Dave Canales gave Carolina fans plenty to question in the final seconds of the first half against the Eagles.
The Panthers were moving the ball and faced a fourth-and-one in Eagles territory with more than 30 seconds left and three timeouts in hand. That was the kind of spot where Carolina often takes a shot, but this time the sequence ended without a timeout, without a play, and without any real attempt to squeeze out more value before halftime.
Canales said he didn’t want to go for it on fourth down, and he also didn’t view a nine-yard gain on third-and-10 as a good result. Still, the decision not to stop the clock at all stood out.
With a few seconds left, Carolina could have used one of its three timeouts, reset, and decided whether to try a fourth-down conversion or at least take one shot into the end zone. Instead, the Panthers let the clock drain away completely.
That drew plenty of criticism because even a worst-case scenario should have left Carolina with time to try something. Bryce Young has the arm to attempt a Hail Mary, and if the Panthers wanted to play it conservatively, they still had the option to run out the final seconds after setting something up. Instead, they never gave themselves the chance.
The end-of-half sequence was only part of a rough stretch for Canales. He also missed an easy challenge that led to the Eagles’ lone touchdown of the half, and the Panthers did not look sharp coming out of the bye week, which has been an issue during his time there.
Bryce Young was seen saying something to Brad Idzik after Carolina chose not to run a play from its own 45 as the half expired. Even with that frustration, the Panthers still went into the break up 10-7 and set to receive the second-half kickoff.
The broader picture has not been clean, either. Carolina has continued to pile up bad penalties, many of them on offense, which puts the focus back on coaching and discipline.
Those are the kinds of issues that were supposed to look better with Brad Idzik taking over play-calling, and for the most part they have. But in this game, Canales was the one who looked off.
It was a messy half all around, but the Panthers are still in front. If that lead holds, the ugly details won’t matter nearly as much. Still, Canales will have to clean things up quickly in the second half to avoid turning a winnable game into a disaster.
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