It’s preseason and the games don’t count, but what happens on the field during those 60 minutes does matter. The Carolina Panthers players had that message received crystal clear with their practice on Tuesday. After two disappointing preseason games, head coach Dave Canales decided the team needed to up the ante in practice.
On the final day of padded practices in training camp, Canales challenged his team to step up their efforts. Canales expressed a similar sentiment in his post-game press conference following the Panthers’ 20-3 loss in their second preseason game to the Houston Texans. Darrin Gantt of Panthers.com, in his August 16 article, transcribed Canales’ thoughts after the game.
“A lot of good work out there, but to me, I think to kind of sum it up, it was a day of almosts,” Canales said. “So I just challenged the group. I was like, are we going to be almost good? Are we going to make the plays when they’re there to be made?”
The challenge was met, and the player practiced hard, perhaps so hard that they even crossed the line.
Tempers Flare
Panthers head coach Dave Canales wanted to see fire out of his team in their last padded practice of the preseason, and he got that and more. Punches were thrown during practice, and it turned into a minor scuffle. The two culprits at the center of the fight were left tackle Ikem Ekwonu and star cornerback Jaycee Horn.
Darin Gantt and Kassidy Hill of Panthers.com described the training camp tussle in their August 19 training camp observations piece.
“A decent training camp fight broke out near the end of practice, when it appeared that safety Nick Scott stepped over wide receiver Jalen Coker, who was on the ground, and some of Coker’s offensive teammates objected. Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu and cornerback Jaycee Horn were jawing at each other, and Horn took a swing, the intensity getting a little out of hand.”
While Canales did want the team to show more fight, he didn’t mean it quite literally. Canales expressed this in post-practice media availability, as Gantt and Hill transcribed.
“May have pushed the guys a little bit too hard in the team meeting this morning,” Canales said, perhaps sheepishly.”
The fight was just one part of a long, intense practice for the Panthers.
Practice Was Extended
Practice wasn’t supposed to go as long as it ended up being, but Panthers head coach Dave Canales saw the offense and defense competing hard and let practice play on. Kassidy Hill, in her August 19th article about this practice, pointed out how Canales wants the Panthers’ team identity to be physical and to go up against the line without crossing it. The lengthened practice is an extension of that mentality.
“I kind of had about half the amount of plays planned at the end in that move-the-ball, but it just felt like football and I was like there’s no way—I’m not going to be able to look at Mike Jackson and Jaycee Horn and Derrick Brown—I’m not going to be able to look them in the face if I call this move the ball scrimmage period right now,” Canales said. “They want to play football. Bryce Young wants to play. The drive was going on.”
Between fights and impromptu practice extensions, these Panthers are teetering on the line between chaos and a breakthrough that gives a young team its identity. And that line is right where Canles wants the Panthers to be.
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