Mm. Mhm. Oh, that Kool aid tastes good. Oh, I’m drinking it. I’m drinking the Kool ad CRE Oh, man, I feel the diabetes working in my system right now. Oh, empty calories galore. Give them to me. It tastes good. It does. Let’s get this second started. Dial in Panthers fans here comes in in depth. Look at your team exclusive interviews, locker room in sight. Let’s huddle up. Let’s just do it. Ok. For 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. Finally got that win. I don’t care. A preseason game. Chris, we got that dub. We’ve only been able to talk about two of these things the whole time we’ve done Panthers playbook. Exactly. Now, let’s make it three. Now, before we get into it, Carolina Panthers get the win over the Buffalo Bills. Panthers playbook, sponsored by our good friends over at Carolina Ford Dealers with Ford F 150 on your team. It’s game on. So you Carolina Ford Dealer today. Let’s go right to that open Chris. This is why we’re, this is why I’m drinking the Kool Aid an opening drive, 12 yards touchdown. Bryce Young Jordan Matthews. Hm, 12 plays 85 yards. 00, tastes so good. You know, I, I wrote down every single play in that first, uh, drive. So you start off completion to Matthews, completion to Sanders, then three tuba runs in a row. Then Bryce scrambles out, uh, he was hit a little bit low. Wasn’t a fan of that little, I was a little scared, looked like he possibly could have gotten hit in the neck. Ok. But then we got it back together completion. Domingo, uh, Deonte Johnson wore 1/4 down conversion. Adam Thiele completion had to throw it away. Then an incompletion, uh, to a target to Johnson should have been passing if it should have been, but that’s fine. That’s fine. Uh And then, uh, we had, uh, Jordan Matthews touchdown and, uh, six of 8, 70 yards, one touchdown for Bryce Young. Here’s the thing, man. This is the main thing I wanted to look at because all last year in the preseason and in the regular season, everything looked so hard for the Carolina Panthers to do on moments. Nothing seemed like it flowed. There was no like you watch other teams play their game and it just seems like it’s their, their operation is just easy, even if they’re not good teams, their operation is easy. Their operation was so hard last year nothing could get out of the starting blocks and today it just felt easy. Not only just with Bryce, Young Jack Plummer stepped up and showed me a little something today as well. I’m not gonna lie. Jack Plummer from first preseason game to third preseason game has shown tremendous growth good on him. He’s gonna be on the practice squad, but that’s fine. And what did we say last week? What we didn’t see all last year was improvement from game to game. We saw improvement from the first preseason game to the second preseason game to the third preseason game. Listen, man, there could be doubters out there and again, I’m not gonna say that the Panthers are gonna win the Super Bowl even, you know, make it to the playoffs, but the fact that we are seeing incremental improvements from game to game even though it’s just preseason, ah, right here. Mhm. Gotta drink the Kool aid, man. Gotta drink the Kool Aid. I’m all in, I’m all in. I’m all in right here. I’m all in right here, Chris because guess what? I understand people are gonna go in the comments which by the way, leave your thoughts in the comment section down below. Well, it’s just the Bills, 2nd and 3rd team. I don’t care. I wanted to see how the process look. That’s the thing that mattered most to me because last year against other teams, 2nd, 3rd and 4th string defense, the Carolina Panthers first string offense didn’t look good. Exactly. Exactly. This is a win. Exactly. I wanted to see how that process looked and now I know Dave Canalis in the postgame said because Austin Corbett didn’t make the trip. Just had a kid. Congratulations to Austin Corbett. Congrats to Austin Jamie Lewis left guard did not make the trip for a personal matter. So you still had a backup guard and a backup center. So that’s the reason why Bryce Stone was just in the shotgun and the pistol the whole time. But that was fun. We still saw play action, intentional plays where Bryce Young can move his feet and get out of the pocket. Some RP OS, we saw him just go through progressions. I did like the one time they’re like, hey, you know what, let’s try and take a deep shot down the field. Bryce didn’t had, it, didn’t have anything picked up the one yard like you had mentioned, but that, that was it Cuba Hubbard had some good runs in there. I liked overall what I saw 12 plays, one series done. That’s all I needed to see. Feels good. I know even, uh, Adam Thin said it during the, the game broadcast. It was nice to kind of get the routine of what we do pregame in the morning. What I eat for breakfast, the time you get to the stadium go through your whole routine since it was a one o’clock game. Sometimes it’s good to go ahead and get that out of the system and the Panthers did it. I overall liked what I saw still major questions but overall he offensively from the first unit, you gotta like what you saw simple as that. I loved it and also no penalties, no penalties. They didn’t shoot themselves in the foot and you saw a situation where they didn’t convert on third down, went forward on fourth and they were able to, to move the chains on that. It felt like it was easy, felt like it wasn’t a struggle to do that. Um, it looks like, I think, uh, what 15 different receivers caught a pass, 1717 different receivers caught a pass. Right. So, like, clearly, I mean, that’s never going to be the case in the regular season. You know, I don’t think there’s gonna be 17 guys. Uh, but the fact that they can spread it around, uh, the fact that it seems like everybody is getting open, lets me know that a lot of what last year’s struggles were, was the scheme that we were playing. And, you know, it looked like, like even Jalen Coker got past the defense a little bit and got himself a touchdown, um, you know, in the, in the second half and so it just, everything just looked good and, you know, shout outs to Jordan Matthews. I think he’s gonna add a nice little element, uh, to the Panthers team seeing him and Jab and Sanders getting the first two catches of the night. Um, you know, two tight ends that’s gonna be really good for the offense because we’ve been wanting to see a tight end thrive for the Carolina Panthers since Greg Olson left. We haven’t seen that really, uh, as far as offenses offensively, we’ve seen some flashes from Tommy Trimble, but we haven’t seen a consistent, uh, tight end, uh, go out there and get numbers with that. So it was really good to see that. Uh Here’s another thing that I wrote down Dennis that I was impressed with. All right, two minute drive at the end of the first half, they get the ball at the 105 mark right last year, every single time, maybe not every single time, but nine out of 10 times that would have been a three and out with the Panthers punting back to the other team with 30 seconds left, if not more seriously, seriously, seriously. And they end up, uh, scoring, uh off of that, uh drive to me and it was a great execution of a two minute drill as well. And, and so like, you, you’re looking at these little small improvements and you’re seeing how like last year I literally had no faith in them moving the ball on a two minute drill. It was just like, all right, if you got two minutes, then we’re just gonna pack it up and go into halftime because it’s, it’s not gonna happen and it happened right here with Jack Plummer. Imagine that with Bryce Young and here, go ahead, go ahead, finish, finish. I would say to me it doesn’t, whether it’s Jack Plumer or Bryce Young, it’s the fact that they knew what their, what their process and everything was like. This is our two minute drill and they executed it. They, they had a plan, this is what we want it to look like. And that’s, that’s to me what stands out, it, it does stand out. And, uh, I, I love what I saw. Here’s something else we were talking about, uh, last week that we didn’t necessarily see, uh, a lot of backups or quality backups on the Panthers offense. I’m looking at tight end. Right. And yes, this is against the twos and threes, right? And I’m not saying these guys should make the roster. These are definitely some, um, you know, practice squad candidates, but I would like to see if you think about past this year. Right. We haven’t started the season, but they’re gonna want to try to save some money, especially if Bryce Young has a really good season. There’s a couple of guys you’re gonna have to pay, you have to get ready to pay Bryce Young at a certain point. Right. You’re going to have to pay JC Horn if you want to keep him, he has to prove that he can stay healthy. He has to prove he has to stay healthy, healthy. But if he does stay healthy and he has a really good season, you’re gonna have to at least put that in your plans. So you think about guys, like, maybe Ian Thomas, possibly coming off your books? Oh, yeah. Think about maybe Shaq Thompson coming off your books or maybe you get him to sign a, a team friendly deal or whatever. But like Jasper Horst and Jacob Hollister didn’t look bad as tight ends to me. Well, those guys have been in the league for a while. They didn’t look bad, bro. They, they’ll, they’ll be fine like, as a practice squad, it wouldn’t shock me if those guys got picked up by someone else. It would not surprise me. Some team that, hey, we need 1/4 tight end now because so, you know, multiple guys get hurt. I could see that. But those guys have been in the league for a bit, especially Hollister is like 3031 years old. So he’s been in the league for a minute. It was just good to see that because like, you know, we’re, we’re used to seeing like just not that for the Panthers tight end group for, uh, such a long time and guys who are legit, uh, pass, catching threats and they can get open in the defense. I, I really liked everything I saw. I noticed they didn’t run as much and I think partial, I wanted to think that part of that is probably partially because you didn’t have Austin and Damian Lewis and also you don’t want to put your running backs out there to, to get more hits than what they need to get right, uh, in this preseason. So we haven’t seen what the Panthers run scheme is really going to look like with Tuba Hubbard and Miles Sanders. Uh, other than that, I feel like most of my questions have been answered. I still have some questions because I didn’t feel like anyone really separated themselves out. You and I did earlier this week, did a breakdown of who could make your 53 man roster who really separated themselves. There’s questions about, are they gonna keep five wide receivers? Are they going to keep six? Is Terrace Marshall Junior going to be that 5th, 5th guy. You see a lot of teams are fifth wide receiver. They asked to play special teams. Terris Marshall Junior doesn’t do that. So does that open it up for David Moore? David Moore opening kick return slip falls didn’t really do well. Meer Smith Marcet has a long kick return today. David Moore also dropped the touchdown pass but also ends up catching the two point conversion. And Meer Smith Marcet also got nicked up with the ankle but came back and played. I don’t think anyone truly separated themselves. And then also you look at defensive back with corner like Dicaprio Bootle uh Deshaw Jamison, a lot of these guys, Jamie Robinson are fighting for a roster spot. I don’t think any of them to me really flashed in any sort of way that says, hey, you know what, I’ve, I’ve been showing it throughout camp and I showed it again today. You gotta keep me. I don’t think we really saw any of that separation, especially with white out that we were hoping to see. Yeah, I agree with that. I will, I will say though, that I was, uh, impressed with what I saw from, uh Terrence Marshall Junior today. Uh, he made a few tough catches and should have been tackled and, and turn and, you know, basically, uh, broke two tackles and, and scored a touchdown. Um, and so he probably has solidified himself as for sure, the fifth wide receiver and then the question after that is if they’re gonna keep six or not. And so that’s Ism, that’s, that’s David Moore, you know what’s gonna happen with that. But other than that, um, you, you are absolutely correct. Um, you know, the last few weeks, I think we saw a few people kind of pop out show that they are worth something. I will say this though. Um, you know, I wasn’t necessarily truly studying what the offense was doing the way I normally would, uh, in the second half, but Chandler Zavala didn’t leak. No, he played in the place of Damian Lewis. And so you talk about separating themselves, like, it’s hard to really notice that on the offensive line sometimes. But when you notice that nobody is getting to the quarterback, you know, they’re at least doing a good job. Chandler Zavala looked like he, he held up pretty steady today and, and so that’s, that’s good. But other than that, there’s a lot of people who really didn’t separate themselves. So, you know, probably the 53 that this team had in mind heading into today could be the same 53 they decided to go with on Tuesday. Easily could. But obviously, there’s the waiver wire guys are gonna hit that and they get first claim on whomever one thing that’s still a concern to me just because again, I didn’t really see anyone step out or show still on edge rusher defense like that’s still a major, major question mark for me. I know Kayla V Chasson almost had an interception off a tip ball by Shaq Thompson. David Johnson had the, the one sack in the, in the third quarter. It’s like, hey, David Johnson’s on the field, Kim Kim Gill had Kim Gill also had a sack but, but I know he’s been dealing with a couple of injuries and even had to leave this game as well. Echo Leota was just, I saw him like we saw him flash in that first preseason game, but I, I saw him out there today. That’s really about all I could say. Now Jadeveon Clowney didn’t play still a major question mark and I don’t know what’s really gonna be out there in terms of waivers because you and I said it earlier this week teams just don’t freely give up good edge rushers because there’s such a hot commodity like there’s such a need. No one’s just gonna be like, oh yeah, we’ve got like five of them. We’re just gonna let you know one of them walk. No, you’re probably gonna try and trade and get something in return if you had something like that. Um, you know, I’m, I’m completely with you on that. Um, you know, again, you know, I saw Cam Gil Flash. I thought it was good because we really hadn’t heard his name really called all training camp. Um, you know, even through practice and all that, uh, you didn’t really see much out of him and I, I think the, you’re right with that, we did say that that was the one position on, on defense that we weren’t sold on any of the backups. Uh, so with Clowney, uh, not playing today with Wham, he hasn’t been available all preseason. Um, that is gonna be a huge question mark and so I, I really am, I’m excited to see when, uh, those two can finally play together, but behind them, you just don’t know K Leon Chasson. I think that with the ones he looked athletic, he flashed a little bit and again, he almost had that, uh, that interception or whatever. But it, you know, I don’t think he played long enough for us to really see much out of him. So I’m, so, we’ll, we’ll just have to wait to the regular season to see if there’s anything out of that. DJ Johnson didn’t look horrible, but also didn’t feel like he did anything special either. So, still a big fan of Trevor Wallace. I know he had the, the one tackle or the missed tackle that they, they scored a touchdown on there, uh, the first Bills touchdown score. But, but, but like, but he’s around the football, but he’s there like the timing on stuff. He’s around the football and he’s there. So I’m glad you brought that up. That’s one thing I did notice too. Um, especially in the first half. I felt like the defense looked so much faster than what they did last year. Like, you know, as soon as, uh, a Bills player would catch the ball, I felt like it automatically like four guys, five guys swarming that person. Now, I do think, you know, we’re in the earliest season where some guys are missing tackles or whatever the season is four you’re not truly tackling in practice. Uh, so, you know, you gotta kind of get that out of your system. So there were some missed tackles there that you want you to be disappointed in. But I thought they were swarming and getting to the ball so much faster. I, I’m excited to see what happens, man. I’m excited to see what happens again. I don’t think you can determine what the season will look like off of this game. All I know is the offense is gonna be a lot better and we’re gonna win more than two games, man. Oh yeah. II I mhm. We drink that Kool Aid right here. We are here, we are right here and we need you to be right here with us. We need you to be right here with us in the comments section. Let her know your thoughts on the team. Let her know your thoughts on this preseason. Who should make the roster? Who shouldn’t? What do you think of Bry in the offense? Let us know in the comments down below. If you’re aligned with Panthers playbook, sponsored by our friends at Carolina Ford dealers, wherever you go, whatever you do with the power and technology of A Ford F 150 on your team, it’s game on, see your Carolina Ford dealer today. Uh We’re gonna have another episode for you all early. Next week. Roster cut down day is Tuesday. We’ll have an episode for you then till next time. Enjoy your weekend. Stay aligned. Stay right here. We’re here right.

Source: wralsportsfan.com