What Dave Canales said after Bryce Young nearly led crazy comeback vs. Cardinals
The Carolina Panthers were down 27-3 after the Cardinals’ first drive of the second half concluded.
The game was over. Done. Lost.
Then the Panthers put together three straight touchdown drives — composed of 14 plays, then 14 plays, then 12 plays — and recovered an onside kick to put them about 50 yards away from one of the greatest comeback wins in franchise history.
But midnight struck nonetheless.
The Panthers fell to 0-2 on Sunday at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, after losing to the Cardinals, 27-22. The NFL franchise based in Charlotte has now started the past four seasons 0-2 — the longest active streak in the NFL.
A win Sunday would’ve delivered the Panthers the largest comback in Panthers history. The previous record was 17, set on three separate occasions. The Panthers also would’ve been the 16th team in league history to overcome a deficit of 24 points and win in the regular season if they emerged victorious, according to the NFL Fact Book; the last such feat came in October 2015.
Head coach Dave Canales answered to all that entailed from the crazy comeback effort. He answered to Bryce Young’s terrible turnovers to start the game and his magical form late, which yielded career highs in completions (35) and attempts (55) and yards (328) — and that also led to three touchdowns and two turnovers (one fumble, one interception).
The 44-year-old head coach also discussed the team’s defensive progression. The unit only gave up 20 points — the other score was a defensive score — and only 82 rushing yards. This is the first game in eight contests the Panthers didn’t give up 200 yards rushing.
Here are the highlights from Canales’ presser.
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Dave Canales opening statment
“We played til the end. Nobody quit. Everybody did what they were supposed to do as we started to close the game. We have to be able to find a way to play that kind of football early on so we can see what we have. I believe in this group. I’m excited about this group and the players that we have out there. But it’s the mistakes. And I have to take full responsibility of that, first and foremost, for preparing our guys. And we gotta get right back to work.”
Why can’t you play that type of football earlier?
“It’s the turnovers. And I gotta give the Cardinals credit for coming out and playing hard. Really forcing the issue on some of those. And they had a good pressure plan. We were on our assignments, but we didn’t execute the assignments. And Bryce is in those situations.
“And sometimes, it aint the worst thing if you’re in that situation to take a sack. I also know, he makes some magical plays. I also know that he finds ways to find guys down the field. And that’s part of his game. But it’s all of us. It’s the mistakes that we have to continue to clean up.”
Picking up the blitz early was an issue
“Honestly, I gotta look at the film to tell you more specifically. But the bottom line is, there’s an element of time, and when teams start to pressure you, you have an element of time. It’s not going to be the cleanest pocket and all that, but you have an element of time. And we just have to make sure that we function as a group better in those situations.”
Urgency getting out of the huddle: Did that hurt the protection calls?
“I don’t (think so). I think the emphasis was there. That’s something that we’ll continue to hammer. And we’ll continue to attack that as a group and look at those things and keep pushing for improvement.”
‘I know what this group is’
“I know what this group is. I know that we’ll finish. I know we had a bunch of tough guys, high-character guys who will continue to play football. That’ll give us a chance. And I have to commend our guys for continuing to battle. ... There are no moral victories, like we talked about. We have to be able to play good football from snap one until the end.”
Any thought mid-game of subbing Andy Dalton in for Bryce Young?
“No.”
On the intentional grounding penalty: Was Young’s arm hit?
“That’s what I saw too. But again, they’re officiating this thing live. I have a lot of respect for the officials, and we have to go with the call they made.”
How did the defense respond?
“I thought they responded by just going back and playing good football. And the Cardinals, you gotta give them credit, they still found ways to make plays. And Kyler (Murray) breaks first. We had a really good plan on that one, and he got out of there and made a critical play in the game. ... Our defense settled in and gave us a big three and out, and all of a suden, we’re knocking on the door with a chance to win.”
On his emotions after the game
“I think it’s just the frustration of what I feel like we have. The group that we’ve assembled here. To see glimpses of it. And to not see the consistency. And I know that we’ll get there with hard work, but they gotta be studs about.
“We all have to be studs about it as a staff, as players as well. We are going to have to be disciplined about our approach. We had a great week of practice. The focus is there, the intensity is there, we cannot back off of that. That’s our standard.”
On Tetairoa McMillan not being targeted much on final drive
“TMac made a couple of plays. They started to do some things coverage-wise to minimize what he was doing on that side, and Bryce did a good job finding his other progressions, in different concepts, good job evaluating it pre-snap, kind of knowing where he was going with the ball. Now, once they do that, the other guys have to continue to make their plays and show up for us.”
Status on Austin Corbett and Robert Hunt, two starting offensive linemen
“We’ll give you more information in the morning as we look at it. It’s a biceps (injury) for Rob and a knee (injury) for Corbs. And we’ll have to just see what that is.”
What do you tell your players after this one?
Honestly, just, ‘Don’t pass judgement on the outcome of a game, ever. Just continue to play football.’ Regardless of what happens early on, regardless of what happens in the middle of it, you don’t get to pass judgement on what the outcome of the game is going to be because you just have to keep playing ball.
“And if you do right longer than the opponent, you give yourselves a chance to finish. ... That’s what I saw out of the group: continuing to do right throughout the course of the game, fixing the things that we talked about early on, and finding execution.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2025 at 8:47 PM.
