The Group Chat Episode 15: Bye-bye London

to clean up. But he's not throwing any picks. All of this and so much more on this week's the Group Chat. You've been added to the group chat with your friends Caroline, can Max Sensen, and Will Brian. We are state side everyone, but we might still be on London time. How did everyone wake up today? I did wake up, Like Will, journey was a little different than ours, so I don't We'll take that one first. Four thirty this morning, that was after eleven hours on a plane

because of the flight. Actually had to get on the plane and then was delayed while sitting on the plane. Once we got on the plane, we were then told the air conditioning isn't working, so sit there in your seats on a packed flight while they go to fixed air conditioning for however long an hour, and then another hour to find the people to do the paperwork. Yeah,

that was not delightful. And then and then no, I think I was on an aisle okay, But then once we got going, they said, like the little little screens you know with the TVs and movies like that, would get going in like thirty minutes, and it just never turned on, just never worked the whole flight. What do you do? I actually got lucky that I had downloaded some Peaky Blinders, so I watched four episodes of the Peaky blind Does if you haven't Thomas Shelby, I can't

what they say on there. I can't say you can't say that because we'll get in trouble. But you should watch the BBC on Netflix Peaky Blind. I got to check it out. It's on Netflix. That just started the final season or the most recent season. Yeah. I've never seen Christian gets so excited about meeting somebody. Yes, this was an interesting fact. Christian asked for this photo. He's never like, he's not one to do that, he said, Hey, Finn, which fun fact. If you watch Peaky Blinders, Michael on

the show is who was there in real life. Michael's name Finn. It's also a fan So when someone said like, oh, you know Finn, Yeah, it's Finn is here. I was expecting character Finn and then I looked. I was like, that's not Finn, but it looks a lot like Michael. That was looked Christian. It was very cool. I love that. I love when you see people who people fan boy and girl about beIN fan girl boy about someone else.

So that was a fun, a fun little tidbit. But our trip back to the States was not quite as dramatic as Wills. However, something that I found funny about this trip was so the Buccaneers, because they were the home team, they were able to leave first. So after the game, what normally happens on an away game is an hour after the game ends, you're on the bus and you're leaving. That's in a dream world. But this time they were saying, you have plenty of time, you

have plenty of time, and they weren't kidding. About two and a half hours after the game and ended, we're sitting on the bus, still waiting to go. We finally leave, and then we get to the airport, which it was like a forty five minute trip to the airport. We get to the airport, then we have to go through normal security, which all of you out there are like, oh, you poor things. We get it, but we're spoiled. So we had to go through normal security, and they were

taking everyone's bag. Everyone like we forgot how to fly. And I'll say, when I fly domestically, I don't put all my liquids in one bag. They just don't really care. Internationally they care, so they were pulling everyone's bag, the poor medical bag that the athletic trainers had. They didn't.

I didn't stand a chance. So then we finally get through, and you're walking through the airport to do and you get to the gate and you're like, all right, we finally made it, like three and a half four hours after the game, and then you walk outside and there's a bus. Yeah, I've got to take the shuttle. Then you've got to take the shuttle from the gate to the actual plane. It just was like a thank goodness we won, because it was this like series of comical

little steps to finally get on the dad gumplane. And we made it. Can you imagine having thrown five interceptions and having to go through that process and lost to fumble people. People were getting a little testy about their liquids as we were going through security. But I'll think at least we won. If we would have lost, it's a long way to go, a long way ago, and just all the little nuances to get back. So good

job Panthers. That airport experience was cool for the fans because a bunch of them ran into the players to take pictures and stuff, to which I kept seeing on social media. So that, like having to go through the normal security, allowed for some pretty cool fan moments. It was. That was really neat too. I we talked about this on the previous podcast, but coming into Heathrow, how many fans they were that was very very cool. I didn't we didn't see as many going out. Yeah, so I

was actually on that flight with all those fans. We got in like thirty minutes before the team did, and so it's like, you know, it's the back and forth of the lanes going through customs, and so they're all there, a full flight of however, many several hundred, all crowded in one space, and then there's like the further lane, the fast lane that all the team just kind of walked by everybody, and I was up near the front where the customs agents were, and they started getting freaked

out when everyone started yelling Luke like the entire like, you know, they're like, what is happening? The Americans are having a riot? You know, like what's going on? Yeah, yeah, it was. It was pretty intense because you guys, I guess we're probably behind the players, so they didn't hear that, but yeah, they were just screaming as everyone came by.

It was it was pretty cool, that's all. And that's what makes these games so cool is you just don't know what you're going to expect when you go to London. But thank goodness, it ended in a win. So it's all positive news over here, except for the fact that I went to bed last night around and I was I was like in bed at eight thirty, woke up wide eyed and ready to come to work, like five. Ah, who wants to come to work? Who wants to do that?

Although it was kind of nice, I did kind of like lay there for a minute thing like get back to sleep, and I was like, actually, no, because when am I ever this awake in the morning, I'm never this away. So I got out of bed, enjoyed a nice slow morning. It was in the office an hour and a half early, employee of the employe of the day except for yesterday because we had an optional stay at home workday. I'm not sure if that was officially what they said, but that's what I said for myself.

I don't know that memo. I stayed at home on Monday after coming in. I do think there were a couple of people came in, but thankfully for me, I did not well deserved. I was only in for a few hours only, if not deserve for you you. I was here for a few and that was it. I had to say. I had to Kelly and come back and make sure the office was still in one piece and we got some cool new posters on the wall. She did. She redecorated. While it's like extreme home makeover.

Oh that's nice. We'll hope you guys enjoyed the weekend and enjoyed all that London had to offer. If you went or if you were just falling along with our coverage, we certainly had a good time over there and sending some content back. But now it's the bye and I love it. Are you guys fans of these bye weeks? Oh my god? How could you not be? Some people who doesn't like it? Give me names? Well I don't work with any, but give me names. I will go

after it. You know, it's really just the fans, which I get you your team's not playing, but yeah, we need them. I love it. This one chance and the entire fall winter for those of us who are you know, attached to an NFL schedule to have an actual weekend? So yeah, how could you not? Would you not be excited about that? Players? I'll tell you what. The players are excited about it too. No one looks more forward to it than the players, that is true. What are

you guys going to do? Well? I think I'm gonna go hiking on Saturday. It's the weather. We came back to some nice weather here in Charlotte and try to go get out hopefully the weather it's not raining, but get outside. Well. Last year I think I went to like a Clumpson game, but I think they're on the road this week, so cool. Wife and I are going to take the dog down to Charleston. He's never been to the beach before, so we're gonna go down for

a nice family vacation weekend solvents. Uh. First question, it's about the dogs. Sorry, sorry, sorry that one, and then I'll get to you. He's a Cocker Spaniel poodle mix, otherwise known as a cockapoo. Uh. He's twenty seven pounds of pure adorable cuteness. He's the best. His name is Cooper. And your question was yes, we'll be Sullivan's Island. That's exciting, awesome. Well, I guess I'm one of those people that technically doesn't love the bye because I'm still going to go watch football.

I'm going to visit my boyfriend in Indianapolis and watch the Colts play during our bye week. I'm that person. They are playing the Houston Texans. Oh, you're gonna set so I will see Houston again. I since we already played them. This is a technically a scouting report, but so we're you gonna watch from This will be a unique experience for you, right after being on the sideline all those years. This is so I actually went our Thursday night game. I went to Nashville to watch the

Colts play the Titans. So I did do some pre that was pre scouting. That's what the trip was. Um. But I was at the sideline pass for a pregame and then sat in the stands, and that was my first experience of being able to drink a beer in the NFL football game. Like I didn't realize it until I went to go sit down. I passed the concession stand and I was like, whoa, I can get a beer. This is this is very cool. So in Indy, I've never been to a game game just as a fan.

So I will be on the sidelines for a pregame to say hello to everyone and all my former co workers, and then I'm gonna sit in his seats. A girlfriend and I are going to go and just be fans. It's gonna it's gonna be cool. I'm excited. But let's go into mid term grades here for this team, because we are not quite halfway. Although it does blow my mind that after this forty nine Ers game, we're halfway through the season. Did anyone just did we get that?

Just blink? And here we are? Really if you count the preseason, we're over halfway. Um, But I think this is a really fun team to look back on and see the difference between when the sky was falling of O and two and then they've gone on this four game win streak. All that has happened and all the depth that is being used and that will have to

continue to be used. Or we're coming up on this interesting debate of this Cam Newton Kyle Allen, which we're not going to completely dive into today because that deserves its own podcast. So we've got Will's dating life in a Cam Newton Kyle Allen episode on that one coming up for you. But let's just go first with overview of this team. When you thought back at the end of training camp, preseason had ended, we're looking at the regular season. Were you expecting a four and two team?

And maybe some hot takes that you remember that we either took or other people talk about what this team was going to be. I think that we were cautiously optimistic about this defense. I think all of the moves in the off season to bring these guys in, the Burns draft pick, the Bruce Irvants signing, Gerald McCoy signing, like, I think there's definitely optimism about what this this new front.

All the stuff was gonna look like and then it kind of like fell down a little bit and like, oh, maybe maybe it's not as good as we all thought. And now they're pretty much second in most defensive categories takeaways, uh, sacks, quarterback pressures, all that kind of thing. So there, they've they've been stepping up, and I think that they're now on a level they're on a track of like when

is this going to stop? I've been kind of waiting for them not to be able to do it, and it's like each week they keep living up to it. You know, they keep putting more pressure on, they keep getting to the quarterback, and it's pretty incredible. Yeah, the defense, I think that that's where you start when you look at what an O and two football team, how it became a foreign two football team. The sacks, as you mentioned, well, they lead the league in sacks right now and the takeaways.

And when you get when those two things are happening and you're so disruptive on defense, it's making things easier for the offense. And in in other cases they're they're they're scoring. I mean, we've seen some defensive scores and um, you know, the position, shorter fields, I mean, it's just setting the table for Kyle Allen in that offense. Um, So there's no there's no doubt what the defense has

done is kind of spearheaded things. And then of course the focus is going to be on the quarterback position. Cam was owing to Kyle is four oh. Um. What Kyle is doing is exactly what you would ask a guy in this position to do. He's not be be himself. He hasn't thrown interception yet. Yeah, the fumbles were an issue, and that's something he's trying to clean up. But he's not throwing any picks, he's not taking unnecessary risks. He's spreading the ball around. He's doing his job and allowing

this offense to function the way it's intended to. With an m VP candidate in the backfield. I mean, it makes things a lot easier when you can turn around. You've got Christian Vicaffrey back there to hand the ball off to or use as an outlet in the passing game. So you combine this defense and how disruptive it's being with what Christian is doing offensively, and as long as you don't beat yourself, you're going to be in position of win ball games and that's and that's what we're seeing.

I over one didn't see it coming at Owen two. I'll admit I felt victim to the panic. I thought this could have gone off the rails pretty quickly. But credit to this coaching staff and this team for kind of and you heard it. It's kind of sounded like coach Ben cliche. But we just got to continue to ride this out. We can't, you know, overreact. Things are going to work themselves out. We just gotta correct a few things and look to be forward to at the bye.

You could not ask for anything more as a Panther fan and with you, I thought what was interesting when we started this regular season is there were a lot of questions for this team. And I think that's true for indie team in the NFL, but you know, some of the top tier teams there are questions. Is aren't quite as pressing as I thought the Panthers had. It was is your quarterback good? What are you gonna do? You know? On defense? And the dB is the very

first question I was asked. I say this all the times, can you play safety? Because you know no one out there liked our safeties and then you have this defensive line that looked great on paper, but you know, they were struggling a little bit. They didn't have really the preseason that we thought they were going to have. So all the big questions going into this were big questions, and they were maker break type questions. What I love is that we've already gotten answers on pretty much all

of those except for the quarterback one. But what Kyle Allen has done is allowed for some time for that answer to come. I think I think, like you're, you've said, Max, he's doing exactly what you want your backup quarterback to do. It just doesn't always happen like that. You have a lot of backup quarterbacks in this league that can't do what Kyle is doing. But when a team signs a

backup quarterback, this is what they're looking for. Now, him going you know four O is spectacular of what he's done, but he still has his fumbles. He's you know, little things here and there that he's struggling as a backup quarterback. But uh, you're, you have kind of your answer ish there. But then the defensive line answered the thieves, and the you know, the secondary answered. I think the playmakers on offense, they have answered, but there's still a lot of room

to grow there. And then Christian McCaffrey, what's that workload going to be on him? Is he going to have as many snaps? Well, that's been answered for us of how they're going to use him, and I think when you're you know, six weeks in, that's a pretty good measuring stick. A lot a lot of times teams don't get that until you know, past the midpoint in the season or when you get into November and you're losing some guys because this long season takes a toll on

their bodies. But you've seen the depth on this team and you start to get some of these bodies back. Um, now the questions are, Okay, if you get some guys back on the offensive line who's not going to play because they've been playing, well, that's a really good question to have. Another one is Christian McCaffrey. Can he handle the workload that he's been getting and being so productive.

That's a good question to have, especially when Reggie Botafon has proven what he can do with his opportunity that he got. So I like where this team is, but I'm with you, Max, I was definitely with everyone else when this guy was falling, hitting the panic button of oh, goshen to where is this thing going? You starting two and you put yourself in a back into a corner like that. They lost the first two games at home,

they had to go on the road. Um And, like I said, I mean, you just gotta give everybody a lot of credit for just kind of sticking to it. And you mentioned it. I think another group that deserves and praise. That offensive line was a huge question coming into the year. Everybody looked back at what happened to Can. I was like, Okay, they gotta they gotta protect the quarterback hell of a lot better than they did. And things were not made easy for them. The injury to

Trey Turner, their Pro Bowl right guard. You're shifting around Darryl Williams to left tackle and putting him over a guard. Great little the second round pick, it's you know, a couple of concussions, and now you've got a sixth round pick, Dennis Daily starting a left tackle. And yet in spite of it all, the offensive line is playing as well

as it has quite a while. Um, And I think that group deserves a ton of credit and that was a huge question coming into the year, and to Caroline's point, now it's another one of those good problems to have. It's we've got too many guys now who are deserving a playing time and we can only can field five offensive lineman typically at a time. So that's something that

I'll get sorted out after the bye week. Um. But yeah, what that group is doing, I think it's been has been huge for this team because everyone looks at the skill players and you know, you know, really wants to delve too far into the offensive line. But when you really look back at what happened last year, that was that was a big area that this team needed to address, and you saw two draft picks bringing in Matt Paradis.

It was something that they really honed in on, and especially with the injuries they've suffered, that's come in hugely clutch to have Dennis Daily ready to go in there and play when you've got down to your third left tackle. UM, so kudos those guys big time and Greg Van wrote and Taylor Moten have been doing their job, have been fantastic. I think that one question that has now emerged in the last couple of weeks is special teams. Is you

know the Panthers today released Ray Ray McLeod. We couldn't tell you right now, tournament, you don't you don't know, um, so that that's something that has to be stored out the next two weeks. I mean, Joey Sly, there's a lot of questions about him coming in and all of a sudden we thought he was a pro Bowl kicker, hit ten in a row, hit fifty yards, fifty yards like it was nothing, and now he's just a few couple.

So it's kind of like getting him back on track and kind of making sure that he's doing what he needs to be doing. But yeah, there are some still there. I thought it was a great sign. For the past few weeks. The Christian m v P talk has been really the focus around here, right you know, Cam hasn't been out there and everyone everyone's been making the jokes when when Christian's back injury popped up, and this is something I wrote about it. How many times did you

see the joke gurgitated? Well that's Adams when you're carrying the whole team, you know. But what I thought was really impressive was against Tampa Bay in London, they held Christian McCaffrey at one point four yards per attempt, had twenty two rushes for already one yards. They weren't going to let Christian beat them. Of course, Christian, being the player he is, is going to make his plays regardless.

He had that amazing yard touchdown catch, but on the whole, the Buccaneers pretty much shut him down and they forced Kyle Allen and the rest of the Panthers to beat them, and they did. And I think that's what it was a great sign for this team going forward, because as good as Christian is, teams are going to try to do what the Bucks did and make Kyle and make

these other weapons beat them. And the fact that Kyle was able to spread the ball around for over two or twenty seven yards and two touchdowns, fact that the defense is helping him in that effort setting up those short fields, I think that tells you that this team is more than Christian McCaffrey, and it's going to have to be throughout the course of the season. I really did love the fact that the other playmakers on offense were able to get involved because it wasn't it wasn't

Christian carrying this team. Now the ways that he did carry the team was that he was such a big decoy for that Tampa Bay defense to follow it was unbelievable. I've never seen such blatant following of a player like I did in London. And there were times where Jordan Gross and I on the broadcast, we're kind of going back and forth when you know, when I wanted to say something about it, he was saying something about it.

When I said something, he would you know, kind of pop in and be like, oh, I was gonna say something about that, because he would go one way and three Buccaneers would go with him and the play would go the other way. Like that. There was one in particular we were two bit and then one you know, kind of chased after Oh crap, I was supposed to go with him. But I mean that's the kind of

you know, pick your poison that this offense can be that. Okay, if you're gonna put all your you know, eyes and and effort on Christian McCaffrey, we have all these other weapons, or if you're going to pick on them, Christian McCaffrey will absolutely go off and run all over you. So I think when you have that type of balance. Just on the offense, it's huge, but this defense, holy cow.

There was a joke on the bench during the game that there was like a magic seat on the bench and a defensive guy just had to go sit in the seat and then a big play was coming that like, come on, like you that is the type of attitude you want to have for your defense, because every single time they went out there, a big play happened. The very first play, I thought, told me we're gonna win huge, very very first play. Okay, yeah, we're good because too and when you go over to London and the timing

is all off, your your week was weird. You're in a completely another, you know, different country. You want to go explore, but you need to stay in the hotel all these things, and then to go out there and we're good. Yeah. I felt the same way when Brad Ray picked that pass off. I think we all sort of felt like this was gonna be a good day

for the Panthers just going into it. And then when that happened, it was like, yeah, this is gonna be a good and and you you wrote about it, and we all put it on Twitter, and you know, the guys posted about it. But in that moment, and in the moment's leading up to it, you know, we kind of talked about how, you know, this is a home game technically for Tampa. You know, all the things that they were doing in stadium to try to try to

promote it as a home game. They had Tampa's on on on field reporter like trying to pump up the crowd, and then she was getting booed by like all of our fans. But in that moment, you know, like right after kick off, when everything kind of is you know, at that at that level, and then it's just the roof blew off. I mean literally there was no roof left.

There's a big hole in the middle. I think we got to give a huge shout out to the Panther fans who made their way to that game, and really just like London football fans in general, that that was a special atmosphere Sunday the There was not a single mptcat to be had. It was so packed before even the coin toss, I mean, everyone in their seats loud.

There was just like a buzz in the air, and Caroline, you get to experience the atmosphere on the sideline for us that was an open air press box, so we were literally like able to kind of feel what the energy was like in that building and the electricity it was. It was spectacular. I mean, I honestly can't say enough about it. And talking to the players afterwards too, they

all came off the field saying the same thing. I mean, it's not not a knock on what they experience here in the States, but I think there's a novelty factor to it. But when you're playing there's only a couple of games out there in London, those people get a very few chances to see it, so they're gonna go maximize their time out there. Over here, it's like, yeah, maybe I'll say the tailgate a little bit longer. I'll get in there at the start of the you know,

halfway through the first quarter. You know, I've seen enough games. I'm not going to be all that invested into this one. Over there, it felt like from beginning to end, there was excitement through and through, and that was a pretty pretty special I also felt like the Panther fans that traveled had something to prove. I almost felt like that those that were there, you know, they were wearing literally their gear everywhere in the airport, in on the plane.

Literally in central London, every two blocks you sound someone knew with panther gear and they're like, oh, yeah, I'm from New Jersey, I'm from Georgia, I'm from South Carolina, I'm from North Carolina. From Ireland they were from. And when they got in the stadium, at every opportunity they were trying to start keep pounding chance they were. They were doing everything to say hey, we're here, we're allowed, You're gonna know that we're here. We're going to prove

this to you. It was really cool. Another thing I noticed in the third quarter really was so if you go to a game in the States, there's the video boards that would tell you, you know, big third down or get loud, you know, kind of prompt you on what to do. There was none of that in the stadium. The stadium experience. In the stadium show was very I mean they were playing commercials at one point, like real commercials that you would see on TV UM and it

wasn't the prompting of fans. And that impressed me because they were being loud and that they may not you know, a big situational third down maybe not as loud as you would expect a Bank of America when they're prompting you to be loud. But they were extremely loud, extremely engaged, and even you know the I kind of I thought, all right, I've even said this. They get excited for

kicks and they get excited for that. I think the fan base over there maybe that was true in the first couple of years that American football was played, but they're a very knowledgeable fan base now, and so they get it, like they know when to get excited. They know when you know it's a big score or Yeah, they still get loud on field goals, but so like so do we we you know, are clapping and cheering for those. So I was really really impressed by the fans.

I still love the fact that every single NFL team is rep it did because it's not like their team may not be one of the eight that's coming over to play, so they're just gonna go watch with their One guy had on a Raiders jersey and a Tampa Bay hat. Definitely bought those like this year, Like he bought the Raider's jersey the weekend before and then bought

the Tampa Bay hat that weekend. And I almost think that I almost got the sense that, you know, at first we kind of think, oh, they're just you know, this is how they are. They just like different players. I almost think they're kind of living up to a stereotype. You know that there's the stereotype in American media that yeah, they're gonna cheer for kicks and have these crazy jerseys.

I mean, I think they went to go find crazy jerseys to live up to the idea that that's what they do, you know, Like I mean, as you said, they just bought them this year. Oh, I'm gonna wear something really random because this is gonna be fun to wear something random, like a Bobby Boucher Waterboy jersey, which I saw. There were some really great ones. One guy had on Andrew luck culture jersey. Yeah, like I got something. I don't know who wants to tell him's gonna tell him.

But now, but you saw that all over the place of older players are retired players, different teams, the guys no longer on that team, that's their jersey and they're gonna wear that jersey. I loved it. I think Bill got a picture. Who did he get a picture of? It was a great Jersey like and I'll look it up our going, but it was a great like old school jersey where he was like, okay, Matt Max and I saw Jeremy Macklin at the Tower of London. That

was pretty cool. Yeah, so Joe Montana, Jerome bettis trying to think of the other ones that I saw. We saw Randy Moss Titans Jersey. Yeahs to come off the clearance racks somewhere. But those are the good ones, Like, those are the ones that I'm like, yeah, yeah, no, there were there were some good ones. And I mean because you have to imagine if you're an NFL fan out there, you know you're not gonna get to see maybe whatever your team you've chosen is that I'm gonna

go to ya. I'm gonna wear my jersey, right, I don't care what it, what will Brian on the Panthers Group Chat podcast has to say about it. I don't know where would I want to wear? It was very cool and we did we already talked about this, but just the entire like London experience was just so spectacular and honestly reminded me of the Super Bowl um being out there in fifteen just you know, you're there for an extended period of time. The additional media. I mean

there were seventy media members at that practice at Harrow School. Um, you know, all the players are there, that got family, everyone's doing some sightseeing and trying to mesh all that with trying to win a football game. That's kind of it's kind of what it felt like. And I mean, London is just such a spectacular place to visit aside from going out there to play football. Uh, it was. It was very cool and it's it's up there as far as that was some of the coolest experiences I've

had cover in this game for sure. But it is now the buy and we get to enjoy a very not super slow week, but a slower week around around the stadium with players. They have a very short week and they're going to get a long weekend before returning back for Monday to get ready for the San Francisco forty nine is another long trip um to the West coast, but it will feel a lot shorter than that flight to Larning, especially for or Will Will with his flight

back his nine hour flight turned into eleven hours. But guys, we appreciate you joining us for this week of the group chat. We will see you again on Tuesday, recapping all of our very fun by Wee Flans