How Carolina Panthers, now on 5-game skid, are resisting making losing the norm

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The Carolina Panthers have lost their past five games and have done so with two different quarterbacks and by an average margin of 20.2 points.

That’s not good.

But the team, a stated rebuilding project when head coach Dave Canales signed a six-year deal this offseason, is doing what it can to resist the notion that losing is the norm. And different people are achieving that end by different means.

Canales told reporters on Monday that the key to preventing losing to become synonymous with the franchise is to remain “about the football” — hammering the basics so intentionally that it’s difficult to focus on anything else.

“I just have to go to the fundamentals of football,” Canales said. “The places where we can improve from a technique standpoint. The places where we can improve from an operational standpoint. The playcall selections for our guys, putting our players in the best position to have success, and learning these groups as it changes, as it evolves. Those are the things that my energy goes to.”

He also said it’s helpful to acknowledge the progress — even if the progress isn’t even across all boards.

Among the positives the first-year head coach was referring to was the defensive run game. The Panthers, ranked last in every defensive rushing category of consequence including rush yards per game (154.6), only allowed the Broncos to run for 102 yards and one touchdown — a Bo Nix one-yard QB sneak.

But, as Canales said, “it’s the consistency part of it. The first drive, the continuity and rhythm and flow of what that looked like, we’re trying to build on top of that by putting together more drives throughout the game.”

Others are taking their own approaches.

Star cornerback Jaycee Horn, for instance, provided a glimpse on Sunday. As the clock ran out and as Nix knelt the game away, Horn was chirping with the Broncos sideline, and Broncos coach Sean Payton appeared to get involved, too.

Horn provided his perspective on the sequence Monday.

“It wasn’t necessarily directed at him (Payton),” Horn said. “They didn’t show, before they’d knelt the ball, I was going back and forth with their players on the sideline. I just felt that personally. I’m not going to speak for nobody else.

“But I think they had a fake field goal and a double pass in the fourth quarter on fourth down. And they had every right to do that when they’re winning the game. They have the right to win in style, however they want to do that. But I’m allowed to have my opinion on that too, and I felt that it was disrespectful, and so after the game I was just going back and forth with their players, and coach Payton just kind of got in the middle of it. But it wasn’t no banter back and forth between us.”

The former 2021 draft pick, who is having a stellar season ranked in second among all CBs in pass breakups, added: “We’re focused on New Orleans now. I’m really not caught up into that.”

Brady Christensen, who has taken the mantle as the team’s center since Austin Corbett’s season-ending injury, had his own perspective on preventing losing from becoming the norm.

He said you sit on the loss for 24 hours and then you move on to the next week and focus on the next week: “And you think, ‘If we play our best ball, no one can beat us.’”

”It’s not an easy thing,” Christensen continued. “Half of the battle of the NFL is the mental aspect of it. We’re, as a team, working on that mental side of it. We have a psychologist. We’re always working on the mental side of it.

“For me, personally, too. It’s a huge thing for me, not only the physical part of the game is very hard, but the mental is just as important. And so you gotta really battle and grind and work at it as much as the physical side. It takes a lot of effort, and you have to do it in this league to be able to be successful. So it’s a work in progress, so we just gotta keep working at it.”

Quick hits

▪ Canales is still evaluating who will be QB1 next week against the Saints as Andy Dalton continues his recovery from his thumb sprain. His exact words: “It’s gonna be a couple of days. These are really important days, the next few, really getting all the way out there to Wednesday, to play some live snaps. So I’ll give you guys more information about that. But we really have to look at Andy, where he’s at in the next couple of days to make a sound decision.”

▪ Demani Richardson earned his first start of the season at safety on Sunday after injuries kept Jordan Fuller and Nick Scott sidelined. The undrafted rookie and once-upon-a-time practice squad star led the team in tackles with 11 and was praised for the speed with which he played on Sunday.

▪ Jalen Coker’s first touchdown might’ve been a relatively mute stadium, as it came with 18 seconds left in the fourth quarter of a game already won by Denver. But it happened nonetheless. Coker led the team in receiving with 78 yards and saw 42 snaps — more than Xavier Legette (38) and Jonathan Mingo (33). The undrafted rookie said he put the TD ball right next to the ball he caught for his first NFL preseason TD in his home.