Panthers explain why they were ‘totally disjointed’ in secondary vs. Saints
On Sunday, the New Orleans Saints moved the ball at will on their final two drives in their last-second win over the Carolina Panthers.
And on Monday, less than 24 hours after the deflating loss, head coach Dave Canales offered an explanation as to why.
“We were totally disjointed on the back end,” the second-year head coach said following the consequential 20-17 loss. “And that part is something that we’re talking about right now. The linebackers, hook-droppers ... all those things, it was completely disjointed.
“(The Saints) did a great job of staying on the ball and really just kind of executing a couple of plays and finding the completions there. I don’t want to get into the specifics of the breakdowns ... but these are base calls that we have to be more connected on.”
Canales added: “It was the communication that was disjointed, and guys just not owning their landmarks in it.”
The two fourth-quarter drives in question yielded 10 points and were two of the best drives the Saints put together all day. The first was a seven-play, 83-yard possession that yielded a touchdown — with Chris Olave beating Panthers star cornerback Jaycee Horn on a 12-yard in-breaker to punctuate the drive. The second was an eight-play, 62-yard drive that started on their own 9-yard line with 57 seconds left that ended in a game-winning field goal.
On the final drive, specifically, Saints rookie quarterback Tyler Shough went 3-of-4 for 43 yards — and added on four rushing yards and drew an unnecessary roughness penalty to add 15 yards to it all. In the end, the Saints won with a walk-off field goal and muddied the Panthers’ previously uncomplicated path to the playoffs.
Horn and Mike Jackson — the two starting cornerbacks and leaders in the secondary — answered to the breakdowns on Monday. They answered to Canales’s scrutiny, too.
“It was just those last two drives,” said Horn, who has for the most part been playing up to the level he had in 2024, his first Pro Bowl year. “They hit us with the tempo, and that was good on their part, to catch us on our heels. And then the last drive, when they got into field goal range. Them flags, too (11 penalties for over 100 yards for the first time all season). So everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong in the fourth quarter.”
Horn elaborated: “On the touchdown drive, I wouldn’t necessarily say it was communication because they were just going tempo and catching us in the same call, and we were in true zone most of the time, so there wasn’t much me and Mike could really do on some of those digs, in-breaking routes that Olave caught.
“But on the last drive where they got three, there might’ve been one or two communication issues. But when they’re going fast, it’s tough. We just got to find a way to execute and get off the grass.”
Jackson attributed the final drive to good play-calling for the Saints, particularly on the running back screen that yielded 19 yards and broke the drive open. When talking about the fourth quarter, though, Jackson offered that “we just weren’t really on the same page.”
Have communication issues been a problem previously?
“Nah,” Jackson said. “This is the first time you’re really asking about it. So no, it hasn’t really been a problem. It’s just one game.”
He added: “Just life in the NFL. We win this game, we’re having a totally different conversation right now. It is what it is.”
Starting linebacker Christian Rozeboom agreed that there were communication issues in the fourth quarter, but he didn’t want to go into too much detail, he said.
“I think there’s definitely stuff to clean up,” Rozeboom said. “And that’s not just the secondary. That’s everybody. It’s not one guy, it’s everybody.”
Rozeboom said that “everyone was playing the same call” on Sunday — though it occasionally occurs in the NFL when different players are playing different calls. The problem rested somewhere else.
“That was more how we were playing that certain formation,” Rozeboom said. “Who’s in what zone, who’s taking people through the zone. I guess I don’t want to go too much into it. But all that.”
He added: “I’m disappointed, obviously. But I think all we can do now is fix it and move forward. We watched the film, we addressed it, and I’m sure there will be some things at practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we’ll get that cleaned up. So that’s all we can do.”
Here’s what else you should know from Monday’s availability.
Dave Canales explains late injury to Turk Wharton
The Panthers reported Friday that they had an entirely clean slate of health. Then something happened on Saturday that Canales hasn’t seen in his entire 16-year tenure in the NFL.
Starting defensive tackle Turk Wharton hurt his hamstring after tripping over one of his teammates during a walk-through on Saturday, Canales told reporters Monday. The injury, the Panthers later reported, kept him out of Sunday’s loss against the Saints.
“Really unfortunate for Turk,” Canales said Monday. “He was excited to be out there. He was very upset, very disappointed. We’ll try to get him turned around, and we’ll get the full (story) of what that looks like on Wednesday.”
The latest on former Panthers interim coach Steve Wilks
The New York Jets fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks after their loss on Sunday, head coach Aaron Glenn announced Monday. Glenn’s reason was that the progress the defense has made lately wasn’t enough to stave off a change in leadership.
“I thought it was time to make a change. I’m going to make the decision that’s best for the organization at all times,” Glenn said.
The connection between Wilks and Carolina runs deep. Most recently Wilks was the interim head coach for the Panthers at the end of the 2022 season and led the team to a 6-6 record and one Tom Brady-explosion away from a playoff appearance, before the Panthers went on to hire Frank Reich.
Wilks served as the Panthers’ defensive passing game coordinator and secondary coach in 2022 before being tapped to be the interim after Matt Rhule’s firing. He then served as the defensive coordinator in San Francisco during the team’s Super Bowl run in 2023, then was a volunteer advisor in 2024 for the Charlotte 49ers under Biff Poggi, before accepting the job as the Jets’ defensive coordinator this year.
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Quick hits
— The Panthers, even after their 11-penalty contest against the Saints, still are a Top 10 least-penalized team in the NFL as of Monday, according to Team Rankings. They’re seventh in penalties per game at 5.9. Their 11 penalties on Sunday made them tied-for-second-most in the league in Week 15. Washington amassed 11 penalties and Atlanta had 19; both the Commanders and the Falcons won their contests.
— Saints quarterback Tyler Shough told New Orleans media Sunday that on the Lathan Ransom hit — the one that enabled an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, a stopped clock and a manageable game-winning field goal — he “sold” his injury.
“I kind of, you know, maybe sold it a little bit because I knew we didn’t have any timeouts,” Shough said. “So I mean it definitely hurt. But I was good.”
Rookie outside linebacker Princely Umanmielen was informed of Shough’s postgame comments on Monday ... and was surprised by the quarterback’s candor.
“I mean, that’s crazy,” Umanmielen said, laughing. He added his thoughts on the call on the field as well: “I know you gotta protect the quarterback when he’s in the pocket and things like that. But I feel like, once you escape, at that point, you’re a football player. I don’t know.”
Is this something you hope the NFL takes action on?
“I mean, that would be nice,” he said. “But I’m just Princely.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2025 at 3:56 PM.
