This week on a Happy half Hour.
A run game is a quarterback's best friend. And so now that you have a little bit more stability at that position and you have already established the run game, I think that's why you're seeing Bryce. You know, I know he hasn't put up huge numbers in these two lens, but he's taken care of the ball and that's been important.
What's cow whoa?
It's time for the Happy Half Hour, presented by Southern Star, an official bourbon of the Carolina Panthers. Here are your hosts, Darren Gant and Cassidy Hill.
Hello, friends, and welcome to the Happy Half Hour. It's the post by week refreshed, relaxed, and ready for the back half of the season edition, and it's presented by a Southern Star and official bourbon partner of the Carolina Panthers. Celebrate the spirit of the Carolinas. And you know what, maybe it's just because I had a bye week, but I'm feeling celebratory.
I was about to ask, did Southern Star also sponsor your bye week?
You know they could have. They did not. There was no Southern Star in southwestern Colorado, where I managed to sneak away for a couple of days or Southeastern Utah. But nevertheless, we're feeling celebratory because we made it. We got to that point. It always feels like a whole nother season when you get to bye week.
Yeah, especially when this bye week was really kind of situated right smack dab in the middle, and so it does feel like a second half of the season. Now home stretch here mathematically still in things in this division, you just you never know. Crazier things have happened.
Yeah, And people always forget when they start doing bye week calculations though when you say right in the middle. There was also training camp on the front end of this thing too in the preseason, so there was like seven weeks of that before love to all the other stuff, so you know when the bye week's late. We've had week thirteen byes pretty frequently around here in the last couple of years, and it always just feels like you're knee walking.
Week fourteen buys kill you all.
Oh, just just the worst. But listen to us complaining about having to work seventeen weeks out of eighteen, so there was a locket. There are a lot of people who've got it a lot worse than us, and let's be mindful of that good, right. It's almost like we should be thankful for certain things.
Ah, look at what you did.
I know, right.
I do want you, while we're sitting here talking about the bye week, I do want you to tell the people your impression of Arches National Park.
Oh my god, it's the most amazing place I've ever seen in my life. I mean, we were out there seeing the in laws, and everybody's doing great out there, but we had a little time to kill and it's like, well, let's slide across to the border. And we were about two hours away from Arches, and just driving to southern Utah is amazing because you know, Colorado kind of mountains,
high desert plains, et cetera, et cetera. You it's almost like as soon as you cross the state line into Utah, everything turns wiley coyote, everything is what desert is supposed to look like. It's these red rocks, it's cliffs everywhere. I truly I looked at my wife at one point and I said, if you would have told ten year old Darren Gant this is Mars and dropped him here, he'd have been like yeah, that's right. Sure, that's what it's supposed to look like. But just an amazing place.
And Arches is beyond belief. I mean it truly. You know, you see balancing rock and then there's another one laying on the ground near it, and that's the artist formerly known as Balancing you know, and delicate. Arch is truly one of the wonders of the world. It's it's one of those things when you when you climb the mountain, you're sweating, you're out of breath. You turn the corner around this cliff and it's like, oh, there's that thing
I've seen all my life on pictures. Take your breath away, literally and figuratively.
It is pretty incredible. I was blessed to go out there when I was younger. My uncle lived in Wyoming, so we would go out there a few high and you're right Arches is and I think I was probably twelve when I was there, and it was unlike anything I'd ever seen. One of my favorite travel stories. So when we went to Arches, and we drove up and we went to Four Corners, which is where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico come together. So I guess we went
down to go to Four Corners. Yeah, And I don't know if you've ever been to Four Corners, but there is nothing there. And you drive up on this plateau. It's a pretty it's not steep, but it's high. You go up on this plateau and that's where they have the Four Corners monument set up, and it is pretty cool. They have this concrete and it's like laid out and there's a star in the middle to show you exactly
where you're standing in all four states. And some of the reservations out there have booths up there and they're selling bibbles and things. Well, the only place you use the restroom is a border body, and of course I had to go and so, and it's really really windy because you're on top of a plateau in the middle of the desert, and I go on the porter potty. The wind's blowing and all of a sudden, this porter potty just starts shaking and it's going crazy, and I hear my mom going.
Cassidy, Cassidy, Oh my god, Cassidy.
And I come stumbling out of that thing. My dad and brother had been shaking it to make me think I was falling down the side of the cliffs.
Excellent. Yeah, that's excellent family values right there. I love everything about that story. And as much as we could talk about Southern Utah and Porta Potty high jinks all day long, I assume people want us to get the football at a certain point. Crazy, I know, right, It's like that's what we do in exchange for my Although I did run into one of my favorite Utahs you tights. What do you call people from Utah?
We'll have to paulians I don't know, Robert Riffords.
No, it was Brady christians I was like, what are you people doing? You've been holding out on us all this time? And he's like, yeah, man, Utah is pretty cool. I know. So anyway, speaking of Brady Christiansen, he plays into what I believe to be one of the kind of themes and this is what I want to do with this episode. We could get in the weeds and talk about the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, but why would
you do that? What I want to do is kind of just look back over the first ten because after you've had a chance to take a breath and sort of process what's going on here, to me, as big as anything that the Carolina Panthers have done over the first ten to eleven weeks of the season is they've
kind of created a little bit of a personality. I mean, and Brady Christiansen and that offensive line has been the I mean to me that and Tuba Hubbard running the ball and becoming kind of the drumbeat of this offense that keeps everything in rhythm. That's the thing you take away to me. I mean, it'll last beyond this year, will come and go from memory. But the fact that, oh, they realize they can run and they got a bunch
of big boys who can lean on people. That's kind of the less and for me in this part of the season.
And you know, Dave Canalis, to his credit, told us before the season even began that that was going to be the case, and he said, I'm gonna be stubborn about it until we break through. It was what he did in Tampa last year. You know, Tampa was bottom of the league and rushing for the first half of the season and they just stuck with it, stuck with it, stuck with it and finally broke through. And that's what helped them go on their stretch run the second half
of the season to get into the playoffs. It is leaning on that run game just to open things up, and so Dave Canalis has told us for months, this is what we're gonna do, and people are gonna want to bang their heads against the walls at times, but we're going to be stubborn about it. And they have found the identity that they wanted to find. Now it's
just about creating everything else that goes around it. They're a little bit what I would call frisky in how they approached the game in this offense, but it's working for them because you know, I would also say, it's not what you would call your true additional run game. And let me explain. It's not pounding, pounding, pounding, four yards and a cloud of dust and you get three of those and you move the first down. Cuba Can
can kind of cut, he can get outside. He likes to work in space, and he can also, you know, go between the tack He's got the offensive line to run behind the tackles as well, and so it's not necessarily like a Derrick Henry bruising. But that's okay. It's it's still a run game that works for what they have, and it's they have figured out a way to make it work.
Well yeah, I mean and Cuba talked earlier this year, and listen, I think that a lot of this comes from the fact that in March Dan Morgan spent one hundred and fifty million dollars of Dave Tepper's money on two big guards and that helped trp other people's money, no doubt, and especially when it's on pieces as productive as rob hunting. Damian lewis right, but Cuba has done his part in this too, and that's part of the reason he got part of that money too. He has
become a more patient runner. I mean, he's not ever going to be that Le'Veon bell wait wait wait, wait, wait, go, but he's figured out how to adjust on the fly, adjust subtly, you know, and stay in the lanes they're creating for him. And he's always been willing to be that ugly run guy, that two, three, four yard at a time guy. But what you've seen lately is more of those fours turn into fifteens, more of those threes turn into twenties. And as he's been able to do that,
that buys time for everything else in the offense. And listen, things changed over the first half of the season. The quarterbacks obviously won by deliberate decision, won by car wreck on Sardis Road and never go to South Charlotte. But while all that stuff's been happening, and all, you know, the quarterback stuff tends to get draw out of the oxygen, they've actually been pretty consistently productive in the run game
throughout regardless. I think that's been a testament to those guys up front.
And a run game is a quarterback's best friend. And so now that you have a little bit more stability at that position and you have already established the run game, I think that's why you're seeing Bryce. You know, I know he hasn't put up huge numbers in these two wins, but he's taken care of the ball and that's been important. And his kind of game managed their way to these wins.
And that's not a bad thing, no doubt.
And he's and he's been able to do that because they can lean on the run game so much. I think at one point versus the Giants, you've had like three runs of twenty five plus yards, right, And so when you're doing that, you can just pound and ground all day.
Yeah, and then you can get away with your quarterback throwing for one hundred and twenty six yards, right exactly. Bryce has done well. Bryce has gotten steadily, if not in small increments, better each of these weeks he's been on the field. But if one two in a row, they're sitting here three and seven. And you know, I was telling some friends last night, and I may have written this in mail bag. I write so many things in the mail bag. I tend to lose track. The
Panthers have kind of escaped at three and seven? Is it great?
No?
Is it going to get you the playoffs? Only in the NFC South and only if you catch a really ridiculous hot streak in the second half of the season. But they've kind of escaped that. Oh god, is it over portion of the NFL?
Right?
I mean, Dallas would push the button to be done right now, and they would they would just be willing to call it the rest of the season. Take the ticket money you've already banked. Keep at what I'm you just don't have to play any of those And they've kind of pushed through that, and now they're in that great middle area of the league where nobody knows if anybody's any good or not, or what you're gonna get week in, week out, And that's where most of the
NFL lives. I mean, we watch KC and Buffalo last week, you know, and those are the good teams, and there's a lot fewer of those than there are terrible teams. And there's certainly a lot few are those than there are the ones in that great middle I'm talking about.
Yeah, the great Hey, the great middle, that's where the color is. Let's have some fun in there. Would you call? Who would you put up there with KSE and Buffalo?
You know, I obviously Detroit. You know, I think Philadelphia is still pretty good. You know, those guys are you know, they always tend to find a way, and they are a well constructed team. They're put together, right, I'm I am going to put you know, honestly, I'm gonna put Pittsburgh in there.
Yeah.
Ever since Russell Wilson and I've never been the biggest RUSS advocate. I think he was. I don't want to say he was a passenger in Seattle because he was an active participant in that deal, but he was more of the guy who lived on great defense, great run game, well protected and that allowed them to do the things that Russ was really good at. You know, I'm putting them in that mix too, so it's it's a small group, but there are a couple of people sneaking in there.
So I was hoping you would say Detroit and Pittsburgh. So thank you for that because they both kind of represent what I think if you're a Panthers fan, you can you can look forward to of what they did to get to where they're at no doubt, and how they got there and the identity that they failed to get there. Pittsburgh beat the Ravens the other night with
six field goals. They didn't even throw a touchdown, and so I'm not saying that that's ideal, but the point being, like you can you can find a way to kind of break through and to chip at that wall until it falls over and establish yourself with the identity that you want and find a way to win games doing that, even if it doesn't necessarily look like the Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen of it all.
Seriously, the Chiefs may have ruined football for a lot of people because you know, it doesn't have to be thirty five forty points a game to be really good, so it's possible to win games a lot of different ways. Hey, you mentioned field goals. Speaking of things that happened over the bye week, the Carolina Panthers suddenly have an all time leader in NFL.
History, Edie credit to Tracy Smith.
Yeah, Eddie Pinero was sitting on his couch visiting with his dad, who were glad Eddie Senior's doing well. Best of best wishes to the Pinero's. Eddie Senior recently had a heart attack and is recovering well. So Eddie Junior went as a good son, went to see his dad during the bye week, and while he was sitting on the couch at his dad's house, became the league's all time most accurate kicker thanks to Justin Tuster missing a couple of field goals the other day. So Eddie is
now number one all time. And I love so much about this story, beginning with the fact that Eddie was sitting on his dad's couch when this happened. But b Tracy Smith rolls out today and Tracy Smith the new special teams coordinator. He believes, and you just have to hear this. Tracy Smith was the key to this.
I noticed immediately that I wasn't getting enough credit for it. I thought, the things that I've changed and Eddie have been innumerable, heart so hard to say when I when I spoke to him first in the spring and I suggested that he uses right leg this year. I thought that was a real turning point for him to get him from two to one.
And there you go. It's as simple as that. I mean, why didn't somebody else try said he to kick with his right leg in the past.
He said it so deadpan that there was a ten second period where I was sitting there going wait, did he used to kick with his left leg? Did I miss that?
Like?
I was?
So I covered Eddy in college yet.
Know what Eddie since he was a high school player, and I know what he looks like when he kicks, and I legit sat there and went, is he what leg? Like?
Did I miss?
Was that?
Am I?
Yeah?
No? And that's the beauty. And I've committed a journalism since then and talked to some of my sources in the special Teams room, and it's possible that Tracy has used that line before and it's possible he's used it
on other people before. You know, the special teams community's kind of tightened it anyway across the league, partially because those guys move around a lot, and you know, it's possible that Tracy may have walked up to other people after games and said, have you ever considered using your own left lig?
I like that he workshopped his jokes before he brought them to ice. Yeah, Tracy Smith may be one of the funnier coaches I've ever covered.
He's right up there. It's very dry, it's very deadpan. It's almost Stephen Right esque. Yeah, but if you're old enough and inclined to that kind of stuff. But it's he is abute. But yeah, Eddie is the league's most accurate kicker of all time. Of course, he's hit you know, one hundred and some field goals compared to Justin Tucker's four hundred and some field goals. So the opportunity for fluctuation in those numbers is certainly. We'll enjoy it for this week exactly.
I mean, take it while it lasts, you know.
It's uh, well, we'll see how that goes. But so much to look forward to this week. Yeah, there is a Mahomesky. Yeah, he is coming in. I talked to some dudes about him the other day. Josie Jewel, he kind of shrugged a little bit. I mean, as a former Bronco, he's seen him a bunch ten times to be specific, so he knows the experience as well as anybody.
And he talked about kind of all the obvious stuff about you've got to be buttoned up, you've got to play it all the way to the whistle, because if you let up in that last second of the route, that's where he side arms one and squeezes it in. But even though he hasn't had much team success, Josie Jewel has picked off Pat mahomes a couple of times. And that's okay. I went back and looked at the
YouTube clips of that. He's made some pretty athletic plays and coming on the heels of an athletic interception in Germany, you know, maybe he's out there sharing his secret, so to speak.
You know, Jerald Everro talked about those turnovers today and how in that game, you know they were able to pick him off a few times. But you know what hej remembers about that game, the explosive plays. Patrick Mahomes also got on them, no question, and of course that's the coach thing to do, and that's what they're going to be thinking of too as they game plan this week. However, you know they've wanted all season to up their turnovers
and to get three in the Giants game. Turnovers can be contagious, so we'll see if that rolls over to this week or if you know, the bye week sort of mess it up. But it is something that Patrick Mahomes is gonna take his shots. So if you're disciplined with where you're at and they play that zone defense where they can get those turnovers, if you're disciplined where you're at, the opportunity is there. He's also incredibly incredibly accurate, so he's gonna put that. You're gonna have to take
the ball away. He's not gonna just throw you up a floater like that. Daniel Jones deflected off of j David Clowney one.
But if you're Clowney, skull off of his head.
It was a header.
Hey, we were in a soccer arena. It was just a header, sure.
And name one Bayern Munich soccer player Harry Kane. There you go. That's my girl. I knew, I knew you were listening.
That was the only one. Don't ask me to name a second, fair enough.
The point being, he's he's one of the best quarterbacks of all time for a reason. He's gonna make his throws, he's gonna be clinical, he's gonna have the highlight stuff too. But you know, can you put yourself in position to take advantage of athletic moments? I guess is what I'm trying to say, And I know I'm not saying it right. The opportunity is there.
Yeh, what I'm saying, Yeah, no doubt so. All right, So there you go. The Carolina Panthers. They're three and seven coming out of the by. They've established a couple of things, They've steal a lot to play for. I mean, the one thing, the one thing I think we can't lose sight of is you know, I don't want to minimize the record. The games are important, obviously, but as you go into the second half of the season, you've got to go in with the knowledge that the second
half's a lot tougher than the first half. Was the combined record of the first ten games, forty six and sixty the last seven forty and thirty one. So you've got the Chiefs in there, you've got the Eagles, you got the Bucks twice, and I think that Bucks team is a lot better than their four and six records. And these surprising Arizona Cardinals who are rolling in here for a holiday weekend. So there's tougher football in front
of you. But the Carolina Panthers are playing a better brand of football now than they were six seven, eight weeks ago, for sure too.
So that's all you can ask for.
Upper trajectory, Dave Canalis keep saying it progress, building on each day, So building on each day. You know what we forgot to build on last week when we recorded our post Germany episode.
I didn't forget.
Yeah, yeah, what we forgot. We forgot to do the jukebox last week because I forgot to listen. Do your research and listen to the latest Taylor Swift song about a really complicated broad.
Miscedena Sackville.
Miscedena Sackville. Yeah, she lived a life, she did what was it, divorced.
Five times something like that.
Maybe a couple of them ended up mysteriously dead.
Yes, one of them ended up mysteriously dead after he cheated on her with a younger woman and that woman's husband found out.
It's funny how that stuff.
Happened, and it works out. In fact, they called they moved a bunch of their friends and then moved to Africa. Calls such a ruckus that they got a nickname, and it has been made into movies.
It's uh yeah, And people wonder about Taylor and and why she's ran through so many singers and songwriters and football players, and you know, she's had a string of relationships of her own this one so but she.
Hasn't been married and cheated on people with affairs.
So far, nobody's end up dead as far as we know.
Travis Kelse, Kat Kennedy.
It's been worn. So yeah, that was sure was something. And I mean it's like, I mean, she's a little fun one. Yeah, it's certainly a fun one. She's she's got that's complicated. It may be best that she's not coming to join us here this weekend. So although I did see somebody our our friends at deal with Neighborhood, Grill did memorial ass her on the sign this something along the lines of don't shake this one off. The
Chiefs might lose something down that road. Like everybody is looking, I'm glad we're not going for the cheap thrills of journalism. There's so many people out there in the world of quote unquote journalism these days will put out a headline, is Taylor Swift coming to Charlotte this week? Question mark No. If the headline ever contains a question mark, you can usually answer that question with no. But anyway, we're not here for cheap that's just sensationalism, and I won't be
a party to it. We're not here for that. But if she wants to show up, I'm sure you'll show her around.
Right right now, you can talk to her about the Bolter exactly.
So the Bolter. I think I scared you pre Germany, didn't I by making you listen to the Scorpions and listen.
I listened to it on the drive then one day, and it was way too early in the morning for that.
The Scorpions being the finest heavy metal band of Germany. You know, Rudolph Schenker and the boys will sting you with their rock and roll.
Yeah, I had to and I had to listen to it a couple of times to hear all the words, but that one, Uh, don't listen to that before you have your caffeine.
Yeah, you won't need it after that. The Scorpions blackout will get you in some kind of mood. So anyway, since it's we're heading into Thanksgiving week, there's really only one song I can recommend to you. Cassidy who And I don't know if you've ever heard this song. You may be aware of it, but I don't know that you've ever committed to sitting down and listening to it, much less multiple times. One of my ten favorite songs ever in all of the history of music. Rlow guthriees
Alice's restaurant. Okay nothing you got nothing?
Never heard of it?
Noah, Oh, you are in for white a treat. And those of you who are old enough to know about our Loow Guthrie and why we always listen to it on Thanksgiving, you'll appreciate her reactions to this one. Remember you got to listen to it three times through? All right?
Okay, that's what I usually give it.
All right, three times, three times from start to finish?
How long is this song?
She don't know yet?
Gang, Oh my gosh, let me look at this. Let me look this up real quick. What am I getting myself into?
Yeah? I mean it's only nineteen and a half minutes or nineteen and.
A half minutes?
Are you kidding me?
What kind of time do you think I have?
You know, I know what you're putting out in terms of work products. You can you can squeeze that one in there. All right, what do you got for me?
It is eighteen and a half minutes.
Yeah, details, It depends on which version.
Oh my goodness. Okay, well let me block off a couple hours. There you go in honor of the stage musical Wicked coming to the big screen tonight, which I'm very, very excited about.
Have my tickets.
I'm trying to decide I'm on a dress up or not to go. You have you ever seen Wicked?
I have not seen Wicked. I've heard that. I've heard the soundtrack.
Okay, so you do know the songs.
I'm familiar enough with the song. Okay, Well that I was not a super fan the way you are.
I was going to give you a Wicked song. But if you are, that's fine.
I mean I'm not as into the cold as you are. Or so deeply enmeshed in it.
Okay, Well, we were gonna go with Defying Gravity. However, if you know that one, I actually have a different song, all right, tell me, okay, just because Wicked makes me think of Christi sheenow with Kristi Shenoweth has this excellent song that actually somebody else wrote, but she sings it called Taylor the Latte Boy. It's so funny and I sing it to myself every time I go to a Starbucks, which is a lot very good.
Well, I will listen to Kristin Shehennow you will listen to a lot of our load Guthrie, and we will see what happens Sunday when your Carolina Panthers face the Kansas City Chiefs. And we'll come back and talk about it next week. We'll jam it in. We're we are thankful for this opportunity and for all you good people who listen. So we're coming in next week to record another happy half out. We do it for the people. We'll see y'all new