What Carolina Panthers coach Dave Canales said after 34-3 win against the Falcons
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In Week 2, the Carolina Panthers finally showed what a 30+ point offensive performance can look like when the defense comes to play… an emphatic 34-3 win in Atlanta.
Read more Carolina Panthers rebound, blow out Falcons behind Bryce Young, Devin Lloyd
Bryce Young notched another three touchdown performance, and this time he had a defense behind him. While Carolina let up 286 total yards, it forced five turnovers, including two interceptions by captain linebacker Devin Lloyd — one of which he returned 16 yards to the house.
This week, the Panthers faced a weaker quarterback in Falcons third-string Cooper Rush, who certainly did not play like the Bears’ Caleb Williams in last week’s 59-37 Chicago win over the Panthers.
The win bumps Carolina to 1-1 in advance of a road game against the Browns next Sunday.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales, who had to face an onslaught of questions about his defense’s poor performance last week, had an easier time on Sunday.
Here’s what the third-year head coach had to say:
“Complementary football, all phases, defense getting the turnovers. Four turnovers plus a couple of fourth down stops at the end of the day, giving the offense a bunch of opportunities. We didn’t finish some of those in the red zone, so we left some stuff out there. But generally speaking, from an offensive standpoint, playing off of the field position that we were getting because of the defense’s response and the way they played. Bryce and the gang making plays. It pains me to admit we probably took about 60 to 70 yards of rushing off of our game because of penalties, so something we got to really look at and talk about. Getting our hands clean. It usually starts with a stance and keeping your feet running. You get out of position and people see that separation. So we got to clean that up.
And then special teams wise, flipping in the field. Jalen Coker with an amazing first punt return. I thought he was going to fair catch it. He had space, though. And we told him like, ‘Hey, it’s your judgment if you have enough space and feel like you can do something with it.’ But he had two really nice returns that got us some positive gains, some positive yardage, that led to points. So the coverage unit was really fast and physical today. So just the whole thing coming together, exactly what we hope for. So I’m fired up about this one.”
“We were kind of just auditioning them, and T-Mac even said, ‘Hey, I’ll go back there and catch them.’ And he actually looked pretty good doing it. But it’s good to have options. It’s good to have guys. First things first is let’s catch that ball and take care of all that hidden yardage, and then whatever they do with it afterwards is a bonus and is able to flip the field.”
Read more Carolina Panthers rebound, blow out Falcons behind Bryce Young, Devin Lloyd
“It was a collective effort. We knew they were going to try to run the ball after last week. And the defense came together, we shored up some things. Guys were, for the most part — again, there’s going to be some clips that we wish we could have back — but for the most part, they just did their job. They just played their assignment. Either you’re in the gap or you’re missing the gap, and guys were squeezing. We set nice edges, and the secondary showed up today and tackled really well, especially with Bijan and the whole crew. They had a couple runs that got out, and we were able to corral them, get them down, and minimize the damage on some of those.”
“I don’t know if I’ve seen a better performance out of a linebacker in 17 years of coaching in the NFL. Two interceptions, one for a touchdown, a sack, eight tackles, a batted pass. I mean, it’s attributed to his study and being in the right spots. And then, of course, I didn’t realize his hands were that good. You know, the slant that he picked off there at the end was incredible, and the run after catch on the first one. So one of the most dominant linebacker performances I’ve seen.”
“Just ownership. I think something we talk about a lot is watching this offense become Bryce’s offense, and it’s so evident in the week when he’s tweaking routes, angles of cuts, and saying, ‘Hey, I want you flatter on this one. Take one more revolution here. Come straight back to me, or come back down your stem.’ All these different things that are a part of our system, Bryce is fine-tuning those with the guys, and you could see the trust level, some anticipatory throws. We had one drive where we hit about three play-action shots down the field to Coker and to those guys, and that’s just all that timing and conversations that the guys put in.”
“Just the ability to take advantage of matchups with safeties, with linebackers. That’s exactly the type of impact that he can have on this offense, and then it opens other things up. And we got all these other beautiful players sitting on the other side of the field as well to be able to distribute it and create a little bit more balance in our pass game.”
“He’s very decisive, a veteran player, so he understands leverage. And he and Bryce have spent a lot of time just kind of working on those things on Fridays, before and after our team drills, just to talk through ‘When I have this leverage, this is what it’s going to look like.’ And that’s a great part of having a veteran guy like Darren. And of course, the size and speed. You know, once he set his foot in the ground on his second touchdown, Bryce knew and just threw it early. When a player is decisive, it gives the quarterback a lot of confidence to just let it rip.”
“The message to the team was trust the process, get right back to work, this is how it goes. And my challenge now is: How do we continue to get better? How do we take the lessons from today, clean those things up, and then take another step next week?”
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