September spent on the road
Three of the Panthers’ first four games are on the road. They’ll travel to Jacksonville and Arizona in Week 1 and 2, respectively, then New England in Week 4. For Canales, that means three opportunities to connect during the time of the season when teams are working hard to establish chemistry.
“I just always look at road games as an opportunity for us to grow,” Canales shared.
“I think the thing people miss that happens when you travel is you become closer as a team…. I’ve always seen those opportunities as a chance for us to bond and kind of grow closer.
“The fact that it happens early in the season is a good thing as we figure out who we are; we’re going to have the core of what we’re doing from an X’s and O’s standpoint, but we’re going to see our team emerge and to go and play in somebody else’s stadium, we talked to the guys like, ‘Hey, we’re all we got, we’re all we need. This is our group right here, and you got to stay together.’ The energy has to come from our bench for the guys playing and, and to support each other that way.
“The flip side of it is you got a lot of road games early on, that means that we’re going to have more home games as the season goes on, and that’s where we can bring our show home and really show who we are to our fan base and get them excited about what we’re doing.”
Four of the last eight games will be at home.