Latest / Mac & Bone Podcast / Willie's World: Panthers Loss, Charlotte FC Stays Hot & Swine of the Week
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is.
- 0:10Speaker 2: I'm Will Pelagic. All right, let's do this. We got
- 0:19Speaker 2: so much to talk about with the P-Man. We got
- 0:23Speaker 2: a fast food item to bring up with the P-Man.
- 0:26Speaker 2: We got Charlotte FC still unbeaten in seven, although, man,
- 0:30Speaker 2: they had that 3-2 lead late before Cincinnati made it
- 0:34Speaker 2: a 3-3 draw. And, of course, we got all kind
- 0:36Speaker 2: of Panther stuff. And it's very exciting. I get to
- 0:39Speaker 2: talk to Willie about a Giro of Arrow in his defense.
- 0:42Speaker 2: That's fun. It was just like it was fun in
- 0:44Speaker 2: the press box on Sunday. P-Man, what's going on, baby?
- 0:49Speaker 2: What's happening today, P?
- 0:51Speaker 3: I'll be taking care of our first baseman, Mac. That
- 0:54Speaker 3: was really special last night.
- 0:56Speaker 4: We want you to use that for your swine today.
- 0:58Speaker 1: We want you to go off and swine.
- 1:00Speaker 4: No, no.
- 1:01Speaker 3: You got another swine. I got somebody else. I got
- 1:04Speaker 3: somebody else.
- 1:05Speaker 1: You got another swine.
- 1:07Speaker 3: You'll like this one. It's something you guys have talked about.
- 1:09Speaker 1: Okay, okay. Can I just say I love Pete Alonzo?
- 1:12Speaker 2: I don't mean to talk about your ex-girlfriend in front
- 1:14Speaker 2: of you, but, man, what a guy in the clubhouse.
- 1:16Speaker 1: What a pro.
- 1:17Speaker 3: Listen, I didn't want– I didn't want the girlfriend to leave.
- 1:21Speaker 3: It's because daddy dumb bucks and, uh, the boy wonder, uh,
- 1:24Speaker 3: stat dummy, uh, didn't decide they wanted to pay him.
- 1:27Speaker 3: It's okay though. It's all right.
- 1:31Speaker 1: Oh man.
- 1:32Speaker 2: Uh, and then the inside to park home run to
- 1:35Speaker 2: beat y'all where your center theater falls down.
- 1:36Speaker 1: God, it was funny.
- 1:39Speaker 3: It's a persona vacation of these Mets. What happens when
- 1:43Speaker 3: bacon or rocket poops in the, uh, inside? What are
- 1:46Speaker 3: you supposed to do with them? You're supposed to rub
- 1:49Speaker 3: their face in it. I hope that this is the
- 1:51Speaker 3: rubbing of the face. I hope that David Stearns has
- 1:55Speaker 3: to look at that pile of poop and just have
- 1:57Speaker 3: his face rubbed all up in it. That's what I want.
- 2:01Speaker 1: When Murphy does it, he tries to rub my face
- 2:02Speaker 1: in it.
- 2:04Speaker 3: Your household runs a little bit differently.
- 2:08Speaker 1: We know who's in charge here.
- 2:10Speaker 3: You're learning as a pit owner or whatever he is.
- 2:14Speaker 1: Bulldog, bulldog, bulldog.
- 2:15Speaker 3: Bulldog owner, as a bulldog owner.
- 2:18Speaker 2: All right, so let's start with the Panther game. You
- 2:21Speaker 2: can't deny the defense was horrible. I actually thought P
- 2:25Speaker 2: on Sunday on the post game. I always listen on
- 2:27Speaker 2: my ride home. I actually thought you were going to
- 2:29Speaker 2: go off on a Vero and Lord knows you had
- 2:32Speaker 2: plenty of ammo. Cause that was one of those most
- 2:34Speaker 2: pathetic things I have ever seen from one side of
- 2:36Speaker 2: the ball for the Carolina Panthers. Maybe the most pathetic
- 2:39Speaker 2: day you were kind of reserved. What's your, what were
- 2:42Speaker 2: your feelings on the defense and the blame? And why
- 2:45Speaker 2: did you not like go scorched earth on a Vero
- 2:48Speaker 2: on Sunday?
- 2:49Speaker 3: Yeah. Because I'm pacing myself and we have 17 weeks
- 2:52Speaker 3: to go. No, because here's the thing, because in the
- 2:58Speaker 3: games where I'm frustrated with a Juro Vero, like certain
- 3:02Speaker 3: things happen, like the death by a thousand paper cuts
- 3:05Speaker 3: drives where you can't get off the field or, you know,
- 3:08Speaker 3: getting beat with consistent tight end play. We did have
- 3:12Speaker 3: the one characteristic that is kind of personifying of the
- 3:15Speaker 3: Juro Vero team, Whereas a team just completely blows you
- 3:18Speaker 3: off the ball, running the football. So that is one thing.
- 3:21Speaker 3: And if there is one thing other than that, that
- 3:23Speaker 3: I would, I would quibble with is that you basically
- 3:25Speaker 3: had three choices. When you were a zero of arrow,
- 3:27Speaker 3: you could play your base and let everything happen in
- 3:30Speaker 3: front of you. Like they usually do. You could blitz,
- 3:32Speaker 3: which is what he did 54% of the time. Like
- 3:34Speaker 3: you said, uh, with the PFF numbers, or you could
- 3:37Speaker 3: play your base with a spy and, uh, I think
- 3:40Speaker 3: there was not enough of that base with a spy
- 3:42Speaker 3: type look. So if there was one criticism of him,
- 3:44Speaker 3: I would say that probably was maybe not disguising or
- 3:48Speaker 3: doing enough variant type stuff to try and keep Caleb
- 3:51Speaker 3: Williams off balance. I did think that they actually adjusted
- 3:55Speaker 3: when it came to the lack of contain with some
- 3:58Speaker 3: of the things after the first two, three drives. because
- 4:01Speaker 3: you did see them really trying to swallow them up
- 4:03Speaker 3: in the pocket.
- 4:03Speaker 1: They were trying.
- 4:04Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 4:05Speaker 3: A lot, a lot, a lot of this, I come
- 4:07Speaker 3: down to execution issues. Like this has to, the same stuff.
- 4:11Speaker 3: When you go 59 points, it's not just the coordinator.
- 4:14Speaker 3: There's gotta be some pride in the players. There's gotta
- 4:16Speaker 3: be some, you know, execution that happens at a much
- 4:19Speaker 3: higher level. And, and I'm sorry, you're a 31 31.
- 4:22Speaker 3: Derek Brown can't make that play the way that he did.
- 4:25Speaker 3: And he can't jump off sides on the interception. I
- 4:28Speaker 3: understand that Bobby Brown ran it out of the back
- 4:30Speaker 3: of the end zone. So they probably would have had,
- 4:32Speaker 3: you know, themselves pinned back to the two or three
- 4:35Speaker 3: yard line. I get all that, but, I more look
- 4:39Speaker 3: at that as an execution issue. And you know me.
- 4:42Speaker 3: I do not need an excuse. I do not need
- 4:45Speaker 3: an excuse to get on a Girovero. And I am
- 4:47Speaker 3: not giving him a pass. I think there are plenty
- 4:49Speaker 3: of things to criticize him for. But to say this
- 4:51Speaker 3: is all on him, I think it's a pie chart.
- 4:53Speaker 3: I think it's probably 40% him, 40% the players, and
- 4:57Speaker 3: we also have to consider the opponent. Look at Dan
- 5:00Speaker 3: Orlovsky looking at the tape from Sunday. Caleb Williams is
- 5:04Speaker 3: making throws that quite frankly, he would do against the
- 5:08Speaker 3: best defenses in the league. He got guys who were,
- 5:11Speaker 3: you know, way up on coverage when it came to that.
- 5:13Speaker 3: So I think you have to give, you tip your
- 5:15Speaker 3: hat to the opponent a little bit as much as
- 5:17Speaker 3: we hate to do so because that head coach is
- 5:19Speaker 3: smarmy and we don't like him. But I think it's
- 5:22Speaker 3: a situation where a confluence of issues led to the
- 5:25Speaker 3: Panthers looking like that on defense on Sunday.
- 5:27Speaker 4: On the offensive side, what did you like the most
- 5:30Speaker 4: and what do you think is most sustainable and can
- 5:33Speaker 4: carry over to other weeks?
- 5:36Speaker 3: Well, I love Bryce, obviously. That's kind of the main thing.
- 5:40Speaker 3: He looked very poised. He was very, very good on
- 5:43Speaker 3: the run and mobile. I think that you were able
- 5:46Speaker 3: to kind of scheme some guys open, and we saw
- 5:48Speaker 3: a lot of that, particularly with the tight ends. I
- 5:51Speaker 3: loved his connection with Jalen Coker. That's something that I
- 5:55Speaker 3: think is incredibly good to see. But there were a
- 5:57Speaker 3: couple things, though, that I still was kind of concerned about.
- 6:01Speaker 3: I didn't like how it seemed that The Bears were
- 6:03Speaker 3: able to so easily take Tedder or McMillan out of
- 6:05Speaker 3: the football game. That's part of the reason maybe that
- 6:07Speaker 3: we saw such a big game from Coker because Bryce
- 6:10Speaker 3: is not going to try to force it to somebody
- 6:11Speaker 3: who's covered. He's going to try to hit the open man.
- 6:14Speaker 3: I didn't like how much or how early we get
- 6:16Speaker 3: up on the run. That's something that's a harken back
- 6:19Speaker 3: to Dave Canales' time as a play caller. I really,
- 6:23Speaker 3: really hope that they can be more stubborn with the
- 6:24Speaker 3: run because that's only going to open up the play
- 6:26Speaker 3: action a heck of a lot more. I saw somebody
- 6:29Speaker 3: put a stat out there. The play action numbers for
- 6:32Speaker 3: Bryce last year, were just horror-awful. But in the first
- 6:36Speaker 3: game on Sunday, they were some of the best he's
- 6:38Speaker 3: had in his career.
- 6:39Speaker 2: Number one PFF grade on play action in the league.
- 6:44Speaker 2: You're not getting a number by Mack on this week. Yeah,
- 6:46Speaker 2: but Walker had a bunch of good ones, too, on Twitter.
- 6:49Speaker 2: I was in the room when they were volleying back
- 6:51Speaker 2: and forth.
- 6:53Speaker 3: That's who it was who I saw tweeted. I'll give
- 6:55Speaker 3: credit to the mailman on that one. But no, I
- 6:59Speaker 3: think that it wasn't a perfect performance. I do disagree
- 7:02Speaker 3: with Dave Canales and said that they didn't do enough
- 7:04Speaker 3: to win the football game. And I like that KB
- 7:06Speaker 3: pushed back on him on that in the post-game press conference.
- 7:09Speaker 3: So I think you score 38 points in this league,
- 7:12Speaker 3: you should beat a lot of teams. And if that
- 7:14Speaker 3: carries over, hopefully the defense gets its collective you-know-what together
- 7:18Speaker 3: and they play to at least closer to the form.
- 7:23Speaker 3: And one last thing I'll say on them, you know,
- 7:25Speaker 3: The reason why people are pissed, it's not because of
- 7:28Speaker 3: the man in charge. I don't think it's because– I
- 7:30Speaker 3: don't have people who have residual things about the man
- 7:32Speaker 3: in charge, myself included. But it's because this was the
- 7:36Speaker 3: first offseason where you felt like you actually spent and
- 7:39Speaker 3: dedicated assets to that side of the football. And for
- 7:42Speaker 3: it to look like that is incredibly disappointing and unacceptable.
- 7:45Speaker 1: Big time.
- 7:46Speaker 2: We were sitting here touting the top ten unit, and
- 7:47Speaker 2: we'll see where it lies. I'm not writing them off
- 7:49Speaker 2: just yet. But I was in utter shock to see
- 7:51Speaker 2: them be that bad. And I know the Bears' offense
- 7:54Speaker 2: is great. but my God, that was disgusting to watch.
- 7:57Speaker 1: I'm not... It felt like the New.
- 7:58Speaker 3: England game last year. It felt like the New England.
- 8:00Speaker 1: Game last year.
- 8:01Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't want people to think that I wasn't
- 8:04Speaker 2: furious with it and I don't have a huge issue
- 8:06Speaker 2: with it. I just think the whole fire the guy
- 8:08Speaker 2: after week one, like... Um, I that's, that's where I'm
- 8:11Speaker 2: kind of like, Hey, let's, let's get to the bi-week
- 8:14Speaker 2: and evaluate. Like if it stinks by the bi-week with
- 8:17Speaker 2: the additions they brought in, we got a real, we
- 8:20Speaker 2: got a conversation to play in the next.
- 8:22Speaker 3: Two weeks, to play the next two weeks. If it
- 8:25Speaker 3: looks like this against the Browns, then the, then the,
- 8:29Speaker 3: then the, then the Tiki torches and the pitchforks are
- 8:31Speaker 3: coming down.
- 8:31Speaker 2: I would say this, if they stink bone against the,
- 8:35Speaker 2: and Willie against Atlanta, and the Browns with their quarterback situations,
- 8:39Speaker 2: I will go down to Avero's office and ask him
- 8:42Speaker 2: to come out of it personally.
- 8:44Speaker 1: All right? Because there is no excuse.
- 8:46Speaker 2: You've got to get this thing back stabilized over the
- 8:50Speaker 2: next couple of weeks. P, as far as Charlotte FC goes,
- 8:54Speaker 2: we'll save the food question, and I know you have
- 8:57Speaker 2: a swine that you want to get to. But let's
- 9:00Speaker 2: talk about Charlotte FC. Yeah, I mean, I'm a bit
- 9:06Speaker 2: bummed they couldn't finish it. But I don't know. In
- 9:11Speaker 2: that venue, the way that they didn't have a lot
- 9:14Speaker 2: of the ball and were outplayed in a lot of ways,
- 9:18Speaker 2: it wasn't a bad result. Like, what did you think
- 9:20Speaker 2: about the Cincinnati game? And how are you feeling about
- 9:23Speaker 2: where FC is right now?
- 9:25Speaker 3: It was incredibly evident that the team was gassed at
- 9:28Speaker 3: the end of that contest. Having to play defense as
- 9:31Speaker 3: much as they did, and it's unfortunate that the two
- 9:34Speaker 3: goals you gave up were basically mental errors off of
- 9:37Speaker 3: set pieces. One off the second phase of a set piece,
- 9:40Speaker 3: and one with Kevin Denke somehow not being marked in
- 9:43Speaker 3: the box. I asked Dean Smith about it on Monday.
- 9:45Speaker 3: He said, you know... I think he should go to
- 9:48Speaker 3: Jabril Gianni. There were a couple of other guys who
- 9:51Speaker 3: could have stepped to him. There was also Kalina who
- 9:53Speaker 3: could have stepped to the cross as well and got
- 9:56Speaker 3: it before Denke even saw it. So there's that part
- 9:59Speaker 3: of it. So I think that you had a team
- 10:02Speaker 3: that was at the end of a very, very long stretch.
- 10:04Speaker 3: They played eight games in the month of August. They
- 10:05Speaker 3: had a three-game week to start the month of September.
- 10:09Speaker 3: And I think it's one of those things where you
- 10:11Speaker 3: just got yourself to a point where between that and
- 10:14Speaker 3: being down as many numbers as there were, two guys
- 10:16Speaker 3: with suspensions, a couple of guys with injuries, you just
- 10:19Speaker 3: didn't really have a full deck to be able to
- 10:21Speaker 3: go out and replace those guys and rotate after the midweek.
- 10:24Speaker 3: And I think... one of the things Dean Smith says
- 10:27Speaker 3: is that if you can average two points a contest,
- 10:29Speaker 3: you're doing all right. So, you know, four point week
- 10:31Speaker 3: with two road games, that's a heck of a lot
- 10:33Speaker 3: better than the squad has done in their history over
- 10:35Speaker 3: the course of it. I mean, so I, and not
- 10:38Speaker 3: with everything withstanding, they ended up moving up a spot
- 10:41Speaker 3: as a result of that draw. You know, they're at
- 10:43Speaker 3: one point ahead of Chicago. Chicago does have a game
- 10:45Speaker 3: in hand, but you do have a head to head
- 10:47Speaker 3: with them. coming up here in two weeks. And again,
- 10:50Speaker 3: that might not feature Robert Lewandowski because it's over an
- 10:53Speaker 3: international break. So there's a lot that's happening in the
- 10:57Speaker 3: positive for Charlotte in that factor. Harry Toffolo is back
- 11:00Speaker 3: on the grass. I'm about to talk to him here
- 11:02Speaker 3: in just a couple of minutes for our pregame on Saturday.
- 11:04Speaker 3: So maybe you get Toffolo back, you get Archie Goodwin back, Liel, Maxie.
- 11:10Speaker 3: I think they're firing on all cylinders. Seven in a
- 11:13Speaker 3: row unbeaten. There's nothing to sneeze at. It's not what
- 11:15Speaker 3: Philadelphia or St. Louis is doing. It's not the best
- 11:17Speaker 3: form in the league right now, but it certainly is
- 11:20Speaker 3: up there, and they're peaking at the right time, which
- 11:22Speaker 3: is something you definitely want to see, especially in a
- 11:24Speaker 3: very large slog of road games. which the MLS schedule
- 11:28Speaker 3: maker did not do them any favors. Two three-game road
- 11:31Speaker 3: trips in the final two months of the season. When
- 11:32Speaker 3: do we tick off? When do we tick off?
- 11:34Speaker 2: I blame it on you. I blame it on you.
- 11:36Speaker 2: I think they hear you bashing their refs, and they
- 11:37Speaker 2: did this because of it.
- 11:40Speaker 3: They deserve it.
- 11:41Speaker 1: Yes, I'm with you.
- 11:42Speaker 3: They deserve it. God, I'm with you on that.
- 11:45Speaker 1: Should we ask? We've got to ask about this.
- 11:47Speaker 2: Here's the thing.
- 11:48Speaker 3: Nobody involved with Charlotte FC. And I said, does the
- 11:53Speaker 3: league care about this issue? Like, do they willing to
- 11:57Speaker 3: spend the money? And he said to me flat out,
- 11:58Speaker 3: they don't. So if that's the case, if they don't care,
- 12:03Speaker 3: Why should I care about the way that they should
- 12:07Speaker 3: be criticized?
- 12:07Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I like it. I like it, P. I
- 12:10Speaker 1: like it.
- 12:11Speaker 2: P-Man, before your swine, we noticed something online. I had
- 12:17Speaker 2: this sent to me. Not Martha Stewart.
- 12:19Speaker 1: No, that turned out to be a false alarm. Dr. Pepper.
- 12:24Speaker 1: This is Slim Chickens. Dr. Pepper.
- 12:28Speaker 2: Dry rub chicken tenders. These chicken tenders are coated in
- 12:32Speaker 2: a new Dr. Pepper dry rub. Do you, are you,
- 12:37Speaker 2: is your interest peaked or do you think that tastes
- 12:39Speaker 2: bad or sounds bad?
- 12:40Speaker 3: I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't
- 12:42Speaker 3: mess with Dr. Pepper. So you're not going to, you're
- 12:43Speaker 3: not going to get me on that.
- 12:45Speaker 1: With Mr. Pibb, if they did Mr. Pibb, but cheer wine, maybe.
- 12:47Speaker 3: I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't,
- 12:50Speaker 3: I don't mess with any sodas that have a, a
- 12:54Speaker 3: salutation above them. No.
- 12:56Speaker 1: So Mr. Pibb is out?
- 12:59Speaker 3: No Dr. Pepper, no Mr. Pibb, no Dr.
- 13:02Speaker 2: Thunder.
- 13:02Speaker 3: Dr.
- 13:04Speaker 1: Thunder is the Food Lion brand, right?
- 13:07Speaker 3: Yes.
- 13:08Speaker 1: What is that?
- 13:09Speaker 2: That's the Food Lion generic store brand.
- 13:12Speaker 3: I used to bag a lot of Dr.
- 13:13Speaker 4: Thunders back in my day. Dr.
- 13:20Speaker 1: Thunder, when you love a good Dr. Pepper, but you broke.
- 13:25Speaker 3: Willie knows Soda Ball, okay?
- 13:27Speaker 4: I think that was the Mountain Dew for Food Lion.
- 13:30Speaker 4: Wasn't it called Mountain Lion, I think? Mountain Lightning, wasn't it?
- 13:32Speaker 1: Mountain Lightning, yeah.
- 13:34Speaker 2: I saw that, too. Listen, I'm poor as dirt, too.
- 13:37Speaker 2: I don't want you to think I'm not, but I
- 13:39Speaker 2: got a spring for the dew. I can't go for
- 13:40Speaker 2: the lightning.
- 13:41Speaker 3: Can we get a cherry lemon sundrop dry rub? I mean,
- 13:44Speaker 3: I'm ready for that.
- 13:45Speaker 1: Oh, you're open to that. Okay.
- 13:46Speaker 2: Well, I'll talk to my people over there at Slim's.
- 13:48Speaker 2: We'll see what happens. Let's go for your swine, Willie.
- 13:51Speaker 3: That's fine. Swan has to be the people at McClatchy
- 13:56Speaker 3: for doing what they did to Rod Boone. I'm sorry.
- 13:58Speaker 3: And what they're doing to journalism. You now have two
- 14:02Speaker 3: teams without a beat writer who are part of your
- 14:05Speaker 3: paper portfolio in Sacramento, which is where their company is
- 14:08Speaker 3: headquartered in Sacramento. And their flagship paper is not going
- 14:12Speaker 3: to have a person covering them in the only sports
- 14:17Speaker 3: team in that town. The Charlotte Hornets came here in 1988.
- 14:21Speaker 3: They've had somebody covering them dedicatedly since 1987. And to
- 14:26Speaker 3: put that team without a beat writer is shameful, shambolic.
- 14:31Speaker 3: It's also insulting to Rod Boone, somebody who was a
- 14:33Speaker 3: hustler who, after he got his job eliminated at the Athletic,
- 14:36Speaker 3: kept going, kept trying to do stuff on his own.
- 14:39Speaker 3: And he was a dedicated person on the beat to
- 14:42Speaker 3: the point where he earned that job. after Rick Bunnell
- 14:45Speaker 3: sadly passed away a couple of years ago. Amen. I
- 14:47Speaker 3: don't understand how the heck they feel like they're going
- 14:49Speaker 3: to have independent coverage of the team without a daily
- 14:52Speaker 3: beat writer. They already had slacked off on traveling their
- 14:55Speaker 3: guys on the road. So this kind of had been coming.
- 14:58Speaker 3: But man, oh man, just an absolutely shameful decision.
- 15:01Speaker 1: I hate it.
- 15:02Speaker 3: And a terrible bastion of journalism that McClatchy is. I
- 15:05Speaker 3: canceled my Observer two days ago. And I encourage you
- 15:10Speaker 3: to do the same.
- 15:11Speaker 2: That's strong from the P-Man. I hate it for Rod.
- 15:13Speaker 2: Great talent and a great guy. Well said.
- 15:15Speaker 1: You rock, P-Man. We'll talk to you, baby.
- 15:18Speaker 2: Thanks, guys.