Carolina Panthers have some mistakes they need to clean up after loss to Falcons

With Lucky Land Slots, you can get lucky just about anywhere. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to- has anyone seen the bride and groom?

Sorry, sorry, we're here. We were getting lucky in the limo and we lost track of time. No, Lucky Land Casino, with cash prizes that add up quicker than a guest registry.

In that case, I pronounce you lucky. Play for free at luckylandslots.com. Daily bonuses are waiting. No purchase necessary.

Boyd where prohibited by law. 18 plus. Terms and conditions apply.

See website for details. Was that our friend Jones Angel telling App State to pedal on back up the mountain? Savage. I like it. That was pretty interesting. I'll go down as a historic Carolina radio call. Hey, that was a fun game.

Saturday night. An absolutely thrilling end to what I think most of us thought would be a close game. 19 points? Who the hell made that line?

Seriously? It wasn't a shootout like it was last year, but still. No, it wasn't. I mean, I know what the score said, but you need a double overtime to make it look like that. So, that was a fun football game. Just a fun, well played, good football game by two really good teams.

App is legitimately good. That's why 19 points was always stupid. Especially coming off of North Carolina's big win over South Carolina. This is the Adam Gold show. I am Adam Gold Graham Hill. Our run is over today.

This is it. Alright, we'll do the best we can. We'll go out with a bang, if you will.

Alright, lots to do. NFL week one. We're going to get into it with Will Brinton in about 20 minutes. And we're going to try to do things that aren't Panthers related with him since we will handle that here. Alright, we will get to college football in a matter of moments. But let's start with Falcons 24, Panthers 10. Not the way to start the season, obviously, for Carolina.

But I would caution people. There are 16 more games. Do I think that this team is going to make the playoffs? I didn't before the season.

I still won't rule it out based on what I saw on Sunday because I actually think that there were some positive things to take away from the game. Was Bryce Young great? No, he was not. But let's also consider that he didn't get a lot of help.

He really didn't. We have to be a little bit grounded to understand what all took place at Mercedes-Benz. Is it Mercedes-Benz Stadium? Yeah, Mercedes-Benz has a lot of money nowadays. They can just throw out stadiums wherever they want to.

They always have a lot of money. I want people to stop referring to it as MBS. Please, I don't know. That seems like no good to me. Anyway, I think there was a lot of good that came out of the game, amid the obvious bad. The run game was good.

Carolina was effective. I thought Hubbard looked good. I was expecting Miles Sanders to look better. Other than the fumble, he didn't look bad either. They averaged, what, six yards a carry? They ran the ball effectively. Defense, I thought, for the most part, wasn't great. But I thought the defense, for the most part, was good. They applied a lot of pressure to the quarterback, right?

Burns, Brown, I mean, they were good. Falcons had two good drives the entire game. Two good drives.

That's it. They had 221 yards of offense, did Atlanta. Final score, I mean, 24-10.

I don't think indicative. I thought the Panthers, who had a lead, by the way, in the third quarter, 10-7, before the second and third turnovers pretty much ended it. I thought that there was enough good. Here's Frank Reich on what happened bad in the second half. Atlanta, they were opportunistic. They were opportunistic as a team. I saw some encouraging things on the field today in all three phases. But we have to own the fact that we didn't play well enough as a team. What we talked about in the locker room was we never accept losing.

There's good things out there, good things by each unit, good things by individuals. But there's only one outcome in this league that's acceptable, and that's winning. And we didn't get that done today, so every player and coach has to own that. Yeah, there were three turnovers. There were a bunch of penalties, right? There was a lot to correct, as the coaches like to say, heading into next week, or soon, right? It's Monday night against New Orleans. And New Orleans picked up a win, so you're trying to avoid going 0-2 in the division, and you're trying to avoid going 0-2 in the division behind two teams that might end up being 2-0. And staying at the bottom of the division. Unfortunately, after week one, the Panthers already find themselves.

I'm getting a little facetious there. But it's more important to stay within arm's reach of the two teams atop the division. So if you lose this game and the Falcons win theirs, and off the top of my head I don't know who they play, but then you're two games back, and you've lost two divisional games, and you're going to have to make those up. Now, granted, you'll play the Falcons in Charlotte, but still.

By the way, shouts to Charlotte on day one for us on WFNZ in Charlotte. Alright, so here's Bryce Young, by the way, because obviously everybody is going to talk about the interceptions. And frankly, this is going to sound like a joke, it's not. You have to recognize the safety. And unfortunately, Bryce Young didn't find the safety, so he found the safety, and ultimately that's the problem. But I thought there was a lot more good than bad with Bryce Young.

Here's Frank. Yeah, he handled himself great. I mean, he was in complete control. Even after we had turnovers, he was never down. I mean, it was just next play mentality, so kind of pro that we expected. But he's going to be fine.

Alright, so you have to find the safety. That's one way he struggled. I also thought that he might have held the ball a little bit too long. At times he was only sacked twice, but I think he just held the ball a little bit too long. I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world for Carolina to move the pocket a little bit, but I also thought he was failed by a couple of things. But let's hear from Bryce first on the two interceptions. Yeah, safety came down. Free and great play, and I have to obviously see in front of that and see his depth. Especially where the turnovers happen, they led to points, and that's unacceptable. I think our defense played great.

It gave him some short fields. Again, that's on me and things that I can't do moving forward. So obviously I have to clean that up, and I have to be better moving forward.

Yeah, obviously. First 17 points in the Falcons came right off turnovers. 17 points. You can't lose that. You can't lose the points off turnovers battle. 17-0 and expect to win a game. I mean, there might be a game a year in the entire league where you're minus 17 in that department and come away with a win. The offensive line clearly struggles in pass protection. We know that. There aren't any playmakers on offense. And we thought about this going into the season. Didn't we talk about it? That Carolina's got a bunch of good players.

They do. Miles Sanders is a good player. Chuba Hubbard is a good player. Adam Thielen is a good player. Hayden Hurst is a good player. Do they have anybody that scares you?

I asked the question this way during the summer. If you are a defensive coordinator, who do you say, I need to take care of that guy? That's the guy we can't let beat us. Who is that guy on the Carolina Panthers? And I realized they were missing DJ Chark, right?

Who's that guy? They don't have that guy. And I'm not even sure that DJ Chark, when he's on the field, is that guy. But we do know that he can get down the field. And part of the reason why Bates was sitting on those quick in routes is because there's nobody that scares you going over the top. And this is, in some ways, a failure of the coaching staff to identify that and kind of put them maybe in some bad positions. I also wonder if they didn't overthink themselves on that opening drive. Third and one, your running game has been good.

Leviska Chennault? Really? I mean, no offense. We know Chennault can run the ball. But it's like, give the ball to Miles Sanders.

Or Chuba Hubbard. I know Hubbard was stopped on fourth down. That was entirely about the offensive line getting shoved, right? The offensive line, no push at all. But also, on third down, you could certainly have done this. Or you could have done it either down. Why not a little play action fake and then have a tight end or a running back.

You've got Ricci, who is a good pass catcher, right? Put your fullback in, a little fake to the fullback. Leads off the right side, you fake it to the running back. And you just dump it off to the fullback and the flat. And that's like the oldest play in the world that always seems to work.

Anyway, I was a little surprised at that sequence, but I appreciated Frank Wright going for it because I thought that was the right thing to do. And I think the game probably changes if the Panthers score on that opening drive. But other than that, I really don't have many complaints. The turnovers were the difference, but the real difference is that if you look at what Atlanta did, and again, 221 yards rushing. But they've got Bijan Robinson, the other kid, Algier is a good running back, right?

He's not spectacular, he's good. But they have a Kyle Pitts. So they have game changing talent. And the Panthers do not have that.

Alright, real quick, couple of things before we have to take a break. UNC beat App State in double overtime. And again, Carolina's defense was good for the most part. I thought App had more success in those moments that if I were Carolina, then I would have liked. There were fourth down conversions, they ran the ball effectively. And if you're UNC, you don't want to see App run the ball at you and successfully like they did.

Especially in those moments. And there were big drives for the Mountaineers. But ultimately, Carolina is very good, so is App.

That was a great win. And I know Matt Brown loves the fact that this game was played, although to a point. Yeah, I think it's a great thing for the state of North Carolina to have. And I encourage NC State and East Carolina and all those people to schedule them and play them.

Because it is a fun game. I'm proud for App State. Like I said, they've got East Carolina at home next week and go to Wyoming. I mean, Sean Clark, we've got a difficult schedule.

He's got a real difficult schedule. But one of the problems with those type games, we play Charlotte, we play NC Central next year, is that all of the pressure is on our kids. There's no pressure on App State because nobody thinks they're going to win the game. But all the pressure is on us. And unless we win, we're awful.

And it just kills you. Because it's a regional game. Alright, yes, I understand the pressure is on North Carolina to win. And I say, so what? So what?

That makes it sound like you're afraid to go back to work on Monday and have your co-workers jab you a little bit. East Carolina and App play this week, by the way. I believe it's up and boom. Good luck, East Carolina.

You're going to need it. App's legit. App is a very good football team. With a backup quarterback, mind you. They're good.

Legit good. This game should be played routinely. Does it have to be an annual? No, none of these have to be annuals. I'm not asking North Carolina to do this every year.

But one of the locals should be on your schedule. I thought that the expanded playoff, this is what I was told, the expanded playoff was going to allow more of these games. You know what? It's not. Like I've been telling you, nobody's afraid of losing. What a terrible position to be in, to be afraid of losing. Guess what?

Don't be better. And sometimes when you lose, you lose. But we can't see in one hand, it's great for the state because it is.

And then, well, we don't really want to play it. This is the end of the series, by the way. I don't know that App and North Carolina are scheduled to get out to check it out, but it's the end of this series. I do know coming up, App State, you'll get to see them in Raleigh coming up.

I believe it's either next season or two seasons from now. NC State and App, home and home. They should play these games routinely. East Carolina, part of it too. And App and ECU should play. And they are, by the way. This upcoming Saturday, for sure.

And real quick before we break. Boy, man, the rain delays didn't help North Carolina State any. First play out of the delay, 80 yards. I thought it looked like Audrick Esteemay for the touchdown, right up the gut. Actually, at first look, it looked like it would have been a touch football, 80 yard touchdown run. But no, they got two hands on him, but it was just a brush.

And I thought that was the killer. State turned it over three times. I think it was 24-17 game entering the fourth quarter or early in the fourth quarter. I think State made it 24-17 after a field goal, which I didn't like. I think you need to score.

It might have been the series before. I think you need to go for the first down on fourth and two and not settle for a 49 yard field goal. But ultimately, what we thought was going to be the problem, not really being able to stop the run consistently. And big plays are killing NC State. And penalties. Self-inflicted wounds.

Yeah, there were. But the big play is killing them. And they have to get around that.

They have to slow that down. But again, I think the final score was misleading. But there's no sugarcoating it. Notre Dame better than NC State. I mean, I think. And we'll get into the offense a little bit later on. At the end of the hour, we'll talk about State's offense. And I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, but it doesn't look any better.

And I realize it's just two games, but it should have looked better than it does through two games. From I Heart podcast Supreme, the battle for Roe tells the story of the unlikely champions behind the landmark case Roe v. Wade, starring Maya Hawke as 26-year-old lead attorney Sarah Weddington. We're challenging the Texas abortion laws in federal court. And Academy Award nominee William H. Macy as Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. Time is not the most important factor.

Getting it right is. Listen to the podcast Supreme the Battle for Roe on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.