Chris, did you know? That Dan Gesina’s 23 yard catch on Sunday for the Panthers is more yards than what Jonathan Mingo and Deonte Johnson have combined with their other teams. Just saying, the numbers are the numbers, Chris. I didn’t expect that intro, but man. Oh man, Dan Chasina sounds like John Susina, and those guys can’t even see his production. Let’s get the sucker. Get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in-depth look at your team. Exclusive interviews, locker room insight. Let’s huddle up. Let’s just do it, Panthers playbook driven by Carolina Ford dealers. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panthers Playbook. That’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. I’m gonna let Chris Lee settle down after the Dan Zina comparison just a moment ago. But before we get into any thing we’re talking about today, especially Chuba Hubbard, the Panthers defense. Make sure you check out Carolina Ford dealers, our sponsor of Panthers Playbook with a Ford F-150 on your team as Gay Monte, your Carolina Ford dealer today. All right, folks, leave your thoughts in the comment section. On the Panthers defense, and I’ll share your thoughts on Cuba Hubbard. Also while hitting you the subscribe button there. Um, something that Luke Kuechly said with Kay Adams, uh, Up and Adams show, a part of FanDuel, uh, the FanDuel TV network, Kay Adams had Luke Kuechly on, Chris, and you actually showed this to me earlier this week, which, by the way, hope everyone is enjoying their holiday time right now. Hope everyone enjoy it and merry Christmas to you as well, Chris. Thank you. Same to you, Luke, thank you happy Kwanzaa. Thank you. Uh, Luke Kuechly said that if we had 53 Chubas, we’re gonna be a really, really good team. Because he mentioned about how Cuba Hubbard came in, Christian McCaffrey was here, continued to work and grind. Miles Sanders was brought in, still continued to work and grind, and now he’s being rewarded for that work that he’s been doing for the last 4 seasons. Now and is obviously in his 4th year in the NFL gets paid this offseason and has put together two of his best games of his career since getting the contract extension. Shout outs to him. Our NFC. Offensive Player of the week, Chuba Hubbard. Let’s go. You know what? Chuba Hubbard is somebody that we’ve, uh, we’ve, you know, ragged on at times, you know, early in his career, he, he was bad with drops, um, sometimes he wasn’t good with, uh, you know, protection in the pocket, you know, picking up a blitzer here or there. There’s times that, you know, he was horrible on picking up blocks even on the punt team, like he’s just a guy that like really like didn’t have it all together. And kept getting better. You kept seeing the gradual, uh, you know, progression every single year. They brought in guys to essentially take his job. Hey, this guy had a good year for this team who went to this big game and we’re gonna reward him with money to come take your job because we traded away the other guy that we really believed in and you outperformed that guy. And take his job and he is, you know, I guess coming back at some point in the season, but who knows what his role is going to be on the team, and then you get paid and then you all of a sudden have the best year of your career because you’re given opportunities and some could argue you’d probably be the top running back in the NFL. The Panthers ran it as much as they should have, but that’s that’s another conversation for another day, um. Chuba Hubbard is exactly what you want. He’s a 4th round draft pick who ended up, you know, getting a 2nd um contract with the team and who’s now become probably will go down as one of the best uh Panthers ever, just based off of how the fans feel about it. Not talking about stats or anything like that or what he’s accomplished, because ultimately he’s he’s a part of a losing team. Uh, but he could be one of the catalysts to help get this thing turned around and seeing the videos from Bank of America stadium where fans were on their way out, chanting ba ba ba. After the game was over, as they’re going down the ramps. Leaving the stadium, that’s awesome to me, and that lets me know that he’s definitely arrived in the hearts and minds of Carolina Panthers fans, and that’s what they were looking for. That’s what we’ve been looking for. When you trade away the guys that we love and everything else is a revolving door, there’s nobody to really laugh. Now there’s somebody to latch on to. Now it’ll be easier to make this turnaround. And, um, you know, hey, Luke Kuechly is right. I also hope that the other 52 guys look at that as a challenge. Like, oh man, Luke Kuechly, probably one of the best linebackers ever, right? just called us out and said we need to be more like him because if we’re more like him, this team is definitely one of the best teams in NFL. No, for sure. And this is, this is something we’re starting to see to see with this franchise. You talk about the fans chanting Chuba Hubbard’s name as they’re leaving Bank of America. We’ve seen the team over the last few weeks. I know there’s the sputter against Dallas, but overall ascending, overall going up and the culture that Dave Canalas and Dan Morgan have wanted since they got there, since, since we were right here, Chris, since they were right here. We’re getting here and that’s the most important thing. And the fan base is also buying in as well. They were a 3-in team going into this Sunday. They were still there chanting. Was the full stadium? No, but they were chanting, they were behind this team and fans are starting to buy into what the team is doing well. And I think that’s a big time thing because when’s the last time as fans you felt bought in? Like, be real. Like, was it 2018 before Cam Newton had the shoulder injury? Like, when’s the last time you were actually were fully bought in? I’m a fan. I’m gonna be real, um. It was tough seeing uh Cam Newton go and Greg Olsen go and things like that, but in 2020, for me personally, maybe not a lot of other people, I was thinking, OK, maybe this is the beginning of something new. And you see Teddy Bridgewater, who had a decent year. I mean, that offense was really that offense was cooking that year, pretty good like it was cooking that year. And so you’re thinking with a healthy Christian McCaffrey and with the way Robby Anderson, DJ Moore, and Curtis Samuel were playing with Teddy Bridgewater and all of these close games, maybe we come back in 2021 and this thing is coming back up, and that didn’t happen. Um, so I would say honestly, I was bought in. In 2020, it’s just that that’s such a forgettable year because of the pandemic, but um, you know, before that, a lot of Panthers fans checked out. Pretty much in that 19 year, you know, like that was a that was a tough year as a Carolina Panthers fan in 2019 when you fire Ron Rivera in the middle of the year, the offense is virtually non-existent, and you got Kyle Allen who’s doing that and we just got shots of Cam Newton in the, uh, you know, in the in the suites, you know, dealing with his injury, so, uh, but for me it was 2020 for sure. Yeah, it’s been a long time since people bought in and Chuba Hubbard should be a byproduct of what you want as a franchise. I even throw Derrick Brown into that too. I know Derek Brown was obviously a top 10 pick, but drafting good players that you can reward with second contracts that are building blocks for your team going forward is that, that’s the model of what pretty much every team around the NFL wants to do. And Cuba Hubbard obviously is a big part of that. We’ll see what some of these young pieces that were brought in. I, have they been perfect, the rookies this year, Chris? No, they haven’t been, but you can still see progress from these young guys. You can still see, hey, this is someone that could be part of this team going forward. May not be a star, may not be a stud, but still a piece going forward with this franchise. Again, I like the way this team is going. Let’s see how they finish this year, Chris. I’m curious what your thoughts are, how do you want this team to finish out with the Bucks coming up this Sunday and then the final year, uh, on the road against Atlanta, Michael Pennix. I’m curious what your thoughts? What do you want to see from this team these last couple of weeks? Get two wins. All right, I’m with you. You know what I’m saying? Like it triple the win total from, from last year and have the best win total since, uh, you know, Steve Wilkes was the interim head coach. I I think that’s what that’s what needs to happen, um, in my opinion, and you know, forget, forget about what the draft stock is or, you know, where you’re gonna fall within that. As the Carolina Panthers, as you know, this is a losing season, this will go down as a losing season, you need to still try to set a winning culture. You will have a top 10 pick. It might be number 10, but you’re gonna have a top 10 pick. That is fine, because last year, until you, you know, traded up in the first round, you didn’t have a first round pick. So not only will you have a 1st round pick, it’ll be a top 10 pick. I don’t care if it’s 3 or it’s 10. What I do care about are wins. I want Bryce Young. I want this offensive line. I want what’s gonna be left of the defense and the young players to finish the season on a high note. So they go into the offseason with some swagger. So they go into the offseason with a good taste in their mouth, and they can look at it and say, you know what, from the last 3 weeks of the year, we’ve got 3 wins. Now, let’s build on that, and that was half of the win total that we had in the entire year. And so if we played like those 3 weeks, the entire year. Imagine if we take that into 2025 and what we can do. That confidence, as we’ve seen with Bryce Young, can do wonders for a player individually and also collectively, because those players need to believe in each other, they also need to believe in themselves. Winning helps that. Winning is the is the biggest thing. I don’t care about where they’re picking. We know we have a first round draft pick. Go win. So I’ll even stretch that a little bit further. The last 9 games of the year, for example, for example, if they do get these last, these last 2 wins, these or wins these last 2 weeks. If you look at the last 9 games of the season, 5 wins 100% with you, um, what, what a great second half of the year, uh, this, this team has had, and, you know, compared to the way it started off, and we’ve had folks like Dan Orlovsky and other folks saying like, I’ve never seen this type of vibes change within a team in the same season where there’s one player who looks like. A complete bust, all of a sudden looks like one of the best quarterbacks in football right now at this moment because of just, just the differences, being comfortable, being confident, like it’s it’s amazing, it’s the same system, it’s the same players, but you’re starting to see where confidence and and comfortability, how it can make a huge difference going back to what I said I said before, so. Um, I’m one and then, and then whatever rookies and new incoming players come in next year from free agency, right? They’re gonna come into a team that has a core that’s already confident in what they’re doing. They’re not gonna look at it like, uh, you know, this new dude Dave is in here, and we had this guy Frank last year, but he was going in halfway through the year, so we don’t know what’s gonna go on. No, no, no, they’re gonna say, hey, listen to coach, because we did this last year, we went through this, and now. You shorten that learning curve for the people who are coming in next year, and then you can have maybe quicker um uh success earlier in the year because of that confidence. So that’s what I mean, you’ve been a part of teams. Oh yeah, I’ve been a part of teams, you know what I’m saying, like, that’s that is a huge part of it, man, and I think that winning definitely can help carry over. You don’t tank. And expect to just pick back up because of one top 10 pick, or one top 5 pick. Yeah, that person’s gonna be on one side of the ball, playing, playing one position, one position unless you get Travis Hunter. But yeah, that’s a little bit different. But for the most part, that person is gonna be on one side of the ball. You need both sides of the ball to be going in the right direction towards the end. And hopefully the defense because, you know, the defense. Like, bro. Like I have some numbers for you for you, Chris. I, I, this is some numbers for you this season. I might walk out. Yeah, uh, in 14 to 15 games, the Panthers have allowed 100 yards or more rushing. In 14 to 15 games. In 11 of 15 games, Chris, the opponents have rushed for at least 150 yards. OK. In 12 of 15 games, the Panthers have allowed at least 4.5 yards per carry. In 6 games this year, Chris, they’ve allowed 200 or more yards rushing, including each of the last 4. And of 9 of 15 games this year, Chris, they’ve allowed 180 or more yards rushing. In over half the games this season, Chris, They’ve allowed at least 180 yards rushing. I understand sometimes they’re scrambling quarterbacks. I get that. We saw a little bit with Tyler Murray along with guys like, oh, I don’t know, Patrick Mahomes scrambling a little bit. But let’s be real. That’s bad. Call it what it is. For example, Chris. The top two rushing games for the New Orleans Saints this season, 197 yards in week 9 and 180 yards in week 1. Those are the 2nd and 4th most rushing yards that the Saints have had this season. They don’t have a scrambling quarterback unless you count Taysom Hille. But that’s really it. The LA Chargers, Justin Herbert wasn’t really scrambling around. 219 yards. That was the most yards they’ve had rushing this season. We’re against the Panthers. The Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow ain’t scrambling. The most rushing guards in the game this year against the Carolina Panthers. Atlanta. Week 6, 198 yards. The most rushing yards in a game this season. Kirk Cousins ain’t scrambling around. He wasn’t then. Trust me, he’s not doing it now because he’s on the bench. Tampa Bay, week 13, 236 yards. The second rush. I’m just saying, the Dallas Cowboys. Cooper Rush wasn’t scrambling around. They had their most rushing yards in a game this season. He’s in at 211 against the. His name’s Cooper Rush, and he is dropping dimes. Like, it’s not just because of scrambling quarterbacks, folks. I had people tell me that when I was hosting a radio show on Monday earlier this week. It ain’t just because of scrambling QBs. This is just straight flat bat. It’s just straight flat bat. And guess what they’ve had these last few weeks, Chris, that starter healthy. 9 of their 11 starters. I get Derek Brown and Shaq Thompson. I was just about to go there. Those two there, those 2 being out. doesn’t cut that in half. It doesn’t, right? It doesn’t. It just, it, it means that everything is bad. Like individually things are bad, collectively things are bad. Something needs to change, and I’m sorry that like those two being back, if those two were to play this year, if they never did get hurt, maybe those numbers are a little bit better. Yeah, but I, I guarantee you it’s gonna stay mostly the same. It’s not about It’s not about those guys, honestly. I’m sorry, bro. We need another defensive coordinator. I like Iiro Evero personally. He seems like a great guy. Seems like he has a great future ahead of him. But Also, and I’ll say this too, it’s not just him, it’s the personnel as well. It’s all of it. Personnel needs to get a lot better, but also like, we’ve seen somebody like a Jim Harbaugh, whose Chargers team, I can’t remember where they were, but they were one of the top teams in in allowing, you know, rushing guards per game last year and now they stopped the run. You know what I’m saying? They stop the run and they run the ball, and sometimes it’s just, sometimes it’s a simple philosophy change, and bro. That’s depressing when you when you just put it out there. But that goes back to how we started the show. It said, if you have 53 tubas on this team. If here’s the thing, even if Derek Brown’s in there, even if Derek Brown is in there, are you, is your scheme that dependent on one guy? If you, if your scheme is built around one guy being there, your scheme was never gonna work to begin with. Let’s hope they run it to the B gap on the right side, right. It stinks. Now again, I know there are a bunch of injuries during the middle of the season. I understand, but again, these last few weeks, the starters have been there. That’s the thing that’s disturbing to me. It’s like, wait a second. He James Connor on Sunday had 12 carries for 111 yards in the first half. The first half, James Connor did that. Who knows what Sunday could have looked like had he not gotten hurt. The whole point is this, you can’t make excuses for this defense. You just can’t. Like it’s, sorry, that, those numbers are inexcusable. If you have a few bad weeks or a few bad stretches, I get that. This is season. This is season long. I am old enough to remember that when the Panthers, there are times where if the Panthers gave up 100 yards rushing, they considered that a bad day on defense. And that wasn’t that long ago, yeah. 53 Cchbas. 53. 53. We need 53 Cubbas. Maybe you can find a Cuba at Carolina Ford dealers with the Ford F-150 on your team is game on to your Carolina Ford dealer today. Maybe. Maybe. Chris, We’ll talk to you on Sunday. Everyone, hope you’re enjoying your holidays. And what have you done? Another year older and a new one’s just begun. John Lennon, I miss my guy, even though I was never alive when he was alive, but miss him. I’ll be good.

Source: wralsportsfan.com