What Dave Canales said after Carolina Panthers’ lifeless loss to Chargers at home

Another week. Another hard-to-watch loss.

The Carolina Panthers (0-2), still searching for rock bottom two weeks into their 2024 season of doom, were dominated by the Los Angeles Chargers (2-0) in Bank of America Stadium on Sunday , 26-3.

“Everything” went wrong in Week 1 ’s loss to New Orleans, and somehow the Panthers looked worse in Week 2. The team won the turnover battle — by virtue of a Jaycee Horn interception and a Josey Jewell fumble recovery — and still was beaten so bad the crowd pleaded for change early and often with boos and, at times, chants to bench quarterback Bryce Young in favor of backup Andy Dalton.

Head coach Dave Canales answered to the dreadful display on Sunday in his postgame press conference. Here are the highlights of what he said.

Dave Canales opening statement

“Saw some improvement in terms of taking care the football. Like to not have that interception, like to be clean with the football. But good step right there. The run game: I was excited about seeing where we could go with the run game, and it really just came down to third down again. Offensively, defensively, just not acceptable from a coaching standpoint, from a player standpoint. We all have to take our responsibility in the third down, so we can get more opportunities to run the ball, to throw our actions, to do those things that we really want to do, that we see ourselves heading toward. ...

“I couldn’t ask this group to play harder than they did. There was great effort on the field. Everybody was laying out, all the way through, the whole time, trying to make the most of this game.”

How would you describe Bryce Young’s confidence?

“Well, I gotta look at the film. I gotta talk to him some more. I think, as a group, offensively, defensively, this is a group that’s working their tails off to try to get things going, to try to find our style of football. So I can’t make any specific comments about any one player, particularly, as you understand, because we’re all frustrated. We’d all like to play better football.”

Any thought on playing Andy Dalton next week?

“Bryce is our quarterback. I’d love to see this thing to continue to take the next steps offensively right now.”

Will Bryce Young start next week?

“Bryce is our quarterback. We’re going to just continue to shore up and fix things we need to fundamentally, from a scheme standpoint, all those things. These are all valuable reps. These are all valuable games. We’ll learn a lot from this game, and hopefully we’ll take another step this week.”

How he can translate the positive work in practice to the field

“Regardless of the outcome, it’s about trusting the process. It’s going right back to work. It’s watching the film, improving the fundamental things that we can control. And again, it’s about honing in on the things that we feel like we can execute. Really, the process won’t change. It’s gotta be that type of focus and intentionality. It requires a lot of discipline to stay with the process that we have in place, and how to work, and how to go about it.

“Until I call a perfect game — until anybody plays a perfect game — we have things to work on as a group. And so, this is a very accountable group from a staff and player standpoints. So we’ll keep staying together and working on the issues we need to address.”

Surprised fans booed?

“You know what, honestly, my focus right now is to try to put our players in the best position to execute. And so I just have to keep my focus there. I have to keep my energy with our group, with our guys, and to commend them for the things we did well and to correct things that we’d like to see improvement on.”

On the frustrations flared on the sideline a few times, including between Diontae Johnson and Bryce Young

“We’re all frustrated. And it comes down to execution. Every phase. We’re all frustrated. I think that we’re all in the same boat there, we all feel the same way about going back to our work, about controlling the controlables. But definitely is a frustrating time. The guys are staying together. They’re talking through stuff, and emotions and passion runs hard especially in this league, so we gotta continue to work to improve.”

How to instill confidence in Young?

“It’s about the process. Just go right back to work. Regardless of the outcomes. We gotta just continue to have that discipline, to go back to our fundamentals, to fix our basics, to continue to become us. To figure out the things we have to do to be successful.”

What happened on Young’s interception?

“I gotta watch the film to see exactly what happened. A lot happens fast. The result isn’t what we wanted. So we’ll have more information as we go.”

On the team’s early growing pains

“I expected it to take time to become us. To figure out the things that we do well. We’re still in that process. I don’t like to set expectations. What I need to do is just continue to gather information, gather this game, gather the next one, look at the film, really just continue to fine-tune and hone into the things that we feel like we can execute.”

A’Shawn Robinson injury status (went down right before halftime)

“We don’t have anything specific right now. We’ll have more in the next couple days.”

Any other injuries?

“Think we came out pretty clean.”

Protection holding up?

“I gotta watch the film, see how it all came up, and I’ll have more information for you.”