This week on the Happy half Hour.
What they've tried to do in general is teach master's level classes to a freshman. And he's a smart freshman. He's a precocious freshman, but he's still a freshman. So I think some of this was to be expected. But you know, again, as you mentioned, Augusta, there are positive signs.
It's I.
It's time for the Happy half Hour with your friends Kristin Balboni, Augusta Stone, and Darren Gannon. Welcome to the Happy half Hour. It's Thursday, October fifth. And sometimes I say things like that to remind myself what day it is, especially today because I'm struggling with a little bit of a cold, but we're playing through. I've got a Gusta Stone sitting over there on the other side.
Of the room.
Hello, Thursday.
Quick way to figure out Thursday is that we start our day with the podcast.
That's what I think.
Oh yeah, that's right. We always are here, so uh yeah, good news. Okay, So it's Thursday, It's the Happy half Hour, and this episode of The Happy half Hour is brought to you by Prowling Vineyards, Napa Valley. They're the official wine brand and wine Club at the Carolina Panthers. These premium selections celebrate the great people of the Carolinas and the panthers hunger to achieve excellence on and off the field.
Each handcrafted wine mirrors the panthers bold attitude and the iconic flavors onto the two states we're proud to call home. Experience the benefits and lifestyle while giving back to the community as a portion of the proceeds support the Carolina Panthers' charities. Learn more at Prowlingvineyards dot com.
There you go. I'm sure they're proud of that.
Read with me sounding like I'm at the bottom of a well or something.
But anyway, maybe they make cough.
Syrup proud Prowlers.
You can say a lot with the prow but yeah, I know cough syrup would be coff Syrup's good. I have a ton of cough drops still in my bag from the many times at my throat sore. Just randomly. I am a cough drop squirrel. I swear, but sometimes I just like the taste.
I don't know if that's healthy.
So if you have any cough drops here and I got you and toms, I keep tombs on me too. I'm kind of like a twenty five year old, you know, never had children, but I kind of carry my bag like a diaper bag. I have a lot of random stuff in there at any given moment, like ibuprofen, toms. I used to keep those little gas pills like I kind of got anyone covered.
It's like a mini pharmacy in there.
Yeah.
Well, it's a it's a little bit of a running joke around my family. My cure for my children. All the time they would come in saying they felt sick, and I'd be like, have you had a banana? Have you taken advil? Are you drinking water? Maybe a gatorade
to hydrate yourself? And so this morning, when I was feeling a little under the weather, I grabbed my banana and gatorade and advil and send a picture of it to my daughter and she's like, oh, no, it's going to be one of those days if you're self medicating. So that's the kind of science I'm performing out here, and you know, it's it's not great, but we're playing.
Through it exactly.
Stand happy, because that's what you do in October, you play through it.
I think the Panthers you'll learn in that too.
I mean, you know, we have, sure the OHO and four start two pretty tough rim matchups ahead.
Than the bye, but no way to go but forward.
And I think that's something that we've kind of surmised from the conversations we've had throughout the week. And you know, I mean we talked about on this podcast before, but you never feel a sense of panic. That's a good thing that you have from from Frank Reich being at the Helm. Everything seems pretty procedural around here. And I mean, say what you will about the Vikings game. I think if you look a look at the tape, it wasn't it wasn't a win. It wasn't you know, the result
they wanted. But Bryce Young improved. That's something I think you can think about. Looked better, more efficient, better rating, better stats. So that's something we could talk about to start we're doing the Happy half Hour.
You could talk about Bryce Young.
He he started out, you know, he's he's getting better and without you know, four losses, he's only played in three of the games. He's back, he's healthy. We have Austin Corbett returning to practice. That was a big storyline that was exciting. Darren has been writing the heck out of some features every eighth but this one came a little early because had some exciting news that he was back on the field yesterday. So we have we have a litany of things we could talk about that aren't horrible and.
Austin, you know, and the good news is we call this the happy half hour. I've never considered it part of my charter to be happy every single day, so I will. Augusta's got a sonnier personality than I do. By nature of us, it's not that that's particularly hard to achieve. But congratulations on clearing that high bar, Augusta.
But no, I mean you mentioned Austin Corbett, and I think if there's anything to take out of the last couple of days, that's one of the things you can point to is a there's a buy coming up in a couple of weeks, which this team could use in a lot of ways to get some guys healthy. But it certainly looks like at some point, either immediately after that buyer shortly after it, Austin's going to be back
on the field. And when you think about the problems that things that have been consistent problems for the Carolina Panthers over the first four weeks of this year.
Interior offensive line.
Play has been up there near the top of the list, and you've been shuff on a lot of guys through there. You know, Cade May's Calvin Throckmorton, Chandlers of Allah took over after Brady Christiansen was hurt and out for the year. So and without Austin in there, there's been nothing resembling settled. And that's what's difficult for those guys to overcome because last year, and it's weird to keep referring to last
year because this is a completely new environment. Last year, new coaches, new offensive system, you know, new blocking scheme in a lot of.
Ways, and two new guards.
So it's hard to compare too many things. But because last year was so settled, I think this year being so unsettled feels a little jarring to a lot of people who were you know, there aren't that many guys who were still around, but for the people who saw what was going on in second half of last season and what's going on now, it's a little bit like, hey, what are.
We looking at?
And it's different too. I like how you pointed out schematic differences. And I know you have alluded to wanting to write about this this week, but kind of and Frank you asked him about it yesterday Wednesday's press conference, but kind of about how things are molding together. You know, you start out Thomas Brown talked a lot about with the playbook when they first got together, and how they kind of took a playbook, stripped it down to the bones,
and then kind of built from there. And now they're taking, you know, the time to sort of evaluate what has worked, what hasn't. When you're melding all of these mindes together, you have Frank, right, Thomas Brown, Jim Caldwell, Douce Daley, I mean, Josh McCown, Parks, Frasier and these are those are just the ones that've rolled off the top of my head that are touching this offense and kind of
you know, putting it together. So you have all of those new new thought, new thoughts people, and then you have all these new pieces as well. I mean kind of seeing how it's all going to come together. I think Frank said yesterday, you know that it's still gradual and it's still happening, and I wanted to know your evaluation, Darren, of how that's going through, because that's something that we've all kind of looked at and you know, how are they going to put it together? And now they're sort
of working through what worked, what hasn't. You know, how you play to the personnel that you have and kind of formulate all of that around. Like you mentioned guard play that hasn't been consistent, I mean personnel wise that hasn't been consistent, but also just trying to bring a rookie together with all these pieces, with all these people still you know, getting to know each other pretty much.
Right from February to July, when Frank would talk about his staff coming together, he kept using the phrase diversity of thought.
And that's a good thing.
I think anybody who's ever worked as a part of any kind of team, any kind of office situation where you've got different departments, knows you're better off if you've got people who think differently, and it just increases the number of variable It increases the number of perspectives that you can apply to any given problem. The problem with it, however, is it takes a minute for that to come together. Because right now, and I mean if you just strip
it down to the run game. Everybody thinks about second half last year here. That is a very different run game than Thomas Brown has been exposed to for the last couple of years in Los Angeles. It's very different than the Philadelphia run game that Frank Reich's got experience with and kind of comes out of that style of offense. So I think getting all those perspectives, you know, I keep because this is theater of their mind and you
can obviously see what I'm doing. I've been doing a thing where I take my hands and I spread my fingers out and I lay them kind of crossways from each other, and it's like, if they can get all of these crossways fingers pointed in the same direction, all of a sudden, they'll be on to something. And right now there, I think things are just a little bit off, and trying to get those pieces together, I mean trying to get the basically, take people who speak three different
languages and get them speaking the same one. Let me tell you they're downstairs busting at due Lingo, trying to get all together as quickly as they can, and I think it's natural that that takes time. Now, once they achieve. Once they get to the place that they all want to get to.
There's the opportunity to do some good things.
But right now it's still very much a learning process, and I think it's kind of reasonable to think that was going to take a minute.
Now.
Obviously nobody expects oh and four, and Frank kind of shrugs and goes through the whole. It's like he's got a paragraph in his head that he feels compelled to say that, hey, oh and four is not okay. We did expect to be better than this. We know people want us to be better than this. He says all that kind of stuff. But at the base of it is always but we knew this was going to take some time. So I think this is the unfortunate growing period,
arning period with each other. But you know, that's that's what happens when smart people get together and try to solve problems together. It doesn't always work out. I mentioned my miraculous cure for whatever ails you, whether it's an ear infection or a common cold or a broken wrist, it's gatorade, banana, advil sleep. And you know, my wife happens to be a pediatrician. And when my kids mentioned to her that that was my cure for that. She
was like, oh, does he think that works? And so, you know, smart people can disagree and come to different conclusions about what may work and what may not work, but when they all get on the same page, it can produce positive results. So we will see as this week progresses. You know, Detroit is a tough place to try to get a run game fixed, and you know, they're up the top of the charts in most of
your defensive categories in that phase of the game. And I just think that one of my pet things about football is Okay, if something's not working, don't do that anymore, or don't do as much of that. The things that you're good at, do more of those, because that's.
A good thing.
And so this isn't necessarily the week to try to get your run game right against the Detroit Lions. Obviously, and again here I go back to last year. Obviously they ran well against the Lions.
Last year.
Everything was different.
Oh my goodness, I was thinking about that. But I will say that was at least to me. I remember that game so well, freezing cold Christmas Eve, so many different memories. I don't think we necessarily expected that to happen either, not saying that it's the same, completely different teams on both sides of the ball, but I mean, you.
Know, stranger things have happened.
We were all kind of, I think, you know, kind of surprised at how that turned out. Now again, personnel what nothing is the same, and that's very very clearly being communicated. However, it was a good matchup last year, and while things have changed, saying they're gonna run down their throats or anything, but I mean, I really do feel optimistic about about what Bryce has shown.
I think Bryce Young is showing.
That you know, he's a rookie A but B he's accountable. For one, I was rewatching the TV broadcast and seeing his leadership. What they were able to see on the cameras and stuff was really really cool for a.
Guy that seems so.
You know, calm and quiet and cool at press conferences, even around the locker room.
You know, he's not the he's not the shouting type, he's not the in your face type.
But but seeing him kind of, I don't know, he's stepping into his own here. He has a month of NFL experience, he's going into his fourth game. Now, I think what you're seeing from Bryce is what you want to see, is you want to talk about, you know, areas of the offense in which they look to improve. I think, you know, they're kind of getting what they what they expected to in an early, early, early stage,
and he's not regressing, which is positive. I think he did learn from that week watching Andy up in Seattle, I mean, completely different quarterbacks, but I think seeing his veteran leadership and the way that he was able.
To kind of comf go out there kind of helped him out too.
So I mean that's I I can't I can't help but emphasize that that Bryce Young is kind of doing everything that he can at this stage in his career so early, but also kind of with the situation around him that hopefully will continue to improve with health and with whatever else the Panthers might have, you know, cooking up, scheming up for him.
And I think they got to be careful in how much cooking they try to do. There's a common theme this year and again to go back to last year. Again, they took a they took a playbook that was this thick about size of the Manhattan phone Book and turned it.
Do you know what a phone book is?
Absolutely?
Okay, oh yeah, all right.
I just sometimes I like to check myself on cultural references to make sure there's still Jamaine.
I will say, I grew up rural, so I'm a little bit behind, Like I had dial up internet and stuff, and I have friends that did not. So shout out Chickamauga, Georgia. When you grew up rural, you're about ten five, ten years behind everybody else. So I had things in the late nineties that were.
Probably in the early nineties.
So do you know what Manhattan is?
Manhattan like the drink, Well.
It meant the borough of New York. Oh yeah, the rural urban kind of thing.
At any rate, where were we, you know, last year's playbook when when they were having success here running the ball, they took a playbook size of the Manhattan phone Book and turned it.
Into a pamphlet.
You can't win in the NFL with a pamphlet sized offensive playbook. I mean, they were able to pull together some games last year and do that, but the whole point of hiring Frank Reich and all these coaches was to build that playbook back up to an adult size. Again, And I think if anything's been clear over the first four weeks, is that starting Even though Bryce is a brilliant processor and nail DS two test and all those kind of things we talked about all spring, those things.
Are still true.
It's still a lot for any player to process because the speed of NFL players on defense, there's windows are closing faster. Even though he played at a high level in Alabama, it's still very different because Alabama was playing people who are practice squad corners now and they're playing NFL corners every week. So it's an adjustment for Bryce.
I think the adjustment phase is real. I joked in the mail bag the other day, I wish I had a hot key for Peyton Manning led the league in interceptions with twenty eight in his first year in the cole twent three to thirteen, just to remind people that even the very best rookies, the highest processing rookies, are still rookies and it's going to take them a minute.
So I think, if anything, what you might see in the next couple of weeks is some degree of pulling back, some degree of Okay, let's find the things that Bryce is good at. Let's find those easy throws. I mean, I don't mean to take away from CJ.
Stroud.
He's an incredibly talented player and is off to a great start in Houston, and that's created some unfortunate comparisons for Bryce.
But CJ.
Stroud's playing in a very different offense I think in terms of at least what they're trying to do here and the way they're sending Bryce through reads and different things. It's just more complex than what the Texans are asking CJ to do. And you can ask yourself, and I think it's a fair question, well, what's smart trying to do something complicated or do something simple? Well, And you know, right now things are going well for CJ.
Stroud.
We'll see how he develops over the course of his career. But I think what they've tried to do in general is teach Masters level classes to a freshman. And he's a smart freshman, he's a precocious freshman, but he's still a freshman. So I think this was some of this was to be expected. But you know, again, as you
mentioned Augusta, there are positive signs. One of my pet stats, everybody's got theirs in football, and mine's always been kind of yards per pass attempt, and it's gone three point eight, four point six, six point something last week, and so you're seeing that steady progression in Bryce throwing more of those quote unquote adult passes. The third down play to Thieln where he steps up in the pocket last week and finds Outam coming across the middle of the field.
That was a big time throw. And that was a.
Throw of all the many quarterbacks we've seen here over the last five years. We haven't seen a lot of guys who are making.
That play exactly exactly.
And I kind of wanted to also shift to the defensive side of the ball because that's an area I think in which I mean the Panther saw a lot of success last week. I'm writing a story right now on DeShawn Jamison, who came in in a situation where maybe he didn't expect to play, came in for Dante Jackson. Again, we have a ton of injuries here at Bank of
America Stadium, and you know, just looting my coal. I was about to say, just kind of lots of people in the getting healed up right now, ir and everything, and Dante's one of them. Now, I mean banged up secondary and both starting quarterbacks out, so we had a undrafted Ricky who spent the offseason with the forty nine ers here, and he threw some of the plays, like I mean, there were two that I wrote about that kind of caught my eye, just as those kind of flash plays on defense.
Obviously, the block.
Up against Kirk Cousins on Sam Franklin's ninety nine yard interception return for a touchdown which made Panther's history, which was super exciting and kind of got this place really really excited at the very beginning of the game, just kind of laid him out of it is it's fun to watch in part of One of the angles I get to play off in my story is Deshaun Jamison's one of the smallest guys on the active rosteries five point nine, which puts him on deck with a raheem
blackshear in terms of high he's smaller, Kirk is not, you know, the tiniest person in the world.
Just lays him out and then.
We see him later big pass breakup against Justin Jefferson knocked him out for a little bit. Came back and think he may have been winded or something. He was down for a bit, but it was a clean tackle. I've watched it multiple times, found some angles on Twitter where you just kind of see him knock him down and he gets all excited and celebrate. And for a guy that's coming in, you know, he was waived at
the fifty three in San Francisco. If Panthers signed him off to the fifty three off waivers in that kind of wave with a throck Morton and cherrylist as well. But kind of got his playing time and did pretty well with and he didn't necessarily light up or stuff the stat sheet, but he created the kind of plays that like, when I left that game, I was like, well, dang, like this guy. He we said it a lot last season. It's kind of died this year. But has that dog
in him, you know what I mean. Came from Texas, super nice.
Guy to talk to.
So while these guys heal up, I think he was definitely a positive across a defense that has looked good despite all of.
The injuries that it's faced.
I mean, think about the impossible situations of trying to figure out a way to replace Shack Thompson and not being without JC for most of the season so far and now they were that X in the secondary. There's so many different pieces and they found a way to make it come together. And I think that's a testament to the job he Giero Evere has been able to do.
But also, I mean, you know, scoring points, making history, Sam Franklin wouldn't be necessarily on the field if things had gone the way that you'd expect them to do all of that.
So I don't know, I think that's something too that we can kind.
Of lean on and look at as a as a as a more positive thing where if you get the offensive side filled out, I mean, the good news is, you know, the defense is holding its own for the most part and kind of creating plays where they need to.
Sam's so funny because Sam is he's the juice guy in that locker room. He's always good for starting to fight on special teams or you know, making big plays in that area. And it kind of a couple of the guys mentioned to me the other day, they're like, it's killing Sam that he can't be on the punt team anymore, you know, while he's starting on defense.
So he really enjoys that part of it.
But because of the loss, and because the situation b a zero and four, I think everybody down there is little hesitant to be having too much fun right now. So Sam tried to low key it when he was talking to it's not.
A big dealer folksing on team goals all that kind.
Of stuff, and this tam and I said, Sam, Yeah, broke a record that was set by Julius Peppers. All right, you know, let's keep this in perspective for what it is. And it was one of the phenomenal plays in franchise history. And you know, again credit to Sean Jamison, who's not a big fellow, but he's getting after it and he's going to have opportunities to play a good bit, I mean, regardless of who comes back when. I think he's shown
that he's somebody that that coaching staff likes. And you know, kind of overarching on defense, I mean, they we've talked about this a lot. They've played pretty well. They're third in the league and third down defense at the moment, getting off the field at a twenty seven point something clip in that situation, and when you look at the parts they've put together, you wouldn't think, Okay, this is
a defense that they can count on. But the results have been there, and obviously you see why they go out and get Eja this saw season to run this defense because he's getting results out of an odd lot of players. I always like to use the comparison. I mean, it's it's like one of those cooking shows where you get the mystery basket and you got to make a meal out of it, because he never knows from one week to the next what he's going to have.
So those guys have been playing well.
So I'll say one thing.
The snap council looked completely different than they did last year. I mean just in terms of the defense getting off the field and offense kind of keeping the ball longer. And that's that's a trend you want to talk about trends. I remember last year specifically, it felt like it was always extremely lopsided the other way. Offense could not stay on the field, defense could not get off in terms
of you know, those like fundamental things. That is different and that I think that's kind of a good hint to a positive direction. Just being able to control the ball. I mean, I don't know, I just those were some we've seen some low defenses not kind of.
It was forty eight last week.
Yeah, forty eight snaps is way below average for an NFL game, and especially playing against the Vikings, who you know, can move it down the field and did run it pretty well, so you would think they would have been out there all day.
But what was it two to thirteen third down conversion? Yeah?
Yeah, maybe, or it was I mean two or one? It was expt any extremely Yeah, I know it was. It was so yeah, I think and to think about all the attrition of that group's been for you. I mean, they're without the soul of their their defense, I mean the soul of the team right now.
He's still around, but he's not on the field with them. Shaq Thompson.
I think there's just there's a lot to be built off of and it's a testament to EJ for sure.
Yeah, all right, before I completely lose my voice in any sense of coherent thought. By the way, have you ever read Gaytalisa's Frank Sinatra has a cold?
I have not.
You should read that as a person who writes in exchange for money, that is that is my assignment for you at some point in the next month, Not that I'm like frank Sinatra, though I might start singing any moment now, because Frankly, I'm a little punchy. Is it time for prowling vineyards, woods and twelve hours of sleep? I don't know, but yeah, what you know? Hey, it's a podcast. Nobody knows what time it is if we don't tell him. But anyway, that will cover us for
this week of the Happy Half Hour. I'm Darren, She's Augusta. Go feel better, Everybody