a smart freshman.
Speaker 2: He's a precocious freshman, but he's still a freshman. So
Speaker 2: I think some of this was to be expected. But
Speaker 2: you know, again, as you mentioned, Augusta, there are positive signs.
Speaker 3: It's I.
Speaker 2: It's time for the Happy half Hour with your friends
Speaker 2: Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon. Welcome to the
Speaker 2: Happy half Hour. It's Thursday, October fifth. And sometimes I
Speaker 2: say things like that to remind myself what day it is,
Speaker 2: especially today because I'm struggling with a little bit of
Speaker 2: a cold, but we're playing through. I've got a Gusta
Speaker 2: Stone sitting over there on the other side.
Speaker 1: Of the room.
Speaker 3: Hello, Thursday.
Speaker 4: Quick way to figure out Thursday is that we start
Speaker 4: our day with the podcast.
Speaker 3: That's what I think.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right. We always are here, so uh yeah,
Speaker 2: good news. Okay, So it's Thursday, It's the Happy half Hour,
Speaker 2: and this episode of The Happy half Hour is brought
Speaker 2: to you by Prowling Vineyards, Napa Valley. They're the official
Speaker 2: wine brand and wine Club at the Carolina Panthers. These
Speaker 2: premium selections celebrate the great people of the Carolinas and
Speaker 2: the panthers hunger to achieve excellence on and off the field.
Speaker 2: Each handcrafted wine mirrors the panthers bold attitude and the
Speaker 2: iconic flavors onto the two states we're proud to call home.
Speaker 2: Experience the benefits and lifestyle while giving back to the
Speaker 2: community as a portion of the proceeds support the Carolina Panthers' charities.
Speaker 2: Learn more at Prowlingvineyards dot com.
Speaker 1: There you go. I'm sure they're proud of that.
Speaker 2: Read with me sounding like I'm at the bottom of
Speaker 2: a well or something.
Speaker 1: But anyway, maybe they make cough.
Speaker 3: Syrup proud Prowlers.
Speaker 4: You can say a lot with the prow but yeah,
Speaker 4: I know cough syrup would be coff Syrup's good. I
Speaker 4: have a ton of cough drops still in my bag
Speaker 4: from the many times at my throat sore. Just randomly.
Speaker 4: I am a cough drop squirrel. I swear, but sometimes
Speaker 4: I just like the taste.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's healthy.
Speaker 4: So if you have any cough drops here and I
Speaker 4: got you and toms, I keep tombs on me too.
Speaker 4: I'm kind of like a twenty five year old, you know,
Speaker 4: never had children, but I kind of carry my bag
Speaker 4: like a diaper bag. I have a lot of random
Speaker 4: stuff in there at any given moment, like ibuprofen, toms.
Speaker 4: I used to keep those little gas pills like I
Speaker 4: kind of got anyone covered.
Speaker 3: It's like a mini pharmacy in there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a it's a little bit of a running
Speaker 2: joke around my family. My cure for my children. All
Speaker 2: the time they would come in saying they felt sick,
Speaker 2: and I'd be like, have you had a banana? Have
Speaker 2: you taken advil? Are you drinking water? Maybe a gatorade
Speaker 2: to hydrate yourself? And so this morning, when I was
Speaker 2: feeling a little under the weather, I grabbed my banana
Speaker 2: and gatorade and advil and send a picture of it
Speaker 2: to my daughter and she's like, oh, no, it's going
Speaker 2: to be one of those days if you're self medicating.
Speaker 2: So that's the kind of science I'm performing out here,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's it's not great, but we're playing.
Speaker 3: Through it exactly.
Speaker 4: Stand happy, because that's what you do in October, you
Speaker 4: play through it.
Speaker 3: I think the Panthers you'll learn in that too.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, we have, sure the OHO and
Speaker 4: four start two pretty tough rim matchups ahead.
Speaker 3: Than the bye, but no way to go but forward.
Speaker 4: And I think that's something that we've kind of surmised
Speaker 4: from the conversations we've had throughout the week. And you know,
Speaker 4: I mean we talked about on this podcast before, but
Speaker 4: you never feel a sense of panic. That's a good
Speaker 4: thing that you have from from Frank Reich being at
Speaker 4: the Helm. Everything seems pretty procedural around here. And I mean,
Speaker 4: say what you will about the Vikings game. I think
Speaker 4: if you look a look at the tape, it wasn't
Speaker 4: it wasn't a win. It wasn't you know, the result
Speaker 4: they wanted. But Bryce Young improved. That's something I think
Speaker 4: you can think about. Looked better, more efficient, better rating,
Speaker 4: better stats. So that's something we could talk about to
Speaker 4: start we're doing the Happy half Hour.
Speaker 3: You could talk about Bryce Young.
Speaker 4: He he started out, you know, he's he's getting better
Speaker 4: and without you know, four losses, he's only played in
Speaker 4: three of the games. He's back, he's healthy. We have
Speaker 4: Austin Corbett returning to practice. That was a big storyline
Speaker 4: that was exciting. Darren has been writing the heck out
Speaker 4: of some features every eighth but this one came a
Speaker 4: little early because had some exciting news that he was
Speaker 4: back on the field yesterday. So we have we have
Speaker 4: a litany of things we could talk about that aren't
Speaker 4: horrible and.
Speaker 2: Austin, you know, and the good news is we call
Speaker 2: this the happy half hour. I've never considered it part
Speaker 2: of my charter to be happy every single day, so
Speaker 2: I will. Augusta's got a sonnier personality than I do.
Speaker 2: By nature of us, it's not that that's particularly hard
Speaker 2: to achieve. But congratulations on clearing that high bar, Augusta.
Speaker 2: But no, I mean you mentioned Austin Corbett, and I
Speaker 2: think if there's anything to take out of the last
Speaker 2: couple of days, that's one of the things you can
Speaker 2: point to is a there's a buy coming up in
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks, which this team could use in
Speaker 2: a lot of ways to get some guys healthy. But
Speaker 2: it certainly looks like at some point, either immediately after
Speaker 2: that buyer shortly after it, Austin's going to be back
Speaker 2: on the field. And when you think about the problems
Speaker 2: that things that have been consistent problems for the Carolina
Speaker 2: Panthers over the first four weeks of this year.
Speaker 1: Interior offensive line.
Speaker 2: Play has been up there near the top of the list,
Speaker 2: and you've been shuff on a lot of guys through there.
Speaker 2: You know, Cade May's Calvin Throckmorton, Chandlers of Allah took
Speaker 2: over after Brady Christiansen was hurt and out for the year.
Speaker 2: So and without Austin in there, there's been nothing resembling settled.
Speaker 2: And that's what's difficult for those guys to overcome because
Speaker 2: last year, and it's weird to keep referring to last
Speaker 2: year because this is a completely new environment. Last year,
Speaker 2: new coaches, new offensive system, you know, new blocking scheme
Speaker 2: in a lot of.
Speaker 1: Ways, and two new guards.
Speaker 2: So it's hard to compare too many things. But because
Speaker 2: last year was so settled, I think this year being
Speaker 2: so unsettled feels a little jarring to a lot of
Speaker 2: people who were you know, there aren't that many guys
Speaker 2: who were still around, but for the people who saw
Speaker 2: what was going on in second half of last season
Speaker 2: and what's going on now, it's a little bit like, hey,
Speaker 2: what are.
Speaker 1: We looking at?
Speaker 4: And it's different too. I like how you pointed out
Speaker 4: schematic differences. And I know you have alluded to wanting
Speaker 4: to write about this this week, but kind of and
Speaker 4: Frank you asked him about it yesterday Wednesday's press conference,
Speaker 4: but kind of about how things are molding together. You know,
Speaker 4: you start out Thomas Brown talked a lot about with
Speaker 4: the playbook when they first got together, and how they
Speaker 4: kind of took a playbook, stripped it down to the bones,
Speaker 4: and then kind of built from there. And now they're taking,
Speaker 4: you know, the time to sort of evaluate what has worked,
Speaker 4: what hasn't. When you're melding all of these mindes together,
Speaker 4: you have Frank, right, Thomas Brown, Jim Caldwell, Douce Daley,
Speaker 4: I mean, Josh McCown, Parks, Frasier and these are those
Speaker 4: are just the ones that've rolled off the top of
Speaker 4: my head that are touching this offense and kind of
Speaker 4: you know, putting it together. So you have all of
Speaker 4: those new new thought, new thoughts people, and then you
Speaker 4: have all these new pieces as well. I mean kind
Speaker 4: of seeing how it's all going to come together. I
Speaker 4: think Frank said yesterday, you know that it's still gradual
Speaker 4: and it's still happening, and I wanted to know your evaluation, Darren,
Speaker 4: of how that's going through, because that's something that we've
Speaker 4: all kind of looked at and you know, how are
Speaker 4: they going to put it together? And now they're sort
Speaker 4: of working through what worked, what hasn't. You know, how
Speaker 4: you play to the personnel that you have and kind
Speaker 4: of formulate all of that around. Like you mentioned guard
Speaker 4: play that hasn't been consistent, I mean personnel wise that
Speaker 4: hasn't been consistent, but also just trying to bring a
Speaker 4: rookie together with all these pieces, with all these people
Speaker 4: still you know, getting to know each other pretty much.
Speaker 2: Right from February to July, when Frank would talk about
Speaker 2: his staff coming together, he kept using the phrase diversity
Speaker 2: of thought.
Speaker 1: And that's a good thing.
Speaker 2: I think anybody who's ever worked as a part of
Speaker 2: any kind of team, any kind of office situation where
Speaker 2: you've got different departments, knows you're better off if you've
Speaker 2: got people who think differently, and it just increases the
Speaker 2: number of variable It increases the number of perspectives that
Speaker 2: you can apply to any given problem. The problem with it, however,
Speaker 2: is it takes a minute for that to come together.
Speaker 2: Because right now, and I mean if you just strip
Speaker 2: it down to the run game. Everybody thinks about second
Speaker 2: half last year here. That is a very different run
Speaker 2: game than Thomas Brown has been exposed to for the
Speaker 2: last couple of years in Los Angeles. It's very different
Speaker 2: than the Philadelphia run game that Frank Reich's got experience
Speaker 2: with and kind of comes out of that style of offense.
Speaker 2: So I think getting all those perspectives, you know, I
Speaker 2: keep because this is theater of their mind and you
Speaker 2: can obviously see what I'm doing. I've been doing a
Speaker 2: thing where I take my hands and I spread my
Speaker 2: fingers out and I lay them kind of crossways from
Speaker 2: each other, and it's like, if they can get all
Speaker 2: of these crossways fingers pointed in the same direction, all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, they'll be on to something. And right
Speaker 2: now there, I think things are just a little bit off,
Speaker 2: and trying to get those pieces together, I mean trying
Speaker 2: to get the basically, take people who speak three different
Speaker 2: languages and get them speaking the same one. Let me
Speaker 2: tell you they're downstairs busting at due Lingo, trying to
Speaker 2: get all together as quickly as they can, and I
Speaker 2: think it's natural that that takes time. Now, once they achieve.
Speaker 2: Once they get to the place that they all want
Speaker 2: to get to.
Speaker 1: There's the opportunity to do some good things.
Speaker 2: But right now it's still very much a learning process,
Speaker 2: and I think it's kind of reasonable to think that
Speaker 2: was going to take a minute.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Obviously nobody expects oh and four, and Frank kind of
Speaker 2: shrugs and goes through the whole. It's like he's got
Speaker 2: a paragraph in his head that he feels compelled to
Speaker 2: say that, hey, oh and four is not okay. We
Speaker 2: did expect to be better than this. We know people
Speaker 2: want us to be better than this. He says all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. But at the base of it
Speaker 2: is always but we knew this was going to take
Speaker 2: some time. So I think this is the unfortunate growing period,
Speaker 2: arning period with each other. But you know, that's that's
Speaker 2: what happens when smart people get together and try to
Speaker 2: solve problems together. It doesn't always work out. I mentioned
Speaker 2: my miraculous cure for whatever ails you, whether it's an
Speaker 2: ear infection or a common cold or a broken wrist,
Speaker 2: it's gatorade, banana, advil sleep. And you know, my wife
Speaker 2: happens to be a pediatrician. And when my kids mentioned
Speaker 2: to her that that was my cure for that. She
Speaker 2: was like, oh, does he think that works? And so,
Speaker 2: you know, smart people can disagree and come to different
Speaker 2: conclusions about what may work and what may not work,
Speaker 2: but when they all get on the same page, it
Speaker 2: can produce positive results. So we will see as this
Speaker 2: week progresses. You know, Detroit is a tough place to
Speaker 2: try to get a run game fixed, and you know,
Speaker 2: they're up the top of the charts in most of
Speaker 2: your defensive categories in that phase of the game. And
Speaker 2: I just think that one of my pet things about
Speaker 2: football is Okay, if something's not working, don't do that anymore,
Speaker 2: or don't do as much of that. The things that
Speaker 2: you're good at, do more of those, because that's.
Speaker 1: A good thing.
Speaker 2: And so this isn't necessarily the week to try to
Speaker 2: get your run game right against the Detroit Lions. Obviously,
Speaker 2: and again here I go back to last year. Obviously
Speaker 2: they ran well against the Lions.
Speaker 1: Last year.
Speaker 3: Everything was different.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, I was thinking about that. But I
Speaker 4: will say that was at least to me. I remember
Speaker 4: that game so well, freezing cold Christmas Eve, so many
Speaker 4: different memories. I don't think we necessarily expected that to
Speaker 4: happen either, not saying that it's the same, completely different
Speaker 4: teams on both sides of the ball, but I mean, you.
Speaker 3: Know, stranger things have happened.
Speaker 4: We were all kind of, I think, you know, kind
Speaker 4: of surprised at how that turned out. Now again, personnel
Speaker 4: what nothing is the same, and that's very very clearly
Speaker 4: being communicated. However, it was a good matchup last year,
Speaker 4: and while things have changed, saying they're gonna run down
Speaker 4: their throats or anything, but I mean, I really do
Speaker 4: feel optimistic about about what Bryce has shown.
Speaker 3: I think Bryce Young is showing.
Speaker 4: That you know, he's a rookie A but B he's accountable.
Speaker 4: For one, I was rewatching the TV broadcast and seeing
Speaker 4: his leadership. What they were able to see on the
Speaker 4: cameras and stuff was really really cool for a.
Speaker 3: Guy that seems so.
Speaker 4: You know, calm and quiet and cool at press conferences,
Speaker 4: even around the locker room.
Speaker 3: You know, he's not the he's not the shouting type,
Speaker 3: he's not the in your face type.
Speaker 4: But but seeing him kind of, I don't know, he's
Speaker 4: stepping into his own here. He has a month of
Speaker 4: NFL experience, he's going into his fourth game. Now, I
Speaker 4: think what you're seeing from Bryce is what you want
Speaker 4: to see, is you want to talk about, you know,
Speaker 4: areas of the offense in which they look to improve.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, they're kind of getting what they
Speaker 4: what they expected to in an early, early, early stage,
Speaker 4: and he's not regressing, which is positive. I think he
Speaker 4: did learn from that week watching Andy up in Seattle,
Speaker 4: I mean, completely different quarterbacks, but I think seeing his
Speaker 4: veteran leadership and the way that he was able.
Speaker 3: To kind of comf go out there kind of helped
Speaker 3: him out too.
Speaker 4: So I mean that's I I can't I can't help
Speaker 4: but emphasize that that Bryce Young is kind of doing
Speaker 4: everything that he can at this stage in his career
Speaker 4: so early, but also kind of with the situation around
Speaker 4: him that hopefully will continue to improve with health and
Speaker 4: with whatever else the Panthers might have, you know, cooking up,
Speaker 4: scheming up for him.
Speaker 2: And I think they got to be careful in how
Speaker 2: much cooking they try to do. There's a common theme
Speaker 2: this year and again to go back to last year. Again,
Speaker 2: they took a they took a playbook that was this
Speaker 2: thick about size of the Manhattan phone Book and turned it.
Speaker 1: Do you know what a phone book is?
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 1: Okay, oh yeah, all right.
Speaker 2: I just sometimes I like to check myself on cultural
Speaker 2: references to make sure there's still Jamaine.
Speaker 4: I will say, I grew up rural, so I'm a
Speaker 4: little bit behind, Like I had dial up internet and stuff,
Speaker 4: and I have friends that did not. So shout out Chickamauga, Georgia.
Speaker 4: When you grew up rural, you're about ten five, ten
Speaker 4: years behind everybody else. So I had things in the
Speaker 4: late nineties that were.
Speaker 3: Probably in the early nineties.
Speaker 1: So do you know what Manhattan is?
Speaker 3: Manhattan like the drink, Well.
Speaker 1: It meant the borough of New York. Oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: rural urban kind of thing.
Speaker 2: At any rate, where were we, you know, last year's
Speaker 2: playbook when when they were having success here running the ball,
Speaker 2: they took a playbook size of the Manhattan phone Book
Speaker 2: and turned it.
Speaker 1: Into a pamphlet.
Speaker 2: You can't win in the NFL with a pamphlet sized
Speaker 2: offensive playbook. I mean, they were able to pull together
Speaker 2: some games last year and do that, but the whole
Speaker 2: point of hiring Frank Reich and all these coaches was
Speaker 2: to build that playbook back up to an adult size. Again,
Speaker 2: And I think if anything's been clear over the first
Speaker 2: four weeks, is that starting Even though Bryce is a
Speaker 2: brilliant processor and nail DS two test and all those
Speaker 2: kind of things we talked about all spring, those things.
Speaker 1: Are still true.
Speaker 2: It's still a lot for any player to process because
Speaker 2: the speed of NFL players on defense, there's windows are
Speaker 2: closing faster. Even though he played at a high level
Speaker 2: in Alabama, it's still very different because Alabama was playing
Speaker 2: people who are practice squad corners now and they're playing
Speaker 2: NFL corners every week. So it's an adjustment for Bryce.
Speaker 2: I think the adjustment phase is real. I joked in
Speaker 2: the mail bag the other day, I wish I had
Speaker 2: a hot key for Peyton Manning led the league in
Speaker 2: interceptions with twenty eight in his first year in the
Speaker 2: cole twent three to thirteen, just to remind people that
Speaker 2: even the very best rookies, the highest processing rookies, are
Speaker 2: still rookies and it's going to take them a minute.
Speaker 2: So I think, if anything, what you might see in
Speaker 2: the next couple of weeks is some degree of pulling back,
Speaker 2: some degree of Okay, let's find the things that Bryce
Speaker 2: is good at. Let's find those easy throws. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't mean to take away from CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud.
Speaker 2: He's an incredibly talented player and is off to a
Speaker 2: great start in Houston, and that's created some unfortunate comparisons
Speaker 2: for Bryce.
Speaker 1: But CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud's playing in a very different offense I think in
Speaker 2: terms of at least what they're trying to do here
Speaker 2: and the way they're sending Bryce through reads and different things.
Speaker 2: It's just more complex than what the Texans are asking
Speaker 2: CJ to do. And you can ask yourself, and I
Speaker 2: think it's a fair question, well, what's smart trying to
Speaker 2: do something complicated or do something simple? Well, And you know,
Speaker 2: right now things are going well for CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud.
Speaker 2: We'll see how he develops over the course of his career.
Speaker 2: But I think what they've tried to do in general
Speaker 2: is teach Masters level classes to a freshman. And he's
Speaker 2: a smart freshman, he's a precocious freshman, but he's still
Speaker 2: a freshman. So I think this was some of this
Speaker 2: was to be expected. But you know, again, as you
Speaker 2: mentioned Augusta, there are positive signs. One of my pet stats,
Speaker 2: everybody's got theirs in football, and mine's always been kind
Speaker 2: of yards per pass attempt, and it's gone three point eight,
Speaker 2: four point six, six point something last week, and so
Speaker 2: you're seeing that steady progression in Bryce throwing more of
Speaker 2: those quote unquote adult passes. The third down play to
Speaker 2: Thieln where he steps up in the pocket last week
Speaker 2: and finds Outam coming across the middle of the field.
Speaker 1: That was a big time throw. And that was a.
Speaker 2: Throw of all the many quarterbacks we've seen here over
Speaker 2: the last five years. We haven't seen a lot of
Speaker 2: guys who are making.
Speaker 3: That play exactly exactly.
Speaker 4: And I kind of wanted to also shift to the
Speaker 4: defensive side of the ball because that's an area I
Speaker 4: think in which I mean the Panther saw a lot
Speaker 4: of success last week. I'm writing a story right now
Speaker 4: on DeShawn Jamison, who came in in a situation where
Speaker 4: maybe he didn't expect to play, came in for Dante Jackson. Again,
Speaker 4: we have a ton of injuries here at Bank of
Speaker 4: America Stadium, and you know, just looting my coal. I
Speaker 4: was about to say, just kind of lots of people
Speaker 4: in the getting healed up right now, ir and everything,
Speaker 4: and Dante's one of them. Now, I mean banged up
Speaker 4: secondary and both starting quarterbacks out, so we had a
Speaker 4: undrafted Ricky who spent the offseason with the forty nine
Speaker 4: ers here, and he threw some of the plays, like
Speaker 4: I mean, there were two that I wrote about that
Speaker 4: kind of caught my eye, just as those kind of
Speaker 4: flash plays on defense.
Speaker 3: Obviously, the block.
Speaker 4: Up against Kirk Cousins on Sam Franklin's ninety nine yard
Speaker 4: interception return for a touchdown which made Panther's history, which
Speaker 4: was super exciting and kind of got this place really
Speaker 4: really excited at the very beginning of the game, just
Speaker 4: kind of laid him out of it is it's fun
Speaker 4: to watch in part of One of the angles I
Speaker 4: get to play off in my story is Deshaun Jamison's
Speaker 4: one of the smallest guys on the active rosteries five
Speaker 4: point nine, which puts him on deck with a raheem
Speaker 4: blackshear in terms of high he's smaller, Kirk is not,
Speaker 4: you know, the tiniest person in the world.
Speaker 3: Just lays him out and then.
Speaker 4: We see him later big pass breakup against Justin Jefferson
Speaker 4: knocked him out for a little bit. Came back and
Speaker 4: think he may have been winded or something. He was
Speaker 4: down for a bit, but it was a clean tackle.
Speaker 4: I've watched it multiple times, found some angles on Twitter
Speaker 4: where you just kind of see him knock him down
Speaker 4: and he gets all excited and celebrate. And for a
Speaker 4: guy that's coming in, you know, he was waived at
Speaker 4: the fifty three in San Francisco. If Panthers signed him
Speaker 4: off to the fifty three off waivers in that kind
Speaker 4: of wave with a throck Morton and cherrylist as well.
Speaker 4: But kind of got his playing time and did pretty
Speaker 4: well with and he didn't necessarily light up or stuff
Speaker 4: the stat sheet, but he created the kind of plays
Speaker 4: that like, when I left that game, I was like, well, dang,
Speaker 4: like this guy. He we said it a lot last season.
Speaker 4: It's kind of died this year. But has that dog
Speaker 4: in him, you know what I mean. Came from Texas,
Speaker 4: super nice.
Speaker 3: Guy to talk to.
Speaker 4: So while these guys heal up, I think he was
Speaker 4: definitely a positive across a defense that has looked good
Speaker 4: despite all of.
Speaker 3: The injuries that it's faced.
Speaker 4: I mean, think about the impossible situations of trying to
Speaker 4: figure out a way to replace Shack Thompson and not
Speaker 4: being without JC for most of the season so far
Speaker 4: and now they were that X in the secondary. There's
Speaker 4: so many different pieces and they found a way to
Speaker 4: make it come together. And I think that's a testament
Speaker 4: to the job he Giero Evere has been able to do.
Speaker 4: But also, I mean, you know, scoring points, making history,
Speaker 4: Sam Franklin wouldn't be necessarily on the field if things
Speaker 4: had gone the way that you'd expect them to do
Speaker 4: all of that.
Speaker 3: So I don't know, I think that's something too that
Speaker 3: we can kind.
Speaker 4: Of lean on and look at as a as a
Speaker 4: as a more positive thing where if you get the
Speaker 4: offensive side filled out, I mean, the good news is,
Speaker 4: you know, the defense is holding its own for the
Speaker 4: most part and kind of creating plays where they need to.
Speaker 2: Sam's so funny because Sam is he's the juice guy
Speaker 2: in that locker room. He's always good for starting to
Speaker 2: fight on special teams or you know, making big plays
Speaker 2: in that area. And it kind of a couple of
Speaker 2: the guys mentioned to me the other day, they're like,
Speaker 2: it's killing Sam that he can't be on the punt
Speaker 2: team anymore, you know, while he's starting on defense.
Speaker 1: So he really enjoys that part of it.
Speaker 2: But because of the loss, and because the situation b
Speaker 2: a zero and four, I think everybody down there is
Speaker 2: little hesitant to be having too much fun right now.
Speaker 2: So Sam tried to low key it when he was
Speaker 2: talking to it's not.
Speaker 1: A big dealer folksing on team goals all that kind.
Speaker 2: Of stuff, and this tam and I said, Sam, Yeah,
Speaker 2: broke a record that was set by Julius Peppers. All right,
Speaker 2: you know, let's keep this in perspective for what it is.
Speaker 2: And it was one of the phenomenal plays in franchise history.
Speaker 2: And you know, again credit to Sean Jamison, who's not
Speaker 2: a big fellow, but he's getting after it and he's
Speaker 2: going to have opportunities to play a good bit, I mean,
Speaker 2: regardless of who comes back when. I think he's shown
Speaker 2: that he's somebody that that coaching staff likes. And you know,
Speaker 2: kind of overarching on defense, I mean, they we've talked
Speaker 2: about this a lot. They've played pretty well. They're third
Speaker 2: in the league and third down defense at the moment,
Speaker 2: getting off the field at a twenty seven point something
Speaker 2: clip in that situation, and when you look at the
Speaker 2: parts they've put together, you wouldn't think, Okay, this is
Speaker 2: a defense that they can count on. But the results
Speaker 2: have been there, and obviously you see why they go
Speaker 2: out and get Eja this saw season to run this
Speaker 2: defense because he's getting results out of an odd lot
Speaker 2: of players. I always like to use the comparison. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's it's like one of those cooking shows where you
Speaker 2: get the mystery basket and you got to make a
Speaker 2: meal out of it, because he never knows from one
Speaker 2: week to the next what he's going to have.
Speaker 1: So those guys have been playing well.
Speaker 3: So I'll say one thing.
Speaker 4: The snap council looked completely different than they did last year.
Speaker 4: I mean just in terms of the defense getting off
Speaker 4: the field and offense kind of keeping the ball longer.
Speaker 4: And that's that's a trend you want to talk about trends.
Speaker 4: I remember last year specifically, it felt like it was
Speaker 4: always extremely lopsided the other way. Offense could not stay
Speaker 4: on the field, defense could not get off in terms
Speaker 4: of you know, those like fundamental things. That is different
Speaker 4: and that I think that's kind of a good hint
Speaker 4: to a positive direction. Just being able to control the ball.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know, I just those were some
Speaker 4: we've seen some low defenses not kind of.
Speaker 3: It was forty eight last week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, forty eight snaps is way below average for an
Speaker 2: NFL game, and especially playing against the Vikings, who you know,
Speaker 2: can move it down the field and did run it
Speaker 2: pretty well, so you would think they would have been
Speaker 2: out there all day.
Speaker 1: But what was it two to thirteen third down conversion? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe, or it was I mean two or one?
Speaker 4: It was expt any extremely Yeah, I know it was.
Speaker 4: It was so yeah, I think and to think about
Speaker 4: all the attrition of that group's been for you. I mean,
Speaker 4: they're without the soul of their their defense, I mean
Speaker 4: the soul of the team right now.
Speaker 3: He's still around, but he's not on the field with them.
Speaker 3: Shaq Thompson.
Speaker 4: I think there's just there's a lot to be built
Speaker 4: off of and it's a testament to EJ for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, before I completely lose my voice in
Speaker 2: any sense of coherent thought. By the way, have you
Speaker 2: ever read Gaytalisa's Frank Sinatra has a cold?
Speaker 3: I have not.
Speaker 2: You should read that as a person who writes in
Speaker 2: exchange for money, that is that is my assignment for
Speaker 2: you at some point in the next month, Not that
Speaker 2: I'm like frank Sinatra, though I might start singing any
Speaker 2: moment now, because Frankly, I'm a little punchy. Is it
Speaker 2: time for prowling vineyards, woods and twelve hours of sleep?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but yeah, what you know? Hey, it's
Speaker 2: a podcast. Nobody knows what time it is if we
Speaker 2: don't tell him. But anyway, that will cover us for
Speaker 2: this week of the Happy Half Hour. I'm Darren, She's Augusta.
Speaker 2: Go feel better, Everybody