But don’t be mistaken, what he saw his team during the match on Saturday was not good enough.
Although pre-season matches are always a mixed bag of staff combined with variable motivations, the figures tell a story that they will not want to hear on their next “Tell the Truth Monday”.
The Panthers were a 1 in 10 combined on third parties. They committed seven penalties for 58 yards, and some of them destroying good races. But they were also on average only 3.4 yards per race out of 23 attempts, which does not comply with their charter.
They also dropped passes (in particular the tight winger Ja’tavion Sanders), a missed connection between Bryce Young and Tetairoa McMillan, launched two interceptions, missed a basket, and the Texans Danielle Hunter Passe-Rushar struck the quarter-Arrière Andy Dalton in the right Elbow, bringing him out of the game and on Sunday.
Canales is the eternal optimist, but after the match, he was also realistic.
“A lot of good work there, but for me, I think that to summarize, it was almost one day,” he said. “So I just challenged the group. I said to myself, are we going to be almost good? Are we going to make the games when they are there to be made?
“One for 10 on the third bottom, JT Sanders is missing a bullet, Bryce struck him in the process. We had a double movement, Tmac will probably mark a touch. We did not blocked Danielle Hunter on the right, he struck Andy in the elbow. And then, Jack Plummer, two interceptions. That makes a really difficult day.”
