Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales has had to sleep on the decision to play his starters a few times this summer. And on Saturday, he woke up in what felt like a dream.
After sitting his first-string offense in the team’s first two exhibitions, Canales rolled out the majority of his featured players to begin this afternoon’s preseason finale against the Buffalo Bills. In turn, he received quite the results—as quarterback Bryce Young impressively led an 85-yard touchdown drive in opening the contest.
Canales was asked about what he saw from Young following the 31-26 win.
“Couldn’t have dreamt it better,” he replied. “A nice, long drive. 12 plays to get the guys some good work. Get ’em tired in the drive. A fourth-down conversion in there. But saw him extend plays with his legs. Keeping his eyes down the field, finding guys. And you can see the carryover from practice to the game of people creating space the play after the play.
“Those are the things that are so critical for us. He handled the run game just with great expertise and got us to the right runs in those situations. So I felt great about it.”
Young completed six of his eight throws for 70 yards and a score. He connected with five different pass catchers on the drive, including tight end Jordan Matthews—who punctuated the touch with the touchdown.
Bryce Young finds Jordan Matthews in the end zone ‼️
📱: Stream #CARvsBUF on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/4uAtgHRIwq
— NFL (@NFL) August 24, 2024
The Panthers, who pulled Young after that first possession, finished with 414 total yards and four touchdowns—both bests this summer.
