What Dave Canales said after the Carolina Panthers’ loss to the Seahawks
Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales knows his team missed an opportunity Sunday.
He’s not running away from it, he said.
But at the same time?
“We know what’s in front of us,” Canales said. “It’s clearly defined. It was going to come down to this game: us handling our business and facing the Bucs one more time on the last game of the season. Couldn’t ask for a better situation than this.”
This was the company line following the Panthers’ 27-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in a nearly packed-to-the-brim Bank of America Stadium. And it ought to be. Carolina fell thanks to two costly third-quarter turnovers and an offense overmatched by a strong Seattle defense — and, with the NFC South crown at stake, that all leads into a win-and-you’re-in-the-playoffs Week 18 contest in Tampa Bay next weekend.
The game felt closer than the final score indicated, however. And Canales explained how that could be the case in his postgame press conference. Here are the highlights from the coach’s availability Sunday.
Dave Canales opening statement
“All right, first and foremost, gotta give a lot of credit to the Seahawks coming out here, playing tough all day, coming up with some big conversions throughout the day. And then, from there, I just got to talk about our defense and the amazing game they played to give us opportunities offensively. We didn’t do anything with those. A part of that was just the Seahawks having great scheme, playing together, making things difficult on us. But we made mistakes. We made mistakes on the offensive side. And when you play a good team like this, you have to be able to take advantage. You got to do things right, and that’s what we have to look at in front of us there.”
On Tetairoa McMillan’s day, battling through illness
“He was playing his butt off out there. He looked fast. He was doing everything. If anything, I would say, just schematically, just for me and (offensive coordinator) Brad (Idzik) to figure out ways to make sure we create access and opportunities for TMac. I didn’t see a drop in his game in terms of his performance and all that. I love the fact that he was able to get out there for his teammates, and do what he did.
“The interception (was) underthrown slightly there in zone. (Seahawks defender Julian) Love played it low to high, came up underneath it. We thought we had a nice concept to the boundary right there. There was some space. And I think Bryce (Young) would be able to be the first one to tell you he’d like to be able to put that ball on the line, on the inside, right there.”
On the Panthers’ lack of big plays
“They did a great job having discipline, staying deep on a lot of our concepts. I think what you saw is a lot of balls go to the check downs in different ways. They rallied up and tackled us really well. We didn’t end up getting a lot of yards out of some of those check downs. But, you know, when they play it right, and the defense plays from depth, and they stay on top and discipline — it wasn’t for a lack of trying. We called some passes to try to go down the field, and they did a great job of making the ball get to the check down and rallied up and made some tackles.”
Emotions on loss, particularly with the Bucs losing Sunday too
“We definitely feel the missed opportunity, but at the same time, we know what’s in front of us. It’s clearly defined. It was going to come down to this game: us handling our business and facing the Bucs one more time on the last game of the season. Couldn’t ask for a better situation than this. The guys are excited and fired up about that. And we got to get over the fact that we missed an opportunity, you know, with the Bucs losing that game. But our focus has to go to the next one. Really quickly.”
On the Jaycee Horn facemask penalty in the fourth quarter
“It was unfortunate. He rallies up to make a tackle. He didn’t really pull a face mask, but there’s contact there, and he grasped it a little bit, and the official called it the way he saw it. And really unfortunate that it happened in that situation where we could have had a chance to get the ball back and try to do something.”
How do you bounce back for a win-or-go-home Week 18?
“It’s going to come down to some really basic stuff. And from what I could tell live — just whether it was formationally, or whether it was just a technique that was involved in what we were asking them to do — we got to make sure that we clear those things up so we can play our best ball. And especially when you’re playing a really good defense, we have to be sharp. We have to be on our stuff.”
On Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and his day
“I thought he was competing. He was making the ball go where it was supposed to, other than the interception. He was competing, giving us an opportunity, and operating in what we were asking him to do. So, you know, I’ll have to look at the film to get a full grade on it. But I saw him out there competing, making some plays with his legs, critical fourth down right there on the touchdown drive to be able to get us a new set of down so we can stay in the flow of it.”
On Xavier Legette lining up offside on fourth down
“Yeah, the official tried to warn him. He’s telling him; he had his foot there. He’s trying to let him know. And Xavier kind of didn’t see what he was doing and thought he was OK on that. So we got to clean that up.”
Any concerns on Legette’s quiet day?
“Just keep playing ball,” Canales said. “Keep working on the fundamentals.”
Did you keep an eye on the Bucs score throughout the game?
“Not at all. For us, it was going to be about playing this game all the way through the duration of it. And right until the game got 17 points away from us there at the end — like down 10 points with time on the clock — it felt like we had a good opportunity to make that happen. They got a big sack on us to really create a fourth-and-long situation. And they made it difficult there. But for me, it was just like, ‘Let’s compete. Let’s find a way to win.’ We need all those reps. We need everything we can. Every series matters for this group. So wanted to try to take this thing as far as we could.”
Did you request for the score not to be shown?
“They gave me an option, and I really want to treat it like any other game. I wanted to make sure that our guys were focused on the task at hand. It’s every play, every series that matters, right there. Didn’t want anybody looking around trying to figure out what was happening based on the score of that one. Let’s play our best football. That’s got to be the focus.”
On the decision to kneel on final drive
“Ran the ball in the first one. And for me, like at that point, with 17 points down with the amount of time we had, the important thing for me is to make sure that we get to this next game healthy. And my brain never went there before that drive, but once they scored that last touchdown, I knew what it was. Rico (Dowdle) looked good today running the ball when he had chances to touch it, and so did Chuba (Hubbard). And I just wanted to make sure that we’re able to go into this next game at full strength.”
Update on TE Ja’Tavion Sanders’ health? How did his absence impact Carolina?
“Definitely took some of our game out of there. We were able to use Jake Curhan a little bit in some of those spots. JT suffered a broken ankle, so he’s going to get surgery tomorrow, I believe, and we’re going to miss him a lot because he’s been so versatile — a guy that we can really count on.”
Anything the offense could’ve done differently?
“Just trying to isolate the safeties, maybe one-on-one in the middle of the field. They did a great job matching us on the outside. And Coach Mike Macdonald did a great job of mixing the types of coverages, played a little bit more man than they had shown on film. So we’re trying to attack some of the fire zones and different things like that. We shifted to some more runaway type of concepts in case they threw the man out there. So I think it’s just a combination of things: dialing in when they are making this transition, knowing where are those odd balls coming from, and making sure we can execute in those spots.”
Mindset moving on to Week 18 in win-or-go-home game vs. Bucs
“Each game truly is a championship opportunity. Here we have one today, against a fabulous team, and we couldn’t ask for a better situation here to see where we’re at, and to see if we can call it up and play a really good team and come away with it. We weren’t able to do that, but we have another opportunity in front of us. The guys will be used to having this championship mindset. The way I see it is, we’ve been playing playoff football for over a month, and every single one of these games has mattered, and that’s the approach that we have to take. It heightens the focus and the guys coming ready, ready to work.”
Any preference on playing Sunday next week vs. the game being flexed to Saturday?
“I know that if you play Saturday, if we do win that game, it allows you to kind of have a normal week of prep in case you are the Saturday wild card. So there’s an advantage there. But we’re comfortable with whatever slot they put us in, and we’ll adjust accordingly with our week.”
This story was originally published December 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM.
