Carolina Panthers head coach stays positive despite cataclysmic Week 1 loss

Dave Canales did not envision his first career game as Carolina Panthers head coach to be a loss so brutal it would drive him to exit the Caesars Superdome with the positivity sucked from his team.  But that's exactly what happened.

Canales did not anticipate he would describe the feeling in his locker room as “somber”,  just one game into the season. It was a disaster from start to finish.

"We had our chances. We didn’t get our first completion for a while there. So just all around, poor execution in all phases, particularly when you turn the ball over, and you give that offense chances. "

- Dave Canales

The Panthers struggled from the start. A blown coverage led to a 59-yard touchdown for New Orleans Saints’ speedster Rasheed Shaheed. Just a couple of plays later, quarterback Bryce Young threw his first of two interceptions on the day when targeting Diontae Johnson.

"I thought he [Diontae Johnson] had good space, I gotta watch the film. I thought he had good space, It looked like a high throw"

- Dave Canales

Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales tries to stay positive after Week 1 loss

Canales wants to remain objective. He wants to dissect each play, so he can pinpoint what went wrong and “make it about the basics”. However, he did not hesitate to call this an “overthrow”. A word he used a few times throughout his press conference when describing Young's performance in Week 1.

The signal-caller posted a career-low passer rating of 32.8. Most in Carolina were hitching their wagon to the idea Young would improve. It would start with his footwork and poise in the pocket. Both appeared markedly worse. He failed to set his feet en route to overthrowing his receivers more times than the FOX broadcast team could count.

The second-year quarterback appeared to regress from a season ago. His accuracy and his body language took a step back. Young looked jittery behind a revamped offensive line that played better than what the Heisman Trophy winner was accustomed to in 2023.

When asked for positives in Young’s performance, the optimistic coach gave a short pause and briefly answered citing the “pre-snap operation” and the “avoidance of delay of games”.
He waited patiently throughout the game for the quarterback to show any sign of development. When it never came to fruition, Canales benched him.

"I thought about getting Andy (Dalton) in the drive before. But I was really just trying to get one more shot at, ‘Can we just get our rhythm? Can we get some completions?’ When it didn’t happen, it was very obvious with the score. So I probably could’ve gotten him out there a drive earlier."

- Dave Canales

Neither Canales nor Young expected to be watching the team's final possession from the sideline together. Needless to say, he is keeping his head up. “It’s a long journey. It’s a long journey to become us. I truly believe that,” Canales said.

As the Panthers come home to Charlotte to take on the Los Angeles Chargers next week, they will keep their phones on mute, silencing an increasingly critical fanbase that remains desperate for hope.

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