The winningest head coach in Carolina Panthers history, Ron Rivera, would blame what happened today on “missed opportunities.” The current head coach of the Carolina Panthers, Dave Canales, has some similar terminology for the same type of result.
Week 13 saw the Panthers cough up an overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in an outing where they had multiple openings to clinch a victory. Canales began his presser following the 26-23 defeat by stating the obvious.
“The story of the day—just, we gotta control the things we can control,” he said to reporters. “We gotta make our kicks, we gotta take care of the ball at the end right there. We’re in a field goal position right there, to be able to win the game in overtime. Just the execution, all across the board, there’s some good football in there and there’s some bad football and we gotta continue to attack it. But it’s just the things that we gave away.”
Running back Chuba Hubbard, with a chance to set up an easy walk-off field goal, literally gave away the ball at Tampa Bay’s 30-yard line in overtime. The Buccaneers capitalized on the error—as they pieced together a five-play, 59-yard drive to help give their kicker, Chase McLaughlin, a 30-yard game-winner.
Carolina’s kicker, Eddy Piñeiro, didn’t have as memorable of a day. He missed on two of his five attempts, one of 38 yards and the other of 45.
Canales was then asked what he told the team after the heartbreaking loss.
“It’s the things that we control,” he replied. “The things that were well within our control in terms of just getting down there in field goal range, coming away with points there, taking care of the ball right there at the end—because that’s on us.”
The Panthers missed their opportunity to double their win total from last season, moving to 3-9 on the campaign.
