What Dave Canales said after Bryce Young’s 4-turnover day leads to Cowboys’ crushing

The Carolina Panthers have spent the last three weeks shedding their “same old Panthers” label — proving that despite their losses, they were fun and fearless and good enough to at least hang with the NFL’s best.

Sunday, on the contrary, was an uncomfortable return to form.

The Panthers (3-11) fell to the Dallas Cowboys, 30-14, in a game that in many ways resembled the same matchup from 2023 — the penultimate game of the Frank Reich era: Bank of America Stadium was replete with Cowboy blue. Outside of one play, the Panthers failed to be explosive. And the defense let a struggling Dallas offense gain some confidence, anchored by a run game that earned 5.3 yards per carry.

Head coach Dave Canales answered to his team’s regression after the loss to the Cowboys (6-8). That included quarterback Bryce Young’s four turnovers — two fumbles and two interceptions — and the offensive line’s six sacks allowed.

Here’s a recap of the head coach’s postgame news conference.

Dave Canales’ opening statement

“Story of the game is the ball. Ten points off of turnovers. Just giving their offense opportunities, and then in the first half, giving up some big plays in the pass game. And then in the second half, with the lead, they went right to the run game and we weren’t able to get them off the field that way.

“And then, you’re playing from behind, we play to their strengths, they have a good pass rush unit, and they got after us with the sacks and a couple pressure situations where we played it right into their hands, and they were able to attack us defensively and then stick with the run game and kind of ran out of chances, ran out of turns at the end.

“That’s the story of the game. And so we addressed the group: ‘That’s not the brand of football we want to play.’ We gotta take care of the ball so we can be balanced, so we can continue to mix our runs and passes in offensively, and then defensively get them into more passing situations. So a really challenging day for us.”

Bryce Young having trouble gripping the ball?

“I don’t know that. Certainly a couple of the throws got away from him.”

Will Young start next week?

“Yeah. Bryce will play next week.”

On the game’s peaks and valleys

“I gotta look at the film, you know, but I think just from a glance, there was a missed block here or there. There was just some execution stuff that happened. And at a certain point, we gotta go, we gotta start throwing it and try to be more aggressive with it, and they were able to come up with some really good rushes on us, and put us in some pretty bad situations: some second-and-longs. Certainly the penalties, too. That was another thing that really put us into some difficult spots as well.”

On Young’s postgame demeanor

“He had a good look in his eyes. So I was just looking forward to continuing to just be aggressive, trying to find those opportunities that we had down the field. So I thought he maintained that, kept fighting, had the nice long drive there at the end, the touchdown drive before the last one. So it felt like the guys were continuing to fight, but there was just a lot to clean up.”

On the Cowboys’ pass rush success

“I think Micah Parsons is a special player. He certainly got some wins out there. But I think it was really the mode that when they put us in this mode where we’re playing from behind, and we have to go for it, we have to throw the ball and flip the field and try to get points, we play into the opponents’ hands in that regard. And it allows them, (defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer) with a really good pressure package and some good players up front, but it certainly put us in a brand of football that we didn’t really want to play. But we have to go there when we do.”

How deflating was that first-drive fumble?

“That’s a challenge, right? When you have a successful drive ending in a turnover, the challenge is you gotta snap back and say, ‘OK, these are the things that led to the success of that drive. Can we just return to it?’ And we weren’t able to return to it in the course of the first half there.

“You bring up a good point: We have to be able to say, ‘OK, this thing happened, we just have to reset and just get back to our football.’”

On special teams penalties, especially after the play

“Just something we gotta get out of our football. We’re addressing it. We’re talking to the guys. They play with a lot of passion. A lot of heart. They’re aggressive by nature. But we can’t have the extra stuff. This game is too hard. The NFL is too hard to give the opponent any advantage, and if you tack on 15 yards after a coverage, after a return, those things, they add up.”

Why no Eddy Piñeiro on kickoffs?

“We had a plan. We had (punter Johnny Hekker) with some different kicks. He executed them pretty well. And put a couple balls in the landing zone and got them on the ground to slow up (KaVontae) Turpin a little bit. So I thought it worked out pretty well for us.”

Not health-related?

“No.”

Any explanation on Xavier Woods’ unnecessary roughness penalty in first half?

“They explained it as a hit on a defenseless receiver. And I know we were fighting like crazy to say it wasn’t to his head or neck area, but from their vantage point that’s kind of what they saw, and so that’s what they flagged. It was a really hard hit. But again, it’s up to the officials’ discretion.”

Fair to say this week felt like a regression?

“Absolutely. The biggest part of it is just the ball security. Making sure that we end the down with the ball. As long as we have the ball, we can manage it. If it’s a sack, it’s a sack, we can figure out what to do next. But when we have those turnovers, and we flip the field and give them 10 points, it does make it more difficult. It doesn’t make it impossible, but it does make it more challenging.

“And then everything else, execution from then on out is at a premium. And that’s where you have to play really good football. It’s definitely not the type of ball we wanna play.”

After three weeks of progress and being favored for first time this season, any complacency during practice this week?

“Not at all. This is a group that’s been battling for everything. And even in those games where we’re playing teams tight, it’s because we are controlling the football. It’s because we are putting ourselves in positions to have success, to play to win the game in the end. And today we did not do that. So we just look at it as this opponent, regardless of what the point-spread and all that: It’s about us. It’s about our execution. It’s about us doing it right.”

Xavier Legette groin injury update?

“We gotta do the followup and see where it’s at.”

On holding your run defense accountable

“We just gotta go right off the film and just look at the fundamentals of the call, of where people are supposed to be, getting guys down, keeping them from getting those extra yards and all that. And so we just gotta return to the basics. That’s really what we have.”

Do you remain confident in the 3-4 base defense?

“Absolutely.”