Happy Half Hour Episode 110: 76.4% Happier

will make everyone who listens to this podcast happier. Welcome new Carolina Panthers dot com staff writer Cassidy Hill to the podcast. Everybody.

breaking down tape all week. Cassidy, tell these fine people why you know so much about the Green Bay Packers.

well the past two years and a month. The guys knew that the guys in the packer's locker room knew this is where I was coming, that this was my new job and I would be here this particular week, and they did not let me forget it. In the locker room the past week. They every time I would walk by and they like to say, nope, nope, you're an op. Now I'm not talking to you. But then they were, of course still very gracious with their time.

But yeah, they they let me hear it that they knew this is where I was coming this particular week.

Was a disappointment to my entire family of Auburn fans by going there, got to cover a national championship or two while I was there as a student reporter, and then spent ten years in Florida covering the Florida Gators and the Jacksonville Jaguars, so I actually am very familiar with the next two opponents for the Carolina Panthers, and then from Florida went to Green Bay, where I've been for the past two years. And Yeah, this is what

I always wanted to do. This is what I love to do more than anything, is just kind of helping people tell their stories. Everybody in that locker room has a story to tell, Everybody all around this building and this city has a story to tell. What can I do to help you tell it? That's what I'm here for. Things to know about me as you get to know

me on this podcast. As Darren said, I am a huge Tailor Swiss fan, so I'll probably make many many I'm gonna try to slide a Taylor Swift reference into every episode, at least one to see if people can find it and notice it. Let's see what else. I think The Replacements is the greatest football movie ever made, and I'll die on that hill. I know no one else will agree with me, So I like to throw that in there, and I'm trying to think of what else.

By off time, you're probably gonna find me reading that's the easiest way to wind down. Or hopping on a plane. My dad says, if I've got twelve dollars in my passport in my pocket, I'll hop on a plane to anywhere. And that's pretty true. So either reading or traveling, that's those are two vastly different downtimes. That's what I like to do.

be cool. Cassidy is. She is bright and creative, and she works hard, and she stood out in a process where we talked to a lot of people to fill this job in the middle of the season, and she was good enough to come in the middle of the season and help us out coming down the stretch, because basically, I wanted to get her in here so she could meet a lot of these people before he scattered for the off season, because it you know, and in the interim, in the time when this job opened up and before

we located her and secured her services, there was a coaching change. So there's going to be a lot of change around this place in the next little bit. So I'm glad you're here, boots on the ground, able to help us document it.

was a mess. And if you stood out in the rain for three hours and watch the Carolina Panthers beat the Atlanta Falcons nine to seven on Sunday, then you are officially my people. Because there is nothing I like more than the people who show up when times are good when times are bad. And I can promise you the Carolina Panthers understand, know and believe that if you were out there in it with them on Sunday, you are in it with them, period. And I have all

the respect in the world. From our vantage point in the press box, there were a couple of fans sitting up in section five nineteen in their signed seats in the about fourth from top row, and they were there the entire game. I have nothing but respect for those people. Those might not be Green Bay conditions, but is a mess out there Sunday. And you know, the game itself

was a little bit of a mess too. It took, as with many Carolina Panthers games this year, it took all day to get the offense rolling, and it rolled in that last seven and a half minutes in a way that we hadn't seen in a long time. Bryce Young has struggled to throw the ball a lot this season. I think there's been a lot of struggles well documented with the passing offense. But something clicked with seven and a half minutes left in that game and Bryce was dealing.

It was wet, it was cold, the wind was blowing, and he was dropping dimes all over the field. I mean, Bryce was a different quarterback that last position and kind of pointed to some of the stuff they talked about going through the draft process, about the way he sees the field, the way he puts the balls into tight windows.

I mean, he was that was as good in a and a half minute stretches we've seen him throw the ball all season, and to do it in those conditions, you just respect the fact that he was able to pull that together. So Hey, instead of standing out in the rain for three hours and being miserable, they stood out in the rain for three hours and got to enjoy a win. And it was quite a win. Those guys they needed that. Chris Tabor needed it his first

win as an interim head coach. He lost his only game as an interim head coach with the Bears a couple of years ago when Covid forced him to take over for a week. So good for Tabes to get a win, Good for Bryce Young to actually have that drive. He's got two game winning drives now this season, which is exactly as many as Dak Prescott and a lot of other people who are associated with being very good at throwing the football. I think Patrick Mahomes has two

of those this year and Bryce has two. Now is it everything? It is not. It is a very small thing. They remained two and twelve. This has been a frustrating season four a lot of people. But as I pointed out in the mailbag the other day, it beats the alternative because if you stand out and rain for three hours and end up one and thirteen at the end of the day, then all you can think about is how wet and cold, miserable you are and how much

longer do we have to do this? So it lightened the mood considerably, and now it actually makes it a little more interesting. The Packers are rolling in here this week and they've got some issues, don't they. You know this what happened to the Green Bay Packers, especially on the defensive side of the ball in the last couple of weeks.

exactly what you want to do. That's something you can build off of and you can come in when you've got a defense like the Packers that nat notoriously plays so far off the line, you know, And that's sort of the issue there is you've got a defense that will play scared at times, and it's got eight first rounders on that defense, there shouldn't be that many issues. But they will play six seven yards off the line of scrimmage, especially the corners, and play a soft zone.

But the issue when you play soft zone is that it's really dependent on turnovers, and they're not getting the turnovers. And they have the talent to play man, but they're not playing man because they have a play caller that's almost scared to play man. And so when you do that and you've got man corners and man safety or man corners playing a soft zone. A quarterback can stand back there and pick them apart all day long. And

that's exactly what's been happening. People are going to look at this last game that the Packers lost this past week and against Tampa Bay, and you know, Baker Mayfield left Lambeoufield as the first opposing quarterback in history to leave Lambofield with a perfect passer rating. And they're going to look at that game and go, that was a really, really bad game. That's probably the worst game that defense

could play. But that game was not an anomaly. That game was a manifestation of everything that's been going wrong with this defense for the past two years, and all of the issues came to light at once. You know, they couldn't get home with their pass rush. They sacked Baker Mayfield five times, but that's because Baker Mayfield likes to dance in the pocket. He's not as much of a scrambler as people.

one blitz that entire game. So if you've got a quarterback like Bryce, that is, if he's comfortable moving the pocket, and this is something I want to learn more about him, you know, because I mainly just watched him in college. If he's comfortable moving, if he's comfortable on boots, if he's comfortable especially on neckd boot, he can get out there and really kind of take advantage of some holes in that secondary.

And as we know here in Carolina, I tried to remind people as often as I could during the Cam Newton era, it ain't always like this gang. And we've seen that firsthand over the last five years, where you go from Teddy Bridgewater to Sam Darnold to Baker Mayfield back to Sam Darry with a little bit of PJ. Walker mixed in there every now and then too, And it's just it's never easy when you don't have that guy.

And how has the response been in Green Bay to Jordan Love because they drafted him to kind of be that understudy, you know, and to be that eventual replacement for Aaron. But now that it's all of a sudden, not Farver, Aaron Rodgers, how's he doing well?

And you know the first half of the season when Jordan Love in this offense was struggling, Packers fans were very frustrated, and you had thirty I said this many many times. You've got thirty one other teams that don't feel sorry for you, and they're like, welcome to the real world. This is what it's like in a quarterback change. But then you see Jordan Love, you have to remember he's surrounded by guys that are first and second year guys. All of his in fact, all of his past catchers

are first and second year guys. The oldest guy in that room is twenty five years old and has only actually played three games this season. His main guys are rookies, His leading tight end is leading receiver, they're all rookies. His only veteran offensive weapons are the two running backs, Aaron Jones and AJ Dillon, And so there were going to be a lot of growing pains. Aaron Rodgers first year, he had guys like Jordi Nelson and he had the

tight end. I'm trying to remember now I'm blinking, but he had veteran.

his first six games as well. In fact, through the first half of this season, Love and Rogers' numbers from Rogers first season are almost identical, and so I think that you know, hindsight, you look back with rose colored glasses and you only remember the four MVPs, and people forgot that that first year with Aaron Rodgers was a little rough going to get started to Jordan Love was gonna have to go through some of those growing pains. You really saw it start versus the Rams, but then

especially versus the Steelers. Things even though that was a loss, things started to click for that offense. And they've even had a couple of bad games the past two weeks and still been in it with a chance to win, which is something you couldn't say the first half of the season. And so it was frustrating for the first half of the season, but you also saw a fan base go have to constantly remind themselves, Okay, we're upset. Well, we have to be patient. We have to be patient.

We have to be patient, and I think it's going to pay off, because I think the Packers might have done it again and drafted a third straight incredible quarterback.

obviously struggling this year. What are they mentioning when they talk about this football team.

And they know that. You've got a lot of these guys too, that played against Bryce Young in college, because especially in the secondary, they're young enough that they've played against Bryce Young before, so they know what he can do. Some of them have been beaten by Bryce Young in college, so they know what he can do. They know what he's capable of. And it's, you know, a matter of what can we do with ourselves, especially after the past

couple of weeks. And I know that's going to be the case on offense as well, because as anybody knows, any given Sunday, that's why you play the game. That's why it's on the field any given Sunday, any team can win.

to guys and said, hey, are you Sane Anderson? Is Sane Anderson even a real person? Can you confirm me exist? And it jumped out when I was going through a million resumes and a million you know, clips and all that kind of stuff that you see when you have a job like this open you know, there's a lot of the same kind of stuff, And I was like, this one right here, she thinks differently. She she is creative. So thank you to Zane Anderson, uh for your contributions

to bringing Cassidy Hill here to the Carolina Panthers. We appreciate you for that. And I mean, how'd that go? I mean you had you had fun with that? Yeah?

all San Andrews under practice today. And so we had some time to kill in the locker room, and so I was very blessed with a locker room that was willing to play along with me and have fun with me. Seems like that's going to be the case here at Carolina as well. And so I just went around to a couple of the guys and was like, are you Jane Anderson? And Aaron Jones said maybe, I think I'm actually Zane Anderson, And then went to Zane himself and I was like, are you a real person? Are you here?

And he was like, I promise I'm me. I really am me. I'm not fake. I'm not a dream and it ended up being great and able to make that connection because then a couple of weeks later he had an incredible play on special teams that really kind of swung the game. It gave the offense back great position and was able to go back ain't and be like, you prove to everybody you were real. Now everybody knows for sure whose Aint Anderson is and so appreciate the

guys having fun with me. Look forward to doing that here as well.

She is good at getting the stories out of people and sharing them with fans. And that's why we wanted to bring her here and make her a part of this team full of people who have the same goal. And you know, it's been tough. This year has not been ideal, as you might have noticed, but there's still the opportunity. I think we've done as good a job as possible in an unusual situation of a kind of being able to tell the story of these people. We've got a better sense of who Bryce Shung is now

than we did a year ago. We've gotten to know a lot of new people. There's been a lot of new faces roll in and out of this place in the last little bit, and that's going to continue for the next few months. So we are grateful that Cassidy is here with us. I am grateful that she is going to teach me about Taylor Swift, whose catalog I am not as familiar with.

because I got help now. A merry Christmas, indeed, all right, we'll see y'all next week on the Happy half Hour