Panthers 31, Bills 26
DAVE CANALES: Just fired up for the guys. A great finish. Some great situational work, the two-minute before the half. I just want to mention, first off, we had Pete Hansen, our linebacker coach, call the defense in the first half. Did a fantastic job. Was really clear, really calm in his communication getting things out there.
Then the second half Jonathan Cooley, our pass game coordinator on the defensive side, called the game for the defense there, and I thought it was really fun to see him have to get into some of those 'did he make it or not' down by the red zone.
Some situations that brought up a lot of cool calls as we worked the whole field defensively. Both guys did a fantastic job.
Then Brad Idzik called the second half last week and then called the second half this week again. So, you know, he did a fantastic job keeping our guys in rhythm, was really connected to Jack Plummer, who had a fantastic day, putting him in his comfort zone and getting plays that he can operate with.
So just was really excited about those guys having the opportunities and taking advantage of it and really allowing me to -- in those situations when Brad calls it, to really be in tune with the officials, you know, the different calls and all that. That's really important and critical as we go forward.
Q. A lot of focus was on Bryce. What did you see out of him, and how maybe not validating but how reassuring was it to see how that (indiscernible)?
DAVE CANALES: It was great, right? Couldn't have dreamt it better. A nice long drive, 12 plays to get the guy some good work, get him tired in the drive. A fourth down conversion in there, but saw him extend plays with his legs, keeping his eyes down the field, finding guys.
You can see the carry-over from practice to the game of people creating space, the play after the play. Those are the things that are so critical for us. He handled the run game just with great expertise and got us to the right runs in those situations.
So I felt great about it. You know, would loved to have had Damien Lewis, would loved to have had Austin Corbett. Congratulations to the Corbetts. Cooper John Corbett, 10 pounds, 4 ounces, beautiful baby boy. Really excited for them.
D'Lou had a family matter. Anyway, we asked Andrew Raym to get in there, and he did a great job getting the snaps, making sure that our rhythm was where it needed to be.
Bryce looked sharp. Diontae, Adam looked great. Let's see. Mingo had a couple of plays in there. I don't want to go through the whole list, but anyway, the first group I loved seeing them out there.
Q. You mentioned this week when talking about whether you wanted to play Bryce or not, the availability of the whole group was a consideration. When you found out that Corbs and Damien weren't going to be here today, did you reconsider and think about not playing them?
DAVE CANALES: Absolutely. What helped me have the confidence to do is Chandler Zavala has done a fantastic job in this camp. Andrew Raym, he just keeps growing and learning.
We felt like because of the chemistry of the snap, sometimes you don't want to be under center with a new center. So we just kind of featured the pistol and the gun things, which gives them a clean snap point.
He did a fine job there. So for me, talking specifically to that, we wanted to see our skill players out there. We had Chuba and Miles and Diontae and Adam. So that was a good group to be able to get a good look at what our systems are.
Q. What did you see on the fourth and three, the next touchdown, the fourth and three play to extend that drive? He held it for more than three seconds. Just what did it show?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, poise, eyes down the field. You know, that aggressive nature but being able to do it within the confines of what's the smartest thing to do in this situation.
So he kept it alive, found us a completion, and then we ended up coming away with a touchdown a little bit later.
Q. Dane Jackson, as he gets back ramped up, what are your expectations?
DAVE CANALES: Dane has looked fantastic. He's tough. He challenges the ball in the air. All the stuff that we saw in free agency, you know, just the style of play, the aggressive nature that he plays with.
He's not one of those guys that's going to sit back. He's going to challenge stuff. So he's been that, and we can't wait to get Dane back out there as our group gets stronger.
Q. Eddy didn't kick in the second half. He announced as a hamstring. How is he?
DAVE CANALES: He's fine. So we had a situation right there at the end where we ended up getting a sack on third down. It really put us in like a short punt really long field goal situation.
So just some soreness. We wanted to be smart with that, but had we gotten a positive play, we fully intended to kick that ball right there. So that was just kind of more of a just err on the side of caution with that.
Q. (Off microphone).
DAVE CANALES: He felt ready. It was really me. It was really -- I just saw putting Andy in a competitive situation after we've gotten him completely healthy, he's been out there. He had a great week of practice, and I thought if I put him in a competitive situation, he's going to go win. He's going to take off, and I just really thought this is a great opportunity to give Jack Plummer another chance to be evaluated. He took full advantage of that, which was awesome.
Q. You mentioned Bryce using his legs in the second play. Were those plays designed to let him do that, or was that just kind of the result of what he took from it?
DAVE CANALES: A couple were designed movements. A couple of them weren't. They were just normal rhythm stuff. They covered us well. He extended the play. So a little bit of both.
Q. What does a win and seeing what your first-teamers did, and what does that do to carry over into Week 1 now?
DAVE CANALES: Certainly there's confidence that comes with winning. My goal today was to just get them some live reps, was to get them tired, to get them out there playing enough to where they can kind of just feel their conditioning coming into effect because there's confidence that comes with that.
That was the goal. The goal was to kind of get the feeling and the mix of the calls. Here's the rhythm of how I call things for Bryce, so he can start to anticipate what I might be going to in those different modes.
Then for the defense as well, just to play with each other. There's a bunch of guys who haven't played together in live games. So just to get them out there, communicate, work with each other, team tackle, use their leverage and all that together.
Q. On the whole after preseason games, what do you know about this team now that you didn't know a month ago?
DAVE CANALES: I would say the finish. It's something that I harp on, but can they do it? I've seen our guys play 60 minutes of good, aggressive football. No quit in this group.
It's something that I hope that we continue to build on, so saw that. Saw some aggressive play. I think just in general, too, guys really just taking to coaching week-to-week. There were things we emphasized. They improved it.
I've said this a lot about this group, but the challenges that we've given them from a coaching staff, they've taken those challenges to heart. It matters to them. I see a group that really cares, a group that really enjoys each other. It's something to definitely build off of.
Q. Was the plan to always have starters one drive, or did the score make that decision?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, it was a feel thing, right? If you go in and get three plays and kind of get out, you know, you still take advantage of I could feel the differences in the locker room of guys getting ready to play, and that's the purpose of doing it.
The bonus is when you have extended drives so that you can really tap into their fitness levels and be able to focus and get the calls that way.
Q. (Indiscernible). Didn't catch a ball today. He only had one target. Is that where the play was, or is there anything to it?
DAVE CANALES: No, he's good. Had one shot. He dropped it. Then after that the ball kind of just went other places.
He looked fast. He looked great. He looked big and fast. That's what we're counting on, and he played hard. That's what we ask for with our guys. The ball will find you eventually.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports