Happy Half Hour Episode 56: Back In The Fold

on Wednesday. I had to do the push ups last night in order to make way for all the food that's come. Are you the kind of person that's like, all right, just one set and then I'm good to go, Like, are you did? I'm saying two sets, but I'm saying are you are? Are you now set for Thanksgiving? You're like today, what are the sets? What's the number? So it was dumbbells. Really I was exaggerating. It wasn't push ups. It was why was she live about that? I don't

push ups sounded better? And now I'm having to explain it. I mean it was yea, So it was dumbbells. It was flies. It was like an investigative journalists you're not getting away. It was it was like whatever the crunches with the weight that you're twisting, you know all those things. First Happy Half Hour Podcast Poll of the week. Who wins a push up contest? Phil snow sixty five year old defensive coordinator the Carolina Panthers or young will on

Phil snow And that's not not even gonna try. That is by no means meant to to count Will out. I have seen coach snow though um at a at an away game in the team hotel. One morning. I had to get up really early to print something off. It might have been our preseason game. You get up really early print something off, like six am. And I walk past the g him and he's doing planks and then he's talking to me. He's like, hey, how's it going, you know, having a good morning? He had been up

for hours. He was holding a plank way longer than I ever could have. And so I just I would give it to Phil snow Over, and I'd give it to Phil snow Over. Son Reddick maybe like that. That's o MS. That's what we call a m S right, old man strength. You could say it. I'm not saying it all right. So, aside from Will's new Thanksgiving related exercise routine, we got some stuff to talk about this week. Let's talk about Sunday's game, the Return of Cam Newton.

It was kind of a roller coaster guys, right, I mean that from from the atmosphere the beginning, the game went back and forth, and ultimately Washington came away with the win. Darren, what do you think in in five ten years, you know you like to pull your your clips. Um, what do you think if you're going to look back on this game and look at the articles that you wrote and say, oh, yes, the return to Cam Newton. What do you think you're gonna remember the most? You know?

I always say in reference to music concerts, I was if if you're ever wondering should I go do this or should I always go see the show? Always go see the show? And Sunday was the show. I mean you got Matt Rule said the other week he didn't want cam light, he wanted the full cam. Well that's what everybody in the building got. I mean from the pregame warm ups and he's doing his thing with the arms outstretched as he runs through the field. The entrance,

the smoke the people coming on glued. There were more people in this building for pregame introductions than I've seen in a long long time, and they were here to see that guy. And that guy didn't disappoint. I mean, he put on the show and he looked like, you know, we don't know. I've I've said throughout this thing. I don't know how it's gonna end. I don't know how it's gonna fold. I don't know how well he's going to be able to keep himself together and keep looking

like Cam Newton. But again, Darren, I say, how dare you not know? Well right now that dude can play. And you know, in addition to the show, and in addition to the showmanship, he's doing pretty good with the limited amount of football he's got to work with. And he's out there probably knowing of the playbook at the moment or of the game plan maybe, but a limited

amount at any rate. And he was able to go out and throw a couple of touchdown passes the past a Christian was just an adult NFL quarterback pass and oh, by the way, ran for a touchdown too, And you know, just out there doing Cam stuff. That is that pass I was breaking down film with with Thomas Davis for a t TV segment yesterday, and we looked at that one. That's one of those passes that you go, those are two guys who are really great at their job, you

know what I mean. You know when you see that like veteran quarterback pass to either you know, running back or watching on TV like Sunday night football game, do you know what I mean? Like you see Aaron Rodgers passed to subway, see Tom Brady need to gronk, and you're like, those are two professionals who know exactly what they're doing and have a ton of chemistry, and it's

just it's Jeff's kiss. You know. It almost felt like one of those oh no, no, no, no, oh yes sort of moments for me, just based on the based on what we've seen for a while, and then to see that and the ball comes out and you're like, oh my gosh, there's a lot of defenders around this guy, and oh my gosh, that we placed it exactly where it should have gone, you know, a little bit behind him to get him out of that traffic. It was great. Well,

what do you think you're going to remember? Obviously I think the the pregame, the crowd, you know, the way the city felt leading up to it, you know all of that stuff. You know everything online about how fans felt. But at the same time, I also I'm not sure that I'm willing to make that game a referendum on everything, you know. I for me, it felt like just a really exciting, good football game. But I think in that I guess my point. But I don't think it's a

referendum at all. But I guess my point being in ten years, whatever happens, like Darren said, we don't know, the ending cam's return to Bank of America Stadium will be something that you'll probably get asked about in ten years, and Darren will probably get asked about I'll probably get

asked about, right, I think it. I think it goes down alongside And I was going to post these three pictures kind of side by side with each other, but it goes down alongside the Buffalo game of, the Jacksonville game of and none of those had anything to do with what happened in the game. No one quite remembers

what the final score was or who really won. But that was the time that Julius Peppers came back to Carolina and he said later that he was nervous running out of the tunnel because he didn't know what people were going to do. He didn't know whether he'd be welcomed back, and of course he absolutely was, absolutely was. And then the moment when Steve Smith at halftime took off his shirt and there's his jersey one last time, eight nine, and just all of the moments those are

those are the things. You know, who cares what the score was, you know, nintenu is You're going to remember the way that this organization, the way that this fan base, this team, they welcomed their guys back, and they were back in the fold and they were, you know, back a part of our hearts and who we are. Yeah, I think I'll remember. I'm very lucky that I can go into the tunnel um pregame, watch the players come out, and I always tried to get in there to see

what the mood is like. There are games that you wouldn't think everyone would be hyped up, and everyone is hyped up their games where they're they look laser focused, and so doing radio sideline, it's always good to see, you know, who's talking to each other. There was a lot of stuff early on in the season about Sam and Robbie, and if you see them in the tunnel,

they're giving each other hugs and secret handshakes. It's not you know, there was no lack of chemistry or friendship from them off the field, so little things like that. I'm very lucky to get to go in there and see kind of where everyone's mind is at before the

game starts. But I think that I'll remember seeing that tunnel and and seeing that you know, I've never worked here for a CAM gamer or really that anyone from that old regime, right, So I got here around the same time as this new staff and a lot of the new players, So it was really cool for me to to get to see what that looks like for so many years. I get to see, you know, they have some exclusive fan spots in there, and also see what what Cam's mentality was, how the team um really

kind of put that energy out as well. So I think I'll remember that because it's a it's a view that very few people get to see, so I feel very lucky for that. Yeah, and I think in time, you know, people will forget to Will's point, you know, five years from now, people will forget that was the day the Carolina Panthers stopped being good at defense for a day, and you know, some of those details will fade, but they will remember what he looked like, what you know,

how they felt. I mean, again, it was just a scene you want to be a part of. And I think, you know, that's one of the things about Cam. There was this overarching concern of can you be a Matt rule guy? And it was reasonable. I mean, Matt was trying to install a program and a certain ethos and you know what he calls the brand, and you know, a lot of people I think it was fair to

wonder if Cam was going to fit in. But I think the neat thing to me, and talking to guys around the team, talking to coaches about the way he approached it, is Cam's bought in. He's trying to be a part of this. He's keep saying it's about winning, It's not about me, it's not about all this other stuff.

And the coaches who were working with him after hours, and he's spending a lot of those you know, when everybody else is out of the building, he's coming back in kind of hours to try to pick this thing up.

I mean, he is invested in this thing. So that's what to me, regardless of all the other stuff, makes these last six games of the season fascinating because you don't know how it's going to unfold, and it could be way over here, and it could be way over here on one end of the spectrum or the other. But it's going to be interesting. That's and that's always what you want, right So, in keeping Darren with that theme,

um of the actual football. That's what Matt rules is if you focus on the show or the energy that he's bringing, I think we're allowed to for a few minutes wax poetic about about the the return. But he said, you know, if you if you focus on all that stuff, then you kind of are undermining what Cam actually is doing right on the football side. And as we said, I think we all thought he looked very good for for the limited amount of time ten days, um that

he's been in the building. I thought, you know, throwing motion looked good. Of course we know he can run it, um. So but let's talk about the actual game. As you said, Darren, um, the defense, how did you put it? Forgot how to be good? For a day or play football, or everybody forgot they were good at defense from all men. And and that's what made it so peculiar, because defense is so good. Every single game point, the thing you trust went away, and the thing you've been unsure about all

year was suddenly, all right, we're not worried about that. Yeah, twenty one points, that's good. And and most weeks, you know, you stake Matt Rule and the Carolina Panthers to twenty one points, and I think they'd take that bargain. I think most weeks they'd say, yeah, the little sign our names for that right now. Um. But it was just weird. And part of it is, you know, I go back and I hear the voice of John fox He's like the ghost of Christmas past in my head. But I

hear John Foxy and the other team practices too. And Taylor Honeke came in and had a day, and Terry McLarin came in and had a day, and Ron Rivera came in and had a day. And but it wasn't that oh my god, these guys are terrible at their jobs. It was just, dang, look at look at Taylor Heinekey. I didn't know he had that in him, and he's had it in him a couple of weeks in a row. Now he's beating Tom Brady and he's beating Carolina Panthers

on the road. So I um again, we do this film breakdown with with Thomas Davis every single week, and we were looking at Washington last week. He was like scouting the opponent and picked a couple of plays and he picked this, um. He picked some plays from the Washington football team versus the Bucks game because that's what

they had just come off of that big win. And it was like a Taylor Heineke dime, Like it was just a great and he said and I just I didn't think that we'd be hearing this, but he was so right. He was like, don't don't let Taylor Heneke, you know, get comfortable half time, like he's gonna he's gonna throw it and it's gonna be good, and you cannot give him time. You have to get pressure on him.

And like in the moment, I was like, well, yeah, and that one game, yeah, and that game okay, sure, you know, but Tomas played with him and we saw what he could do in the second half against the Panthers last year. And I mean it's just he's really having cool a stretch. If he could stay healthy, he could avoid getting hit really hard over and over and over again. When he's a great quarterback, I think he really can be an NFL starting caliber, like a guy

in this league. And I think that it was always just that he couldn't stay on the field. I mean that one the one game he started in uh at the end of that season for Carolina, Like he got hit so many times. He had like he couldn't get out of his shoulder pads. Like at the end of the game, he couldn't move his his arm um. Yeah. I mean, and and give credit to to that running

scheme too. I mean the way that they moved left and right, the way that they had you know, the play action, like the bootleg reverses or like the bootlegs for Heineke on fourth down when there's nobody. I mean that was like a cam run back in the day. Boy when he when he scrambled for the first popped up and so he's just dounting on you. Now, that's not good. So Darren, we all know it's a combination of of everything, right, there's there's usually not just one

thing that leads to a performance like that. But if you had to say between you know, the other side just schemed better, played better. It was the matchup, it was the coaching, it was the miscommunication. Where where would you be worried about or are you just like, look, it was it was a day that they had. They're allowed one game. I'm not worried about it. We'll see this normal defense back in my name. Well, the big flashing red light now for the Carolina Panthers is run defense.

And you know, in the six losses they're giving up a hundred sixty three a game. In the five wins, it's four. And it was a huge deal last year. Now, granted they've added they added a ton of pieces, this defense does not look the same, but they've improved in so many categories. There was almost like there was no holdover at first from last year's issues the third down, the run defense, and we're starting to see a little bit of it re emerging. And listen to books out

people around the league. No, the Dolphins know everybody on the schedule coming down the stretch knows you want to run on the Carolina Panthers put big people on the field and and lean on them a little bit and muscle them up, and you know, until it's one of those things people are gonna punch you until you make them stop punching you. And you know, we'll see what Miami is able to do. I don't know that they're built to um necessarily go off that platform the way

other teams are. But Dallas, Minnesota, New England, Washington kind of all got after him, you know, with different runs, but with the same philosophy, and it's we're gonna muscle you up and we're gonna lean on you until you push back. And and they didn't in those games, I believe, you know. They everybody talks about and it's one of those coach cliches, but it's also happens to be true. You can to stop the run. All eleven dudes have

to be in the right spot. And it almost doesn't matter which eleven, but they've all got to be in the right spot. All the spots get accounted for. But if a guy gets knocked off his feet, if a guy is not where he's supposed to be, that creates a lane and makes everybody look like idiots, So uh it, you know, listening to Hassan Reddick on Monday basically saying we can't be friends now we've got two point fingers that dudes and say you're in the wrong spot. You've

got to tighten this up. You've got to be better. You know, all that talk about accountability. It would surprise me if they didn't get some people's attention with some of that this week. And so we'll see what it looks like on Sunday, Miami. But it's it's definitely the thing you've got to worry about with that defense right now, because we know they can cover, we know they can play man, we know they've got enough corners to match up with anybody in a passing game. It's the number

one past defense in the NFL. We know they can rush passers and get sacks. Hassan and Brian have been playing well. What they've got to do is fix the stuff up the middle. And until they do, it's gonna be a little suspect. I mean, obviously, all the all the numbers that are all contained in in all the things that that Darren just said, for sure, and I think that they they've got to do it. Early, and they've got to they've got to get people off that trajectory.

It's so easy to shut down a run game in the first half because if you if you allow a team to kind of get some life and to get going in the first half a little bit, they feel more and more able to do that, especially if the game's close, you know, in the second half. And I think that's what you saw against Arizona, Like Arizona could have run way more in the second half, but they couldn't because of the way that that avalanche just came at them, and then it became a whole lot easier

for that defense. That defense was just sitting back at that point because of the way Arizona had to play. So I think a lot of it comes down to, you know, the offense got to continue to do what

they're doing, which is score early, be be efficient. You know, Carolina, after that beginning, they couldn't convert on third down, and all of a sudden, you kind of start letting Washing, you start letting Washington get the ball right back, and then here's a play to McLaurin and then all of a sudden, now they're on the plus side of the fifty and now they can run a little bit, and you know that that's kind of that's kind of how that game started to go in against Miami, they've only

averaged seventy seven point three rush yards a game. They're not good statistically at running the ball. Doesn't mean they can't and doesn't mean they won't try, but over the course of a season, they haven't been good at this. It's been to a and tour. Right now is playing like some of his best ball like eight percent completion rating.

I'm just doing my stats the way now. I mean last week percent like that is really really high for a guy that you know, let's be real, there's been a lot of question marks around, you know, in the league, in the media, is two of the guy? Can he be the guy? I don't know that he will be the guy forever, but right now he's playing winning football.

So this matchup, it's fair to say against Miami the week before the bye week is set up so that Carolina can get right if they if they do the things that they are capable of doing and execute, it feels like a favorable game to go into feeling pretty good about um before the bye week. Right I'm should I be knocking on something. I mean the way and if it and if it doesn't work out that way, it's not ours. But you feel like you want that

term get right. It feels like it's been on the other sideline a lot this year, Like the Giants kind of got right against the Panthers in a way, like the Eagles, did you know, all of a sudden, they don't look so bad. Right, there's there that's kind of been happening to Carolina. I'd like to see that go the other direction, you know, to have a get right and just put it into somebody on the other sideline. And and again, it would be great to have right

before the bye week. This is one of the latest bye weeks in the NFL. Right, that's the or the latest, but there's some other teams that also share this by week. I have to look at Will just to make sure. Right, it's been a long time since those dudes have had a Sunday off Yeah, slash us had a Sunday offense and the story yeah, um, but yeah, I'm excited for this game in Miami. Um, it will be the first game that I'm not traveling to, which is a little a little sad for me. They yes, they they put

me on the no fly list. And when you get to a certain point in your pregnancy, you can't be too far from your hospital. So um, it'll be interesting, you know, to to be watching it on TV rather than being there. But um, I'm I'm looking forward to seeing it in whatever capacity that is. It's not going to be the same without you, Christos, Thank you, Darren. I appreciate you saying that. Uh, let's talk about Thanksgiving really quick for me? All right, what is we just

need definitive answers here. I know that everyone does this on podcast right around this time, but you know it's I love Thanksgiving food, I said the agenda. I'm gonna do it anyway. What is the best Thanksgiving side? Right now? Will Brian? I actually kind of like stuffing, kind of like stuffing is not a definitive this is the best side, because I mean it's it's it's macarone macar But everyone's like, oh,

macaroni and cheese, you have that all the time. Like I still like it the best, Like I enjoyed that part of my meal the most. But I think stuffing is unique to Thanksgiving, and I think it's that it's a very versatile side. Do you go, is it in the bird? Er out of the burden your family? It's out, it's out. But I think that it's a it can be a meal on Saturday. Oh, absolutely no. And I like that there's some versatility to it. High starch content, savory.

It carries a lot of weight literally on your plate, just it's weighed down on that. So among my people, when it's not inside the bird, it's dressing. You make it in the in the pan, in the big sheet pan. H I have a My dad's family is from up north and my mom's family is from down south, so I got two different Thanksgivings when I was growing up. So of course down here it's definitely not in the bird. But my my Massachusetts grandmother, it was going in the bird.

Is it bad that I call it stuffing? When it's not in the bird, we call it stuffing anyway, where it's it's Thanksgiving, We're all in a pretty good movie, totally judging absolutely, question like this is gonna be a long answer. Surprised. Um, I like the contrast between sweet

savory salty. You know otherwise, so on my plate, I mean my plate looks very colorful when I get there, because you need My sister in law makes this crazy wild rice thing that's full of sausage and green peppers and cream of something soup um, and you sit that next to the cole slaw, and you put the stuffing or the dressing next to the cranberry. And now the

can's fine with me. I mean I even cut it halfway in long ways and then slice it so you get little half moon shapes, and that just makes it a little more festive rather than just the tube straight coming out of the can. But I need that contrast on my plate. I need a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. So Darren's answer is every side. It's not answer. The turkey doesn't. I mean, the turkey is there, and the turkey's a component. But I like

creating the plate. And there's probably years worth of pictures in my phone of a plate of Thanksgiving that's just eight different Tomorrow, will you send us the perfect plate arrangement whenever we see you. Yes, you don't have to stop what you're doing, and I will try to. I

always try to put that together. I wish you could see Darren's face right now, so proud of I. Um, I'm going to go with something that I you know, I thought what I might have been mentioned by now, just sweet potatoes in any form, Like I'll take it as a casserole. I'll take it, you know, a half of a sweet potato. I just think it's it's like, it's like putting a bit of dessert on your plate a few minutes. The best, Matt, what about you? Probably

cinnamon glaze honey by tam. That's that's like my tradition in my family. So that's like the one twice a year I get it, and this is the first of two. So I'm excited. It's really good. And Christmas all right, and then finally best Thanksgiving dessert. I mean it's I mean it's it's I don't even like pumpkin pie all that much, but you've got to eat a piece on Thanksgiving because gosh Darnett, it's Thanksgiving. Yeah. I always like

to go with very thin slices of many pies. We have a huge family, and the dessert table is a separate table than the food table, and it's almost as laiden down and you could really you want to talk about putting together a plate, you could really put together a regular plate at my family's Thanksgiving, and then you put together your own dessert plate, like full size plate if you want to sample everything, apple, pecan, pumpkin, all kind of right in there together. Yeah, I I don't really,

I'm not a huge pie person. Like I'll do who hurt you? I know. The quick explanation is that so when you grow up, and there's always like the kids generation of Thanksgiving, so like I never grew out of that that dessert so it's always like brownies, chocolate brownies and lemon squares and apple pie. So like I didn't get to like the mature adult pies, you know, like pumpkin pie and you know all the other types kind

of pies that go with bourbon. I will eat. I will eat peacans just like a here's a here's a nut, But I don't like pecan pie. At what age is that appropriate to eat pecan pie? And in the age, well, you said you have to be older, So I'm curious. Table too tall for you know, I think some people just have more mature palettes and I haven't gotten there yet.

There's still hope. There's still hope. It's self awareness though, But if you're not eating peacampire or pecompie, I mean, that's a few less push ups for you, which is I'm filling it with chocolate brownie. All right, Well, I know you wanted to end with something um a little different, ye, So if you read you know we're gonna start with a plug. If you read Darren's mail bag on Panthers dot com. First of all, we're getting everyone here shirts.

I just need shirt. I did send a very thinly veiled message to Darren on Twitter public public just it could not have been more obvious. The shirts are awesome, and they say friend of the mail bag, and I just was reminding Darren that I am indeed a friend of the mail bag. So that's all I'm saying. You guys are all O G friends of the mail bag. Scott, right, yeah, Scott. Scott wants in on it. We also had a request from another player who will go nameless, who wants to

be a part of the community. So we're we're definitely gonna have to get some more shirts, some question in order to get in on this. I want to guess after ask better questions if you want to be in fot. But so one of Darren's early on in the mailbag entreaties was for people that obviously to give thanks, but

to be with your people. And as someone that spent a lot of my life, you know, doing this sports thing in you know, far flung places, away from family, away from loved ones, um it, it has meant a lot when your people are new people and when they welcome you into their homes. And I just think that, you know, this time of year, it's it can be so hard for so many people that just don't quite have someone close or just don't have what the kind

of stereotypical big family is. And you know, I just think it's really important for us to like look around at at our our universe and our sphere and find that person or those people and say, hey, come have a meal, you know, and break bread with me. And I think that just means a lot, especially in this day and age. It was really beautiful. But this was Darren's original thoughts. So I'm just stealing, and I mean honestly,

I mean, this ain't no week to be alone. So yeah, invite the strays to your house, having been the stray it does. I I spent almost ten years, my now husband and I away from our families, you know, going from Connecticut to l A to Chicago, always doing the

next sportscasting job. And it's funny because we wanted to move back to North Carolina, where both of our families are too, to be with our families on holidays like this, and last year was the pandemic and there was a practice and all that, so we we stayed home, just the two of us, um and then this year, because I am getting very close to my due date, we

are also staying home. But just knowing that our families are there is you know, even though it maybe hasn't gone exactly the way that we would ideally like it to the last two years, just knowing that our families are there, um is is huge because for so many years it wasn't. You know, in sports, you typically work on on Thanksgiving um as we maybe too, but you know, as you said, trying to to make time for the people that matter. That's really really beautiful, both of you.

All Right, everybody, everybody's got their weird coworker that nobody really knows what to do. We're sitting right here here well, I was gonna say, will, why don't you come over to that we have adult pie after you know. Oh, this was lovely guys. We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and we will talk to you next week on the Happy After