That leadership council met on Monday of this week, following the Panthers' 40-9 loss to the Buffalo Bills. The group was honest, on "Tell the Truth Monday," about everything that went right and, more importantly, what went wrong in the Week 8 loss.
"Had a chance to meet with our leadership council of our players, talking about the game, reflecting on—that's not our football," shared Canales. "And just kind of had that conversation about the run game, playing it well with discipline, the tackling, the things that showed up there, and of course taking care of the ball on the flip side of it offensively.
Having conversations with leaders isn't new, and for that matter, neither is reconvening after a tough loss. This is the second time in season that Canales and the group met. The first was after the Week 4 loss to the Patriots.
"Four weeks ago we had the same meeting; we had one at the beginning of the year, got four games in and then regrouped," explained Canales. "And it's a great leadership group. The guys understand that it's the work and it's the process that have led to the success.
"So, very eerily similar in that regard (to New England) and I'm hoping for the same result so the guys come back together, regroup, and we get back to some really good football."