Panthers News: Matt Corral, Frank Reich, Bryce Young and Amare Barno

Carolina Panthers HC Frank Reich staying calm

Although a shutout defeat is not the best way to begin any head coaching tenure, Frank Reich was eager to keep things in perspective. The Carolina Panthers kept things basic from a scheme standpoint, which was reportedly by design to avoid giving the game away too much ahead of the regular season.

This was an issue addressed by Reich post-game via Sports Illustrated. And it's clear based on his comments that not tipping his hand will be the primary focus over the next two preseason contests.

"You don’t like getting shut out and getting beat 27-0. But I have a lot of years in this league that tell me that preseason scores are not the most meaningful thing. Not that we aren’t accountable for that, we are. But it is not the most important thing right now. It’s just not. We are trying to evaluate our team. Listen, this is by design. I mentioned it the other day. We are very generic now. We did nothing in our scheme. Nothing. That’s not an excuse. I expected us to do a lot. So, we kept it simple so that we could do a lot. When you are a new coaching staff, I just don’t want to show too much. Some teams don’t know the things we are going to do and there is some of it I’m willing to take on the chin a little bit in preseason to hide some things we are going to do in the regular season."

- Frank Reich via Sports Illustrated

Reich is experienced enough to know what he's doing. Anyone that was expecting miracles right away got a rude awakening, but this drubbing will have given the primary decision-makers plenty to ponder as part of their ongoing assessments.