Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales sizes up his team's loss to the Houston Texas in an NFL preseason game in Texas. By Mike Kaye| Charlotte Observer
It’s only preseason. It’s a limited sample size. It won’t count.
Let’s establish all of that up front after the Carolina Panthers’ dispiriting, 20-3 exhibition loss at Houston Saturday. But let’s also establish this: it’s time to worry about the 2025 Carolina Panthers.
Head coach Dave Canales is eternally optimistic. So much so that, as the old saying goes, when faced with a pile of manure, Canales is likely to grab a shovel and start digging, because he’s sure that there’s a pony in there somewhere.
But Canales did sound somewhat dismayed after this one, saying the performance wasn’t up to his or the Panthers’ standards and uttering this existential question: “Are we gonna be almost good?”
A week ago, I felt much more positively, despite Carolina losing 30-10 to Cleveland in Week 1 of the preseason. In that one, the Panthers’ starters left when Carolina was ahead, 7-0. Third-year quarterback Bryce Young led a touchdown drive and the defense looked good in limited work before the reserves frittered it all away.
This time, however, the Panthers looked like a bad-to-mediocre football team from start to finish. They are now 0-2 in the preseason and have been outscored 50-13.
As Panthers legend Steve Smith said on the television broadcast toward the end of the game: “That’s not productive football. No one wants to see that.”
Smith would return to this point later, speaking mainly about the Panthers’ offensive inefficiency no matter who was on the field.
“That’s not winning football,” Smith said. “That does not make your fan base feel comfortable. It actually makes them feel extremely uncomfortable.”
Houston Texans linebacker E.J. Speed (45) tackles Carolina Panthers running back Trevor Etienne (23) on a play during the second quarter at NRG Stadium. The Panthers ran only 46 total plays and had just 11 first downs. Troy Taormina Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
That uncomfortable feeling will now stick around until Sept. 7, when Carolina opens the regular season at Jacksonville. Canales, like almost all NFL head coaches, won’t play his starters in the third and final preseason game — at home vs. Pittsburgh Thursday. He reiterated this Saturday. So we won’t really know if the Panthers have fixed their issues until then for three weeks.
What we know for sure is that, despite the positive vibes generated by a number of fine Carolina plays in the joint scrimmage Thursday, very little of that practice mojo made the transition to the game Saturday. Carolina converted only 10% of the time on third down and ran just 46 offensive plays, a remarkably low number for any NFL contest.
Said Young: “Obviously you want, for us with the (starters) — you want a different result. It sucks, but that’s preseason football. You kind of get that sample size, and obviously you want to do well early and get it done fast. Didn’t get that done today.”
Tight end J.T. Sanders set the tone for the offense by dropping a strike from Young that would have resulted in a first down.
Rookie Tetairoa McMillan, who has looked so promising all preseason, didn’t catch a pass. A caveat: McMillan may well have scored on a sweet double move in which he was clearly open deep, but second-string quarterback Andy Dalton instead didn’t have a clean pocket and got his right elbow hit as he threw. The ball fluttered 15 yards short, incomplete, and Dalton immediately left the game with what Canales said “looks like an elbow sprain.”
Carolina Panthers quarterback Andy Dalton (14) reacts after a play during the first quarter against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. Dalton would later hurt his throwing elbow. Troy Taormina Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
It was that sort of day for the Panthers. Backup Jack Plummer, forced into 40 minutes of game action after Canales pulled Young after only six offensive plays and Dalton got hurt, threw two interceptions and again could barely move the team. The running game didn’t work. The Panthers never got into the red zone. Carolina’s only points came on a 52-yard field goal from Ryan Fitzgerald.
As Canales said after the game: “One for 10 on third down. J.T. Sanders misses a ball — Bryce hit him right in stride. We got a double move; T-Mac (McMillan) is probably going to score a touchdown; we didn’t block Danielle Hunter on the right; he hit Andy in the elbow. And then, Jack Plummer (threw) two interceptions. That makes it a really difficult day.”
But of course, it’s preseason. And if you want to find the pony in all of this, Young threw eight passes in the two exhibition games he will play. Four were completed. The other four, while incomplete, all hit his receivers in at least one of their hands. Overall, Young has had a nice preseason, and he’s Carolina’s most important player.
Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) is sacked for a loss by Houston Texans defensive end Will Anderson Jr. (51) in the first quarter at NRG Stadium. Thomas Shea Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
Still, Saturday was one of those dismal days, the kind we’ve seen an awful lot around Charlotte during the Panthers’ current streak of seven consecutive losing seasons.
This year, I have been thinking, had the makings of something different.
It still may turn out that way.
But now I’m not nearly so sure.