RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Reports of the Carolina Panthers ' sizzling summer offense may have been greatly exaggerated.
Saturday's tilt against the Buffalo Bills gave Carolina's starting offense their first taste of preseason action. And unfortunately, the taste was extremely sour—as they totaled 12 yards and zero first downs on nine plays.
Head coach Dave Canales talked about the plan for the unit following the 29-14 loss .
"My hope was 20-ish plays, but I also had a three-series cap in my mind. We didn't earn those extra reps," Canales stated . "The first quarter was over, and we had three series—we went three and out three times. We gotta do better, we gotta move the chains. We gotta make sure we have more opportunities for those guys.
"But the intent of it was—get your mind ready, we're going to play football, we had three series, we didn't come out with much."
Quarterback Bryce Young has been earning praise for what many believe to be his best training camp yet , but wasn't able to show off any of his work this afternoon. Young was pressured consistently, and ended up completing three of his five passes for just 18 yards.
The NFL preseason debut of running back Jonathon Brooks was nothing to write home about, either. Brooks couldn't get going out of the backfield, rushing for three yards on five carries.
Perhaps the first team's failures can be largely attributed to the absences of starting left guard Damien Lewis and starting right guard Robert Hunt. The duo was replaced by 2023 fourth-round pick Chandler Zavala and Brady Christensen, who played in just his second game since tearing his Achilles in 2025.
Nevertheless, Canales isn't exactly burning the tape on this one.
"It's all valuable information," Canales later told reporters. "These games are so important to me—and because we have to evaluate what we're doing and what it looks like. And check out the film and say, 'Look, here was the breakdown of some of these things to improve fundamentally.' It's such good exposure for our whole group."
Carolina's next chance to put something good on film will come on Friday, as they travel to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers HC Dave Canales speaks on starting offense's woeful preseason performance
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