Who’s a hell of a way to end it, man. Hell of a way to end it. Oh, tears of joy, boy. Tears of joy. That was a fun one. That was a fun, that was a fun one. Hell, hey, hell of a game, man. Hell of a game. Let’s do it, baby. Let’s get the soccer 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? 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. Just go ahead and leave your thoughts in the comment section on this beautiful 4438 overtime win. And Bryce Young bawled out, Chris. Bryce Young balled out today. But before we get into all that, you’re a lot of Ford dealer you’re. Sponsor of Panthers Playbook with a Ford F-150 on your team. It’s game on. So you’re a Carolina Ford dealer today. Chris, we’re not gonna get into the fact that the Carolina Panthers defense gave up the most points in NFL history in this game. Historically bad, baby. Historically bad. I understand people who are like, but the injuries, we should bring back to DC injuries. OK. Also, they gave up over 3000 yards rushing this season, and that happened in regulation. didn’t need overtime for that, obviously, because the defense wasn’t out there. But hey, hey, wins are wins, we will take it. 3 overtime wins of the season out of the 5. Respect! Love that. Love that. And this is something to talk about. This is actually what I was thinking during the game today. This is a glimpse of the future. This is a glimpse of the future. The way that Bryce and Michael Pennix both played, young quarterbacks, both are gonna hopefully continue to grow. This is a glimpse of the future, Chris, really was. It it was, and one of the things that, um, you know, just if we’re looking at what this matchup could be between Bryce Young and Michael Pinnix Junior, uh, two guys who have bright futures in the NFL, Michael Pinnix Junior did an amazing job. He did nothing. I mean, he had a slow start to the game, but I think that he did enough to win um out there. I I honestly believe one, I think Michael Pinnix Junior has the better team. He has the better offense at his disposal and all of that stuff as well. Honestly, part of me started thinking in the in the 3rd quarter. I wonder if the Falcons came into this game thinking, OK, Tampa and New Orleans, we can’t control that, but we got the Panthers, baby, we know we’re going to win because it really felt like that’s how the defense came out and played. It’s like, right. We got the Panthers. Let’s just rack up on stacks, stats. And they absolutely did not see this coming from Bryce Young, uh, 3 passing touchdowns, 2 rushing touchdowns, uh, having such an incredible game, very efficient, took care of the ball, and also the fact, when’s the last time we’ve seen this, and I don’t know, I have to look it up, but the Panthers scored in every single quarter and in overtime. When’s the last time we’ve seen that in a season? Good question. Every single quarter there was a score from the Carolina Panthers and in overtime, and back to back quarters scoring 14 points each. So between the 2nd and 3rd quarters, you have 28 points and there’s been times where we’ve struggled to even score. Wendy in an entire game. This, like, let’s take Michael Pinnix out of there, we’re done talking about him. He did a great job. Let’s talk about Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers as far as offense. This is a glimpse into the future of what it could be. This defense historically bad and Bryce Young said, I. I got you. Oh yeah. Oh, did he, and this is the game I think me and you have been looking for all along. Uh, yeah, 100%, and you know what? I just, the dude balled, man, the dude balled out the, the, the swagger to throw that touchdown pass to Tommy Trimble wide open, but he knew it as soon as he let it go and to turn around and start throwing up the touchdown sign before he even caught the ball. Oh. Bro, bro, like the, the, I’m like, do like the audacity in the I’m like, OK, that’s what we wanted to see that kind of game. I’m not gonna lie, I mean, we had the opinion earlier this season that Bryce was a backup. I, I might be flipping on that, Chris. I don’t know if he’s gonna be like the upper echelon of quarterback. I don’t know if he’s the quote unquote franchise guy, but he’s gonna be the starter going into 2025. There’s no question about that. Do we want to talk about this a little bit right now? We can touch on it. OK. Um, I will say that at the time, based on what we saw, based on what was in front of us, we were not wrong at that time. We were not wrong. I will stand on what I said at a particular time because I’m literally just basing what I, what I say off of what I see. And like you can say that wow, what a turnaround from Bryce Young. Well, you’re kind of saying the same thing as we’re saying, we just said it in the harsher way, right? So I think we can all agree that there’s a huge turnaround here and when you’re saying turnaround, what are you saying? Are you saying that now he’s a legit starter in the NFL? Because what is the opposite of that? So So, I’m not gonna apologize for what I said, but I’m gonna say now it’s not accurate right now as we’re sitting here today on January 5th, 2025. It is not accurate right now. Bryce Young is a future superstar and he is doing his thing. Boy, what a game from him. And I can only imagine that no Robert Hunt today, no Chuba Hubbard, they still need to upgrade at center, and I still think they’re a piece on the outside way, but I was like, oh man, look. The other young guys that he was incorporating, you notice how on that final drive in over in overtime? Who was getting the ball out? Jalen Coker. I’m like that’s what I wanna see like rely like because that dude has reliable hands. He really does. I’m not gonna lie, see Liget was mostly quiet today, but that one deep corner route right there in the, uh, if it was a better pass from Bryce Young, that’s a touchdown, but he had a high point the football. I was like, oh, but that’s, that’s a play we expect you to make. Even on that little bubble screen where you just Did a little turnaround. I think it was Jesse Bates made a miss boom, right at the sideline. That’s the, hey, we get the ball in your hands, go make a play type thing. That’s what we wanted to see. Love seeing Jata and Sanders. Hey, we’re splitting you out wide, way, way wide, and we’re, hey, you send you down the right sideline. Be a big man and go catch that ball. And that’s exactly what happened. I was like, that’s what we wanted to see. Let’s, let’s, let’s stay right here just for a quick second. I stand right here, stay right here, right here, um. I think today we saw what could happen if you use both of your tight ends, Tommy Trimble, if hopefully he’s able to come back. Tommy Trimble and Deta and Sanders in the right way. Those two as a combination looked amazing today, and it really, I think, helped open up things for the receivers and also helped open up things for the running backs as well. Miles Sanders had a decent day. Oh, he had a good day. He had an overall good day. I have nothing against Mile, I mean, game-winning touchdown for Miles Sanders, right? So kudos to him, shout outs to him. Also, you ran the ball pretty well. I think the last run kind of took his average down a little bit because it’s like 3.9 per carry, but he only had to get one yard, um, 66 yards, but then also, what I’ve been saying all along, that touchdown pass to Miles Sanders was simply just uh play action fake to him, and he just runs free. And you have a linebacker on them, and when you have Miles Sanders as as a matchup, uh, Problem to the defense. Uh, and you use him coming out the backfield, you can also use him as a slot receiver. Maybe the third option to to run the ball. Like, it works to me. It works. He’s a, he’s Miles Sanders is not a bad piece. He’s overpaid for what he is, for what they wanted him to be, right? But if you use him. As a receiver slash running back combination, and he’s just that chess piece that you’re kind of moving all around, I think you open up the offense for everybody else. That’s just me though. Yeah, unfortunately, because you said that overpaid thing that, I mean, I think Miles Sanders saved his best for last and that by his best for last game in a you have a job next year, you see what I did, you know what? I mean, a little sidebar on this real fast, but for him it was important to show that because he’s probably gonna be a free agent this season. But I thought it was crucial, but you and I talked about it on our episode coming into this game, an opportunity for Dave Canalas to talk with these young guys and figure out, hey, what can you work on? What are some different things that we can do? The fact that we have saw Coker, I’m sorry, Coker, Sanders, Liget get the ball so much, especially in crucial situations, I think was big, and you know what, Dave Canalis wasn’t afraid to get in his bag a little bit. Hey Jalen Coer, you’re throwing a pass. Hey Adam Taling, you’re throwing a pass. I didn’t mind that at all. I really didn’t mind it at all. I think it’s a positive note. The last half of this season, the way this team finished, the last half of the season, I think is, is vital. You and I said beginning of the year, a 5-6 win team. They got to 5. They got to that 5 point. I know a lot of people would probably be a little bit frustrated because of, hey, the draft position fell and all that kind of stuff might be still sitting there in the top 10. But the way you see things shake out at the end of the day. But again, I love the fight that this team continued to show. They had nothing to play for, but they still went out there and took it. That’s what I wanted to see from this team. I want to bring up Dave Canales as well. Um, this was probably my favorite. Game from Dave Canales as a play caller. And um I I I felt like he, I think that with Cuba, something about having Cuba at his disposal makes him overthink just a little bit. Like, when should I run him? Should I not run him or whatever. He didn’t have Cuba, and you have now also you’re, you’re kind of taking what the what the defense is giving you as well, and the defense, you know. Helps you out by, you know, having some wide open receivers. But um, you had Mike Boone, to me, he’s showing some tape as well that like, like you give Mike Boone a chance, he’s 4.5 yards per carry. He only had 4 carries, but he’s averaging 4.5 yards per carry in this game, right? And when he’s had his opportunities, Mike Boone is is rushing, giving you over 4 yards per carry every single time. Uh, so he’s a good piece and I think, you know, somebody needs to, you know, give him a shot next year, maybe the Panthers, um, you know, next year’s journeyman veteran guy, but yeah. If, if you don’t, you know, have, um, if you don’t have Miles Sanders, and of course, you know, we’re not expecting anything from Jonathan Brooks next year. Um, but it was a good, I think, steady diet of the run they ran when they did. There was a few times where I felt like In this situation, you probably should have ran instead of doing that. Uh, I did feel like, um, at times, especially that 3 and out, uh, in the 4th quarter in the last two minutes, um, that at times they, they try to go for the big, you know, 15 yard, 20 yard play, a little too much. Let’s kind of dink and dunk a little bit. Let’s get, get it out quicker, you know, and you had, you had a couple of timeouts. So I think there’s a few things that were there that were just like, mm, but nothing so glaring that, you know, I came away. Like wondering like, yo, what is wrong with this guy? I thought it was a very good game plan, uh very well called game. A few things here and there again, I think maybe to look at, but overall, you know, when when we rag on somebody, I’m also good enough to come back and say, hey, you you look good on this one. You look good on this this time around. This is this is amazing. 38 points in regulation, you ain’t gonna argue against that. 38 points in regulation. Generally should win you a game. Atlanta’s probably thinking the exact same thing, but you know what, which kind of gives us to like the, the, the negative side of this one. again, it’s the defense is what it is. This is another 200 yard rushing game, 227 yards rushing allowed by this Panthers defense. And hey, you know what, you can’t say it well, it’s because of overtime. And later they get the ball in overtime. So you can’t say that. Remember correctly, I know the Falcons just had 200+ yards. The Bucks had 200 yards last week. The Cardinals had 200 yards a couple of weeks ago. Cowboys had 200+ yards. Eagles had 200+ yards. The Bucks before that had 200+ yards. And you go back even before that, the Kansas City Chiefs in their game had 165. So 6 straight games of 200+ yards allowed, rushing. By this defense to close up the year, 6 straight, 6 straight, Chris. Something’s gonna have to change at some point. I don’t know if it’s gonna be Ero. But at some point, you have to sit there and look and say, all right, you gave up 3000 yards rushing this season. Personnel, you know that’s gonna turn over. But again, Dave Canalas really has to sit there and look and say, Is it the scheme? Some something’s gotta be different. There’s no way the end of the season that Someone doesn’t take the fall, if that makes sense. Someone’s gonna take the fall. Shout outs to my guy Josh Graham, uh, who’s a host of uh the Drive with Josh Graham in the afternoons in the Triad area on WSJS. One of, uh, one of my good friends, um, me and him were having a debate in the back and forth on Twitter during the game about Evero. Um, his take is Look at all the injuries, look at the bad hands he was dealt. He couldn’t help that, you know, Lou and and Burns aren’t back. He can’t help that. Shaq went down with an injury uh early in the season. You can’t help that after one game, he hadn’t, he didn’t have Derek Brown cause he went down with an injury, and I get that. And here’s my response to this. He’s not the first defensive coordinator or the first coach in NFL history to have his side of the ball being ravaged by um injuries. Oh look at Detroit. I was literally about to say, look up north to Detroit, right? Like, they’ve lost so many players on their defense, and yet they’re still able to show up and get wins. They’re still able to show up and get stops when they need to get stops. And no, this isn’t, I’m not gonna compare Detroit’s personnel to Carolina’s personnel, because Detroit’s personnel overall is so much better, um, overall and on defense, um, but, um, also, let’s not forget the fact that even with all the the folks that you lost last year, and, and I contend. He inherited a really good defense. Don’t, don’t look at last year and say, well, look at last year, he had a top 5 defense. He inherited everybody, everybody came back. It was already there. You just couldn’t mess that up. Now he did lose a lot of folks, uh, and then of course injuries and stuff reared their ugly head, but you also had so many guys. That were signed because they wanted to play for you and come back in your system. And and and what we were sold was they’re going to be comfortable in their plug and play, and maybe the Panthers could still have something comparable to what they had last year. I don’t think anybody expected a top 5, maybe at least a top 20, give me top 20, but like this it just it wasn’t acceptable this year. It just was not acceptable this year. And I like him as a coach. I think he has a bright future as a coach, but for right now, for this position, for this franchise in this moment, I don’t think he’s the best chance for the Panthers’ defense to get better in the future, and that’s all I’m saying. I’m not gonna say anything negative about him, um. Gerald Evero, I think again, could probably be a great head coach one day, but for this franchise at this moment, uh, for going for the future, it’s, it’s not it. We gotta move forward. Yeah, there are plenty of other teams out there that have suffered a ton of injuries on defense and have had terrible personnel on defense and never gave up 3000 yards rushing in a season, and also didn’t give up the most points ever in a single season in NFL history. Simple as that, again. I know the injuries aren’t what they are. But you still gotta go out there and find a way to put guys in spots to at least, I don’t know, alleviate some of the pressure. You still gave up 38 today. You still gave up 38 today. Bijon Robinson in and of himself had 170 yards rushing, but boy, like what more can you do? Heck, Tyler Alge at 52, boy, you know. You know, and it’s, again, I’ve even had people try to say, well, what about scrambling quarterbacks and stuff. I was like, no, the, the Bengals had their best rushing performance of the season. Joe Burrow had one scramble for 10 yards in that game. You, you know, it’s just, it’s things like that. So it’s not just, you know, running the corner, he didn’t play Lamar. You didn’t play Josh Allen. OK, he played Jalen Hurts, but that’s about it. Anyway, overall, I’m so happy that this game was won by Carolina. It was a fun game. I, I was just, I was sitting back just having fun. I was sitting back just having fun, Chris, and you know what, fun. Fun way to end the season, man. Fun way to end the season. But going back to what we’ve said, we’ve been saying this for the last couple of weeks. When you end the season with a win, it’s it’s it feels good and it’s a good carryover, especially for the guys who are gonna be back. And now, um, what How the season started, like the disaster of a start it was, right? Let’s remember that. Let’s remember how disastrous those first two games were. Let’s not forget. To how it ended, and to get that win, to pull it out, and Bryce Young being responsible for 4 of the 5 wins, uh, since he came back in the starting lineup. And 3 of them are in overtime. Shows his growth, shows the growth of the offense in general. You, to me, you have uh two legit young receivers that you can build on. I like David Mora. I’m not sure of his contract situation. If there’s room for him, OK, come back, as maybe like 1/5 option for next year, right? He’s a 5. I hope Adam Thielen is able to come back. I think he’s the backbone of this core until we get a legit guy that we can really lean on as number one, try to bring in somebody who can be number one. He’s one year left on his deal. We need, we need a deep threat as well, um, and, you know, hey, also, I’m gonna say it. Gotta figure out a way to make it work with TO. Taylor Moton. Oh yeah, mm, we’ll dive into the, into some of the offseason stuff. Yeah, we’ll talk about another, but we gotta, we gotta figure out a way to make it work with him. Yeah, it’s amazing when he was back in the lineup like, oh, pass protection, all that stuff was so much better. Run game was so much better. Go bigger. And so, and, and also, uh, we hadn’t talked about him a lot this year. We ragged on him a little bit at the beginning of the season. Shout out to Ike Aquaanu. He came back, overall pretty good year. He came back and uh like we have to we have to give it to him. Ian Thomas, good to know you, you know, good luck. Never knew him. Good luck. Um, but if the Panthers, again, we’ll talk about this later, if the Panthers can retain Tommy Trimble, you have a great Two guys right there between Tommy Trimble and uh and and JT Sanders for the future at tight end. I’m, I’m looking forward to it. Now let’s let’s really focus on defense and if we can have the same type of growth on the defensive side as we had on the offensive side, you’re looking at a team that could possibly get 78 wins next year. Could possibly, depending on what the uh the the division looks like, maybe be in the running at the end of the year to potentially win the division. So we’ll have to see. That we will, but we need you to leave your thoughts in the comment section on this game. But also Carolina Ford dealer, you’re sponsor of Panthers Playbook with the Ford F150 on your team. It’s game on so your Carolina Ford dealer today. We will have another episode for you guys later on this week. So again, make sure you are subscribed and stay locked in, and Chris, and, and potential, um. Uh, uh, I guess, uh, emergency episodes too, just in case. Just hit that notification bell, that way you don’t miss anything in case, you know, things might happen. We’ll see you guys later on this week. Pounding. have a day.

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