Happy Half Hour.

Hello friends, and welcome to an even happier edition of the Happy Half Hour.

Could we get any happier?

Well, yes, well I think we could thanks to our friends from Deep Eddie Vodka.

Don't pay any attention to what I'm paying pouring into this red solo cup from an unmarked bottle of clear liquids here, that's water, as far as you know.

Thanks to our friends from Deep Eddy.

I'm sure a lot of people were out there celebrating with that tailgate pack, with that cool stuff from Deep Eddy.

Those guys know how to have a good time, and plenty of people were having a good time on Saturday afternoon, put our Sunday afternoon pushing into Sunday evening when that game finally finished in over.

Well, I was rolling with you.

I figured there was something Saturday afternoon that I was.

There were a lot of things Saturday afternoon.

You were at a wedding, I was.

I was at a cool concert.

There was all kind of fun stuff happening in Atlanta.

It was just a good weekend in Atlanta.

All good things happened to the Carolina Panthers and around the Carolina Panthers.

So, uh, thirty two, twenty seven overtime win for your Carolina Panthers over the hated Atlanta Falcons.

Sweep of the.

Falcons, get the brooms out, scoop up that litter box for the first time since twenty thirteen, three games on the road in a row for the first time since twenty nineteen, and your Carolina Panthers are now six and five winning record in November and a half game out of first in the NFC South.

How about all that.

That's a mouthful.

Yeah, not only a season sweep against the Falcons, three and ozero against the Falcons in the Year of the Lord twenty twenty five, because there was that game in January as well that ended the twenty twenty four season.

Yeah, that took place in the calendar year of twenty twenty five.

I don't even remember where I was then.

You're in Atlanta, Georgia.

It maybe my head might have been someplace.

Sales.

We've seen a lot since.

Then, Yeah, and a huge You know what is funny because, like you were just mentioned, like three games in a row.

The first half of this year, the Panthers couldn't win on the road.

They could only went at home.

Now they've dropped the last two at home, but have gone on this little streak on the road.

The key, of course, is going to be figuring out how to balance that and do both and not let your emotions like, not let the pendulum swing from one way to the other.

However, it has been interesting to see the attitude that they have adopted when they have gone on the road recently, Like it's we see it in like the pregame huddle speeches that our great video crew puts out on social and on Panthers dot com.

And it's usually some version from from J.

C.

Horn.

I think it was jac Horn ahead of the Packers game.

It was Bryce Shong ahead of this game, say in some version of like, look, there's not people here for us.

You know, there's not a whole lot of blue out there, although there actually was a good bit of blue in Atlanta yesterday, but there's not a whole lot of blue out there.

There's nobody here for us.

All we've got is right here.

And they've adopted this little like I think they like being underdogs.

You think, yeah, I think would prefer this is kind of let Vegas know they like being underdogs.

It's the reverse Jedi mind trick.

I will have no communication with Las Vegas because gambling is illegal here at Bushwood, and I never slice, but they absolutely do dig on getting out there on the road, getting away from everybody, and kind of that whole we are enough is something they are very much into as a team.

And when they get on the road, you see them lean into it.

I mean, and it's it's taken some time, it's evolved over the course of the year to your point, and it's a sign of what we've talked about previously.

This year, this team is learning.

It's how it's figuring out how to do certain things.

They figured out how to do a comeback, how to win a shootout, how to get on the road and win one, how to win as a favorite.

How to win a defensive battle.

Yeah, I mean all these different things and new Splash friends, your Carolina Panthers figured out how to win through the air.

This was ever, This was not Rico dalut Ol going crazy.

This was not Cuba Hubbard going for one hundred and sum and just beating people into submission like a battering ram.

This was Bryce Young doing it.

I don't want to say all by himself, because he spread it out to nine different receivers.

But Bryce Young had the game of his life four hundred and forty eight passing yards new franchise record eclipse in the mark of Cam Newton during that hot streak.

You you missed.

You were probably in junior high or something in twenty eleven.

Cam Newton, thank you for thinking that.

Yeah, Cam Newton, not true.

But Cam Newton came out in his first four weeks and had three games of over three hundred and seventy five passing yards each.

Uh and two of those or three of those were in the top four prior to Sunday.

Yeah, because after Bryce Young, everybody moved down a chair.

You know, when I was putting together inside the numbers last night and I put the date on the game where Cam's at the record, Yeah, I thought to myself, like that must have been the first or second of his rookie season.

It certainly was.

That was It was like an early September game in about.

A toast to Rob Chazinski for that one.

He was the offensive coordinators time.

Rob did amazing things with Cam early on in that season.

You think they're doing amazing things with Bryce, And I think too, this thing shows I mean, we've learned about Bryce over the course of the year.

He's got the game winning drives.

He seemed to have a little vibe when he when he needs to come back when he gets presented with that situation.

But Sunday was something different, because let me tell you that man hurts today.

That man is in pain.

He he woke up this morning and came to the training room to begin getting treatment to get himself ready for next Monday night at San Francisco case.

Bryce Young does not feel good, friends, He is sore.

He is stove up, as the people say.

And after that ankle in the first quarter, he kind of you could see as he was beginning to come off the field, one of the helpful staff at Mercedes ben Stadium, and we love our neighbors, they always treat us so well there pulled a card up next to him to give him a ride to the locker room, and you could see Bryce kind of give it one of these I mean, he wasn't gonna make a big deal out of it, but he waved that man off it like no, I'm good, I got this, yeah, and he walked on in there under his own two feet, and then he walked back out and got back on the field before Andy Dalton could even take one snap.

So, of all the stats Bryce Young piled up yesterday, to me, the one that is as impressive as any of them is eighty snaps played, which is how many snaps the Carolina Panthers played on offense.

Yea had Dave can Al has choked or joked.

They like pretty much went through their whole call sheet.

They ran out of place, but it worked.

And I don't think and I don't think this is happening.

This is not a narrative, but I'm just getting ahead of anyone that might know.

I hate that word, right, narrative.

Yeah, it just gets at any rate per se, it.

Paints a picture in no way either was this Affluke.

You know, sometimes you can look at a game and you can look at a score and you can hear a guy like, oh, he threw for a bunch of yards, and you think, and you're look at your box score watching.

In this case, the box score and the game tape line up like that.

He was in complete control, and he was in complete control of the game against the number one passing defense in the NFL.

And it was a defense that did try to adjust.

Yesterday you saw them try to run a little bit of the same concepts that the Saints did to shut down the run game.

The difference was that during the Saints game, the Panthers didn't really have an answer yet through the air because nobody had shut them down in the run game yet, and so it was kind of like, oh, this is the first time we've kind of faced this so far this year, and they went back this week and hammered it.

They've been working on things and building things and building concepts in practice, but after that Saints game, they went in and made sure that everything was ready, everything was polished, so that the next time a team tried to play them that way, they were ready to respond.

And it happened the very next week.

The Falcons didn't have a great run defense coming into that game, but you can tell they really kind of focused on shutting it down.

Bryce went out there against a still a very good passing defense and just threw it all over the yard.

You know, the guys asked the guys in the locker room yesterday, like, what is it like when you're sitting there and you know you're getting ready to go play the number one passing defense in the NFL, and the game plan gets presented it to present it to you and you realize like, oh, we're just gonna chuck it all over the place.

And Team Mac was like you start getting excited, like yeah, this is you want to go out there and make a statement.

And with these challenges and they did nine different receivers, five guys of fifty plus yards.

I think it's four guys that called a pass of at least twenty plus yards.

The second pass of the game was an explosive right over the middle to Jalen Coker that he fit through a window.

And I think that that set the tone early to let us know day it was gonna be.

Yeah, you know what kind of day it was gonna be.

I don't really think about what happened last week.

I just want to go.

I just want to go one to know this week, and I'm super grateful to all the guys who were out there helping me.

Uh there were so many guys and listen, this guy is becoming the guy my ankle hurts.

Oh, this guy is.

Turning into that guy in that way in those situations, they trust him because they know he has shown them Okay, he is willing to get back out there.

He is willing to tape that leg up.

And Bryce had a lot of tape on that leg.

It took them a minute to cut all that off because and he was limping around the locker room pretty good.

Everybody was coming to pat him on the back, dump gatorade on him, all the things.

But Bryce was still able to enjoy it a little bit and do the dance after they dumped the gatorade on him.

He kind of hit the dab after breaking Cam Newton's record.

And that was cool.

But Bryce Shung displayed a toughness that I think a lot of people wondered about because he is a small guy.

He is not Josh Allen standing back there.

He is not Cam Newton standing back there.

But Bryce jumped up and did he did big guy stuff the other day and he was he was on it.

I mean, he can show he has shown you that when he gets into that mode, he's as good as anybody in the league at moving a team downfield quickly, be operating well under pressure, and distributing it.

I mean, if you think about all of the great Bryce Young plays, I mean, he hasn't always had a t mac out there.

Who is that one a receiver that people talk about or the big time receiver that a lot of people think you need to pass the ball.

He's made plays throwing the Hunter Renfro on fourth down.

He's made plays throwing the Jimmy Horn on fourth down.

He's made plays throwing to David Moore and Dan Chasson on last year.

It doesn't matter who's out there with him.

Bryce has got the ability in those situations to spread the ball, distribute and find people who were open.

And yesterday they had a bunch of people open.

To your point, nine different dudes catching passes, guys going for big numbers.

It was an impressive display all the way around for a passing game that I think was fairly questioned after the week before against the Saints.

Again the Saints dared them to throw and they couldn't, and this time they did.

One of the biggest things that helped yesterday as well is that other guys made catches.

And you know, we hear Canalis say it all the time, like we've got to execute, We've got to execute.

You saw guys make catches and that immediately this sounds so simple when you lay it out like this.

But you know, football at its core is a simple is a simple conz out.

If it was hard, I couldn't understand.

Is you know, when you've got Jalen Coker catching that huge pass over the middle on the first drive of the game, when you've got xavierly Get catching that thirty six yard touchdown down the left sideline, when you've got all of these guys doing that, it it defenses had been had begun tilting towards Mac.

When these other guys are doing stuff and executing their part, it spreads the defenses back out t Mac received his second lowest target share yesterday of the season, and he had a career day and.

That goes for one hundred and thirty yards.

Those two things directly correlate.

And he even said it after the game.

He's like, you know, we know we all have to be a part of it for any of it to work right.

And buddy, did it ever, And I can see you getting ready over there, so I'll set you up.

Perhaps the biggest catch of the day because it set up the game winning field goal, was the Tommy Trimble fifty forty yard catching run.

That's right, this viking right here.

This man is coming to rampage through your village and to steal all your stuff, including your win at Mercedes Benz Stadium that you thought you might have gotten.

Tommy Trimble's kind of insane sometimes, but in a good way, in the way we like.

When Tommy Trimble gets a ball.

The man's never met a hurdle.

He didn't want to jump, yeah, I mean, hurdling somebody was really the only thing he didn't do.

When fifty five comes down and Tommy's just running downfield, stiff arming him, I guess with the left, you know, you could just see it.

I mean, he was looking for contact.

Nobody was coming to contact him, so he sought out his contact, and he stiff arms fifty five halfway down the field.

You could see him just as soon as this arm went out, this one went up.

I mean, he was securing the ball, did all the things.

But Tommy's reactions in those moments kind of cracked me up, because Tommy's one of those dudes who he's a football guy, and when he gets in that mode, he kind of loses his mind a little bit, and it's in a fun way, it's not in a harmful way.

It's Tommy is a little nuts when he gets in that situation and he broke out, and you could tell it means a lot to guys like that because Tommy is a Georgia boy, He's an Atlanta kid, grew up, ye had a lot of family around, So it matters to guys to do that.

And when you saw the reaction after that play, it was like, Oh, they just did the thing.

And that viking right there, not the Minnesota kind, the angry kind, Tommy tremble.

He did that thing, and you know then it was easy.

Then it was just up to Ryan Fitzmaney to hit.

Oh, by the way, his third walk off game winner of the season.

He's racking them things up, isn't he?

You know, for an undrafted rookie, that kid's got a little something about him.

Tommy did make the comment, and I didn't include this in the play of the Day story because it just didn't really fit with.

There's always more than There's always.

More on the cutting room floor, But he did make the comment that he thought about just seeing if he could drag Kayden Ellis into the end zone.

He was like, you know, because at that point he'd already drunk him for like fifteen yards.

He's like, you know, I thought about just seeing if I could drag him all the way.

And he said, but I knew he had like slowed me down enough that there's usually like a ghost guy coming to punch it out.

And he's like, so at that point, my entire focus just went into like securing the ball and making sure it didn't fumble or anything.

Is this like baseball extra endings ghost man on second kind of rule?

I think it's like, you know how we've heard, like even the Panther's defense say, the first guy makes the tackle, the second guy goes for the ball, and so it was that idea of like a ghost guy coming.

So he's like, I just he's like, I thought about seeing if I could drag him the whole way.

But he's like, at the bigger point, he said, I knew at that point we were in field goal range, And he said, the bigger focus just became protecting the ball, not letting them get it.

He also got down in bounds.

Yeah, he was very cognizant to get in bounds.

Keep that clock rolling a little bit to see because time was obviously a factor.

I mean, you've got your ten minutes of overtime after they gave the Falcons ball first and got a stop on defense, which they did on purpose, and they got that stop.

You don't want to get in a situation where if the field goal's not made, they've got a whole bunch.

Of time to do stuff with.

So I think Tommy in addition to be in a Viking, in addition to be in a berserker out there on the field, he did a smart thing at the end of that play.

But there was a lot of that going around.

Yeah, have the Panthers been in an overtime game this year?

How many games have we seen?

I don't even remember.

I just noticed a lot of people questioning on Twitter yesterday why kick in overtime?

Why not take the ball first?

I think people forgot that the overtime rules changed this year, right, and that each team gets a possession in overtime.

I see dl over there doing some research.

That is, in fact the first overtime game for the Carolina Panthers this season.

Okay, yes, the overtime rules are new this year.

Each team is gonna get a possession, and so it does behoove you took kick so that you then know what you have to do when you get the ball.

That's exactly what happened.

Yeah.

You know what else the Panthers did in overtime, They got to stop Yeah, and that bunch of that.

After the first half of that game, I wasn't sure that was the thing I was going to be talking about because Drake Lonnon and Bijon went kind of nuts in the first half.

They are apt to do.

Their first half was kind of like Tommy Trimble running downfield, but in the second half that did not happen.

They had to combine sixteen yards between them in the second half, after having about a combined two hundred in the first half.

The Atlanta Falcons had ninety one yards and six.

Points after halftime.

The Carolina Panthers put the clamps on a team that had been running up and down the field.

I mean, it's twenty one to seven before they stole that late field goal into the first half, and it was on the verge of being a runaway, but the defense just kind of decided.

And I love talking to Derek Brown because Derek is like he is rapidly becoming He's not the dad of the room, but he's like the angry uncle, and he's kind of he's kind of scolding people every now, and he's like, it wasn't anything special.

We just said we had to do the thing we do.

Yeah, thanks for explaining that, Derek.

But they were able to kind of get in there and make the plays they needed to and really played a lot more solid defensively.

They had a bunch of guys in and out.

Corey Thornton is another undrafted rookie who made this team and is making a little bit of an impact.

He's a corner who's got linked he's got talent.

He can get after people, and when you're playing team like Atlanta that can spread you out, you want as many good cover people on the field as you can get.

So Corey stepped up and made a couple of plays, broke up a couple of passes.

Claude and Cherl has stepped in.

Claude is one of our favorites.

He is primarily a special teams player, but he's jumped in and finished games for Trevon Willas lately.

Started that one the other day and in.

The first half there were a couple of hiccups and they've kind of alluded to it today you know, there were a couple of hiccups, there were some runs that leaked out, but in the second half everything tightened up.

And when you can take a really good Atlanta Falcons offense, it doesn't matter who's in.

I mean, I know their quarterback Michael Pennix is headed to injured reserve.

That knee injury that knocked him out of the game is gonna cost him at least the next four and maybe more.

We'll see how it is for him.

Hope he's well.

But Drake London was in and out afterward in the second half too.

But they put the clamps on those dudes, and being able to play that kind of you hear the cliche all the time that complimentary football when the defense has given you the ball back, when your quarterback's dealing and doing something with it, all good things.

And speaking of complimentary football, just have to give a shout out.

One of the reasons they were able to put the clamps on them in the second half is because of the special team's play at the beginning of the second hour.

Panthers come out and get the ball in the first in the second half, go down, score that touchdown with Xavierly get fell on the two point conversion, so it's a five point game instead of a three point game.

And then the Falcons on the kickoff return fumble or they don't fumble it.

Van Martin Scott forces a fumble.

Bam forces the fumble, Princely human meel and picks it up and that kept the ball out of the Falcon's hands.

Offense wasn't able to do anything with it, something Canalis apologized for and kind of took the blame for today.

There was some timing issues.

He said he should have taken a time out before the fourth down, and you know, credited Bryce for still getting a playoff that looked like it could have worked.

Kayden Ellis just made a heck of a defensive play anyways, that they were so deep in Atlanta territory that when the Falcons did get the ball back, they still had to punt, and on the ensuing drive, the Panthers get a field goal.

So, in a way, if you want to think about it, forcing that fumble recovering it, even though they weren't able to score right off of it, that ended up still being a nine point swing in that game right out of the second half because you're keeping the ball out of the Falcons hands, and on that first drive, you're keeping them deep deep in their own territory on their second chance.

That ended up being huge, and it kind of got overlooked just because of how everything else that happened in the game.

But that was a big play, Yeah, and so many big plays.

Yesterday was one of those games where's so much stuff happening.

When you and I are talking after the game and start divving up who's going to write what, it's like, the list is longer than we got time to write.

Yeah, we just got bad into it.

So it just.

Spilled over into Monday morning.

So check out Panthers dot com for all that kind of stuff and keep scrolling.

Hit that news tab and go to the news archive if you need to, because it keeps coming.

And it's just there's so much cool stuff.

I even loved our boy fitz Money, the rookie kicker Ryan Fitzgerald.

That was not his first winner in Mercedes Benz Stadium.

He has kicked there twice earlier in high school.

He won a game lost state championship game his senior year in high school, when he was grown up and going to colquit County High but this one was a little bit better.

Did he not ever play there with FSU Did he not play like a Chick fil A kickoff game?

I don't know.

Oh, okay, I don't follow a college football.

Journalism only extended to high.

School, that's right.

I mean, as he's a local kid, played in high school there and that was a big deal.

But Fitz was money.

So many people were my guy Tommy Trimble out here running around going crazy Bryce of course, everybody on defense.

It was just that kind of game.

Dave Canalis has been saying, Jalen Coker is going to have a big game, and he did.

He had four catches fifty two yards.

He had an another again, another play that ended up being a huge game changing play, the two point conversion in the fourth quarter right there with a minute left.

That made it a field goal game where if Atlanta kicked a field goal, all that was gonna do was tie it and then you get a chance in overtime.

That play was huge.

Yeah, and you know what it sets up, friends, It sets up meaningful football and late November and heading into December, your Carolina Panthers, you know over there on that chart.

I mean listen when they put it on TV.

They don't have cool deep eddy logos like we do under the Happy Half Hour.

But what they got that section over on the right that says then in the hunt, and that's where the Carolina Panthers are.

They're in the hunt after that one, and it's different.

People are getting used to it around here, and it's gonna take another set of adjustments because learning to be good requires them building on that and taking the next step.

And the Carolina Panthers got opportunities.

We're gonna see all kinds old friends had to say.

Did you see the chart of who Panthers have to go through to make the playoffs?

That's right, Christian McCaffrey.

This week we'll see old friends Baker Mayfield and Sam Donald.

Rough day for Sam yesterday, but that's okay.

This is still a pro Sam account.

If I would have had heads on a stick back in the old days, I would have definitely had this week.

Give you, as Sam darnld head on this.

Say for the game, I would appreciate a Sam head on this.

See what we could do.

We might have to homemake one, but yeah, all good things.

You You mentioned a wedding yeah, we should have special shout outs.

For the bride and room.

Yes, congratulations to Sam and Jordan.

My cousin, Samantha got married on Saturday.

It was in downtown Atlanta.

I really appreciate her and Roger Goodell working that out for me.

That was really appreciated.

But it was a beautiful wedding.

Sam and Jordan were great.

They they put off, they pulled off a good party.

It was a lot of fun.

It was so much fun to see my entire family there to all be together.

And yes, very very happy for Sam Jordan.

They left today on their honeymoon, so save travels and hope they have a grand old time.

I could great to see.

Mozzel tov to the Sam and Jordan's.

It's all good things we were talking about early on.

I did go to a concert Saturday night.

Darius Rucker, you know Hoodie, that guy Mike Mills from Rim and Steve Gorman, the old drummer from the Black Crows, just said.

Hey, let's have a band.

Why not let's go little rascals and put on a show.

Would that be like you Rob Demowski and Darren from Arizona, like forming a book club or something.

Yeah, except we'd just be grouchy old dudes muttering about stuff.

But great show at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, seeing those guys they call themselves howl Al Howell, which is harder to say than sweet Sip sweepsteaks, frankly, but we were able to pull that off for a couple months.

But that was a great show.

One of the coolest things about it Mike Mills from Rim.

He was so into the moment.

I have never seen a performer as happy to be in that place he was at as Mike Mills was.

That's that's what it's all about.

When you find those people who are perfectly in the moment and perfectly happy being in that moment, that's when cool stuff happened.

So I was glad I.

Got to see that Saturday evening.

Glad I got to see the Carolina Panthers do what they did Sunday because I don't know if a lot of people were expecting four forty eight out of Bryce, but what a day.

Hats off to the quarterback, Hats off to all the people.

Thanks to all you people who are out there enjoying the happy half hour.

Thanks to our friends from Deep Eddie and we will see.

You later this week.

Question Mark gets some Monday Night football week, so all the days get scooched over by one and by Wednesday, I'm not gonna know what day of the week it is at all, But later this week we'll hit you again on the Happy half Hour and get you ready for that forty nine Ers game next Monday Night.