Carolina Panthers preseason Game #2: done and college football is this week!

The thing we're going to dive into most, right here as we get out of the gate, Carolina Panthers. Let's go, V. We got points. We got points, Victoria. We have points in the preseason. Let's go.

Already progress. All right, so Carolina Panthers on Friday night up in New Jersey. They lose to the Giants 21-19. Yeah. Okay, so they lose to the Giants 21-19.

Okay, fine. They scored points. I honestly, the final result of the preseason game does not matter to me. It just doesn't because not all your starters are playing. They're not playing the entire games.

The game, the result of the game doesn't matter. Like you have Jake Luton out there throwing passes in the fourth quarter. Dude ain't making your squad. No, he's only there in case, for example, if there is a long-term injury to one of your other backup quarterbacks.

Okay, this guy's, you can keep him around. Yeah, that's why he's there. Yeah, loss in the preseason is fine for me.

It's just how they lose. That's the main thing. We're trying to evaluate how the starters look.

All right, offensive and defensive starters that played on Friday, each got two series. So let's dive into those. Okay. Five things from the Carolina Panthers, five things you want to touch into number one, overall better. Yeah. From game one to game two, I was at bank of America stadium game one, seeing them in game two, especially offensively. It was nice to see a long sustained drive. We'll get into offensive and defense. Good and bad here in just a moment, but overall better.

Yes. Progress, but not great. Now here's Frank Reich, head coach of the Carolina Panthers, given his analysis of the second preseason game. Was happy with how we approached this for 60 minutes, the intensity, the energy that we played with from start to finish. Obviously, we'll look at the table, clean the things up that we need to clean up, but happy with the happy with how physical we played with the consistency of that physical play. And then, you know, for 60 minutes, we've got to clean up some penalties, but other than that, we'll get the execution cleaned up on the table.

Yes, you do need to clean up penalties. I'm sorry. Hayden Hurst, you're a veteran. Don't be jumping. Don't be false start on a third one should not be doing that. Hey, Chandler Zavala, so I have a holding penalty on a pass play that gets us inside the 10 yard line.

I actually down to the five. Don't do those things. Okay.

But overall better. Also, Frank, please don't say we're going to check tape again. We're going to go check the tape. No, we're done with that. Stop it.

We're done with that. We know you're going to check it. Don't tell us. We already know. Don't tell us for your job.

Keep it under wraps. Overall, better performance. That's what we wanted to see. Progress week one, week two.

Was it great? No, far from perfect, but there's some optimism in some areas where like, okay, we saw improvement. Things are going to get better.

All right, which leads us into the second thing. Let's get into some of the offensive good. Man, Bryce Young looks poised beyond his years. He does.

He really does. One of the plays that impressed me most, it was an incompletion, but he started to roll a little bit to his left, slipped, fell down, got up, scrambled away from pressure, but still kept his eyes down field, trying to find an open target, directing traffic, trying to hit Adam Thielen down the right sideline, overthrew it a little bit, but he made sure he put it in the spot where only Thielen could make a catch. It's impressive.

That was impressive. It was still an incompletion, but the way that he was still able to sit back and read the defense, slide away from pressure. I just think even the first drive where Jonathan Mingo didn't finish running his route on that third and four, so it ended up being a three and out.

We'll get into Jonathan Mingo and all that a little bit later on in the show. But how he went through his progression, slid away from pressure and kept his eyes down field. He didn't get flustered right away like some rookie quarterbacks can do. Heck, there are guys like fourth, fifth year in the NFL that soon as they get pressure, bolt and run.

He's not doing that. So him being able to read through his progressions, even on that long drive, the 15 play drive that resulted in a field goal, he had a big completion to Jonathan Mingo where he read the blitz, hot route, made the right read, perfect throw. So those kinds of things, again, those are poised beyond his years for a rookie quarterback.

So, okay, that's the offensive good. Here's Frank Reich, the head coach, giving his evaluations of Bryce Young's performance. I thought Bryce looked sharp, put together a nice drive, would have liked to have us finish it off. Obviously, I'm happy with the number of penalties we had. I don't know what the total number was, too many penalties, but I thought Bryce looked sharp. I think he wanted to throw the ball more. I think he wanted to throw a little bit more, but I thought he looked sharp. Yeah.

Let the young man cook. I actually really liked it. I know the result was officially a run play for one yard by Bryce Young, but we saw a nice little play action, a little bootleg for Bryce Young earlier in that first drive where they went three and out. We saw the mobility move the platform for him a little bit. Now, the Giants covered it really well. So he's like, okay, I'm going to take this yard step out of bounds.

Didn't force anything. Looked like he may have could have fit something in either to, to feel in or Hurst, but he read the defense, the defensive backs that were crashing in on those receivers. And he's like, you know what, if I force us in there, looking at a pass breakup, get tipped ball, you never know what's going to happen after that.

So he made the good decision, made the smart play, got a yard stepped out of bounds. I liked the fact that they used him in play action a little bit more. Here's Bryce young talking about how, you know what, with every drive that he's had, he's played five drives so far here in the pre-season things are getting a little bit more comfortable for him. You know, it feels good, but you know, I think, again, it's just a day by day approach, you know, watching the film, I feel like there's, there's always room for improvement, always stuff I'm trying to grow in day by day. So I think, you know, the more rest, more experience, you know, especially when you get to go up against another team in the game environment, you know, those are kind of, you know, that that's a valuable experience for me, especially at this stage.

So definitely grateful for it a lot. I want to improve, want to get better at, but I'm going to keep taking it day by day. Live reps are good for Bryce young. We'll dive more into Bryce young a little bit later on in the show, let's get to some third thing. A couple good defensive moments. Now we'll get into the defensive bad here in a little bit, but I want to point out some good plays and some good moments. It was nice to see Jeremy chin coming up to the line of scrimmage on a little pop pack on local pop passes where the quarterbacks and shotgun, and they just load that little toss for the little pitch forward to either a running back or receiver. That's just coming across the formation. Just because you're just popping the ball forward.

So I just call them a little pop pass. Uh, Daniel Jones, a little pop pass. Jalen Hyatt was one of the fastest guys coming out of college this season into the NFL and Jeremy chin comes up and makes a great tackle for loss fights through a block. That's the, that's the plays that we want to see Jeremy chin make, right?

You know, this as well as anybody. When his rookie season, especially when he was up around the line of scrimmage, he made a lot of plays like that. Like that's the Jeremy chin that we want to see. We want to see him around the line of scrimmage a lot more also on that, uh, on that drive earlier in that drive. I think the third play of the game off of play action, Darren Waller was wide open coming across the field. Great close out by Vaughn bell dislodging the ball from Darren Waller as well.

Like that's the reason why Vaughn bell was brought in because he's got the speed and versatility to cover in space. So it's like, okay, couple of good moments. Otherwise overall, not really good for first drive for the Carolina Panthers defense. Daniel Jones picked them apart and just, they moved the ball right down the field with ease and there's no Saquon Barkley out there either. So they moved the ball down the field with ease. I will say in the second drive, they did force a three and out.

I will acknowledge context here. The giants went with their second team like to Rob Taylor came out there. They didn't have Darren Waller and some of those other guys out there. I fully acknowledge that.

I fully acknowledge that, but they still did what they were supposed to do. Also nice to see Frankie Louvou on a blitz made a nice move on the, on the running back. He was trying to pick him up, made a nice move on him. Got a, got a piece of the football when Taylor was trying to make a pass on third down. Hey, Carolina Panthers fans, Chris Lee and Dennis Cox here. We're excited to offer you all the insight information on your team with the newest member of the Capitol broadcasting podcast network Panthers playbook twice a week. We'll keep you updated on your Carolina Panthers. We're talking about lacquer room insight, exclusive interviews, and of course in-depth looks at all of the Panthers wins touchdown Carolina Panthers playbook download and subscribe today at wrelsportsfans.com or wherever you discover your favorite podcasts. Louvou's versatility, I think is going to be good.

I like, I actually like him when he's blitzing. Yeah. So nevertheless, okay. You got the job done that you're supposed to do. You went and got your three and out. You got to take the rest of the day off. Let's go to the fourth thing. Let's go to the bad things on offense.

Why is this offensive line stink? Why? Why? Yeah. And it's not just Icky Ikhwanu. No, it's not just Icky Ikhwanu.

Now he was bad. We're going to dive into Icky. Coming up at one 15.

I'm going to break down some individual players. Icky dude, what are we doing here? Yeah.

Icky looks slow out of the stance. Apparently has miscommunications with terms of protections and all that kind of stuff like miscommunication, that kind of stuff, which for a lot of them missed assignments. All right. So Frank Reich has told us this multiple times. Hey, we're keeping it generic. We're keeping it vanilla. We're running our base stuff because we don't want to show teams in the pre-season what we're really going to or during the pre-season, we're not going to show teams what we're really going to do in the regular season.

Right. Super base, super generic, super vanilla. Well, if this is your base install stuff, why are you having miscommunications? Like if you're having that kind of issue still with your base stuff, what happens when on Wednesday or Thursday you're rolling in new plays for this upcoming week?

What's going to happen on Sunday when you're trying to do that? Yeah. Mike, if you still can't master your base stuff right now, I'm sorry. You can't get, you can't get the phase two, three, four, five-year offense during the season.

You can't. You can't evolve as an offense if you can't actually have good communication and knowing your assignments on your base stuff. Now I understand. Okay. Sometimes you just might get beat.

Like you might make the right play, but the guy in front of you also gets paid. You might just beat you. Okay. You can work on that.

But the missed assignment stuff, come on. Yeah. We got to communicate. Like it's yeah. It's community.

It's just simple stuff. Like for example, when you get second and nine at the 10 yard line, I got Kayvon Thibodeau out there on my left. There's no one to my inside. And it's like, wait, I, I thought maybe there's a running.

I'm sorry. You thought a running back or somebody was going to pick up Kayvon Thibodeau. Well, you got no one to your interior. No one else on the outside.

Russian. That's what you turn to. That's like, sometimes you look like, Hey, you want me to pick up five, right? That's Thibodeau's number.

You want me to pick up five? Like, I just want to make sure on the same page. I don't care if the defense knows it.

Yeah. They know pass plays coming. They still know it. You still got to win that one-on-one even if the defense does know it's like that kind of stuff. It's one thing to not show your hand, but it's another thing you have to get reps in. So maybe you have to show a little bit of it too. Cause when it counts, you don't want to be doing stupid stuff like that, but even still, it's your base stuff. So like, all right.

It's not just, again, it's not just on Icky quantum. He just feels like he's slow out of his stance. I don't see a lot of aggressiveness in the run game, which is what he was really known for being a road grader, but in terms of the run game, seems slow out of his stance. Don't see the explosiveness consistently. Bradley Bozeman was getting pushed back now. Okay.

I get it. You're going against Leonard Williams, going against Dexter Lawrence. Those dudes are all pro, especially Dexter Lawrence is the reason why that dude got paid as much as he did this off season. But here's the thing you can't settle for. All right, we're going to let the all pro guys beat us. We're going to beat the guys who aren't so good and we're going to be right there in the middle. You know what that makes you average.

I'm sorry. The standard in this league is not middle of the road. If you want to be better than the seven to 10 team you were last season, you got to elevate your level of play.

There's a reason why they brought you back. Bradley Bozeman and Bozeman was getting pushed back a lot, a lot. Chandler Zavala had a little bit of a rough going. It's his first live action because he missed OTA or he missed a chunk of the OTAs. Missed the first preseason game joint practice because he had the pectoral injury. So it's his first live action.

Okay. Bozeman, he's a veteran. Chandler Zavala getting his first live reps. There's actually, I think it was on the, the very first run play actually for the Panthers when Chuba Hubbard just picked up one yard on a first and five, because there's a, an offsides call against the giants. First and five Zavala gets beat to the middle. Hubbard has to make a move in the backfield just to fall forward, just to get a yard.

And then Chandler Zavala also had a holding penalty as well. So some rough going overall for the offensive line as a whole. So the thing to keep in mind though, it's not like you can go out and just like, you know what, just go get somebody. Ain't that easy. I'm sorry. Who's out there.

I'm sorry. Do you think just if you have a, a starting caliber offense alignment that teams would just be like, yeah, sure. Take them. Right.

Like, no, this is what you got. But if you want like a starting level, like interior offense alignment or tackle, whatever it might be, you got to give up a lot. Otherwise you're rolling with this staff is supposed to be here to help with that too, with the offense. I mean, that's why they're here is to help make our offensive line better. There's a reason why you brought back all five of your starters. Now I know Austin Corbett still dealing with the knee injury that he suffered in the final regular season game last season with the torn ACL.

So he's still recovering. There's a reason why you brought your offensive line coach back. The reason why you brought back all five of your starters, because as that season progressed last season, last year, we saw improvement. Things were clicking.

Things were starting to get a little bit better. Like you saw the rushing yards they were putting together, but I don't know. The questions still remain on the offense line. All right, let's get to the bad for the defense.

Fifth thing here, defensive bad. Hey, Carolina Panthers fans, Chris Lee and Dennis Cox here. We're excited to offer you all the insight information on your team with the newest member of the Capitol broadcasting podcast network Panthers playbook twice a week. We'll keep you updated on your Carolina Panthers.

We're talking about locker room insight, exclusive interviews, and of course in-depth looks at all of the Panthers wins touchdown Carolina Panthers playbook download and subscribe today at wrelsportsfan.com or wherever you discover your favorite podcasts. Jack Thompson. I love that guy, but man, he cannot cover very well.

Him one-on-one against Darren Waller. Uh, I'm sorry. That's just not going to work during the regular season. Okay.

Now I get Tara. Waller's one of the top guys in the NFL. I reflect back to what I was saying about Bradley Bozeman facing guys like Dexter Lawrence. I'm sorry. You can't be like content with being beat by the really great ones in the league.

And okay. Beating up on the guys who aren't so good and falling somewhere there in the middle. Now I know they're running base stuff, things like that. I doubt when the regular season rolls around that we're going to see Shaq Thompson and one-on-one coverage and it's tight ends very, very often. That's the reason why Dion Jones was brought in because he's better at coverage, but it's so begs. The question is this like y'all let Daniel Jones just walk down the field on you like that. Like walk down the field on you.

Like nothing. Can't do the guy who had 15 touchdown passes last year. You let them walk down the field.

I can't do that. So like, all right, now again, I do, I do point out in context against Tara Taylor. They did come out and get a three and out on their next drive. Still a lot to work on quick note here.

Actually, it's a, before we get to that quick note, uh, here's Frank, right? Right. On the giants executing so well on their first drive. I just thought, you know, they, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I just thought, you know, they executed on a very high level in that first drive. I mean, it was a good, good play calling, good execution. You know, I thought Jones looked sharp. Um, I thought they kept us on our heels a little bit, so it was a good first drive by them.

It was a great first drive by them. All right. I will wrap up this.

All right. We're actually quick note here. Uh, the Panthers did sign Troy Hill, uh, cornerback, um, who's played most of his career with the, with the Rams, including time with these Euro Evaro, who was a defensive coordinator at times with his time with the Rams. Uh, so there's familiarity there. Also the defensive backs coach. I can't remember his name off the top of my head for the Panthers, uh, was also with the Rams at the same time ever was there when Troy Hill was there.

So there's some level of familiarity. He's also a veteran. He's 31. The oldest defensive back actually at least oldest corner for the Panthers is Dante Jackson at like 26.

So it's not a very old group. So it's nice to maybe have a little bit of a veteran presence in there, but clearly you're recognizing like, all right, there's a need here, especially still Dante Jackson's still recovering from the Achilles. You don't know how the rest of his body is going to hold up during the season because your body is still compensating for the recovery from an injury. So they also see some depth, that corner, something we've talked about previously.

All right. I'll wrap up Panthers here. We're going to get into more Panthers here coming up in a little bit, but to wrap up this, when it comes to, for example, playing against the giants in the second preseason game, that staff of the giants has been there. It's their second year that team knows in the off season already what to expect of themselves going into the season. They already have the offensive system, the defensive system. They have that already from year one to year two. So now they're building off that the papers are just the second preseason game with this new staff.

I know there's a lot of similar players that are back. So there's, again, we're wrapping things up with context here, but guess what? When the regular season rolls around, that means squat because that's when your record really does matter.

All right, let's move on from that. As I mentioned, the college football cold open is this week, not week zero because that name is stupid. Not week zero, week zero stinks, but I call it the cold open kind of like you see Saturday night live.

They just cameras on, you have an opening scene. Then we get into the introduction of the season, really only one game of note to watch this week, Navy versus Notre Dame in Dublin, which is really, really cool. I, as I played lacrosse all, all four years in college. And the one thing I was not able to do was do a study abroad. The one thing I wanted to do that it couldn't was do a study abroad. Everyone tells me that, Victoria.

Everyone is pointing out like, Oh man, I love myself. My girlfriend got to spend a semester in Australia. I'm like, I'm just going to live vicariously through you from these stories of years ago.

I went to Paris in Italy. Cool. That's great, Victoria. I'm so happy for you. That was a great time.

I'm sure you had. Uh, but nevertheless, the reason why this game is, is a significance is because Notre Dame isn't, is a ranked team and a lot of expectations. Sam Hartman, their starting quarterback used to be the starting quarterback at wake forest. But in a few weeks, September 9th, Notre Dame is that NC state for a new kickoff at Carter Finley stadium. So there's a reason why to pay attention a bit to that game. Uh, and there's a lot of teams here in the state of North Carolina that are playing Notre Dame this season, including Notre Dame at Carter Finley, Notre Dame at Wallace Wade against Duke. So there's oftentimes we're going to see Notre Dame taken on teams from the state of North Carolina this upcoming season. So something of interest to watch.

All right, let's move on because this is the Adam gold show. I'm obligated to discuss soccer, right? Women's world cup championship. Spain beats England won nothing. I'm not going to lie.

Like for a lot of people. All right. I saw the final score. The game was probably on at like three in the morning.

I'm not entirely sure. I didn't have much interest in watching it, but here's something I did see. I saw this headline.

I read into the story a little bit further on. So for Spain, it's their first major championship ever. World cup Olympics, at least on the women's soccer side. So it was a big moment for them.

Yeah. In the U S we've been spoiled by women's soccer, how great they've been. But for them, that was their first championship. Congrats to them.

That's gotta be an awesome feeling. Olga Carmona scored the, scored the lone goal of that match. She's going to go down. She's 23 years old. She's going to go down in that country's history for scoring the biggest goal in women's soccer in the country of Spain. But I saw the headline that hours after the match, she found out that her father had passed away. 23 years old.

I guess he's been fighting an illness for a long time, passed away. She found out about it hours after. Oh no, that's so sad. It really is. And I just kind of made me sit back there and reflect. It's like, you're going to take one of the biggest moments of your professional career. Like you've literally scored the biggest goal and the biggest moment and the biggest match for your country's history in women's soccer.

You're free. You're going down in history. Like you scored the one goal that gave us a win to give us our first major championship. And you're associating that memory the same day of the passing of your father. Like I'm just like combining those two things together. Like you're, they're forever going to be associated with each other. So I sit there back and I was like, man, I'm, I'm now in my, into my late thirties. I'm like, I, I'm so thankful my mom and my dad's still around.

I have a great relationship with the both of them. So it was just like, man, just that it just kind of made me sit back and reflect a little bit that, you know, like again, this, this major high and this major low associating with each other on the exact same day. Something that I can't fathom and think about, but nevertheless, Spain wins one, nothing. I think, I think did Adam have Spain winning that match? Probably. Yeah, he probably did.