NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - TNF Week 8 Recap Panthers-Falcons

Episode Date: October 30, 2020

Dan Hanzus and Gregg Rosenthal recap the matchup between the Panthers and Falcons where the Falcons defense made a big stop at the end of the fourth.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. On second down, Ryan out to his right, has got a lot of grass in front of him, and now a touchdown. A rushing touchdown for Matt Ryan. That's the 10th of his career, first of the year. Falcons bring a blitz, a little fleet flicker, and Bridgewater throws touchdown, Curtis Samuel.

Only one time out left for Carolina. flag on the play and this is Pitt intercepted and the defense makes a play that's Bleedy Ring Wilson Yes the defense for the Falcons makes a play

indeed but not before making everybody sweat it out they get it done though 25 17 over the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte Atlanta is now won two of their last three games and the Panthers now after that great start on a three game losing streak. And I almost feel like I'm here, of course, this is Dan Hansis, with Greg Rosenthal. I almost

feel like this should be a place for you and Mark Sessler to commiserate about the beautiful Panthers and all that has suddenly gone wrong with them and have a little like a psych session together. But instead, we'll just do a more even-handed breakdown of what happened on Thursday night. Your thoughts, Greg? Well, you can just be poking and prodding me about it and then I can be defensive and come back. And that might be better podcasting. I don't, I really don't feel that way, I don't feel that way about the Panthers as a whole or Matt Rule or the team because they're kind of where they should be where I expect it. I do feel that way about Teddy Bridgewater though. Like I feel like I was the parent watching like my kid move up to like the travel team or something.

Like he gets to play. Everyone's watching him. It's like the everyone's watching Teddy Bridgewater night. And I just wanted him to play a representative game and he ended up having a few things go poorly for. him. He didn't throw the ball great. I don't think he was seeing things too clearly. They cooked him up on a ton of blitzes. Yeah, they did. That really was the game to me. And he also suffered like a massive injury, what looked like a massive injury when he took a dirty shot to the head and you thought he was out for the game. Then he came back in and I was getting like Alex

Smith coming in for Washington vibes. I was just like, nobody hit Teddy for the rest of this game and he ends the game on an ugly pick. So I am weirdly emotionally invested. I don't know why. What we didn't see is a trainer for the Panthers, like shove a giant Torridel needle into his neck muscle to fix it so he could get back on the field because he was absolutely blasted there. And I've slept wrong, you know, overnight and woken up with a neck injury where I like, it gave me issues for weeks at a time.

To see the angle at which he was hit, I mean, it speaks to his toughness. And also that's football. I mean, these guys are all kind of badasses to be able to play through what they play through. But, you know, very strange on the Falcon side of things, Greg, because I was actually trying to document it in real time on Twitter today. Oh, I saw. That was good. Yeah, like deconstructing a Falcons meltdown before it actually happens.

And it really looked like I was going to have a document that people could come back to forever. I just want to set it up because it was all in real time. I think it started right off the gate when Rahim. not feeling so younger anymore, kicked a short field goal on fourth and inches on the first drive of the game. That was kind of indicative of some of the red zone failures that allowed Carolina to hang around in that game.

Then you had the Todd Gurley touchdown in the second half and then Koo missing the extra point. Very Falconsest to keep it in an eight-point game. You're like, all right, that's going to come back to get him. Then you have Arthur Blank in his red velvet coat and the shot of him looking sternly on the field. When has that ever gone wrong? for the Falcons during a telecast.

Then you had Todd Gurley, the guy that couldn't stay out of the end zone last week, costing the Falcons a game against the Lions, hopping and skipping to get out of bounds on third down and stopping the clock with three minutes to play and giving Teddy and the Panthers every opportunity in the world. Greg, you and I were texting about that. It looked to me like he chose,

I don't want to get hit here, so I'm going to put that ahead of, not of, of, stopping the clock, so it was almost like a business decision. Or it could be the other thing, Greg, which is this guy just doesn't think right on the field. Either way, it's a bad look. It happens too much. There's a player or two. It's not just that play at the goal line last week.

There's a player or two with Gurley. I've seen some thoughts on Twitter. It's like, ooh, rejuvenation season for Gurley. He's leading to the touchdowns. I was like, no, watch this. He's never getting that $6 million contract again. No, it's nothing personal. It's just not going to happen.

And then finally, the third and 17, after the Panthers get the ball back, DJ Moore somehow gets open for a 30 or 40-yard gain. And you think it's a done deal. But to their credit, the Falcons, they get the sack to back up Teddy, put them in a tough situation, and then they get the interception. So while all of it seems like it was heading toward a very familiar Falcons ending, let's give them some love in what's been a very tough year for closing this game out. Well, it's funny why every Falcons game now,

I don't know why I'm sort of fascinated by this team, but every Falcons game, the announcer, does what Troy Aikman did all night, which is just like, well, if they had just won those three incredibly painful games, this season would be different. But it is true. Like, they've been in, they're not, like, the worst team. Like, even if they had just won two of those three insane losses, they're four and four right now.

And a lot of it is, if you look at the difference between this game and the first Panthers game, which I remember well because I had to cover it for our podcast, is their whole secondary was hurt in that game. They're back, and so they're healthy, and now Raheim Morris feels a little more comfortable cooking up those blitzes and getting crazy. And Teddy never came up with an answer.

They never came up with an answer for that. Oh, and Julio Jones is back. I mean, Julio Jones, like, that makes a pretty big difference. Here's what Julio has done the last three weeks, seven for 137 tonight, even though Calvin Ridley got hurt in the second quarter, eight for 97 last week, eight for 137 the week before. I mean, yeah, it helps when you're like first ballot Hall of Famer is out there with Matt Ryan,

and they know exactly what they're doing. Yeah, he's still that elite dude. And that's why when you talk speculation about are the Falcons ready to blow it up? If Julio Jones was ever made available, I would think a team that was looking for that final piece on offense would give up a first round pick, even at his advanced age, at his position, or something close to it. Yeah, Ridley went out with that ankle injury, which is a bummer. He was off to another fast start, and he's been a guy that's been an automatic, you know, seven for one, 10 in a touchdown every week, it feels like. So it's an ankle injury. You hope it's not something that

stays with him. Brian Burns, I don't know what happened there. He's been a really big part of the Panthers Front seven, and he got a sack that got wiped out by penalty late in the game, and he was reaching on his back. It's kind of hard to tell what that was all about. So that's a big injury. He's a beast. That's why I'm not worried, you know, I think Panthers fans have to be happy with this season, the progress. I mean, they're not going to be a sneaky playoff team. This game was kind of fun for a game now that we know the result that had like zero playoff implication. I mean, the Panthers are not going to be contending. But they, like Burns looks like a top 10 defensive end in the league. That's how well he's playing. Jeremy Chin, Daniel Jeremiah's boy.

We'll give him some love after we buried him in our preview show. was so high on Jeremy Chin, who just won offensive rookie or defensive rookie of the month for the Panthers. So, you know, they've like found some things. They got to feel good about their coaching stuff. You mentioned Blank, though. What did you think about Arthur Blank's look? The jacket, the velvet jacket? It was a lot. I like, I mean, listen, he's an eccentric billionaire. He owns Home Depot. I wasn't into it. And I'm with it. You know, I like it because of the rain. I like that just going down onto the

field and essentially ruining the jacket is a flex in its own way. It's like, you know what? I can do this because it's nothing to me because I have a whole closet of these. Because he's got no one to tell him not to wear it. By the way, Falcon fans... Wait, what's wrong with it? I don't know. I don't know. I look

kind of just crazy. See, if Cam Newton wears it, Greg, you're saying he looks cool and he's got the feather... Some people can pull it off. I don't know. Like, and by the way, Falcons fans, like last week I made, you know, an Arthur Blank on the sideline joke that it's the worst, you know, the scariest six words in sports. And they're like, well, he does that every game. And I'm like, well, yeah, that's the point. Yeah, that's the point. Yeah, that's the point. You guys, you do it every game. Any other takeaways from this ball game, Greg? I do want to point out that the Carolina Panthers defense, which as I mentioned has a couple of players. Derek Brown looks good too. Last forced a punt. late in the fourth quarter against the Chicago Bears in week five.

That was the last time the Panthers defense. It famously sort of got rid of every productive player that they had from a year ago in Luke Heakley retired and drafted all defense and it's just like, as you would say in the second year, a bunch of ham and eggers

and it's like it is coming home to roost a little bit. It's hard to go two and a half weeks without forcing a punt. I don't know if I've ever heard that. That is an insane. that. Just cleaning things up. It looks like Brian Burns did return to the game. I missed that. So that's good news for the Panthers. And, well, you know what? I just got to say, Greg, I got to say you and Sessler were having a little fun at my expense, acting like the Panthers were this all-world being team. That was not true. They were fun. They were fun. And I was saying, my response was, I'm not rooting against the Panthers. I don't have any issues of Matt Rule. I like Matt Rule. He's a New York.

New Jersey guy, but the idea that they were going to be this 12 and 14 just felt a little bit caught up in the moment because now they're 3 and 5 and they go to Kansas City next week and then they host the Bucks. So look out. No, they're done. I mean, watching them, they've overachieved. I truly never believed they would be a 12th. I thought they could maybe be an 8 and 8 fun team. And my belief though in Rule, and even their defensive coaching staff, who I think has done a pretty good job with, you know, You know, is there. Like, I think they got a good foundation.

I think you're just salty because Matt Rule and Robbie Anderson could have been the combo with the Jets. No, I really, it's not, it's not that at all. I, the Robbie thing annoys me, but I don't, I want to see him do well. I liked Robbie Anderson as a player. And Rule, I like Matt Ruhl. I wish he was the Jets coach, but it's not like, it's like, we lost that on Bill Belichick, I guess was my point. Because I've done that too, and that's not fun. All right.

good stuff good talk next time you hear from us it will be Sunday night where we recap every Thursday game and like Greg said make sure you check out the Thursday preview show Greg and Daniel Jeremiah

in a sneak attack for the ages really went back and forth and then DJ who felt you know we talk about cornered animal games on the show like a cornered animal he just started hitting out on everyone on the show So, you know, character was exposed there. But thank you for coming on the show, DJ.

All right. That's it. Till Sunday, night. This is an Ihaught podcast. podcast.