Dave Canales addresses the media after Week 15 matchup with the New Orleans Saints

Uh first and foremost, got to give credit to the Saints. Um just, you know, taking taking advantage of their opportunities, putting together some amazing drives there. Um stuff we certainly have to look at and uh make sure that we shore up. And you know, as far as we’re concerned, um just the penalties, you know, the penalties is is really what killed us and some third and longs that we gave up. Um and you don’t give yourself a chance, you know, when you’re sitting in first and 20s and and those types of things. the untimeliness of the penalties, you know, the the field goal block two off sides, you know, giving them another opportunity um in that fourth and one. We end up getting the stop, but still, you know, gives them another shot there. So, um just, you know, we talk about our play style, you know, talk about play smart and finish that did not show up for us today and uh that’s something that we certainly have to talk about. But you missed that last one. Did you think about taking the field goal there? I I you know with inches to go I felt confident in our guys. I wanted to give Chuba the ball on that play. Um make that first down and continue that drive right there. So uh made that decision. It didn’t work out for us. Dave, what’s the move in the long term after when it feels like maybe an opportunity might have slipped away? Yeah, there’s there’s two two things going on is there’s a lot of guys who are really disappointed um because of the missed opportunity that we had and um at the same time there’s a lot of great leaders in that locker room that understand we got a lot of football in front of us. We have to make sure that we move on quickly. We look at the film. We make sure we tidy up the things that we need to um and get ready for the next game. And uh that’s really got to be the mentality so we stay together and finish this thing. The last penalty necessary roughness. Is that a hard play for a guy to make when he’s trying to you don’t know whether the guy’s going to go down? Those are difficult plays. Um but we have to be smarter in in those situations. You know, he’s you know, Tyler’s done a great job running the ball in different situations and um we just have to be better about where where we’re, you know, approaching that tackle and making sure that we’re not leading with our shoulder because as he goes down, you’re going to end up in that headneck area. And uh they were great. They were good calls and um those are just situations we have to be, you know, more aware of, you know, where you’re facing a really mobile quarterback. You’ve been a very little penalized team for most of the year. What do you attribute what happened today? I don’t know that I maybe it’s coming off the by-week and just uh you know the what’s resulted in not having penalties has been the discipline of how we’ve how we’ve been playing and um for all those penalties to show up the way that they did. You know this is something that we have to attack head-on and have those conversations about when they happen how they occurred and make sure that doesn’t happen again. Can you tell us about that last offensive series kind of what you saw and why you called that last offensive series something the defense was showing? Oh, just trying to take advantage of our matchups and the coverages that I was seeing them uh roll out there. Um and uh we didn’t we didn’t amount to get much. You know, Bryce took a scramble and made a play for us right there, but um I thought they did a good job of matching it and and at the end of the day, whether it’s zone or man, it ends up in one-on-one matchups and we count on our guys to get that done. Defense has been the last few games. They weren’t able to do that and then shut the defense apart. What do you think? I know you have to watch was working well. You know, we had some near misses. We got the ball down on the ground a couple times. The ball popped up and uh they end up catching the ball, you know, in the red zone and pop right back to the guy. We had a few just unfortunate misses that way. Um but we were attacking the ball the right way. The effort was there. Um the phys the physicality of the style of play that we’re looking for was there, but the execution was not. And um that’s the part that we have to look at and talk to the guys about. Where do you go from here? I mean, you guys had an opportunity to really take a hold of What’s the message going forward? Yeah, just get back to work. Trust in our process. It’ll lead to good results and make sure that we look at the things, learn from this, learn from the the mistakes that happened throughout this game so that we can go find our best football. That was not it today. Three games left, two of them against Tampa. And that’s you’re tied for all that happened today. You’re still tied. I mean, what do you what do you think about coming back to Charlotte? We’re really fortunate to be in this position where we can we can um play the Bucks twice, you know, and and have the division opponent in the last three games twice. And and to me, it’s like it plays into a great opportunity for us, but it’s this is going to be about the toughness, mental toughness to be able to move on, focus on the Bucks this week, and make sure that we we shore up the things that we need to to find our best football. How much thought did you give to taking the field goal there and going up? I think two game. I couldn’t pass up on fourth and inches right there and I trust my guys to get that done and we’ve been really successful in those situations and the Saints beat us on that play. And then what did you think about the defense and kind of what EJ was calling at the game tying spot came? Yeah, just uh miscommunications we’re going to have to look at on the film and make sure we get to the bottom of what happened on those. Um these are base calls. These are core calls that we know that we trust the guys to execute and we got to make sure we do that. Yes, they brought up uh you know leans and I think Dererick had one earlier. Um just you know those are difficult situations but we can we can execute those better and we can make sure that we’re aware of as a as a quarterback is entering how we how we approach the tackle and when he starts to go feet first you know we have to have the mindset to be able to avoid his his upper body there. one of those calls. How do you kind of balance when the calls aren’t going in your way in that? It’s a part of the game and you know these are judgment calls that happen at full speed. So, um we have to be able to trust the officials to do their job in those situations. I usually just have conversations. If I felt something was close, we have those conversations and um and make sure that the you know, the information gets uh all the way to the White Hat. and you know, but again, you know, they have to make full speed judgment calls and and that’s what we go with. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you.

Watch the Panthers’ head coach talk about the team’s 20-17 loss to the Saints and look forward to a pivotal game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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37 comments

  2. Feel like we're back in the pre-Riverboat Ron era. Just super timid when the pressure is REALLY on. There is NOTHING worse to watch than a team that is clearly playing scared to lose and make a mistake, because guess what happens?! YOU LOSE AND MAKE MISTAKES. This was a classic Panthers game where you could just FEEL the loss coming as soon as it was 17-10.

  4. Game was rigged by the NFL. They want this to come down to the wire against the Bucs the last game of the year. They tried to rig the Falcons game too! Atl just flipped their script.

  7. Dam new Orleans beat the bucaneers the week before. Obviously playing division opponents is tough. We made their quarterback look like Josh Allen. May the best team win next week. Luckily we got all our receivers back.

  10. Yeah absolutely f**king embarrassing. We have a bye, we just beat the best team in the league, we get 100+ yards in penalties. We should have blown out this f**king team. Now the playoffs are “in our hands” no, it’s not we are going to lose out because we can not play consistent football.

  13. McMillan needs to work on those drops need to watch Jerry Rice how he trained with bricks and probably need to change that cursed number 4 from that super bowl panthers lost

  14. Dave, bro, I think you are a very good leader and you have clearly rejuvenated this team and this fan base and I'm very grateful for that, but that play calling was ATROCIOUS. I don't have the exact stats on it but I only remember Bryce taking ONE deep shot, which he threw beautifully for a TD. I think our problem is that we have lost our underdog mentality, and we're playing way too safe. There's a difference between taking outright risks and calculated risks. I think we'd be a much better team if we started taking more CALCULATED risks and letting Bryce cook, but that's just me. KEEP POUNDING

  15. If you’re really gonna go for 4th and inches and don’t trust Bryce’s size for the sneak… PUT DALTON IN ON THAT PLAY. He’s a huge guy and can get it easily

  20. The NFL is about viewership an Money,, The panthers was just in the same situation with wilks a few years back against Tampa bay when they had tom brady ,, If the panthers won today an next Sunday,,then the last two games would be pointless,, The NFL cant make good viewership an Money that way so they had to flip it to make the last 4games of the season meaningful,, The panthers was up on Tom Brady 14 an the panthers didn't score no more ,, its all about who will give them more viewership an money making the playoffs,, we already know the answer to that ..As of right now the last game of the season time is TBA ,, they are setting up Sunday night football or a late game with the panthers at tb an the panthers wil fall just short of the playoffs cause Tampa bay will give the nfl more views an money than the panthers

  23. We played bad but we would have won if not for some of those questionable penalties. My god, they hit bryce twice and no call, and we hit their QB and we get called. Not to mention those crappy ticky tacky calls.

  25. First off I would like to say that you say the same thing after every loss. Give credit to the saints who stuck to their game plan and beat us because of your poor play calling and not staying with what got us in a position to make the playoffs. You are to blame. Your lack of being able to get the team prepared for a huge divisional game is pathetic. Weak, conservative play calling week to week, so sick of you and your absurd incompetence as a coach.

  27. This is why I can't entirely stop being a Canales ball buster smh get Evero the heck out of here already n for crying out loud can we get an actual OC !? WTAF 😡 Embarrassing but not surprised because we're bipolar as a team. No discipline no direction . Need to regroup n go over basic fundamentals good grief

  32. How is it that you come up with these conclusions 25 minutes after the game but can’t make changes during the game . Your assessment of what needs to happen in that moment is not of playoff standard

  34. yes I understand it’s 4th and 1 so you wanna go for it instead of kicking a field goal but it was also playoffs on the line and that field goal would have put you up 2 scores. You were playing against a good defense and the refs to be quite frank considering they were calling a lot of bogus calls that killed our drives and kept the saints drives alive all game. Also fire evero dawg his defense is hot garbage. Why is Derrick brown dropping into coverage? Just leave your linebackers there because that’s not tricking anyone.

  36. Panthers we don't have the will to win. I question the heart ❤️ of the Panthers. No killer instinct. Our best corner went head to head in one series and Jayce Horn 100mil shut down corner got dog walked. Dan Morgan said he wanted Dogs look like puppies. Plus football IQ is low dumb penalties. Lining up offsides, hitting QB defenseless playerx2. Need better play calls. They a little pedestrian.

  37. He chose not to go for it at 4th and 7th at Midfield and decided to give the ball back to New Orleans to the defense hasn't stopped all day genius move by an a-hole

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