Week 4 loss provides Dave Canales with crystal clear clarity for improvements

Dave Canales cut a frustrated figure after the Carolina Panthers were beaten at home by the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 4. But the loss provided the head coach with crystal clear clarity about what he needs to do in pursuit of taking this downtrodden franchise forward.

The Panthers weren't a million miles away in this one. They were competitive if nothing else, although some costly errors on offense and a lack of defensive consistency ended up being their undoing versus the Bengals, who saved their campaign after three straight reverses to begin 2024.

Dave Canales knows how to improve the Carolina Panthers

Canales still believes his methods are working. It's hard to deny that fact after the improvements over the last two games. The most pivotal thing from his perspective is maintaining the same purpose, continuing to instill his beliefs into his players, and hoping there are better results to show for it when it's all said and done. Until the Panthers avoid costly mistakes and learn how to finish, it'll remain a gradual process.

"Again, for me, just talking to the team, just encouraged that our football continues to improve, but we've got to finish and we have to execute, and it all starts with me as the head coach and as we continue to go back to this practice, just making sure that we're really paying attention on those critical details of what it takes to play good football against a really good team, obviously, with some of their players that made big plays for them today."

- Dave Canales via SI

After being nothing but perennial losers for almost five years, the Panthers must learn how to become a winning organization first. It's a new-look roster with a renewed purpose, but this is going to take time. Canales knew this before taking the job, but he wasn't going to shirk the challenge of turning around the organization's fortunes.

Canales is an enthusiastic guy. He's transparent and brings a glass-half-full mindset that this squad needs during such a pivotal transition. Rome wasn't built in a day, of course, but it's hard to look at the growth over their last two contests and not think things are heading in the right direction.

Winning changes everything. That's what'll get fans back into the stands at Bank of America Stadium. That's what'll bring back respect to the Panthers' football operation after so much chaos in recent years. That's what'll vindicate Canales' teachings more than anything.

Until then, the team's long-suffering support will look for silver linings. There were plenty of those to go around in Week 4, even if it wasn't enough to counteract the Bengals' supreme offensive firepower led by Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and Chase Brown.

Not every problem was going to be solved in one offseason, not where this team was concerned. But the most important thing above all else? Canales knows how to fix it moving forward.

Carolina is on the right track. The improved cohesion with everyone moving towards one common goal is proof of that. If each member of the locker room continues to buy in, it won't be much longer before fans have more wins in the column to celebrate.

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