V to the Ictoria, producer of the program.
Follow our Twitter at V to the Ictoria. In between, there's underscores all over the place. Just to pizzazz it up a little. Usually people do that to differentiate from other V to the Ictorias. Maybe you did that. Maybe there are other V to the Ictorias. I don't know.
Luke Tkok, who has no underscores in his Twitter handle, it's simply Luke Tkok from the News and Observer columnist. He joins us every Friday. All right, let's talk about what we saw last night, which really were two games. We saw the first game, which was dreadful on the part of both teams. Then Virginia Tech showed up, scored on their first three drives of the second half. And then NC State showed up. Which game was your favorite? I mean, I think watching NC State when it was 21-3 and you're losing to the worst team in the ACC and the fifth best team in Virginia was stunning.
I wouldn't say it was my favorite. I just never thought it was just a place you never thought that NC State could end up, even without them and Larry or whatever. It was just, I have to give your colleague and my former colleague Joe Jilio credit, he tweeted, this is surreal. And it really was. But to watch NC State, really, for the second straight home game, go on a big run, game of runs, as we all know.
Absolutely, absolutely. And to close that one out and to do it without Devin Leary. And obviously, it was Jack Chambers, the 16-0 run against Florida State.
It's MJ Morris, the 19-0 run against Virginia Tech. I think probably a slightly lower degree of difficulty against Hokies and Larry Fedor Light over on their sideline. But really, I think it speaks to what this team, what the NC State team could have accomplished if Devin Leary had stayed healthy, if they'd found a way to win at Clemson. I've talked for a couple of years now about that this NC State team has the deepest and most proficient group of leaders of any college football team that I've seen in 14 years of covering college football closely here.
And I think that's what you saw. The players talked about it afterwards. It's a team that believes in each other, has been through this before. And even at 21-3, when it looked like they were about to quit, never did.
And fought back and really impressive in a lot of ways. So I think that the heart and the leadership of this team is both impressive. And it kind of makes you wonder what might have been, because certainly this was a team that had the intangibles to do great things.
Here's the thing, Luke Takaka is with us as he is every Friday. Here's the thing about this game, this team, going into the game that I was looking for. I mean, before the game started last night, I had no doubts that NC State was going to win the game. I just wanted to see how they were going to go and win the game.
Are they going to be business as usual, which is no risks. Let your defense do the heavy lifting. Score enough, because Virginia Tech is, as you said, the fifth best team in Virginia. They might be sixth.
I'm sure, I don't know, are they better than Radford? I'm not even sure. But the truth is that philosophy, offensive philosophy, I think has held them back. And we saw that same philosophy leading to nothing for almost three full quarters. And then out of necessity, all of a sudden, the forward pass showed up. Does the way they move the ball through the air, does it carry over? Do we see, OK, now we can, they had that with Devin Leary and they really didn't explore it.
So am I crazy? No, I mean, I think that the difference is in this game, once they decided that MJ Morris was ready to play, I understand why they were cautious with the playbook early. You're dealing with a freshman getting his first real under-fire action.
But now that you've seen that he can handle it, that he can push the offense forward, he can make those throws, he's got some courage, I think you open it up with MJ Morris. And I think it's a chance to atone really for not doing it with Devin Leary. Now, the problem there is, you look at the Clemson game, could they have been more effective on offense if they'd thrown the ball downfield more?
I mean, obviously, yes, they didn't do it enough. But given the state of NC State's receivers at that point in the season, I don't know that it would have been any more effective than it was. That said, the receivers played better last night. And if Devin Leary were still a quarterback, I think you would see a very explosive NC State offense, maybe the one we thought we would see early, just too late.
Maybe MJ Morris can benefit from that. I really liked what I saw from him. I thought he had a pretty good command of what they were asking him to do. I thought he made some tough throws into tight windows. And he was willing to take a hit to make a play. So he's not Devin Leary. But I think he offers some raw talent, let's call it what it is, that Jack Chambers doesn't.
And you've got a chance to use these last few games as an internship and build for him for next year. He's going to make some bad decisions. We saw one at the end of the first half on the field goal drive. A, he did get, well, he took a knee with the ball, which obviously, as it turned out, they were still able to kick the field goal. But he nearly threw an interception right before that.
It could have easily been picked off. So there are going to be some curious decisions. But for the most part, I loved everything I saw from MJ Morris. Just to go back to the philosophical problem is that they really weren't even stretching the field with Devin Leary.
No, they weren't. They have one of the best returning quarterbacks in the country. And yes, they have wide receiver issues.
By the way, Terrell Timmons, I'm sorry, Terrell Timmons Jr. can play for me. He made two pretty decent contested catches, one where he ends up landing on the back or on his back on top of a defender. And they were big catches they needed. Devin Carter played a good game last night. We haven't seen Devin Carter really do much at all this year. I think he caught back-to-back passes against Clemson.
And that was it. Those were his only two catches. And I think there is something to have Trent Penix back, don't you? Yeah, and when you talk about Timmons, this is a guy who might not have been ready to do that until the end of October when you're dealing with young players.
So I think there's a little chicken and egg issues there. I think in the end, in the final analysis, NC State has been a better team, as I wrote this, when they threw the playbook out the window and threw caution of the wind and just let whoever it was, let Leary Morris Chambers cook, they've been a better team. And when they've tried to moderate the offense and hold those guys back and be cautious, they haven't been a very good offensive team.
And it's nearly cost them a couple games. So I would hope going forward that Dave Dorn and Tim Beck look at the evidence of Florida State, of Virginia Tech, of what didn't happen against Syracuse and say, look, we may not have the reliability we want at receiver. We may not have a quarterback who's as good at making the reads as we need. But we're killing ourselves by throwing five yard passes over and over again and running Jordan Houston between the guards.
Let's open things up. Let's take some shots downfield. If Devin Carter drops them as he has in the past, we'll live with that. And maybe we'll find someone else to play that position, whether it's Timmons or someone else. So I think you have to learn from this experience and say, caution has not worked for us, safe as death, as John Tortorello would say.
And it's time to loosen things up and let it fly. All right, let's talk about the Carolina Panthers. Are they going to Atlanta to claim first place, Luke Tkok? I mean, I don't think there's any doubt that this is the best team in that division, the NFL's coastal division. You know, I don't know. I mean, it's such a bad division. It's terrible. They've got divorced from Matt Rule.
Tom Brady got divorced from Giselle. I mean, it's not an operation anywhere that's working really well right now. But that said, I think that's why the Panthers first three or four games were so frustrating, which was they weren't far away from winning those games, that they would just execute on offense at any vague level of baseline competence. Their defense was good enough to win those games. Their offensive line, which has been such a problem for a decade, was good enough to win those games. And you just couldn't get the quarterback play, and quite frankly, the play calling, to win those games, score enough points to cross the Matt Rule Mendoza line, the Rubicon, spelled RH, of 17 points. The Panthers have, with Steve Wilkes, they've got some confidence.
They've got some, wait for it, ver. Oh, no. And if you can keep that going, in this division, if you win eight or nine games, that may be enough to get you into the playoffs against all expectations. That said, when you look at last week, that was, as Dean Smith would say, the first game without the guy. You're without Christian McCaffrey, you're without Robbie Anderson. You're making some big changes. Everybody wants to impress the new coach.
You're stepping up into that situation. I don't know necessarily that the Panthers can maintain that level going forward, because historically, they haven't. But again, how much of that was Matt Rule?
How much of that was not maybe him specifically, but the atmosphere or the environment that he created? Clearly, it did not allow some of these players to perform to the most of their potential. Maybe Steve Wilkes is the guy to do it.
Well, it brings me to this. First of all, they've been playing without Robbie Anderson all year, so it really wasn't a loss. I'd give Steve Wilkes the job tomorrow, or today, or yesterday, for this reason.
And there's a lot of reasons. I think Steve Wilkes, to me, he exudes leadership. And we could sit here all day long and try to find the next hot, young, defensive, offensive assistant.
And Carolina, by the way, has only hired defensive coaches, from Capers to Seifer to Fox to Rivera. I mean, I don't even know what Rule was. I thought he was a defensive guy, but who knows? He was nothing.
He was actually more offensive than defensive or offensive. But I think Wilkes cares. I think this matters to him. And I hate to use the example of the head coach for the Carolina Hurricanes. But sometimes when it matters to you more, and I think it matters to Steve Wilkes more, I think that makes you the better option. I would literally hire him yesterday and give him a contract and let him be the head coach. He gets the Panthers. And like you said, the same way Rod Renoir gets the Hurricanes.
The thing that David Tepper said that I think, well, I think maybe that I brought live music to Charlotte thing rubbed the most people the wrong way. But number two would be, this isn't a franchise with a culture of winning. And we all know that that's not true. It may not have a culture of championships, but there have been good years. There have been years where the Panthers had a culture of winning. They had expectations.
They had accountability. Steve Wilkes was a part of some of that. And I think he gets that. And my guess is, if I'm Steve Wilkes, and I hear my owner say that, and I'm the new interim coach, I'm going to be like, well, hell, I'm going to prove this guy wrong. That's a stupid thing to say. I know what that culture is.
I mean, we have our own slogan that defines that culture. Let's go out. Let's keep pounding, and let's figure it out. So yeah, I don't know that I would give him the job yet. I want to see this season play out. But I think Steve Wilkes brings a lot to the job that somebody else, anybody else, would have a hard time bringing to that job. And I think those are things the Panthers need right now. They've been in the wilderness for so long. They've lacked leadership for so long.
Again, let's go back to the Bryndamore example. They need someone to come in, set a level of accountability, set a level of expectations, and build a culture. And that's Rod Bryndamore builds a culture walking in the door. Maybe Steve Wilkes does too, or maybe he's got a little more work ahead of him. But he's somebody who gets it, who gets the city, gets the franchise, gets the fans, knows what they want.
And theoretically, if he's surrounded by the right people, could deliver that. Well, here's why I wouldn't even worry about what's going to happen the rest of this year. Look, we joked that the Panthers go to Atlanta and win. They're in first place. But they're still three and five. So they're in first place by virtue of this being a tire fire of the division.
I don't think they're good. I don't think they're going to win more than, gosh, I think the ceiling on this team is six or seven wins for the entire season. And honestly, I think it's probably closer to four than it is six. That might win the division, Adam. Four wins might win the division. Well, I'm trying to think if it could.
I don't think it can. But there's no reason why they can't win some division games. Right, well, they're two and 0 in the division.
So I wouldn't wait. I think they're going to be bad regardless of who that you could, literally, you could bring in the ghost of the guy from the 49ers, Bill Walsh. You could bring in the ghost of Bill Walsh.
They're still going to be bad. So it's not even my concern. I think Steve Wilkes would be the right guy. But I'm not trying to sit here and lobby for him. I just love the way he handled the Robbie Anderson situation.
It's like, get out of here, man. Don't argue with your coaches. Who are you, Robbie with a Y?
Robbie, yeah, we had that discussion on Twitter. And other things I see with him, the offensive play calling to me is better. I love what they did with Foreman. They're getting the ball to DJ Moore. These were all things that they could have done in the first month of the season. They threw it down the field.
Yeah, they just didn't. And to me, that comes from the head coach. That's leadership, or the lack thereof. And maybe Ben McAdoo sees the writing on the wall, and he's coaching for his job. But he should have been from the beginning. And it's not his fault that Baker Mayfield keeps throwing the ball into the back of people's heads.
But you've got to find a way to get around that. And PJ Walker gave the guy credit. He went into training camp. He's the Derek Steppen of the Carolina Panthers. He went into training camp without a job, and no place for him. And Ben told he was no longer needed, and they didn't want him back.
And he ends up winning a spot in the lineup. So clearly, if they can get a quarterback, they have some pieces to put around him. Yeah, I'm less optimistic about the overall roster than you are. But it's OK.
It is always going to be a work in progress. Final thing, you brought up Derek Steppen. And I don't really want to talk Derek Steppen here, although I could. Give me the MVP of the three one-in-one road trip for the Hurricanes. And they will, of course, start at home tonight against the Islanders. Yeah, I mean, as good as Marty Naches has been, I don't think there's any question that it's Andrei Svechnikov who's playing at the elite level that we've all known he's capable of playing at. He's done it in spurts. But to come out of the gate and do it to start the season, there's a statement of intent there. I mean, I just I really like what I'm seeing from him.
The goals aside, the way he's playing, the shots he's taking, the passes he's not making to be frank, that little bit of selfishness you want to see from a guy with that kind of shot and that kind of ability. There's other guys. I mean, this is a team that's playing well.
I mean, Sebastian Ajo has been Sebastian Ajo. And as we talked about last week, they're doing it while some of the new guys, whether it's Burns or Stastny, or obviously, Kashi has got his own issues, but are quite frankly getting up to speed. And we always underestimate that difficulty. It's always hard, especially a team that plays the way the Hurricanes do, to come into that new system. We expect guys with a game and a half of preseason action to walk in the door and play like they've been there for 20 years. It doesn't happen. It didn't happen for Dougie Hamilton. It's not happening for Brent Burns. It's not happening for Stastny. It won't happen for others. But there's enough there to like across the roster that there's very little that I look at this team. Other than the bad goals that we've seen, in a couple of bad goals, other than that, there's very little here that concerns me.
But to me, if you want an MVP, I'd take 37. There's no question that that is the correct answer. Will I see you tonight? You will. Excellent.
Luke DeCocque of the NNO. Appreciate it. I'll see you on the fifth floor. Yes, sir.
All right. 7-4. Is it 7-4? I go to 5. I take the elevator to 5.
OG's know it's the 7-4, right? Oh, man. All right.
I've been getting that wrong forever. All right. I'll see you on the 7-4.
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Whisper: small.en / 2022-11-07 07:40:07 / 2022-11-07 07:45:06 / 5