Buffalo Bills 40, Carolina Panthers 9
DAVE CANALES: Unbelievable performance by them, by James Cook. He had a fantastic day and made some big runs. They consistently owned the line of scrimmage and made it challenging for us. We were not able to get our run game going today. Went to the pass game and that's where the turnovers happened. Pretty clear story right there. We made it really hard on ourselves against a good team and made it a really challenging situation for us, so would love to see better execution in those things, in those areas and be able to move on from that.
Q. With a situation like today where it's kind of hard get hag run game established, did you consider at any point deviating from the plan to alternate the series with Chuba and Rico?
DAVE CANALES: Nope. Like the plan, just looking for execution and we have ton able to be balanced with the pass game in those situations and the turnovers really just got us out of our rhythm and put us in a different node.
Q. At the end of the game, with it clearly out of reach, why did you stick with Dalton? Why not go to Hooker at that time?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, just wants to give him a chance to get us a successful drive and we were able to move the ball down there and get a touchdown on that one. But, you know, it was just a chance to bounce back. I love finish. I preach finish, talk about the guys, trying to give them an opportunity after a really sloppy first half to go back in there and try to get something going.
Q. What can you tell us about the offensive line injuries?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, unfortunately, Brady Christensen's got an achilles and so he's -- it's a significant one. He's going to be out. We're going to miss him a lot and just gives me a chance to talk about what he's meant to this group, the flexibility to play all across the line in different spots. Been playing great football for us so we'll really going to miss Brady and Jake Curhan stepped in there and did a good job at the end.
But I can't say enough about what he's, just the stud guy that he is. The preparation that goes into it. He's sick about it and we all are for him and what he's done for us.
Q. Are you thinking it's ruptured?
DAVE CANALES: I think so, yeah.
Q. Those offensive line injuries coupled with Andy's limited mobility, was that just a recipe for disaster?
DAVE CANALES: It made it really challenging and we try to find that balance, but at the same time, when guys are rolling in there, Austin did a great job stepping in for Cade. That was an ankle. We'll evaluate him more so we'll have more information on what that looks like, but I thought Austin did a really good job going in there and settling it down, being able to get our runs and passes and all that targeted the right way.
So guys stepping in, again, Yosh coming in for T-Mo. We'll evaluate T-Mo a little bit more. Right now it's a knee. He just wasn't able to finish. Saw some pretty good rushes out there, and we felt like Yosh would give us a better chance after that point.
Q. What about Derrick Brown and his knee injury?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, Derrick seems fine. They evaluated him on the sideline at that point in the game. We just made the decision to keep him out of there to be able to finish the game with the other guys.
Q. How close was Bryce to being active today?
DAVE CANALES: Pretty close. He made progress throughout the week but didn't feel confident enough to get him out there to be able to do all the things that he needs to do to be successful. We'll circle back around early this week and the hope is to get him back out there on Wednesday doing something. But, again, we got to be smart and do the right thing.
Q. Did something anger Princely at the end? He threw his helmet against the wall.
DAVE CANALES: I did not see that. A lot of frustration along the sideline. My message to the group is this is one game right here. The explosives, how well we've been playing the run, that didn't happen today and we gave them the ball, gave them some short fields in some different situations and just asking the guys, we will look at this film, we will take it and correct the things that need to be corrected and right the ship based on the things that we've been doing.
Q. I understand you're going to have to look at the film but the challenges in defending the run, was there anything that jumped out to you?
DAVE CANALES: Just explosive play. I thought James Cook did an excellent job of being patient and just really slow playing. They did a great job up front staying on their combinations and didn't feel like we could collapse the backside of some of these runs. There were some cutbacks that got out on us and the toss cracks really were effective for them today.
Stuff that we got to look at and this is a copycat league, and teams are going to see that and try to attack us with those things so we got to go back to the drawing board and make sure we're fitting all those up correctly.
Q. Is there a breakdown on the run defense? I think 168 of Cook's yards were before contact.
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, it's just about the fits. It's the discipline of playing the run game that it takes so we got to get back to that.
Q. Dave, if this was a measuring stick type of game, are you guys that far behind the elite teams in the league as this process continues?
DAVE CANALES: We really look at it as one game. There's a lot of good football right in our rear-view mirror and we just got to get back to playing that kind of good football. So for us it's just one opportunity to the next, the next opponent, look at them and try to attack our game plans and fix those things. But we have to keep our focus right here right now and be able to get back to work.
Q. How do not let that stump the momentum that you had built over the previous weeks?
DAVE CANALES: Just get back to the fundamentals and the great part is we have an opportunity to look at the last four games, to look at what's successful for us and to see where the holes were based on how we've been playing and how we've been attacking on both sides on the offense with the run game and also on defense. We got to be able to look at that and grow and get back to the basics.
Q. You didn't rule Bryce out completely until today. What's his status?
DAVE CANALES: We'll take a look early this week. The plan is to try to get him back out there on the field Wednesday and sea what he can do. But, again, we got to be smart and we got to see where we're at.
Q. How engaged was he and how involved is he on the sideline throughout the game, feedback, talking to Andy, talking to you, maybe, about what he saw?
DAVE CANALES: He did an excellent job going to Andy regardless of the outcome of the drive and just talking to him, staying in his head, encouraging him, leading. That's what he's been doing while he's been here. He was very engaged, very involved in what we were doing so I know Bryce is just as sick as the rest of the guys.
Q. You said it was tough to get the run game going. Rico averaged almost seven yards a carry. How do you keep that balance while still trying to get your best players involved?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, that's something to look at too and we got to look at schemes and we got to look at our personnel and see who gives us a best chance to win.
Q. Dave, the first turnover that Dalton made on the scramble, the game was still very much in play at that point. Do you think that was the most critical one because of where it was?
DAVE CANALES: Every turnover that's created by the opponent makes the game challenging. It doesn't make it impossible but as they start to mount up, those are the things where the score starts to turn lopsided the way that it did. That first one, Andy's back out there playing. We count on him to end the play with the ball, end it on our terms, and I know he'll bounce back and be able to do that if he has to play this week.
Q. Will you continue using Andy as Bryce's backup?
DAVE CANALES: Absolutely.
Q. On that second one, Dave, was that a tunnel screen that they just diagnosed?
DAVE CANALES: Yeah, it was, and the end got a beat on it and tipped it to himself. So another thing that we just have to look at with our scheme and answers for different pressure types of possibilities.
Q. You don't seem too frustrated after this. What are your emotions right now?
DAVE CANALES: I just have a lot of confidence in this group and the football that we've been playing and knowing that wasn't us. What we but out there today was not us. That was not the ball we've been playing that's allowed us to have success.
I have a lot of confidence in this group to be able to turn around, take this as a loss. A loss is a loss. Let's fix the things that we can fix. Let's get refocused and get back to work.
Q. One thing on...
DAVE CANALES: Trevin? Yeah, Trevin was evaluated for a concussion. He was cleared. It was a stinger. We couldn't get the strength back in time to get him back on the field but he was cleared of a concussion so that's being treated as a stinger right now.
Q. Was it his right shoulder?
DAVE CANALES: Yes. All right. Thank you.
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