All right, Chris 16 to 13 loss to the Chicago Bears. Normally, I would say this is a bad football team, but they’re not a bad football team. The Carolina Panthers, they’re a terrible football team. They are flat awful. Dennis. Yeah. Can’t believe I’m about to say this. Say it. This thing would have been better off with Matt rule as the head coach. We’re gonna get into that here. All right, let’s get this sucker. Let’s go. The state of North Carolina covers 53,000 square miles. It is the habitat of the feared, get dialed in Panthers fans for an in depth. Look at your team, exclusive interviews. Lock a room insight. Let’s huddle up for Panthers playbook. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panthers Playbook. That’s Chris Lee. I’m Dennis Cox. All right, before we get into the 1613 game that the Chicago Bears just beat the Carolina Panthers on here on Thursday night football. Uh, Chris just said something right from the get go. This team will be better off with Matt roll. I mean, I mean, you might be right, man, you might be right. Listen, man. Listen, just say it, just say it, just let it all out. Just let it all out. You know what, by the way before you let this all out the comment section for you panthers fans down here below, here on 99 9, the fans youtube page make you smash the subscribe button vent. Just let, just let it all out vent, just express your frustration. And also if you’re listening to us on your favorite podcast platform, leave us that nice five star review. All right, Chris, let it out. Um Sorry, I had to change my name really quick. Oh, you changed your name to frustrated. I see that those who are watching Chris changed his name to frustrated. I’m sorry, it’s I gotta, I gotta take some time to get together. All right, Matt rule. One thing that you can’t say and I can’t believe I’m saying this is that I felt like on both sides of the ball, the team was, was, was better coached like there were bad things about the, there were definitely bad things about the Panthers under Matt rule for sure. Um The, the offense without Christian mccaffrey was not an offense. Uh They couldn’t really do much of anything uh at all on defense. Phil Snow had those guys playing, bro. Mhm. Phil Snow had those guys playing, remember just two years ago, three years ago, excuse me, this was the number two defense in the NFL and now it’s the worst. I, well, I don’t know what, we gotta see what, where it falls after this week. But from what I’m watching it, it’s the worst. If it’s not the worst, it’s, it’s the second or third worst. Like, it’s bad. I, it’s, it’s all bad and it’s one of those things where, like, you’ve got a guy who’s running their team who’s, who’s, who was the best DDD two quarterback a couple of years ago going against, the guy who people saw as the best D one quarterback two years ago, Justin Fields is hurt. Other people are hurt and the Carolina Panthers can’t even get that win. No. And the only reason why it was as close as it was is because Emir Smith Marcet became Emir Smith Marcet. He finally had a play off of a punt return, finally had one other than that. The offense generated six points. It’s just, it’s bad. It’s, it’s muddy. Um, guys don’t look like they know what they’re doing where they’re going. I mean, we have this, these offensive gurus, this offensive staff, this all star staff and the offense looked better under Matt rule who had one year as an assistant in the NFL with the Giants had no NFL experience, but this NFL staff with like 70 plus years combined experience in the NFL, either playing or coaching or both. This team looks horrible and I’m gonna be real, right. Keep it real I didn’t think it was gonna be this bad. I thought it was a possibility for the Panthers to not make the playoffs. Also thought there was maybe an outside chance that the NFC South would be so bad that maybe they accidentally stumble into the playoffs like they almost did last year. Mhm. This, this literally might be the worst football team I’ve ever witnessed on a professional level. It’s bad, man. It’s, it’s bad, bro. It’s, it’s, I’m sorry, it’s not bad. It’s terrible. It’s awful. You talk about the offense. Ok. Here’s the thing about the offense, the rush defense for the, for the Chicago Bears coming into the game, I think was fourth in the NFL in yards per game allowed like good rush defense. But I think they were like 27th, 28th somewhere in that range in terms of pass yards per game, passing numbers. If you take away the sacks, which I’ll get to in a sec. Panthers only had 100 and 70 yards passing in this game. 170. You look at the total offense in this game for this team was just flat putrid. The Carolina Panthers had 213 yards of offense. That’s it. That is 100%. It also, the Chicago Bears team had 10 sacks in eight games 1.1 sack per game is what their defense average, dead last, dead last in the NFL and they got a three on you tonight. It was like a get right game. The Carolina Panthers are a get right game for everybody. I will say this. The Bears also in that time period didn’t have Monte Sweat. So that’s a new addition and this is his second game with, with the, with the Bears. So, you know, I mean, he’s, he’s a pretty good guy and you’re, you’re right. Um, you know, if you need a bounce back game, you better hope the Carolina Panthers are on your schedule, buddy because like, don’t let the Dallas Cowboys have a bad Sunday because on the 19th, they’re going to Bank of America Stadium and that thing literally like it literally might end up being 50 to 3. Yeah, the way this offense is going, you know what the most disrespectful part of this game was, you talk about the defense, defense only gave up 16 points. Now, here’s the thing Chicago controlled the ball, like they controlled tempo of the game. You know what the most disrespectful thing was. Chicago with that aforementioned rookie quarterback who is an undrafted free agent out of division uh division two Shepard, which by the way, shout outs to the Rams, my sister, proud graduate of Shepard University. Ok. But here’s the thing, I didn’t know we had a family tie with this. We actually do have a family tie to Shepherd uh and on this podcast now on third and seven with like it was a minute 20 left or whatever it was. Carolina Panthers were down to zero time outs. Third and seven. You know, the, like the most coaches, you know what they would do, they would try and run the ball pick up a first time that way, but at least keep the clock moving. They said, you know what, we’re gonna let that rookie undrafted D two free agent throw the ball and doesn’t go to your number one option in DJ Moore doesn’t go to your number two option in the tight end Cole command. We’re throwing to like our 3rd, 4th option. We’re throwing the ball with this guy, not because we want to, but because we freaking can, that’s what the Chicago Bears did. That’s how much disrespect they have for that defense right now. Like we could throw the ball and win this game on 3rd and 7th. I’m, I’m gonna be real, uh, um, I mean, in the last two games tonight and, uh, again with the Colts, the stops that the defense has has. Well, I’ll say that’s different. Colts. The game was different. They actually play well with the Colt against the Colts but other games, um, Texans, other games before that, the defense, I don’t think really stopped people. It was like the other, other teams making mistakes. Yeah, it was a little bit of that. The, the Panthers defense kind of sat back. They played conservative like they call shell defense like we’re gonna keep everything in front and then eventually, you know what? Because you get towards the red zone, everything just compresses itself. Therefore, you can’t actually like take any shots down the field. And so teams settle for field goals in that regard. They didn’t get the one touchdown. Deonte Foreman, shout out to the former Carolina Panther. Imagine that scoring a touchdown. So, yeah, so the defense never actually got like a stop. They, th this team makes hardly any splash plays defensively. Like they get a like, they, they have what? Seven, there’s no pass rush, there’s no rush. There’s nobody is threatening. Like Tyson began, wasn’t threatened at all. Like I’m, I’m sure he’s seen better defensive lines, zero sacks, by the way, I’m sure he’s seen better defensive lines he played against last year in, in division two because like, literally nobody is like, he’s got time back there and then on the other side of the ball, Bryce Young has no time. It’s, it’s, this team is just flat bat. It’s the same repeated thing over and over again. And also here’s the thing we talked about. Yeah, the defense has dealt with some injuries but Von Bell and Xavier Woods were back. He still had Frankie Lou playing, you still had Shy Tuttle saw Derek Brown, he saw some of these guys. I understand this defense was without Brian Burns this week. Totally understand that. But even when Brian Burns was in there, they still weren’t getting much of a pass rush. Here’s one thing I noticed though and I love, I love Frankie Luu. Ok, but Brian Burns being on that field take some attention away from Frankie Lulu and Frankie Lou is your main option to get to the quarterback. It’s easy to lock him up. Oh, yeah, I like it. It’s this game ex exposed that to me like it was just like, man, like when Brian Burns is on the field, it’s a little bit easier for Frankie Lou, you know, and Dennis, there’s just so much that like the second most explosive, the second longest completion that Bryce Young has had in his career was a 44 yarder to Mike Strawn who came up from the practice squad. Yeah. So you’re telling me that a practice squad guy is able to get separation and get open down the field better than DJ Chark, better than Terrace Marshall, better than Amir Smith, Marette W which we thought this, that was gonna be one of the reasons why he was brought in better than like it just, that’s the thing. You, you, you, you summed it up right there by not saying anything, you summed it up perfectly right there. Like what are we doing? I actually tweeted out that Strawn is that his name? Practice squad, practice squad? Mike is officially his name now, practice squad. Mike was more of a deep threat in one quarter for Bryce Young than DJ Shark has been all season. Like seriously, the, the guy that you signed $5 million didn’t even play today because he’s hurt again. Go figure DJ Shark battling an injury could have told you that before you signed him. But the guy you signed for $5 million like this guy’s got more of a, more of a big play with, with Bryce Young than DJ Shark practice squad. Mike has more big plays with Bryce Young than DJ Shark. Like and, and no one can like Terri Marshall Junior can’t make a contested catch or tough catch Hayton Hearst struggling to make a tough contested catch either. Like, guess what, you know what, you know, what teams have figured out with this offense right now, just rush four guys. You’re still gonna get pressure, drop guys in the zone and make sure you bracket at them feeling you shut down their offense. That’s all they are. You, you literally, you, you summed it up perfectly because like, literally you don’t have to like bring the house so that like you can bring the house like what Minnesota did, but you don’t have to bring the house at all and, and just have seven, you know, all they’re gonna do is go 10 yards up the field and stop and turn around and that is gonna be slow and your four man rush probably is gonna get to Bryce Young before those receivers even turn their heads. 10 yards up the field. Nothing like this is, this is, it’s the most disappointing thing. And you know what? And I’m so, I’m so worried that Bryce Young who had so much promise, a man who like now he’s lost more games in the NFL than what he did in all of high school and college put together. He was considered the best processor. He went number one overall for a reason. A Heisman trophy winner, they’re gonna ruin this man. This, this franchise is literally going to ruin this man. Whether it’s gonna be his confidence, whether they’re gonna get him hurt because they literally can’t protect him. Like what is going on here? Nothing, nothing looks easy. Like every, every team should have at least a few plays in, in the repertoire where it’s like, you know, what if we dial this up? 50% of the time we know this can get at least 5 to 6 yards because we’re scheming guys open. I don’t know if the Panthers even have that. Now, they did have that nice play uh in the fourth quarter where uh Miles Sanders was split out wide. He kind of zigs in goes out and they get the uh I think there was 1/4 down conversion. Um and, and, and that made me think, let’s try Miles Sanders out to be a, a slot receiver as well. He might, he might be faster than everybody else because he can’t run the damn ball. You know what I’m saying? And so have him split out wide be a slot receiver. Let’s, let’s go sign somebody, somebody off somebody’s practice squad, somebody that’s not in the NFL. I mean, you know, just find somebody else to play running back, cut a another wide receiver, put Miles Sanders that you’re already gonna have to pay him for the next three years, the next two years after this, like just this franchise, this team, I’ll say it every, I’ll say it every week as the worst win percentage since 2019. This team has the worst win percentage since 2019. That’s it. And you would think that this offense would have put together something by now because guess what today, the only starters that you were missing were Brady Christensen and DJ Shark. That was it. That’s it. And you’ve been without Christensen for a while and then DJ Char, ok, you plug in Terris Marshall Junior. It’s just, it’s just flat. It stinks, man. It’s awful. 213 yards of total offense and 45 of them came on one freaking play. That’s it. Like it is just flat awful. This team hit me. Um, Charlotte F CS head coach got fired this week. David Tepper is in a firing mood. Oh, David Tepper has fired two soccer coaches in two years of that franchise. Is he gonna fire two head coaches in two years? Because like I I don’t like, listen, that’s a legitimate question. I don’t care what you question at this point. I don’t care what anybody says. Nobody looked at this team unless you’re just like Nostradamus. Like there are people who were like, you know, no, I saw this coming, I saw this coming. How could you go from a, a team with what they did last year where they ended up and look at this team and say by the time they get to the Chicago Bears game, by the time they get halfway through the season, they’re going to be one and eight. Like, legit, like who, who legit saw this coming. I didn’t, I, you know, it’s, I, I, you know, hey, maybe they would have had a losing record. He told me three and five, I’ve been like, ok, maybe, yes. You know, at least, at least something like, but bro, this, it’s bad. This is flat bad. I, that’s the thing. Mm. You know, here’s, here’s something that you always have to think when, when you can tell if a team is well coached, but they just don’t have the talent. Like they’re in the right places, they’re doing the right stuff, but they just don’t have the talent. All right, this team doesn’t have the talent nor are they well coached. It’s just, you know, you know what I, here, here’s the thing up, blow this thing up. Here’s the thing about that. I’m wondering because some of these guys were here with Phil Snow on defense and then basically the entire line is, the entire line is back. Uh Brady Christensen has heard of course, but the entire line, uh, is from last year’s team is on this roster and boy, they looked pretty good last year. You know what I’m saying? They looked, ok, they looked OK. Are you compared to what, what it is now compared to what it’s like night and day compared to what it looked pretty good last year? So, are you sure that there’s like no talent? Because part of me thinks that it’s also coaches on both sides of the ball that’s trying to fit a square peg in a round hole like this 34 defense is trash. Awful. Why do you have Troy Hill as your edge rusher on 1/4 down call and let Cole Cet just go out there just wide open. You know what I’m saying? Like you, you can’t stop the run at all. You’re, you’re not getting any push on that defensive line like there’s, it’s trash man. And then I ju bro, it’s that bad. It is that bad. And you know what, there is no fast fix for this franchise. That’s the sad thing. And I think that’s something that we’re, this is, this is, well, that’s, that’s the thing like David Tepper. He’s probably gonna hear this. That’s fine. David Tepper tried to microwave a winning team trying to take a team last year that trying to almost back door its way into the playoffs at seven and 10 because they’re, the division sucks and thought, oh, we can make this thing an instant winner. We can make this thing an instant winner. But no, you actually made the team worse. You made the team worse, David Tepper because since you have been here with this franchise, you have the worst win percentage since 2019, since you arrived, since you arrived. So, yeah, tonight that 1613 win is a by-product of all of your work, a by-product of all your work. Can’t look at this game in just a vacuum. This is a by-product of year, years of terrible management, how you’ve managed this roster, how you’ve managed your coaching staffs, how you’ve done everything with your front office, all of it falls on us since you arrived. I got nothing else, Chris, I really am III I don’t either and, um I, I will say that, um I feel sorry for Bryce Young. I feel sorry for Panthers fans. Um Here, here’s, here’s the only bright spot though Brayshaw continues his streak. Eight straight games of 20 plus completions, only other person that’s done that it is Justin Herbert, he went up to 15. Um But that was, that was literally in Emir Smith Marcet. Those are the only two bright spots for tonight. And, um, I don’t know, man, it’s just, it’s uh things can, it, things are probably gonna get worse honestly. And because there’s no way there is no way Scott Fitterer survives this season. And along with that, if you’re gonna get a new GM, probably gonna get a GM that wants to have his own head coach as well. Yep. And like I would have lived with Frank Reich, having this team finish the season, let’s say, at five and 12, four and 13, something like that. Right. If the team looked like they were, at least in games, the team at least looked like they were showing progress, right? The thing that was a redemptive factor for Matt R after his first season was that even though they were like, uh, they were five and 11 that year, right? I think it was like eight of those 11 losses were all like within AAA one score. Yeah, they’re all like a bunch of them within one score. It was a, it was a one possession game for eight of those 11 losses. And so you could look at that and you said, you know what? You know, I, I, I’m not sure if I’m down with Teddy Bridgewater, I’m not sure if I’m down with some of the things I’m seeing, but at least the Panthers aren’t getting dog walked. They’re, they’re in these games and they weren’t dog walked tonight. So we’re not gonna make it seem like that because the Chicago Bears are a very bad team. You can see that they are a very bad team but boy, they’re gonna get dog walked by the Cowboys. Oh, yeah, I am. Yeah, I, who cares at this point? Who cares at this point? But, you know, I will say the one bright spot, there’s one shining spot here for Carolina Panthers fans. Your Sunday is free, your Sunday’s free. Go enjoy. You can watch, uh, winning teams play football if you want to, you’re gonna go see some wrestling. We’re gonna, you and I are gonna go watch some wrestling. You know what? Go watch some wrestling fans because guess what? At least, you know, if you’re gonna see someone win. Yeah, we’re gonna see seven wins. Exactly. There’s seven matches on that card on Carolina Panthers are the jobbers of the NFL right now. It’s 100% what they are. They just take losses. They’re the Brooklyn Brawler. Carolina, Brooklyn Brawler. Look them up kids. All right. No, no podcast. Sunday. We’ll have another one for you on Thursday next week. I know. Right. We’ll have another one for you on Thursday next week. Uh, thanks for sitting with us and, uh, listen to Chris and I just vent here a little bit, actually. Not a little bit, a whole lot who let us know your thoughts in the comments really quick. Let me, I meant to say this earlier. Um, Panthers Nation at Panther Nation PC, uh, tweeted this and this is something for me to look out for Dennis. It’s time. Hashtag March on mt details will be released tomorrow. I need everyone to spread the word we deserve better. So there’s some people in the comments saying like I will fly in from my my other state because I’m a Carolina Panthers fan. There’s some people saying I’ll bring Tiki torches like, you know, so if this really were to happen, there’s really a march on Mint Street that is something big for us to cover. So I just wanted to put that out there. Ok. Well, we’ll give us a follow. He’s at Chris Le TV. I’m at the F rookie. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section. Enjoy your weekend.

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