The Drive with Josh Graham - Panthers vs Bucs

Attention, please. This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast. Tune into The Drive 3 until 6pm weekdays on the Sports Hub. I love it. It's brilliant. Thanks for listening this Truth Network Podcast. Tune into The Drive 3 until 6pm weekdays on the Sports Hub. It's brilliant.

The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast is playing now. When you look at the roster, Tampa Bay's defense is pretty good. I don't even know if they're sneaky good. The Domican Sioux, Vida Villa, Willie Golston is on that defense, Karl Nassib, that's just the D-line. Lavonte David is an excellent player. I like Shaq Barrett. Vernon Hargreaves at corner, one of the best you're going to find. MJ Stewart is going to be making his return to North Carolina, former Tar Heel.

TJ Logan, I believe, is a Tampa Bay Buccaneer as well. So, don't completely discount Tampa Bay, but it also should be asked, and I think it's ridiculous most times this is brought up in week two, but in this circumstance, I think it's a legitimate question, is this a must-win game for the Carolina Panthers? Usually in week two, I just dismiss it.

Really? Come on. There are statistics that suggest in the last 15 to 20 years that teams that start 0-2 can very well go to the postseason. We've seen it last year.

We've seen it many times in the last 15 years or so. However, considering the way the schedule looks and how down Tampa Bay is with the new coach and an erratic quarterback who's never been able to do anything consistently at this level despite being a number one pick, tonight is a must-win for the Carolina Panthers. Just look at the schedule. Four of the next five games are away from Charlotte. You can bring up the stats about how teams come back from 0-2 to make the postseason, but I strongly doubt many of those teams that did make the postseason did so after losing both those games at home.

Four of the next five away from Charlotte. And if Tampa at home on a short week isn't a gimme, then you can't expect to just roll through Jacksonville on the road or beat Tampa Bay on a neutral field in London. You can't expect to beat the Houston Texans away from Bank of America Stadium or the Arizona Cardinals even.

There's no such thing as a gimme. If you're a playoff team, and I believe the Carolina Panthers to be that, you win this game tonight. In that way, it's a must-win game. The Panthers should win. If they play the way they did Sunday, which wasn't close to what the ceiling of this team is, I still think that's enough to beat the Tampa Buccaneers, Tampa Bay. If you play that way, couple turnovers and sloppy, I still think it's enough. It wasn't enough to beat the defending champs of the NFC, the LA Rams, but it should be enough to beat Tampa Bay on a short week.

So they don't have to be as sharp as you would be against a Super Bowl contender, but Carolina just can't beat itself. I expect a strong Cam game tonight. Cam Newton, he didn't play well in the second half. He admitted that.

We could all see that without even having to explore the tape. Cam Newton struggled in the second half on Sunday, but I happen to believe the reason Cam struggled had less to do with his health and more to do with the fact that he was rusty. Even if you're healthy, just because you're healthy, I should say, doesn't mean you're guaranteed to have great games every single time. Cam Newton has been known to have some stinkers.

It just happens. Think about the Chicago game a few years ago, where Mitchell Trubisky completed six passes, if that, and the only two touchdowns were scored off Cam Newton turnovers. The New Orleans game that same year, at home. Cam's had stinkers, it happens.

He hasn't had many reps. I expect it to be better for Cam tonight, and I think Carolina is just too good to lose this game, especially with there being urgency in place. With radio and TV in this area asking the question about a must-win and presenting it that way, the players aren't going to be overlooking Tampa as a result. So Carolina should win the game, but if they don't, oh boy, tomorrow's radio show, that's going to be a very interesting thing. Your thoughts are welcome on Twitter, at sportsubtriad, 336-777-1600, the phone number. We're going to get a live report out at Bank of America stadium from Bill Voth of panthers.com. In about 25 minutes, Desmond Johnson is the producer of this program today.

We're going to be sharing with Darren Vaught a little bit later on as well. Des, you're wearing your Carolina Panthers t-shirt. Worked last year. You're emotionally attached to this team. Are you even welcoming the thought? What happens if Tampa Bay wins this game? Yes and no, because I remember the last time the Panthers played on Thursday night, and it was basically the unraveling of an entire season.

That's what should concern you. That's still fresh in my mind. There's a randomness element to Thursday night football. However, home teams seem to do better on Thursday night, and that game was in Pittsburgh. Correct, and it was in the middle of the season too, so it was a real short week for that point, only four days. But I got some numbers for you, and Panther fans that might help them feel a little better about this. Cam Newton's 3-5 on Thursday nights for his career, so let's wash that out of our mouth right now.

The ones that just ruin seasons, it seems like, happen on Thursday night. The Pittsburgh game stands out, and there was a Giants game very early on where Cam Newton got smoked. That's when he started doing the rolling of his eyes and just sighing and moaning in the press conferences. That was early on Cam Newton's career.

That was probably his second year. The good news is the team we're playing against is Tampa. We are not playing. We is in the Panther fan base. The Panther team, the state, everyone's behind it.

I would love to see fans try to line up against Ndamukong Su and see what would happen. We're all one Carolina job tonight. The Panthers are 3-1 against Tampa on Monday and Thursday nights with Cam Newton, so even though those three wins that Cam has gotten on Thursday nights in primetime, they've been against Tampa Bay. They match up really well against him, and we've won five of the last six games against the Bucks. Tampa's a good matchup for us.

We match up usually well against them, and we've had their number for the past three seasons or so. The last time they played, Tampa won. Wasn't that without Cam? No, Cam played. It was the week before the New Orleans game. His arm was hanging on by a thread at that point. Possibly, but again, Cam needs to prove he could throw the ball down the field.

He doesn't have to prove it to me. I believe he's okay, but if they don't stretch the field, there's no reason to believe it can't look similar to last year, and that's what should scare Panther fans a little bit. They should be that confident about a Thursday night game that's usually half-baked, and there's a lot of randomness that sets in, especially when you have familiarity between the opponents. The way the Panthers' fabric is for Panthers fans, we're never really confident going into any game. We don't know what's going to happen.

We kind of live in this world of just wait and see. Everybody's just writing this week off. We're going to beat Tampa.

We're going to beat Tampa. The talking heads are. I've seen a lot of that. I'm not just talking about the talking heads. I'm seeing a lot of swaggering, confident, borderline arrogant Panther fans this week.

I've seen a lot of them. They think they're going to beat Tampa Bay. That's the Rams. We played like crap.

Lost by three points. Tampa, we should beat Tampa. That's the way they feel. Well, we should beat Tampa.

They should feel that way. They are the untrustworthy stepchild of the NFC South. They want to be everyone's biggest rival, but they're not, and it drives Tampa fans crazy.

Tampa and New Orleans have the Super Bowl trophy, though, and the Panthers and Falcons do not. But we look cute at press conferences. We do.

We do look very cute. Might delete later. Sam Darnold. God, the NFL is king.

This is just another example. Like you got a game tonight, primetime game that people are going to be talking about. Then with the Antonio Brown stuff going on that isn't funny, we have something that kind of is funny, even though some would say don't joke about it. He's got mono and he's not going to play a Monday night football. A quarterback for a New York NFL team that was taken in the top five of the draft has mono and is not going to play a Monday night football. And this is just going to nuke the Jets season.

Or should I say this is the kiss of death for the New York Jets season? Have you looked up what mono actually is? Yeah. Yeah. I'm aware of what mono is.

Okay. How you get mono? It's nasty.

It's a little nasty. What's Sam Darnold doing? Clay Travis actually brought up a really funny point today.

He was talking about the Sam Darnold news. How do more college quarterbacks not get mono? That's a great question.

That's a really good question. If you're a college quarterback, you know you're pretty popular in school and most of them aren't married and are just trying to get by. And by get by, I mean meet some people.

Meet a lot of people, maybe, possibly. Sources tell me. Chris Broussard sources. But none of them. No mono for star quarterback at college. But Sam Darnold, gosh, it's just such tasty content.

It is. A quarterback not playing in Monday night football because of mono. It is funny how fans react, oh, just tough through it and play.

We put expectations on our athletes that we would not attach in everyday life. Right? If you had mono, I'd be worried for you. I'd be worried, OK, Des, just get some rest. And if it was you, you would say, I'm out for the next week or two. I'm out for the next couple of weeks.

But if it's an athlete, tough it up because I got a fantasy football team. See, those people have never had mono before or have never known someone to have it. Have you ever had mono before?

I have not. Have you ever seen somebody with it? Believe it or not, I mean, with the hairdos I was rocking back in high school, rocking a solid buzz cut. Oh, yeah. The biggest pro of the buzz cut is that I didn't have to worry about mono. My college roommate.

That's the biggest plus. And in college, I inherited that, too. You saw the old picture of me in college where I looked like the fifth Beatle. The fifth Beatle that none of the women were interested in and flocking. He did have like an Austin Powers thing going on, like a young Austin Powers.

Right. My college roommate had it and it was the worst two weeks of his life. Like, he literally couldn't get out of the bed.

It was a struggle getting to the bathroom. You're just so weak. So to act like an NFL quarterback can just shake it off and go out there and play with mono, a little ridiculous. It would be the most Jets thing ever if he stuck around the office and then the entire team just got mono.

That would be terrific. And then they play New England. God, New England's laughing their ass off. You just know it. Watching Miami get beat by a million.

The line would be like 60. And then the Jets. The Jets continuing to do Jets things. The Drive is broadcast live in the law offices of Timothy B. Wellborn Studios.

Learn about the ways that Tim Wellborn can help you online at Tim Wellborn dot com. You'll know when you need us. Coming up, the three things you should be watching for in Panthers box tonight. This is The Drive. Let's begin.

Let's talk about it. You're on The Drive with Josh Graham, the sports hub at AM 600, AM 920. We'll be out at Bank of America Stadium later on tonight, depending on how traffic looks on seventy seven or eighty five on the way out of the Triad.

Still vote is in Charlotte Panthers dot com. And I've already seen pictures as of like one o'clock, one thirty of Bill posting things from the sidelines. So this guy, he brings you things from inside the building for the Panthers and it's excellent stuff. And I suspect there will be a lot of great stuff later on tonight.

He'll have for us. How early does Bill vote arrive at Bank of America Stadium? Some great bump in music coming through the older white male demographic like me with that little Bruce Hornsby. It's pretty good. I dig it. Yeah. How how early did you get to Bank of America today? I don't know.

One thirty two. It's pretty good and pretty specific as well. I appreciate that. We have a lot we have a lot of things going on around here. So big team to kind of get pointed in the right direction to be here pretty early. It's a quick turnaround, short week for Carolina after the loss to the L.A. Rams.

What overreaction to week one has either amused or confused you? I don't think I don't think anything. You know, you start with the Cam thing and I think it's a fair reaction people have of, hey, this looks a lot like last year where you're not stretching the field at all.

With that said, I don't think that's the final answer. And I can understand why Cam's starting to get annoyed about the questioning. But I also think it's fair to until we actually see him in a game, air it out a little bit, just a little. I think that's fair. Anything said about the defense? I think it's fair. I think a little bit of, hey, here's this 60B thing.

This is a great solution. I'm not sure if we know that yet, especially when you think about what the defensive linemen thought about that last week. They didn't like it.

But otherwise, I don't think anyone's really jumped off any cliffs. I think losing by three points to the Rams, I think people have been pretty level-headed about it. How concerned are you about Cam's foot? Well, just like last week, just like you'd like to see him throw the ball down the field a little bit, you'd also like to see him run more than last week. So everyone here, you talk to anyone inside here, I don't think they're really trying to blow smoke up whatever. With me, everyone's pretty frickin' confident in him right now, and they're saying he's healthy. He's telling people, not just the media, that he's feeling really good. So they're saying it, but I just think we need to see it, though. We need to see him run, and we need to see him throw it up the field before we really can truly believe it. It's billvotethepanthers.com on Twitter at Panthers Bill.

Finish the sentence. What will the Billite of Panthers lose to the Buccaneers tonight? The Bucs will be even tighter. I mean, they've been tight all offseason. They were really tight last week.

They're tighter this week. And then, yeah, it's only the 0-2, and then with road trips to Arizona, which no one really knows, you don't really know that offense yet. So that won't be the easiest game plan in the world. And then having to travel to Houston a week later, it's not a must-win game or anything like that, but you sure as heck want to win it, because the alternative to how things will feel around here at 0-2 would not be very pleasant. If the Panthers beat the Buccaneers?

Then I think you're in a good place. I think these are one of these games tonight that if you think the Panthers are going to be good, you can't lose. You can't lose to a beatable Bucs team. But the quarterback that throws the ball to the other team all the time at home on national TV if you're really going to be all that good.

So that's one of those games. When I'm looking at the things I want to see tonight, I didn't get a chance to go to Spartanburg and see what Curtis Samuel was during those few weeks. And even during the scrimmages against the Buffalo Bills, he was the story outside of Cam Newton and viewed to be the MVP of camp. McCoy didn't play as many snaps as many thought he would play in Game 1, but it was hot, and it's his first game as a Panther. Now he's going up against his former team, and then we've spent a lot of time talking about Cam Newton. What's the thing Bill Voth would most like to see from a Panthers player or the team altogether tonight? Well, the Gerald thing is not... It shouldn't be surprising to anyone, including him. The Panthers never played their guys as many snaps as Gerald played when he was with Tampa. And Gerald himself has admitted in his opening press conference that he's got a whole bunch of bumps and bruises.

So in order to be able to help him last 16 games, playing him not as many times as he played in Tampa just kind of makes a lot of sense. But anyway, I digress. I think the only thing... What do I want to see tonight? I want to see Cam fill the ball 20 yards down the field just at least once.

But if he tells us, and it's fair, it's just not that easy. I get it. I do. But I just think I don't want to see the offense like it was last year, which is just these little dump-offs, which is smart. And I think a lot of teams are doing it now, and it's getting the ball to Cam's hands, and it's getting to this playmaker's hands. And that's lovely.

It's fantastic. But you have to be able to at least show the threat you can go downfield. So that's, to me, number one. You were in very early on the Cam Newton arm strength thing, and Panther fans, I remember on social media, railed against you saying it's not that big of a deal, as Carolina was 6-2 last year. But when did it really start?

When's the first time you looked at it and said, this could be a problem? Last training camp. And I think, though, I'm not convinced it was the health of his shoulder in training camp. I think perhaps it was more so, Norv, in his first year trying to convince Cam to get rid of the darn ball and get it to your frickin' playmakers. And it's something that Shula never was able to get Cam to do. So Norv, they just spent so much time last offseason trying to drill into Cam's head, get it to your playmakers, get it to your playmakers, get the ball out, get the ball out, and then every once in a while throw a nine-rout to Tori Smith. So they took those nine-routes and they took a lot of that out. And then when Cam had attempted in training camp or spring workouts, those two weren't even close to connecting.

So it was just really weird. So then once the season started, it's like, we haven't seen Cam connect on a deep ball in a long time. And then they went through that first half of the year and cleared the accuracy up, and it made a lot of sense. I like a lot of it, but every once in a while, you've got to be able to show the ability to go downfield.

So even at six and two, it's just like, well, okay, but in order to really win something, you still have to be able to go vertical. Like Drew Brees is one of the best quarterbacks of all time. He can't really throw downfield anymore beyond 20 yards, but when you have to, like he did on Monday night, to Ted Ginn, even though it was an underthrown ball, he's still able to do it accurately. So I think that's what we're still waiting on. I think he can do it.

What we saw in training camp is he's able to throw better than he was in my opinion at any time last year downfield. Now it's just, okay, that's seen in the game to make everyone feel a little bit more comfortable. It's National Video Game Day today, Bill. Do you have a favorite video game? Tech Mobile. All right. Who you rolling with?

San Francisco and then Path 3, because you can never stop it if you throw to the tight end. Excellent work. We'll see you in a little bit, Bill. Thanks for doing this. All righty. Good travel. Got it. Thank you. That's Bilbo Panthers Bill on Twitter. Tech Mobile. Not a surprising answer. When you were, what did it have been, middle school probably when Tech Mobile came out for you?

Around that time? Middle school, Tech Mobile, and then the even better sequel, Tecmo Super Bowl was my entire high school. Who's the team that you're rocking with?

You know, it's funny. Me and my friends, we actually played it like fantasy football. So like in Tecmo Super Bowl, you could actually trade players and actually create players.

Absolutely. So what we would do is we would pick, it was like six or seven of us. We'd pick one NFC team and one AFC team, and those are your two home teams. And then you could merge their rosters into one. And then we had like this system with money that you could buy players.

It was super complicated for a video game. Let's get Darren Botten here. Hey, Darren.

Darren. Yeah, come on. Come on in. Come on in. If you're over there. If he's around yet. Hey, Darren. Darren, we were just talking about Tecmo Super Bowl. Sharing already? We are sharing right now.

I was told 345. I know. Come on in. We were just talking about Tecmo Super Bowl.

We're full of surprises. The microphone's on. Okay.

Just get it adjusted real quick. Chill. Chill. Did you have a team that you played with in Tecmo Super Bowl back in the day? I was, yeah. No, I was big on the 49ers for whatever reason. Just like Bill. When I was younger.

Just like Bill Vov. I used Dallas and Oakland. Yeah.

Yeah. Tim Brown. Just as long as it wasn't Oakland. Yeah, it was Oakland. It was in Oakland. I mean, Bo Jackson.

It's just unfair. Well, not the first Tecmo Bowl. In the first Tecmo Bowl, we kind of outlawed using Oakland. Well, at the time it was LA. That's what I thought we were talking about.

It's like the modern Warriors with NBA 2K. Absolutely. You can't use them. 100%. All right. I'm looking at what Darren has in front of him right now, and he just walked in here. He has some topics. He's brought topics for Sharon today, which is new.

Look, man. Look, it's not baseball season. I mean, it's still baseball season, but in terms of Sharon, it's not baseball season anymore, because we're not doing throwback baseball. We need some newness with Sharon here. So I just got ideas.

There are some ideas and topics on your sheet of paper that are interesting. The way you're looking at the paper right now is just... We'll be sharing with Darren next. This is the Sports Hub. Are you ready?

At AM 600, AM 920. Now back to The Drive with Josh Graham. We are sharing with Darren, hot from the David Glenn show, and I'm going to be at Buck's Panthers later on tonight, traffic depending.

And so we've been spending a lot of time on the Panthers and Buccaneers. And Darren, he comes in here once a week. He swaggers in here complaining that we were talking to him a few minutes before what we usually do. And he has this piece of paper. He usually doesn't have topics that he's prepared to bring in. Usually he just bounces off what I'm doing because he's producing a show from noon to three. But today he's got topics, and I thought for sure we'd have Panthers Buccaneers things written down on this piece of paper. I know there are two things that you want to talk about right now. Cardboard cutouts written on a piece of paper in big letters, and also karaoke, which I imagine has led to you and Des doing something that was done behind my back, even though I posted it on my Twitter account yesterday that I went and sang karaoke.

Let's start there. Karaoke, is that what you want to get to here? I mean, I'm always interested in your karaoke exploits. You claim to have never done the same song twice.

I don't do that. What did you go with an evening ago? I sang three songs last night. Of course you did. Three songs. Not just one.

I sang Here Without You by Three Doors Down. All right. I did... Is that what I saw the Twitter video of? I don't know. I saw... No. Well, and you Snapchat me every Wednesday as well.

I do. Every Wednesday night. It doesn't happen every Wednesday night. Well, it's happened a few Wednesday nights over the last year or so. No, no, no, no. You snap videos of you doing karaoke occasionally, and otherwise I don't know if you're going to do karaoke.

So to me, it means you're doing it every time you go, so it just seems more frequent. You understand the optics there? I also did Numb by Linkin Park, which might have been the toughest song I've ever done. That sounds incredibly hard to do karaoke-wise. Yeah. Where's your Chesky voice? It got good. It got good. Ah! Yeah. That's pretty good. No, no, that wasn't no. I mean, for like... Ah!

Pick up some dub! You've got to be almost a little... And I do! So that song was one I did. And I did Lean On Me, because... That's the one I saw. This is... Right.

And added Hunter Ren. I know you have the audio, so just hit it. Just hit what happened last night. I know you have it. Here's a delightful treat for the triad.

Spinning all the hits, Josh Graham singing Lean On Me. Oh my God. A little pitchy there in the beginning. Woo!

Get insultful! I didn't know where we were starting. I was trying to sing along. How was the crowd, into it? Oh, they were into it.

It was better than Hunter Renfro. You're emotional. Give me that.

It's the only way to beat this, come on. Burying his soul. There were drinks involved. In fact, there's one in my hand in the photo.

Which is a good sign. Or in the video, I should say. Thank you for that.

That's well done. The best part of it, though, is when he does this little thing on the Lean On Me, and he tries to get this Christina Aguilera thing going on with his voice, where he's going like... Can you isolate that part? Yeah, yeah. Where is that? I heard no Christina Aguilera runs. I didn't hear any Christina Aguilera, but I did hear a lot of alcohol in my voice.

We're trying to isolate a part. That's it? That's all you need. That's like one key change. That's all right. Christina Aguilera would have been like...

It's almost like a cross between... Not comparable, no. It's almost like you're singing in a bar, but the bar is in a church. I was in a bar. Is that going to be a drop all day? What time of the evening was this when this happened? Let me see when the tweet was sent out. It was like instant. I have no... Can we get the receipt? Let me check the receipts real quick. I sent this out at 10.45.

10.45 on a Wednesday night in Winston. It wasn't a bad choice. I'd never sang that song before, and Hunter Renfro never got back to me. He might be busy. Maybe.

He might be doing stuff. Possibly. When it comes to karaoke, though, I thought it's always about crowd pleasing, whatever song you're going to sing. That song, I thought, would be a big hit, and it was. People know the words. It's a good one.

People were swaying and dancing around. It's a good one. People know it. 336-777-1600. Should I put out a cover album?

777-1600. Oh, gosh, no. Like Bronson Arroyo, Nickelback All-Star. No, no, no. No.

No. The other thing... What would your track list look like? Yeah, what would that look like? Quickly, let's run through your track list. Let's go through the track list.

Maybe a little Gavin DeGraw, some 60s Beach Boys, maybe, God Only Knows. Which Coldplay track would you put on there? Which four?

Which four? If I'm going a Coldplay song... I'd probably go with Yellow. That's a good karaoke song.

Yellow would be pretty good. I think I could pull that off. Rick James, Super Freak. I already had that written down. Track one.

That's you. That's bringing us in with a bang. Track one, and also a little bit of Lean On Me.

Lean on me. Maybe some Christina Aguilera. Genie in a Bottle, for sure. That's a good karaoke one. Next time I go sing karaoke, gonna do Genie in a Bottle.

You are allowed to send me that link. If you do Genie in a Bottle karaoke, send it on up. I got it at middle of the night last night, and I'm like, what is this?

And I flipped on it, and I was like, oh, it's this. I'd be willing to do, next time we are at odds on something, you believe something, and I'd be willing to do a Genie in a Bottle bet. Like in the four o'clock hour? If I lose, I'll sing Genie in a Bottle. If you lose, you can also sing Genie in a Bottle.

No, thank you. Actually, it's times like this that make me very, very happy that I've never sung karaoke before, because now this is on tape. Never once? This is on tape, man. Lean on me. Yeah, but then it's like, you were a youngin' far before Josh and I were. True. Hey.

There was a time when you could have done karaoke, and it would not have been documented for all of perpetuity. Oh, no. I'm pretty good about myself and... Lean on me. There's pictures of me out there with a jerry curl from the first grade.

No one has seen them. I want to. Yeah. I want to find out. So at Sports Hub Triad, we need to tweet that out. So that's the karaoke portion of things.

Lean on me. Darren also has cardboard cutouts written out on a piece of paper. This is topical. This is topical.

All right. It seemed to me that you got a gift in the form of... Multiple gifts. ... a cardboard standup. You over time have gotten multiple gifts recently. I have three cardboard standups in my home. Right. I have one, a former East Carolina football coach, Ruffin McNeil, who isn't even the last football coach East Carolina had.

That's two football coaches ago. And I didn't have a Christmas tree this year because I don't go through all that nonsense. So I had a girlfriend at the time who put lights on Ruffin McNeil, and I texted that to Ruffin.

He was very pleased that I had a Christmas Ruffin in my house. Didn't you say anything scared you one night when you came home? No, it scares my kitten though.

It scares the hell out of winning. I thought you said you came in one night, you weren't really thinking right. You opened the door, it was in the corner. Oh, that's true. That's happened before. Yeah.

For sure. So I had to move that thing around. Startled.

Is the word you're looking for. Another thing that happened. My brother went way over the top on Christmas one year. He got like an Alexa and like bought some jerseys and such. So I had to make it up to him. I thought I had to go big for Christmas.

So I went big, got like some expensive headphones, got some expensive, what I also got, I think like a speaker as well. And I'm expecting kind of something like that in return. And then he's like, Josh, I got your gift. It's in my bedroom.

This is in Los Angeles. So I go to his bedroom and he pulls out a Ron Weasley cardboard stand up cut out. And he says, this is your gift. Fantastic.

How am I getting this back to North Carolina? He's like, well, it folds up. So I put it in my suitcase and it made it all the way home. It's considerate of him. It was considerate of him.

He took that into account. But I would love just buying it a seat in the airport and on the plane. Just me sitting with the cardboard cut out. It'd be even better if I couldn't find a seat next to me.

It would be next to a stranger. This Ron Weasley cardboard cut out. Then last weekend I acquired on my way to Chapel Hill, family was getting rid of stuff. And I saw my grandmother had an old Dale Earnhardt senior cardboard cut out. And this hit.

Yeah. And so I put it in my car and it was great. I was riding around. People were looking like through the window and seeing in my back seat, just the Intimidator looking back at them.

And I could see them with strange faces. Why the hell does he have that? But now that's in my home, too. I have a cardboard cut out of Dale senior.

So go ahead, Des. I was just how do you get these? I just told you my grandmother was getting rid of stuff and I took it off her hands.

There's no place you can like, you can't find old cardboard cut outs. Apparently it was before he died and the person wanted it back after that. And my grandfather said, no, he's not getting rid of that. So Darren, why did you want to talk about this on the air again? I think I've explained lightly some of my upbringing on this program in the past.

My dad is a huge NASCAR fan. And growing up in the mountains of southwestern Virginia, we had at our house, this den area is what we called it. It was kind of like where we would hang out with friends when we were teenagers, that sort of thing. It's also where mom would let dad just be ridiculous when he needed to be ridiculous in the form of like collecting pretty obscure NASCAR memorabilia. The walls of this den area, Josh. Were lined, lined. How many are we talking with cardboard standups?

I'm saying there was not a patch of wall to be found where there was not either cardboard standup of a NASCAR driver or shoulders meeting of two cardboard standups. Really quick NASCAR driver. Do you have a favorite? Ricky Rudd in the Tide outfit.

That's amazing. You are listening to WSJS Winston-Salem, WCOG Greensboro, WPC in Burlington, WMFR High Point. And we're a little bit less than three hours from kickoff time. Panthers, Buccaneers and Charlotte.

I got to get running in a little bit. Somebody who has been running, I'm sure all week long with the short week, Joe Person covers the beat about as well as anybody for the Athletic Carolinas on Twitter. You can find him at Joseph Person joins us now from Bank of America Stadium. Joe, limiting the scope to just tonight and not looking long term.

What are you more concerned about? Cam Newton's feet or Cam Newton's foot specifically or his arm strength? Probably his arm strength. It just feels like it has not been the same since his first shoulder surgery of 2017. If you look at their downhill passing numbers the last couple of years, they have not been very productive. They only attempted one pass more than 20 yards last week.

That was a wheel route to Curtis Samuel that was incomplete. And Cam all week, and this is going to be a narrative for a while or unless he proves otherwise, he kind of deflected it by suggesting that reporters get in touch with the Tampa Bay defensive coordinator to see if they are preparing for Cam to throw anything longer than 20 yards. You know, Josh, this goes back to last year, but as I said, I think it actually, if you look a little deeper, goes back beyond that. And it doesn't mean they can't be successful, I mean, Jared Goff didn't really throw the ball deep last week. I mean, that is part of the changing NFL a little bit, and I think it's the trickle-up effect from colleges with the spread offenses and, you know, the days of like the Oakland Raiders and even North Turner and his air choreo.

It's just changing. You know, I still think they need to do that from time to time to keep defenses honest, but I don't know that you're going to just see a ton of it. We'll see. Do you know if Cam Newton's foot is right? Do we know that for sure?

Well, you know, you take them at their word, and he has not been on the internet for the last couple of weeks, the first couple of weeks. And so I feel like last week when we saw Cam only have one design run against the Rams, that that was not by accident, obviously, and I think they are trying to break him in slowly in terms of being a runner. It is a kind of a balance, a fine line that North Turner is straddling because, you know, you don't want to take away what makes Cam unique, and the running piece of it is certainly unique, especially in the form of, in the person of a 6'5", 250-pound gal. But you also, we saw what this offense can look like without Cam last year, and certainly week 17 was the ugly version. Kyle Allen beat the Saints in a meaningless game in week 17, as you know.

But the point being is, you want them to be healthy, but you don't want to just turn them into a pocket passer, and that's the line that North Turner is attempting to straddle. Do you view this game as a must-win for Carolina? Certainly as close as it gets to that in week two. I mean, you don't want to start, you know, it would be 0-2 with both of those losses coming at home, which is not a good thing. It would be one of those losses coming in the division, which sort of accounts for two. And it would be on the heels of that epic meltdown that they had in the second half of last season. So, I've seen the stats, I mean, the NFL ran them out again today, where, you know, over the last, maybe since 2002, 61% of the teams that have started 0-2 or 1-1 have ended up making the playoffs, and a bunch of teams did that last year.

But still, this is a game they really need to win, and frankly, they should win. Joe Persson with us here from The Athletic Carolina on Twitter, at Joseph Persson. You can find his work. He had a terrific story on Gerald McCoy earlier in the week that really profiled him. A new Carolina Panther, of course, who's getting set to face his former team. What stood out to you about Gerald McCoy's opener against the Rams and how he's been approaching this game facing the Bucks? What stood out to me is how much he stood on the sidelines and was not involved in the defense.

This is a guy, and I think we all expected some of that. Gerald McCoy played a lot of snaps at Tampa Bay. Like, they did not rotate him much, and he would play about three out of every four series, and if you look at his participation numbers, he averaged about 80 percent of the defensive snaps.

But just the last couple years, at age 29 and age 30, if you go back before that, I mean, there were some years he was up 85, 90 percent. Well, Eric Washington does not run his rotation that way. He likes to keep guys fresh, and Gerald McCoy said after the game, that's going to take some getting used to, and even Ron Rivera this week kind of said that they are going to look to get Gerald McCoy on the field more. That doesn't mean 80 percent of the time, I think he played 51 percent of the snaps last week. I don't think that's enough, and KK Short played a few snaps fewer than McCoy, so I get it.

It was a very hot day. Frankly, they're not catching much of a breakaway, otherwise tonight it's a hot night in Charlotte, but they've got, those two guys are Pro Bowl interior playmakers. Luke Kuechly said he called Gerald McCoy a problem, and you've got to get a problem on the field more often, so offense coordinators can try to solve it.

Let's flip lines, Joe. Greg Little, he is, he's cleared concussion protocol, he's been a full participant at practice this week, the rookie left tackle, they drafted in the second round this year. If Greg Little plays tonight, where and when might we see him?

Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, he's the backup tackle on both, really, probably both sides of the line, just because he's the third best tackle right now behind Darrell Williams and Taylor Moten. They, unlike the defensive line, John Matsko, offensive line coach for the Panthers, he does not like to rotate at all.

All of his guys played 100% of the snaps last week. That was good news for the Panthers, because as you said, they were without Greg Little, their top offensive tackle backup. So he, you know, might they try to get him a series? Maybe, but probably not. I think they're treating him a little bit like the way they're treating Will Greer, in that, yes, they drafted him high, but ideally, they'd like to develop him.

If it turns out that Darrell Williams starts playing poorly, or that knee, that surgically repaired knee flares up, well, then they're gonna throw Greg Little to the wolves. But they're, I'm sure, hoping that's not the case tonight. Last thing for you, Joe. It's National Video Game Day. Did you play video games when you were in college, when, maybe even after college, were you much of a gamer?

Yeah, you're definitely, that's a loaded question, because you're going to know exactly how old I am. I go back to, like, one Christmas as a kid getting Atari, and the Atari game system that came, by the way, with a free cartridge called Combat. One of the cool cartridges, one of the games I had for Atari was Journey Escape, where Steve Perry and his bandmates kind of came out of this, like, this UFO-type egg and were running around from bad people on Earth or maybe another planet. And then lastly, since you asked me about college, Techno Bowl. Are you old enough to know what Techno Bowl is?

Very cool. Come on, Techno Bowl. Come on, now. Were you playing with Bo Jackson, though, or was that off-limits? You know what? I liked running the Atlanta Falcons with Deion Sanders and Andre Robinson and that crowd.

They were kind of the bad boys under Jerry Glanville, and I guess I was tapping into my bad side circa 1991. That's awesome. Joseph Person on Twitter. That's where you can find him.

At Joseph Person and Rita Stuff, the Athletic Carolinas. I'll see you in just a little bit, Joe. Thanks for doing this. I was going to say, I look forward to seeing you at VLA real soon. Be safe on the drive.

Thanks so much. All right, brother. Techno Bowl.

Hmm. It was unfair to play with Bo Jackson. Nobody likes the guy who plays as the Golden State Warriors in 2K. Playing with Bo Jackson in Techno Bowl, it's just not fair.

You don't do it. He only had one play. There was only one play. I mean... And it was unstoppable. It was a sweep to the left or the right, and you just... It's like old Vince Lombardi. Let's throw the sweep, and then we'll have the pulling gar, and you hit it in the alley. Man, that first Techno Bowl, it seemed like every team had somebody on it, because the Bears still had Walter Payton, the Rams had Eric Dickerson.

See, I'm a young guy, and Joe acknowledged that there. But, Techno Bowl, are you kidding me? I used to love playing Techno Bowl. Best game ever. Best game ever?

Best football game ever. Easy. Yeah. No, no.

We were just discussing this. Best football game ever? I still go back to... I loved NFL 2K football. NFL 2K 4.

I think with the TO, one-handed catch on the cover 15 or 16 years ago. Yeah. That was great, because you had the Cribs in there. MTV Cribs was big at that time, so you could make your own Crib.

See, I'm about simplicity. And with Techno Bowl, I guess that's what it is. Also, NFL Street. NFL Street's as simplistic as it gets. It's just like pick-up ball.

You get to pick two players and then just roll with them. Ricky Williams was awesome, and you could jump on walls. That was like the... You're playing an alleyway. That was kind of like the NBA Jam version of NFL, but outside, I guess. Well, they tried to do NFL Blitz. Yeah, that's what... I remember that one.

I remember you can just jump on people. That would never fly in 2019. Nah, probably. CTE.

Yeah, it probably wouldn't. So much CTE in just one NFL Blitz football game. All the CTE in one NFL Blitz football game. The Drive brought to you in part by our friends at Twin Peaks Restaurant, Haynes Mall Boulevard, and Winston-Salem. You can find them, a great sponsor of the program, perfect place to watch Thursday Night Football. Panthers, Buccaneers, tonight. And then tomorrow, we have about this time tomorrow, we're going to be just getting ready for kickoff for North Carolina Wake Forest. A six o'clock kick tomorrow at BB&T Field, and we've got a big show lined up tomorrow with Stan Cotton, and we'll get you set for kickoff time for Wake Forest UNC. It's essentially going to be a pregame show for that game tomorrow, three to six leading up to that 6.05 or so kick at BB&T Field. But for now, Des, you think you can take control of the wheel for a second?

I need to get the hell out of here. Last time, I left it this time, about 10 minutes or so before the end of the show, and I got there at 7.35. But that was a miracle by God. It was, there was no traffic on 85, none.

Getting into a game, rush hour, Monday Night Football, no traffic when I got to 85. It was a Christmas miracle, literally. I don't think I'm going to get that lucky this time around. I think I need to go.

I would not depend on that happening twice. No. Lightning struck. I was about to say, what are you doing here? You need to get out of here.

All right. We got to get you a helicopter. We'll get the new GM on it.

Listen to the Best of podcast. I'm going to get out of here. Desmond's going to take it to the house and find some fun way to close the show. Don't burn this place to the ground. D.G.

has his babysitter guide when he hired babysitters, and he said, you know, if you teach them Swahili, awesome, that's bonus. Just don't burn the house down, OK? Just don't burn it to the ground. I mean, considering I'm here six days a week, I think it's in good hands. All right. I think it is, too. I'll be listening, for sure. We take it to the house next.