One of the Panthers’ few good offensive possessions in Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars fizzled out at the 5-yard line when Bryce Young threw an incomplete pass through the end zone on fourth-and-1. The play never looked like it had a chance, but after watching the film, Panthers head coach Dave Canales defended the play call.
“We had good matchups,” Canales said. “We had what we wanted, we’ve just got to execute it. And that’s kind of what we went back to, and Bryce and I had that conversation. He liked the call. We had guys in good matchups and we’ve just got to execute.”
Young threw the ball so far out of bounds that some people thought he was just throwing the ball away — which would be an odd thing to do on fourth down. Canales said Young’s intended receiver on the play was Xavier Legette, but Young and Legette weren’t on the same page about where the ball needed to be.
“I thought it was kind of a miscommunication. Was Xavier going to break to the front pylon or go to the back pylon? I think he was taking a shot to the back pylon on that,” Canales said.
The missed opportunity was emblematic of a rough day for the Panthers, who are facing a lot of tough questions after a promising end to 2024 gave way to an ugly start to 2025.
