The Dan Patrick ShowDan recaps Monday Night Football and the many failures by the Philadelphia Eagles in the final minutes. NFL insider Sal Paolantonio discusses Philadelphia's chances in their upcoming games against the Saints and Bucs. And The Charlotte Observer's Scott Fowler discusses the Panthers decision to bench QB Bryce Young and wonders who they will pick first in the NFL Draft next season.
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Who saw that coming last night? The Eagles with a chance to wrap it up and a third and three, And if you were watching the Manning cast, Peyton, Eli, and Matt Ryan all three said the ball is not going to go in the air. Now they were saying this before the end result, because once again we can have revisionist history of oh, you never throw the ball. Saquon needs to make that catch. Didn't make that catch, the drop and then they kicked the field goal. You give the Falcons a chance. And what Eli and Peyton and Matt Ryan all said, you don't put the ball in the air. That's the only way the Falcons will get the ball back is if you put the ball in the air. They put it in the air. Saquon had a drop. We'll come up with the poll question here and South Palm Antonio covers the Eagles for the Mothership will join us coming up a little bit later on the mess that is the Carolina Panthers continues to be a mess as Bryce Young is benched. Is this their way of saying we're gonna move on from Bryce Young. We'll check in with the Panthers coming up a little bit later on. But the Falcons come back beat the Eagles twenty two to twenty one, and Kirk Cousins throws for two forty one two touchdowns. There's a couple things that stood out here. I'm gonna start with Kirk Cousins. He usually doesn't do well in primetime. We know that, but you should realize this. He was two to nine in primetime games. He's now won three of his last five, and he's They got the ball back, and you got the feeling Philadelphia wasn't putting any pressure on him. I think he went back to pass what thirty one times? They hit him twice. I don't think they sacked him. That's inexcusable. Kirk Cousins can't move. He's coming off Achilles surgery. I want to put pressure on Kirk Cousins, and I want him uncomfortable now. As Bill Belichick said, Atlanta has a really good offensive line, So I'm going to take his word on that. You got a really good defensive line. Even though you don't have Hassan Reddick anymore, you still have to put pressure on Kirk Cousins. That was really, really surprising for me, Philadelphia had their chance to blow it open. The Falcons really good except for when they got inside the twenty yard line. But give them credit. Drake London with an unbelievable move for that touchdown reception. So give the Falcons credit. They were resilient, they stayed in the moment there, but it came down to a big drop. Here's Jalen Hurts talking about that play.
I don't want to add any extra wood to its We just made the play in that moment, and I trust them in every moment. He said, hell of a player. He gave us a big spark in those moments. Said you know, it just wasn't. It just wasn't for us tonight.
And I get it. You got three yards, but the problem is you have a good offensive line. I got say Kwon Barkley, Jalen Hurts. Can I get three yards on two plays? Because my thought was you just run the ball twice, you should be able to get three yards. Then the game is over. Now the play the where you know where the pass was. It was in the flat, so it's not going to be intercepted. You have to make sure you catch it, stay in bounds, get the first down. Seems pretty simple with a game on the line, It wasn't so simple. But I'm going to go back to what Peyton and Eli and Matt Ryan said prior to the pass, prior to the play, that ball will not be in the air. So I got three Hall of Fame quarterbacks all saying the same thing, that ball is not going to be in the air. And look, we can all look back and go, well, they should have run in the moment they said, do not throw the football. Here is Nick Siriani, the Eagles head coach.
Are there decisions you would have done differently?
In nicely?
Sure?
Like anytime you go you go and you don't get points on a drive in the red zone, you know, fourth and three in the first one, you're like, well, should I have went for that there? And you know I went for a fourth and three after that, you know when after the convert or the completion of Dallas that got us the fourth and three, We got that and we got points out of that. So anytime it doesn't work out, you know, That's why I'm sitting in this seat, the head coaching seat, like I gotta be ready for the consequences of whether it works or whether it doesn't work.
Okay, it's one forty three to go. Atlanta has no timeouts if you run the ball. So now we're going to get down to amn like worst case worst, worst, worst case scenario, They're gonna have to go ninety five yards and probably have forty seconds to go. I think that's what Eli Peyton and Matt Ryan were thinking. Worst case scenario. We got Kirk Cousins and the Falcons backed up on the road and no timeouts. But even I mean, well, once again, you're not putting pressure on Kirk Cousins. He looked comfortable in the pocket and he's got a couple of playmakers there, and it cost you dearly. The Eagles have lost three of their last four games at home, and Nick Siriani has no margin for error. He doesn't like, you have a talented team, you just paid your quarterback, you traded, you get, you paid Saquon Barkley. They're not getting fired. You're going to get fired. But in that moment, and you know, you take the blame, he kind of dispensed the blame to everybody. It's on the coach. Just start there. It doesn't even have to get to the players. It's on you. Now, I can blame that defense for allowing Kirk Cousins to carve you up for a game winning score. Absolutely, but that seemed like, how is Philadelphia going to lose this game? And it was twenty one to fifteen, and I thought, man, the odds makers did it again. This spread was five and a half and I'm like, Kali, they did it because Atlanta's not going to go down the field on Philadelphia in Philadelphia in primetime with Kirk d Cousins. And then they did it, had time, got a couple of plays and Peyton talked about it again. He said, all you need is make sure you don't have a drop on first down, get positive yards. You need one play, you need one big play. And they actually got two big plays and they got down inside the red zone and Drake London was awesome with that move. Awesome, and they end up with the win. Although there's a celebration on Drake London after the touchdown. So then you have to kick an extra point from like forty two yards down. I'm going, oh my god, you imagine they're going to end up a tie, go into overtime because too much celebrating, Yes, pulling Drake London.
Great play, great catch. You know this is a guy who needed a career moment. He does this like shooting towards the crowd move. He's four feet from the referee. The referee could reach out and touch him. He does it right in front of the ref's face.
Here is the new mister Primetime. Kirk Cousins after the win, it's so important to find ways to win.
And that's how you put together a.
Great season is you know, when you have these games that could go either way, you find a way to have it.
Break your way.
And that's the way this league is. And so when we can find those inches, it can really change the tail of the season. So, I mean, it's cool making the long extra points. It's our defense standing up at the end too. And I've been a part of games where you go down and score and then you walk out of here with a loss because you miss that extra point and you go to overtime or you don't get to stop at the end. So it really does take everybody to find a way to come out here with a win.
He needed that win. He needed it because I'm watching social media. Oh they got to put Michael Pennox in now, Cousin's struggling, and Kirk admits he's not one hundred percent, but I didn't expect him to be one hundred percent. But then all of a sudden he's okay, leads him down for the game winning score.
Yes, it's tough too when you're watching Peyton Eli and Bill Belichick watch Kirk Cousins and be like, man, he is way too late with these throws. Yeah, over and over and over and multiple times, especially in the first half, they were like, see, man, you got to stop hitching. Throw the ball. They the three of them were pretty especially Bill and Peyton, were pretty unfiltered, and they weren't holding back when they were like, man, he is just holding onto the ball way too long, Like throw it now and then they'll know how long he waited after that.
Well, also, there was no pressure on him, and I think in his mind he's like, I do have more time. And I think, you know, Peyton and Belichick were probably going, you know, make it quicker, make you know, these these players, these receivers coming out of their break, you got to be you know, it's got to be a timing thing, and they were right. But I think Kirk was like I got time back here, they're hitting me twice, no sacks. Saquon Barkley talked about letting the team down, dropped the ball.
Let my team now to day, shann Hepp with the decays of imposition, made that catch, came over, relaxed, going back to my O habits and sktta go back and that's work.
Saquon Barkley was supposed to join us coming up in about ten minutes, and we heard from him this morning and uh, I actually sent a text to the show. This might be the first time in history that somebody was supposed to join us. And I even said this yesterday. They better win because he's not going to join us, or it's going to be awkward if he does. And he had a pretty good game obviously had the big drop. But he did send me a text earlier this morning, about an hour ago, and I'll have that for you coming up, and I'll give you my thoughts on this too, because we do this, we're booking people and then there's a game. You know, Todd has the tough job of doing this where you're going to try to talk to somebody even after a loss or they did lose, Are they going to still come on, so we'll have that for you coming up. Also, the big story with Bryce Young being benched, I feel bad for him. Not every number one pick, not every first round pick at that position, should start Bryce Young. He just seemed overwhelmed by it. If I'm playing at Alabama and I've got the offensive line, I got a Hall of Fame coach, I got a running back, i got wide receivers who are first round pick, it's pretty easy. It's not easy in Carolina. Although I've been told their offensive line is a lot better than I'm giving them credit for. They don't have playmakers there. And the first thing that goes with these quarterbacks is your confidence, and then you get into bad habits and then all of a sudden, you want the ball out of your hands. You don't want to be running for your life. So Andy Dalton is going to be the starting quarterback. I don't know what the timeline is here, but they might be saying goodbye to Bryce Young. They might be admitting they made a mistake. Well, they did make a mistake because of what they gave up to get the opportunity to take Bryce Young. And Bryce Young will always be compared to c J. Stroud, just like Ryan Leaf was always compared to Peyton Manning. But Bryce Young is now going to sit and he probably should have. But there's enough of a sample size here. There's eighteen games, he's two and sixteen. He's not threatening. They're not threatening, even as two wins. I don't even think they had twenty points. And I get the feeling this came from high above with the owner, David Tepper, because the head coach, Dave Canalis, he talked about Bryce was his quarterback, and then all of a sudden, Andy gives us the best chance to win. Make up your mind, coach, make up your mind here. Yeah, it's kind of like you guys want to win? Why?
Yeah, they're like, that's kind of my reaction to it. Now, he gives us the best chance to win. Why are you trying to do that?
Okay, but let's fast forward to April. The Carolina Panthers are on the clock. What are you doing?
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Shal Palantonio was there, ESPN National correspondent, What did you think was going to happen prior to the third down call? Sound?
Well, I'm going to give you actual words instead of on a monopia. I'm throwing that out there from my English teacher. Ooh ah, I love that. I was about two minutes in. I was waiting for actual analysis after he dropped the ball. But I thought they should have run the ball. It's pretty clear. So let's look at the play by play Dan second and six at the Atlanta thirteen. You bring in Johnson as the eligible tackle. Barkley goes off left tackle, gains three yards. So the last play that they ran as run, they gained three yards. Now it's third and three and Atlanta has already just burned their last time out. Its third and three from the ten. Remember your last running play game three yards and you only need three. I think you got to call a run play there, I really do. And then if you don't get it, you run it again on fourth down, because you know they've been pretty good running the ball. On fourth down. You know, tush, push, brotherly, shove, whatever you want to call it. They were aggressive early in the game on fourth down. Didn't get it, and so I don't know why you wouldn't be aggressive there. This is why you paid Saquon Barkley. I know he's good out of the backfield. He does have some drops in his career. But you load it up, you load it up, and it doesn't really matter. You can't make the excuse, well, they were getting funky inside and loading up between the tackle box. Just run it at them and take the time off the clock. And if you don't get it, like you said, now he's got to go ninety yards with no timeouts. It's much different than going seventy yards where you can spread it out and get the ball out quickly. You can have some boot action, you can move around in the pocket. When you're first and ten from the ten, you have much less room to maneuver. I think you know. Players are going to drop passes, players are going to fumble, players are going to throw interceptions. Those are physical mistakes that you're going to expect at every level of football, but at the NFL level, you can have your coaches making mental mistakes like that.
I think that there was part of the game that I thought was a glaring issue with the Eagles. They didn't put any pressure on Kirk Cousins. And Kirk Cousins has no mobility, as you said, he showed you his six inch scar from you know, his surgery in the offseason, so he doesn't have mobility. I don't know why they even that last drive. They hit him twice in the game after what thirty one pass attempts. I mean, that's inexcusable for an Eagles defensive line.
Well, first of all, they don't really have a pass rush right now, that's clear Bryce Huff. They are trying to play him on first and second down against the run and he's getting worn out. He's getting blown out. Postgame last night, a lot of the Equals players who were on locally here were talking about Bryce Huff not setting the edge getting blown out in run defense. So he was never used like that in Robert Salad's defense with the Jets, and now he's being asked to do that. He's really being asked to do something that he's never done in his career. The other thing is vic Fangio system. You know it well, Dan, he's going to drop who safety is back, he's going to play, you know, cover underneath man's zone, whatever it is, and then he's going to rush four. Most of the time, you in his career, especially last year when he was in Miami, he was in the bottom five of the NFL in calling blitzes. But there. Bill Pollian once said to me when he would interview a defensive coordinator, he would say, show me your third and sixth blitz in the fourth quarter. Show it to me. What is it going to look like? How are you going to get to the quarterback in the critical moment of the game on third down, especially when you're beyond the fifty in the fourth quarter and they're driving to try to win the game. Show me that blitz. And if they didn't have that blitz, he wouldn't hire the guy.
The Eagles upcoming schedule they're at New Orleans YEP. At Tampa YEP.
Bye week, Dan, They're looking at some two tough games. So let's take New Orleans first. New Orleans has had a voodoo on the Eagles for a while. You know that they've had trouble going down there, even when they were in the heyday of the post Super Bowl, right after they won the Super Bowl, they went down there and they couldn't win and they got bounced out of the playoffs. New Orleans has come into link at financial feel upset them. They've always had problems with Sean Payton. They've always had problems with the New Orleans Saints. I'm just putting it out there. That's a tough game. I just was in Detroit and I watched Baker Mayfield go into Detroit an eight point underdog, with his defense depleted, without his starting right tackle, win that game. The Bucks are playing with a lot of moxie. And if you're looking for a team that can throw the ball to a lot of different components, a lot of different options with Evans and Godwin, that's a team that could give the Eagles problems like they did last year. These are two tough games, two tough games.
And then you don't.
Have aj Brown, You're best offensive player in these two games. He said that last night the lease assaulters. It's going to take a couple of weeks, and boy, that was a wow. That was a big wow. So these are two tough games for this football team.
Well, they could lose these two, then you have a bye week, which is the last thing that you would want. And I don't know how tenuous this situation is with Nick Sirianni, but I'm guessing that the seat will be warm. But I don't know if they're an in season type of organization, they would go, you know, we have to make a change. I know it's only two games now, we're projecting to four games in a bye week, but once again, this is a team that should be competing to go back to a Super Bowl.
Man, this is Philly rational here. Of course, we're not hot headed or mercurial here.
Dan, No, you're not. No, you're not. Hey, I did I did think of you. We're talking to South Peal Antonio, ESPN national correspondent covering the NFL. Uh the Bryce Young situation. I go back to draft night when you came on during the draft, even before the draft, I think you said, whoever Carolina takes, they are starting the season, and we were surprised that they would make that declaration already without really seeing who they have, you know, to support, if it was c. J. Stroud or Bryce Young. Your thoughts when you heard Bryce Young was being benched.
My thought was you had c. J. Stroud on your racket and you should have taken them. It was something that was discussed. There's no question about it, and you know, yeah, this is what we do your Monday morning quarterback. Big decisions like this. When you get it wrong at the top of the draft with your quarterback, it sets you back three to five years. It just does. Now, Andy Dalton is serviceable in the interim if you can try to fix Bryce Young. But I don't know if he can play at the NFL level. And I said that when he was drafted. I was very skeptical about it because of his size, his ability to see over the rush, his ability. You know, you have to create passing lanes like Sean Payton did for Drew Brees. I mean, Saban gave up on Breees in Miami because he didn't think he was big enough. You know, obviously had that injury, but still and Sean Payton designed something that turned him into a Hall of Fame quarterback. And I'm not going to compare Drew Brees to Bryce Young. But what I'm saying is, like you said before, and I was listening to you, you have to have everything in place for a young quarter. You have to have the right options and components at the offensive line position and the wide receiver position, something like what the Bears are doing with Cable Caleb Williams. And then coaching and design matters. They matter, and so you have to have that. And now he's on his second play caller, uh with Dave Canalis, who did a pretty good job with Baker Mayfield last year. So I don't know, I don't see teams trading for Bryce Young. I mean, what would you what would you give up for Bryce Young?
Well, Dallas Gate, what a fourth round pick for Trey Lance?
Okay, you know Trey Lance is a different cat. Now. You know Trey Lance has got a big arm and he's much bigger, faster, stronger by jel.
Wait, you like Trey Lance better than Bryce Young?
Absolutely?
Yes, that's a hot take.
Well, I don't think it's I think it's pretty clear. Yeah. I mean Bryce Young needs a lot of coaching and time to learn. You know, he's got to sit and learn and they've got to get stuff around him. But you know, here's the thing, Dan, he got nine oh in two teams in the NFL right now, including three teams that were clearly expected to be playoff teams, the Rams, the Ravens, and the Bengals. Last five years, teams that started oh and two made the playoffs five percent of the time, five percent. So Carolina's got to refigure things and figure out, Okay, what are we doing for next season? And there's some other teams like that. I'm not clounting the Rams, Bengals, and Ravens in that category, but you know, it's hard to go to the playoffs when you start oh and two, and really really hard when you start over three.
Great to talk to you again, Thanks for joining us South.
Thank you. Dan.
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Carolina Panthers have benched Bryce Young and Andy Dalton will be the starting quarterback as we bring in Scott Fowler. Scott works for the Charlotte Observers sports columnists for the last thirty years and he joins us on the program. Scott, It's the annual Let's have Scott Fowler on to talk about how bad the Panthers are. So, how did we get to this point?
Well, short story is that the Panthers were two and fifteen last year and somehow they've gotten even worse. They're started off oh and two, but not only that, Dan, they've gotten blown out twice. It's seventy three to thirteen after two games until points. So they made a big move yesterday.
Okay, who's the one who benched Bryce Young?
I think that's Dave Canalis, but he certainly had a lot of input because he was very hesitant to answer that question yesterday. But I think ultimately this is his call. He was brought into resurrect Bryce Young Dan, and instead now after two games they benched him.
Okay, what is missing there with Bryce Young?
He seems to me like he's overwhelmed and undersized. Those two things together are just working against him. Even in the best of times, he's undersized, right, But Drew Brees and Russell Wilson made that work, so it can happen. But to me, the reason they drafted in number one Dan was because they thought his brain was a computer and he would process every thing beautifully and always make the right throw and throw it accurately, and that would make up for any other things. What's happened however, is I think his confidence is shot, and so because of that, he's just making poor decisions all.
Over the place. Was he set up for failure?
I thought last year he was. I didn't think they had enough around him, and especially not his offensive line. But honestly, right now, Dan, they're blocking pretty well. I mean in this last game he was not pressured that much at all, but he just kept taking the two yard checkdown on third and ten. It was like he was so worried about getting sacked and throwing a pick that he played the other way, just this ultra conservative way, and got booed Dan. More than I've covered this team thirty years, I've never seen a home opener where the fans booed like that.
And I think, what did he have? Eighteen completions but not even ninety yards? I mean that tells you everything of let me just get the ball out, but you don't have playmakers to get the ball out too. So it's I understand you're really you're not even getting out of first gear here. But go back to the draft, because David Tepper, I'm gonna guess you know, from Mount Olympus, came down and said we're taking him, and we're gonna trade our best receiver. And I mean, this is this is a mess. But is this the right decision to move on? Are they moving on from brace Young?
I kind of think that they are until Andy Dalton either shows them otherwise or you know, gets hurt. And that's certainly a possibility too. I think we'll see Bryce play again. But are they moving on? This sure feels symbolic to me two games into the season, and yet Dan, I will say, and I've written in the Charlotte Observer, I think it is the right move. I mean, how big of a sample size do you need when a guy's going two and sixteen over eighteen starts, and in those eighteen starts stand like ten of them, he's throwing zero touchdown passes. So it's just they just don't score with him behind the wheel.
Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer sports columnists for the last thirty years. Will David Tepper talk this week the owner?
We'd love him too, I would guess not. He's normally he's been very behind the scenes Dan for most of twenty twenty four, and so we just don't know, if you know, if he's the wizard behind the curtain here on these decisions. I'm sure he's consulted on all of them. But the one that just keeps resonating here, of course, is they see CJ. Stroud lighting it up every single week, and they could have had him. And of course even Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold who played who started here, ye are both to know right now. I mean, Matt rule is three and oh in Nebraska, I mean, it's it's just everyone. I think it's us Dan somehow. I think it's it's this city hers.
But I've said this before, Scott. If CJ. Stroud was on Carolina, they wouldn't be any better. And if Bryce Young played for the Texans, we might see a different Bryce Young. If you don't have an offensive line, if you don't have a couple of playmakers, you're just not You're not going to succeed. I don't care how good you are.
Yeah, no, you're right. It's they set him up for failure for sure last year, and I thought this year they really tried to make it better. It's still not much better, But I really honestly think most of it is on Bryce right now. I mean, they did They've got a pretty good offensive line actually right now, way better than last year. They ran the ball very well or for them, you know, on Sunday and and they but they could never make a third and two. I mean, it was just it was ridiculous.
Right, Okay, But Andy Dalton got a start last year. He did one st has he thrown? I think you might have pointed this out. Did he throw for more yards in that game than Bryce is thrown this year?
Right? And that was with a worst cast of receivers. He threw for three sixty one. They still lost, but he had the best game any Panther quarterback had last year came when Andy Dalton played that one game for Bryce and they put him right back on the bench, you know. I mean, obviously, he's thirty six years old, Dan, he came out in the same draft class as Cam Newton, as people around here will point out. But in the short term, I mean, he's clearly the better player.
All right, Let's fast forward to next year's NFL draft. Carolina Panthers on the clock. What did they do with the number one overall pick?
Well, I think that would be a good scenario for them. I mean, right now, I think getting number one again and not having to trade their way to it would be great. And I think they'll pick a quarterback. I think, honestly that they'll start over here and try it, try it again in that amazing but yeah, I think that's the way it's going to go. And I'll be talking about it in April.
Talk to you again in April when this when they're on the clock. Scott. Great to talk to you again, Thanks for joining us.
Thanks dam
