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Rico dapped Chuba up when he came off the field after the touchdown there's no issue between them. But I'm sure he has to be frustrated, he's set the league on fire for 2 weeks when he was the main option only to be relegated to 2nd fiddle while still out producing the "starter".

we would be fools to give rico a deal, but then again we are the panthers

Yesterday was predictable and some predicted it. We were due for that bubble to pop. We were outclassed going into it, coaching staff and roster both. It doesn’t feel that bad when you predict it but when you have to watch it In real time it is extremely deflating.

Well they better sign him to a decent deal or he walks this year, and we get nothing for him. Actually they could get the same for Chuba and let it be known that Dowdle is our #1 back. I like him but I doubt he will be here next year.

The Bills are a well coached team. I give them that. They are a well run organization. That’s no excuse. The point of this thread is to point out that yesterday illustrated something much more troubling than losing to a good team. My takeaways: * We still haven’t found a coach. Canales isn’t it. He is in way over his head. Everyone knows how I feel about Bryce, but seeing Dalton yesterday, a lot of the issues Bryce deals with every week are now clearly thematic. I thought to myself yesterday, “but Ron Rivera looked like he was drowning until that Buffalo game,” and now in hindsight, he ultimately became possibly our greatest coach in franchise history. But before that Buffalo game with his seat as hot as ever, he did some of the dumbest things I had ever seen. He refused to adjust. He played guys that shouldn’t have been out on the field over guys who seemed like clearly better players. For example, Josh Norman sat for how many seasons, mostly because of non-quantifiable stuff. Canales suffers the same issues early in his tenure, it without any of the reassurances or pedigree that Ron had. Our offense stinks because of Dave, point blank, period. We can only guess about play calls and scheme because we don’t know all the ins and outs of that, but what is clear is that he has no idea how to put our guys in positions to succeed. Look at the number of players who have absolutely killed it that Dave tried his best to keep off the field - Rico, Mays, Christensen, Horn, etc. Now look at the guys he played over them. Ron only had a couple of those instances over several seasons albeit bad ones *cough* Nakamura *cough* Josh Norman *cough*. But, Dave is multiplying that by the umpteenth power in one season. And not only is it about the guys he is or isn’t playing, he doesn’t know how to use them. All of the TEs. The aforementioned Horn Jr. XL. Trying to make Corbett a center. Both Rico and Chuba are healthy, but he can’t figure out how to use them together. There is zero rhythm to the offense most games after that opening drive, and a lot of it is Dave playing guys that shouldn’t be playing and not knowing how to implement the ones that are that could help us the most. I had held onto hope because Dave’s positivity and his track record with QBs. But, the more I’ve watched, it has become clear, even in coaching extremely limited QBs, there are so many other issues that falls on coaching that he is responsible for. He is not a good coach. *Speaking of Rico and Chuba, don’t know if anyone else caught that, but after scoring his garbage time TD that was force fed to him, when Chuba went over to the bench, he sat down seemingly alone. Then the camera zoomed out and actually Rico was on the other side of that portion of the bench. Another guy, I’m guessing a practice squad guy came and sat down closer to Chuba but between them, and from what I saw, Rico looked straight ahead. They never looked at one another, didn’t appear to speak to one another, nothing. Someone else correct me if I’m wrong, as I was heavily distracted, but if they interacted it would’ve been just a millisecond that I wasn’t looking… the body language looked absolutely discouraging. There is clearly a huge beef brewing there. *Back to Canales… which is a further indictment that this isn’t just schematic or playcalling. Another reason he is clearly not a good coach - when we lose this season we LOSE. We lose big. We lose ugly. We lose unprepared. We lose undisciplined. We lose in every fundamental way. You don’t go from stifling the #1 offense in the NFL two weeks ago, to getting blown out at home 40-3 (Chuba’s late TD is irrelevant). In every facet of the game that we have shown improvement, we go out in losses like yesterday’s and make you question if it was fool’s gold. That’s poor coaching. It’s discouraging because the drop off isn’t incremental, these are huge wild swings. From a top 10 defense who excels at stopping the run, to giving up the highest individual rushing day in the NFL this season. From a functional offense, scoring around 20 points a game to 3 when it counted. We are -5 turnovers on the season. Outside of the obvious Rico Dowdle - Bryce Young, Jimmy Horn, and Travis Etienne are all statistically better rushers right now than Chuba, and yet, we are forcing Chuba touches. Rico only started two weeks and is still our top rusher for the season. That forcing Chuba the ball poo might’ve worked when we had no other options, but it literally is destroying the offense now and yet, he keeps doing it. This insistence of square peg, round hole football is all coaching, and it is absolutely demoralizing. We show zero consistency with any and everything, and that falls directly at the coach’s feet. Seeing all of this following the few weeks where it appeared the team was picking up some semblance of identity and momentum, and then to lose in such a fashion to where those staples we had begun to believe in were proven to be mirages is beyond discouraging. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect to beat the Bills. I did expect to be competitive and still excel at the things we appeared to be making our calling cards. From the best rushing team for two straight weeks to pedestrian. From stopping the run and playing smash mouth football to getting blown out at him with opposing players averaging 12 yards per carry and receivers running wide butt naked open. There is no consistency or leadership on this staff. Period. Yesterday’s loss brings us right back to the sobering reality that we still don’t have a head coach and all the problems rife within the Tepper Era.

Unfortunately it’s by design so no I don’t like it. And neither should you.

He still has a year on his contract and as does Bryce. I have a feeling these two will still be your QB1 and QB2 going into 2026. This is why I can't get excited about this team...among many other things.

But does Canales take any credit for the ass whooping?

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By a large margin, coaching is this team’s biggest weakness. It’s not QB, which is a big deal, but not worse than coach. Canales has shown ZERO aptitude/desire to change strategy when his first punch is rendered useless. He must HATE running the ball successfully because I have no other explanation. EVERY TIME, When the Panthers are getting scorched, it’s like he wants to then highlight the air raid offense that the Panthers clearly don’t have in an effort to catch up. It’s exactly the opposite of what a normal OC would do. For 3 games in a row, no defense has an answer for Rico. The adjustment was so damn obvious. You’ve got your washed up backup QB playing behind an injured line and he’s giving the game away to a very well rested and aggressive defense. You’ve got an injured RB who isn’t getting it done. You’ve got another RB who looks unstoppable…. So you pass more and then go with the injured guy to tote the rock? It’s complete malpractice.

He started running to try to keep the Bills offense for scoring anymore points on them in the second half when it was too late. He kept trying to get Chuba involved when it wasn't working.

No

He got a warm up last week so it's not like he didn't have enough time to warm up enough with that and a whole week of work as the starter. He also knows the playbook obviously. His vet skills and knowledge was his best ability left but they looked like they were non-existent yesterday. That's a huge issue because then he brings nothing to the table at that point. He shouldn't have a job anymore and that was before yesterday. There is no way that resigning him wasn't 100% a mistake at this point. He isn't going to improve either, he is on his downhill journey at this point and it's been going on the last 2 years before our eyes.

We don't have great young talent at WR and TE. We have young potential at WR and TE. They are NOT great - yet.

Even as a backup, your job is to manage the game. Yesterday was the complete opposite. He is a professional. No he's not a starter, but he use to be, so why he look worse then a rookie. I blame Canales for having him on this team and not having a better backup when we all knew Dalton was done. He wasn't good in the off-season and the preseason. I dont know what Canales be thinking.

You had hope for this season? Not being the worst team in the NFL? I was hoping for that too.

We should be in position to get one of the better QBs in the draft. We can't keep ignoring the position. Bryce will never get us over the hump, and we have no NFL worthy backup QBs. We have great young talent at WR, and TE. We need a qb that can distribute the ball to them better and throw the ball down the field.

Abandoned the run on the first 2 series but had more rushing attempts than passing in a blowout? That doesn’t make sense. He 100% got out coached regardless and should have used Rico more. However Dalton’s performance cost us this game more than anything.

He won't be here next year. We should have saw it in the preseason games he played. He could have cared less about his play as he laughed and joked when he went to the sideline.

He out coached himself. This was a game plan a 6 year old could have run on Madden. Rico run. Rico Smash. Rico Touchdown.

This was flat out on DM and DC. DM for not actually doing his job and trying to find a legitimate backup QB this offseason and DC for not letting his best player carry the load and hurt a team captain's feelings. How many yards did Cook have again? Over 200. That's because when a guy is averaging almost 8 YPC you don't put his ass on the bench. This weak ass coddle you feelings poo has to stop.

Canales saw this and said “No, I’m good”

The Huddle is so emotional. Watch other games. Enjoy the sport and get some perspective. Many of you have very unrealistic expectations for a team this young. And the vet presence is dwindling down every game with injuries. Hunt, Lewis, Corbett, Mays, Christensen, Moton, Bryce, XL and Coker all missing time and/or games. Pat Jones, Wannum, Wallace and Wharton on defense. If everything went our way, this was an 8 or 9 win team at best. Everything has not gone our way.

Canales abandoned the run on the 1st 2 series. He never allowed the running back to get into a rhythm. He got out coached plain and simple.

Yep, Dalton sucked, but the point stands that a backup forced into the main lineup and failing pretty bad in their first substantial action of the year as fans call for their jobs is pure overreaction.