Coach Canales on Loss to 49ers + Facing the Rams on a Short Week | Panther Talk | Carolina Panthers

Coach Canales on Loss to 49ers + Facing the Rams on a Short Week | Panther Talk | Carolina Panthers

Thanksgiving week. Welcome to Panther Talk and a Shraf, Jim Zoke, Eugene Robinson, and the head coach of the Carolina Panthers. We’ll we’ll get into Monday night. Uh the team playing didn’t land till a little after 6. So, it is a tight week and I kind of want to begin there because you get the Rams, maybe the best team in the NFL, coming here on Sunday. Short week for you guys. Everything is condensed. Can you just walk us through the the coaching staff timeline for how preparation uh ensues for the remainder of the week? Um yeah, so you take advantage of some windows, you know, last week we had a bonus day and there’s a there’s a portion of time there where you can kind of get set up for all the things you need to watch. Then you got to quickly shift your brain back into, okay, we’re in full game plan mode here. We’re playing the NerS. Um, so that when we land, you know, at 6:30 in the morning, come straight into the office and all of your cutups, all of your things are organized to get ready to get to work and and you know, that’s really the process that we’re in right now is just going through our game plan. So, and you got to condense a Monday, Tuesday into one day. Um, so that you’re ready to talk to the players tomorrow, present, you know, things to them. But again, we’re just removed from a game. So we’re in walkthrough mode um to start off and then we have to gauge the the you know health of the group to see okay at some point we got to get out there we got to get our timing and run around and do do that but um initially it’s about just having that setup point so that we can condense things is there anything we can carry over you know that makes sense from one week to the next kind of start there and then dive into the specific game plan for the Rams. Well coach how much how much would you uh dwell on this loss uh coming back home and it was a lot of good things that were happening there. there was some things that didn’t happen. Well, so how did you dwell on this loss as you move forward? Yeah, we just we got to learn from the lessons and got to make sure that we connect with our players and uh and you know, you’re not going to be able to evaluate the full game together, but you can make cutups and you can say here’s a couple of things we did well. Here are some things, some areas we really need to improve upon, you know, fundamentally. Um and uh so you take those things, try to move from there, go straight into the game plan and start talking about the Rams. You know, I I’m at this uh the point when and particularly as a defensive back, there was a play early in the in the game um where uh Christian McCaffrey does this little dive thing to pick up the first down that kind of extended the drive. And I’m under impression as Mer was coming up as he looks back at the quarterback and then he gets his eyes back, he loses his his his leverage ever so slightly. I thought that was such a pivotal play because it seemed like it’s a nonplay, but talk about how the details really spell out things because getting your head back towards the opponent as opposed to looking at the quarterback to see what’s going on makes a huge difference. Absolutely. It’s a leverage game and uh assignment football, good things happen when you own your leverage. Um when you’re in position, you know, when uh interceptions happen because you own your leverage and your feet are in the ground, your eyes are in the right spot. um breaking up passes, great tackling happens because you’re in the proper leverage and you have help. And when you own outside leverage, you have a player inside that helps. And when you squeeze in team tackle, you know, then then you create more impact and you have an opportunity to affect the the ball carrier and get them down in those situations. And so those are all the critical little things that we’re working on. And big part of the preparations is knowing what personnel you’re going to have this week. It’s a bit of a laundry list of course, but uh what you could tell us here early in the week as far as availability and also the news of Trayvon Mayer getting the one game suspension. Yeah. So, um you know, we’re counting our guys to step up. These are big opportunities for a bunch of players to help our team uh this week and um you know, we’ll we’ll hopefully get Trevan back uh Trevon Wallace back on the inside uh this week. But Chris Barnes played really well in the game and uh Bam Martin Scott got in at the end and really flashed uh flashed some speed, some length, some things that we’ve been seeing and um he’s just been really conscientious in preparing and being ready to play and Pete Hansen’s done a great job, you know, with Bam just making sure that he’s ready for that moment. So there’s guys that can help us, you know, and Jake Kuran has come in before on the offensive line side to help us and he finished the game for us. So really counting on him to do that again. um a good chance to see some more guys out there. And then of course at the corner spot, you know, we got to see where JC’s at in the he’s in the concussion protocol right now, but a Caleb Evans played outside. Shaw Smith Wade made some nice plays at corner as well. So some of the guys that have been developing uh while we’ve been here, you know, we’re going to count on this week. Coach, um to go back to Monday night, you know, one of the things that we’ve noticed, um that you guys have done to other teams this year is when you’ve put together long drives and chewed up clock, you can get them out of their offensive rhythm and three scoring drives for them took up 23 plus minutes off the clock. What does that do to your offense? Oh, well, it definitely, you know, creates a challenge where you have to get going and find your rhythm pretty quickly, you know, and got to give credit to the NerS. Um it’s about their down efficiency as well. you know, they had some explosive plays. Our defense did a great job, held them to six explosives on the day. Uh, but they were efficient and on the first drive of the game, I want to say they were four for four or five for five on third down where the flip side of that story was we were one for seven. And so, we didn’t allow ourselves to get rhythm. We didn’t allow ourselves to get into it. And I got to take full accountability, too. We got to get the run game going. And we got two amazing backs. Chuba’s back. Rico looks great. We got to make sure that that’s a part of what we’re doing. Um, so I put that on myself as well. But that also goes handinhand with being efficient on third down, making at least half of those. Give ourselves another rack so we can get deeper into our call sheet and allow the the different things in the different presentation of how we’re attacking to show up. Coach, you mentioned that uh before the Saints are talking about being balanced, being balanced. Is that what you’re talking about right now? Being balanced? Absolutely. You know, and in the Saints game, it was a little bit of a different story, you know, and we we stuck with the run game and and you know, we saw success against the Dolphins. We saw success against the Cowboys where we stuck with the run game. We had some efficient passes and trying to find our explosives, you know, where all of a sudden we have this explosion, if you will, at Atlanta with the pass game, you know, and uh trying to make both things come to life. That’s the goal to be a balanced offense where you can be attacking in both phases. Even the losses offensive line continues with another combination and and playing well. So, just addressing that you lose chances of Zavala during the game already without Cade Mays, but they were able to run effectively only one sack given up in the game. is how week after week they just perform collectively with whatever the number of players that are out there. I love this group and the way they work together, the way that they’re always communicating with each other is why it happens the way it does because there’s a lot of chemistry that happens in combination whether it’s in the run game or whether you’re passing off a pass stunt or communicating the pressure that’s coming. And they did a great job of picking up the blitzes, picking up pressures. Um and they blocked well in the run game. They got the play started. They got their combos were pushing up to the second level. and um just love that I can count on those guys to step in and do the job and help their team. And then coach, defensively, I mean the DBs, JC and Mike Jack, three picks total in that first half. Um what did you see out of your secondary in particular? Just aggressive play, great leverage, being in position, being connected to guys. Um whether they were cutting in or out, the guys were on the top hip, they were in great position to make those plays. And then just the hands to be able to, you know, at full speed cut in front of the guy and make the play. Uh just some really impressive uh impressive play out of our DBs in that game. And coach, I want to stay with right there because I thought JC’s one of his best interceptions was the second interception because he actually found work to go ahead and do cuz it never looked like he should even even be anywhere near that area. Absolutely. It was pattern recognition, understanding the formation and understanding the type of action that they were that that they were trying to execute and seeing the concept. He knew what was happening. He understood that he didn’t have anybody threatening in his side and just followed the quarterback’s eyes and made a great play right there. So, that was a fantastic play in the game. What’s kind of your overarching message to the team after a long flight back? Uh the effort and energy were there as far as again guys coming in and out of the lineup, but they’re disappointing not getting the win coming off a big win the week before. Just as far as kind of the motivation, like how do you approach them as far as just the attitude moving into this week? Let’s go. It’s that time of year and you know unfortunately we had some injuries. We have guys stepping up with great opportunities and talked to them after the game and said look the rehab starts right now in terms of physical preparation. Like we got to get hydrated. We got to get rested on this plane. Tomorrow’s going to be a great rest day for the guys and then we got to get back to work. Um get right back to our processes, making sure we’re going through our game plan with detail, getting back to the fundamentals and basics that has led to our success. Five games left in the year. Uh, you’re still right in the middle of this thing. You got two against Tampa left, only a half game out of first. Do you address the P-word playoffs with this group? Every game is a championship opportunity. We have to have that mindset. We have to approach our work that way. Every practice, every walkthrough, every meeting has a purpose. It’s to prepare ourselves for championship moments. And each of these games, without a shadow of doubt, are championship opportunities. And we’re fired up to get back to work. um refocus, look at the things that we can improve upon, build on the things that we’ve been doing well so that we can continue to build this team. And coach, how much self-evaluation do you do of your own self? A lot. Yeah. And and I have great help. I have a bunch of people in the building that I talked to and and I’m accountable to and we look at what what showed up and what didn’t show up, you know, and had a chance to talk about, okay, we got to make sure that this run game shows up for us. This has got to be about who we are, a part of what we’re doing and make because especially because of the impact that Rico and Chuba can make for this team. All right, last thing. It’s uh Thanksgiving week. It’s early in this week, but uh last time we talked beforehand uh with your football team and uh with your life, what what are some of the things you’re kind of thinking about this week as you get ready for this game as well? Uh just in incredibly grateful for all the people that all hands on deck in this building. Um everyone everyone from every floor of this of this whole place how they pour their heart and soul into the players into this organization and it’s all about winning and it’s taking care of each other with love and respect. Um, but I just feel that I’m super grateful for all the people in the training room, in the cafeteria, the equipment staff, um, on and on, uh, for just the selfless work that goes into making sure that the coaches, the players, that we all have everything we need to be successful. And so I’m super grateful for that. All right, Dave, uh, happy Thanksgiving on behalf of us. Happy Thanksgiving. Now, coach, thank you. Dave Canales here on the Carolina Panthers Radio Network. All right.

Dave Canales joins Anish Shroff, Jim Szoke and Eugene Robinson on “Panther Talk” to recap the Panther’s loss to the 49ers on Monday Night Football, discuss the suspension, look ahead to this week’s game against the LA Rams, and so much more!

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