Fan Fest

FAN FEST OBSERVATIONS FROM PANTHERS...

https://www.panthers.com/news/fan-fest-o...-penalties

CLEMSON, SC— It took Dave Canales approximately 15 seconds to address what he felt was the elephant in the room.
"We had a bunch of pre-snap penalties," the coach said, following the Panthers mock scrimmage during Fan Fest on Thursday night. "We got to address that."

"We got to make sure that we, whether it's the cadence or we going early, whatever the thing is, we got to talk through that," Canales said. "But it was very sloppy."

"That's part of the fans being here and creating that extra energy," Canales said. "A little bit of that, you know, that game day excitement that might have gotten to some guys, so we needed that for sure, just to get a litmus test of where we're at because we'll be playing another game in about a week here."

"Protection wise, we got to do better up front just in terms of just making sure we're getting our leverage. Quarterbacks, making their plays on the run, which we know is going to happen. That happens when you have penalties early in the downs," Canales explained as to why the offense stalled so much in the first half. "Now we have to throw it a little bit to try to get half back and now we make ourselves vulnerable. That's not the intent. That's not the heart of what we do."

"The heart of what we do is we're efficient on first and second down with our runs, our play actions, we have favorable third downs. And that formula works. It didn't show up all night, but we had a couple of drives where it did surface."

In turn, the pre-snap penalties and flow—and subsequent offensive production—effected what Bryce Young was able to show in his first action under the new offense. Asked to evaluate his quarterback's performance, Canales pulled a contemplative frown and answered, "I would say good. I would say good, not great."

On the last play of Young's last drive, he faked the handoff, stood strong in the pocket despite pressure, and made contact with Adam Thielen just as the veteran receiver broke free for a wide-open touchdown.

"I keep preaching finish and that type of finish on the last drive to see it all come together…that was great to see."