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Mac & Bone Show - Jim Szoke Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Go on and bury me.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: We are rocking and rolling. It is a Panther victory Monday.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: It is a beautiful day, ladies and gentlemen. And Jim
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Zoki is with us, as he is every Monday at
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: this time, Panthers Radio Network.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: He walked in here with a little bit of bounce
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to his step. Man. This is going to be a
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: fun Monday conversation.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: What's going on? What is going on with this team?
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Last week, we're talking about 59-30. What, 37 the wrong direction?
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: As I said when the show began, so nothing says
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: NFL more than the Panthers allowing three this week and
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: the Bears scoring three.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: It's Minnesota.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: I kind of like love the Vikings for, you know.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Clam and Ben Johnson up for a week after. One
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: of the most points in the history of football.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Now they may lose Caleb Williams for an extended period
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: with a hamstring injury.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So we'll see what happens.
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: But even that happened like mid-fourth quarter.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: That was late. Yeah, that was late. And they had
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: been struggling and held the three points with him for.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Three and a half quarters. Hey, let's call the Chicago stations.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Let's wake them up.
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: Let's see what's going on in Chicago.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I like this. Zoki Prey call another station. Zoki's feeling feisty, baby.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I like this, man.
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: This is Tom from Peoria. I was wondering.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Let's call the Chicago stations. Zoki, you unplug.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, I hear they're so mad in Chicago this morning,
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: they said, Indiana, take them. Go ahead and take them.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Build your stadium.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: So we were talking during the break about Bryce Young.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: What a start to the season. Three more touchdown passes.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: He continues to push the ball downfield. What do you think?
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Is Brad Idzik the No. 1 difference for Bryce? Is
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: it just Bryce being in this system for another year?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It's probably a lot of things. Credit all that. Yeah,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: credit all that and more.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: And I think with– Dave Kadalis was talking yesterday about
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Bryce's development, and he talked about– and I love this phrase.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: It kind of stood out of all the things I
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: heard yesterday after the game. Bryce's offense. I mean, he's
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: calling it Bryce's offense. And the way he deals in
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: practice with the receivers about– route adjustments and nuances and
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: things with the chemistry. And obviously so much is timing
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: involved that, you know, it takes the guy on the
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: field as much as you can play design and all that.
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: And Brad Izzik obviously is doing a great job dialing
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: up the plays. You have to function in it. And
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: it's Bryce's offense that he's orchestrating out there. And we
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: kind of talked, you know, in the past, like, you know,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: that whole mentality about, you know, distributing the ball and just,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: you know, being accurate and kind of, you know, in
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: terms of like managing the game and dinking and dunking.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: But you said it a moment ago, The deep passes,
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: he was five out of seven on the deep passes yesterday,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: 160 yards.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: And under duress.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, there were times he's been taking the first
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: two weeks, he's been taking some big hits. And it's
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: not too much. It's not like, oh, he can't absorb that.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I mean, he's standing in the pocket when needed to,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: getting out when he also can, but doing all the things.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: There's nothing that is like, you're limiting down or simplifying
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: or keeping it small ball as far as.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: The way they're playing the offense right now.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: How shrewd of a signing was Waller, especially when you
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: look at how much he opens things up in the
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: red zone area?
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, doing exactly what you hoped and anticipated
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: he would be as a red zone threat in particular,
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: and he'll be other factors in that too, but he
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: gets three catches and two of them go for touchdowns yesterday.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: And again, it's not always going to work out that
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: way exactly, but what a threat. And if it's not,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: what a great decoy to get it to, you know,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: TMAC or somebody else and so forth. So I think, yeah,
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: having Waller in there as just another option. is just, again,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: enhances what you can do and opens up the playbook
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: for what you can create out there.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Big time.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And Waller also talked about the cerebral in practice part
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: of Bryce. Apparently, he and Waller on Friday after practice
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: spent some time together. And Waller said, Bryce talked me
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: through that exact look on his second touchdown that they got.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: He said, he went through it, and what I want
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: you to do, he said, I did it. Did what
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Bryce told me, because I saw the look, and he
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: gave it to me. And how about the ball placement
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: on that second touchdown to Waller? Like, knowing the defender
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: is coming back from the outside, so I'm going to
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: put it behind him, but inside, but still catchable?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like, it's stuff like that that gets you excited.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: That's different level stuff.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: It is.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: He's doing different level stuff, and man, it is fun.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: And then we hadn't even talked about the defense bouncing back.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: And I understand it was against a couple of quarterbacks
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: that are stinky. There's no doubt about that. But that
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: was good to see. And Devin Lloyd.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: We're down a few players on defense. No doubt. No doubt.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: And that Devin Lloyd performance was, talk about dominating a game, man.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: And then you think, too, like not only did he
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: have the two interceptions and the pick six, he deflected
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: the one that Okereke got. So he actually literally had
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: his hand in all three interceptions yesterday. Yeah. He and
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: Okereke together, the two inside linebackers, tied for the most
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: tackles in the game. Okereke, again, forced a fumble last
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: week in the game against Chicago. He gets an interception.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Lloyd with a sack in this game on top of
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: everything else that he did. That was like a position
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: of such concern moving into this offseason, and now you've
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: got to go through two games like, do we have
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: one of the— top three or so inside pairings of
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: linebackers in the league with the way those two guys
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: are playing right now.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: They still have Dodson, who wasn't active yesterday, but I
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: think he's a baller, too. You know, they got a nice— now, unfortunately,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: he lost chairless.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: That injury looked nasty on the replay. Yeah, that was gross. God,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I hope he's all right. I'm glad Tom Brady wasn't
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: calling our game. Jim, how difficult? What would he have said?
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Brady would have cussed. There's no doubt about it. Holy,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I've never seen that.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: That was a very human moment from Tom Brady, though.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: I will say a very human reaction to Tom Brady.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: What about Tom Brady's description for that deep ball by
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Dak in the second half? I don't even know if
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: we're allowed to say it on the air. Yeah, I
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: don't know about that one. Side of caution, maybe, on
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: that one. He said P-missile, but he said P-I-S-S, missile.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: I have never heard that in my life from a
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: broadcaster on TV.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: In the middle of the game. It's Tom Brady.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: There's no rules.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: What the hell was Brady on yesterday?
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: Zoki, when you talk about all-time linebacker performances by Panthers,
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: how telling is it and how hard is it for
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: Devin Lloyd to get in that discussion when you think
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: about the historical nature of the position he's playing for
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: the Carolina Panthers with Sam Mills, with Dan Morgan.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: With Keith Lee, with TD.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: But they all have their moments in Panther war. And
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: this guy in game two puts himself, I'm not saying
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: that's equal in terms of career but individual performances that's way.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Up there well i mean that's panthers history and then
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: dave canalis again said in his 17 years coaching he's
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: never seen a better performance by a linebacker so to
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: me you know that says it all right there but
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: yeah this is a great lineage of going all the
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: way back to year one with sam mills and then
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: lamar latham kevin green of all the great linebackers you've
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: had through the the history of this this franchise he
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: does everything and and beyond because you have to also
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: think about the fact he's the green dot he's a
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: communicator and he's out there working as kind of the
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: connector of that defense in addition to how well he's
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: playing out there, which, again, not comparing careers, but that's
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: what Luke Kuechly was like. That's what Greg Olson was
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: like on offense, guys that would communicate and get other
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: people aligned around them to help make the whole team better.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Big time, man. What a signing that is.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: Good point by Joe and Raleigh on the text line.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: He also points out offense is rolling. And Icky and Moten,
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: the stalwart tackles, have not played yet this year.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I thought the tackles struggled a bit yesterday.
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: And again, we talked about the pressure on Bryce, so
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: there are areas of improvement still.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and all the penalties on the offense and the
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: offensive line. Rob Hunt with three, Trimble had two. But yeah, Bone,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: the tackles yesterday, I don't know what PFF's final numbers
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: will be, but they do like a live in-game stuff.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: And when the game finished, they had Freeling with the
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: sack allowed. and four pressures. They had Walker with a
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: sack allowed and six pressures. So there's no doubt that
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: the pass protection wasn't great, that the penalties hurt this offense,
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: but they still.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: Put up 34.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: That's the cool thing about it. That shows you what
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the potential could be. We could be the highest scoring
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: team in NFL history.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: That's right, Ben Johnson, we're coming for you. A lot
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: of it was in the second half because they didn't
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: really start. I mean, I did the first half, yes, but...
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: They didn't really start out like a house of fire
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: either offensively. They had the lead, but it was like,
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: they've got to tend to nothing. Should have been more
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: early on.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: Well, again, you'd like to think you'd have the running
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: game because that takes so much pressure off the pass game.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: So even without a big running day, and maybe Atlanta's
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: kind of picking their poison with that, trying to take
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: the running game away. The Panthers still, again, to your point,
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: put up 34 points, had plenty on that one. So
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: I thought it was just, again, it's nice to see
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: that you can play that well And again, I don't
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: feel sorry for anybody else's injuries. I mean, some of
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: theirs occurred during the offseason where they had time to
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: kind of regroup. Panthers in training camp, I mean, we're
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: just losing key.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Guys and starters.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: To his credit, Aaron Hall starting the game, undrafted rookie
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: at defensive line in this game.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And he gets a fumble recovery in the game, first one.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: He played six tackles.
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: Zachy Wheatley's first rep in the NFL is a forced fumble.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: How about that punch? Like an inch off the ground,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: he's punching the damn ball out. That was a hell
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: of a play, man.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't all like.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: you know, Devin Lloyd and, you know, Jalen Phillips who
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: had a sack. It wasn't all like the big free
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: agent signings. You've got rookies that are playing that are even...
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: first-day draft picks or draft picks at all that are
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: contributing to the win yesterday.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Big time. Big time. No doubt about it. I thought
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: we had Zaki Wheatley, but apparently we have Zaki Wheatley also,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: I guess. It's Zaki Wheatley. He's got multiple names. I
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: had no idea until recently.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: They said it wrong his entire college career because he
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: played at Penn State.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: So, you know, I watched him play. Well, ETN became
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: A-chan this year. That's true. That's true.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: How many– I believe there is such a large number
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: of guys whose names are being pronounced incorrectly and they
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: just go with it for a while.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: I interviewed Zaki Wheatley in training camp. And I said,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: does anyone ever just call you Zach? And I thought
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: the answer was going to be yes. Like it says, Zachy,
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: does anyone ever just say Zach Wheatley? He goes, no.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: And don't you do it again. Don't you dare do
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: it again. That is right, Zachy. Nobody does call you Zach.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: That is hilarious.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Multiple people pointing out that we have scored more points
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: so far than Ben Johnson's high-flying greatest offense ever. Are
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: we allowed to laugh, though, at somebody that put up
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: 59 on us last week?
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: It's not even close, actually.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: It's 71-62.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: It's a new week.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: Do whatever you want.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Week-to-week league, baby. I don't even remember last week. Oh,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: my gosh. Did we play last week? Did that one count?
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: This texter says, Bryce Young spreading the ball around to
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: eight different receivers is so key.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: And XL catching that deep one is big.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: Was that like a moment like you're like the dad
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: in the stands and the ball's in the air?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: So nervous. Catch it, Timmy! Timmy, catch it! And he does.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, because the whole time you're thinking, I.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Was so worried. I was so worried.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: And it looked.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: It's so funny. Catch it, Timmy. That was a great comparison.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting there with Eugene.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: We're all watching that Joe Rogan meme where they're doing the.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Catch it.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: You got it.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: That is so funny.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: And the way he caught it, I think he was
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: worried about it, too, because I thought he could have
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: gone in standing up.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: It seemed like he kind of went to the ground
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: just to kind of pull it in tight.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: And holding it over the top of his shoulder, like
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: away from the ground, so it wouldn't be like.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: I know you were busy calling the game, but did
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: you hear about the TV malfunction where... I don't know
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: if it was on all platforms. I was on YouTube TV.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: I don't know if everyone had this problem. Yeah, I
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: think it was just a Fox problem because people were
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: going off on Twitter. The Jets-Packers audio came over the broadcast.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: I saw that, yeah.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: And then it would go to sometimes the Vikings-Bears broadcast. Yeah,
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: then Vikings-Bears came in.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: I must have messed you up when the Jets were
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: always so involved. I've got to be honest with you.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I was kind of like, you know what? I can
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: kind of deal with this a little bit. I've got
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the Jets audio, the Panthers audio. Multitasking. Here's a Gamecocks
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: replay for you. Hey, whoa, hey, whoa. Hey, hey, hey, hey.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Hey, hey.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Mr.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: ECU gets one comfort body win.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: That's right. It was a big weekend. Today's a pro day, Zoka.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Let me enjoy the weekend. All right, Zoki, you're the man.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: All right, guys, enjoy. Enjoy your victory. Oh, man. God,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: it's a lot. You can tell Zoki likes this a
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: lot more.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: Could have used a state of Carolina joke there as well, Zoki.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: There are multiple ways he could have went with some
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: of those Saturday afternoon blown leads.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Zoki's got a pep in his step there.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: He likes the victory Mondays. I'm convinced, Bone, that Zoki
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: would rather be waterboarded than come in here on Mondays
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: and talk after losses.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Is that an option? Is that on the menu of options?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Why don't you take that? That would be a hell
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: of a social media video. Oh, man. All right, Zog,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: enjoy Cleveland. Oh, yes, right. It will be included. Oh,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the Soaky Bowl.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: I'm going from Greenville to Cleveland next week, so I
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: got a game there, and there were no flights between
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Raleigh and Charlotte, so I'm driving to Washington, D.C. to
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: fly Sunday morning to Cleveland from Greenville.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Love of the game. Not Washington, North Carolina. Washington, D.C.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Damn.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, my. That's a plane, trains, and automobiles situation for you. Exactly.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I don't have the Kirk Herbstreit deal.