Happy Half Hour Episode 76: Taking Ownership

brand and wine club of the Carolina Panthers. These premium selections celebrate the great people of the Carolinas and the Panthers hunger to achieve excellence on and off the field. Learn more at Prowling Vineyards dot com. Well, it's Thursday morning here, so maybe a little early for a glass

of wine, but you never know. On the Happy Half Hour, what's that in your mug, Darren, Nothing, as far as you know, it's turning Prowling Vineyards at ten thirty on at Thursday morning, unless you're in an airport, in which case there is no judgment because it could be anytime anywhere. So that is true. That is true. Um, let's dive right into it with the two of you. As I said Thursday morning, we have learned a lot since the

home game versus Cleveland. I want to touch on that game and more so just what we've learned from it. Um the good, the bad, the in between, and it really felt to me like a tale of two halves. Guys, do you agree? Yeah? I mean, Rule talked about that yesterday. The first twenty five minutes not very good at all, about as bad as it could be offensively. The next

thirty five not so bad. They were moving the ball, and you know, it's not hard to draw the line between a couple early three and out Christians not really doing anything three touches in the first half to all of a sudden boom, you get Christian McCaffrey involved, things start going well, and you know, we're going to talk about Christian all year long. He's their most important offensive players.

So as long as he's involved in doing things, you know, he picks up there's a loose snap and balls at his feet and he just picks it up and takes off with it. Now, Christians fantasy owners probably hated that play because they don't get credit for rushing yards, but it just kind of shows the kind of spark he creates. And I think, you know, if you if you can separate those two and say all right. Well, the last

thing they did offensively wasn't all that bad. Uh, you move forward, but those first twenty five minutes count too, and you can't gain twenty one yards on your first twenty plays and expect to be competitive against anybody in the league. Really, yes, but there were a lot of um things that that went wrong and that throughout the course of the game. Right, there were four issues with snaps, and we heard Baker Mayfield say earlier this week that's

never happened to him. I've never seen that in a game, but you certainly don't expect that to happen going forward. Right, there were some some big penalties that you hope you can get cleaned up, which is the it's the good and bad part of it, right, Augusta, because you don't want to see those things from your team if you're

a fan. But also there's some hope, especially considering the way in which they played in the second half, that those little things that may have prevented them from ultimately just edging out the Browns um may not come up again as the season goes on, or hopefully don't. Well exactly, And I think when you have those things, I mean, you you mentioned the botched snaps and then a few batted balls up in the air and things like that.

I mean, when you have those things as much as you as much as you don't want things to be that glaring and in your face, it's there's obvious points to clean up, there's obvious things to work on, there's obvious places to start um and taking ownership of it. I mean both Baker and Pedophline. Talking with both of them, you know, you're like, oh, botch snaps, and they both oh, that's on me, that's on me, you know what I mean.

So when you have two people taking ownership of whatever the chemistry issue was there, I mean they they have a path forward. I mean, like Darren said, you know, the first twenty five minutes were really rough, but being able to turn that around. I think that's part of the good part about having Baker Mayfield, you know what I mean. I mean you can be down and and have all the things going wrong, and he's still going

to find a way to drive the ball downfield. I mean, we were talking about the Robby Anderson pass and and just kind of his explosive ability obviously Christian being Christian, and and however the plan is moving forward with him. In the second half, his usage went up a lot, and he's one of those players that you want to get him the ball as much as possible. They talk about, you know, you want your playmakers to get the ball and looking ahead to the Giants, that's what they do

is sake one. So there's a lot of different pieces there, but um, there's there's things to grow from and there's things to learn from. And I think the right now the mood in general is okay. I've heard a lot of Okay, we're flushing it. We're flushing it. But you

want to build also from from what was good. And I mean you watch the first half of that game and you fast forward to the last couple of minutes, and I don't think a lot of people in that stadium the first, you know, thirty minutes would have thought that the game was on the line. It was really close. Um, So I don't know. I think that turnaround is something that it's it's Baker Mayfield specific to. I think that's something that he brings is that you know, we're never

fully out into all the game is over kind of mentality. Absolutely, we saw that. Yeah, and Kristen. You've heard me say this a hundred times in the past, but I'm not typically an overreactor to any one particular thing that happens in a NFL game. The difference between the Giants and the Carolina Panthers is the Titans kicker missed his field goal and the kid from Cleveland smoked one from about a hundred and twelve yards away or whatever it was.

I mean, and if the Titans kicker hits his, we're not talking about, Oh, Brian Dable is a gutsy genius and this is a new era of Giants football. And if the kid from Cleveland misses his, we're not talking about, oh looking back at last year. We're we're talking about We're talking about what to come back. We're talking about

and incredible. You know, if if the kid from Cleveland misses that field goal, the rookie kicker who hits a fifty eight yard or which has probably only been done a handful of time, then Baker Mayfield just had his first chapter of Jake Delome right here in front of us, coming in at halftime and turning the thing around him winning the thing in dramatic fashion. Now, I mean, those are the things football games turn on. They still count kind of like the first twenty five minutes of the game.

But I do kind of like that Baker's got this thing about him. He he talks about flushing it a lot. Baker walked into Cleveland where they had won one game in two years. This is not too big for him. This does not scare him, This does not really phase him. I mean, I think he's kind of looking at this year, you know, personally professionally is kind of a blank slate, new lease on life, whatever cliche you want to put

on it. But that's the way he's approaching this. So he's kind of what you almost seven straight at the end of last year. Yeah, let me tell you something about that. I mean, he's been through, He's seen worse, So I don't think it's ever going to really cow him and make him kind of blank, so to speak. So you know, we'll see. I mean, he was, he was We're still getting to know him. But the Baker we saw in press conference yesterday was very It's very upbeat.

It's like Bumbles will fix it. What's next, you know, And that's the thing that keeping the focused on the next thing rather than oh my god. I mean even said, if you think back on the negative stuff, it'll creep into the back of your mind. That's why you've just got to keep eyes forward and that's really the only way to do it. Yeah. I don't have any concerns about the poise or the ability to meet the big moment from pretty much anyone on this team. You know,

I was down on the sidelines that entire game. That is not the issue. Um. You know I reported this on our broadcast. But um, after those first few three an ounce, Matt Rule gathered the team together and, um, you know, just kind of getting everyone to take a breath. And Christian came up as well and said, um, guys, everyone take a breath, Calm down, smile. Remember football is fun. And so you have those leaders on this team both.

You know, I've watched some of these young guys grow into now leadership positions, whether it's Jeremy Chen getting voted to captain. Um, you know that Dante Jackson is like a vet now even though he's been in the league for five years. Um, you know, he's like he's like one of those like old hardened guys that really knows how to lead everyone and then you have the additions

of just really experienced players coming in like Baker. So I do not think, by by any means, no fans should be worried about, um, the moment being too big, the doubts creeping up on any of these guys. They're very good football players. But I do wonder if for the fans it makes it just even a little bit more frustrating and the team as well, to have little things, UM that had not shown up in practice, as the team has been saying, UM, affect your game, right, and

you go, we just had that one snap back. We were just lined up correctly here CMC could have scored right as one example that they had mentioned. UM. So yeah, you take that as the good and the bad, and of course we'll see, right, UM, what this team looks like? Is it the first three or five minutes, the last thirty five minutes as they go and face the Giants. One thing I do want to ask you both about is UM we saw us game against the Titans, Darren,

you were just referencing it. He looks great, UM, and the Panthers had issues with the run, uh in this last game. How much of what you saw Darren was Nick Chubb just not going down no matter what. UM, how much of it was mistackling, how much of it was something that you think will carry over into this Giant's game, or just a factor of of you know, the Brown's running backs being very good. Yeah, I mean this just in Nick Chubb good at football. UM, he

is a problem for a lot of people. And se Kwaan is a problem if he's going to run the way he ran last week. But the thing you worry about, uh, and you saw it last year, Chris, and after the Dallas game, then it was like the mark was on them. And because Dallas ran for a million yards, everybody was gonna tryum until it didn't work. And so you saw New England play on that way, you saw Minnesota play him that way, and it started to stack up. Now these two teams again, se Kuan had the big numbers

this week, and he is capable of doing that. I don't know that that Giants offensive line is necessarily the same as the Cleveland line. That interior Cleveland line. They were without their right tackle. That's a good group of players. I mean, we talked a lot this offseason about what the Panthers did to kind of rebuild a line to get it to this point. That's the place you're trying to get to. That's what Cleveland has standing there in front of Nick Chubb. Um, so we'll see it's going

to be a thing until it's not a thing. And that's just Phil Snow every Thursday when he walks in, is gonna get asked about run defense now until it stops. I think if I was trying to isolate any one thing, it all came around the edges. I think, yeah, I feel bad for Derek Graham, Matt I and I just sometimes because I think when there's a run defense game, people go to ask those guys in the middle about it. But a lot of those yards came out on the edges and I and I think that when you're defending

or trying to think about stopping that. Obviously, tackling is a problem, but keeping edges set and keeping people in gaps are things that can be fixed. I mean, you can do that. You know, Nick Chubb's gonna break some tackles. He just is. But I think you can become more disciplined. I'm curious to see if Henry Anderson plays more snaps. I mean they brought him in a week ago. Uh, it's not Baker Mayfield walking in at quarterback, you know,

right before training camp. But Henry Anderson got a pretty quick introduction after being here a week. And I think he his role is gonna just get bigger and bigger because he is a VET. He's a bigger body. Uh, he's a little more stable against the run. And when you we talked about run defense a week ago or through this offseason, it was they want to be bigger. It's a tour rather than Hassan Reddick, it's Damien Wilson rather than Jermaine Carter. You're just putting bigger bodies at

the problem. But he, me Anderson knows how to do this. And you know, he's never gonna put up big sack numbers or anything like that, but he knows how to set edges and maintain and be in the place he needs to be. I think you're absolutely right. I think we will see more of him. I talked to Matt Rule yesterday and I was asking him about, you know, some of the little things that we were just talking about, and I said, how how does that manifest itself in practice?

When you want to clean up some some little things, and he said, you know, it's it's really about confidence, especially for the second rotation guys, you know, the ones that maybe haven't played a lot. And he used Henry Anderson as an example of a player who's been around is doing it and just despite getting there earlier in the week, was able to come in and make a couple of plays when they needed it. Um, really at

the drop of a hat. I know at one point it was when you know, Matt and I just had to go out for cramps, and he just said, you know, hey, he does not have a ton of familiarity with our system, but he came in, he played confidently, knows what he's doing. So Darren, I think it's a it's a great point and something that will certainly be looking out for UM is to see more Henry Anderson. Yeah, I think he's gonna be a thing and and it's just gonna grow.

I I'm really curious to see what happens with Sa Kwan this week because he him and Christian are sort of in the same spot. I mean, they've dealt with a lot of the same stuff, but they're both capable of changing games like that and if goes again, that's gonna be that's gonna be an issue, but there are reasons to think it's not necessarily as dramatic as it looks. I mean again, you catch Cleveland in New York right out of the shoot, you know how they're going to

try to move the ball. I mean nothing against Jakobe Bricittt and Daniel Jones, but they're trying to run to minimize the amount of the impact the quarterback has on the offense. So we'll see. This is gonna be an opportunity for them to get some of that stuff ironed out, and we'll find out in a hurry if it does. All right, we have got a stat of the week from our very own Panther stats Guy, Will Darren. I

love Darren, the intrepid reporter. Tracked Will down. Even though he can't be with us in studio every single week, we are not going to let the stat of the week go. So let's hear it will of the time. It backs every times that of the week as promised. Even though he's not here in the studio with us today, Panther Stats Guy will always be a part of this podcast in spirit. So we're coming live from an undisclosed location in Bank of America Stadium. That's why I'm whispering.

Here's Will Brian stat of the week. What's up, Darren? What's up? Podcast crew? Hi? Man, So I've got a I've got a Robbie Anderson stat for you. Last week, his seventy five yard touchdown was his third straight touchdown of over fifty yards in Week one. Only Randy Moss has more fifty plus yards touchdowns in Week one over the last two decades than Robbie Anderson. How about that. Robbie went eighty five point eight total yards on that play, second longest play in total yards run in the Seventy

five yards from scrimmage was the longest play in Week one. See, that's the kind of stuf if you only get here. That's why we're going to continue to come get it. I just love to hear wolves voice. Right, he's sneaky. I had to go out and commit a journalism and um, but he's there. I know where he lives, and we will try. I hope that at some point, if he's um in a bunch of meetings one day and you're trying to get this, you do just go knock on his door at his house. There's there's a non zero

chance that's gonna I love it. Another great thing about last week's game that we have to talk about is Augusta. It was your first regular season NFL game as a writer for the Panthers. It was, it was. It was very exciting. I took in a moment. I got there very early. I was I was in the building by nine o'clock, which I mean feels very early to me. I think there were still people who beat me here. But UM went down to the field, took it all in, had a little sappy moment that I tweeted about because

I share my sap everywhere. I saw that tweet. I loved it. I just had to. Especially it was this overcast day. The day before was my birthday, so it was already in my mos because of that. And then you just look up. All the clouds are there, but they're starting to part and you're starting to see the sky and then the big uh, you know, the JumboTron has the helmets on and it says Panthers browns and

I don't know, you take in the moment. It was exciting, and I know you yeah, we're talking about like meeting the moment and everything. I felt like, you know, okay, I'm meeting it. We're here. It's so cool. But um, yeah, and then the pregame. I love being on the field pregame and seeing everyone go through all of their workouts, getting to see I got to write about it last week, but Christian McCaffrey's routine and just the way he jumps really like Brady Christians and said like a gazelle. I

just it was. It was so cool to to take it all in and then and then the work happens afterward and it's it's crazy. And the game was such a an instantly kind of one of those things where I've already heard some people, um, you know in the media saying, oh my gosh, it was one of the craziest games I covered, and you know all these things. I was like, great, it was my first, that's awesome. Um,

but it was really really cool. Um, you know, it was one of those things where, um, you sort taken in like I'd covered plenty of football games, so it wasn't that first. But there is definitely a different elevation at the level, and there's a huge difference between preseason and regular season just in the way it feels. Um.

But it was awesome. I don't know if I'm just saying like obvious things, but it was cool from my from my purview, and um, yeah, I I really enjoyed getting to take it all in and I'm excited to do it sixteen more times at least. Absolutely, She's covered plenty of football. Well. I saw her tweet and she she did document the moment and it's one thing that I love as a reporter and host. I love to

ask the rookies about taking in the moment. And you know, I've I've been like the crazy aunt a couple of times. I walked Aquanum through the locker room for the first time. We did that on camera, but like after the cameras were off, I said, look, I said, you're gonna come in a couple of weeks and it's gonna be normal to you. You know, you're gonna Ricky Mini camp. You're going to go into two O, T A S. And I said, you need to just like look around and take it off for the cameras. Just take it in

for a moment. And so of course I had to ask you as well. And I think it's it's cool that you took a moment to you just really soak it all in. Yeah, thank you very much. It was It was a cool game, like I said it would. It couldn't have gotten It was a pretty difficult game for your first game, but I think I handled it well. I'm proud of it. That's awesome. Do you have your

pregame routine yet? Oh, that's a great question. I will say this week was a little weird side people over at my apartment, so I was getting ready at the same time as two other folks. Um. So, you know I always drink my coffee out of my little blue cup that I love so much. Um right now it's pumpkin spice flavored. Um. So coffee is always a huge part of my routine. Um, honestly not. Yeah. I always listened to um the same song on the way to any game I cover. I listened to song too by Blur.

It gets me really exciting. Yeah, so I listened to that in my car where my earbuds if I'm walking. So that's a part of my routine. That's what I love to hear. Darren. Do you have a Do you have a routine that you would hear by or is it just getting out the door. I am kaya A lot of times it's no out the door, and sometimes you just want to make sure you're dressed. Um, but I um, I I am kind of particular about my area. I like to show up early, get my stuff set up.

Could you know, have everything at right angles? No, I'm not really that um particular about it, but I do like I will never get tired. And I kind of joke about being older this when being young, but I hope I never get tired of that feeling you get when you walk into empty stadiums and you know something's fixing to happen here and a bunch of people are excited to see it one way or another. And it's not like a concert where you know you're gonna see

a particular song. You have no idea how this thing's gonna unfold here today. But those those kind of still small moments in stadiums before the thing happens still kinda I enjoy that, and it takes a little bit. I have probably started showing up earlier and earlier as I've gotten older, to kind of get in get into character. I guess you could say to be ready for what's coming, because you gotta take those still small moments when you can,

because when the game starts, you're standing front a fire host. Well, and before the game starts, as as you know, I think it's a great point. You're you're looking to Okay, who's going to be inactive, what's going on, who's warming up? How do they look? And there's so much to do that I think it's just really um, it's great advice to just make sure you get the time to take it in, center yourself a little bit whatever it is, right um, and appreciate it because we only get these games.

As I guess to said, you get seventeen guaranteed, maybe more. Um and you know, to me, win or lose, they are my favorite seventeen days out of the season, no contest. So and and she's gonna get a hard time from me this year because she's been here since June, and so I expect her to perform at a certain level. It's regular season level now. And I have to remind myself too that I was once an NFL rookie and even though that was in black and white TV days

many many moons ago. But no, she's doing great, and I'm looking forward to a lot of cool stuff both later today and throughout the year. No pressure. Well, let's let's talk about that. Let's let's go around. Let's go around the horn and talk about one thing we've learned this week. Darren, you're gonna start. Yeah, And I mentioned earlier, Baker is a different cat. I mean, just watching him walk through the locker room, he's starting to figure out who's who. He knows our names. Now, he knows who

he can bust on. He knows how to pick on this guy back here in the corner. And I think, you know, we sort of saw him latch onto Shock and Dante early on when he got here, and now it's sort of spreading out a little bit. Now he knows who the support staff is. Now he knows what jokes to crack. He's a different personality. I mean, he's got he's got a little bit of that grin on his face when he does certain things, and you can just tell he's starting to feel a little more at

home in Charlotte and in this stadium. We'll see how that translates to on the field, but his personality, I think a little bit at a time we're starting to see a little bit more of it, and he's just he's just finding himself a little more at home. Augusta,

what's one thing you've learned this week? Okay, So I will start this by saying, I feel like I've almost carved out a Shy Smith beat for myself, having a South Carolina connection, but also kind of just his camp and his emergence at camp and then it being my first camp. I feel like a lot of eyes have been paid, are a lot of attention and eyes have been on him. Um. Andre Roberts will be out for

at least two months. I think Matt Roles told us so, um, that leaves pretty open, you know, role in the return game and returning punts. Shy Smith is one they Matt Role told us, you know, that will be his place. But he is practicing and practicing and practice ing. He told me that he, you know, spent an extra fifteen minutes after practice just fielding punts and from all all corners.

Everyone else had gone inside. He was out there. Um, and he's he's putting in the work, so he has you know, he he started, Uh, they lined up and he was on the field for the first play against the Browns. So he's already carved out a role there, you know, and now he's gonna have this other role with Roberts out. Um. It's just one of those things where it's it's really cool to see a guy that I really wasn't, you know, dealt with injuries last year.

And that's one of the things he told me. No, one of the biggest parts of his jump was simply just being healthy, you know, just taking care of his body and and doing all of that. But UM, I guess it's not we haven't learned that because we've learned that throughout camp, but but seeing it kind of comes together, then he's gonna have even a bigger role um against the Giants. So that's one of the things I've known, is um or learned and seen and and heard. He's

just he's working extremely hard. He's really really putting in as much effort as he can and so um but yeah, like I said, I feel like I've carved out my own chefs with be Um. Learned a lot about him in the past week, and I'm excited to share and not wait to see that on on Panthers dot Com. And you know, he's another one of those guys. What we were just saying is that a guy that at the moment is not too big for him, he wants

to be out there. He's worked his butt off. He will, you know, take a hit and and get back out this. I'm fine, I'm fine. You know, we saw that in camp quite a few times, and it's, uh, it's it's cool to see that hard work payoff. Looking forward to, like you said, Augusta, reading the article and seeing what he does on Sunday against the Giants. So I'll tell you, guys, one thing I learned this week is that, um, we had a newer broadcaster on the radio side. I don't

know if you guys have heard of him, name Luke Keikley. Um, and he did a pretty good job. So it was his first game. You know, expected him to be nervous broadcasting, but really, I mean, the guy seems to know some football, how about that. Yeah, But one thing I learned this week look also good at broadcasting. It was it was great too. You know, he's gonna be doing seven games with our radio crew. Uh, this was his first one and it was it was great to have him in

the booth. You know, it's just even just from my eyes, you know, being down as a sideline reporter, just the amount of knowledge that that he and Jake alone can just share. The They have so much knowledge like in their pinky finger compared to the rest of us. So um, anyone who listened to the radio broadcast certainly got a treat, and we all learned a lot and enjoyed it. If I didn't know him just a little bit, he would be the kind of guy that's easy to hate because

he's great at everything. My God, look at him. He's impossibly handsome, his hair is great. He knows everything about football, was great at playing it knows what's about to happen before it happens. And so for him to walk in the door and be good at broadcasting, I just I kind of want to flick him. And also from what I heard, I did not get to see it, because again I am down on the field. They're up in

the booth. But according to Jake, you know who was rausing him a little bit rasing, the rookie apparently had a giant notebook full of notes, so he brought you know. Of course, he spent the week prepping, yes, doing um, doing everything that, so we didn't even just walk in the door good at it. He spent all week prepping and had great stuff where he could have walked in

the door and been great at it too. So you're right, it's just eybody probably made like straight a's at Boston College too, you know, just always took on extra on the group projects. I'm one of those guys. Alright. This has been a blast. Thank you guys for for doing this as always, looking forward to seeing those articles on Panthers dot com and we'll be back next week on the Happy half Hour Podcast.