Texans 20, Panthers 3
DAN CANALES: A lot of good work out there. To me, I think to kind of sum it up it was day of almosts. I just kind of challenged the group, Are we going to be almost good or are we going to make the plays when they are there to be made.
One for 10 on third down. Sanders misses a ball. Bryce hit him right in stride on. We got a double move. Team X probably going to score a touchdown. We didn't block Danielle Hunter on the right. Hit Andy in the elbow.
Speaking of which, took him out. Looks like an elbow sprain. We'll image it tomorrow, so I don't have the details of all that. He was moving it around fine. Said he feels fine. Got to take a look and see what happens there.
Jack Plummer, two interceptions on third down. That makes it a really difficult day. Gave them seven points down there where we threw that one interception.
All in all, just kind of looking play to play, I'm excited about our group. I'm excited about the talent that we have out there. But can we play together and can we make it come alive? We didn't do that to our standard, and to my standard today.
Q. (No microphone.)
DAN CANALES: I just wanted them to go out and earn another series. I just really felt like with giving them two shots to do it, it not coming up, I wasn't going to put him back out there and say, Let's play some more football.
That kind of paired with we got great work two days ago. I just kind of looked at it that way. I felt like the work we got against the Texans in the practice was good enough for me to kind of look at that and wanted them to get the prep and get ready for the game, still get out there and get a couple series. That's kind of what was behind it.
Q. Bryce is heading into his third NFL season. More experienced in the game. What are some areas of growth that you've seen in Bryce.
DAN CANALES: Bryce has continued to be a consistent leader for our team, operating the systems. He's been on time, making our practices come alive really, allowing us to dig deeper into the playbook.
Q. Any update on Carter?
DAN CANALES: Yeah, he came back in, finished the game. So I think he just kind of got rolled up on. I'm not sure if it was an ankle or knee. He was able to return, so we got him out there.
Q. We haven't seen Cam Jackson for a while. What is the latest on on him and Nic Scourton?
DAN CANALES: For Cam, something in his shoulder. Really the goal is to try to make sure he's stable and has his strength back. He's heading that direction. So I'm hopeful that he'll play, that he'll practice this week for the Steelers. Again, he's got to be able to prove and show us that he's got the strength back in the shoulder.
Okay, I didn't tell you guys, so Scourton suffered a collapsed lung. It was a very physical play. It was presenting like heat exhaustion because he was having trouble breathing, he was getting tired and all that. We kind of cooled him down. We couldn't get him to respond good enough to where we felt comfortable about putting him back into practice.
I really attribute Denny and the training staff to evaluating where he was at, saying this is not a guy that needs to return to practice today.
The symptoms kind of grew after practice. So we checked him into the hospital and then that's where they kind of told us what was happening. The symptoms all say this is what it was.
Scourton is driving home. He's on his way back. He left yesterday. He'll be back in Charlotte. We'll keep evaluating him. I don't really know a timeline. It's week to week with those things.
I've heard from trainers and different coaches who have been around this where a guy played the next week. We got to be smart with that one. I'll let you know where we're at once we get back to Charlotte.
Q. From that standpoint, this all came out over the last few days, you've been able to kind of reiterate to the team what's going on? Are they all aware what's happening?
DAN CANALES: They are all aware, yes.
Q. (Question about Princely.)
DAN CANALES: Yeah, weekly growth. Daily growth. I think with young players, they make their biggest strides... Like, their growth curve is so huge early on. The style of play that we're looking for, the techniques that we're asking for. That's what I've just seen from the group in general.
But for sure with Princely, just want him to be a complete player. Knowing that potential is out there for him to be, to establish that physicality against the run, still give us the pass-rush that we know he has.
Q. Etienne, two runs, holding penalties. What did you see from him today overall?
DAN CANALES: And in the pass game. Vision, patience, good control of the ball. I think one of the returns he slips on the turf. He's cutting it back. Really two of the returns kind of played out very similar. He set it up properly, the blocking was really good to get him through that first wave. He kind of lost himself there.
In the run game, it was patience, it was vision, it was the burst that we saw. As he gets more and more comfortable with our different run styles, he really showed some good things today.
Q. Kingston played center with Cade playing left guard. What made you decide to move him inside? How did he look from your immediate viewing?
DAN CANALES: Yeah, I mean, immediately, it was good snaps. I think we might have missed one ID. They left base out there a couple times against 11 personnel. It gets a little bit tricky where you ID the run and do all that. But besides that, it was a pretty clean day for him.
For us, just evaluating guys, the more you can do, the better odds you have to make our team. So to see how he was going to operate at center, we looked at Cade at guard.
He had a really good week, came out and played next to Austin and Ickey on the left side with where we're at with D. Lew and Chandler. I thought Cade did a really good job, too.
Q. (Question regarding Scourton driving back to Charlotte.)
DAN CANALES: Yes, it's a precautionary deal. I just learned about it. They said when you have that type of a chest injury, the cabin pressure, the elevation, all that can present issues. So the best course of action was to get him in a car, drive him back to Charlotte and continue his treatment there.
Q. Derrick wasn't out there very long. What did it mean to get him out there?
DAN CANALES: He was begging me. It wasn't my intention to play Derrick. I'll be honest. He was like, Coach, I just got to get out there, I got to get my hands on somebody. He was wearing Coach Wash out, too.
I loved the fact he wanted to be out there with his guys, he wanted to be able to see game speed, get his hands on something, knock something back. I was really excited to see Derrick back out there.
Q. How do you balance wanting to win and be competitive, pre-season games, but also having the outcome you had today and last week?
DAN CANALES: I think the cool part for me is it allows us to coach our guys hard on the fundamentals of football, which is the reason why we come away with three points, which is the reason why teams are sustaining drives, different things like that.
It comes down to the basics. Comes down to playing your leverage, knowing your assignment and then finishing the play. Who's going to make the plays for us? That's what we want to know.
We've seen guys do it consistently, then inconsistently when we get into our game settings. It just allows me to challenge them. We're trying to win all these games with whatever group that goes out there. That's the goal.
To not be able to get that done, it's frustrating. How far do we read into it? Not very far. This is this game. We got a week of work in front of us. We have two really important practices before we go into Pittsburgh.
The starters will not play this upcoming week. Those practices really become so valuable because it's the last time we have this whole group together and we're able to get the intensities that we want going into the season.
I feel great about our conditioning level. I feel great about the physicality of the play. I don't feel great about our execution of the basics because it's not showing up consistently for us. There's flashes.
I'm excited about our guys. I'm excited about our people. That's where leadership comes in. When are we going to take those steps to count on each other and be able to make those plays when they're available?
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports