Happy Half Hour Episode 18: How About Us?

we're here for you too, whenever you need us. It's time for a Happy half Hour with your friends Kristin Balboni, Miles Simmons, and Will Bryan. It's that time of the week, The Happy Half Hour podcast with your friends Kristen, Will and Miles, presented by Morris Jenkins. And Mr Jenkins told me his plumbers and a c text secretly were Panthers jerseys under their uniforms. When your plumbing air conditioning is

acting up, call Morris Jenkins or visit Morris Jenkins dot com. Well, there's no need for them to keep it a secret anymore, because the Panthers went into Atlanta and got their third straight wind tied for first in the NFC South going in to Week six games. Uh, will you broke down last week for us the hierarchy of the NFC South rivalries. How great is it to say that the Panthers went down to Atlanta got that one? How about us? Man? How about us? Who? Who would have thought? Man? Who

would have thought? Not me? Not me? Not me? I think the words you were looking for there was look at us? You know, yeah, I was like, how what us? How about us? About? Look at us? If anyone, if anyone was confused me, if anyone was confused, like I wasn't telling you could tell Will was waiting on that one. Will was ready for it. And then that you know, how it started versus how it's going. But I figured, you know, I've already done that like two weeks ago.

So that's why I don't run social media, let's be real. Yeah, I don't know. I feel like I've been seeing your tweets getting a lot of love lately. I mean, I mean sometimes when you you know, when you you hang out with the people and you're like, hey, retweet that, retweet that. Oh that's what it is. That's why poor Miles didn't get as much this week because he wasn't sitting next to them. He was down in Atlanta. That's right, Miles. Night time, Miles and I made the trip down um

to watch the win in person. Will said that he would absolutely not be going under any circumstances last week because he does not like Atlanta, nor does he like Paris. But that's a conversation for a different day. But but Miles and I had a great time. Yeah, it was nice. It was really nice to just be in the stadium and in a press box and watching a game. It just felt like a sliver of normalcy in a time

that is absolutely not normal. We're gonna get into the game in just a second in hand out our game balls. But what was your one non football observation from being at Mercedes Beens. Um, It's okay, it's a really really nice same It's like it's so nice. It's it's a monstrosity, like it is just like this big sort of I don't know, spaceship like extraterrestrial looking thing that has just

dropped into the middle of Atlanta and it's cool. Um. It's funny because the only other time I've been there was Super Bowl fifty three, where the Rams lost to the Patriots, and like I had realized and I was teking some friends with this, Like I had blacked out most of the things that had happened in that game. And obviously, you know, it's one of the worst Super Bowls ever played, so that's probably part of it. And

the team that I worked for lost. Um. But like it was funny as I was sort of walking around in different places in the press box, I was like, oh, oh, yeah, that happened. That happened too. You were having repressed memories. Yeah, they were just all coming back. It was like, you know that Celine Dion song was lost long ago, but it's all coming back to me now you're seeing a little bit more of it. I don't remember, baby, baby, I did remember it. That was me. But a great

win for the Panthers. And Will you've had this great idea that we're gonna start handing out game balls. I mean, Trey Boston does it, Matt Rule does it? Why not us? Why not? How about us? Yes? Look at us? Not me? Um. So we we did this Monday and put it on the website, and then we also allowed people to vote. So let's go through who we picked for our game ball as well. Why don't you kick us off game balls? Stick this in your case. I mean I picked Teddy Bridgewater.

Two sixty one passing yards in the first half, uh, you know, which was second most in franchise history. I mean, he's the guy. You know, you need a quarterback in this league. You need a quarterback that doesn't turn the ball over, that's efficient, and that puts up big numbers. And he's doing that right now. And I don't think anyone believed that he would be doing it at this level at this time of the year already. Um, Teddy Bridgewater. Yeah,

I went with Mike Davis for obvious reasons. Great game overall, Um had a touchdown, had will what's the number? What are the arts from scrimmage? I should know this the top of my head. And you got to do it at home in front of his He had a group of family and friends there. I saw him get to wave at them at halftime and then of course after the game. He grew up in Stone Mountain, went to high school there, which is right down the road. So local kid getting to come home and have such a

big impact on the game. And man, he just does not go down. He really does not. He'll drag guys with him, but he's like, look, you're trying to tackle me. Good luck. And it's just so fun to watch him. And I was talking to Matt Rule and he said, you know, the way he plays gets the sideline fired up and you can see it. And so I just really happy for him. He's just such a nice guy and he's got that big smile even though Myles, as you said in your article, when he plays, he's playing angry. Uh,

And it was it was cool to see him. It's been cool to see him over this stretch without Christian McCaffrey show everyone what he can do. But I am just a sucker for a hometown story. And I imagine that that's just got to be such a cool moment um to get to go and do it in front of your family and friends. I'm sure it was, and it's it's good that that, you know, he was able to do it in front of the family and friends.

There were um, select states, select fans in the in the stands um there at Mercedes been saying, so that was cool. I picked Justin Buris from my game bar for obvious reasons. Yeah, And you know, it was unfortunate that he didn't get the scoop and score earlier in

the game. Um, but to be able to keep your head in it, to keep playing, and to get that interception in the fourth quarter where it really looked like the Falcons were making a good little comeback that I thought they were going to score, and yeah, yeah, and for Burris to play the way he played, and he said it after the game that the Falcons undoubtedly thought that they had a mismatch there when you get a safety on a slot receiver and Burst just really covered

it extremely well. And when the ball came it was basically right to it. He stepped in front of it, got two feet in before he fell out of bounds and boom that that gets the Panthers the takeaway and they really needed it. So we also allowed everyone to vote on Panthers dot Com. Again a great idea, uh of Wills. And now the thing was, I thought everyone was going to vote for Justin Burus, So I said, look,

I'm gonna take Mike Davis. I'll let someone else take Justin Burs because of you know, the the interception that really changed the game. But I gotta say the fans sided with me on this one and Mike Davis, but it's me. It was my persuasion as yeah as the paragraph I wrote, I really think it. Uh. People were like, you know what, I was gonna go Justin Burrs or

Teddy Bridgewater, but Kristin convinced me. YEA. So final results of the poll out of five hundred and forty six total votes for Mike Davis, eighteen for Teddy Bridgewater, nine Justin Burrs other others. Let us know, make your case in make your case in the in the twitter comments. UM, but I do like I like that there's another on their UM, you know the the cool thing about this one? And will you mentioned this when you talked about Teddy

Bridgewater's first half stats. I think it was like three d and twelve yards of total offense and in the first half, Um, is that a lot guys shined. So we talked about we talked about Mike Davis, we talked about Teddy Bridgewater. UM, but we saw all those receivers step up in their own Curtis Samuel looked great. Yeah. Mr third Down. Love to get to see him showcase his his versatility. Love that they got him involved. D J. Moore turned the Jets on and that's still running for

that fifty seven yard touchdown. And then of course Robby Anderson, who has just been so great throughout this entire season so far that it's funny that we're just now talking about him. But he continues to just deliver every single week and we don't want that to get overshadowed. And Miles, I know you had a chance to talk to him. Yeah, yeah, it was good to talk to him. Um, and I got to talk to him a little bit one on one, and I think what you're saying Christen is absolutely true.

I mean, he is now fourth in the league and receptions right now, he's got thirty six. He's fourth in the league and yards receiving as well with four and eighty nine. So he is well on pace to have his first season with over a thousand yard receiving him. Like, I mean, when you're at five hundred almost, you know you're only five games in that it's he's poised to really exceed that. And you know his receptions per game, you know in New York in those four years it

was at three point three. Now it is at seven point two. So he's being utilized as a complete receiver, And so I asked him if he ever felt that he was underestimated as a receiver before this year? Do you hear something overheard? Yeah? You know what it's always been so crazy to me, is like what they never made sense to me. And if you look at this from a logical standpoint, not anybody that really knows what about could tell you this. The hardest ball to catch,

the soapball. There's a deep ball. So when everybody so always safe, well, he's only a deep threat. He can only care deep passes. He can't catch short routes. It just sounds supid because it's like, if you can care, if I can catch the deep past and that's thirty forty fifty yards down the field, having many yards in the air flight, what makes him think I can't catch the short past. It has been making ever made sense

to me. But you know, people, a lot of people, you know, just everybody is tired of to their t And that's when I learned of my career. I never really let it upset me up. More so upsetting you know what, like what my coaches wouldn't let me do certain things when I knew I honoally that I could, and I knew I could make an impact doing it, but you know, it is what it is. I'm focused on nine. I'm just happy to be able to run the route trying, you know, do a lot of intermediate

things and catch and running. And I played football, you know, and that's something I really like, really like strive on perfecting my routes and get open and you know, doing those types of things like that's football, Like it's fun to do that throughout somebody up and you know, get

open and do those things and running catch. So that was just one of the things that Robbie and I talked about, and I think it really makes a lot of sense, right what he said about the deep ball and how it's the most is how it's the hardest uh football to catch, you know, when you have to track it, when you have to do all these different

and things. Of course, you can have a guy run crossing routes underneath and then catch and run, especially if he's fast, like that's that's how you beat man coverages, is with crossing routes. So I think it's interesting now that he not only is in a place where he's able to do that, but he's got a quarterback he

really trust. That was one of the other interesting things he told me is that he almost thinks of Teddy Bridgewater like a coach as opposed to more than just a quarterback because of the way that they've been able to work together. You know what's funny. I was talking to coach Rule earlier this week and he said the same thing. I said, when did you know? Because he said, you know, Teddy Bridge is one of the smartest football

players I've ever been around. And I said, when did you know for the first time, like, oh, this is that's that's this guy, like he is that smart football player. Um, you know, was it the first conversation and and he said, he said it was. He said, you know, Joe Brady knew him so well from their time in New Orleans. He said, the thing that has really been great about

Teddy is that he is like a coach. And he said, now, there are there are other players like that, But sometimes the players are coaching in a way that you don't want them to be coaching, which made me laugh. You know, like they're they're gonna be coaching, but they might not be saying the same thing that the coaching staff is saying, and he said that Teddy really is an extension of

exactly what they want to do as an offense. And so he takes that to the players, and you know, we know that he gets an extra time he started with with Robbie down in South Florida when everyone was still um under lockdown and they had a chance to to play together. He goes into the offensive line rooms. But the good thing about all of that is that he's doing it as an extension of the offense um and it is perfectly in sync with with Joe Brady

and Matt Rule, which I think is awesome. It really is all coming together because you know, you have that connection between Teddy these receivers, and you have this connection between this offensive line. You know, uh Miles wrote this great article about the way that the line is coming together to protect Teddy, to protect this running game, to protect the passing game. No sacks allowed in the last

two games. And one of the things I really love is, after all these rushing touchdowns are after all these touchdowns are getting it's like Taylor Moten the one spiking the ball, Like, I think that's fantastic. There's there's just so much synergy both from you know, the five and Teddy, but then the five in front and Teddy and everybody else. You know, every everyone on that offense is one organism. I think

it's great too. It feels like this coaching staff, you know, whether it's with Robbie or whether it's Pat Meyer, having these offensive linemen um prepared to step up. You know, Russell o'coon was out, he was back for this game. Um, but it almost doesn't matter who's in there on the offensive line, and we've seen them had to shift to shift around in several different ways over the course of

these first five games. But it just feels like this coaching staff is able to identify um potential or talent where other people may have written guys off, and then also get the most out of these guys. I think Mike Davis is a is a good example of that. You know, look at what he's been able to do so far. Yeah, exactly. And the good thing about Mike Davis is that, you know, I think he's very humble and he understands what his role is on this team.

And it sometimes when players come in they're like, yeah, I should have been doing this all along, and that da da da DA And that's not who Mike Davis is. Mike Davis is a good team guy, and I think that entire running backs room really is. Yeah. Absolutely, we appreciate you listening to the Happy Half Hour podcast presented by Morris Jenkins, and Mr Jenkins told me the Panthers make him proud and he's honored to support the team. When you're plumbing our conditioning is acting up, called Morris

Jenkins or visit Morris Jenkins dot com. All right, well it's your time to shine. You got a stat of the week for us, the week the Bears are coming to town. It's Chicago Bears. Bears. Carolina has played the Bears tend to times before this Sunday, so ten games. In those ten games, there have been eight returns for touchdown either punt returns, kick returns, intercession returns, fumble returns. That's more than against any other Carolina opponent. Now that's

both teams the Bears have contributed to this. Carolina Panthers fans are gonna remember that game back in seventeen where the Panthers held Chicago to five first downs and still lost seventeen to three off of Eddie Jackson's fumble and interception return. But Philly Brown in the last home win had a punt punt recovery for punt return for a touchdown back. So eight returns for touchdowns against the Bears in ten games, So we'll see if that continues. On Sunday.

We are definitely gonna talk more Bears. In just a second, Let's take a quick break right now, and we'll come back with more on the matchup with Bears. Hi, this is Dewey Jenkins. Most people think my first name is Morris, but it's not. It's Dewey. Mr Moore Us was the name of the man I bought the company from back when I was young. I'd like to take a few moments to say how proud we are to be Panthers sponsors.

When I told the team at Morris Jenkins, you would have thought I was sending them on a free trip to Hawaii. We're here for the Panthers, and we're here for you too, whenever you need us. All right, Well, as you said back at home, this Sunday taken on doub Bears, and one thing I noticed, you know, just from an overall sense, is that the Panthers are finally opening as a favorite in this game, and you can

take that, you know, for what it's worth. Who knows how the line might move or how it's moved in the past. But you know, I know it's a division rival with the Falcons, but the fact that they opened as an underdog last week against the Falcons who were then oh and four, I was just like, come on, like come on, and but I think it's an overall a good look at at where we all are now with the Panthers. I mean, we all know. It's a lot more interest in the team this week going into

this game than maybe in weeks past. Um people are starting to just see what what we've been seeing and and respect the team. I think Panther fans hate this, honestly. Some do, at least when when we put out the pick in it last week the first to the car

the Chargers game. In the Cardinals game, everyone picked against Carolina, clean sweep, go out there, upset everyone, and then it's like, oh no, Carolina is getting picked to win against Atlanta and like all over redded Everyone's like, oh no, this is the kiss of death. People actually think we're gonna win, Like there's this weird kind of mentality, kind of deep in Panther Panther land of on the internet, of not wanting to be favorite, of wanting to continue to be

that underdog and sneak up on people. Um. I don't think they're going to be sneaking up on people at least anymore. Right now, everyone's talking about this Panther team is as being on the rise, and this is going to be an interesting match up with the Bears, Miles, because I feel like the big consensus around the Bears, right and we've heard it so much, is that this is the worst four in one team that anyone's ever seen. I mean, but that's everyone has said it. Everyone has

said it. Um. So there is the danger maybe of and this could be a media narrative as well, but there is the danger of you know, now that the Panthers have won three straight, everyone thinks, Okay, the Bears are four and one, but you know, they're not great. They're not really you know, true four and one if you will. So, so, what do the Panthers have to take care of in practice this week and then in the game to make sure that, you know, they come out on top and and kind of show the Bears

for what they are. Well, the Bears are four and one because of their defense. Right, they have not allowed an opponent to score anymore than twenty six points this season, and you know, in most of their games they've held their opponents to point totals in the teams. So that's really hard to do, and especially in a year where teams are scoring at a record pace. I think we talked a little bit about this last week. So that's why they are as good as they are. That's why

they four and one. Now, what you have to do is make sure that their offense doesn't get going, because if that offense does get going with the defense that they have, well, then that's how they're going to beat you. And that's why they've been switching quarterbacks. I mean, that's why Mitchell drabinski um was benched in favor of Nick Foles because they felt like Foles could run the offense

at a more efficient rate. Now, if you watch that game between Tampa Bay and Chicago last Thursday, I mean there were some ups and downs there, right, And what the Bears were able to do is get a late takeaway late in that first half, and then that allowed the Bears to go take a little bit of a

halftime lead. So if you are able to play clean and make sure that Teddy Bridgewater has been protected as he has the last couple of weeks, keep Khalil Mack in check, then and that's yeah, exactly, that's a very difficult task, right, Um, then that's gonna be the way that you're gonna be able to win. But again, it's tough against the defense, and everybody always says defense travels will see what happens when they come here to Charlotte.

It was funny last week that someone narrative around Atlanta is that they had this mindset of, you know, all these blown leads obviously the Super Bowl and then these blown leads this year in the fourth quarter. Well, the Bears on the other side of that coin. They're a team that's had three different comebacks where they were down thirteen or more points and have come back to win. In four of these wins, they've come back from down

thirteen or more. So this Bears team like they're not scared of anything, and they they're kind of wearing this like worst four and one team as a badge of honor. You know, they're kind of like, yeah, okay, let's let's let's go. Let's see who else we can beat um. So they they have a definitely a very tough, a winner's mentality coming into this. And it's more than just Cleil Mac. You know, you look at a Chem Hicks, Ropan Smith, like all of these guys on this defense. Uh,

you're really gonna have to to really scout all of them. Yeah. The one thing I've noticed about this Panthers team that has just impressed me so much is that, you know, I think except for maybe in that first half against uh Tampa Bay where they had some big mistakes and went down twenty one nothing at the half, it never feels, you know, on either side of the ball, like the

game gets away from them too much. You know, you you never see another team really go on a big scoring drive where it's where it's out of out of reach for the Panthers. I mean, they can control that offense and and take time off the clock, and I just I've just been really impressed by that. It just seems pretty balanced, pretty even, like okay, and you know they've they've been moving the ball well, converting those third downs, and I just think it's really impressive um and at

some point that that will get tested. And you know, as you said, that the Bears are a comeback team, So we'll see if this team can kind of continue that steady um commands against a team that we know can can come back in a big way. And one thing that Panthers fans should be on the lookout for is that if the Panthers get a third down stop in the third quarter during a home game, one lucky fan will win a smart home smoke and carbon monoxide

detector through Morris Jenkins Protect and Check Sweepsticks. So if the Panthers got a fourth down stop in the fourth quarter, the same fan will also be going home with a fifteen hundred dollar gift card. Be sure to check out contest dot Panthers dot com for more details on how you can enter. Pretty sweet right there. Yeah, alright, it's

time now for our weird question of the week. Uh, Will you talked about the mutual respect um between the offensive line and Teddy Bridgewater and you talked about Taylor Moulton spike in the ball down in the end zone. And one thing we learned about Teddy and this offensive line and how close they are is that you know Teddy's given them nicknames, so he revealed last week that he calls John Miller big Boosey. Miles wrote a great piece on the origin of that and the fade It's

it's awesome. Taylor Moulton is Temo and Mike Davis is Little Teamo, which makes me laugh. Um. So I thought, in honor of that, the weird question of the week should be do you have a nickname? And it can be one you either love or when you hate. Will Well, we can't also forget rusticulous for that offensive. All of that that didn't come from Teddy. That came from Big Boosey that he calls Russell Kong rusticulous, which I just

think is awesome. It is great. Alright, So back to me, Um, I had one in middle school and then I had another one in college. So I'll give you both. The first one came out with when I was in middle school. Any given Sunday came out and so I was Steve and Willie Beamon. I like it, Yeah, I like it. That was that's just just based on the fact that your name is will Yeah, and will Brian, so like we would be Willy Beamon you know whatever. So yeah,

that was my that was my aim screen name. In middle I always said a I am me too, Yeah, thanks thanks again. Thanks uh. And then in college, one of my college roommates like when it was discovered that I had four names, and like, my first name is actually Charles. Yeah, can you just give everyone for name breakdown, Charles William McFadden, Brian, it's the McFadden for me, it's the McFadden for me. It's the Charles for me. Yeah. So he called me Chucky Will Chucky Will. Yeah, it

doesn't quite roll off the tongue. No offense to your college friend. Yeah, it didn't catch one trying to make it work. He's trying to make Fetch work. So he's still trying to make Chucky Will make happen. Well, you've messed up like every pop culture reference. I think that you've tried to have what's trying to make fetch work. It stopped trying to make Fetch happen. It's not going

to happen. At least I got Fetch right, right. Miles. Nickname, I don't really have many nicknames, um like these, No, I mean, like Smiles, people would call me that which is like ironic as a kid or you know, an adult. It's kind of like the Miley Cyrus thing where her fans are called what smilers or something. I honestly, I don't know that, but I think it's funny that when he said it's ironic, because yeah, because I'm not a

smiley person. That's why I don't know. I mean, you've been under a mask since i've I've known you, so I can't tell. I mean, that's kind of fair, but yeah, no, I'm not really I'm not really a smiley guy. So like that's part of why smiles is do you have an S in your name somewhere or you just replaced Simmons? Oh yeah, an S Like at the end of I don't know, are you talking about? People put my first name in front of my second first name and so they made it. I don't know if you're an S

first name in front of Miles so became Smiles. We're going off the rails here. Sorry, No, mine is I think the one that I'm uh that's I get most commonly called is um bal Biz and that was from my time at ESPN, and I get a lot of questions about like, oh, you know, how did that come about. I'm like, well, okay, my last name is Balboni. So what happened was um, and that's what they called me. That's what Greeny and Gala called me on the show

for the three and a half years I was there. Um. But it came about because on the first day that I started working for them, and Greeny came in, he said, well, you know, what's your name? I said, Kristen and he said, well, we don't go by first names here. You know, you can't just like come in here and say like many, We're not gonna call you Kristen, Like that's ridiculous. Um,

everyone has a nickname. And so he started calling me Balboni my last name, and then that was kind of he went through like a big snoop dog phase, um, where you know, everything was like Isel and is and all that kind of stuff, and I think it was I think it was a few years late, um honestly, but he he did go through that phase, and so it was a bal Bizzle and then bal Biz and I still get called that by by people on the

Internet to this day. So that's it. I'd say, Matt, you got a nickname in high school, people called me hogan a lot. Well that's your last and then people and then people called me hog a lot because uh. And then lately, since I started this job, Mick has called me podcast Matt. He does call you by anyone else called me that. I would be like, that is zero creativity. But Nick just has a way. I don't know. It flows well, yeah, flows well together, all right for

for Chucky will Podcast Matt and smiles Simmons. I'm al Baz. This is the end of this week's Happy half hour podcast. We'll see you next week. Panthers fans, be sure to stay connected to your Carolina Panthers with the Panthers at Home Membership presented by Coca Cola. For only sixty five dollars per month, you will receive unique Panthers items delivered to your home, pregame virtual film breakdowns with Panthers legends every week, chances to win autographed items, exclusive behind the

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