Canales pleased with response he saw in practice
After Sunday's loss to the Saints, a number of players mentioned last week's practices not being up to their standard. But Canales said he saw no evidence of that on Wednesday.
"It was an excellent response, really all day in the building," he said. "There's a sense of focus and this appreciation that we have to approach every single game the same way — this is a championship opportunity. It's not a lie, it's not selling something, it's true. All these games, especially when you play your division opponents, these are important opportunities for us as we continue to set up our season. You hate to look back and say Wow, we missed an opportunity because we didn't play our best, and it always comes down to the same things. It's about fundamental execution. It's about making our blocks, making our tackles, having great technique, and doing the right thing, play in and play out. It's going to always come back to that, and the group certainly understands that we have a process that we believe in, and the goal is to get back on that, and today was a good step in that direction."
Canales also responded to remarks made by rookie outside linebacker Nic Scourton, who said it appeared they might have taken the Saints lightly last week.
Canales said he's been impressed with both the play (team-high 3.0. sacks) and approach of the 21-year-old, but said he'd prefer those comments stay in-house.
"It's a learning opportunity to say, OK, for our guys, speak for your own performance," Canales said. "If you want to make a general comment about, hey, when we lose, we're upset, we're disappointed. But the specific part of it that we can do a better job of just keeping those things within us and the stuff that we talk about."