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Dave Canales is putting Sunday’s 43-13 blowout loss to the New England Patriots (2-2) on himself.
The Panthers’ second-year head coach watched his offense, defense and special teams units all falter in another one-sided defeat against a middling opponent.
“Certainly not the execution we’re looking for,” Canales said. “This is in all phases, first and foremost, giving the credit to the Patriots. They outplayed us in every phase, offensively, defensively, on special teams, with the big return yardage on that. When it’s a full team effort like this, I have to put that on myself.
“I have to look at how I’m preparing the team, how we’re going about our work,” Canales added in his opening statement. “I have to look at that and compete to find an edge to get these guys to work together, to focus so we can get the execution that we’re seeing happen in our processes. But this is the only way to work through these things is to go right back to work, to attack it head on, and with the guys, I told them in the locker room, hey, a loss is a loss; we’ve got to look at this stuff, we’ve got to look in the mirror and figure out who we want to be as a team so we can get the execution that we’re calling for and that we’re looking for.”
Canales, now 6-15 through his first 21 games in Carolina (1-3), will need to go back to the drawing board as he looks to elevate the play of Bryce Young, Tetairoa McMillan and the rest of the Panthers’ offense.
Canales will also need to oversee adjustments made by Ejiro Evero and Tracy Smith on defense and special teams, respectively.
As of now, though, he doesn’t plan to make any moves on the coaching staff.
“Not right now,” Canales said. “No, but we’re going to look at all the stuff tomorrow, put our heads together, and make sure we’re pushing forward the right way.”
Canales says Bryce Young is still QB1
Canales pulled Young from the game in the fourth quarter with the Patriots up by 36 points. Young guided the offense on a touchdown-scoring drive to begin the matchup, but his effectiveness waned as the Patriots piled on points.
Following the lopsided loss, Canales was asked if Young would be the starting QB against the Miami Dolphins in Week 5.
“Absolutely,” Canales said. “Counting on him to keep pushing us forward, counting on him to keep us on track. There were some near misses across the board, some penalties that put us in weird situations, a couple of protection issues, and one of them where he slipped and kind of put us in a bad situation.
“But I still feel that he’s being confident out there. He’s leading the group. He’s getting us out there with good energy and focus. He’ll continue to play.”
Canales says he should still be calling plays for the offense
The Panthers’ offense outgained the Patriots’ offense on Sunday. Carolina had 326 net yards of offense, while New England produced 307 nets yards on their side of the field.
However, the Patriots scored six touchdowns compared to the Panthers’ two scores. New England was constantly put in good field positioning due to Carolina’s repeated gaffes in each phase.
But Canales still plans to call plays for the offense.
“I believe that I’m the right person to be able to push our concepts and our schemes forward,” Canales said. “I think it’s a combination of a bunch of things. Execution-wise am I calling the right plays rhythmically for the guys to have success based on what the defense is doing to us on that day. That’s something that I’ll definitely look at, though.”
Young and McMillan have had a few miscommunications in the passing game over the first month of the season. Canales said noticed the mishaps against the Patriots, and he plans to work with the duo to fix them.
“It was some near misses there,” Canales said the Young-McMillan dynamic. “That’s something we’ve got to look at on film and just make sure that they’re on the same page.”
Canales “honestly” doesn’t question effort, energy
A 28-6 halftime deficit is hard for any team to climb out of. But the Panthers did themselves few favors in the second half.
Missed tackles, poor angles, and pedestrian offensive execution led to an even bigger second-half plight. The Panthers were outscored 14-7 in the final two quarters.
Still, Canales doesn’t blame his players’ effort.
“I can honestly say that the effort and the energy from our guys is there,” Canales said. “It keeps coming back to the execution. I have to look at that myself; are we putting our guys in the best situation to be successful in every phase.
“I have to make sure that we have those conversations and that we keep progressing our football forward. I know who our guys are. I know they’re not going to quit. I know they’re going to continue to punch, they’re going to continue to fight all the way through it. But it’s not enough. We have to be able to come out and execute for four quarters to become the football team that I believe we can become, and the work starts right now. It starts with me. It starts with our coaching staff. Our players understand as well, this is not acceptable, and this is something that we have to come together and make sure that we’re together on this thing so we’re pushing forward.”
Canales says Christensen’s versatility factored into his lack of usage
When fill-in starting guard Chandler Zavala was knocked out of the game in the first half, practice-squad lineman Brandon Walton replaced him. Versatile veteran Brady Christensen remained on the sideline.
It turns out, according to Canales, Christensen’s prolonged sideline stint was due to the team’s game plan.
“Yeah, we had a heavy package planned for Brady and then also for Brandon,” Canales said. “The other part is Brady is our backup center, so we went with Brandon first to just make sure that Brady was available in case anything else happened at the center position.
“But we wanted to make sure we came out of this game with Brady having a chance to be out there and play, just kind of looking into the future and the next couple of weeks to see if that’s a place where we’re going to really need him, and so we kind of went with that approach after Brandon had that first series.”
Canales offers an update on Moore’s status
Wideout David Moore picked up 12 yards and a first down on the opening play of the game.
However, he was slammed to the field in an awkward position out of bounds, injuring his elbow in the process. Moore was carted off the field and failed to return.
Following the game, Canales offered an update on Moore, who was heavily featured in Week 3’s 30-0 win over the Atlanta Falcons.
“We’re going to be looking at it week to week,” Canales said. “It was an elbow injury that happened on the first play, which was a really nice run by him, a guy that we’re counting on, so we’ll be week to week with D-Mo.”
Moore joins Xavier Legette (hamstring) on the sideline. Legette missed the matchup against New England, forcing Moore into the starting lineup. Fellow wideout Jalen Coker (quad) has also been sidelined throughout the first month of the season on injured reserve. He is eligible to activated as soon as next week.
The Panthers also have Hunter Renfrow, Brycen Tremayne, Dalevon Campbell and Jimmy Horn Jr. at wide receiver on the active roster.
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Mike Kaye
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