Extreme Makeover: Panthers Edition

After a full weekend of ACC football and the National Football League, we welcome you into a Monday drive. Carolina Panthers opened with a 34-30 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders yesterday. But when you have a first-year coach and you're not really expected to be a playoff team, does the score really matter ultimately? To me, it doesn't tell the story.

Development does. And the Panthers, they exceeded my expectations yesterday. I think the rebuild's off to a good start. Think of the Panthers' rebuild like building a house. Anybody who's done it on their own before they can test, it takes great patience and organization in order to do it right.

And the same goes for football. The Panthers, they have the right people leading the rebuild. They have the builder, they have the architect, they have the subcontractors. Matt Ruhle, he's the one kind of orchestrating everything. His track record is good. You consider, it took time, but he rebuilt Temple that was irrelevant for nearly two decades into a perennial power in the American Athletic Conference.

Then he did it again. One of the worst football jobs college or pro to take was the Baylor Bears' job. Nobody thought he should have taken it. They win one game the first year. Then they are a play away from going to the college football playoff a year ago. Joe Brady was in that college football playoff, had the most prolific season any coordinators ever had in college football. He turned Joe Brady into, Joe Burrow, excuse me, from a six-round-grade quarterback into the number one pick. Joe Burrow really getting robbed yesterday. Great drive at the end of the game. Then the kicker hooks it right. He's grabbing his hamstring. It's a great move, Robert, for the kicker to do that, right?

I hope he's okay, but even if he isn't, that's probably the best move. Hook it right, grab the hamstring so that way people are feeling bad for you rather than yelling at you on Twitter. It's almost like if you get a foul in basketball and then you've lay down there for just a little bit.

It's kind of like you get a pass because he's hurt. I'm getting sidetracked, so if I have a bad segment today, I'm just going to start reaching for my jugular. It's like, ah, I just don't got it. I need some water. I need some honey. Help. A lozenge, anyone? Run down the street, go to the Traveling Bean.

I think they actually call it Kyle's Coffee now in Kernersville. I need, I need a little bit of, I need a little bit of something. Been a long weekend.

We're getting a bit sidetracked. Teddy Bridgewater, he's the guy you want at quarterback running this team. 65% completion. No turnovers. And remember we thought he couldn't throw the deep ball? Looked pretty good on that outside cut to Curtis Samuel.

And then of course the bomb to Robbie Anderson. Those are the three most important people in that building and they exceeded expectations for me. But going back to the house analogy, they've got great materials on discount. Like my mom, she built our house that I grew up in from the ground up and did the same thing for the pool that we had out front. And she even built a house for my grandmother, which it's just an incredible thing.

My mom's an incredible person, but I just remember her telling me, hey, building a house. Tell you what, I'm not going to hire a builder because here's what they're going to do. They're going to bring in, they're just going to, it's going to cost you so much. And they're going to bring in the most top of the line material for the cabinets and for the showers and for the flooring. And you're going to get screwed that way.

A little bit of housing intel for you there. Carolina, they've got younger players and good parts, good materials on discount. Robbie Anderson, really good. A buck 15 in the game. He has a built-in relationship with Matt Ruhl, dating back to their temple days. Teddy Bridgewater and Robbie were together briefly with the Jets before Teddy was traded.

And they both lived in South Florida during the lockdown. So they were able to get together and throw the ball around a little bit. It seems the chemistry is a little bit further ahead with Robbie in terms of Teddy than DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel right now. Rasul Douglas, a week ago today, the Panthers picked them up off waivers. He was good when Dante Jackson went down with an injury. Some of the rookies, I thought Derrick Brown was really disruptive. Jeremy Chen had a key tackle in space at the goal line that forced the Raiders into three.

These are all good things. These are the things we should be focusing on rather than end of the game, some of the mistakes that might happen, like that fourth and one not going Carolina's way. Because three things you need to remember when you're building a football team, rebuilding a football team, and I guess even building a home. It takes time, you'll make mistakes, and it's going to look rough before it looks better. This is a young team that needs to learn how to win games.

Mistakes are going to happen. Troy Pride Jr., too shallow on that crosser by Henry Ruggs. It leads to that big play as they score. He got beat over the top again. It was Nelson Aguilar catching a touchdown for the Raiders. He had a bit of a rough day.

But being thrown into the fire, he's going to learn some things. Yatergos Matos played a lot of snaps yesterday. I thought Chen was really good. Derrick Brown, it's going to take time. They're not going to win in 2020, but I think the rebuild is off to a good start. If you're a Carolina Panthers fan, I want your thoughts on the 34-30 loss yesterday to the Raiders, 3-3-6, 7-7-7, 1-600 if you want in. Let's get the week started off on the right foot.

You could tweet us, at Sports Hub Triad. The biggest story from yesterday. Cam Newton, two rushing touchdowns, the Patriots taking care of business against the Miami Dolphins.

Now, I'm sure some of you are listening to this right now thinking, oh God, here we go. Josh is going to go on about Cam. He's not in Carolina anymore. Why are we talking about Cam Newton?

That's too damn bad! Well, actually Robert, I'm going to zag while others think I'm zigging here. I think simply looking at the results, saying that Cam had two rushing touchdowns, looked healthy, the Patriots won. And arriving at the conclusion, Carolina made a mistake to move off camp is too simple.

Things aren't always black and white, often they're gray. I'm happy to see Cam play so well yesterday. I think football is fun when he's healthy and I predicted the Patriots to win the AFC East.

But I've always said, since March, it was time to move off of Cam. I think I was affirmed in that watching Teddy yesterday. Teddy's a better fit for this offense. He knows Joe Brady. He knows Joe Brady. He selected Joe Brady to play with. He took a bit of a pay cut in order to work with Joe Brady.

He knows the system. They both came from New Orleans. There are too many weapons on this team. McCaffrey, Anderson, DJ Moore, Curtis Samuel, Ian Thomas. You don't need the quarterback to be one. Even though I like how Teddy was trying to do the spin move.

Run a bit, nah, just get on the ground, man. You're not Cam Newton. Teddy's a better fit for this offense. When the Panthers are ready to win, when that happens, it's probably going to be 2022. That's the year Carolina hopes to be contending for Super Bowls. Albeit, they could be pretty good, maybe get into the playoffs next year.

That's best case scenario. Two years from now, Cam's going to be 33 years old. Cam's 31 right now. Which means he's going to be post-Prime Cam by that time. This is the very end of Cam Newton's prime.

Usually it's 28 to 32 years old, sometimes 33. If you're a physical runner at quarterback, you have to kind of go into a different phase of your career. The Panthers, they decided to go younger. They went with Teddy at 27 years old. He can be the franchise quarterback. I think too many are focusing on Trevor Lawrence, who I was lucky enough to watch in person on Saturday at Wake Forest.

Boy, that got out of hand and got out of hand really quickly. This should be Teddy and Christian McCaffrey's team. History says, albeit it was an unpopular decision at the time, Dave Gettleman was right moving off of Steve Smith. It was unpopular to do so. He might be the most beloved Panther in history.

But the results show it. Carolina, a year after that, started competing for a Super Bowl. They won the NFC South.

They were 15 and 1. They didn't need Smitty to do so. The reason Gettleman gave for moving off of Cam, or excuse me, off of Smitty, was that he was the alpha in the room. They wanted to transition the leadership to Cam. The way he viewed it, and I remember it at the time, as long as 89 was in that locker room, it was his locker room. He's the guy. He is the most popular player.

He is the alpha. Things changed when Cam was that person. Now they wanted to shift things. As long as Cam was in that locker room, it wasn't going to be Teddy Bridgewater coming to town in the first place. But it also was not going to be Christian McCaffrey's team. It might not have even been Matt Rule's team.

That isn't to say Cam wouldn't have responded to Matt Rule, but they wanted to press the reset button. Go with a different quarterback. Go with a different personnel grouping.

Get a bit younger. Play for the future. So why can't it be both? Why can't I be happy for Cam, winning for the Patriots yesterday, and also believe that the Panthers made the right decision? That the Panthers are better off with Teddy than they would be if Cam was still the starter? I don't think you're off by saying that.

I think we saw a lot of marriages, new marriages, that ended in a divorce last year where the teams may not have had the outcome that they wanted. Do you think Tampa Bay is super upset about losing to the Saints in their first game? I don't think so.

No. I think they see the big picture. Don't overreact to week one. You can go through the last few years and look at the results of the early games and see where things end up. And you'll make a lot of mistakes overreacting. I love that people are overreacting because that means there's football to watch. Believe me, I love talking about football a lot more than I love hearing the conspiracy theories about coronavirus and hearing people talk about the election in two months.

That's not what we're here to do. We're here to talk ball and that's what we're going to do for the next few hours. And it feels pretty damn good to say that.

It feels pretty good that we have football, both in the ACC and NFL context, back in our lives. Coming up. All right, we got to get to it. The fourth and one call. I'll tell you what, I couldn't care less about it. And you know what?

I don't even hate the call. Keep it here on the drive. We must talk. Go ahead, go ahead.

Talk. Back to the drive with Josh Cram on Sports Hub Triad. The overreactions are pouring in to week one of the NFL season. I love a good overreaction because, you know, you could point out the ridiculousness of some of them. Some actually by season's end might be accurate. So while I might not buy Tom Brady is completely washed and the Bucks are screwed after they lose to a really good Saints team in week one, I've been saying all offseason, I think if Cam is healthy, he's going to be an MVP candidate for the Patriots. Because usually those awards, they are stemmed on the expectations set before you. It's going to be difficult for Pat Mahomes or Russell Wilson or any of those types of guys, Lamar Jackson even, to exceed the expectations set before them because they're so high. Usually it's the guys that are a little bit off the radar screen who step in and win those types of awards. Think about the ACC Coach of the Year honor. Coach K hasn't won it since 2000. Does it mean Coach K over the last 20 years hasn't been the best coach in the conference? Well, no, it's just the expectations are a little bit higher for him. So I think if the Patriots win the division, given how this offseason is gone, I think Cam Newton's going to be involved in that type of race.

Darren Gantt is with us here now, one of our favorites from ProFootballTalk.com. Give me an overreaction you've seen today that you actually trust to maybe be accurate. Well, I was going to say, you know, since we overreact on Monday, I mean, obviously the story of this season is going to be Mitch Trubisky's clutch and Tom Brady's recycling bin emoji, right? Right?

We all believe that that's going to be the case over the next 16 weeks, right? Right? Bless his heart. I mean, Mitch Trubisky, I've been banging on that kid, and more so his GM for trading four things to take one him instead of Mahomes or Watson. But, you know, good for him for having a moment. But if De'Andre Swift doesn't drop the ball that's right in his hands, we're having the exact same conversation about Mitch we've had for a long time. Yeah, I watched that Buck Saints game with great interest yesterday afternoon.

And to be perfectly honest with you, I mean, and again, I've been doing this for a long time, and I try not to overreact to any one particular thing. Both those quarterbacks looked old. I mean, when Drew Brees uncorks a 46-yard pass down the sideline, I think it was Jared Cook, you know, the thing that flashed back in my mind was Brian St. Pierre's 88-yard heave to David Geddes that traveled 30 yards in the air and resulted in his shoulder being completely blown. I was like, my God, Drew Brees just launched everything he had in him into that throw.

I didn't think he could make one go that far. But both those guys at times in that game looked old. Now, do I think both of those quarterbacks are still pretty good and are probably playoff quarterbacks?

Yeah, I do. And, you know, I think it's going to take a little time. But the reality is expecting 43-year-old Tom Brady to fling it the way 33-year-old Tom Brady did is not fair or accurate or based on anything we know about science, the human body or football.

Follow Darren on Twitter at Darren Gantt, Read His Stuff, ProFootballThought.com. Is it possible for Cam to do well in New England and it also still be best for the Carolina Panthers to move off of them? Maybe. I mean, it depends. I mean, we'll see.

I mean, I think we talked the last time. Everything about the Panthers this year is based on who's going to be around when they're good in 22, 23, 24. Cam probably wasn't going to be at this point based on economics simply because coming off two years of injuries that Tepper wasn't prepared to write the big contract. It's market value for those kind of guys right now. So I don't know that Cam was going to be here down the road.

So maybe you just start the process now. I mean, listen, all this, we didn't see anything we didn't necessarily expect out of the Carolina Panthers. You know, they're a Big 12 team right now. They're going to score a bunch of points. They're going to give up a bunch of points and maybe some weeks they score more. But Bridgewater was okay. And, you know, there were a lot of things about that offense that were okay. They're another year's worth of draft picks and time away from that defense being competitive. And that's going to be an issue all year long.

So, I mean, both things can be true. Cam may have run his course here. Tepper didn't want to invest. You know, you're bringing in a new coach who's got a mandate to build for the future. I can see how those things fit, but I can also see why a bunch of Panthers fans who were looking for something better weren't kind of getting sick in their own mouths watching Cam do Cam things for Bill Belichick. Who did you come away most impressed by wearing a Panthers uniform yesterday? You know what, as strange as it sounds, because defensively, I mean, Bridgewater was cool. Bridgewater was what we expected him to be. You know, I think Robbie Anderson's a guy I thought coming into this season had a chance to be a big play player, and he certainly got downfield a time or two. But Derek Brown, amidst all that s on defense, and they don't have enough dudes on that side of the ball, Derek Brown looks like a grown man. Derek Brown is going to be one of those guys three years from now.

If they're good, then he's going to be a big part of the reason why. So I was impressed just seeing some of the things physically he was able to do. I mean, listen, on the one touchdown run, did he get washed out of there by a double team? Sure he did, and he's going to have to get used to that.

But that was also Rodney Hudson and Richie Incognito blasting a hole in the middle of him, and they are pretty good at their job, too. So I felt they were encouraging signs from him and a couple of young players. I mean, Jeremy Chen, really active, was out there playing a lot of snaps at linebacker. I am hesitating. I am not going to declare him the next Thomas Davis.

That's not what I'm going to do today. But he was active and athletic and around the ball a little bit. So we'll see. I mean, there are pieces in place, but every conversation about the Carolina Panthers defense this year is going to be based on potential and what it's going to look like a year or two from now because it ain't going to look like this. What do you make as an Appalachian State grad of the Mountaineers? They're ranked 24th in the country in the AP poll. They beat Charlotte over the weekend. This is a budding rivalry now where I see you got Appalachian State players posting a photo from the locker room, many of them with their middle fingers up and also with the caption club lit after beating Charlotte. Can you handle this Charlotte app state rivalry?

Yeah, it's a lot like that hated rivalry between hammer and nail. Call me when you, you know, bless your heart, Charlotte. You know, UNCC is making some strides and whoever their next coach is after Will Healy, because he's going to go get a better job, is going to have a lot of stuff to work with. But don't get mad at our kids because you left your stuff in our building a year ago.

I mean, come on, handle your own business and then you don't have to worry about getting defended. I watched that game and listen, it was a little sloppy from the Mountaineers. I mean, there were things to clean up for sure, you know, but UNCC has made great strides. They are getting better.

And I like to joke with those guys and have a little fun at their expense, but only because they're so haughty about things they haven't done yet. We're getting there. We've got improvements to make before, you know, we're at the end of the race this year, but certainly a lot of stuff to build on. What's his name? The skinny legged running back. Cam Peeples, I think his name is. That kid can run.

I know he put it on the ground and that was a little nervous making, but that was the first experience I had really watching him on any kind of long term basis. And I was impressed because that guy's got that kind of speed where it's like, oh, look at him go. And so I've got a bunch of guys in that backfield that can make plays.

So it's good to be a Mountaineer, but every day is good to be a Mountaineer. Robert is an East Carolina graduate, as am I. Next year in Charlotte, App State's opening up with East Carolina. So I expect that we should get tickets to that one there. We've got to say up on the mountain, Biggins line up, Willins bunch up.

We'll take them however they come. It's good to hear your voice, man. Enjoy the football. Thanks for doing this. Yeah, man. See you all soon. There you go. He's on Twitter at Darren Gantt.

One of the best doing it right now. I do want to talk about that Charlotte App State game. Oh, by the way, Sean Clark, App State coach apologizing for his team's behavior. I don't think he'd apologize if it was just the club lit, but it was the middle fingers that I think put it over the top.

Yeah, for sure. The middle fingers, it comes with a little... I don't like when teams are like hidey-tidey though or haughty-tawty saying that they're better than somebody sticking their fingers up. Oh, this is not a rivalry. We're too good for Charlotte. The same way that NC State does it with East Carolina. The same way that UNC basketball says that NC State is not their rival, even though they're more annoyed when they lose against State than when they lose against Duke.

These type of things. I love local rivalries and this is one. I want to see more of App State and Charlotte. I want to see more of Will Healy trying to rail against this Mountaineer program. Sean Clark, Will Healy in a fight. Who are you taking?

Sean Clark. For sure. For sure. I think we're going to catch up with both of them at some point this week. Maybe we'll ask him that. I'm sure Will Healy will appreciate that after losing on Saturday. It would be a nice little Thunderdome match.

A little bit of that. They missed an opportunity. It was 28-20 Robert. They were going into the red zone. Charlotte was trailing. A lot of rain. Five and a half to go and Will Healy on fourth and ten calls time out and decides to go for it rather than kicking the field goal.

Granted, probably the rain had some impact on this but my thinking was you're going to need likely that three anyway. A lot has to go your way just to even tie this game. You need to get a fourth and ten conversion. You need to score a touchdown and you need to go for two. I think if you're trying to win this game you kick that field goal. You kick the field goal and he didn't do it. I bet he wished he'd have it back but there's probably some reasoning in there that I don't know about. Maybe the kicker's not comfortable with that hash.

Maybe the rain has him in a spot where he doesn't feel good attempting it but I do feel like they missed a bit of an opportunity there. I went to a college football game Saturday night. I want to tell you what my experience was like there because there were some strange things with Clemson Wake Forest.

Some things that were kind of disappointing to watch from the Wake Forest perspective but also some things that make you optimistic moving forward. Also, get ready. When it comes to Cam Newton they're going to be preparing a bust for him in Canton.

That's not an overreaction. That's next on the Monday Drive. After week one of the ACC football season and NFL Sunday, we are welcoming your hot takes right now. Here's the thing Robert, while we designed this around the overreactions we see following NFL Sundays, it's not limited to football. Hot takes that you might have for basketball or for, I don't know, movies or music.

Bring them at 336-777-1600. There aren't many rules to this game where, except Robert tells us that we can't curse. The FCC actually tells us that. That's one way you could tick off Robert for sure but aside from that it's for 10 minutes we're throwing away journalistic integrity just to get reckless with opinions and just don't come in with the cold take. If you come in with the cold take we'll make fun of you. If your take's too hot we won't judge you.

Instead, we'll give you a great rewarding sound that sounds like this. So that's how we play 336-777-1600. Let's get crazy. Alright and since I've been plugging the phone line let's go straight to the phones to mic and Elkin who has a hot take. Mike and Elkin, we lost them.

336-777-1600. Perhaps we can go to the next line. You know what, let's open up with the human highlighter. Usually we like closing things out with the human highlighter.

Human highlighter, I'm giving you the floor to get us started. Let me tell you, the best is here. The man, the man, the living legend. You know him as the H.A.T.L. and I'm here to tell you, what did I tell you last week guys? I told you, UNC, my Tar Heels, they were beginning their quest on an undefeated season and a national championship in this football and did they disappoint?

No sir, of course they might have gone to a little slow spot but they needed a winning matter and they won 31-6 and I as we continue to march through this with the H.A.T.L. assistant, so take it to the bank. That is the human highlighter. 336-777-1600.

Here's what I got for you. Chicago Bears, NFC North champs. Oh wow. It's the weirdest division man. Green Bay waxes Minnesota.

Detroit probably should have beaten Chicago. They blow a lead and then DeAndre Swift drops that pass right at the end but for the craziest division, let's go crazy as possible result. Eight and eight team, everyone's doubting Trubisky, great offensive coaches, Chicago gets to the finish line, NFC North champs. Robert, let's get crazy. It's funny you went to the craziest division because that's exactly where I'm going with Aaron Rodgers. I got a fun little fact for you. He has not been single since 2011.

What? 2011, big year for Aaron Rodgers and I think this year is going to be the same. Aaron Rodgers is going to shatter every record of his career. This is going to be the best year of his career because he is single.

Aaron Rodgers is single? Yes sir. What happened between him and Danica Patrick? I think that got crashed into the wall. I'm not sure. Wow.

Much like her races it did not last. That's bummer. Tough break A.A. Ron. All right this might be a little bit too hot of a take.

I don't know if it's acceptable for radio. Screw it. Cookie cake's better than regular cake.

You were just slinging the flame for today. It just is. I'll agree with you. Like you get the icing which we can all agree is the best part of a cake anyway on top of cookie. See I don't like I don't like the cookie cake icing. Like the blue or it's just like a fondant icing. It's just weird but I I'll agree with you. I won't say that it's it's better than cake.

Cookie cake is better than regular cake. Don't at me. Three three six seven seven one six hundred. I'm going right back to you Robert. Robert let's get crazy. Gardner Minshew we talked about it 19 for 20. He had a heck of a game. I'm gonna say that he is gonna win a Super Bowl before Deshaun Watson. Whoa he might be a backup somewhere. I'm not saying he's gonna be a starter.

Maybe that's not as hot. He's gonna he is gonna start in a Super Bowl and win the MVP. There you go.

Quarterbacks always win the MVP when they win the Super Bowl. Gardner Minshew gotta make it happen. He's gonna have such a good year that they're not gonna need Trevor Lawrence. They're just gonna pick up that Panay Sewell guy. That's what Jacksonville's gonna do. Robert you'll enjoy this. Baltimore Ravens 16-0.

I do enjoy that. Don't hype us up too much. I like being the underdog. I'm telling you they're not underdogs. They got the MVP at quarterback.

They had the best year in the AFC in terms of records. And yet he still doubted. People were still saying oh because of the playoff game. He can't throw. He can't. The NFL is gonna figure him out this year. Well the Browns surely figured him out. Kind of like we found out Odell over last week. Man just cool it with the Odell stuff.

That's a steaming hot take that you're throwing in here man. I just think the fact that Cleveland is playoff good. I think they are a playoff team they didn't look like yesterday because Baltimore is really strong. I think no home field advantage really at a lot of these games benefits obviously the more talented teams. Baltimore is not the type of team that needs the fans in order to be good. They're gonna kick your butt wherever that game's played. But it can help teams when it's a hostile environment.

It could be an equalizer. Without that Baltimore they're not going to be underdogs in any game they play. Like I don't know where you go except maybe that Kansas City game. But if they get past the Kansas City game they're not going to be an underdog in any game that they play. So I think it's realistic.

I think they potentially could be an unbeaten team at 16. And now Robert let's get crazy. I recently started watching a new show on Hulu and let me preface this by saying I don't like superhero movies. I don't like superhero shows. What about Dark Knight? Some of them are good but it's not what I like. I'm not a superhero movie guy either.

I haven't seen any of the movies that make up The Avengers. If you watch Arrow or any of those CW stupid superhero tv shows you need to you need to grow up. But saying that.

Wow. But saying that I started watching The Boys on Hulu. It is the best superhero television show that has ever been recorded. What else is in that discussion? I think the original Batman people would argue.

Coach Forbes wants to fight you right now. People would argue about whatever the Batman Arkham where he's a little kid. I don't know. People say it's good. I don't think it's good. I think The Boys is fantastic.

It's my type of humor. I actually watched Guardians of the Galaxy about a month ago. So I guess I have seen a movie that makes up The Avengers. I might have watched the first Iron Man too.

But aside from that I haven't seen any of them. Guardians of the Galaxy is really fun. I can watch that. But stuff like Ant-Man just not my bag.

Aquaman. That's it for Let's Get Crazy because we need to move on. But somebody had a hot take that I don't want to deliver here. But a hot take nonetheless. I just disagree with it. I don't want to say it because I disagree with it. I need to know.

What is it? Somebody said that there are four songs in The Lion King that make up that are top ten Disney songs ever. Like the Elton John songs in Lion King are the top ten songs or four of the top ten songs in the history of Disney. And I think that's flatly ridiculous. It actually makes me upset that someone suggested that just one Disney movie has four songs that make up the top ten. Like I might give you I Want to Be King.

I might give you that. But Akuna Matata can bleep off. That's not even Elton John. Oh you're right. So I guess it's just four songs from the movie itself. They put that in there.

I would give you Can You Feel the Love Tonight and I Just Can't Wait to Be King. There you go. I would agree with that. Yeah. Anything more than that is just blasphemous. Circle of Life? Nah.

Top ten? No. No. No. Not at all.

Just stop. Like I'll take four songs from a goofy movie any day of the week. Goofy movie underappreciated in almost every single way. That's an influential movie. That's not a hot take. It's pretty hot.

That's not a hot take that a goofy movie is is an underrated movie and doesn't get enough credit. I mean when Max is doing the Michael Jackson impersonation. What? That took a lot of talent for Max.

It was amazing. Who's your favorite possum? I don't know.

Chester. That movie is a great Disney movie. It just ticks me off. There aren't as many great animated Disney movies of the last decade because they just decide oh yeah we need to have a celebrity be a voice actor and none of them are good at it. Like Beyonce is trying to be Nala.

Get the Nala out of here. Yeah that is terrible. She's awful in that. Terrible. The worst Disney voice. That's another hot take. The worst Disney voice actress of all time Beyonce. I don't know man. Who's the mother really bad one?

Who would you put? The Rock's pretty bad. No he does not man. He kills it. He kills it. I don't know. He kills it. He's better than Beyonce.

I guess agreed to disagree. Coming up. How Matt Ruhl is building the house and why? It seems the Panthers are ahead of schedule right now in the rebuild. This is the Sports Hub.

You're on the drive. This is The Drive with Josh Graham on Sports Hub Triad. I know it's easy to get caught up in the fourth and one play at the end, but the Panthers exceeded my expectations. What I set before them, game one against the Raiders, I felt they'd have a really good shot at winning if they scored 30, if they got a go-ahead touchdown in the first quarter, if they didn't turn over the ball, and they did all three of those things. But this is a young team and the Panthers, they realize when it comes to an evaluation, they want to throw out some of those young guys, have them play, have them make mistakes to learn from, and right now those are the results they're concerned with more than the actual scores that are produced. Raiders 34, Panthers 30 yesterday. Somebody who was there is Bill Vogt of panthers.com who's kind enough to join us now.

Shoot him a follow if you haven't already at Panthers Bill. Did the Panthers exceed your expectations on offense? Well, you haven't fallen into the trap, have you?

The trap being what? Spending all day talking about one play when the team scored 30 points. We literally have spent 10 minutes on it and we have a three-hour show here and quite frankly it was... I could not care less about the play. I really couldn't care less. You should care some.

You should care some, just not as much as it's easy to fall into the trap about. They scored 30 points, that's enough to win. Plus we all know, Bill, if they would have got the half yard they're easily getting the next 50.

That's how it works. Yeah, well one of the reasons they were going so slowly and running a four-minute drill is because they probably didn't feel all that confident about what the lead of all this should be, which is the defense. The Panthers are now 83-10-1 when they score at least 30 points. That's a stat that then points to your defense and a defense that's going to struggle and give up a lot of points isn't anything that should surprise anybody. This is what this year is going to be. This is when they went through the draft and Matt Ruhle was saying there's going to be growing pains in the defense.

That's what it's going to be. They're going to give up a lot of points, but the only way to get where they're going to want to get to in the next two, three, four years is building up this defense this way. You're going to have games like yesterday where the offense does enough to win.

Just don't fall, and I'm not saying you, but we can't fall in the trap of, well it was all about this one play. The defense isn't good enough to win games right now. But offensively, that was my biggest takeaway. I think we all knew that the defense was going to struggle. Maybe not everybody, but those who follow it closely knew that the defense was not going to be up to standard. The offense though, I was interested to see how smoothly they were going to run and whether or not it would be as effective as the pieces they have in place suggest it would be. What did you make of that side of the ball?

I think for about three quarters, I was rather bored by it, to be frank. And then when they went down 12, it was not an offense that was moving and flowing. They were moving very methodically. And so in the first half, what was it, three drives or four drives? They scored on all their drives, which is nice. It was three field goals and a touchdown.

So that's good. So it was efficient. But the way they were moving, it was like, I don't know if they're going to score 12 to 14 points, if they're capable of doing it the way they're kind of going so slowly and methodically. And then of course they had the one great drive and then two plays, 75 yards, kind of works pretty quickly. And then it was, okay, if the offense does that, would you expect the defense to be able to stop the Raiders from here on out? And that was a good thing.

And they weren't able to do that. So I thought efficiently that the offense was nice and efficient. Clearly those big plays weren't there in the first half. And clearly it's easy to look at it and be like, yeah, should Christian McCaffrey have gotten more touches in the first half and all this other stuff?

Sure, I guess so. But then if he has more touches, then it's like, well, did he have too many touches by the time we get to week 16? Can't win. Can't win when it comes to Christian McCaffrey's touches. Robbie Anderson, you mentioned the long line.

You mentioned the long line. You mentioned the long touchdown though. Does he have better chemistry right now with Teddy than DJ and Curtis do based on what you've seen in practice and what you saw yesterday? I would just say based on who spent some more time together this summer, you could perhaps surmise that because Teddy and Robbie both being down there in Miami, I think they worked out a good amount this summer together. And then neither of them really got back up to Charlotte until really mid to late, mid, mid July.

So yeah, I think there's a little bit more of a natural chemistry there. It did seem like in just the one game, but it did seem that just in that one game, stuff was off between Robbie and Curtis yesterday, or sorry, DJ and Curtis yesterday. Bill Vogt with us.

He's on Twitter at Panthers Bill. I wasn't in the stadium on Sunday or yesterday. I was at a college game Saturday night, Clemson Wake Forest. And I was worried about the atmosphere and how strange it would appear. But fortunately they have that little hill beyond the end zone and they were able to space out a band and a cheer squad.

And it might sound like a really small thing, but just having the band was, it made things feel a lot more normal and having it. I'm interested as somebody who's covered so many Panthers games, numerous Panthers games. What was the strangest part about game day in Charlotte yesterday? I'll be honest.

I guess maybe driving in the no traffic. Other than that, I just have never allowed myself to mentally be like, wow, this is so strange. Well, I know it is. I guess I was just, I'm still so shocked that they're actually playing football right now. To me for months, there's just no way they're going to be playing football. I've just been convinced of it.

This just wasn't going to happen. So the fact that they're out there yesterday and they're playing, and yeah, there's fake crowd noise and people don't like it and it's not synced up. And maybe at times the crowd noise is cheering when it should be booing. Do you know how that works, by the way? Do you know who's actually doing that? Yeah, I don't know.

Maybe some guy pressing a button, but who cares? There's football being played in a pandemic and we're complaining about the crowd noise not matching up perfectly. Like how, by the way, how perfectly American is that right now? Like you appreciate, like somehow they're playing football in a pandemic. I don't know how they're doing it.

I don't know how we've taken thousands of tests and there's only a handful of positives. I don't know how this has happened. The fact that there's football being played, is it weird that it's being played? Yeah, of course it's being weird. This whole year has been weird. We're living in a very weird time.

So add it to the list. The fact that they're playing football, I'm just appreciating it. So I didn't really notice or really dwell on any of the strangeness during the game because it was actually a game going on in front of me with elite athletes, with the best players of the world. And it was like, okay, we've got to do a story on this now. What's the wildest wildest overreaction you've heard in the last 24 hours? I don't know. Maybe nobody's overreacting to get today. I think, yeah, I think, I don't know. I mean, what did you say?

Like no one's really over, there weren't, there are a number of people who are saying, you know, if we had this quarterback, if we had this coach who got in the win column yesterday and this tight end that got in the win column yesterday, it might be different. You understand like yesterday isn't the goal, right? Of course. That's a step. And I'm not saying that those steps are going to go all the way up to where you want to go eventually at the end of the day, but that's what they're trying right now. And that's what, that's the plan. I don't know if the plan is going to work out, but that's the plan. The plan isn't beat the Raiders and glory hallelujah.

It's work through all these things, make mistakes, learn, and in two, three, four years, see where you're at. And it might work out, but this is, they're building a program. It doesn't happen in the NFL a lot. We're going to see if it works here. Last thing I got for you here.

Who'd you come away most impressed by wearing a Panthers uniform? You're asking good questions here. I try sometimes to ask good questions.

Maybe next time you're with us, I'll ask all the bad ones. I don't know if anyone played, you know, particularly where you're like, wow. I mean, that's why you go out and get a guy like Robbie. Just that one play is just so valuable.

I mean, and how unoriginal is it to say Christian? Yeah, obviously defensively. I mean, I thought, I don't know what your read on it was. Second watch Derek Brown seeing how disruptive he was. Jeremy Chen, the eight tackles, which I think was the most for a debut for a rookie in 20 years.

I mean, those guys seem to be where they need to be and the fact that they're thrown in immediately. I was impressed by that, but I didn't know if anybody else stood out to you. No, I mean, the Derek Brown one's good. I mean, just get used to however many years now of people saying what a bust he was because he doesn't have all these sack numbers.

Yeah, Starla Touloulet was a massive bust. I forgot about that. So, you know, just get used to the people saying Derek Brown did nothing yesterday. You're just not seeing the subtleties, especially in that run game.

Now with that said, I mean, how excited can you be when the run game still was pretty poor, especially in the first half? So, that's why it's such a ridiculously ultimate team game, as disruptive as Derek Brown can be. I do think, you know, Dante Jackson leaving and Dante's improved his tackling over the years. He's a better tackler than Troy Pride Jr. It looked like they were right in Troy's side a good amount of times.

But anyway, I don't know if anyone necessarily was all that impressive. I liked how the offense just, like, sometimes they would go up tempo, sometimes they wouldn't, all on like the same drive. So, I thought that was new. I thought that was different. There was some defensive adjustments in the second half.

So, I think little things like that were interesting to see, but I don't think anyone was like, oh my god, this guy was unbelievable. You heading to Tampa? I don't think so.

Some of our content producers are. I'll be honest, I'm not in a huge rush to go, because if you go, you can't leave the hotel. So, you know, what are you going to do? We'll see what happens on Sunday.

Hopefully, Dante Jackson's available, because that Tom Brady guy, I've heard good things. Thanks for doing this, Bill. And, as you mentioned, it's kind of amazing. We have football going on right now, and I look forward to talking to you a ton about it in the next few months. Nice, you, Josh. There you go. That's Bill Vogt from Panthers.com.

It is an amazing thing. Robert, I'm interested as somebody who loves talking about offensive linemen and defensive linemen. Like, if this was the drive with Robert Walsh for a day, I got a feeling you're just going to be talking about your favorite guards and the best ways to pull. I would definitely be raving about Tyree Phillips for the Ravens starting right guard as a rookie.

Is there any criticism that's more annoying in football, as somebody who knows as much as you do and cares as much about line play, then star LaTula Lane, any good? Doesn't have any sacks. Lemball Joseph, how many sacks does he have?

Gerald McCoy, they signed him last year. This guy, he didn't sack the quarterback. Sacks! Sacks! The Dabukinsu, where are all the sacks? Sacks!

If somebody just tuned in just, like, for the last four seconds. Sacks! It probably just sounds like we're saying sacks.

Where are all your sacks? Aaron Donald, overrated, not enough sacks! He's got a lot of sacks.

He does. That's why he's amazing. And dude, he just rag-dolled. He looked like a bowling ball yesterday. Like he just pushed 500 pounds of human aside like it was nothing. I mean, he is the best football player in the sport.

Probably. Like, pound for pound, they know the quarterbacks get all the credit. He is the best player in the sport. And ESPN put out that irrelevant run defender stat that said he was average. He was the number one run defender yesterday in football, according to that statistic.

So I guess Bill Vov setting the stage, we can have this conversation. All the sack talk? Sacks! Derek Brown, how long can some people say he's overrated because he doesn't have a lot of sacks? He was awesome yesterday.

I encourage you to rewatch a lot of the game. And of course, you're going to have the Josh Jacobs touchdown run right up the middle. But then again, Darren Gant pointed that to us a short while ago.

The Raiders have a pretty good offensive line. There are times that they're going to win, and there are times that Derek Brown won. First half, he was awesome.

He was awesome. So, how long until we get the Derek Browns overrated and we wasted a pick? Oh, probably week three or four.

That's going to happen. Even though I didn't watch much of the Cardinals game, was Isaiah Simmons starting? Was Isaiah Simmons all over the place? He had three tackles.

I don't know if he started or not. Right. Yeah. I'm excited for tonight's Monday night games. I'm going to win this game.

Games. I'm going to consume a lot of it. It's a big night in the Graham household. Going to Costco. Usually get a Costco once or twice a month. Going to grab myself a hot dog. Get the rotisserie chicken they have there as well.

Maybe some salad. Do you get a plain dog there? Or do you get a- You get the plain dog, but usually they have the thing that you squirt the mustard and ketchup on. You can't do that in the pandemic, so then you ask for the ketchup and mustard.

They hand it to you. And that is probably the biggest sacrifice I've had to deal with, with the no salt and pepper on the table. I order tequila shots, and every time I forget to ask for salt. Because there's- When did you order tequila shots? I ordered tequila shots at the beach. I ordered tequila shots when I went out with you and B. Dot for dinner two weeks ago. They didn't give me one. I didn't order B.

Dot one either. I just ordered me and my girlfriend. And I don't even like tequila. She's the one that has me- I- I can't do tequila.

I- I think I found the trick to it. Can I tell you the last time I did tequila and I can't believe I'm admitting this story? Was it when you came to Greenville in 519 and I bought tequila shots? Okay, maybe it's the time before that.

Okay. I- I was at a friend's house. They had tequila shots. You can't be the one person that doesn't take the tequila shot.

Yeah. So I take the tequila shot, but that real- I throw up, man, when- when I drink tequila. Probably every twi- two times out of every ten, you know?

And this was one of those times and I could feel it. So I- I pulled out my cell phone and I did the I'm taking a call thing. I walk outside and I puke in the bush. But some of it ended up on my shirt and they're like, what's that, Josh? Oh, I was eating SpaghettiOs outside.

Mind your business. I think I found the trick to taking tequila shots, though. You have- after you take it, a lot of people want to run to their- are you laughing about the SpaghettiOs? No, Matt tweets in, did somebody say sacks and it's a picture of Kenny G? Oh, that's great.

Sacks! After you take that shot, most people want to run to the chaser and just try to drink anything else they possibly can. After you take that tequila shot, you need to have a nice exhale. Get all of that heat out of yourself.

Okay. Then you take the chaser and it's like taking any other shot for me now. Once Cheyenne showed me that, I can shoot tequila no problem. So it's like spelling Shushevsky?

How so? All you got to remember is the Z-Y-Z. That's what you got to remember. So most people know it's K-R at the beginning. Z-Y-Z Uski.

If you don't know the Z-Y-Z, you're going to get the name wrong. But you want to give it a try now that I've given you the tip? No. No, no, no.

Come on now. I just told you the Z-Y-Z. So now tell me how to spell Shushevsky. Robert, do not type on the computer right now. I'm not typing. You are typing. Okay.

Robert, take it down. I want you to make eye contact with me. Look at me while we make love.

Why don't you look me in the eyes anymore? That's all right. C-R... No, well, Coach K. Okay.

Oh, so that's easy. C-O-A-H-C-H-K. I almost misspelled Coach too. What do you want me to spell? What do you want me to spell?

Spell Mike Shushevsky. Oh, okay. Do not look away because I know you have the name on your screen.

Look me in the eye. All right. Do you want me to spell Mike too? No.

Okay. C-R-Z-Y-Z. Why'd you say C?

Did I say C? Yeah. His name is Coach K. I mean, dude, I don't like spelling these. Robert, calm down. I don't like being on the spot. Take a breath.

Breath. Grusefaba. Okay.

Woosah. All right. Spell Coach K's last name. C. I'm sorry, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding. Okay, we got it. K-R, what's your ticket? Z-Y-Z, is that what you said? And then Shushevsky. What?

No, it's Mike Shushevsky. So after that, so C-E-W-S-K-I? No, you didn't listen to what I said.

I didn't listen. K-R-Z-Y-Z-E-W-S-K-I. So it's K-R-Z-Y-Z-oosky. That's it.

Coach K. I'll literally never spell that again. All right. You want to try one time? No, I don't want to try it again. I want to see if you listen to what I just said.

You're like my dad trying to get me in a haunted house. Mike. M-I-K-E, last name, Robert. Go. K-R-Z-Y-Z. No, don't look at the screen. Oosky.

Like oo, E-W-S-K-I? Yeah. Yeah, we got it. What a great segment.

What a terrible segment of radio. Sex. What do you got in Take It to the House? My bologna has a first name and it's Marry Me. And its last name is Sex. Next.