Speaker 1: It's time for a Happy half Hour with your friends
Speaker 1: Kristen Balboni, Will Brian and Darren Gabb. It's that time
Speaker 1: of the week. Welcome to the Happy half Hour podcast
Speaker 1: with your friends, Will, Darren, Kristen and producer Matt And guys,
Speaker 1: we joked a little bit about last week being a
Speaker 1: contractually obligated happy half hour, but we have plenty to
Speaker 1: be happy about this week after that win at Atlanta. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's actual happiness. And you know, and then, of course,
Speaker 1: like other things going on in our personal lives or whatnot,
Speaker 1: our whole our whole demeanor is not fully um, you know,
Speaker 1: just influenced by whether or not we win. But this
Speaker 1: building kind of is I mean, you know, I was
Speaker 1: kidding Minus when you walk around this building, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's tangible. I mean, even though as much as they
Speaker 1: talk about want to know every week, want to know
Speaker 1: every week, that weight was starting to bear down on
Speaker 1: them four in a row. And and now it's like okay,
Speaker 1: now it's back to normal. Now it's back to work
Speaker 1: and it's regular a game. So yeah, I mean that's stuff.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's human nature. I mean, it's it's easier
Speaker 1: to deal with some of these guys coming off of
Speaker 1: win than it is a loss, and you know they're
Speaker 1: four and four, so let's see what happens. Absolutely, and
Speaker 1: I will say from from my perspective, people ask me that,
Speaker 1: you know, how how is it after loss? And everyone's
Speaker 1: a professional, you know, no one's um, no one's a
Speaker 1: jerk or anything like that. But everyone's a lot happier
Speaker 1: when they're winning, no doubt about that. Well, how are
Speaker 1: you feeling? Well, it's it's we're all very comfortable right now.
Speaker 1: I feel like we're all like wearing our very comfy
Speaker 1: sweaters and sweatshirts and yeah, yeah, that's a fun thing.
Speaker 1: It's forty degrees outside. I know, it's it's flannel and
Speaker 1: paints season. By the way, Oh really that's different. What
Speaker 1: do you yeah? Wait, what are we looking at? Sorry,
Speaker 1: they're great for podcasting. What did you more? Theater has
Speaker 1: flannel inside of his pants. Oh yeah, what does that mean?
Speaker 1: I've got like four or five pairs of flannel line
Speaker 1: pants that have so fuzzy warm flanns. So their jeans
Speaker 1: on the outside, flannel on the insects. Right, and just
Speaker 1: in case anyone was wondering, Yeah, that's pretty cool. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that you could do that. And you know, basically,
Speaker 1: anytime it gets below fifty degrees, I'm like, yeah, flannel
Speaker 1: pants do you have around in pajama? Do you ever misjudged?
Speaker 1: Because the weather in North Carolina could start out forty
Speaker 1: in the morning and then seventy and then you're just
Speaker 1: sweating your flannel pants. I'd prefer that to the alternative
Speaker 1: that there's nothing worse than being cold. I turned the
Speaker 1: heat on in the house the other day and wife,
Speaker 1: it's like, it's way too hot in here, and no
Speaker 1: such thing. Oh no, I disagree. I disagree. Yeah, where
Speaker 1: do you keep the thermostat in your house? Well, we
Speaker 1: were doing the thing where you know, you hold off
Speaker 1: as long as you possibly can before you finally turn
Speaker 1: it on. I finally turned it on. It was down
Speaker 1: to sixty two this morning. Yeah, what are you hanging
Speaker 1: meat there your breath? At Will's house? Well, I mean
Speaker 1: just it was kind of a game more than anything.
Speaker 1: You just kind of hold out and then this morning
Speaker 1: was okay, you win now, Oh my goodness. Um, just
Speaker 1: in case you were wondering, we keep our our therm
Speaker 1: stat somewhere between sixty eight and seventy. Yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: right answer. Will it's now there? Well, yeah, it was
Speaker 1: your girlfriend out. You know, this is a fun game.
Speaker 1: She's like, I'm freezing. All right, let's talk about this.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this game at Atlanta. They did a
Speaker 1: lot of this team did a lot of things right.
Speaker 1: Um in that game, I thought, you know, they did
Speaker 1: the things that they said they wanted to do. The
Speaker 1: old line protected. They ran the ball forty six times
Speaker 1: for over two hundred yards. I thought, I thought everyone
Speaker 1: who ran the ball looks good running it, and that
Speaker 1: includes Sam. We got to see him, the old quarterback
Speaker 1: sneak came back quite a few times. Yeah, and he's
Speaker 1: always been a mobile guy. And early in the year
Speaker 1: we were having some fun kind about Sam leading the
Speaker 1: league in touchdown runs. And you know that's a part
Speaker 1: of it. I mean, it's like Daniel Jones you saw
Speaker 1: against the Giants of the week, that's part of his game.
Speaker 1: He can get out and do that. Now again, obviously
Speaker 1: he gets out and he takes a big hit and
Speaker 1: gets a concussion, isn't able to finish. That's not great.
Speaker 1: But from the standpoint of diversifying the offense, last week
Speaker 1: was almost like, Okay, we're gonna strip it down to
Speaker 1: the bare bones. We're gonna do four things and we're
Speaker 1: gonna try to do them as right as possible. And
Speaker 1: that included Sam running the ball, and they were able
Speaker 1: to check those boxes. So you know again, I I
Speaker 1: sent Will an old story I wrote back from my
Speaker 1: newspaper days of kind of the history of the Wildcat
Speaker 1: and when the Panthers ran it for the first time
Speaker 1: in OH six before Miami turned it into a craze there.
Speaker 1: But it was similar to that game, whereas they were
Speaker 1: in a situation where, okay, things aren't going right in
Speaker 1: OH six that we're running out of quarterbacks who could
Speaker 1: throw the ball, and it's like, we're gonna run. We're
Speaker 1: gonna run a lot, and we're gonna run it in
Speaker 1: a lot of different ways that you haven't necessarily seen.
Speaker 1: And and that's what it felt like to me last
Speaker 1: week is they were intent on running. They said they
Speaker 1: were going to do it the week before and they didn't,
Speaker 1: and it was by God, we're gonna run and we're
Speaker 1: gonna keep doing it and it kept working. That was
Speaker 1: the impressive part about it. It wasn't just you, but
Speaker 1: it was a mere Abdullah popping off some big runts
Speaker 1: and Royce Freeman contributed a little bit in addition to
Speaker 1: Sam and that was absolutely what they needed. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was kind of a gave the defense a chance
Speaker 1: to catch its breath. You know, you're out there with
Speaker 1: an eleven minute advantage in time of possession and everybody
Speaker 1: on the Carolina Panthers kind of goes well. And that
Speaker 1: was something that we talked a lot about on the
Speaker 1: radio broadcast that you could see and watching the sidelines,
Speaker 1: you know, that's my job to see how things are
Speaker 1: going down there, and you notice the defense. The defense
Speaker 1: is always great at communicating, talking amongst you know, the
Speaker 1: d linemen are talking to the linebackers like, actually we're
Speaker 1: talking to the secondary, but they were. I mean, there
Speaker 1: was so much communication and kind of clicked for me
Speaker 1: for a second, was like, oh, they have time to communicate,
Speaker 1: they have time to talk through things, to go get
Speaker 1: the surface, tablet show each other something. You know, Derk
Speaker 1: Brown and Frankie Lulu were having multiple conversations at Dick
Speaker 1: one Drin's was teaching everybody something on the sidelines and
Speaker 1: it was nice to see them because we hadn't seen
Speaker 1: them have the time to do that over the last
Speaker 1: couple of games before that, you know, it was really
Speaker 1: there were a lot of three and ounce, especially in
Speaker 1: that Giant's game where they're just running back on the field.
Speaker 1: So it was it was great to see them get
Speaker 1: to take advantage. And then I think we saw the
Speaker 1: fruits of that, you know, out on the field when
Speaker 1: they got back out there. They made some some really
Speaker 1: great plays. And then of of course also you get
Speaker 1: checked back. Stefin Gilmore comes in for a while and
Speaker 1: makes a big impression and limited play. But but you're right,
Speaker 1: being able to run the ball served so many different purposes,
Speaker 1: and well, you're st out of the week had something
Speaker 1: to do with just how successful they were running the
Speaker 1: ball right the times if it's instead of the week.
Speaker 1: So not only did running help the offensive line, you know,
Speaker 1: it helped guys. You know, they're what the six different
Speaker 1: starting offensive line group. You know, transcott a right guard,
Speaker 1: you know, you can you can block downhill a little bit.
Speaker 1: It helps them, It helps you not give up sex.
Speaker 1: But I think the thing that was interesting they talked
Speaker 1: about needing to convert first downs because they were getting
Speaker 1: into these third In eleven's third nines, third and twelves,
Speaker 1: where it's really hard to do when everyone's pinning their
Speaker 1: ears back, they're coming at you, it's passing down. They
Speaker 1: had thirteen first downs by running, so that it meant
Speaker 1: that they were in position to convert first downs, you know,
Speaker 1: with the ball, third and one, you know, a couple
Speaker 1: of sneaks from Um, from Donald, you know, different ways
Speaker 1: that they were able to convert it by running. They
Speaker 1: had seventeen first downs by rushing over the last three games,
Speaker 1: and they had thirteen in this one. So I think
Speaker 1: that just showed um their ability to get in manageable
Speaker 1: third downs, their ability to convert. They had in first
Speaker 1: ten third down conversions, which was like the most two thousand,
Speaker 1: seventeen in a game. So I mean, yeah, they were
Speaker 1: able to really keep drives going. Obviously they had three
Speaker 1: drives over fifteen. I'm just throwing all the stats up love, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but the point being they're able to get into third
Speaker 1: downs that they can convert by running the ball rather
Speaker 1: than being in you have to throw and you just
Speaker 1: everyone knows what's coming. Will's doing to us with stats,
Speaker 1: what the Panthers offense did to the Falcons defensive line,
Speaker 1: he's just leaning on us because for the defense. So
Speaker 1: you know, it's I got time to rest. I can
Speaker 1: take ya can just sit down here on the side
Speaker 1: this and it really is. I mean that game had
Speaker 1: the feeling of one team leaning on the other throughout
Speaker 1: the afternoon. And and again I can't say it enough.
Speaker 1: They needed that. I mean they just needed a break
Speaker 1: from all the not not just the plays that weren't
Speaker 1: working and the two of fifth teen on third down
Speaker 1: conversions the week before. I mean just mentally, spiritually, emotionally, whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't want to get too deep in the weeds here,
Speaker 1: but they needed that in so many ways. Defense, offense, everybody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just love spiritually and emotionally. Yeah, but you're right there.
Speaker 1: I think they're week I think there are wins that
Speaker 1: you go, okay, all right, we we we came out
Speaker 1: of that one week that went out or that was ugly, um,
Speaker 1: but you're right, this one was also kind of a
Speaker 1: proof of concept. We're doing the things that we said
Speaker 1: we were going to do, and we want to look
Speaker 1: how much, as you said, we leaned on them. Look
Speaker 1: how much we controlled the game by doing the things
Speaker 1: we said we were going to do and you do
Speaker 1: it on the road at Atlanta. Yeah, that's a place
Speaker 1: up until last year their best. They don't win there,
Speaker 1: you know, so I think that. And it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: how good or bad Atlanta is, that place is always
Speaker 1: just so hard to win. Yeah, so I give them
Speaker 1: credit for that. Well, anytime you're playing the Falcons will
Speaker 1: but you educated me on last year. Even being a fan,
Speaker 1: it's like you almost always split with Atlanta just historically,
Speaker 1: no matter who's the you know, the better to the
Speaker 1: season what where they had one loss, the one loss
Speaker 1: was against Atlanta. Yeah, so it's just you know, division
Speaker 1: games are are no joke. And it was great to
Speaker 1: go down there and and for them to get to
Speaker 1: win too. It's the sound. It's always weird there. I
Speaker 1: mean there's so many it is weird there, whether it's
Speaker 1: the Georgia Dome or Mercedes Being Stadium. I mean from
Speaker 1: the very first game the Panthers, very first game they
Speaker 1: go into the Georgia Dome have a chance to win
Speaker 1: except for a false start penalty and overtime lunch and
Speaker 1: stains Derek Graham. But never mind that. Uh, And it's
Speaker 1: almost like it's set the stage because there were so
Speaker 1: much oddball stuff is happening Falcons Panthers games down. Well,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that where your story was the Wildcat? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we were all trying to get out of there. It's
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve. You want to get act your families and stuff.
Speaker 1: And you know, the Panthers decided revolutionized offense and start running.
Speaker 1: How much it was you know what, honestly on a
Speaker 1: holiday when they kept running the ball and the clock
Speaker 1: kept moving. I think that game ended in about two
Speaker 1: and a half hours. It's perfect, but yeah, it was
Speaker 1: quite a wrinkle, and it's it's what I'll never forget
Speaker 1: and and I did. I wish I could share that
Speaker 1: story somehow with Will or with a lot of people,
Speaker 1: because I wrote a thing for the paper just talking
Speaker 1: about how that whole thing came together with you know,
Speaker 1: John Fox and and Dan Henning and the entire offense
Speaker 1: and how they decided, oh god, let's do this this week.
Speaker 1: So it was cool. Well, let's talk about going forward
Speaker 1: in terms of who we think is is healthy or
Speaker 1: what we know And Darreny and I were just chatting
Speaker 1: about it a little bit right before we came on
Speaker 1: the air, And the truth is, as you so eloquently,
Speaker 1: but it we don't know. We don't know yet, but
Speaker 1: there are a lot of guys, whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: a Christian McCaffrey was doesn't did to return from i
Speaker 1: R which starts that twenty one day clock. Um, Sam
Speaker 1: Donald is in the concussion protocol right now. There are
Speaker 1: guys that were designated to return from i R a
Speaker 1: week or two ago. Whether it's your pad Elf lines,
Speaker 1: you're justin BURRSS, your mild hearts Fields, UM, Joe Charlton
Speaker 1: could also be back. So there's a lot of guys
Speaker 1: and we started to see that first wave. I just
Speaker 1: talked to to Matt Rule about it yesterday of just
Speaker 1: UM and and then David um Lincoln, our executive producer
Speaker 1: on the sidelines, UM you know, and I'm like, usually
Speaker 1: I'm giving injury reports and and they have not been
Speaker 1: good the last three or four weeks, and so it
Speaker 1: was nice to say to him on Sunday, looks like
Speaker 1: Stefan Gilmore is going to be going in student. So
Speaker 1: now we're kind of getting to the end of this
Speaker 1: UM injury rash. I should probably knock on wood somewhere, Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you, UM and UM. At some point we assume
Speaker 1: that that all of these guys that we just mentioned,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure there are a few more I forgot,
Speaker 1: will be healthy. But of course, if you're a Panthers fan,
Speaker 1: you want them all to be healthy as soon as possible.
Speaker 1: So Darren, what are you hearing? What's the late? Well,
Speaker 1: I can't. I just had a little flashback to week one.
Speaker 1: The Panthers went into the first week of the season
Speaker 1: with like nobody on the jury report, and it was
Speaker 1: the first two weeks and I asked Matt about it
Speaker 1: in a press conference and he looked at me like
Speaker 1: I had nine heads, like what are you doing? Why
Speaker 1: are you making me address this? Are saying all this stuff?
Speaker 1: But you and I have just put ourselves in a
Speaker 1: situation in front of a microphone. But it was, it
Speaker 1: was it was the first two weeks because then the
Speaker 1: Thursday Night game was Week three, sure, and that's when
Speaker 1: it all went haywire. So obviously it was our fault,
Speaker 1: Kristen Um, But I didn't, I truly, you know, don't
Speaker 1: think Matt Rules just trying to mess with Bill Belichick.
Speaker 1: I don't think Matt Rule knows. Right now, as we
Speaker 1: tape this podcast on Thursday, morning, whether Christian McCaffrey is
Speaker 1: going to be available, whether Sam Donald's can be available.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Sam stuffs absolutely out of his hands
Speaker 1: because he's got to pass through an independent neurologist. The
Speaker 1: concussion protocol is beyond the scope of coaches. They don't
Speaker 1: get to there's no art in that. It's all science.
Speaker 1: So as soon as Sam's clear, he'll be back out there,
Speaker 1: and we don't know when that'll be. I mean, it
Speaker 1: can look good and guys cannot pass the test, so
Speaker 1: we'll see. But with Christian, I mean we've been through
Speaker 1: it before. We've watched him go out and practice, and
Speaker 1: the way they've treated him coming back is okay, you
Speaker 1: do a little bit on Wednesday, a little bit more
Speaker 1: on Thursday, a little bit more on Friday. And on
Speaker 1: the first one they pushed him into the second week
Speaker 1: and he was almost ready and then he wasn't. So
Speaker 1: you know, I think because of that, they're a little
Speaker 1: hesitant to go too far into it. But from what
Speaker 1: we saw in practice, from what we know about situation,
Speaker 1: Christians moving around, well, we'll see. And when Matt was
Speaker 1: asked specifically because they did go into it, easy was
Speaker 1: to find Gilmore they did give Shaq Thompson a lot
Speaker 1: of time, an extra week basically to come back. And
Speaker 1: somebody asked Matt if he was probably going that way
Speaker 1: with Christian and he was like, I don't know that yet.
Speaker 1: And I think the it felt this way last year.
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, when the Panthers were starting to
Speaker 1: get some wins, you know, with Mike Davis back there,
Speaker 1: Mike's having to do these big things. You know, there
Speaker 1: was very much that sense of hey, it's next man up,
Speaker 1: where the where the Carolina Panthers were not the Carolina
Speaker 1: McCaffrey's you know, like everyone, uh, we're we're a team.
Speaker 1: You know, everyone's just gonna keep pitching in and and
Speaker 1: and keep doing their best. Next man up. But I
Speaker 1: think you look at the way everything changed when Shack
Speaker 1: Thompson was back on that field. Like as much as
Speaker 1: no one's gonna say that it helps to have the
Speaker 1: best players that you have on your team playing for
Speaker 1: your team, you know, I mean I don't know that
Speaker 1: no one would say that that's a pretty breaking news
Speaker 1: having good players, right, But I felt like there was
Speaker 1: this whole last year there's this like these mental hula hoops,
Speaker 1: do we really need Christian. You know, we've got Mike.
Speaker 1: I think there is a I totally understand what you're saying.
Speaker 1: I think that when some of your best players, your
Speaker 1: biggest contributors, go down with injury, you have to as
Speaker 1: a staff and as a team not get dispirited about it.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's where it comes from, which is, well,
Speaker 1: might as well not even walk out there and play
Speaker 1: the game now. I mean that you can't have that
Speaker 1: attitude and so, but I don't know that it translates
Speaker 1: to if you have a if you have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to have that player back. But that's what that's what
Speaker 1: everyone has had to believe for the last four weeks,
Speaker 1: is that hey, we're still a great well you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's a number of other guys that can make contributions.
Speaker 1: We just saw three of the three different running backs
Speaker 1: make huge contributions in the Atlanta game, and Sam of
Speaker 1: course include him. We're talking about running the ball um.
Speaker 1: So I think it's that right. But yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt that that everyone wants to see Christian
Speaker 1: just it just changes it changes everything. And obviously you
Speaker 1: want to keep continuing to let a guy like a
Speaker 1: mirab Duello. That can obviously, you know, be a spark,
Speaker 1: can can produce, can be out there. You know, Cuba
Speaker 1: is getting better each week. You want to let those
Speaker 1: guys continue to improve and help the team. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, like Christian just changes the way that
Speaker 1: everything happens on that field when he's on there, whether
Speaker 1: or not he's touching the ball, yeah he's not. He's
Speaker 1: not like the other kids. So and I think one
Speaker 1: thing that will be helpful too. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of talk early on in the season about Christian touched
Speaker 1: it fifty nine times in the first two games, and
Speaker 1: people wonder, oh my god, is that too many? Is
Speaker 1: that why this is happening? You know, it's a hamstring
Speaker 1: like last year was it was an ankle, it was
Speaker 1: a shoulder, it was different stuff. Um dumb luck. Nobody
Speaker 1: ever gives enough credit to dumb Luck for some of
Speaker 1: this stuff. But the one thing that said was when
Speaker 1: Christians back, you want to keep using too, but you
Speaker 1: want to keep using a met or you know, whether
Speaker 1: there's still touches for Roy's freeman in a situate, I
Speaker 1: don't know, but yeah, the point was you want to
Speaker 1: have a more broad based running attack and rather than
Speaker 1: just beating one guy into the ground, Hey, all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, there's multiple guys who can contribute, So let's
Speaker 1: do that absolutely, and then just at a different position group.
Speaker 1: But someone I failed to mention, and I feel bad.
Speaker 1: We were talking about injuries coming back because he tears Marshall,
Speaker 1: you know again in the concussion protocol. So as as
Speaker 1: Darren said, that's out of the coach's hands. But you
Speaker 1: talk about just the potential to have a team that
Speaker 1: looks more healthy than not for the first time since
Speaker 1: really about week three is really exciting because, as you
Speaker 1: guys pointed out, just seeing Shack out there and and
Speaker 1: Stefan Gilmore, two contributors to a defense that was already
Speaker 1: you know, playing well, was was just a huge shift.
Speaker 1: But you know those first couple of weeks, like after
Speaker 1: three weeks, they kind of wake up and realize, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this defense is pretty good. And I mean
Speaker 1: especially after the first two and you're starting to figure out,
Speaker 1: oh god, J. C. Horns actually really good at this
Speaker 1: footballing would have thought, yeah, and you missed that in
Speaker 1: his absence, and then Shack goes out and you miss that,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, when you put Shack and
Speaker 1: Stefind Gilmore back on the field, that that same sense
Speaker 1: was back there. I think as Stefan plays more and
Speaker 1: more and more, it's I mean, this is nothing against
Speaker 1: Dante Jackson, who's really good and it's gonna get paid
Speaker 1: a lot of money, Nothing against a J boy A
Speaker 1: or Keith Taylor, any of those other guys out there
Speaker 1: playing fine. Gilmore is different, y'all. He really really good
Speaker 1: at football. And you walk out there and you see it,
Speaker 1: and we've got a story coming today just about the
Speaker 1: ways to find sees things and he kind of sees
Speaker 1: things before other people see them. And that's the kind
Speaker 1: of player he is, and that's what he should bringing.
Speaker 1: You know. It's you hear him talk all the time
Speaker 1: about alpha's in that room. He's one of them. He
Speaker 1: didn't say a lot. He's very soft spoken, he's very quiet.
Speaker 1: It's all about the business and I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: get better. But then he makes this gigantic play and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh man, that's what they just added to
Speaker 1: this defense that was already okay. Well, and and you know,
Speaker 1: we saw the fans certainly saw that that interception, that
Speaker 1: gigantic play which really felt exceealed game. How about what
Speaker 1: I mean, what he did to Kyle Pitts, that was
Speaker 1: a huge you know, we didn't talk about it when
Speaker 1: we're talking about the Atlanta game so much, but that
Speaker 1: was a huge mismatch concern coming into the game. You know,
Speaker 1: if you looked at all the outside analysts talking about
Speaker 1: like what's gonna what, you know, there's not an answer,
Speaker 1: not just not just on the Panthers, but for a
Speaker 1: lot of teams or Kyle Pits. And it wasn't just
Speaker 1: him the entire time, but I mean that was those
Speaker 1: things are not necessarily as flashy, but you didn't hear
Speaker 1: a lot of Kyle Pits in that game. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: he had had what like a hundred and seventy five
Speaker 1: catches for a thousand yards something like that just in
Speaker 1: the last game. Yeah. Yeah, but he had got when
Speaker 1: he touched downs um and just wasn't a factor and
Speaker 1: they kind of erased him, and they did a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways. I mean, you know, Gilmore had him
Speaker 1: late and they I like the way you know, they
Speaker 1: kind of game planned out those snaps where early on
Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of Stefan first quarter, second quarter.
Speaker 1: They wanted him out there for two minutes, and he
Speaker 1: wanted him out there in the fourth quarder and in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter it was Hi, Kyle, this is Stefan Stefen, Kyle.
Speaker 1: You get to know you still get to know each other.
Speaker 1: He'll be with you a lot for the next The
Speaker 1: best part about him it just like even from like
Speaker 1: the way he talks, he just feels so casual, especially
Speaker 1: with like his kind of loose long sleeves. You know,
Speaker 1: he's just kind of like out here and you know,
Speaker 1: like before the snap, he's just kind of like casually
Speaker 1: just kind of walking up and then just like boom.
Speaker 1: You know, there's this weird switch that happens with him
Speaker 1: within him as soon as like things you're working but
Speaker 1: you don't look you don't look at him and kind
Speaker 1: of where he is and what he's doing and think,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that's the best defensive player in football.
Speaker 1: I will say though, and again I said this on
Speaker 1: our broadcast, it was before we had seen him in
Speaker 1: the game because as you said that he held him
Speaker 1: it was gonna be a limited package. We didn't see
Speaker 1: a lot of them, um in the in the first
Speaker 1: couple of quarters and I told our executive producer, I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: he's got to look in his eye, and like I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I was like, he's got to look in his eye.
Speaker 1: I think he's going to go in soon, because you're right,
Speaker 1: there is that switch that flips where he's like you said,
Speaker 1: very um, you just he's kind of just hanging out,
Speaker 1: having a good time, focused on he who's on the bike,
Speaker 1: stretching out, getting ready, and then you kind of see
Speaker 1: it if you're up close enough to him and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's about looks like he's about to go in and
Speaker 1: play the game here and uh, and it's cool to see.
Speaker 1: It's cool to get to see that that switch flip
Speaker 1: a little bit. Let's talk about the Patriots just really
Speaker 1: quickly before we before we wrap up. What's your confidence
Speaker 1: level Darren in this one? Can I ask you that?
Speaker 1: Am I loud to ask? I think that's fine? And
Speaker 1: the only honest answer is I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was the idiot for a long time. I was
Speaker 1: the guy who kept saying, man, they can't keep winning
Speaker 1: super Bowls. It's going to run out of steam. And
Speaker 1: I was wrong over and over and over. And this
Speaker 1: is the year that this isn't this isn't happening. I
Speaker 1: just decided to stop being an idiot. I'm going to
Speaker 1: trust that Bill Belichick is better at his job than
Speaker 1: anybody in the NFL. And that's no select him out
Speaker 1: rule or anybody. That guy's just got more trophies on
Speaker 1: the shelf than anybody. He's great at his job, and
Speaker 1: he's great at figuring out a new way to do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's one playing man. He's one playing z own.
Speaker 1: He's one throwing the ball a hundred times a day,
Speaker 1: he's one running the ball. He's one. It's just he's
Speaker 1: a great coach and he's out there. You know, they're
Speaker 1: the same form for the Panthers are right now. Um
Speaker 1: they're doing it with a rookie quarterback. Mac Jones is
Speaker 1: not the typical rookie quarterback. He's playing extremely clean football.
Speaker 1: This is not like you know, Zach Wilson um in
Speaker 1: the first one week one Yeah, I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: a different sort of bearing he's got and he's not
Speaker 1: making a lot of mistakes, completing what sevent his passes um.
Speaker 1: So it's kind of typical Patriots football. But they're doing
Speaker 1: it a typically and we'll see. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: going to be um, you know, as they think about
Speaker 1: it again because it's Bill Belichick, whether it's Sam Donald, P. J. Walker,
Speaker 1: I don't know that it matters all that much to Bill. Uh.
Speaker 1: He is great at adjusting, so we'll see. But it's
Speaker 1: also not they don't have the same kind of dominant
Speaker 1: personnel that they've had in the past on either side
Speaker 1: of the ball. So while he's always great at adjusting,
Speaker 1: it's almost like he's patching leaks and things at different times,
Speaker 1: but he's great at slapping tape on them. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's um. They've entered kind of that jury of their
Speaker 1: peers phase of the schedule where you're playing a team
Speaker 1: that's a lot like you, and they did it in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: They got Washington coming up very similar profile, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to do does some things very well, has some
Speaker 1: real issues, and I think that's kind of the way
Speaker 1: it is in the NFL right now. It's as this
Speaker 1: season's gone on. That's part of the reason when people
Speaker 1: wanted to panic at three and four, that one win
Speaker 1: kind of change things because if you look at where
Speaker 1: it fell in the course of the season, not just
Speaker 1: are they for and for and at the season end
Speaker 1: of the day, they'd be a playoff team there. And
Speaker 1: also people would say, why is this season ending on
Speaker 1: Thursday week? Um god, I love that joke and I'll
Speaker 1: never stop telling it self awareness there four and four
Speaker 1: they would be a playoff team right now. And you
Speaker 1: see all these other teams around the league kind of
Speaker 1: falling apart. I mean, Jameis Winston's out for the season
Speaker 1: in New Orleans. You wonder what that's gonna leave him with.
Speaker 1: You see Derrick Henry go down in Tennessee, Daniel Hunter
Speaker 1: from Minnesota's out for the season, and it's just bing,
Speaker 1: bing bing, all this stuff happening around him. And all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you think, for and four with a
Speaker 1: bunch of dudes coming back ain't the worst place to
Speaker 1: be in life. I completely agree. How much does I
Speaker 1: always wonder about these things with the fan narrative or
Speaker 1: media narrative? So the Panthers had Mac Jones at the
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl, obviously spent a lot of time looking at him,
Speaker 1: Um have tape on him, Noah's spent a week with him,
Speaker 1: Noah's his mannerisms, had a chance to really get a
Speaker 1: good look at him and coach him um and then
Speaker 1: also Stefan Gilmore played for the Patriots for a very
Speaker 1: long time fresh off of that experience. How much are
Speaker 1: those really advantages? Are things that you can use to
Speaker 1: your advantage and how much is it Well, every team
Speaker 1: has some info on another team, and it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's not really anything that gives us a huge lego.
Speaker 1: There's an awful lot of cross pollination in the NFL,
Speaker 1: It's true. And and I don't know that the mac
Speaker 1: Jones stuff having him a week in January and mobile
Speaker 1: makes that big of a difference. I think with Gilmore,
Speaker 1: you know, he knows what Bill wants to do. Bill
Speaker 1: knows that he knows yet what he wants to do,
Speaker 1: So there's going to be adjustments. I mean, and it's
Speaker 1: you know, part of the chess match in this one,
Speaker 1: but it's different. And like I said, it's a lot
Speaker 1: more with the Gilmore stuff than than mac Jones. But
Speaker 1: I do think there are things that you know, you
Speaker 1: you probably got to know personality and tendencies more so
Speaker 1: than play calls and tells. Where Gilmore, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the thing he offers is okay, this route means this
Speaker 1: a stance means this route, you know, and all these
Speaker 1: galaxy brain things that Stefan Gilmour understands that other players don't.
Speaker 1: I think that can be a benefit, even though Bill
Speaker 1: knows that he's dealing with that and they'll have to
Speaker 1: try to cover some of that up. There is some
Speaker 1: great analysis of that before Brady played the Patriots is here,
Speaker 1: you know, with that both of them were, you know,
Speaker 1: so many waves deep in. Brady knows this, so Bill
Speaker 1: is gonna do this. When Brady knows that Bill is
Speaker 1: gonna do that, so the Bradsen will do this, and
Speaker 1: it just kind of keeps going down until they really
Speaker 1: go back to the start because then you know, well
Speaker 1: then he won't know that I will just do exactly
Speaker 1: what I was gonna do anyway, you know, like all
Speaker 1: that stuff. I mean, it really will take you know,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that that you hit on that point, Darren,
Speaker 1: it's not so much what the play call or whether
Speaker 1: they're going to switch to a completely different type of
Speaker 1: deference affront in the second series, because that's gonna throw
Speaker 1: off the way that you were a game planning. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that can happen because that's what Bill does but it
Speaker 1: is very much this player who's a second or third
Speaker 1: year guy. Maybe he can be coached by Bill all
Speaker 1: he wants, but he may still pasically have a tell.
Speaker 1: He may still physically not be able to hide something
Speaker 1: that he likes to do that you can pick up
Speaker 1: on film, or that Gilmore knows because he was right
Speaker 1: next to him or whatever, that kind of stuff that
Speaker 1: you know, Bill can tell them all you want, don't
Speaker 1: look like that, change it to this way, but he
Speaker 1: may still do it. And that's kind of kind of
Speaker 1: beyond the Bill Belichick ability. It's a great point. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna leave it right here as the happy if
Speaker 1: our podcast guys. I'm excited for the game on Sunday,
Speaker 1: excited to be back home, um, excited to be in
Speaker 1: our cozy clothes if you want, like football season, and
Speaker 1: we will talk to you next week.