Movie Sequels

He's amused Cam Newton. He's been insulted by Charles Barkley.

He's interviewed Matthew McConaughey. And he's taken on Big Blue Nation. It's time for The Drive with Josh Graham. Happy Monday! You are on The Drive, WSJS, NewsTalk Sports for the Triad, where there are some cliches that are just insufferable.

Take. We're just taking it one day at a time. Okay, gotta write that one down.

Please, please expand on that. Then there are some cliches that are cliches because they carry some valuable wisdom in them. Staying present is one of those that I've thought a lot about personally this year, as I said my vows and got married back in June. Stay present.

Savor everything that's around you right now. If you're a Carolina Panthers fan, you should have savored every moment that yesterday was. Every moment of those two hours and 45 minutes, not even, where Carolina beat Tampa Bay 21-3. Because that was a special, memorable kind of win for your team. And specifically in the NFL, we get too caught up with the big picture I feel sometimes.

The reaction I saw was interesting. Oh, they're not going to be a playoff team. What does it even matter? They're not even tanking well enough. You might cost yourself a higher draft pick. Relax, you're going to get a top three pick still in the running to potentially be the worst team in the league. We don't do this as much in college football. College, as a result, has a more enjoyable regular season. It doesn't matter how bad Auburn is. Auburn can be 2-9. But when they play Alabama in the Iron Bowl, that 2-9 record doesn't really matter much.

College does that really well, week to week. I can guarantee you in the SEC, Tennessee, where I'm going to be this weekend when they host Kentucky. It didn't matter so much that they were 6th in the country and beat Alabama. If they beat Alabama and didn't have a win this year, they're still storming the field and it's just as significant to those folks. But we don't have that sense in the NFL.

And that interests me. The Carolina Panthers were the closest thing to a real underdog yesterday that you usually see in college and you almost never really see in the NFL. The margins between the best teams and the worst teams in the league, not as wide as you might think.

Or certainly not as wide as you see in some of these college matchups on a given Saturday. What we saw was a coach who wasn't supposed to be there with a running back or a couple of them, 2nd and 3rd stringers that weren't supposed to be getting those carries, and a quarterback who was a 4th string quarterback in camp behind a rookie they just drafted, behind Darnold and Baker who were competing for a starting job that was never supposed to play, who out-dueled the greatest quarterback in the history of the game. That's what we saw. The interim coach from Charlotte, App State grad, won. P.J.

Walker, I'm wearing my XFL Houston Roughnecks hat today, he won. Was better than Tom Brady yesterday. And the locker room had P.J.

's back. This was Shaq Thompson, one of the leaders of the team, with about as glowing an endorsement as you're going to find for a guy who, again, was a 4th stringer back in August. Understand man, we were undefeated when P.J. was playing.

P.J. brings a lot of energy to the team, to the offense, to this locker room, you know what I mean? And as you've seen it today, I was telling P.J. last week, man, to go talk to him, let him spin the ball. When I say spin the ball, I mean throw it. Throw it downfield and stuff like that. And you see what he can do, man. You see what this offense can do.

It was about as dominant and satisfying a win as it could be. They kept Tom Brady and Tampa out of the end zone without their two top corners. They didn't have J.C. Horn playing in this game, dealing with a ton of injuries.

No Jeremy Chin. They were missing a lot of guys, we know that. And they kept Tampa out of the end zone.

This offense scored more touchdowns in this game yesterday than their previous three games on offense combined. So enjoy it. It's confusing to me, seeing how the big picture can infiltrate staying present and enjoying what you just did. The idea that Panther fans would not enjoy beating that quarterback 21 to 3 because of a difference in one spot where you draft maybe next year when there are going to be a ton of quarterbacks it seems available. That is perplexing to me. That is funny to me. On Twitter at WSGS Radio, if you want it.

Will Dalton, the executive producer of this show. This isn't me subtweeting you or anything like that. I had this written out before I saw on your Twitter earlier today that you were ranting about the Panthers not tanking well enough. Listen, you're a Panther fan and you just beat Tom Brady 21 to 3.

I get it. And I'm trying to enjoy it. But a few more of those. You still play the Lions this year later. You still play the Seahawks. You still play the Steelers and Broncos. You get a couple more of those. Why do we do this in the NFL? Because that's how you get a quarterback.

I understand that. But in college there's this sense that you only get 12 of these and each weekend is so valuable, so precious. But since the NFL schedule has become so long and so stretched out it doesn't seem that people are enjoying what just happened as much as they probably should.

336-777-1600 being the phone number getting to college. I've got my ACC rankings that I'll share with you in about five minutes. Ever since Clemson's narrow win against Syracuse Saturday.

And I'll emphasize again. Narrow win. They won the game. The disrespect for the Tigers. And the ACC as a whole has been on full display.

And it's just a staggering thing to observe. Fox Sports' lead college football analyst, Joel Klatt, the Kirk Herbstreet, Kirk Herbstreet of that network tweeted this out earlier today. Does anybody think Clemson could actually win either division in the SEC or the Big East? Or excuse me, the Big Ten East? I think they can win the Big East. Do you think they could finish better than third in the SEC East or the Big Ten East? I don't either. And it falls in line with all the jokes that I saw on Saturday. A lot of them coming from the SEC media machine, SEC network, the Paul Fine bombs. Paul!

All those types. But the part that bothers me a ton. The reason Clemson's being mocked is because, the reason they're being called overrated is because they nearly lost to Syracuse. That's why they're getting buried in Mott. It wasn't because they simply benched DJ and brought in Cade Klubnick. They thought that should have happened in the first game against Georgia Tech.

They've been calling for that for a long time. So it's not about that. It's not about them being sloppy in this game. It's because they did those things against Syracuse, even though they had a 14 next to their name.

That does not matter to them. To most people in the country, they will not respect Syracuse. They will not give Clemson the credit that they deserve for the second best win we've seen in college football this year.

What's that? The first win is Tennessee beating Alabama a couple of weekends ago. Can't take that away from the volunteers. The second best win in college football was Clemson going into Winston-Salem to beat Wake Forest. That was the second best win in college football. Because Wake right now is currently ranked 10th, 10th in the eight people.

No one's giving them credit. Now, answer this question for me. If Wake Forest had beaten Clemson, slayed the dragon, so to speak, the same way Tennessee did to Alabama, would Wake Forest be ranked where Tennessee is right now?

Of course not. Ask yourself why that's the case. Why that's the case? It's not strength of schedule. Because again, the Atlantic Division, the part that Joel Klatt misses is that the Atlantic Division has two top 10 ranked teams and that it has more ranked teams than the SEC West and the Big Ten East.

But that doesn't matter. Oh, Clemson will finish third behind LSU who lost to Chex Notes FSU earlier this year. SEC teams simply aren't treated the same way.

Those teams can struggle and find a way to win and not be knocked for it. Georgia at Missouri. Ole Miss gets rolled as a top 10 team and gets LSU.

Is the narrative a word that I hate? That Ole Miss is overrated? No. How about the Tigers? They're actually pretty good. LSU.

You see the difference in how it's talked about? Alabama's probably the greatest example of this because they almost lost to Texas when Texas had their backup quarterback in the game when Quinn Ewers went down. They only scored 20 in the game.

They almost had more penalties than they had points in that game. They almost lost to Texas A&M. You know, the same Texas A&M team that lost to Appalachian State at home. Oh, but Josh, Alabama had their backup quarterback. So did A&M.

Okay. How about the fact that they lost to Tennessee and allowed 52 points in that game? In regulation. In regulation. Do I hear anybody saying, huh, what would Alabama do in the Big Ten East?

No! Because there's respect there, and I think it's deserved. I'm not saying Bama should be knocked that way.

That respect is deserved. That benefit of the doubt is deserved, and I think it's deserved for Clemson too because Clemson won two national titles in the last ten years. Other than Alabama, who can say that? Oh, nobody?

Got it. Six straight college football playoff appearances. Put some respect on their name. And this is what Steve Forbes was talking about during basketball season last year. Who does ESPN bring in on their national morning show get up when they talk college football at large? Oh, Paul Feinbaum.

Paul! And he'll just take shots at Jim Harbaugh and Dabo. When will he ever take shots at Saban? When will he fire shots at the SEC? Never.

Hell will freeze over before that happens. The SEC media mission, it seeped into basketball. Had people saying that the SEC was better than the ACC in hoops.

In hoops. Again, proven to be ridiculous when it mattered most in March. The disrespect for the ACC on full display, not just in the ESPN thing. Joe Klatt wears for Fox. It's real.

It's a real perception problem. But we'll talk about the ACC the way that it deserves to be talked about. I got my top ten rankings for this week. We call it critically acclaimed, which includes something regarding the ACC Big Four that I don't think I've seen before.

That's next on The Drive. Before we get to the ACC rankings this week, I've got a really neat, local, personal angle to Panthers Bucks yesterday that I'd like to share with you. My favorite highlight of yesterday's game, my favorite video, let's say, was not one of the three touchdowns that Carolina scored. Wasn't anything that I shot in the locker room.

Locker room sound later on this hour. But no, it was something sent to me by my buddy Luke, who lives in Winston-Salem, and it was on the field in pregame warmups where Tom Brady came up to my friend Luke and his wife, Ruthie, and their small child, Josiah, to say hi and spend some time with them. And I thought that was really cool. Now, why did Tom Brady do that?

Here's a pretty local tie. Well, Ruthie's father is Bucks quarterback's coach, Clyde Christensen, and Clyde Christensen is a Carolina alum. Was part of the North Carolina football program a handful of years ago. So seeing Tom do that, that's a really neat deal. Josiah apparently has gotten some FaceTime calls from Tom Brady over the last year or so, which is a really neat thing, too. Luke and Ruthie are fantastic people. I know Luke listens to this show quite a bit, part of the problem of being a friend with Josh Graham.

He makes his friends listen to the radio show. That's terrible, I know. But great people, part of my church family, and yeah, fantastic folks, and love to see that Tom Brady did that yesterday. Now let's get to the college football rankings, 1 through 10, because we don't bother with the bottom five, or I guess bottom four. Basketball season's almost here, where you got 15. Let's get things started with... Number 10. Georgia Tech. I know.

This is gross. But who would you put here? Miami?

I don't think you could do that. Georgia Tech belongs in this spot for this reason. If Jeff Simms is healthy, they're worthy of being the top 10 team in the ACC.

Maybe even belong higher than this. We saw how bad it can look when Jeff Simms is not in the lineup, when they played Virginia in prime time on Thursday night. That last play probably still haunting Coach Key's dreams, where he doesn't even throw the ball up, just runs out of bounds as the clock expires. Tech starts us off.

Number 9. We'll go Pitt Panthers here. The Panthers still have a winning record. Pat Narduzzi deserves some credit for keeping Pitt in the mix. Pretty big game this weekend. Pitt going to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina. Pitt lost over the weekend to the team that is next on this list. It was a hashtag GoACC classic. It was a coastal game, even though Louisville's not in the coastal. If you followed the sleeve long enough, you know exactly what that means.

What I mean by that. Pittsburgh at number 9. Number 8. Louisville. They won the game. Kind of like what we were talking about with Georgia Tech.

They're a different football team when Malik Cunningham's healthy. And Scott Satterfield isn't fired yet. They're going to fire him, right?

Seems like they might. No, they're going to, but then again, they also have a winning record. They're now sitting at 4-3 and got the big win at home against Pitt.

Number 7. Got to put Duke here. The Blue Devils are good. They are the second best team in the coastal.

I'll listen to any argument you have for somebody else. But Duke, one and one big. They left no doubt going into Miami. 45-21?

Come on. That's five wins for the Blue Devils now. One away from bowl eligibility. Riley Leonard, he didn't turn it over at all. Miami had eight turnovers, which I'll give credit to my buddy Joe Ovias, who does radio in Raleigh. He said it was perfect symmetry from the Duke-Miami game with the octolaterals, the eight laterals that Miami scored on the final play on. Remember that kickoff that they scored the touchdown on? And it was just a disaster because it was poorly officiated.

This was just justice for that. Eight turnovers for Miami. Duke, 45-21 winners. That game you heard right here on WSJS over the weekend.

Number 6. Florida State. They didn't play this weekend.

Not going to punish them for that. I don't know. Pretty close. Florida State, Duke, and the team we're going to get to next.

I think that's a full-on tier. Those three. And I'll tell you who the last of the three is right now.

Number 5. NC State. Another team on a bye. The offense isn't good. We'll see what Jack Chambers has drawn up for him coming out of the bye week. That coming at a decent time for NC State, but the defense is good enough and I still think if they don't turn over the football, they can win some games coming down the stretch. They might be a dangerous football team.

Their experience. I love Tanner Engel in that secondary. Peyton Wilson. That defense is great.

I don't know how to put an order. Florida State, NC State, and Duke. But that does feel like a middle tier for me. Can't really bump them up higher and it doesn't feel right to lump them into the same group as Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Georgia Tech.

Number 4. Syracuse. I don't think they were great Saturday. Clock management certainly wasn't good. Sean Tucker only having a handful of touches in the game doesn't make a lot of sense. But Clemson didn't just throw it away for no reason. Syracuse made them do that. Their defense is legit.

Tucker is legit. Their play calling really good. They got Virginia Zosie from last year, which might be a big part of the reason Armstrong hasn't looked the same, and Garrett Shraders looked like the third best quarterback in the ACC thus far. Syracuse is a good football team. Don't listen to what Joel Klatt and others say.

Number 3. I have North Carolina slightly ahead of Syracuse. Offensive upside. Mack Brown Hall of Fame coach. The talent on defense, the defense is getting better as the season goes on.

I think this is a team that's trending in the right direction. Syracuse, it's hard to say. I need to see what they do actually getting a decent road win this year. Remember, that trip to Clemson was their only road game, was their second road game. The first was going to UConn, which doesn't really count.

Number 2. Got to be Wake Forest. This feels like another tier in its own right. I think it's the top two that are the elite of the ACC. The next two, which are top 25 caliber teams. I know NC State's still ranked, but hard to imagine they're going to be much longer with their quarterback situation. You got those next three and then the bottom group of critically acclaimed thus far. Wake Forest, we'll talk more about them in a few minutes, but easily number 2.

Number 1. And Clemson, if they win the rest of their games, and I suspect they will, they're going to make the college football playoff. Their strength of schedule is good enough for that. Their reputation, what they've earned, the benefit of the doubt they've earned, they should be there and they are going to be there if it happens.

No ifs, ands, or buts. It did not look great at points on Saturday, obviously, but every team goes through that. Even the really, really, really good ones like Clemson.

That's critically acclaimed for this week. And note, I don't know the last time I've been able to say that all four teams of the ACC Big Four make up the top half of the ACC. I had Duke at seven, could have put them at six. They might end up being a top five team by the end of the year. You got State, you got Carolina, you got Wake Forest. I don't know the last time I've been able to say the top half of the ACC includes all four of the ACC Big Four and three of them currently ranked in the top 25.

It's pretty cool. Places, everyone. Come on, places, please. We're ready. Get your morning off to a great start with Jeffrey Griffin on Triad Today.

Weekday mornings at 7. Now back to the drive with Josh Graham. The Carolina Panthers winners against Tampa Bay and Tom Brady 21 to 3. 21 to 3. When the Falcons are up 28 to 3, they don't beat Tom Brady. When the Panthers are up 21 to 3, the score stays 21 to 3.

Don't look now. Carolina, one game back in the NFC South, 2-0 in NFC South games. And who they got next week? The last of the three NFC South teams they have, they haven't played yet. The Atlanta Falcons, who they have two of their next three games. The latter end of that being in Charlotte, Thursday night football on a short week.

That's also Carolina's next home game. We've got locker room sound after the win against Tampa. Brian Burns has talked about for years, plural, not an exaggeration, that he wants to sack Tom Brady.

And he hasn't been able to sack Tom Brady to this point until he finally got home yesterday, which I had to ask him about in his response and what happened later in the conversation. Worth your time. So how did it feel to finally get there? Oh, s***. I couldn't even do my damn pose because I was so excited. I just started screaming. That's how you do it. That's how you run. That's how you run. That's how you run. That's how you run. That's how you run. That's how you run.

When's the last time you saw it like this in here? Like this? That's how you run. From now on, that's how you run.

I don't know. I don't think it's ever quite been like this. That's how you shoot. You would have thought you were going to the damn Super Bowl. How do you celebrate a win like this? I told you.

You're going to find me home in my room drinking Hennessy. I'm going to switch it up and I'm going to watch Rush Hour. Rush Hour 2 to be exact. Why Rush Hour 2? I love that.

I love that movie. It's better than the original? Than the first one? Yes. Interesting. I don't know what the best part of that is. Yeah. I just hear the first five seconds of this again.

How did it feel to finally get there? That's it. It was like he was going to curse, caught himself, and then just decided to curse anyway.

He does curse. Quite a bit. It happens. It's like when I look at young people doing something. College kids. It's starting to get cold. And you see like freshmen in college.

Like the girls wearing practically nothing going to the Wake football game. Getting too old for this. Then he said that Rush Hour 2 is better than Rush Hour. Which I looked up.

Apparently, most people agree with that. Has me thinking, what sequel is better than the original? I feel like the Austin Powers sequel is better than the original. WD, you could just sit out of this conversation. No, no, no.

Empire Strikes Back. That's true. I didn't even think of that. Yeah.

That's one of the old times. That's a great one. It's excellent. I'm thinking about Scary Movie 2. I don't know why I'm sticking on comedies.

Maybe Godfather 2? Let's go to Stuart in Greensboro. Stuart, welcome to my domain after the Panthers win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

What's going on? Who would have thought that the Panthers would have beaten Brady after this past week? Who would have thought that the woeful Redskins would have beaten the Packers without their starting quarterback? Incredible. One thing I want to say, you said we don't know if sportscasters know how well they're doing. I'm here to tell you, you've got the NSMA, and as a retired NSMA person in the industry, I voted for you for North Carolina Sportscaster of the Year.

Hey! That's my reaction. Yeah, that's it. Thank you for doing that, Stuart.

Yes indeed. You're like the one person. You're like me voting for Pittsburgh last year. You're the one guy to vote. There you go.

Thanks for the call, Stuart. That's a really nice thing to say. It would be really cool to win that award sometime. Hey, keep at it. Dave Goren, just rig it.

Do that. I mean, I don't think you're that far off. Dan Patrick said rig it, and then he won the year after.

He got inducted to the Hall of Fame. Hmm, not a coincidence. Cannery? I don't know. This probably isn't the way to win that award. If you want someone to rig it, don't suggest that there's rigging that happens. Oh, s***.

336-777-1600. Sequels that are better than the original. While I think about that more, I thought this was pretty cool. On National Tight Ends Day, the Panthers Tight Ends, W.D., did you see what they were wearing when they showed up?

I didn't. They were dressed wearing jerseys of former Panther tight end greats. Now that's cool.

Greg Olsen, Wesley Walls, but then they got deep cut. Chris Mangum, Jeff King. You know I'm related to Jeff King. What?

Yeah, that's my aunt's cousin. Not to be confused with Jeff King. Tommy Trimble knew that touchdown pass was coming. Why?

Because I asked him. First off, happy National Tight Ends Day. Yes, sir. Thank you.

It's a good one. How do you celebrate a win and happy National Tight Ends Day? You know, I think really celebrating with the team. It's a great team win. All of us were trying this entire week to really just focus on the game, the outside noise and everything. And so really we just went in and prepared our butts off for this game.

So coming out with the win, it really was nothing better. Did you know that ball was coming to you on the touchdown? BJ told me last night that I was, so I had a feeling. Tell us about that conversation. When did that happen?

No, we were just hanging out last night at the hotel having a good conversation and stuff like that. And I was like, if you're going to throw it up, man, throw it up. And he did. This, getting this Terminator 2 better than the original Terminator. Brian Burns, your thoughts on that? John Dell, Top Gun Maverick better than Top Gun. NASCAR Junkie writes in Bad Boys 2 is better than Bad Boys 1.

Brian Burns might be quoting that movie there. Then I had a chance to catch up one on one with DJ Moore after he had a touchdown catch yesterday. How simple is it when the offense doesn't turn over the ball, you guys are able to have wins like this? To win an eternal battle is part of our game plan. You know, probably across the league is part of the game plan for everybody.

And when you don't turn the ball over, you got a high percent chance of winning. How crazy have things been, we've seen it on our end, but inside the locker room when you have Christian at practice on Thursday, he's not here today and you guys still figure out a way. But what the last 72 hours been like? It's been crazy.

I love the Christian, you know, I don't understand Fran, but we still had to go get the job done as we did today. And I'm just going to try to keep it rolling. How do you celebrate a win like this? You can't get too high on it because you still got to come back and win next week. So you're going to soak it in and then come back to work on Monday. It's a 24 hour rule, right?

No, it ain't no 24 hour rule because it's still a business. You can't live off this win for too long. What was your level of confidence that you got both feet on the first one, the touchdown? Very confident.

And I was very confident on the sideline too. How about it? These might be the two best submissions that I have thus far. One that I thought of as DJ was talking there, talking about the best sequels and movie history.

Somebody writes in, wish I have the name, but don't have it in front of me. Lethal Weapon 2. But I defy you to come up with a better option. You might actually have me with Empire Strikes Back, but that doesn't feel right when there's a hundred million Star Wars movies. Yeah, but that was the original sequel.

I get that. Of a trilogy. Can you top me though, if I come out of the box with Dark Knight?

Oh, that's a good one. You've seen Dark Knight, right? I actually have seen Dark Knight. Making sure.

I don't need you coming through that glass or anything. If you hadn't, you watch any movies this weekend? Watch Heat? Nope. I thought about that though today.

Like I was, you know what? I still got to do that. You don't get credit. No, you don't.

For thinking about doing things. No. You don't get credit for that. Last call. 336-777-1600 if you want in on the best sequels. Our World Series matchup is set. Astro's Phillies. Oh, I'm sorry, Siri. Siri wants in on this conversation. Didn't see that coming off the top rope.

Siri. Philly might be Sports Town USA right now. Which city has more good things going on in their city than what they have in sports? The Phillies were underdogs in all three series they've played thus far.

Won all three. The Eagles are the only unbeaten team in the NFL. The Sixers look really good.

We know Joel Embiid is their best player, but James Harden has played the best early on this season. So they're going to be really good. And MLS. They're in the final four.

The Union of Philadelphia. So I defy you in addition to finding a better example of a better sequel than Dark Knight to find a better sports town right now that has more going their way. This game looks like a lost cause for Carolina. Christian McCaffrey has been the Panthers offense. Remember building an offensive game plan with Christian McCaffrey at the center and he practiced wins and he practiced yesterday. And then suddenly he's not there on Friday.

How do you recover from that? You don't have McCaffrey or Robbie Anderson now nor Baker nor Donald so you can't run it and you can't throw it now. I don't think Carolina scores an offensive touchdown again. So I think Tampa wins this game 31 to 6. You didn't see it coming either. If you hosted a sports radio show, the same thing would have happened to you. But I'll wear it.

I'll wear it 31 to 6. I actually said that and Carolina won by 18 points. Some beaten content when the host says a dumb thing and then has it played back for him.

The dumb thing that he says. Now let's get to some smart analysis, if I should say so myself, NFL football. It's not just the Panthers that played yesterday.

We'll get back to the Panthers in about 10 minutes or so. Non Panthers grades for the NFL yesterday. We call it Graham's grades.

Right now, every week is a test for your favorite sports teams who passed the test. If one of y'all says some silly ass name who dropped the ball, I don't know. Josh Graham has the answers.

I think you're very condescending and I know it all. Graham's Grades, A through F. Excluding the Panthers from this because we've spent enough time on the Panthers, there was plenty else that's happened to the NFL that we need to talk about starting with A, the Kansas City Chiefs. A great bounce back from the home loss to the Buffalo Bills. They were down 10 to nothing and erased that lead pretty quickly. I saw a stat that Patrick Mahomes has had several instances of being down double digits and still finding ways to win. In fact, he has won 60% of the games that he trailed double digits in with minimum 20 starts in the NFL. That is about 20 percentage points is better than Tom Brady, who's second in that department of having wins when you trail by double digits.

Not only did they win the game, they won it by a ton, dropping 45 on a really good defense. It feels like a two team race in the AFC. It's Kansas City and it's Buffalo. They might be the two best teams in the NFL.

In fact, I feel pretty comfortable saying that. In the NFC, we'll see if San Francisco can't elevate to Philadelphia's level eventually. Philadelphia right now is the front runner in that conference, obviously, but the Chiefs for yesterday in A. B, the New York Giants.

What a finish to that. Jacksonville had it. If they score a touchdown and hit an extra point, they win the game and Christian Kirk catches it at the goal line, stopped a half yard short, not even that, of getting into the end zone and potentially winning the game. Daniel Jones with a long drive, his best drive as a giant to put the Giants in front in the fourth quarter. New York is now 6-1 on the season. That's about as good a feeling as you're going to have as a football player going on the road, winning a dramatic game and looking at your record, 6-1 thus far. That's a really good win for the Giants.

C The New York Jets. They are 5-2. They won on the road, too. They beat the Denver Broncos. It was a meh game, but they won.

Should be more than a C, right, Josh? Bryce Hall went out in that game, and we learned today he has a torn ACL. He's going to be out for the remainder of the season. He looked like the front runner for Rookie of the Year. He's been awesome for the Jets so far, former Iowa State Cyclone. You lose, Bryce Hall, but you win the game.

It's a mixed bag of emotions. So the Jets come in as a C this week. D The Green Bay Packers. It's Taylor Heineke beating Aaron Rodgers. It's Washington we're talking about. Then again, Washington's now 1-2 in a row, and FCE is looking pretty good.

And this is far from a surprise at this point. It's not an F, because Green Bay lost to the Giants in London. Last week, lost it home by a ton to those New York Jets.

We should know better by now. And next Sunday night, Sunday Night Football, a game that'll be here on WSJS, the Packers go to Buffalo. It's the first time in Aaron Rodgers' career he's starting a game that he's a double-digit underdog in.

They are 10.5-point dogs, or at least that's where it opened up at. Green Bay, it's a D. F Chargers. I understand it's a short week, but you're 4-2, you get the win against the Broncos on Monday night, you're at home, and you get blown out by double digits by Seattle? It should have been worse. You scored a touchdown with three minutes left to go in this game on a fourth downplay that you only got because Seattle barely jumped offsides to give you a second crack at it.

This was Seattle by a ton. No idea what to make of the L.A. Chargers. 336-777-1600 if you want in on the show, like Joey in Thomasville wants in on the show right now. Joey, what do you have?

Hey, listen, Josh, I want to get to the reason why I called in, but before I do that, I just heard your grand's great. I want to give my Washington team a B-plus because they did beat the Green Bay Packers. It's a B-plus for them. It's certainly a D for the Packers.

Do you know, we play the Colts next week, so we have a chance to get to.500, and who knows? But listen, the reason why I called in, that bit that y'all just put together with the there behind it and you calling the Panthers to my eyes and I'm like, you're a stand-up guy, man. You're a stand-up guy. That's why I absolutely, positively love this show. I listen to it every chance I get.

I really enjoy what y'all do, and I appreciate what y'all do. But Joey, real quick, it is... I don't know why you just played that piece of sound, but it does...

It is... I make fun of myself to allow myself the opportunity to spike the football. How bad would it be if I only spiked the football when I get the pit train right, choo-choo, and I look like I get North Carolina to win the Coastal Division right?

That's not fun, is it? Well, if you do, as a Carolina fan this year, if you do get it right, then next year I want to hear your prediction, and then I'm laying down a future set, buddy. There may be a few listeners of this show who already did that with Carolina, and those people will be rewarded handsomely. Thanks for the call, Joey.

That's really nice. Yes, sir. There he goes.

Joey in Thomasville. You're not going to use that laugh for future use, right? Because you just said that? Yeah, I think I might have to throw it in the basket. Don't think it's a good enough drop, personally. There you go.

Oh, I heard it. Sometimes you just throw things in there. Yeah, just the randomness of it. Does it make sense?

It's not supposed to, is the point. All right, then. I used to, people used to make fun of my laugh all the time. I remember one time I was at the Wyndham, and a listener came up to me during a commercial break at the show, and she just said, hee, hee, hee. I mean, has your laugh evolved, because it don't sound like that now.

Maybe it has, or maybe you guys just aren't funny anymore, and haven't made me belly laugh at all that type of way. Yeah, I mean, you do. It's such a primal laugh that I used to have, but what was funny about it wasn't that she explained what she was about to do. She just did it, and everybody on the show around me knew what she was doing, and that's the part where it hurts. If somebody does an impression, and they know what the impression is without it being explained to them.

That's true. That's good work on your part, no notes. Let's go to the radio voice of your Carolina Panthers, Aneesh Raffit joins us now in Winston Salem, Greensboro, in the greater Piedmont Triad area. When you call games, Aneesh, you're sitting next to Jake the Loam, and you're sitting next to Luke Kuechly, who I saw you up there with yesterday. So as this is playing out in real time, Carolina 21, Tampa Bay 3, what element of the game was most surprising to you, and the two Panther greats sitting next to you?

All of it. I mean, let's not kid ourselves, it felt like this was the upside down. When you think about all the variables at play going into the game, you've got Tom Brady, and I know the Bucks offense isn't what it was the last couple of years, but they still have the greatest quarterback of all time. Seven Super Bowls, countless passing records, right?

Still going at 45. So you got Tom Brady against PJ Walker, making his fourth career start. PJ Walker, who threw what, one pass downfield last week, PJ Walker, who threw for 60 yards last week, PJ Walker, who was really the fourth string quarterback in camp and probably doesn't even make the roster, maybe a practice squad practice squad guy at best if everybody's healthy. So you got PJ Walker out playing Tom Brady didn't see that one coming.

You have the best rushing performance of this season. A couple of days after you traded Christian McCaffrey didn't see that coming. You're down your top two defensive backs, Jeremy chin and a JC horn, and you hold Tom Brady and that Buccaneers offense without a touchdown didn't see that one coming either. Just everything about that game and you almost saw it early when Mike Evans dropped that wide open touchdown, you're thinking, Hey, is this the week the Panthers actually get a couple of breaks, they get a couple of things to go their way and that's how it ended up playing out and then, you know, they kind of took advantage of that early. And again, on paper, this is a game where you're thinking they've got no business winning this game.

And not only did they win, they dominated a nice rough with us here. One of my favorite things to do college basketball seasons right around the corner is sitting next to scouts. When I go to games at Duke or Carolina guys who used to play and they'll just point out what's about to happen right before it happens or when something happens, they'll tell you exactly why that was in real time and watching Tom Brady struggle the way that he did. I kind of lamented that I was at the game and didn't get a chance to listen to Jake Delome, a former quarterback, talk about why he might be struggling and the guy who might have been the best guy I've ever seen of figuring out things in real time defensively, Luke Kuechly, during the broadcast, did any of those guys pinpoint anything that you think best explains why Tom Brady had those struggles or did Tom just, you know, have a bad day or both? Well, listen, one thing we got to remember is 45.

Maybe somebody found the picture in the attic and the devil's here to collect. So you might have that. The other part of it, if we're being honest, is the interior of his offensive line is not good and Panthers pushed him around. He's got no running game. The bucks have the worst rushing offense in the NFL, but when you have to get rid of the ball as quickly as Brady does to avoid sacks and he hasn't taken a lot of sacks and he gets the ball, he gets rid of the ball quicker than any other quarterback in the NFL.

Part of that is to compensate for an old line that can't hold blocks very long. So what does that do it limits the effectiveness of anything downfield and you know, they had a couple of plays laid. Mike Evans certainly dropped one, you know, they hit some against soft zone coverages, but they're so limited in what they can do offensively. And then they got guys that are, that are banged up a little bit in the receiving core. Godwin wasn't a hundred percent Julio Jones is now old and didn't even play Evans did not have a great first half. They don't have the same pass catching tight ends as they once did. State was out.

So when you factor all that in and then Tom Brady missed some throws, he could have easily thrown two, three interceptions in that game. It was a perfect storm, a perfect storm for the Panthers. Aneesh, how has it been working the double duty schedule?

You do college football on Saturdays for ESPN, in addition to being the radio voice of the Panthers. I'm getting used to it. You know, I won't lie the first couple of weeks. There wasn't so much as, Oh my God, how am I going to do this? It was just the anxiety that one gets from traveling in 2020, 2022, when you hear about delays and flight cancellations and you have this anxiety about, okay, how am I going to get from point A to point B? And then after you do it for a couple of weeks, you say, okay, I'll, I'll figure it out. You know, had a couple of flights get canceled on me here and there. You rebook, you adjust. So you kind of have to go through it and I've talked to Dave Pash who does ESPN college football. And then he does the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Bob was shoes and does the same thing with the Jets, West Durham with the Falcons.

So those guys did the same thing to me. You know, it'll probably take you a season, at least a half season to get adjusted. And I kind of feel I'm there now. Figured out the sleep schedule, where, when I need to get my rest. I'm, you know, maybe a little more in tune with that than I used to be making sure, Hey, if I got time in the hotel on a Thursday or a Friday night, go get your sleep, get your rest instead of going out for the late dinner, because that'll help you on Sunday.

A couple of college things on the way out with Aneesh Raff, who joins us here. I've seen two spectrums to the Clemson conversation since Saturday. I've seen one side say, well, they deserve the benefit of the doubt blindly. And if they win all their games and they're probably going to, they're in the college football playoff, they're a legit national title contender, which I don't think might be the best way to look at it.

But then I see on the other side, and I don't think this is smart either. Smart people say, you know, this team would be third place in the SEC West and this team might be in third place in the Big Ten East, which seems a bit disrespectful given the history with Dabo and what this program's accomplished. It was a tight win against Syracuse.

What's the fairest way, you think, to assess Clemson? Did Syracuse have a number in front of its name? Yeah, pretty high one.

Yeah, number 14, right? So is it a sin that Clemson didn't blow out the number 14 team in the country? No.

You know, I just think sometimes narratives are skewed. I think the ACC, frankly, needs to do a little better job of messaging. You know, take LSU Ole Miss. I mean, is anybody saying, hey, Ole Miss is garbage, they're trash after getting blown out by an unranked LSU team? No. But we're hearing Clemson's overrated for surviving a Syracuse team that was ranked 14th in the country that had been playing defense at an elite level and that has one of the best running backs in the country that they probably should have used more on Saturday. You know, I think it's a little unfair. Do I think this Clemson team is as good as the ones that were routinely going to national championship games and getting into the college football playoff? No. But are they still good enough to get it in the playoff?

Yeah, absolutely. So to me, it's just status quo, really. Clemson handled the top 15 team at home and the top 15 team gave you a tough game that shouldn't be a, oh, wow, why didn't they blow out Syracuse by 40 points? This isn't a three and nine Syracuse team. At the root of it is laziness, where people say they just see that name and they think they don't care that a number's next to it. They don't buy into it because they haven't watched Syracuse. And it's also the same reason why Clemson doesn't get credit for having what I believe to be, other than Tennessee's win against Bama, the best win that anybody's had in college football this year, given where Wake Forest is still ranked at number 10, Clemson doesn't get the same credit for winning that game the way they did in Winston-Salem because again, it's air quote, Wake Forest. That's my sense of it.

Yeah. And I think there is some truth to that. I would love to say, hey, that's just, you know, you guys in the Piedmont Triad, but there is some truth to that. Wake Forest is a good football team.

And guess what? They've been a good football team under Dave Klassen now for some time. They pushed Clemson to the brink. It's an older team. It's a talented team. They've got a lot of veterans on there, a lot of fifth and sixth year guys. They red shirt, they use the COVID year, you know, and I remember the narrative coming out of the game.

Wow. Clemson's, you know, DBs are so bad and well, what about Wake Forest scheme? What about the slow mesh and what about, you know, their talented group of wide receivers and the quarterback? Sometimes you got to get the other team credit. Wake Forest is a bonafide top 15 team right now, Syracuse up until this point, look like a bonafide top 20, you know, maybe they weren't top 15 good, but certainly they were deserving of being in the top 20 and they almost beat Clemson and maybe with better game management and clock management and more use of your all American running back. They could have won that game. And then what, what's the narrative then is it, Oh, well, the ACC is done because hey, Clemson's out. Um, and we're not even going to give Syracuse credit for beating Clemson. So it kind of frustrates me a little living in ACC country to constantly hear that narrative reinforced. Aneesh, I'm going to let you rest the pipes because I know you had college football and I know you had the NFL and an exciting game yesterday. Best of luck with your future travels and thanks so much for making the time in the Piedmont Triad. You got it, Josh, say button.