Hey Chris, did you know? That the Panthers give up 37 points, at least on Sunday against the Falcons, they have given up the most points in a single season in NFL history. Wow, it’s only because of the injuries. There’s a lot to break down with that. Let’s get the sucker started. 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, OK. 4 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. Uh, leave your thoughts in the comment section going into this final game against Atlanta. And just, do you have any expectations for this game? Are you hoping that they lose to keep that top 10 pick? Right now they’re sitting at 6, Chris, but before we dive into that, the Carolina Panthers. are on the road this Sunday, final game of the season. But by the way, Panthers playbook, make sure you subscribe, brought to you by Carolina Ford dealers with a Ford F-150 on your team is game Moi your Carolina Ford dealer today. Again, Falcons host the Panthers this Sunday, Chris, and I’m not gonna lie, I have zero expectations going into this final game. There’s still a lot of guys that are hurt. We’ve, we’ve discussed that a bunch, but I, this is the first time I’m actually going into a game we’re like, you know what? Whatever happens happens. I don’t expect much of anything. I really don’t. Um, I, I will, I will push back a little against that and say that, um, not that I expect them to win or to really, really try to win, but I do want them to still try to play as competitive of a game as they possibly can. Sure, because we talked about before, a couple weeks ago or last week, whenever it was, um, about the habits and how things and momentum can carry over into the next season. Um, don’t just roll out, go roll out there and, and get blown out by, you know, 40 points from a team who has everything to play for and you have nothing to play for. Like, go out there and actually give them a game. And if you end up getting a win, cool, that’s awesome. You end the year on a high note, you take that momentum and you carry it over to, to, um, into the next year. If you don’t win the game, but it’s a competitive game, it’s within a score. That’s also good to me as well. Don’t go out there and get blown out like this past week. Don’t go out there and get blown out like against Dallas, you know what I’m saying? Like, let’s, let’s try to leave those things in 2024. This is 2025 now. Let’s start the new year. Let’s start off the new year right, even though we’re ending one season, let’s start off this actual 2025 right so that when you start playing other games that count later on in 2025 in about nine months. You know, then, then there you can have that momentum to carry over. I don’t want you to just go out there and just roll out. So I do have some expectation, but it’s not necessarily an expectation of winning. Yeah, I don’t want this season to end like last season did where we saw that awesome game Christmas Eve against the Green Bay Packers last season, right? And what they follow up with on the road in Jacksonville, get blown out and then at home against Tampa, you put up with goose egg once again. You got the win against Arizona a couple weeks ago and then now you go into the state of Florida against Tampa Bay, get blown out, and then you’re on the road against the divisional opponent. Let’s not put up that goose egg, all right, or at least let’s not get blown out. That’s something I, again, I don’t want this season to end like last season. I get, if you want to say, hey, look, you want to keep that top 10 pick, I totally get that. We’re gonna have another podcast talking about that once we actually know where the Panthers are gonna be picking. Looks like 6 right now, way things are sitting. But going into this game, again, like you said, be competitive and maybe they actually will get a boost in the wrong game. We also know that Chuba Hubbard is not gonna be out again this week, but hey, Miles Sanders, your boy Chris, he’s back. Your boy Miles Sanders is practicing this week, coming off that ankle injury. So, I mean, at least there’s gonna be some sort of competency at the running back position because we saw Raheem Blackshear, couldn’t follow his blockers and read the whole right, and then Mike Boom was. was there this past Sunday in terms of the run game. I mean Mike Boone, what he had 11 yards and 2 carries, he did, he did his thing, he just didn’t get the carry, so, um, you know, I, yes, Miles Sanders will be back, um, the guy who’s supposed to be the starting running back is back, um, and I, it’s really About Dave Canals, you know, how patient are you going to be with the run? How, how much a part of that, uh, the game plan, uh, is that for you? You know, we’ve we’ve said it before that, you know, we’re gonna be a running team, we’re gonna be, you know, running the ball, and um you just don’t follow through on that a lot of times. And so I, I wanna see that follow through with. I wanna see Miles Sanders get 18 to 22 carries. I want to see Mike’s gonna be his last game. Let’s be real. It’s gonna be his last game in a Panther uniform. But also, it’s not even just about, about that and him. It’s also about Bryce Young, right? Like, you know, what’s one of the best ways to help protect a quarterback outside of having a great offensive line? It’s a run game, you know, and not only, and that helps him out with, uh, you know, play action and You know, other little wrinkles in the offense that you can kind of put out there, but like ultimately, I don’t want Bryce or any quarterback for that matter, but especially Bryce. I don’t want him dropping back 40 times. In passing, I I really don’t want to see that, you know, and so, um, I’m hoping that there’s at least some sort of a semblance of a run game, but that, that has a lot to do with uh Dave Canali and and what he decides to call in in the heat of the moment. You know, I’m OK with with with Canali and and being intentional, at least in terms of some of the plays that he calls, and some of the plays that he designs, in terms of, hey, Xavier Liguet, let’s work on some Some of your deep roots again. Let’s work on some of these things that you might be struggling with like be intentional with what you’re calling with some of these things. Be intentional with that. Hey, Bryce, what’s a, what’s a route concept that you struggle with? Is it a smash route where we go high or low? Is it this deep end route? What, what’s something that you feel like you’re, you wanna really improve upon? Not like, hey. I want to get better at everything. Not that kind of thing. I’d be like, no, I actually really specifically want to work on like the deep corner route. All right, let’s intentionally call some of those things. You can do that in this final game. Use it as an opportunity, even if you don’t win to still get better, especially with the guys that you know you’re gonna be bringing back, Chris. Yeah, I’m I’m 100% with you on that. It’s, it’s almost like a preseason game, but it’s not, you know, where you’re looking, yeah, you’re looking to use those reps for a critical growth, uh, within that. And so, you know, hey, if you need to sit somebody like an Adam Thielen because you want to get him, you know, make sure he’s back for next year in the second half, uh, so that Jalen Coker and X Xavier Legat can, you know, get more reps or whatever, I’m cool with that too. You know what I’m saying, like, whatever you need to do, uh, to, to make sure it, it happens, um, but like, you know, just don’t roll over, man. Like that’s the thing like it’s, it might be like a preseason game, you’re just trying to get some reps out there, but also let’s be competitive at the same time. Just don’t roll over. I want them to incorporate JT Sanders more since he’s been since he left the game, since he left the game against Kansas City with a neck injury and he was playing really good and made some really good plays in the first half of that. game until he had to leave the game. Since then, I think he has one catch, if I remember correctly, because he missed the next week. They had the by and all that stuff, uh, or they’re coming off the by, uh, going into that Kansas City game. But I think he literally only has one catch since he’s come back. That’s it. I’m like this guy we saw at a multiple games this season make some highlight plays. Highlight plays make some big time contested catches where Bryce, it’s like, hey. JT’s down there, throw it up, you know, he said the he said the bleeping and he threw it up down there and JT Sanders made some plays. I wanna see that guy get some more targets coming his way. I understand the whole thing of you gotta go with the defense dictates you. Hey, you know what? Send him on a seam round and say, hey, Bryce, throw it up for him. JT go make a play. Just like, call it, just to do it. Like that’s something I wanna see again. These young guys get more of those in this final game. Same with Jalen Coker. Work on stuff for him. Lee get. These are young guys that are part of your core going forward. Make sure that you utilize those guys a ton this weekend. Dan honestly, like, hey, why not, right? That that guy’s been stepping up. What is a track star. Hey Dan, go deep, right off. Just do it. Call it once just to see what happens. To go back to what you’re saying with uh JT Sanders, um, a lot of that I wouldn’t, is not his fault. Sometimes it’s it’s also like where the quarterback is looking and, you know, I, I want to, I don’t know, you know, whether it’s, you know, on this particular route concept, uh, you know, this isn’t the first or second read and after, you know, of course, it was the 2.4, 3 seconds or whatever that uh Canals wants him to get the ball out in. So within that amount of time, maybe he can’t get over to him. I, I watch um uh uh quarterback school whenever I can with uh JT O’Sullivan. The last time I watched was the performance after the Cardinals win. And there’s a time or two, especially one time in the end zone, that JT Sanders, if the ball is thrown his way. More than likely he was gonna catch that thing and and one particular time I’m referring to would have been a touchdown. It was a he was lined up in the slot and I think he threw it to the threw it over to, uh, and, and so that was, so sometimes it also comes down to, you know, who does Bryce trust and also like what’s to read on this particular play. So, you know, I don’t know if there’s ways that um canals can work in, you know, Sanders being one of the top reads. Uh, in a particular play, so Bryce can look to his side a little bit more or, you know, just whatever it needs to happen with that. But that’s, that’s also a big part of it. It’s not that my man’s not running the routes, it’s not that he’s not getting open. Sometimes he just, he just needs the opportunity. And so, uh, whatever happened in that Kansas City game, he was just there all the time and right in front of Bryce’s face. Um, and he seems to be really good on the scramble drill, so, you know, I don’t know, maybe they’ll get a chance to see that again as well, but I just wanted to bring that up really quick when it comes down to him. Um, you know, I’m not, I’m not throwing them out, you know, a lot of fans are throwing out, uh, Xavier Lega. I’m not throwing him out. Like, you know, Lega didn’t have a bad game this past week. He had some balls tipped in front of him. And, uh, you know, there’s one pass I guess with the angle it looked like he missed it but it was thrown too far out in front of him, uh, so he couldn’t reach for it in the first half. So yeah, yeah, I think he broke more upfield. Bryce kind of put it more to the outside. It was on a scramble where Bryce had a roll out. Again, that’s just kind of like familiarity type thing. Does it concern you, Chris? I, I wanna ask you this. We know that Adam Thielen is old reliable for Bryce. Emphasis on all And reliable, but at some point Sting ain’t gonna be there. He has one more year left on his contract and there’s no guarantee obviously that he’s gonna be back next year. I think he should be. I, I again, because of his reliability, but, but you could tell at different times throughout last season and this season when Bryce is on the field and he needs something, he’s looking at 19. Does it concern you that he hasn’t gotten that with someone else yet? Do you, uh, is that concern you get, but again, a lot of his other receivers are rookie Jalen Coker, rookie Xavier League, rookie JT Sanders. So again, it’s gonna take a little bit of time, but first year David Moore, yeah, first year with David, exactly so. Is, does that concern you going forward that he’s just like locked in on one guy if I think circumstantially, I don’t know if circumstantially. With the circumstances, um, I’m not concerned. If Bryce played the entire year, right, without being sat down at one point, if, uh, you know, Coker, you know, Essentially, like he made the initial 53, but then he was on the practice squad for a little bit. Then he was brought up and so and then by the time after Theing got hurt when Bryce was benched, and so Bryce was benched, and so by the time Bryce gets back, he’s starting to try to get to know this guy and be like it may have been a situation when Bryce was the one. Coker probably wasn’t catching a lot from him because he was a little bit further down. So these two are still trying to get their, you know, their groove together. And don’t forget Coker got hurt by the quad injury and missed the stretch too, and then he also missed, it was like 3 games that he missed. So I, I think all of that has something to do with it. Um, next year, you know, I don’t know if they, I think, I think Bryce went somewhere to throw up folks. I think it was a bigger deal, his first year where they went to SMU. He threw with, uh, you know, um, um, what’s my man’s name? that we, we sent off, sent packing, number 88. Tera Marshall, uh, Tera Marshall and a couple others, uh, they went out to SMU. I wanna see that with Bryce, like, you know, you’re not gonna get the April practices this year because you don’t have a new head coach, or at least we don’t expect there to be a new head coach. Never know what Dave Temper is gonna do, but, uh, you don’t expect there to be a head coach, uh, a new head coach. So you’re gonna meet back up uh in in March for, um, you know, OTAs in mini camp. I’m sorry, in May, excuse me, um. Take some some of that extra time after that, like when you have your breaks in between, to just get on the same page, just throw with the guys, call the concepts. We know for sure that 2 of those guys will be back next year and let’s include 3 with Jata and Sanders, right? Uh, and then shoot, just throw in um Chuba Hubbard in there. Hopefully we have 5 with Adam Thielen coming back, and there you have like a core of 5 guys. Like we need to get together to make sure we’re on the same page with these things. Let’s, what do you prefer? How do you prefer me to get this to you? If I call? If this is called, how do you prefer to, uh, to run this, or if the, if the defense is showing you this, how would you run the route in that particular situation? You know, um, you know, those things that you may not necessarily get a chance to really work on during the season, because you’re game planning for the next team. Maybe, you know, you get a little bit of chance, but you’re, you’re figuring out some other things. Now you can really get the chance to know these guys and get on the same page. Injuries and other things kind of, I think, took that away, so I’m not concerned yet. If we get into next year though, and Adam Thielen is still the number one, that makes me concerned not only for Bryce, not only for the guys backing him up, but for the front office, because why, why didn’t you, 2 years now, 2 years, why didn’t you get somebody that could actually become the number one over Adam Thielen? We said he’s probably best as a 2 or 3. Yeah, I’d say a 3. So a 3, let’s be real. You thought DJ Chark was gonna be the guy, he wasn’t, you know what I’m saying? I guess you essentially drastically get to be that maybe he can step up to be that guy, um, but he’s just not ready this year and he’s not bad. I’m not in that camp that hates lit. I don’t understand that part. I really don’t understand those people, um, but you know, we’re gonna have to look at the front front office is gonna have to do something and add in another little wrinkle into that wide receiver group as well. Yeah, they need someone that they can stretch the field with in terms of a wide receiver for sure. Um, they need like a game with like consistent good hands um this is kind of what they need in terms of like the speed and the and the vertical. Threat, um, they, they need Ted Ginn with, with Adam Thielen’s route running and hands. That’s what they, they blended the two together, you have a pretty good, you know, number one receiver, I would say. Um, it’s a little callback for the Panther fans out there, but they do, I think that’s something that over time, and I think also going into this offseason, I think it’s gonna be beneficial for all those guys. Knowing exactly what this offense is going to be next season, again, assuming David Tepper doesn’t do anything crazy and, you know, fires, um, fires canals. But Bryce and the offense, these guys are gonna know the core concepts of what they’re gonna do. Yes, they can tweak and refine, but in the offseason, it’s gonna be beneficial for Bryce knowing these things because remember last year there was the disaster. That’s all you gotta say it was. So again, this is first year of Bryce in this offense understanding it. Same with those other guys. Hopefully they can they can grow in it together. This week, does the defense. Give up the most points ever. God, I hope not. I hope not because that, that’s, that’s the thing. It’s like, you know what? People are gonna sit there and say no one cares about your injuries. I know they’ve dealt with them a bunch this season. No one’s gonna care. No one’s gonna care. They’re gonna look at the scoreboard because that’s ultimately at the end of the day, what matters is what the scoreboard says. Listen, that’s all that matters. At the end of the day, what does the scoreboard say? There’s a lot of excuses being made. Um, people will say, hey. There’s injuries, we should cut somebody at some slack because of that. And, OK, I get it, to an extent, I get it. However, in the 30 years that the Carolina Panthers have been around, this is the year where they’re pushing for uh another one of those years they’re pushing for a record, right? And um not not in the good, right? You said we’re 37 points away from giving up the most all time in the season. Um, that’s, that’s not a good thing, and I did you know what year that was? I would venture to believe that that’s probably 2010, maybe. Uh, in NFL history, I can’t remember exactly, but yeah. Oh, I thought it was NFL history. I thought it was Panthers history. OK. Oh, so they’ve already given up the most for Panthers history, right? Oh, well, shoot, we’re past that then. Um, so NFL history, so take away the Panthers 30 years, and all the years of the NFL with all the teams involved, you don’t think there’s been another defensive coordinator who’s had a lot of injuries on the defensive side, who’s lost some of their top guys and they still were able to Get teams off the field on 3rd down because of you know, what they have. Like, come on man, like at some point you gotta stop making excuses for somebody. At some point you just gotta stop making because all the excuses are there, you can have the excuse from last year, you can have excuses from this year and all that. If if it’s not happening. That’s all I gotta say. Yeah, so I love when people are employed. I don’t like to call for people’s jobs, but the most points allowed in a game, I’m sorry, in a single season history is 533 by the Colts back in 1981. Now again, those are 16 game schedule, um, but in terms of points per game, 6 worst in the NFL history at 31 points per game. The only ones that are worse than them, the 1966 Giants, the 1963 Broncos, those 1981 Colts that I mentioned, the Lions of 2020 and the Lions of 2008. At first I was gonna say so um no uh modern teams, but, uh, OK, the Lions, yeah, Lions of 2020. Hey Lions got turned around, look where they are now turned around, baby. Let’s go. Lions got it turned around. It’s it’s amazing how the lines of the model what the Panthers need to be. Who would have thought, again, down to the blue and the big cat and everything. Empty stadium, all that. We can bring it back. Instead of having, uh, you know, Big Sean doing all the performances, we need to have the baby, doing a Thursday night, Thanksgiving performance right there, get everybody excited right there on the field. Carolina Ford dealer, your sponsor here of Panthers Playbook with the Ford F-150 on your team. It’s game on see your Carolina Ford dealer today, Chris. Happy New Year once again to you, sir. 2025, here we are. Let’s go. Let’s let’s kick this season off right. 2025. We’ll see you guys on Sunday.

Source: wralsportsfan.com