Dave Canales: Panthers need to 'play way better football'

Carolina Panthers coach Dave Canales said Sunday after the team's 59-37 loss to the Chicago Bears that he needed to watch film before pointing fingers at the problems from the historic defensive downturn. After watching the tape Monday, Canales said the team could have played smarter, noting penalties, poor technique and other mental gaffes.

"We played hard," Canales said. "We played with great effort. The guys were together. All those things are true. Playing smart, that's where we fell short. And it was about executing our plan. It was about timely and costly penalties. Certainly, the turnovers ... against a really good team. That's not something that you can do to play the championship football that we need to play."

The Bears' offense produced 552 net yards -- the third-most yardage earned in the Super Bowl era -- with 291 collected on the ground. The 59 points were the most allowed in Panthers' franchise history. The six rushing touchdowns produced by Chicago -- the most in a season opener since 1922, according to ESPN Research -- were shared by three players, including quarterback Caleb Williams, who also threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns for a 124.1 traditional passer rating.

"We knew how they were going to attack us," Panthers linebacker Bobby Okereke said. "We practiced a lot of their concepts, and we got a lot of their concepts on game day. And we executed a good bit, but just the run game bit us in the ass today and we gotta be a lot better there."

And yet, Canales' main takeaways after watching the film focused on turnovers and penalties.

The Panthers' offense and special teams coughed up the ball twice on lost fumbles. Quarterback Bryce Young threw an interception on a pass to wideout Jalen Coker to end the first half, and the offense was stopped while failing to convert on a fourth-down play at the end of the third quarter. But even taking away the 17 points the Bears scored off those mishaps, Chicago still had a five-point advantage over Carolina because of what the defense allowed on the other side.

The penalties, though, were inarguably a crux for the Panthers' letdown. Carolina was flagged 11 times for 84 yards, but it was more about the timing of infractions that lost ground. Team captain Derrick Brown was uncharacteristically charged twice -- once for roughing the passer and once for offside -- with the first penalty leading to a touchdown and the second negating an interception by fellow lineman Bobby Brown III.

"S--- like that can't happen," Derrick Brown said after the game.

Week 1 was the latest in a long line of defensive meltdowns for the Panthers under coordinator Ejiro Evero, who was hired by Carolina in February 2023 under coach Frank Reich. But it was also the biggest one to date, topping a brutal back-to-back stretch to end the 2024 season, when the defense gave up 551 yards to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 17 and 537 yards in the season finale against the Atlanta Falcons.

"I like our system," Canales said Monday. "I like our scheme. I've seen this scheme work at a high level, and I've seen us work in this scheme at a high level."

"It sucks, but it's one f---ing game," Derrick Brown said Sunday. "We've got a whole season."

In 52 regular-season games as the Panthers' defensive coordinator, Evero's unit has averaged the highest allowed scoring average in the league at 26.7 points per game, following Sunday's 59-point offering to the Bears. During that span, his group also ranks 26th in the league with a 345.9 yards allowed average per game.

The unit also ranks second worst in the league during Evero's tenure in defensive EPA (expected points added) with a minus-250.9 points mark, according to ESPN Research. The defense is also allowing the highest Total QBR in the league (58.3) during that stretch.

Following Sunday's loss, the Panthers rank last in points (minus-8.92) and yardage (minus-56) margin averages per game during the Evero era. But it is also worth noting that the offenses, largely anchored by Reich and Canales, have been among the bottom-third of the league throughout Evero's tenure.

"I feel like we could just be better as a whole," outside linebacker Princely Umanmielen said about the defense's performance Sunday. "I feel like we could have been more disciplined as a whole unit and just as a whole team in general."

During his second season at the helm, Evero's defense was the worst in the league against the run, allowing 179.8 yards per game. The unit also finished last in total yards average, giving up 404.5 yards per game. But last season, the unit improved across the board, ranking 20th in run defense (123.3 rushing yards per game) and 16th overall (327.2 total yards per game).

The Panthers added safety Tre'von Moehrig, outside linebacker Patrick Jones II and defensive linemen Bobby Brown III and Tershawn Wharton in free agency during the 2025 offseason. They also selected outside linebackers Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen and safety Lathan Ransom in the 2025 draft.

This year Carolina continued to beef up its defense, paying a fortune for outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips and inside linebacker Devin Lloyd. They drafted defensive tackle Lee Hunter, cornerbackWill Lee III, safety Zakee Wheatley and linebacker Jackson Kuwatch as well. Plus, they signed veteran linebacker Bobby Okereke on Aug. 31.

The Panthers didn't have Wharton, Jones and Scourton due to injury and Wheatley was a healthy scratch in Week 1. So, while the investment in the defense over the past two years wasn't in full force, the rest of the accumulated talent did little to stop the onslaught of Williams and D'Andre Swift.

"Players and coaches alike gotta be better," DT Bobby Brown III said after going through Monday's meetings. "Players didn't execute all the time. Coach [Evero] already told us he didn't get us in the best calls all the time. But when we did have the call right and we felt like we [were] in good positions, everybody didn't show up and make the plays that needed to be made."

Canales maintained Monday that the unit has the right talent to turn things around.

"And that was one of the things I did share with the team today, I said, 'Look, I wouldn't have been able to sleep if I felt like we didn't have the pieces that we need right in this room.'" Canales said. "And a true statement to those guys. But we need to collectively come together and play way better football than that."br/]