How Much is David Tepper to Blame?
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00:00 This is Desmond Johnson on the Believe in Carolina Panthers Podcast, here on the Believe
00:20 Podcast Network, the #1 podcast network for professionals.
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00:34 and TuneIn.
00:35 You can also find us at Believe.com and @BelievePodcast on Twitter.
00:48 The gang is all here after a couple of weeks where we've been kind of all three of us in
00:52 and out.
00:53 All three of us are back.
00:54 It's Believe in Carolina Panthers.
00:55 I'm your host, Desmond Johnson, joined by Sports Illustrated beat writer, Skylar Callahan,
00:59 and the Panthers all-time lead rusher in Jonathan Stewart.
01:02 Of course, every week, live on Tuesdays here on the Believe Podcast Network and Tobacco
01:07 Road Sports Radio's YouTube channel.
01:09 Loaded show today.
01:10 Of course, we're going to get into it.
01:12 The Carolina Panthers dropped to 1-12 on the season after falling to the New Orleans Saints
01:17 on Sunday.
01:18 We'll get to that.
01:19 It's open mailbag, so of course you guys can chime in if you're in and you're listening
01:24 or watching the show, like our Man Muscles Marinera down in Spartanburg, home of Monster
01:29 Subs.
01:30 If you're down in that area, go check out those subs.
01:31 That might be the best sub I've ever had in my life.
01:33 So definitely go down there and check that out.
01:34 RIP Training Camp.
01:35 Yeah, yeah.
01:36 They were the first people I thought of, too, when I saw they were moving training camp.
01:40 I'm like, "Damn."
01:41 So definitely you can chime in with your comments and your requests here, like everyone is in
01:45 here.
01:46 Thanks for everybody stopping by.
01:47 Stew's Bright Spots, new segment.
01:48 We decided we need to bring a little positivity to the Panther fan base, and we're going to
01:53 do that today.
01:54 Stew's going to give us something he saw that was positive in Sunday's loss to the Panthers.
01:58 Kind of like going through a haystack and picking out gnats at this point, but I think
02:05 Stew will be able to handle it.
02:06 So he's got a little something.
02:07 He's got a tee-up for us there.
02:08 Around the league, we'll talk about that offside's call and that Chiefs-Bills game.
02:11 I don't think I've ever seen Patton Holmes so mad in his career, so we'll talk a little
02:16 bit about that.
02:17 The NFC is a dumpster fire.
02:18 It's not just us.
02:19 It's the whole conference.
02:20 There might be two teams that get in with a sub-500 record into the playoffs, so we'll
02:26 talk about that as well.
02:28 And today we are starting our Panther Trials.
02:31 Who's responsible for this nonsense?
02:32 We're going to try to get to the bottom of this.
02:34 Each week for the rest of the season, we're going to pick out one player, personnel, front
02:38 office exec, and we're going to kind of just go through the timeline and figure out how
02:41 much they really have an effect on this season.
02:44 Today we're starting at the very top with owner David Tepper.
02:47 Before we get into it, we're going to start off with Stew's Bright Spots.
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03:12 Bet Online, where the game starts.
03:15 And we're going to start with Stew's Bright Spots.
03:16 What did you see on Sunday that made you smile, Stew, while I go and mute this television
03:19 that's on the other side of that room here?
03:23 >> Well, shout out to the offensive line, creating some lanes, some running lanes.
03:33 Bright Spots has been a struggle all season.
03:36 I mean, if you look back, and if we could have ran the ball like we did on Sunday against
03:43 the Saints, the intentionality it seems that we've been having the last two weeks, we could
03:52 have probably won some more games.
03:55 I'm not gonna sit here and say we could have won the amount of games that would have us
04:02 in playoff contention.
04:04 I think our passing game right now is still at loss.
04:09 But the bright spot is the struggles of protecting the quarterback still exist, but running the
04:17 ball seems to be a task that the Carolina Panthers can handle.
04:24 And the most consistent piece to that puzzle is Truva Hubbard.
04:30 I texted you guys the other day, feeling really high about how I felt just seeing how hard
04:40 he's been working, seeing, really just watching him progress throughout the last three years
04:47 as a runner.
04:48 I was very excited and listed off the fact that he could possibly be a top 15 running
04:54 back in the league.
04:57 And I mean, I still think that he can be that, right?
05:00 Top 10, top 15, keep working, especially if we dedicate ourselves as an organization to
05:07 run the ball the way we have been, he can make his case.
05:11 I mean, the way he runs, one cut, get up field, and he's not afraid of contact.
05:19 Setting the tone as a running back is one of the most important things at that position.
05:27 It's an opportunity to set the stage, it's an opportunity to let the defense know it's
05:32 gonna be a long day.
05:34 And he's been doing that every chance he's had this whole entire year.
05:39 Hasn't had that many opportunities as I think he would like, as the fan base would like.
05:47 But every time he touches the ball, he's making a case.
05:50 So that's a bright spot, Truva Hubbard, straight out of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 24 years
05:56 old.
05:57 >> I know that.
05:58 >> Shout out to you, my man.
06:01 Keep working, keep being a dog.
06:05 And then Miles Sanders, running game.
06:09 >> The running game.
06:11 >> You put this guy in space, he makes people look stupid.
06:14 So just figure it out.
06:17 >> He's just in that space.
06:20 >> He's just in that space.
06:23 And people have a lot to say about him and how Carolina Primf is brought him in and all
06:32 that.
06:33 As you can see, he's gifted.
06:38 These running backs, the guys that tilt the rock in this league, they are here for a reason.
06:43 They're not here by mistake.
06:45 There's a lot of guys that can make people look stupid and make people fall off of their
06:51 hips as they're breaking tackles.
06:54 But they're picked for a reason.
06:56 Miles Sanders, I think he's proved to the fan base, to NFL, that he is special.
07:07 And that one long run that he broke off there, that somehow we didn't figure out how to get
07:13 into the end zone with three, four opportunities.
07:21 We'll get to that.
07:22 No, we ain't talking about what we're mad about.
07:23 We just think about the positives.
07:24 >> That's right, that's right.
07:25 Yeah, we'll save it.
07:26 We'll save it.
07:27 >> The positives is that Miles Sanders and Chuba Hubbard, let's give them a round of
07:32 applause.
07:33 Keep working, keep trucking, offensive line, keep moving guys out the way, keep moving
07:40 that furniture and just stay ahead of any miscellaneous talk that you hear out here
07:49 in these streets.
07:51 >> The run game, actually best run game of the season, 207 yards total.
07:55 Well, excuse me, I'm reading that wrong.
07:57 204 yards rushing on the ground for the Panthers on Sunday, held the Saints to under 197 yards.
08:03 It's crazy when you look at the box score and you're looking through the numbers.
08:06 It's like how did Carolina lose this game by the amount that they, how did they lose
08:10 28 to 6?
08:11 They almost outgamed the Saints by 100 yards total.
08:17 Now granted, we only threw for now.
08:20 Bryce, I need to address this with Bryce Young, cuz I've been getting this back and forth.
08:26 They're starting to grow into two camps and we saw it before with Cam Newton, where it's
08:29 like the Cam can do no wrong.
08:31 Why are you blaming Cam Newton camp?
08:33 And then it's the, well, maybe we need to look at Bryce Young camp.
08:36 And I've over the past two weeks, I've felt my Anakin Skywalker kind of move over to the,
08:42 let's take a harder look at Bryce.
08:44 Because I feel like we've kind of given him a pass because he was the number one overall
08:48 pick and the situation around him, which is completely understandable.
08:52 But there was some things that he could work on, at least, that he wasn't really working
08:56 on that either one of you noticed.
08:58 Cuz we didn't even talk on Sunday.
08:59 I think we all were just kind of like, ugh, while we were watching it.
09:02 Did any of you guys notice that Bryce was actually dropping back in the pocket on Sunday?
09:07 Like more pronounced than in any other time this year?
09:11 And what happened?
09:12 He had more deeper balls.
09:13 He was climbing the ladder.
09:14 He was getting some weight behind those throws and they were hitting.
09:18 This was the first game all year I felt like where Bryce was sitting his dudes in the numbers,
09:22 like in the face, like with the ball and they were just dropping it.
09:25 Like they were dropping it all day and he would have looked a lot better stat wise if
09:28 like DJ Charcot caught a couple of these, that one deep one he had to Mingo where he
09:34 just kind of slightly overthrew him.
09:36 But I can't tell if Mingo let up on the run.
09:40 And he was under center.
09:41 He was under center a lot more on Sunday too.
09:44 And he did a lot more play action, which just naturally created more space for him as he's
09:48 running back to survey the field.
09:50 It looked like Bryce looked more comfortable throwing the ball on Sunday than he had-
09:53 >> You know why he was also more comfortable?
09:58 Cuz we had 200 plus yards rushing.
10:01 >> We were running the ball.
10:02 Yeah, I mean, we're running the ball like this whole thing where he's like he's not
10:06 comfortable under center, but you need to get comfortable with the NFL.
10:09 Like you can't be in shotgun 90% of the time like it's not high school.
10:12 You can't just stand back there like a statue and throw it around.
10:15 And that debate had been going on for a couple of weeks.
10:18 Of course, I had Joe Person on franchise players last week after their article him and Diana
10:23 Rossini's article dropped on the athletic last week.
10:25 Right after our show, it dropped and they basically just detailed everything that had
10:30 been going on behind the scenes with the Panthers.
10:33 Scott, I was gonna ask you, ask Joe the same question.
10:37 Being in the media and being in the press room every week asking questions to the coaches
10:42 and everything else all season, thinking back on it.
10:45 Do you recall there being tension between the coaches and staff?
10:51 In terms of like things they were saying at the podium and do you recall a certain rift
10:56 or because it feels like it really kind of came to a head right around Thanksgiving,
10:59 like around that area is when it really started to bottom out.
11:02 I don't know.
11:04 It's hard to read if there's tension, but I think there's difference in opinion because
11:09 you would hear things that would that Frank would say on Wednesday and then we talked
11:13 to Thomas on Thursday.
11:15 And it's like Thomas would give or be asked similar questions but give slightly different
11:20 answers and maybe it'd be the other way around.
11:24 But I feel like there was just a clear butting of heads and maybe it wasn't like, you know,
11:30 Frank would always use this term healthy tension, right?
11:32 And maybe it was healthy tension in terms of like they weren't maybe going at each other's
11:36 throat, but maybe it was just they had their own ways in their offensive philosophies and
11:42 it just clashed and it just never was able to mend together.
11:46 But I think Bryce on Sunday, like I think he did look more comfortable throwing the
11:51 ball, but I'll say he looked kind of anxious.
11:57 Like he had a lot of happy feet in the pocket.
12:00 Yeah, we're really settled down.
12:02 And I think a lot of that's just the pressure.
12:04 I mean, for goodness sake, like they had an eight man protection and still got home.
12:10 Like how does that happen?
12:11 Was that the one where the pocket just collapsed in like two seconds or whatever?
12:15 And he just underneath the mound of man like in the backfield.
12:19 He got beat on an inside move.
12:21 I don't remember who it was.
12:23 It may have been.
12:24 I don't think it was Cameron Jordan, but he got beat on an inside move.
12:27 He got pressure to the backside and then Chuba and Tommy Trumbull were in a two man or a
12:34 duo block and they just got beat off the edge too.
12:38 And that was the one that forced the fumble.
12:40 So or the interception, whatever you want to call it, but it was bad.
12:46 But I mean, I think this is going to show more clarity, I think, in what Thomas wants
12:54 to do or what he wants to be as a play caller.
12:56 The bad thing is probably not going to be here in about a month.
13:01 So the talk that I've been having with some of my people is just like, does it even make
13:08 sense because we talked about it a week ago, two weeks ago.
13:11 Does it make sense for Bryce to even be out there at this point?
13:14 And I said on this very show, yes, keep him out there.
13:17 I'm kind of going to the other side now.
13:19 I like it.
13:20 Yeah, yeah.
13:21 I don't know, because like, does it really do him any good because of the confidence
13:24 level and you're putting him out there in harm's way?
13:28 But there's also this aspect to like, he's not going to be in this offense and in a couple
13:34 of months.
13:35 So there's no point in throwing him out there in an offense.
13:38 He's not going to run.
13:39 You're putting him in harm's way.
13:42 It's a total mess right now.
13:45 There's no benefit, I don't think, right?
13:47 I was there a couple of weeks ago.
13:49 Like it just I'm trying to figure out what's the benefit of keeping him out there at this
13:53 point because the man is offensive line.
13:55 And even with them under center and with the play action and some tweaks that they've done,
14:01 it just it just lowered the sack total from six or seven to three or four.
14:06 That's all it really did.
14:07 It just cut in half.
14:09 What happens if God has progress as they progress?
14:13 It's progress.
14:14 Well, just like, yo, Bryce, injury over the last four games.
14:20 And it's like a long term deal.
14:23 Like just we're just throwing that hypothetical out there.
14:27 That's going to have an effect on the coaching search.
14:29 Yeah, yeah.
14:31 Because that's he's he's your Ferrari in the garage at this point.
14:34 Right.
14:35 Like out of all the assets we have, he's kind of the most proven.
14:39 I mean, the most proven is obviously, you know, Brian Burns, Derrick Brown, so on and
14:43 so forth.
14:44 But in terms of like, he's got to be number one because he's the guy you invested so much
14:49 in and he's the number one guy at the position.
14:52 So like, I think you got to protect them a little bit, not only physically, but mentally.
14:57 I mean, this is a kid that has seen nothing and experienced nothing but success since
15:01 he first touched the football.
15:02 He's lost more this year and he probably has his entire high school and college career.
15:07 Yeah.
15:08 Just in the past three months.
15:09 Like, I can't even imagine.
15:10 Imagine being Andy Dalton in the situation like me in the locker room, knowing that eventually
15:15 they're going to be like, you go out there, you go out there and do this.
15:20 And he's been watching from the sidelines this whole season.
15:22 His offensive line just kind of turned into it started off like just one dude.
15:27 And now it's almost like they haven't kept the same starting lineup in there, which was
15:32 a benefit last year.
15:33 They pretty much had the same line all year.
15:35 And that was a great benefit to have this year, man.
15:38 They can't do it.
15:39 It was the first game.
15:40 The game.
15:41 Who's the guard that got hurt?
15:43 McCray first first play, first play of the game.
15:47 He gets carded out.
15:48 I'm just like, you got to be kidding me.
15:50 Like, this is insanity.
15:51 And it just it just piles on and piles on and piles on.
15:55 I don't see now.
15:56 We sat here and said that Bryce had a good game.
15:58 But stat wise, he was 13 for 36 for 137 yards, no touchdowns.
16:02 He was one for ten to start off the game.
16:05 So when I say he had a good game throwing it, I meant like comfort level in terms of
16:08 throwing it deep because we hadn't really been seeing that all year.
16:12 Sunday was the first day where we actually saw Bryce taking shots downfield.
16:14 And I do feel like it's because either the article from Joe Person and Diana Rossini,
16:19 he read it and was like, oh, maybe I'm not dropping back or somebody in the building
16:23 read it and finally came up to him was like, hey, start taking two, three steps back when
16:27 you when you get the snaps, you can see because you can't see anything when you're just standing
16:30 there.
16:31 And I don't know.
16:32 I just thought he looked a little better like that.
16:34 But to your point, Schuyler, he did have some happy feet.
16:37 And actually, Jonathan Velma mentioned it on the broadcast that it like he had happy
16:40 feet in the game.
16:42 And we can blame him at this point.
16:44 But I do want to mention.
16:47 I'm going to tell you why we the ones that are defending Bryce Young, y'all got to chill
16:52 because like y'all are coming at the ones that are questioning Bryce Young is if we're
16:55 saying he's a bust and we're not.
16:57 I don't want him to be a bust like you just said, Schuyler, if he's a bust, we're set
17:01 back five years plus, you know, like if if this does not work out, he can't be a bust.
17:06 I'm not rooting against the kid, but it's not out of the realm of of possibility to
17:11 be like he was the number one draft pick overall and quarterback and we gave up a fortune for
17:16 him and we're in week 13 or week 14 or whatever it is.
17:20 Is it not?
17:21 Is it not fair to question some of Bryce Young's play at this point?
17:25 Like, I mean, I'm not saying the dude is bad, but I got I got asked a really good question
17:29 yesterday on I think it was ESPN Charlotte.
17:31 It had two ESPN ones I couldn't remember.
17:33 I think it was ESPN Charlotte and they were asking me, has Bryce progressed in any area
17:40 since the start of the season?
17:41 I started thinking I'm like, damn, like I I don't I don't know that he has him.
17:46 Like if you think about it, but I also don't think he's like regressed a lot either.
17:50 I think he's really just the same kid that he was before.
17:53 Yeah, that's how I feel.
17:56 I don't know if it's almost like he's going to go through rookie year all over again next
18:00 year with whoever the coach is going to be that comes in because redshirt here.
18:04 Yeah, it's painful.
18:06 I can tell you, I can tell you, I can tell you.
18:11 Like as much as we want to sit here and look at games and say, man, I don't see the Panthers
18:17 getting better because obviously they're one in ten or whatever the record is right now.
18:22 One in ten, one in twelve, one in twelve.
18:25 I appreciate you trying to cut some of the memories out of there.
18:32 But they're one in twelve.
18:35 And like you have a guy like Bryce, like.
18:43 It is what it is and it ain't what it ain't right now.
18:48 We can't make any judgments about who he is as a quarterback.
18:52 And we say this every week because he out there running from his for his life.
18:59 You really he's not playing.
19:01 He's he's he's protecting himself, trying to figure out how to deliver the ball under
19:06 stress and continued stress.
19:11 You know, and the fact of the matter is, 10 guys have to 11 guys have to execute and do
19:19 their job on every single play, especially on offense.
19:24 If one guy does not do their play, you will miss an opportunity.
19:28 If one guy has a penalty, a flag, whatever it is, the play doesn't exist.
19:35 So what we like what I saw on this past this past game is execution.
19:41 We can call for people's heads.
19:43 I know we're going to get to who we blame.
19:45 Well, at the end of the day, like players play coaches coach.
19:50 And yet coaches are supposed to put guys in position to win, which they figured that out
19:56 in the run game.
19:57 They put the running backs in the offensive line in position to win, which therefore helped
20:04 Bryce Young in his passing game, giving him some opportunities to shoot the ball downfield.
20:13 Now on the receiving end on that.
20:18 Execution from the receivers, right?
20:19 Got it.
20:20 You got to catch the ball and we get it like it's not as easy as it was.
20:25 It's not as easy as what everybody hopes it to seem like.
20:29 You're downfield, you're being guarded by a guy that's getting paid the same amount
20:34 as you and he's got a family, he's got to make a play.
20:39 And yeah, we don't come up with the ball, but your job is to come up with ball, especially
20:43 when it's put on.
20:45 So there's a lot of things that just aren't happening and we can't sit here and say, oh,
20:51 Bryce this, Bryce that.
20:52 It's a multitude of a lot of things and until we get some solid ground, a good base, we
21:02 can't really shoot ourselves in the foot and create receipts that we're going to look back
21:09 on one day and say, "Damn, I shouldn't have said that."
21:12 I just wanted Bryce to back up in the pocket.
21:15 That was really my only thing that I've been hearing.
21:18 Just take up some space, man.
21:21 And I think maybe he's doing that because there was an alleviated pressure from the
21:27 run game.
21:30 You know that guys are about to hit a home run on you, defense is going to play a little
21:37 bit different.
21:40 You start slashing guys in running lanes and all that, they're going to play different.
21:45 I think we saw that on Sunday and we had opportunities.
21:52 You look at the play call and we can say, "What was he thinking?"
21:56 But had they connected and executed, we would have been like, "Man, he's the greatest offensive
22:03 coordinator ever."
22:04 Oh, but they didn't.
22:06 You just reminded me of what...
22:08 Yeah, because we need to discuss this.
22:10 I completely forgot about it until you mentioned that part.
22:14 What were they doing?
22:15 It was a third and one, about midfield.
22:19 Fourth and one, about midfield, twice.
22:22 And they lined up empty backfield, shotgun, and threw it deep.
22:27 You only needed...
22:28 What you do was run in for like four yards of clip or whatever at that point and you
22:31 throw it deep.
22:34 I'm just like...
22:35 Even though I was going on fourth down, I'm like, "What are you doing?"
22:42 It felt like high school play calling to me.
22:46 Did you see Thomas Brown's wife had put up that tweet about how they're already fired
22:51 or whatever and they're only there because somebody had to call plays?
22:55 It's nonstop drama.
22:56 Her Twitter...
22:57 She deleted her Twitter account immediately after that, so it's not even there anymore.
23:02 I think what it is, man, that's a reminder that these are human beings, fellas.
23:09 They call them plays, it's their job, but they are at the hands of everyone to make
23:15 a statement with these Twitter fingers.
23:17 But that was like a Tecmo bullet.
23:19 Ain't nobody got no time for that.
23:21 If you put the average person out of nowhere and put them out there into the space where
23:26 everybody can see them, "Oh, why'd you stop at Starbucks and not Dunkin' Donuts?"
23:32 "Oh, why'd you walk your dog twice today in the span of two hours?"
23:38 You should let him just roam around the backyard.
23:43 Or "Why'd you feed your child that?
23:45 That's...
23:46 That's got all the chemicals in it."
23:50 I don't know.
23:51 If you really think about it, it comes with the territory.
23:58 But what this is a reminder of is that people in that stadium, they care more about this
24:06 than you do.
24:07 Trust me.
24:08 They care more about winning than anybody else.
24:12 It's their livelihood on the line.
24:17 The funny thing about it is last...
24:19 I'm trying to think.
24:20 I think it was Thursday.
24:21 We were in the locker room and I was talking to Nick Carboni, who's at WCNC, and we were
24:27 just chatting up in the locker room.
24:28 And then all of a sudden, Sam Franklin just walks by and he's got this mic.
24:32 I don't even know what it is.
24:33 It's like some sort of microphone that some camera people use for the Panthers.
24:38 He walks straight up to Nick and goes, "So what do you think about your boss?"
24:43 And he started talking about, asking Nick all these random questions about his boss
24:47 and stuff.
24:48 And he's like, "Yeah, you don't like it, do you?"
24:49 It was the coolest thing ever.
24:50 Good for him.
24:51 Yeah, that's awesome.
24:52 I love that.
24:53 He wasn't taking a shot at Nick because we weren't even asking.
24:58 Who was this?
24:59 Sam Franklin.
25:00 Oh, Santa Franklin, man.
25:01 That's a national treasure.
25:02 Make sure you keep it.
25:03 I like him.
25:04 He's this year's Frankie Lou Vu to me.
25:05 He's just my, we uncovered that's just like there that we didn't figure out how to keep.
25:08 I will say this too.
25:09 Frankie Lou Vu, man, he's just out there doing it every week.
25:15 They got to sign Lou Vu and I have completely shifted this.
25:18 I was thinking Brian Burns was priority number one.
25:20 You need to go sign Derrick Brown.
25:21 You need to go sign Derrick Brown right now.
25:22 Let's talk about Derrick Brown.
25:23 You need to go sign him right now.
25:24 You got a round of applause thing on your thing?
25:28 Nah, we've just been doing this.
25:31 Now Derrick Brown has been looked like a man around children in the past.
25:35 Did y'all see the way he slung out of the mirror?
25:40 I was like, Hey, I think he got kid.
25:45 I don't know.
25:46 I think he just walked off.
25:47 He's a grown man.
25:48 He's a grown man.
25:49 Don't do that.
25:50 He got his fifth year options coming up.
25:51 You've got to, you've got to keep Derrick Brown and build around him.
25:55 Have y'all seen the basketball play just happened like a couple of weeks ago where the dude
25:58 swatted the ball.
26:01 Got it.
26:02 And then the kid was laying on the ground out of bounds and he just threw it on him
26:04 like as disrespectful as it could be because he's already out of bounds.
26:08 That's what it caught our mind.
26:09 He was like, man, that's so disrespectful.
26:10 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
26:11 Just like Derrick Brown, like Debo, not Debo Simmons, but Debo from Friday.
26:18 So maybe from the Matt rule era, maybe they got that right.
26:21 So Derrick Brown has fifth year extension coming up.
26:23 We don't know what's gonna happen with Brian Burns and a lot of stuff there too.
26:26 Before we get to the trial of David Tepper though, me and Joe Person were actually talking
26:30 about this at the end of our segment last week.
26:33 And I realized I've got a member of the 2010 team on the panel right here.
26:37 Stu real quick.
26:39 If the 2010 roster was completely healthy, who would win between the 2010 Carolina Panthers
26:45 and the 2023 Carolina Panthers?
26:47 Ooh, oh, us.
26:49 2010, 2010.
26:50 Cause we were like, is this the worst season in Carolina Panthers history?
26:56 And Joe was like, well, it's either between this and 2010 and bless his heart.
26:59 Joe was like 2010 was his first season on the beat for Carolina.
27:02 So that was when he first started covering the team.
27:04 And he's like, Oh God, every year it'll be like this.
27:07 And he's like, this one is gonna be fun.
27:09 Don't get me started on Joe.
27:11 But yeah, yeah, man, we, what we had was that quarterback, Jimmy Claussen, Jimmy Claussen.
27:20 Yeah.
27:21 So Matt Moore got hurt.
27:22 Tony Pike was in there once or twice.
27:25 Brian St. Pierre.
27:26 Was that right?
27:27 Yeah.
27:28 So yeah, man.
27:29 Was it any test of earnings?
27:30 Was that?
27:31 No, no, no, no, no, no.
27:32 It might have been a year or two before.
27:33 So Jimmy Claussen.
27:34 Yeah.
27:35 You know, I was Jimmy, I was Jimmy Claussen's first touchdown.
27:39 Word?
27:40 It was against the Saints.
27:41 I just saw something.
27:42 He wouldn't sell his number to Cam Newton.
27:44 I just saw that a month too long ago, like a month or two ago, cause he was wearing number
27:47 two.
27:48 And that was when Cam Newton got caught.
27:49 So it was Jimmy Claussen, me, D'Angelo, Tony Diametta, David Geddes, Steve Smith,
27:58 Jeff King.
27:59 I mean, Steve Smith.
28:00 I mean, look, we, if our offensive line was solid, like we just, like we were just, maybe
28:07 it was play calling.
28:08 I can't really like name it, but.
28:12 I was trying to remember that year too.
28:13 Cause I was like, why were we?
28:14 I mean, I remember it was a lot of injury.
28:17 It was quarterback play.
28:18 I think, you know, like you throw a guy that, you know, they drafted Jimmy Claussen and,
28:25 you know, I would say that he wasn't necessarily prepared, you know, I think that he came into
28:33 the situation feeling and understanding that he was going to have some time behind Matt
28:39 Moore.
28:40 Matt Moore gets injured and he gets thrown into the fire.
28:45 You know what I'm saying?
28:46 And, and that, and I think that in itself, you know, speaks volumes as far as, you know,
28:54 what it takes to, you know, to actually play well in this league.
28:59 You have Bryce Young, who's a rookie and essentially he's thrown into the same type
29:04 of fire.
29:05 I'm like, uh, yes, with less around him, you know?
29:11 And I mean, if he had Steve Smith, man, game changing, Jordan Rose, like you have, you
29:20 have Brian, Brian Kalil, like you ain't gonna sit here and tell you that they gonna beat
29:25 up, beat that team 2010.
29:27 Yeah.
29:28 I mean, this team can't score touchdowns period.
29:31 Like John Beeson, you got John Beeson, Dan Connor, James Anderson, TB, Charlie Godfrey,
29:39 yeah, Rob Martin.
29:42 What would be, what would be the total, like the over under between that and those two
29:46 offenses, because like, I think, I think the 2010 average, like 12.3 points a game and
29:54 this often can't get above 18.
29:57 So probably 25, 27, like seriously.
30:01 Cause again, when I was watching this, I think if we knew who was playing, we would have
30:08 Rose wrote to the, Oh, we played us.
30:11 Okay.
30:12 We're playing the future.
30:13 Us.
30:14 We're going to beat the snot out of them youngsters.
30:16 But that question came up cause we were like, cause even 20, 2001, the one in 15 season
30:23 where Chris Winky was quarterback.
30:25 That one was, I remember them being competitive that year and just losing games.
30:31 Like it wasn't like they were getting blown out.
30:33 2010.
30:34 It was just, it was just hard to get in the, in the end zone.
30:37 I just remember it was very similar to, you know, what they're experiencing now where
30:43 it's like, you feel like every game you find another way to lose type of syndrome.
30:50 I remember going up to Pittsburgh, playing Pittsburgh.
30:53 I don't know if it was a Thursday night game or Friday or Monday night game, Sunday night
30:58 game, but it was cold and we had, we, we should have beat them and we just couldn't move the
31:05 ball.
31:06 It was just like, yeah.
31:07 Like I remember like scratching and clawing, I was still farming people, all kinds of stuff.
31:16 It just won't work.
31:17 Could the 2010 coaching staff get more out of this roster?
31:20 2010 was John Fox.
31:23 Last year John Fox.
31:26 Probably.
31:27 Probably.
31:28 So.
31:29 Coach Fox would have gotten, coach, I think coach Fox would have done well with this roster.
31:35 I think he would have done well with Bryce, like in terms of, hey man, it is what it is,
31:39 man.
31:40 Just move on.
31:41 Yeah.
31:42 It's a bad day to have a bad day.
31:44 The, let's, let's, let's get into it.
31:47 The main event for today, the trials of the Carolina Panthers.
31:51 I wanted to do something that we could look forward to over the next four weeks.
31:54 And obviously the fan base has been kind of chomping at the bit to kind of figure out
31:58 who, who's the most responsible for what we were witnessing out here.
32:01 And I want to start off at the very, very top Panthers owner, David Tepper.
32:05 I went and pulled two things.
32:06 I've been holding onto something for about a month.
32:09 I remembered from back on draft day when we drafted Bryce, if you remember Scott Fitter
32:15 and Frank Wright were at the podium, they're talking about them picking.
32:18 And then like out of nowhere, like from a door, yeah, he just kind of popped out.
32:23 David Tepper just like, Hey, what's up?
32:25 And he just started talking to us all of a sudden with no microphone.
32:28 He just started going into detail.
32:30 And he said something that now in hindsight, when I go back and listen to it, it explains
32:36 so much in terms of like what we've been watching.
32:41 And I wanted to go pull it and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna play this part here for you guys
32:49 to to hear him to discuss why they picked Bryce Young and, and the logic behind it here.
32:58 Which one of these guys will be, you know, a guy that can take us here?
33:01 What's the probability that this guy can take us?
33:03 There's no sure thing.
33:04 So not to talk about all the different guys, but we thought this guy had the highest probability
33:09 of winning Super Bowls.
33:10 And I think for myself, and I don't want to speak for Frank, and I think he feels this
33:13 guy, we told this guy, listen, you want to win Super Bowls.
33:17 And you know, there's no sure thing here, but it's a probability sort.
33:20 And we thought this guy has the best probability of winning us Super Bowls.
33:25 You know, the way he throws the ball, the way his point guard, how you can use the different
33:29 players in the field, how you might not have to have as many elite receivers because he's
33:34 the point guard, right?
33:36 So he distributes the ball to people with routes.
33:38 So you can save some money there, you know, we believe we can save money other places
33:42 because of it and put that money into the defensive side of the ball.
33:46 So it's like, this is a guy that when you talk about here for us, for this Carolina
33:52 Panthers team, from, you know, from the time, you know, I guess, you know, Matt Roland,
33:57 talk about the process we went through.
34:00 Did anybody pick up what that man just said in front of all of us here?
34:05 He literally just basically told us that by us drafting Bryce Young, we picked Bryce because
34:10 we felt like if we had Bryce, he could be the point guard and we could spend less money
34:15 on skill position players because Bryce could distribute the ball.
34:19 Did I hear that correctly?
34:20 Did he not just say that to us?
34:22 Yeah, yeah, because that's what I'm hearing.
34:26 So if that's what he's saying, think about what we have on this roster right now, like
34:31 in terms of what they did, like immediately after that took place, they went out and signed
34:37 DJ Chark and Hayden Hearst and a 33 year old Adam Thielen.
34:41 They overspent on Miles Sanders probably, but they pretty much did what David Tepper
34:45 said.
34:46 They didn't spend a whole lot of money on skill position players because they had Bryce
34:49 and they felt like if they had Bryce at point, he could elevate these other players, which
34:54 goes back to what I was saying at the beginning of the show.
34:55 The number one overall pick usually pick that player because that player can elevate those
35:00 around him.
35:01 You don't usually pick somebody at number one that needs a bunch of things around him
35:04 in order for him to be successful.
35:06 And that's what I keep hearing from the Bryce Young camp.
35:08 That's not what David Tepper was saying on draft day, but the thing that stuck out to
35:11 me was the whole we're going to save money here and there by doing that.
35:17 It sounds like he's running the Panthers like a hedge fund.
35:20 That's what it feels like.
35:21 It feels like when things go wrong, he dumps early, he gets out of the market if the stock's
35:26 going down, BC something going up, he'll take a chance on it pretty quick, but you can't
35:30 run a football team this way.
35:32 And that was the very first thing I thought of and went back to go find it to make sure
35:35 I heard it right.
35:36 Was him making that comment.
35:37 Because I don't remember any of us really making a big deal out of what he said at the
35:42 time.
35:43 None of us, not that I can remember in the press or media or anything, nobody was really
35:46 like, what do you mean by that?
35:48 That they're not going to spend on skill position players.
35:50 And now we've seen it, we've seen the plan.
35:52 So I want to get your reactions to that sound bite that was back in April on draft night
35:59 from David Tepper.
36:00 And now looking at it in hindsight in December and the way we've seen this roster constructed,
36:04 did he pretty much tell us what he was going to do?
36:06 Or was that just kind of off the cuff type thing where he didn't know what he was talking
36:09 about?
36:10 I mean, I guess I'll go first so Stu can kind of clean this up here.
36:18 Part of me feels like that whole spiel, I mean, it's draft night, they're all having
36:25 a good time, right?
36:27 And they're feeling good about themselves.
36:29 They're just having a good old grand old time.
36:31 And I think just the overwhelming excitement.
36:35 When you're an owner and you have the first overall pick, you're going to say a lot of
36:38 things you probably don't need to be saying.
36:40 And hindsight is 20/20.
36:43 Should he even spoke there?
36:45 Maybe, maybe not.
36:48 Again, this was set up for Scott and Frank, like Des mentioned.
36:53 Tepper came in through the same door, but was kind of standing off to the side.
36:57 And then he just kind of randomly interjected right there, that clip that you just showed.
37:01 No one asked him a question, he just popped in and started talking.
37:04 Took over.
37:05 It's the excitement taking over the fandom as an owner that you have.
37:09 But look, regardless of what good quarterbacks, or what quarterbacks there have been throughout
37:18 the league, the really good ones still have really good pieces around them.
37:21 Joe Burrow has Chase Young.
37:23 Trevor Lawrence right now has Calvin Riddle.
37:26 Patrick Mahomes had Tyreek Hill.
37:27 You see what the Chiefs have looked like without much of a receiving court, even with Mahomes
37:33 a quarterback.
37:34 Brock Purdy, look how, I mean, he's been good, but look, my goodness, all the weapons
37:39 that he's had.
37:40 You go throughout the years, Big Ben, Antonio Brown, Cam Newton had Steve Smith for a spell.
37:48 Every good player has to have talent around them.
37:50 It's hard to judge Bryce Young when he can't even do his job.
37:54 He doesn't have time to throw the football.
37:56 And then when he does, we're seeing guys slip on the turf, or not run a route hard, which
38:01 leads to an interception, or they're dropping passes, there's no run game.
38:06 It looks like there's 15 guys on the field for the opposing team on the Panther side
38:11 of the football.
38:12 Because there's- >> That's a great, yeah.
38:15 It feels like everything is hard.
38:18 The most simplest plays just look like they're run in mud, like just everything, three yards
38:24 is hard to get.
38:26 It's just so hard.
38:28 The thing about Tepper is he's very involved.
38:30 We all know this.
38:33 How involved he is on a day-to-day basis, and all these rumors about him going to somebody
38:38 with a play, I don't know how true that stuff is.
38:41 I don't know anybody will know that.
38:43 But the next coach that comes in, and I wrote about this, has to have an understanding that
38:50 this owner is going to want to win right away, as they all do.
38:54 But he's going to be heavily involved, and that coach can't be affected by that.
39:00 I think Frank Reich, when he was an Indy, he kind of dealt with this with Jim Mercer.
39:06 And I feel like it was just like, I got to deal with this again.
39:10 And some coaches may not be affected by that.
39:13 I think Frank was just kind of like, I've already been through this before.
39:16 I just want to do my job.
39:17 You know what I mean?
39:19 That's just kind of how I read it.
39:21 And me and Sheena Quick and Vashti Hart, we were talking about this earlier last week.
39:27 It's almost like the Panthers need to get an alpha male as a head coach.
39:32 Somebody that just commands the room, tells you what it is, doesn't care.
39:36 If the owner comes to him, yeah, we'll sit down and talk, but I'm not going to be affected
39:40 by it.
39:41 And I think that's what they need moving forward.
39:43 I don't know who that's going to be, but Tepper's got to find that.
39:47 And he still has to understand his place in this business.
39:50 He has to understand football guys have to do the football things.
39:54 I can still intervene, but he's got to be willing to take a step back.
39:58 If he has his hands all over this thing, it's going to be hard for him to find any progress.
40:03 >> See, I don't know if he can.
40:05 That's the thing, because everything we've seen the past six years, he's pretty much
40:08 been a hands-on owner in terms of his fingerprints are pretty much on everything.
40:14 So I started off with him with these trials, because the buck stops with him.
40:18 He's made it that way.
40:19 >> He said it himself too, buck stops with me.
40:23 >> Yeah, Jim Harbaugh is the first name that came to mind when you're talking about that
40:25 kind of coach.
40:26 Steve Wilkes was the second.
40:27 >> He mentioned it.
40:28 >> You know, commanding him.
40:29 >> Who I mentioned, Tashina and Vashti, and obviously he's not going to come open.
40:34 But I'm just saying someone like him would be like a Dan Campbell type guy.
40:38 >> Yeah.
40:39 >> Someone you would just run through a wall for.
40:41 >> Ron Rivera.
40:42 >> Yeah.
40:43 >> Ron Rivera was kind of like that, in my opinion.
40:45 It was funny, that Amazon series that they did on the Panthers, I think it was the 2017
40:50 Panthers, 28, it was the year Kim got hurt, the shoulder thing in Pittsburgh.
40:56 And people were shocked, because Ron Rivera at halftime of that Pittsburgh game was in
41:02 the locker room talking to the team, and he was cussing everybody out.
41:06 And nobody really heard Ron like that before.
41:07 So everybody's like, my gosh.
41:11 >> Being a head coach, you need someone that's gonna be able to delegate.
41:17 And the thing is, as hands on as you think head coaches are, they really shouldn't be
41:27 so hands on and in the mix of every single thing, because it's impossible to actually
41:32 do that if you are delegating.
41:36 You as a head coach, whoever that person's gonna be next, you have to trust your offensive
41:48 coordinator, your defensive coordinator, your position coaches to coach.
41:53 You're coaching the coaches.
41:54 You know what I'm saying?
41:55 You coach the coaches on what you want to see as a final product.
42:02 And as well as the other things, there's the business side to it, showing up for the fans
42:10 and tickets and making sure you're getting all those things promoted and whatnot as not
42:18 the face of the franchise, but as the delegator of the franchise.
42:23 You know what I'm saying?
42:25 So being able to talk with the owner and being able to have thick skin with the owner, being
42:30 able to say what you mean and mean what you say, you know what I'm saying?
42:40 And be able to have something to back that up.
42:44 And I think this situation, as it continues to build and we keep on losing games, the
42:52 expectation of winning is gonna continue to grow.
42:56 So this job is not gonna be for the faint at heart.
43:01 So you gotta come in here with your bootstraps and your bulletproof vest and get to work.
43:12 - The other component to this trial of David Tepper that I pulled up here when I was talking
43:17 to Joe Person last week on franchise players, something I hadn't even thought about it really,
43:22 but David Tepper's owned this team for six years.
43:26 Who has he paid other than Christian McCaffrey?
43:29 He hasn't doled out any kind of major contract.
43:31 - He paid Matt Ruhle.
43:32 - He paid Matt Ruhle, yeah.
43:33 He paid Matt Ruhle.
43:34 - That's what I'm saying, fellas.
43:35 Next year, this free agency is gonna be something to look at.
43:44 - This makes me worry about that though, 'cause he hasn't made sure of the money.
43:48 But we gotta make sure we hire the correct people and we gotta make sure that the end
43:57 of this season goes as it needs to go.
44:00 So that way guys in the free agency market sees the Carolina Panthers as some place they
44:05 wanna be at.
44:08 - Here's a clip from last week describing that.
44:10 David Tepper hasn't really paid anybody since he's been here in six years.
44:13 And I hadn't really thought about it except for Christian McCaffrey.
44:16 And then they traded him off in a panic week after they fired Matt Ruhle.
44:19 And looking back on it, it's like, why did you trade him again?
44:21 I'm trying to figure out why you traded this dude for no reason really.
44:24 Like they just kind of traded him out of here.
44:26 So--
44:27 - And then they held on to Brian Burns when he could have brought even more assets than
44:31 McCaffrey.
44:32 - The Rams have been sniffing around twice for this dude.
44:35 And each time they're like, no, no, we're gonna get him.
44:37 We got him.
44:38 But at this point, if you're Brian Burns, what's gonna make you resign here?
44:42 You're gonna be on your sixth head coach like in six years or whatever.
44:45 So it's just a mess.
44:49 So thinking about that, I'm like, well, they haven't paid anybody.
44:54 Like they haven't paid anybody other than McCaffrey.
44:56 And when they did McCaffrey, remember, it was basically the dismantling of the 2015
45:03 team at that point.
45:04 Like Cam had been cut, Luke had retired, Jordan Gross was kind of forced into retirement the
45:08 way I remember it.
45:10 TD got cut, Stu moved on.
45:14 Like all of you guys kind of moved on right there at 2018, 2017, 2018 season.
45:20 And then just out the blue, they signed McCaffrey to this big extension because they wanted
45:24 him to be the face of the franchise in the transition, right?
45:28 I think Luke Keekly retiring and what happened with Cam especially is what pushed them to
45:33 give McCaffrey that money.
45:34 But then you trade them two years later and you haven't signed Brian Burns, Derek Brown's
45:40 coming up.
45:42 I'm just kind of thinking about you didn't sign Hassan Reddick, which you could have
45:46 kept, which would have been huge.
45:48 You didn't keep Stephon Gilmore.
45:51 Like all these players that they didn't retain.
45:54 And a lot of that, some of that has to go to the owner, right?
45:56 Like it's his decision to spend the money.
45:58 I think that means to his defense in some way, you have to be careful with when you
46:04 spend your money.
46:05 You can't put the cart in front of the horse.
46:07 You've got to be careful in how you use your resources.
46:11 You don't want to spend millions of dollars when you don't even have an answer quarterback.
46:16 And for the better part of his ownership, you were trying to search for that guy quarterback.
46:22 When they found the quarterback that they liked, Bryce, we don't know if he's going
46:25 to be a franchise guy or not, but that's what they're thinking he's going to be.
46:29 Now you can start really trying to invest into this team and start putting that money
46:34 into free agents or trades or whatever, because you've already done it.
46:38 You've already invested so much into getting Bryce Young.
46:41 Now you're all the way in.
46:43 You can't back out now.
46:45 Before, you had to find that guy quarterback.
46:49 You're not going to spend millions of dollars on a Hassan Reddick, even though it'd be nice
46:53 to keep him, and other guys when you don't even have an answer quarterback.
46:58 If you don't have an answer quarterback, you're not going anywhere.
47:01 I think you need to spend money.
47:04 But now it's reversed.
47:05 Now you think you might have an answer quarterback, but you don't know for sure because you have
47:08 nothing around him.
47:09 It's because you let it all go or you traded it all away.
47:11 Yeah, it's like a chicken and egg.
47:14 Now what do you do?
47:15 You can't protect the asset you just brought in because you didn't keep anything before
47:18 you brought him in.
47:19 A lot of that's got to go to me, to David Tepper.
47:22 If we're trying to do this in a pie chart, who has more responsibility or blame or whatnot,
47:27 I think you got to give David Tepper a hard 40, 50% of this.
47:33 Because some of this is based off of things he has told us.
47:36 He's flat out told us this is the plan.
47:38 This is what we're doing.
47:39 He didn't lie.
47:40 They did exactly what he said, and it didn't work out.
47:43 So now it's like you didn't hire fan favorite Steve Wilkes, who I just saw that clip of
47:49 him when he won that first game in the locker room where Tepper gave him the game ball.
47:54 That was the peak of the past six years probably, right there when Wilkes won that game and
48:00 the emotion in that locker room.
48:01 We were all thinking this is Panther football.
48:04 This is what we remember Panther football being.
48:07 Then he kind of pushed that out and wanted something fresh and something new, something
48:10 that pops, get the crowd going.
48:13 It never did.
48:14 Now-
48:15 That's twice on coaches.
48:17 Twice.
48:18 You've got to get the third one right.
48:21 I don't have a lot of faith that they're going to, if they're going to do the same process,
48:24 especially if fitters with it and fitters probably next week.
48:28 But if there is involved in the same coaching search that he just was in, what makes me
48:32 think they're going to bring in anything different, especially if he's stuck on this offensive
48:36 minded coach thing that I keep hearing that he wants offensive minded coach.
48:41 I just want the best coach.
48:42 I just want a guy that can lead a room.
48:44 You don't have to be offensive minded.
48:45 That's what the offensive coordinator is for.
48:48 That's why I didn't understand.
48:49 Why is Thomas Brown even here?
48:51 What was he doing the whole year?
48:52 If he wasn't calling plays, what do you do if you're the offensive coordinator and you're
48:56 not calling plays?
48:57 What's your role?
48:58 That's what I heard.
48:59 What did you do?
49:00 Wow, boy.
49:01 But why is this man here?
49:02 Listen, man, he's here because they thought that he can make, that he can, you know, do
49:08 something.
49:09 He was still here.
49:10 What are you doing here?
49:11 They thought that they, he had the juice and that he would call the right plays.
49:15 That's why he's here.
49:16 Oh man.
49:17 Oh, it's such a mess.
49:18 Um, real quick, before we get out of here, um, I wanted to address the offsides call
49:25 in the Kansas city Buffalo game on Sunday night.
49:28 Um, what's the wide receivers name?
49:31 Uh, he has been dragged all year on social media for drops and things in that.
49:39 Um, I see both sides of it because on one hand I see where my home is coming from.
49:44 You don't want to call play like that.
49:45 I mean, you don't want to call a flag on something like that at that part of the game.
49:49 But to, I think it was Rex Ryan that mentioned this and Dan Olofsky, it is the water receivers
49:55 responsibility to check, to make sure that they are not offsides.
49:58 It's not the referee's responsibility to tell the water receiver.
50:01 He did check, but he didn't even look at the ref.
50:04 Yeah.
50:05 I think he looked at the ball, but if he did, he clearly could see that it's right there.
50:09 Like he's blocking the refs view of the ball.
50:11 Like you are off side, sir.
50:12 Like you can't do that.
50:13 It's one of those things as young, young players have to develop good habits, you know, and
50:20 I think that's basically the underlying story here is that there is Tony, you know, they
50:27 showed multiple clips where he was offsides.
50:29 You know, and that, that goes back to his tendencies.
50:34 Right.
50:35 And, um, I mean, one can argue, Hey, rough, give us an actual warning.
50:42 Um, so that way we know about it.
50:46 And if that didn't happen, then shame on the ref, but at the end of the day, the rules
50:53 are the rules.
50:54 You got to follow the rules.
50:55 Yeah.
50:56 And none of this would have been, you know, a big deal.
50:59 And I'm pretty sure he knew that this big play was about to come to him.
51:03 So I don't know.
51:04 It doesn't look like it was scripted.
51:06 Like if you watch it, he was, he was actually pouting.
51:09 He was pouting on the route because he got like almost doubled on the route.
51:13 Yeah.
51:14 Like you see them like throw like a fist, like, or whatever.
51:16 And he turned around and he's jogging up the field and all of a sudden he's just a gamer.
51:22 Yeah.
51:23 Like literally it was not a plan play.
51:25 Like Kelsey just decided to take it into his own hands.
51:27 And that's what Tony was like.
51:29 He was lollygagging kind of behind the play.
51:31 Cause he was either, he was mad.
51:32 There was no pass interference or what we looked at or whatever.
51:35 And the next thing you know, he started in for touchdown.
51:38 I just put it all back on, you know, tendencies, right?
51:41 He's got, he's got to practice better habits.
51:43 So that way he doesn't put his team in that situation ever again.
51:47 And then I think the referee has got to figure out, you know, NFL's got to figure out what
51:53 can, what's good, what calls that are changing the outcomes of the game.
52:00 Like we need more consistency.
52:02 You know what I'm saying?
52:03 If guys are going to be lined up offsides, you need to go to your protocol.
52:07 Hey, you're offsides, throw the flag.
52:10 So that way guys know if it's not, if it's a gray area type of penalty, then Hey, let's,
52:19 let's not call it.
52:20 Let's not throw the flag from the most pivotal point of the game, groundbreaking, you know,
52:27 part of the game.
52:28 Cause I mean, you know, we seen, I think it was the chiefs earlier on in the, in the year
52:33 where they had an offensive tackle that was shooting off, like off the line of scrimmage.
52:39 Oh yeah.
52:40 You're right.
52:41 Yeah.
52:42 Yeah.
52:43 Was it them?
52:44 I think so.
52:45 Stuff like that where you just missing because, Oh, well I don't have time for that.
52:47 Like I'll let that slide.
52:48 Like if you're going to let things slide, then let, let things slide.
52:53 But if you're going to be accountable, then hold people accountable.
52:58 Practice good habits for all the young receivers out here, out there.
53:02 You know, just, just check with the coach, just check with the referee, make sure the
53:06 referee sees you give a double tape, get to you, get lined up.
53:11 That's why it's important to get lined up and know what you're doing.
53:15 So that way you feel like you're not rushed into your, you know, to what you have to do
53:23 and check with the referee double take.
53:26 So he sees you yell at him if he can't see you.
53:28 And then yeah, I see this in the high school level all the time.
53:32 So obviously we'll go out.
53:33 The first thing they do is look at the ref and check to make sure they're on side.
53:36 The ref will give a thumbs up and they're good to go.
53:39 And Tony never looked at the ref at all.
53:41 He's over here looking at the snap.
53:44 Like I mean, that's why I'm like, how do you not know you're offside?
53:46 You're looking at the ball.
53:48 Like you're right.
53:49 Literally.
53:50 Like you're the only person in the neutral zone.
53:51 Like you can see it and you just kept on going and you probably negated one of the
53:56 greatest plays in NFL history.
53:58 Because like I literally, I jumped up out my couch and was screaming.
54:02 I was like, Oh my gosh, did you just, my wife's in here on headphones, like playing solitaire
54:06 or something on her computer and not even paying attention.
54:09 Yeah.
54:10 She got playing crazy parts of solitaire too.
54:13 And I'm like, Oh my God, that was the greatest play I've ever seen.
54:16 And she's like, what, what?
54:17 Like she's like annoyed that I'm being loud during the game.
54:21 Like you got to see the replay.
54:23 You got to see the replay.
54:24 And then next time I watch the game on your computer and with your headphones on.
54:29 Yeah.
54:30 She probably would appreciate that more.
54:31 That way she can focus on her solitaire man.
54:34 Well, it's a Skylar.
54:36 How to get out.
54:37 He had a sports illustrated meeting.
54:38 He had to get to an 1130.
54:40 We're about to bounce as well.
54:42 Next week we'll do Scott fitter, Panther trials.
54:45 The Panthers taking on who we got this week.
54:48 I've completely forgotten who we were playing.
54:52 It is the Falcons.
54:56 They want to clock on Fox.
54:57 I believe that's a home game.
55:00 We're not mistaken.
55:01 No, no.
55:02 They came up here when we played them early in the year.
55:04 So that's no, no, no.
55:05 We went to Atlanta.
55:06 Yeah.
55:07 So that's it.
55:08 That's a bank from America stadium.
55:11 And then the Packers on Christmas Eve, the week following that Jaguars on New Year's
55:15 Eve right after that.
55:17 So that's some interesting matchups coming up here.
55:20 We'll get a chance to see Jordan Love and the Packers in two weeks.
55:22 I don't know who the Falcons are going to be starting a quarterback at this point, because
55:24 my understanding was Desmond Ritter's pretty much done.
55:27 But we'll, we'll see.
55:30 But other than that, make sure you rate and subscribe all major podcast platforms.
55:35 Go to youtube.com forward slash at tobacco road, sports radio, subscribe there.
55:39 You can get the notifications for when we go live.
55:42 Usually it's on Tuesday, sometimes in the afternoon, sometimes in the early morning.
55:45 This will be up on the bleed podcast network, the audio version of it here a little bit
55:49 later on today.
55:51 And just appreciate everybody that stops by, gives comments.
55:54 I know it's been a hard season is one of the toughest seasons I've ever had trying to cover
55:58 the Panthers, but I feel like Panther content creators are kind of banding together to make
56:02 sure we give you guys fresh content and you still be somewhat entertained over the course
56:05 of the season.
56:06 And we'll eventually get into, you know, draft talk, coaching, search, all that stuff.
56:11 We're used to it at this point.
56:12 So we know what it is about that time of the year.
56:15 After we get out of it, good times are ahead.
56:19 Everybody get into the holiday spirit.
56:22 Yeah.
56:23 Good.
56:24 We have two weeks.
56:25 Yeah, we're going to be all right.
56:28 The good thing is that the league is set up for some really good finishes in every division.
56:33 It seems like a lot of six and seven and seven and sixes.
56:37 So look, you know, grab a bag of potato chips, your favorite beverage.
56:43 Don't let the panther couch.
56:44 Yeah.
56:45 Don't let the panther bring it.
56:46 Yeah.
56:47 Don't let your heart down.
56:48 There's a lot of good things going on out here in this world.
56:51 That's right.
56:52 There's a lot of bad, too.
56:53 And so it could always be worse.
56:56 So until next week, we'll see where we are next week for Skylar Callahan and Jonathan
57:02 Stewart.
57:03 I'm Desmond Johnson.
57:04 You've been watching and listening to the Believe in Carolina Panthers podcast here
57:06 on Believe Podcast Networks presented by BET online.