Joe Montana 2.0

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. Welcome to a Wednesday Drive. It is WSJS News Talk Sports for the Triad, where if you thought it could not get worse for the Carolina Panthers, well, it just did. The team announced today that Bryce Young sustained an ankle injury in the Monday Night Football loss to New Orleans, and he missed practice today. Frank Reich then said he'll wait and see how Bryce looks tomorrow when asked whether Bryce will play Sunday afternoon against the Seattle Seahawks. As an organization, the Carolina Panthers are in a position to play the long game. That's the decision they made when they traded up to take a rookie quarterback, and they traded away DJ Moore to do so, and they decided to go the rookie quarterback path rather than signing, say, Derek Carr, for example.

They have a luxury to be patient. Even if Bryce Young can play with this ankle injury, the Panthers should strongly consider sitting him anyway this week, just because they're in a position where they can. Whatever is best for Bryce Young is best for the Carolina Panthers right now. That's what this season should have been about all along, and certainly now that they're 0-2, every decision that the Panthers make needs to... It's not operating under the function of, does it give us the best chance to win anymore?

It's, is this best for the development of Bryce Young? And this stretch here, this game here, was always the most concerning turnaround of the season. Not because it's the Seahawks, albeit they're a very good team. They just went on the road and beat the Detroit Lions. It's not even really about the crowd that is going to be hostile, one of the best home fields in the NFL. Bryce Young just dealt with the SEC for the last couple of years.

He knows what loud and ruckus crowds look like. It's the logistics here. It's playing on Monday night, and then on a short week, traveling 2,500 miles to play a game in Seattle.

And to do so with a smaller recovery window, a smaller preparation window. That's why it shouldn't just be Bryce Young's injury you take seriously. Brian Burns, limited today. Miles Sanders, limited today.

Justin Houston, limited today. These are injuries to be taken seriously because of how short of a turnaround this is. This was the argument we made during the summer and got laughed out of the room at when we started suggesting maybe it's best for the Panthers to start Andy Dalton right away. Not as a slight to Bryce Young, oh, you drafted this guy number one just to start Andy Dalton? No, it was knowing Austin Corbett was going to miss the start of the season. It's starting the season with two divisional games against teams that have very good fronts, as we've seen, with the opener being on the road. And this right here, after those two division games, you have that quick turnaround on a Monday night. You could have sat, and I don't think it was a crazy suggestion that we made, you could have sat and you could have sat and you could have sat you could have sat Bryce Young the first three games and then at home, the first time we see him play as a Panther is against the Minnesota Vikings.

Full preparation at home. That's the best spot to potentially play him. But once again, Carolina, they are in the position to play the long game. The head coach is not on the hot seat. It's a rookie quarterback.

You can be patient. So do the right thing for Bryce Young. And the right thing could be sitting him Sunday since he's now lost a day that, as we know, with it being a short week already, very valuable.

You already have that one last day. This is an offense that clearly needs some work. Bryce Young as a rookie needs that work in practice. This gives Frank Reich a good excuse to give Bryce Young a breather, have him sit out without it looking like you're benching the rookie quarterback. Without it looking that way, you can sit him and play Andy Dalton.

That's a luxury that you have. Here is Frank Reich speaking to how the short week is going to factor into the decision. Yes, I mean, you know, according to the books, yeah, you'd obviously like to play one every minute you have to recover and get to full strength. Although, you know, once you get to week three or four in the season, everybody's pretty, you know, starting to get banged up. But that'll all be factored in the decision by the doctor, by the player, by the coach.

That factors into the equation, absolutely. The Panthers should strongly consider sitting Bryce Young this week. If the answer is that's what's best for Bryce, then that's what's best for the Panthers and that's what they should do. On Twitter at WSJS radio, if you want in 336-777-1600 is the phone number. Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show. And there's some stress here in the studio, W.D. Yeah, birds again. A RBI double was just laced by the Astros to tie the game.

Whoa! And their bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth with two outs now. There's a strikeout for Mike Palmon. There you go. So there are two outs in the eighth. So we're a little distracted here in the late innings of this matinee because the Orioles can never play a normal game. No, and it's always fun to watch you watch it. Thank you.

You're welcome. There is a terrific college football slate this weekend. You've got Notre Dame hosting Ohio State in a top 10 matchup. Colorado, Oregon, obviously Coach Prime opening up Pac-12 play. That's a ranked matchup.

Do you believe? Oregon State, Washington State, the two teams left behind in the Pac-12, the Pac-2. They're both ranked in the top 20. Bama Ole Miss, if that's your cup of tea, we'll see how much better Bama looks this week. But the game of the day in the ACC, the game of the week in the ACC might end up might end up being the best game. And of course, we're talking about Clemson, Florida State, FSU going to Death Valley.

It opened up as a pick them right now. It's a two and a half point spread. Florida State is favored on the road. That's the smallest line of a game involving a ranked team this week.

Send me that cash out, fam. But here's the question I'm interested in. What's the best possible result for the ACC? Like, if you could inject Jim Phillips with truth serum and ask him, what result do you want for the conference from this game, what would he say?

At the end of the day, Jeff. The ACC, I'll sit on the fence for a bit on that, I think is in a can't lose position with this game. A loss would not be a death nail to Florida State, who's a contender.

Ranked top five in the country and should be. And the reason why a loss wouldn't be a death nail is because of their out of comfort schedule. You already have that LSU win you could put in your cap as a feather in your cap. You have Florida still to go, which is something for sure, especially after what they did to Tennessee over the weekend. Losing a Death Valley, that being your only loss, is not enough to knock you out of playoff contention, considering what Florida State already has on its resume. Meanwhile, if they win, they might have the easiest path to the playoff than anybody, because they could still lose a game.

And even if they do lose a game, they could still get it. And when you look at the schedule, where do you see two losses for the Seminoles? If they're winning in Death Valley for the first time since Jamis Winston was a quarterback. A Clemson win, meanwhile, to flip it, would put them back in the mix.

All those folks, pow, writing them off, saying that the Clemson dynasty is dead, all that. A win by Clemson puts them right back into the mix. They're not ranked right now, but they're the closest team to the top 25 that's not ranked. If you beat Florida State who's ranked at the top five, that's going to bump you up seven or eight spots, probably right behind where Duke is, considering that's the team that they lost to. And then look at what else is on Clemson's schedule. Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, they're all on the schedule at South Carolina and Columbia. Those are great opportunities to bolster that schedule. So if you're talking about a one loss Clemson, hypothetically, which is plausible if they beat Florida State this weekend, you can't write them off either.

So what is the best case? Making sure the path is as easy as possible for Florida State or getting another team into that conversation of relevance, which would happen if Clemson wins? I think in either case, the ACC is in a can't lose situation. Oh boy, 3-2 count, line drive, caught! Second baseman, Adam Frazier, the Orioles, get out of it, bases loaded, jam.

But they didn't allow a run. The Eddie Murphy movies back in the day, Beverly Hills Cop was great. There's no chance you've seen Beverly Hills Cop, by the way. You've seen Beverly Hills Cop? I've never even heard of it. Oh, gosh. Sean Clark, so disappointed in you.

Head in his hands. So Beverly Hills Cop, your movie for this week, we'll review it in a second. But quick, a reminder that this weekend at the Greensboro Coliseum, it's PBR Team Series Week. We've been telling you about this bull riding event for months.

The mayor of Greensboro was telling us how excited she was, Nancy Vaughn. It is a 745 start on Friday, 645 on Saturday, 145 on Sunday. However, at 1145 a.m., Cowboy Church, a really cool event that they have with pro bull riding. Give it a look.

Also online, pbr.com. 1984's Beverly Hills Cop. Let's get it. Unless you're talking about Star Wars. Movies aren't exactly Will's thing, but that's about to change because Josh can't stand it anymore.

This is And The Movies with Will Dalton. We got some categories. What you like, what you didn't like, best quote and the Rotten Tomatoes score.

See if you can get it within five. We'll start with the good. What did you like about Beverly Hills Cop? I really like the dynamic of Axl's, I don't know if relationship is the right word, but relationship with the other cops and detectives because you got Axl, who's very loose and lively and quick-witted and then, you know, the cops are just typical like buttoned up, like kind of.

Well, Rosewood wasn't. No, but like kind of the meaner cops, I guess you could say. Like Taggart?

Yeah. And like in a prime example of this, the scene when they're in the club and Axl's like, it's okay, you can enjoy this. And then he acts drunk. He plays a bunch of characters. Phil! Hey Phil!

Hey, I knew it was you! He played a ton of characters in this movie. Really, the right answer to this question is Eddie Murphy, end of story.

Right. Like that's just the answer because this movie shouldn't be good. Like it's not really a good movie except for the fact Eddie Murphy's in it and it's Eddie Murphy who might be the greatest American comedian of all time.

Why? Think about Eddie Murphy in 1984. Eddie Murphy had already at that point done, I think in a row, 48 hours where he's Reggie Hammond trading places and Beverly Hills cops as the summation of that. And he's saved SNL at that point, which was about to fall apart as a show.

Like it was about to disband. Eddie Murphy saved SNL and he's at one SNL at that point. This movie, adjusted for today's time, it's the third most lucrative Rated-R movie ever. Not just comedies. Like I think The Matrix is in front of it and one other. Third highest grossing Rated-R movie ever. Beverly Hills Cop. That's what it is. Like, I mean, Eddie Murphy had a number one single at about the time.

See if we can pull this up for a little bit later on. See if you can find party all the time. Like Eddie Murphy, we just don't have anybody like him today. We have nobody who's remotely close who you could say, oh yeah, he could put out the number one single in music. He can lead SNL.

SNL, he can lead in a movie and he can put out the best standup special too. Like we just have nobody like him. Like he might have been the second most famous person in the world. The only person more famous is Michael Jackson, who he's referring to in this movie. That's the only person on the planet who's more famous.

Yeah, but now I'm going to write Michael Jackson sitting on top of the world, except when he wants to go to the Beverly Hills Plaza because they don't let. That scene was a good one. That was another character that he played. What didn't you like about Beverly Hills Cop? I mean, the movie itself, I couldn't find something I didn't care for. But what I did when I was doing some homework on this, the fact that they thought Sylvester Stallone would be a good role, or this would be a good role for him. Stallone turned it down. Stallone turned it down.

At that point, kind of like Tom Cruise in the 90s, every movie was offered to Stallone first and Stallone could do whatever he wanted. But you're right, it would be a bad movie. Because he's not funny. Well, he could be unintentionally funny in many different ways. It's just not a good movie.

It just doesn't work. We're not talking about it nearly 40 years later if it's still Fester Stallone. I couldn't think of something I didn't like except for Eddie Murphy's laugh. It just gets old after a while.

It is the same. There were a couple of times where it got a little, it was a little much. Best quote. Outside of the one in the club that I won't say on air, look, man, I ain't falling for no banana in my tailpipe. Look, man, I'm not falling for the banana in the tailpipe.

See, that's more of the way that it's even better if you do it the nerdy way. Look, man, I'm not falling for the banana on the tailpipe. That was a thing that, like that, the purpose of the segment is for you to understand culture and understand where people are saying things. Like when you, another way that people for 40 years have said, whoa, was I born yesterday? That type of thing is saying, oh, I'm going to fall for the banana in the tailpipe.

Like, it's just a thing that people say, oh, I'm going to fall for the, like a lot of people just talk like Axel Foley and have been for 40 years. Rotten Tomatoes score for Beverly Hills Cop. 86. 82. Look at that. And that's been at the movies with the W.D. Before we get back to the bummer state that is the Carolina Panthers right now, let's liven things up with the number one hit that Eddie Murphy had, I guess like circa 84, 85 when this movie came out.

Party all the time. Have you heard this song before? I'll tell you when we play it. All right.

I don't think there are any curse words in this, but we'll find out together. Oh, I think this is the chorus right here. There you go.

There you go. Party all the time. Eddie Murphy. Nobody like him. Yeah. When you were telling me that he also did music today, I was like, what? Number one hit. Party all the time.

Within a year of this movie coming out and a year before Delirious came out, there's nobody, nobody who in the comedic space has ever occupied the space that Eddie Murphy was in at that point in his career. Wow. Incredible stuff there. We need to figure out what movie it's going to be for WD next week. So continue to send in your submissions at WSJS radio or at Josh Graham Shell, 336-777-1600. Connor O'Neill going to be in studio with us. Perhaps he'll have some ideas.

Ian Eagle apparently has some ideas, which makes sense. He did not suggest a thinking man's picture. Oh, he didn't. It's all I'll say it. It might be related to Beverly Hills Cop. It's not Beverly Hills Cop 2. I want to take people behind the scenes on this show where the Orioles threatened.

They didn't score Connor O'Neill's in studio, who's a fellow birds fan. Got some company in here. It's a one to nothing game going to the bottom of the eighth against the Astros. So there's some anxiety building for that as the Orioles go for a sweep. And meanwhile, we're just pelting movies at WD. It's true. That's all we're doing. And he's seen more movies now than it's remarkable how far you've come.

I know. I mean, Ian Eagle is proud of me. Ian Eagle has texted the show saying he's proud of you.

He'll be with us tomorrow. He's proud that you've seen a movie that is not a thinking man's picture from Beverly Hills Cop. He recommended Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

That's one that we're suggesting. Connor O'Neill thought it would be great to throw Casablanca in the mix. That's a movie that did not come out a year ago, but came out 81 or 82 years ago. Since the Panthers are playing the Seahawks, we figured a Seattle movie would make sense.

And since Meg Ryan is the GOAT of rom-coms, Sleepless in Seattle comes to mind. And also she works with the Baltimore Sun, which is cool. You love a good journalism movie, don't you? Oh, yeah. Which adds me thinking. How many of the journalism movies do you think he's seen?

All the presidents. Based on the laugh. Based on the laugh.

We were going to do that at President's Day. Spotlight. Never heard of it. It won best picture like five years ago. When does that ever stop me from not knowing it? I get it if it's before you're born, but it came out like five, ten years ago.

Are you kidding? Those are two really good journalism movies. Zodiac. Have you seen Zodiac? I haven't seen Zodiac. You wouldn't love Zodiac.

So I won't suggest that as the fourth option. Wasn't Tom Hanks in the journalism movie? Yeah, that movie is terrible. About the Pony Express or something? The Post. Okay. It's bad. You're thinking about like Tales of the World or something.

That's really bad, too. You've seen All the President's Men. It's one of the greatest movies ever.

I would have that over Spotlight. Okay. So there's our fourth option. All the President's Men is the fourth option. It's not even an election cycle yet, right? Yeah, it's 2023. I don't follow politics at all. Okay.

So your four options are Casablanca, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Sleepless in Seattle, All the President's Men. It's on Twitter. Vote on that now.

At Josh Graham show at WSJS radio. What movie WD should watch for the first time next week? I think that's good variety.

Yeah, it's a little mixed bag. It's a little checks mix of movie selection there. Just make for a great quadruple feature. We're going to start with Casablanca. Then we're going to get into All the President's Men. And then we're going to get into Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Cap Things with Sleepless in Seattle. We're up on the Empire State Building the whole deal.

No spoilers. We've got Wake Forest Georgia Tech tickets to give away in just a bit. Wake Georgia Tech on Saturday. I don't want to go as far to call it a must win because you are 3-0. Wake Forest's goal starts with getting the bowl eligibility in a standard season for Wake. But when you start to look at the path to six wins, it is really hard to find what that path is if you don't start with beating Georgia Tech at home. Yeah, it looks harder because of what Wake has looked like, mostly, in the last game.

They acquitted themselves pretty well against Elon. Left a little bit of things to be desired in the second half of that game. Vanderbilt was kind of a herky jerk. Play five snaps and then sit for two hours and then get a special teams touchdown before the first half ends.

That really changes the game. God, they look so bad at ODU for the first two and a half quarters. Even though they won that game, you're kind of left with that being what you take into. Okay, now they have nine games. Eight of them are your ACC schedule.

And by the way, the ninth one is against that school that has a full-time ACC vote. Yeah, and has a quarterback named Sam Hartman. I thought it was Joe Montana 2.0. Oh, I keep trying to get that to stick.

Maybe WD will back me up. Is Joe Montana a transfer? Joe Montana 2.0.

Okay. Best quarterback Notre Dame's had since Joe Montana. That's what Pat Forti said after he won the second game there. Podcast title for today.

Joe Montana 2.0. We're going to get this thing off the ground. You got it. We're going to help Connor in that regard. Thank you. So, what is the common thread, though, between the three wins that aren't the most impressive, that leave you wanting more?

Is there one? Because the first game, it was the lack of a run. The second game, they ran the ball a little bit better against Vanderbilt. They ran the ball great in the second half against ODU. The common thread might actually be, unfortunately, quarterback play. In the sense of, you were so used to Joe Montana 2.0, you're so used to that guy and in the first game, you have to pick six. The second game, it was more about the run and then we saw how bad it can look at ODU. Yeah, Mitch has to get better. The main thing is holding on to the ball too long. That was something that game one, when he does it against Elon, you're saying, okay, well, the quarterback doesn't get hit for nine months of the year and he's got to get the timing like that. I don't know if my clicks come across in the microphone. Oh, they do. Good clicks.

Very good clicks. He's, so it's game one. It's okay.

It's an excuse. And then game two, he was a little better against Vanderbilt with it. I think he was sacked twice against Vandy and one of them was a blindside blitz that he had no chance to get the ball off or feel the guy. And then he takes a bunch of sacks and has a bunch of turnover worthy plays and three turnovers against ODU.

And it's just kind of like, man, this is, this is a problem. This is a problem that needs to be fixed quickly because as Dave Clawson told us yesterday, probably had more time against the first three schools than he's going to have moving forward. Like he's only going to, the clock is only going to get shorter. The time that he has in the pocket is only going to get smaller.

So he's got to get that figured out. The thing that gives me confidence is I think he does like getting to know, I know more, I know more about Mitch the person than I do Mitch, the quarterback on the field at this point. I think the guy's competitive fire is going to lead to a change there. I don't think he's just going to, I don't think Mitch is dumb. I don't think Mitch is just going to see, well, I can just do the same thing against better competition and we'll get lucky and we'll be okay. Like, I don't think that's going to be an issue throughout the entire season.

Yeah. Going through the schedule real quickly. You won't have an easier home game the rest of the way than Georgia Tech at home on paper. The other home games are NC State, Pittsburgh, and who am I forgetting here? Those and Florida State. Florida State. Yeah. Well, I would like to know who Pitt's starting quarterback would be before declaring that about this game being their easiest home game left.

Sure. So those are two games you feel like you can have, but if you don't get this one, then that's the only one you feel very good about, even though obviously NC State's winnable and we'll see what Florida State's at. NC State's also won like one game in Winston in two decades.

That's what I'm saying. Certainly a very winnable game. So even if you assume you get two out of those three, you have, this is assuming you lose to Georgia Tech, by the way, you still need to find one more win on the road when you have road games at Duke ranked at Clemson at Notre Dame. Sure, you could say Virginia Tech, but you just went to the state of Virginia and nearly lost to a team that Virginia Tech beat the week before or a couple of weeks back.

Yeah. So the point I'm making is if you want to feel good about Wake Forest continuing that bull streak, which I do believe they're going to continue, take care of your business against the Yellow Jackets this week. The point that I would make is I know we're kind of down on Mitch, but on the rest of Wake's schedule, which teams have an advantage over Wake Forest at quarterback? I'd still take Club Nick. That's one.

Maybe. Not Virginia Tech. Florida State. Not Pitt.

NC State. I'd take Brennan. I'd take Brennan. With those receivers?

Right now. I'd take, but we're not talking, we're talking about the quarterback. Okay. That's fair.

I made it just about quarterback. So Riley Leonard, Sam Hartman. So I, there are some games where I would certainly take Mitch Griffiths, but there are just as many of ones I wouldn't probably.

Yeah. I'm majority, I would rather have Mitch than the other quarterback. And I don't know if Brendan Armstrong is ever going to get back to 2021 form. Who is Mitch 2.0? What's his 2.0? We got to find out what his 1.0 is first.

Well, that's a good point. Mitch Griffiths. Riley Skinner 2.0. Mitch Griffiths. If anything, it's John Wolford too.

That that's the one that he reminds me of. I actually have at the, I have to kind of scale back my prediction. I thought they were going to run more with Mitch and he has not run very much at all. I don't know if they're saving that for ACC games, but he has not run nearly as much as I thought he would. Mitch Griffiths, Tanner Price 2.0. He gets a bad rap because he came at the end of Grove's tenure and it was just, again, like Jim Grove and David Cuckliffe had the same coaching tenures, just at different schools and the years kind of overlapped. But Mr. Fuji can't stop walking people. Yeah. He throws hard though.

Two guys just got walked. We're scared. Tanner Price is underrated.

I think if he had a better system around him and better support, Wake would have won more games, but that's neither here nor there. You made the show today a better situation around us. We appreciate that Connor O'Neill. Thanks for being here. Deacon Illustrated, Devils Illustrated.

Read, follow his stuff, follow him on Twitter. Thanks for being in here, buddy. Go birds.

Thanks for bringing me in. O's, Stroh's and Addie Bow's. The voice of the Carolina Panthers is Anish Shroff and he's with us. While I was at the App State game over the weekend, somebody came up to me and said, down by contact, good horse name, better band name.

And in that moment, I thought of the voice of the Panthers. Anish, we've learned this is a shared passion and coming up with horse names. Down by contact is a really good horse name.

Really elite. Are you betting on down by contact if you get good odds? Intentional grounding might be the betting favorite, but down by contact is my number two.

Down by contact, yeah. So we're a couple days removed now from the Monday night loss for the Carolina Panthers. What's been the most frustrating overreaction you've seen since then? You know, cancel the season, everything's a mess, it's all over, what are we doing?

You know, the typical jump to conclusions, Matt stuff, the typical knee jerk reaction. That's just the world we live in, though. You know, think about it.

There are shows on TV all over where you take a guy like LeBron James, for example, who is at worst one of the top two or three basketball players who've ever played, and they debate his greatness on a game by game basis. Yeah, that's what they do. And they scream about it and they yell about it and whoever yells loudest wins. So that's just the media world that we live in, right? So you accept that and you try to have some perspective and you hope that a few people can see it.

This is a zoom out moment here. It's a rookie quarterback who's made all of two starts, all of two starts. Tom Brady, look at his numbers from his first two starts.

They don't inspire. Look at John Elway's first two starts. He was benched in both of them. He was one for eight in his debut, got benched for Steve DeBerg. Wasn't that much better in game two. You know, Steve Young was sacked six times in his first start.

So you go down the list. Joe Montana was like five for 12 for 36 yards in his first. The point I'm trying to make here is no one really remembers how it started.

And no one will remember how it started. If Bryce Young turns out to be what we feel Bryce Young can be. And I do think you see enough there. You see enough things where you go, that's what they saw on him. That's it.

That's what we're looking for. But man, he's a rookie quarterback and he's two starts into his career. Can we maybe, I don't know, just lay off with a with a final verdict and a declaration on who he's going to be for the rest of his career after two starts?

That's all. That's obviously a grand overreaction. But I do think there's a reflex as well where we see people say, well, you can't blame, put any blame on Bryce Young at all for the fumble and the things that he even talked about after the game, he needs to be better about. If we use Cam Newton, for example, from 2011, we know they drafted him as a raw athletic specimen and he had to try and figure out the maturity piece of things and the mental side of the game.

But you saw the raw physicality. You didn't draft Bryce Young for the physical piece as much as you drafted him for processing in the mental side of the game. So I do think it's fair to say, oh, those are the reasons why you drafted him and they're not lining up right and they're even saying so, then that's fair to point to the quarterback and say, well, if you're if the mental side of the game, you're being complimented for being so far ahead of it, maybe we should expect a little bit more than what we saw Monday night. Yeah, again, I think you have to remember, you know, this is a guy who, yes, he played in the SEC and played at a high level, but you're seeing NFL defenses and there are things he's going to see during live games that he has not seen before.

And you have to make allowance for that learning curve of the other part of it, too, right? Is it all on the quarterback or, you know, can we get some, you know, we need some playmaking plays, for lack of a better word, the Panthers have one play of 20 yards through the air through two games. I was just going through some numbers and then, you know, one of the ones that I pulled up, if you look at, you know, the the passing splits in terms of how many passes have been attempted that have traveled 10 plus yards, only 19, only four of those have been completed and two of those were intercepted. So we've got some receivers that we've seen that can make plays. Terrace Marshall showed he could do that last year. We have yet to see it this year. Laviska Chenault showed it last year, has yet to show it this year. Jonathan Mingo was drafted to be a playmaker in the receiving game and 13 targets, only five receptions.

So they haven't been on the same page. Adam Thielen, I think you kind of knew what you were getting. You were getting an underneath guy, you were getting a security blanket, you were getting a security blanket, somebody who can be a reliable slot guy, but he's not going to stretch the field vertically.

So help around him I think could be better. I'm not going to underestimate losing both starting guards. Brady Christensen being out for the season, Austin Corbett still won't be back this week, probably at least a few weeks away before he's considered to be activated. So, you know, it's not all on Bryce Young, but again, the way it works, you know, people watch the ball. So you look at the quarterback, you look at his numbers, what he did or what he didn't do, I'm not going to sit here and make excuses for the offense. Frank Reich will be the first to tell you that got to be better on offense.

I just don't know if it all falls on Bryce Young's shoulders, because think about it, going into the season, I hope part of the narrative was, hey, Bryce Young should have some pieces around him, and he's not going to have to do everything. And, again, two games into the season is a very, very small sample size, doesn't quite feel that way two games in. Another thing I'll add to that is these Atlanta and New Orleans fronts are really good. Atlanta bolstered that front, New Orleans, that touchdown at the end of the game was the first touchdown that that defense had allowed. And that was against Prevent, let's be fair. Let's be fair about it.

And I feel like across the NFL, regardless of what team you root for, given that guys don't really play in preseason anymore, you should probably view September as a pseudo preseason, especially when you're talking about a team that has 23, 24 new players on it that are playing key roles like the Panthers have. The other part of that, too, and you and I both follow college football and we both cover it in college football, if you are, let's say, NC State and you're playing VMI, right? And let's say you turn it over on the first couple of possessions and you have a bad first quarter.

Guess what? Your Jimmy's are better than their Joe's. And so you can make up with that just because you are better across the board at pretty much every position. In the NFL, the games are one on the margins and more games are lost than one. And the reality is right now, the Panthers just don't have a huge margin for error. So in week one, you go on the road, you're minus three in the turnover margin.

That's not going to bode well. Those three turnovers led to 17 points difference in the game, right? You look at the Saints game on Monday night. I don't think either team would walk away and say they played well.

But again, where was that game won and lost? You have a red zone turnover. So you took potentially three, maybe seven points off the board, and then you got another situation where fourth and one you line up to go for it. You're called for a false start instead of continuing a drive and maybe getting a touchdown.

What happens? Now you're kicking a field goal. So that's a four point swing right there. And then you look at what the Saints did, right? Chris Olave makes that juggling one handed catch. That's a playmaker making a big play, something the Panthers have not really had offensively in the first couple of games.

So those are three plays that we're talking about. That's the ball game and more games are lost than one. So it all happens in the margin unless you have a Patrick Mahomes, unless you have an Aaron Rodgers in his prime or Joe Burrow, one of these guys, not many teams have a margin for error. This isn't germane to just the Panthers. The hope is Bryce Young becomes one of those quarterbacks where he can give you a little margin for error and hopefully you don't need it. But again, those margins are paper thin because the talent across the board is spread so evenly.

Anish Raj, voice of the Panthers with us here. The next game pushing it ahead is against the Seattle Seahawks and it's right on you. There's a football concern when you consider Seattle was a playoff team from last year, fresh off a win at Detroit and overtime. And then there's the logistical piece that feels like a triple whammy of not only do you have a short week to prepare for, but it's on the road. And not only is it on the road, it's on the West Coast.

And not only is it on the West Coast, you're going to one of the more difficult environments to play. Josh, I'm going to stop you. I'm going to stop you. I've been to Lumen Field plenty of times in Seattle. Is it loud? Yes.

Do they get into it? Yes. Is it one of the toughest places to play? Yes.

Think about where Bryce Young's been playing football for the last two years. Is it tougher than being someone wearing crimson going to Auburn? No.

Bad news. Is it tougher than playing in a night game at LSU? No. Is it tougher in front of 100,000 drunk fans at Neyland Stadium in Tennessee? No. Is it tougher than those darn cowbells which don't stop ringing in Mississippi State? No. So listen, I'm not diminishing what Seattle is and I know it's loud and I know it's a tough place to play, but anybody who has been to those venues and has played in those venues, just from an atmosphere standpoint, it doesn't compare.

I'm sorry. Does the prep time concern you, though, when Seattle is able to... They're probably home by around 10 o'clock, their time maybe even earlier than that Sunday night, and the Panthers are playing Monday night and then have to travel out west? Yeah. Listen, I think fatigue is real, right? It's still early in the season.

Sometimes in these cases, it's good just to flush it right away and then you have an opponent to focus on. There's not that much time to dwell. I don't know the psychology of it, but I'm sure, yeah, from a physical standpoint, listen, this is a team that's now getting beat up a little bit. Brady Christensen's out. Austin Corbett's still out. Shaq Thompson went down. J.C. Horn went down. So you are fighting some injuries. I do view this Seattle game as an opportunity because the silver lining here is Seattle's not at full strength either, right?

D.K. Metcalf is battling a rib injury. The offensive line for Seattle is missing a couple of pieces.

Guess what? Bobby Wagner looks a step slow. Jordan Brooks is coming off an ACL. Reek Woullen is hurt. What a terrific rookie season as a cornerback. Jamal Adams probably won't play. Maybe he does, but he's coming off an injury. Devin Witherspoon missed the first game with an injury.

He's a rookie corner making, what, his second career appearance. Seattle can't get to the quarterback. They've had no pass rush. They have two sacks.

One came on a corner blitz. This might be a game, at least on paper, where you got a chance to get the offense and especially the passing game right. Love that.

Love that. Writing that all down, Anish Raf joining us here, voice of the Panthers. Let's close with the college game. Since the game you have this week, you mentioned NC State VMI. You have NC State at Virginia and the return of Brennan Armstrong and Robert and I. And there's going to be quite the reunion in Charlottesville on Friday night. You'll be on the call with Andre Ware. What most interests you about the Wolf Pack, who had the loss against Notre Dame, but when you kind of look at that schedule, the Pack with Brennan Armstrong still can have a chance to have a really good season, it seems like.

Yeah. Can they go to Charlottesville and unlock the Brennan Armstrong that we saw in 2021 when he put together what was definitively and without doubt the greatest passing season by a quarterback in the history of Virginia football? And he did it with Robert and I as his offensive coordinator. He did it with Garret 2J as the offensive line coach who's now with him at NC State as well. Whatever happened last year when they changed philosophy from that air raid style to more of a pro style timing approach, it was just two different systems and it seemed to have scrambled Brennan Armstrong. That just wasn't the system he was comfortable with. I think he's getting back to being comfortable last week. Again, it was VMI, so you don't want to put a whole lot into it, right?

You should beat VMI by five or six touchdowns, whatever the final score was. But at the same time, confidence can be contagious and they needed to see it. It's like a basketball player in a shooting slump.

You need to see the ball go in and maybe sometimes you hit the front rim and you get a bounce or you bank it in off the backboard when you didn't mean to. And I think with Brennan Armstrong last week, again, they didn't take a ton of shots downfield, but he seemed more efficient. The decision making seemed quicker. We know what he can do with his legs. He's basically a fullback or a linebacker playing quarterback.

I think controlling the emotions will be a challenge. You know, one of the coaches that we talked to today equated it to this is Tom Brady going back to New England like Brennan Armstrong didn't leave as a villain. He was loved there. He did great things there. Everybody understood why he left. He was not a fit for what they are doing now and what they did last year.

So he had to leave to go play in a system that he was comfortable with. So I would hope the Virginia fans give him a nice ovation for what he's done. I'm sure the emotions are going to be high, but if I'm NC State, listen, there's some questions as to playmakers right in the receiving game. They haven't had a running back really emerge. The Raphael kid played well, but again, VMI.

Maybe we see more of him this week. You know, they need Brennan Armstrong to play like an all ACC player of the year type of candidate that he was two years ago. Everybody understands in Charlottesville that what Brennan Armstrong was about. And it kind of reminds me of the way some people talk about how things ended with Sam Hartman in Winston-Salem as if there's any animosity there.

And there really isn't. Anthony Calandria, an interesting player from Virginia, too. So how about Anish? We'll let you go. Best of luck traveling out West to Seattle and enjoy some Bodo's bagels while you're in Charlottesville as well. No shot, man.

No shot. Give me give me some good sewer water bagels from up north for the folks who don't know in Raleigh. Charlottesville has this bagel place called Bodo's.

They they rave about it. It's one of these places that is if you're in Charlottesville, you got to go to Bodo's for breakfast. You got to get your bagels from Bodo's. And I come off as slandering Bodo's.

That's not the attempt. It's an OK bagel, but let's not make it out to be anything more than it is. It's a step up from Brueger's or Panera, maybe a half step up.

It's OK. I eat at Panera. Bagels at Panera. Go to Brueger's. But let's not pretend Bodo's is like a deli that you'll find on Long Island, for example.

You can walk two blocks any direction on Long Island or New York City. You'll find better bagels than Bodo's. So with all due respect. With all due, Bodo's is perfectly average. And it's OK to be perfectly average.

Just don't try to sell me on Bodo's being an elite bagel. That's all. My wife's going to want to fight you in the street.

She's a Virginia grad. Anyway. Oh, on the way out, Concussion Protocol. Better horse name or band name? Band name. Definitely band name. Oh, yeah. Rock music.

Concussion Protocol. All right, Anish Shroff. Thanks for doing this. We'll talk to you soon. See you, bud.