All right, Chris, a 20 to 17 loss. The New Orleans Saints take down the Carolina Panthers. They're now owing to one. Frankie Lou is a beast. Uh Second of all, I think we need to put the offense on a milk carton because it's missing. It's, uh, where are they, where are they at? We need them at ASAP. Well, I mean, can we call them missing if we never actually saw them? They're kind of like Bigfoot. I don't know, maybe we'll find it at some point, but either way if we're gonna break it all down, let's get the sucker started. The state of North Carolina covers 53,000 square miles. It is the habitat of the fear. Get dialed in Panthers fans for an in depth. Look at your team exclusive interviews. Lock a room inside. Let's huddle up for Panthers playbook. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to Panthers Playbook. That's Chris Lee. Dennis Cox. Uh, Chris Lee is at Bank of America Stadium where the Carolina Panthers lose to the New Orleans Saints. 20 to 17. They fall to, oh and two. we have this post game wrap up after every single game. So make sure you subscribe right here on youtube and leave us comments. Leave us your thoughts on this game because we have plenty of to react to. Um the biggest thing, Chris, the offense, let's call it what it is. It's inept, it's nonexistent. It just ain't there. It flat out stinks, it flat out stinks. And here's the thing that disappoints me is because this whole offseason, we heard scheme, scheme scheme and with these people that you think are supposed to be these uh gurus when it comes down to offense, you have Frank Brake, you have Thomas Brown who's supposed to be this up and coming, uh budding star in the NFL in the coaching realms. You have Jim Caldwell up there being one of your senior assistants, Josh mccown. Um, you know who's a former NFL quarterback himself. So this stuff isn't looking good and you, you would think that with a scheme, uh with the, the, the players that the Panthers have not, that they would be world beaters, but you'd be able to at least get the yardage that you need when you need them for at least 60% of the time. If you need five yards, you can get five yards. If you need 10 yards, you can get 10 yards. Those easy plays are just not there. This, it was like 2019 to me and that was a bad year to cover the Carolina Panthers because the only thing that was going for the Carolina Panthers in 2019 was Christian mccaffrey. If he was not on the field, if he took a playoff, they were not moving the ball. If the ball didn't go to Chris mccaffrey, they weren't moving the ball. And guess what? There's no Christian mccaffrey. This feels laborers right now for the Carolina Panthers. Yeah. Nothing even close to that. And that it's kind of, well, a lot of people are wondering as well is that the, the personnel that was brought in to be put around Bryce Young, we brought in Adam the, ok, who's been a complimentary receiver for pretty much his entire career. DJ Chark who been banged up but kind of at best is a number two. Jonathan Mingo is an unknown. He's a rookie. Um, and Terrace Marshall Junior. I didn't even play today. I don't think he even saw him on the field. Um So again, it just, I think you brought in Miles Sanders who benefited from having a great quarterback who ran, uh, and Jalen Hurtz in Philadelphia who also had two big time wide receivers on the outside, Deonte Smith and AJ Brown. So these are like complimentary pieces that are expected to be like the guy and I don't know if anyone actually scares a defense like who actually is afraid of an offensive playmaker for the Carolina Panthers. No one out there jumped at you. We saw Cry. Olave and Michael Thomas today. And how many big time chunk plays did we seal? Crys. Olave have that guy actually legit, scares you all the big chunk plays that the, the that were made today it seemed like were made by the New Orleans Saints. This Panthers offense just can't do it, or at least it can't do it right. Now. You talk about scheme. I didn't see any improvement or anything different really? From week one against the Atlanta Falcons to week two against the Saints offense. I, I didn't see anything different if anything, like you said, it was actually kind of worse, you know, like where was Juba Hubbard and Miles Sanders in the run game? That 12 punch that we saw week one? Where was that? Well, that's, that's a part of play calling, right? So after the game play calling was called into question, uh, by, uh, some reporters here asking Frank Reich, hey, is it time to hand the sticks over to Thomas Brown. Some, some fans are asking that right now on Twitter, but Cuba Hover, you know, he only had two carries and one of those carries went for 14 yards at the end of the game. Bryce Young had a 26 yard carry. Let's put together, that's what, 40 yards between those two on those two carries. So other than that Miles Sanders, you give him 14 carries, 43 yards, three yards per carry. It's not working, it's not working at all right now. And that's the part where, like, you're, you're kind of upset and you wonder, like, why is this, why is this such a labor for the Carolina Panthers, uh, in this game? Like, and then also you would think with the offensive staff that you would see more creative play calling, there's nothing creative happening at all, there's nothing, there's nothing out there that makes you go. Oh, the only moment of the night is when Bryce Young shook old boy out of his boots in the midfield and everybody was like, oh snap, he, he actually did that. That's literally the only thing. And right now it just that the offense looks vanilla, it looks the same way it did in, in the preseason when we were told we're not playing in our scheme. Oh, yeah, it looks the exact same right now. So this isn't the preseason, these games count. When are we gonna play in the game? Big time question? Uh, still to be determined, still looking out for it, still waiting for it. Uh, a big key stat, I guess you could say stat, throwing a little air quotes here that stood out to me in this game three times. We saw the New Orleans Saints go 10 plus plays on offense three times. They had drives with 10 plus plays every single drive that the Panthers had in, in right after three and out, three and out you can't do that. There was a, uh, a, I think it was a 15 play drive that resulted in a field goal. That was the, the series that Shaq Thompson got hurt. All right. So you get a 15 play drive and then right after that, you have a three and out and then immediately, right after that, it was a 12 play drive. Now, both those drives for the Saints resulted in field goal. So a good job for the defense, you know, bending but not breaking 27 plays to. And then again, the following was a three and now it's 27 plays to 6, 27 plays to six. Eventually the defense wears out and we saw as the game went along, Chris, the defense did start to wear down. This is something that you and I even actually talked about in the preseason that this offense and Bryce Young as a rookie need to learn. Is that all right defense out there for a long time, get a first down, you may not score, but the defense was out there for a long time. The only give a field goal, just go, get a first down, allow them time to adjust, especially when Shaq Thompson got hurt. Now, I'll give him a little bit of a benefit of doubt because there was the end of the quarter. So it was a little bit of a longer break. Ok, I get that, but that's three times, three times, your opponent went 10 plus plays and you went three and out immediately as a response to it. That's bad, bad. Let me add to this, you're not gonna be playing the Saints every time with this. So if you do this in two weeks, when you're back at Bank of America Stadium against the Minnesota Vikings, you think the Minnesota Vikings are gonna have that many long sustained drives without punching it in the end zone with the offensive weapons that they have. Like, it's one of those things that it, it is, it is concerning because at a certain point, uh, like the defense is doing all they can do, but just offense is just gonna win every time, you know, just the way the rules are. You have somebody in Justin Jefferson, uh, who's one of the top receivers in, uh, in the NFL right now. You don't think that that won't get them into the end zone, uh, that, that they won't have a plan for that, uh, when they play better teams with better offenses again, the Saints aren't the best team out there. They are, they're, they're not good. The Saints are not good and that's what the Carolina Panthers look like against a team that's not good. And that's the part that is concerning for me that then, yeah, they're not good but guess what? They're two and, oh, and you're, oh, and two Carolina? Oh, and two? Not only just, oh, and two overall. But you're O and two in the division, guess what? You, in, the division is two and, oh, besides the Carolina Panthers they are in right now. You're starting off the wrong way. You're two games back. If everyone and you're two games back in the division as well. You are now in chase mode and you're entering week three and you are already chasing, you're already chasing. It's week three. We're going into week three and you're already in chasing, uh, a stat that, um, on the drive, uh, with Tim Donnelly, uh, the show that I produced on 99 9, the fan, which by the way, we're talking about, we're actually going to hear from wide receiver DJ Shark here in just a moment. Uh, so make sure you stick around, uh, for that. Uh, when we hear from DJ Shark in the locker room, you and Pat Welter down there, Chris, uh, but teams since the divisions were reformed about roughly 20 years ago when the NFL fully expanded it to 20 or 32 teams to what we see right now. Teams that start, oh, and two on the season and both those losses are in the division six times has happened. All six teams miss the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's what the two games playoffs are done. Exactly. So, that's the thing, but here's the thing to keep this in mind. I know we talked about the the, the division kind of stinks. That was like the conversation going into the season. Now, it's all about the development of Bryce Young, but I am now legit worried about the development of Bryce Young based off the play calling and who's around him in terms of offensive personnel. I'm legit concerned because you saw it. You pointed this out, Chris, there was like a lack of swagger, like in terms of his body language. There's times where he's just scrambling, running for his life or if he does have time, he's got nowhere to go with the football. Here's something, Dennis, uh, in the locker room afterwards. Uh I did my 10 o'clock hit for WRL, went to the locker room and tried to find, uh, Pat Wal and that's when he was talking to DJ chart and this must have been right after Bryce was done with at the podium. Bryce was at his locker and he got up and we kind of were walking in the same direction at the same time. Uh Of course, he didn't want to make eye contact. Looked at me, looks down shoulders, down feet dragging. I've never seen Brys Shaw look that defeated. Now, clearly, he actually got defeated a after a game. So you're not gonna look the happiest. But this is a guy that exudes confidence no matter what, every time we've covered this guy, he just exudes confidence, that confidence looked like it was going on the field. There's a, there's a clip out there. I can't remember which quarter it happened where Bryce Young lined up behind the right guard and Miles Sanders had to push him over, like behind the center. Like, I'm hoping he's not like Sam Arnold was in, in New York, New York. I hope he's not seeing ghosts right now. And here's another thing too and this isn't Bryce Young's fault, but this is something else that has me worried with the Carolina Panthers. Um, I've been saying I want them to get a bigger back because I'm worried about them in short yarded situations. Your short yardage plan is to put in Andy Dalton. That is your short yardage plan. They did it through sneak, they, they did it twice but they didn't get a chance to run it twice because the first time Kate Mays got a, a prenat penalty, but they were gonna go for that twice. Andy Dalton is your, is your plan for the extra yard, bro? We got bigger problems. We got bigger problems. Yeah, big time, big time personnel issues, I think right now because, yeah. No, no, no plan for pickup short yardage. Uh, no, true, like real receiving threat in terms of like any sort of that who's gonna take the top off the defense or sort of a threat. We, we really didn't get to see it much from DJ shark in this game because seems like they, any time they did try to run a deep, yeah, that's it. Now he did draw a past interference play. That was a, that was down the right sideline, which sometimes you got to check it up there and you, you earn those every once in a while, but you got to be willing to take those shots. But any time that Brice, maybe he wanted to take a shot downfield, he got flushed out of the pocket or he had pressure in his face. Um, so, and it was, it's just a rough game all around. I know they got the late touchdown but the Saints were playing soft because they want a clock to run. Um, so they got what they wanted out of that. But, uh, speaking of DJ Shark, you were in the locker room as was Pat Walter Wrl Sports, let's go inside the locker room. Chris, let's hear from the wide receiver himself. DJ. Shark. DJ, what have you seen from Bryce Young and his performance and what he's done well, what he can do better. Um, I, I think he's doing well, you know, uh, he's taking what he gets. He, he was big for us down the stretch that run that he had, um, just figuring out, you know, ways to help us out and we have to help him out. So it's, uh, definitely a progress progress needs to be made on our end to help him out. You know, this is just his second game. So we take, uh, I take full responsibility to try to, you know, make sure that he has a good game. What's tomorrow out like in here right now? 02 starts. Obviously not, not where you want to be, but tomorrow season, um, you know, a, a answering this question right after the, you know, it's tough. Nobody's happy, but we also know that we have a lot to play for, you know, it's just week two, going into week three, we understand that we have to get it together. Definitely us as an offense and we have to put that on our shoulders and going to make it happen. But we have all the pieces, you know, a lot of credit to our defense for keeping us in that game the whole time. And just as teammates, you have to help them out, Chris, I know DJ Shark is happy to be back out there on the field, but I'm sure he's definitely not happy with his personal performance or the team performance as a whole. Hopefully he continues to get healthier and maybe he adds something more to this offense. But again, the confidence for a lot of Panthers fans just isn't there, at least with the offense. But I would tell you where the, the, the confidence really does lie right now. It's what the Panthers defense, uh because this Panthers defense kept them in it. Now, I know they wore down late because they just played a lot of snaps and they, they gave up that late touchdown, unfortunately, but man, you only gave up 20 points. And I, I think I, I said it in our, in our Panthers playbook that dropped on Thursday. I said, first of 20 wins. Right? Did I not say that? I said first of 20 wins just saying I pointed it out. But this defense, uh, even, even though they lost Shaq Thompson early, uh, Rua Hill stepped in was great and it got into the backfield and got a couple of key sacks. Frankie Lou stood absolute stud that dude right now. He is right now. He right now. He absolutely is. Now, I something that you pointed out, Chris, something that you saw Brian Burns. I know he had the offseason, uh, ankle procedure. Um You said you saw him on the sideline ice in the ankle. We actually didn't see him on the field late in the game, any update on Brian Burns and, and what his status is right now because I didn't hear Frank, right. Talk about it after the game. He talked about Shaq Thompson. But question is all right. That's your best edge rusher. Uh What's up with Brian Burns? Do you know anything? We, we haven't, haven't learned anything as of now. Um, he was available in the locker room as I was about to go out and do my 10 o'clock. I'm sorry, my 11 o'clock live hit for WRL. Uh, so I did not get a chance to go speak to him, but there were a couple of times he was on the sideline, he had, um, ice on his ankle, took off his shoe, put some ice on when the Panthers were, were back up on defense. He'd just go back out there. Um, but I am, I am kind of concerned with, with that and I'm also concerned with how he's being used. I know as the outside linebacker, uh, now that it's technically a position change right for, for Brian Burns under this scheme, he's gonna be in coverage sometimes, but there are a few times where I felt like this is a good time to use this third and long to have Brian Burns and Frankie Louis just go after Derrick and, and Brian Burns was out in coverage and there, there was a few times where, uh, I think it was like, uh, one of the times where the, uh, I can't remember the exact quarter, maybe the second quarter where the Saints were in the, I think it's when they scored their first touchdown when the Saints were in the red zone, uh, right before they scored that touchdown. They had to get a first down and it was a short yardage, obvious run situation and you don't have Jeremy Chan in there and you saw YV Bell and, and, and, um, Xavier Woods get kind of ran over by the player that came up from the practice squad this week. Number 34 Jones can't remember his first name. His last name is Jones and he had a pretty good game himself for the Saints. It was just, it was very interesting, um, to, to watch that because it was like, what, what are some of these decisions being made right now? Um, if you're gonna have those, if you're gonna have that, those short yardage, obvious run situations where you need somebody in the box? To me, Jeremy Chin fits that mold, right? And, and I, I don't have a lot of things to talk about the defense as far as putting them down or, or, you know, having criticisms for them. But one of the critic criticisms I do have is I thought Jeremy Chan was supposed to be like your gadget guy that you can use in between. It feels like Jeremy Chan has been snuffed out of this defense, right? Like, you know, he had a really good, uh you know, batted down ball. He's been, he's been when he's in there, he's making plays, but it doesn't feel like he's being put in positions to make a lot of the plays that we thought that he was gonna be able to make uh like he was early on in the season with the Carolina Panthers and it's not like he's not that guy who could do that. So it makes me wonder what's going on with that. And what is the real plan for Jeremy Chan? Yeah, that's a, that's another great question. Um I texted you during the game. I, I tweeted it out our friend Tim Donnelly uh from the drive on 99 9. The fan tweeted it out as well and tagged me in it because he and I were watching the first half together at Carolina Alehouse in downtown Raleigh. Um It's like why is chin not out there more often? And what, what is the reason for this? Because we saw him had that batted pass down where he like jumped up like a shot blocker and attacks the game. He does, he also had a tackle for a loss and he also made a couple of other tackles at or near the line of scrimmage as well. So it's these guys, he's up there, he's making plays and we know what he's capable of doing and it's like, why is he standing on the sideline in this key third down? Like you'd see him standing there or nearby Giro ever? So again, this is a big time question of, you know, why RL why is he not on the field or again, why are you taking your best edge rusher and dropping him into coverage? You know, it's like it's an obvious passing situation. I want Brian Burns doing what he does best and let's get to the quarterback, you know, like Brian Burns has never been a drop back and cover type guy never really in his career. So now we're gonna ask him to do that like in live game action, I don't know. And so one of one of those question marks you saw the injury to Shaq Thompson first off, horrible injury. Uh It looked, it looked violent on screen so we don't know the prognosis right now, but Frank R did say he would miss a significant time. Now, the injuries are mounting up JC Horn out for a significant time. Kate, uh, not Kate Mays, uh, uh, Brady Christensen out for the year. Um, you know, and now Shaq Thompson gonna be out for a significant time. And so now the guy that we spoke to exclusively right here on Panthers playbook, Dion Jones, who they, uh, waived and then brought back on a practice squad, wonder if they're gonna end up bringing him up and elevating him, uh, because now you're gonna need, you're going to need, uh, some linebackers there. Rua Hill, great job, uh, you know, filling in, uh, but what if he gets hurt? What if Frankie Lulu gets hurt and you're gonna need to have, need to have somebody in there. Um, so you kind of wonder what's gonna be the plan going forward if they're gonna try to sign another, uh, linebacker that's, uh, a free agent right now. Uh, but I, I'm, I'm pretty much expecting maybe Deon Jones to get, uh, elevated this week. Yeah, I, I don't know who else would step in, but, yeah, it makes perfect sense. He was there with you during all training camp. My guess he gets elevated would not, would not surprise me based on the injury and the fact that Shaq Thompson got carted off the field, uh, wouldn't surprise me if he ends up on ir if it's short term would not surprise me because it looked like a pretty nasty injury. Uh, unfortunately, to Shaq Thompson and uh good job for the defense rallying around that uh as well in the team rallying around that as well because they, they there was, it was a Ben but don't break uh for that defense for much of the game. If you were telling me that the Carolina Panthers defense was going to give up 20 points or less, most people would say you take that right? But once again, this offense was a struggle, Chris, um real quick last question for you, what were the vibes like in the stadium? You're there at Bank of America or the vibes like from the fans from, you know, just looking at the final language on the sidelines. I just want to know your thoughts from actually being present there at the game pregame. It felt like all right, maybe there's something for us to, to cheer for, right? Because everybody knew that the elephant in the room from last week was the Panthers turned the ball over and the Falcons scored off of all of those turnovers three times. So the idea is if we don't turn the ball over, maybe we can move the ball because it felt like they could sort of move the ball last week and con and control the clock. Um And so I felt hopeful uh pregame, um, you know, people started filing in. So, like, I know, uh early on it kind of looked empty but the lower bowl ended up filling out top of the bowl, uh top bowl kind of was a little scattered but uh I think they announced 72,000. Um And so, you know, pretty good, uh AAA W all N numbers, you know what I'm saying? Uh But had to throw that in there. Um Yeah, but no, it, it, it was pretty good but then like towards the uh halftime and, you know, fans started getting a little impatient and things didn't look good, then you start hearing some boos coming out at part of the game. There's boos for Bryce Young boos for the Panthers coaching staff. And so, uh now I'm hoping that Panthers fans aren't here we go again. Uh Because that's what it feels like. Here we go again, right? Uh And I just hope that that's not the case uh for the Panthers fans here, I think because the Panthers felt like the Panthers fans were promised more, right? We were promised like, hey, this is the turn from what we just had to deal with for, for two plus seasons. This was the turn in a different direction and we're like, wait, this ain't better this right now. It ain't better now. I know it's just two games, but right now it ain't what we expected. We weren't expecting this, you know, to be the Chiefs of 2022. You know, that's not what people were expecting, but we were, but people were expecting more right now, the exact improvement, but we're not seeing it, simply put, we're just not seeing it. All right, Chris, I know you got to get back from, from Charlotte to Raleigh. So drive safe. Uh Make sure you stay tuned in here again. Subscribe here on Panthers playbook on youtube. Also hit the links in the description. We are gonna have a link to our podcast so you can take us with you. We're on your favorite podcast platform so you can take us on the road with you when you're driving to work whatever it may be. But leave, leave your comments. Smash that subscribe button as well. And again, we want your thoughts on tonight's 20 to 17 loss to the New Orleans Saints. Chris, get back safe. We're gonna have another episode on Thursday getting ready for week three Seahawks up next, all the way out west. We'll see you then