Optimism or frustration? What Dave Canales said after Panthers’ loss to Atlanta Falcons
Prosperity remains rather elusive for the Carolina Panthers.
Three weeks after capturing their first victory of the season, which came days after head coach Dave Canales benched Bryce Young in favor of Andy Dalton at quarterback, the Panthers are still searching for their second win. Sunday’s 38-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons at Bank of America Stadium puts Carolina in an even deeper hole.
If the Panthers (1-5) had visions of overcoming all of their devastating injuries and ending the franchise’s seven-year playoff drought, falling to their NFC South rivals and remaining winless in the division made things a bit more difficult.
Canales, who watched his team yield scores to the Falcons on seven of Atlanta’s final eight possessions, gave his take on several topics after Sunday’s loss. Among them: How he assessed Dalton — who connected on 26 of 38 attempts for 221 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, including an untimely one early in the fourth quarter — Chuba Hubbard’s running and the overall defensive performance.
Here are the highlights of Canales’ post-game news conference.
How deflating was Andy Dalton’s first interception and does the defense need to be perfect with the offense struggling?
“For all of us, it’s definitely hard when we get into those situations in a one-score game. And we’ve just got to finish. There’s nothing else to say about it than that. Just finish on our terms. Be able to punch that in and get a two-point opportunity there and turn it into a game. So, that’s something we’ve got to continue to learn how to put a full game together. “
On the difficulty of playing complementary football given offensive issues:
“You just play football — you just keep playing ball. We have a mix of our plays. We are looking at the pictures in between drives and seeing what’s available for us, and we’ve just got to keep playing ball that way. That’s just what it is.
“And for my mentality and for our team, we try not to make big assumptions and judge the game based on what happens in the course of it. We’ve just got to go to the next drive. We’ve got to just be ready to continue to play football and that’s the discipline that we’ve got to have.”
On the confidence he has in Chuba Hubbard, who averaged 5.1 yards on 18 carries and finished 8 yards shy of 100, and those four straight runs in the fourth quarter?
“Yeah, it’s our system. And that’s the way we play our football, is can we continue to play our style of football late into games? And it was playing out just the way we wanted it to. We’ve got to finish.”
Are there any other buttons defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero or the staff can push?
“I truly believe in, we go to our concepts, we play our system and our concepts well. Guys have got to fit together. We’ve got to play team defense and stop the plays that are there to stop. And I truly believe that, Ejiro believes it. And we are going to go right back to the film, we are going to watch it, we are going to attack the fundamentals and the basics, because if we can just make the story as simple as that — can we get better at fundamentals?
“Just the basics of what we are doing, how we fit in different type of run styles and that’s the challenge for us, just to keep taking that next step and improving our football.”
Was it encouraging to see Xavier Legette and Jalen Coker respond to their increased playing time?
“It’s great. It’s great to see those guys, to see the investment, to see the work that they’ve been putting in come to life. Guys that we are counting on to make plays and they made their plays that came to them today.”
Will Andy Dalton remain the starter?
“Yes, Andy will be playing against the (Washington) Commanders next week.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2024 at 8:46 PM.
