Happy Half Hour Episode 86: Seattle Celebration

of the week. It's the Happy half Hour podcast with your friends, Darren, Augusta and Kristen and Darren and Augusta. I have to say, I know it is Thursday morning as we record this, but we've all been very busy this week, so I feel like it's only right to go back and have a little Seattle celebration. We the three of us, haven't had a chance to do that,

to talk about just what a game that was. I think I think the Panthers fans listening will be okay with that, right, guys, Absolutely, yeah, I think people should be okay with that. Has it been a long time

since we've had one quite like that? Around tier and it's been you know, Augustine, I've been laughing about it all season about this year contains multitudes and all the weird stuff we've seen Sunday was the good football stuff that was, you know, you needed to get a big win in a crucial situation on the road against a playoff team, and then they went and did all the things. I mean, it's just it was all the stuff Steve Wilkes has been talking about, all that he's been trying

to get them to do made manifest. They made defensive plays at big moments. They ran the ball with personality. Um, they basically dominated a good team by just beating them about the head and shoulders on both sides of the ball. It was it was something to behold. And you know, there were moments in that thing where it's like you still aren't quite sure it's going to go that way, and then they just embark on another seven minutes, seventy yard touchdown drive and it's like, dang, these guys are

actually good. Started out quick too. Everyone was talking so much about the atmosphere, but it was so funny every time you know, scored a touchdown and get a field goal that j C interception would go very quiet, and that's exactly what they wanted to do. So it was very quick, too, very quick. When you go up seventeen to nothing, that certainly has a way of neutralizing the crowd.

But to Darren's point, I want to go back. I know exactly what drive you're talking about, Darren, is when they get down to the goal line, you get four tries at it, come away with no points. Seattle's creeping in. I don't remember the exact score at that time, but it's it's close, and you go, all right, so now they need to stop and they need to drive down

the field and gosh started they do it. They did, and they did it without Deonte Foreman on the field because I think, you know, Wilke said after the game, he was fine, he was well, it wasn't a physical thing. I think they just wanted to change up the rhythm on the run game a little bit. But he didn't go into the game with a little bit of a foot I don't know if they thought he had X

number of carries in him or whatever. But then all of a sudden, it's just Cuba and Raheem black Shear and you go straight down the field with those two guys, and it's um. It was something to say, for sure, Well, I'll tell you what on on that drive, you know, doing the radio broadcast, I thought it was. It was one of my favorite kind of like broadcasting moments, right because we're watching that drive and there's no Deonta Foreman there. So I tell our executive producer, David Links, so I'm

gonna check and make sure that he's okay. Right, He's standing there, you know, right beside Jeff Nixon running backs coach, ready to go in helmet on. You're like, okay, you know, he's fine. He tries to sneak out on the field a couple of times, Jeff Nixon pulls him back. He's like, no, no no, no, we're gonna go with Tuba raheim. Um. And at the same time a Ni shar play by I played broadcaster, was like, hey, is everything okay with

Deonta Foreman? Because we're all wondering the same thing. I do the report and then Jordan Gross are incredible analysts. Of course, Panthers legend is like no, they just the matchup that they're getting the eleven personnel, like they it makes more sense to go with these other guys there, and uh, it was just a neat series to to watch that play out, because I do think if you're watching or listening at home, you're like, well, now where

is deante Foreman? Is he? Okay? Um? But gosh, what a what a good problem to have, you know, you can't get your your hundred yard rushing guy, you know in the game, because it's it's we got two other guys who were on fire, and we like the matchup right, and as much as and Cuba had a great game and he is an explosive back and change of pace back and credit where credits due, there were also a couple of hey, Tuba Hubbard just caught that past out

of the backfield and that's always not been a strength of his. Uh, and he's getting better at that part of the game. So you start seeing these different ways of running the football. But the dad in me, the old man in me, knows that where that comes from is those five or six or seven or eight big guys up front. I mean, and the commitment of hey, we're gonna run can't just be about running backs, even though those are the guys with the ball in their hands.

This is years of preparation. This was an entire offseason plan of we gotta get better up front, so we're gonna go sign Austin Corbett and Bradley Boseman in free agency, and we're gonna use our first draft pick not on

a quarterback but on a left tackle. That was personality and and that, to me, as much as anything was what comes out of that Seattle game is listen, Playing that kind of offensive football is maybe not going to win you a Super Bowl, but with what the Carolina Panthers have on this roster right now, it is the absolute best way to play because this is what you have. You may not have quarterbacks that are gonna go to Pro Bowls. You may not have a bunch of wide

receivers who are gonna put up fantasy status. You may not have tight ends who are you know out down there running seam routes like Travis Elsie and and make him big plays that get on the highlight shows. But what you've got is a bunch big offensive linemen who are perfectly happy to just bludging people to death. Absolutely, and what what does that do for? I mean, I

don't think this offensive line lacks confidence. They have been so consistent this season, but to go into an environment like Seattle where at points you can't look at the person beside you and hear what they're saying, and to be able to control the game, I mean, the time of possession was so lopsided. You control the game and you rush for over two three yards I believe was the exact number. Because then you have to feel like, right dere in Augusta, for the rest of the season,

we just run it on anyone we can. We can control uh the game. And and this is the blueprinting. And I talked to j C after the game and I said, well, as a defense, what does it mean when your offense can do something like that? And he said, yeah, you know, he said, all these offenses out here trying to get cute and throw the ball around and we're just gonna run it down people's throats. But I have to imagine that for that line, the test that that game was, you have to come away out of there

with tons of confidence. Well. I talked with Bradley Boseman after the game, and it was kind of something that I heard across the offense, but he said it very well. He was like, well, if I felt like we played like us, you know, I mean there's a big talk about identity and how when Steve Wilkes came in here, you know, I mean, I remember his first introductory press conference. He was like, we're going to run the ball. We're gonna like own the lines of scrimmage. That's gonna be

our thing. That's what he said, and and Bose told me, and a lot of them said, you know, it's like, I feel like in this game we really did show like who we were and we performed it to the to the top of their ability. And that's finding identities one of those things that I felt like early in the season, at least as someone who was new, I was like, what are they trying to do? What's going on here? And I think, you know what I mean,

Like I was like, Okay, nothing's really working. I don't understand. I kind of do, but not really. And um, the past few weeks, I mean, they figured it out. I mean, you know what I mean, is that is that too harsh? That's honest. It's very honest. Like what happened. I mean, there was talk in the past about one to run the ball and when Christian McCaffrey's here. You want to run an offense through Christian McCaffrey. But I went back

and looked. I mean even with Christian, you know, through five weeks, I think they were twenty something seven in the league and rush yards a game. Uh, and that was with Christian McCaffrey. Now even when you let those numbers drag the average down, now there in the league and rushing that statement of intent kind of stuff, that is, here's how we're not just going to say we're going to run. We're going to run repeatedly. Is that the

biggest thing? Because I know there's a variety of factors right that go into that, whether it's you know, you don't have Christian McCaffrey anymore, so you've got to figure things out, the emergence of Deonta Foreman, progression of young guys like Ikey and Brady Christiansen. But is it is the biggest factor in the success. They're just that they are committed to the run and and not just saying that they're committed, Like what do you attribute this incredible

up ticket. I think that's a lot of it. I think and and Steve said something the other day when somebody asked him about Sam Donald, and there were a couple of plays during that first and goal from the three where they didn't get any points. There were a couple of plays that segment where Sam could have run and would have scored, and there was another play that he tried to go downfield Sullivan didn't connect, and Sam said, yesterday, you know, if if we hit that, it's an explosive play.

Everybody's pat me on the back. But Steve said something the other day. He said, I think quarterbacks are conditioned to want to do things by passing. And I think when the Carolina Panthers were looking for quarterbacks, whether it was Teddy, whether it was Sam last year, or whether it was Baker the first part of this year, it's like, all right, we went found quarterback. Now we gotta make quarterback work. Rather than I made the analogy the other day.

This offense is like one of those cooking shows where you get the mystery basket and it's like, what am I going to do with this stuff? Well, what you do is make soup. What you do is take this odd a lot of ingredients. And I don't think I'm going to be a top five passing game. So don't do that. You know, take this stuff you have and make the most of it. In right now, Making the most of this means running the ball, not just not just for yards but often, and that tempo and that

cadence of here comes just boom, boom boom. It's not a formula, I don't think to win a Super Bowl. But when you can put a seven minute field goal drive on the field, that's effective. That's a cumulative thing that in the fourth quarter, and you saw it on the Bradley Bozeman, you know, miked up segment. You wear people out eventually by doing that kind of stuff. And so if that's what you've got, you know, coaching can

be simple. Sometimes the things you're good at, do more of those the things you struggle with, why are you trying? And it's been the formula for success for the Panthers lately. Uh speaking of a seven minute field goal drive, how about our guy Eddie Pinero see Special Teams Player of

the Week. I was talking to Steve Boks yesterday about just the progression and what he's seen from him since missing that that field goal in Atlanta, Since since missing those two big kicks in Atlanta, um, and he said, man, just the confidence that he has now and I attribute it to that team rallying around him. And then also, you remember the day after the Atlanta game at Steve Books came out and said, we're not looking for other kickers, and boy, it's paid off for them. What have you

guys seen from Eddie? Well, that's just I mean I was talking to him yesterday about it and he's he's you know, I will say one thing about Eddie and I want to say it about Johnny and j J two. Those three are so fun to just watch interact. I mean, and especially you know, you see him in good and in bad and I think he was supported from the jump.

But I mean, they're just the most fun if you're just hanging out at practice and you know, you just look around and they're specialists, are always having they're the best, and they've really embraced of and um. You know, Steve was asked about it again yesterday, you know, like, oh, did you ever think about wavering from Eddie? And it's like no, and and and it's it's great to see you know, the street keys on. He was so excited about it. Wasn't his first time getting the u NFC

UH Special Teams Player of the Week. He he told me, he was like, oh, I got it back in Chicago. He's like, but it was twenty nineteen, three years too long, And I was like, you're right, Eddie. He's he's just he's he's a great presence to have in the locker room. He's he's really a fun guy and UM happy to see him have success. And I mean, practice kicks everything. He he's he's he's sharp, He's he's sharpening up at the right time. I mean, mistakes happen, and it was

the worst possible kind of mistakes and that moment. But he's really come back and they haven't wavered from him at all, and that's really exciting. And I think with Eddie the thing that keeps coming back to me is he is effectively, or at least on Labor Day weekend, he was effectively no better than the thirty third bit kicker in the NFL, because everybody already had one, and it took Zane Gonzalez getting hurt for them to go looking and find Eddie at a time when everybody else

already had either one or two kickers on rosters. So they were looking around, scrambling, trying to find somebody. And that's a situation where you don't expect guys to come in and be consistent. And what Eddie Pinero is right now is the second most accurate the or goal kicker in the NFL among the regulars. I mean, he's not just doing good for a guy you picked up off the street. He's playing really well. He is. That's again enough the Special Teams player of the weekend. I do

think it's um need for you know, you don't. You don't talk about your kicker all the time. It's one of those things, right, It's like your offensive linement. A lot of times you're only talking about them if something bad happens. But I think it's great for Panthers fans to remember because it felt like when Zane Gonzalez really became consistent, it was like, Okay, are our kicker. Troubles

are over? Certainly Panthers fans remember a couple of years prior to that at the revolving door, Uh, the Joey Sly of it, all, all of that stuff, right, we have fallen memories of the Ryan Santoso area. Yes, great mustache um and then you know, Zing gets hurt, and I think if you're a Panthers fan, you go, oh my gosh, what is this gonna what is this gonna be? And um and then for for Eddie to, like you said,

be consistent and very good. Um, except for that really Goodtlanta game, I just think it's it's pretty great, as you said, Darren, considering where he started at the beginning of the year, which was, you know, not on a team. Um, So it's been it's been fun to watch. I'm really happy for him, and it's been neat to see what he's been able to do. And I will tell you what that. Of course Atlanta plays in the Dome. But since then, not only has he been good, we've had

weather almost every game since then. And I'm very aware of that, as I will let anybody know, you know, being on the sideline, we've had weather in almost every game. Um, the Baltimore Seattle we add a tropical storm here on Thursday night football, all games that have come up, and those conditions, I mean we're talking about it every single game. What are the conditions like for Eddie Panneiro, for Johnny Hecker and boy, I mean it's it's like it doesn't

even matter. Add tropical storm. I had forgotten that one for bingo card. Of all the things we've seen last year, the yes, there was a hurricane that one week. Ah, that too well. And in Augustine was taught telling me this in a in a press box. I mean you've got the theory about Eddie and weather. I mean sometimes when you do I do well. I asked him about it. Yeah, yeah, I think he's better in bad weather, like I asked him about I think that I think the stats would

hold up to that so far. This exactly, Yeah, I asked him, you know, and he's he'll always be like, oh yeah, the weather. He loves to talk about the weather in Chicago and how bad it was and how but but like I I would be like, okay, especially that tropical storm game in Atlanta to come back, you know, Eddie Eddie game here, you know against Falcon, same thing, but that weather was absolutely awful. I mean he was like the win was going all sorts of different directions.

And then he's like, super accurate. It's so funny. I'll tell you what. The game in Baltimore. Justin Tucker, the best kicker of all time, said that the game in Baltimore was the worst he had ever seen it in Baltimore, and he was very upset pregame about what you know about the conditions and all of that, and Eddie kicked the exact same field goal. Now, there are a lot of other things that went wrong for the Panthers in

that game, but Eddie was not one of them. So hats off, hats off to him, you know, really really happy for him, and uh speaking being happy for a guy. I want to get you guys take on on Sam Donald the last couple of games, Darren, I know you want to talk about his beard. We gotta get in there too. I mean, Derek Brown said it the other day. Bearded face Sam is a lot more chilled than plane

face Sam. I think he's chilling all the time. But I think this beard, and again, I kept thinking back to Santa claus Is coming to town, the old Great Rank and Bass Christmas special, you know, with with Chris Kringle and that solid red beard, no mustache. Um, I think that's Sam's role model. And I showed it to him yesterday. I was like, yeah, that's pretty good, but he's kind of laughed. I mean, at this point in

the season. Anytime athletes get on any kind of streak, they get a little stitious, as Sam says, and things aren't going to change. So I would be very surprised if Sam shaves. Between now and the end of this season. We'll get to see just how good his beard growth is, because he's had the beard since I believe training camp. So we'll see if over the next four weeks is he is his beard growth a lot? Like is it going to be hanging off the facey Fitzpatrick? You know, Yeah,

where do we go the next four weeks? I'm excited. I will never forget Christian McCaffrey saying he's got big lepricn energy and Sam was like, I'm taking this from an actual lepricn you know, but uh and they were laughing about that. But yeah, Sam is here's a thing. Not a lot is being asked of Sam right now, and he is fulfilling the requirements. And the first requirement

is don't give it to the other team. And so even in Denver the other week, when the ball comes out of his hands at the goal line, you get the Holy Roller part two. I mean Sam falls on it and does the fire drill stop, drop and roll. He's in the um and and he hasn't thrown any interceptions.

I mean there's been a couple of spots where the decisions you're like, it might have done that one differently or this, but he hasn't had that big, oh my god, catastrophic turnover you know, run like he had at times last year. And as long as he can do that, they've created the condition around him where they can succeed that way. And how how much for a quarterback? I know it's only been two games, but this is the best offensive line he's ever played behind. So what does

that do for a quarterbacks confidence? I asked him about it yesterday and he's like, you know, yeah, I mean I always like when you asked Sam something, it's like he thinks about it for a second and you get that yeah. Um. But he he knows that he's got those guys in front of him in a way. You know, last year, fourteen lines in seventeen games in his eleven starts, their eight different combinations of guys and people coming in and out and people starting who you know, we're claimed

off waivers are signed off the streets. So it um, yeah, it was not great last year and it's much better now. And the way they're protecting, I mean this has become in addition to the running stuff, the way they passed protected. I mean they gave up seventeen sacks in the first five five games. I think they've given up eleven in the eight sins. So everything up front is getting better. And those guys, you know, we talked about it with Ikey when he was drafted. You knew he was a

great run blocker. You knew he was physical, you knew he was aggressive. As time has gone by, we haven't had one of those weeks in a while where you say, oh Icky learned, he learned something today, he got an education from pass rusher X today. We had one of those in a minute. I was just thinking about that, like I said about with your kicker, your offensive line. There's so much going on with this team, as you said that, the roller coaster, Darren and all the things

that have happened. It's really Ikey's progression has almost gone under the radar a little bit because there are so many other things to talk about, a lot of them good right now, but it's really been I mean, he's he is. I don't want to. You know, I'm sure if I said this is Scott Fitter, he goes, Hold on a second, But I need to say overall, he's what you want him to be as your your first overall pick your left tackle, right, I mean this progression is is where you would hope it would be as

a Panthers fan for the most part. Yeah, And I remember talking to Jordan's about him earlier in the year and he said, listen, it's gonna take him a minute. It's going to take him some time. But I think another important part of that is, you know, when Jordan's was a rookie, when Jordan was a young player, he had a Treville Wharton to stand next to him, and those two kind of locked in together for a long time and that was a pretty good pairing. Now it's

not just Icky, it's Ikey and Brady Christiansen. Right there no same two spots, and it's going to continue to get better because those two guys could conceivably played together for the next three or four years. It was it was funny. You guys will appreciate this. We were the game was over in Seattle and they, you know, hand you out like a bad dinner, right, Um, as you walk out to the buses and um, I hear someone behind me as I'm grabbing mine, go we did it.

And I look and it's Ikey and he goes, we did it. After the game, so lucky we didn't do it. You did it. I didn't. And he was like, no, no, no, you does. Like, well, I'll take all the credit. That's fine, but just thanks Christy. Yeah, I just we did it. You know. It was just it was adorable, if I may say so. And again to to run the risk of being a little sappy at the holidays, this team

is pretty likable right now. I mean that I get the sense that people out in the community are sort of it's been so when you start a season the way this when started, it's kind of hard to get people back on the boat. But I think people just talking to neighbors, talking to people you know, you see at the grocery store. I mean, there is an energy about these guys because I think people do respond to

that physical style. People do respond to guys like Burns and J. C. Horne knows homegrown guys who they are yours, and I would hope you would respond to the fact that they could still win the division, you know, I mean it's it is despite the record, it is meaningful football in December, and it's been a minute since we've had that here in Mayberry. It's shuere Is. I want to just for the fans. I'm sure they're wondering d J Moore. There were some questions about out how he

was after the game. This is we're recording this Thursday morning, so we've only seen one day of practice. But but Darren, he's a He was a full participant in practice yesterday. And I think that'sbody was expecting calamity. I think Quinn he pops up on the reports early in the week and he's getting m r s and stuff like that. Usually when that happens, the news is at least a little worrying. But DJ was out there run around yesterday

like he was all right. So we'll see what the injury report, which you can read on Panthers dot Com, we'll say later today. But I think DJs are right, which is good now. Yeah, Well, and Augusta, as we turn our attention to this Pittsburgh team. We don't know who the quarterback is going to be, Um, but but what are what are you hearing about what the guys are saying in terms of like the chances for this

gave me. We heard Steve Wilkes, if you watched his great victory locker room speech, he said, look, give you victory Monday, give you the day off. You gotta come back. We don't lose at home, and they don't under Steve Wilkes. So what is this matchup looking like and when what

are they gonna have to do exactly exactly. I think that's the biggest message that we've heard from from when we were still in Seattle, which is kind of fun to when we got back now is we protect the bank, which I think is something I've seen on Twitter a lot of fans are kind of latching onto. I think I think they really like that message from what I've gathered. But yeah, I mean I think it's it's one of those one game at a time, don't lay if I

tried it. I was talking talking with j C yesterday about this, and if you try to talk too far ahead with a lot of these guys, they won't let you. You know, they won't, they won't respond to your questions. They'll be like, well, one day at a time. I tried so hard to get j C to talk to me about it, and he was like, well, we're taking it, you know, day by day. You know Pittsburgh right now.

But but there's there's that there's a very big, I think decent chance that Panthers win this game, Tampa Bay loses to Cincinnati. Then what you know what I'm saying, like, think about it that way, because because the Bengals are on there there into the season strenk I follow the Bengals. I'm just saying they're playing yep, yep. It's one of those things you look at it and you're like, there's

like a lot of national attention. It's fun to you know, they're getting a lot of questions right now about getting more national attention, and see books is like, we don't pay attention to it. You try to ask them about it, we don't pay attention to it. But but there's an energy. There's definitely an energy. I mean, I think I think it's one of those things they know what's in front of them, and they're they're choosing to leave it off

in the horizon versus letting it come. Because at the end of the day, if I'm not mistaken, right, you you win out, all you canna do is we just win all your games, right and and that's it. So what a great place to be where you don't have to pay attention, you can block everything out because, like we said meaningful football in December, you have the opportunity to to do what what everyone who in this league wants to do, which is you have the opportunity to

to get your team there. Right. And we've mentioned win out before, and that's you know, if you win out, it's easy. If you win out, you've got a noninate record, and yes you are the division champions. It might not even take win and out. I think three and one can still do it. The key, the big key is going to be that game at Tampa on New Year's Day. I mean, and that's the one you really got to

have to make any of these scenarios work. But it's possible that three and one can still get you to the playoffs, as long as the one ain't that game in Tampa, because what you what you want is the tiebreaker. They've got to win over Tampa here and on division record. I even love I I saw last night and I

tweeted it out. Roger Sherman from The Ringer has the ultimate chaos scenario in which the entire division is tied at six and eleven at the end of the year, and in that case, the Carolina Panthers would still go through as the division champion based on tiebreakers because it included, you know, the Panthers winning that Bucks game. Yeah, well, I hope not. I hope that's not the way it

has considering the way the NFC South has gone. Um, but this game, specifically against Pittsburgh, Darren, what are you What are you thinking you were talking about? I'm trying to get you to say what you were saying before we started rolling here, which you feel good about it. Here's here's the thing. I think when people think about Pittsburgh, they think about Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blunt and Donnie Shell and and me and Joe Green, or they think

about Ben Roethlisberger Troy Palm. This is not a classic Steelers team. The Steelers are not playing great football right now. And I think the jerseys look familiar, and the legacy is there, and they've still got that Mike tom on Guy and and T. J. Watt is back and and Minca. Fitzpatrick's capable of changing games at any given moment. Okay, Darren, now you're talking us out of it now. But but but they're not great, and they've got questions at quarterback.

And even before they had questions at quarterback, there were questions about how they were moving the ball, similar to what's been going on here at times this year, because the offense has been an issue and they haven't had that big, dominant offensive line as they've had in the past to be able to sustain running games. So they've been a little bit of a mess offensively all season long.

So you know, they are actually the best run defense of the remaining four opponents, but they're still not but they're like middle of them. But they're very middle of the pack run defense, and and honestly, Seattle was very bad at run defense. That was they were down the bottom of the league in that category. And now you're back kind of the middle of the pack where they also exist offensively. So it's, uh, it's going to be an interesting case study to see what these guys are

all about. I mean to see, because if they're I don't think anybody's gonna let the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sneak up on them because they're the Steelers, and your conditioned to think a certain way about them. But this is not your father's Pittsburgh Steelers team, which is great for the Panthers. All right, we'll see what happens on Sunday. Thank you all for listening to the behalf of our podcast. We'll talk to you next week. Wow.