Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales wants Saturday’s postgame speech to be about victory. But even though that’s not the case, it still means something.
Last night, the Panthers ended a dynamic 2025 season with a heartbreaking 34-31 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. This season, the upstart team not only clinched its first playoff berth since 2017 and first division title since 2015, but also defeated a Super Bowl favorite in a contentious wild-card round battle.
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On Sunday morning, the Panthers released a glimpse into Carolina’s locker room following the painful result. Even in defeat, Canales would give a rousing speech to his players. . .
Canales expressed a similar message in an interview with reporters shortly after.
“When we came here as a staff, our whole goal was to create a brand of football that we could be proud of. That’s what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re building something from the ground up — from the basics, fundamentals and technology and so on, and trying to build it the right way.
“I’m very proud to be able to bring this to Panthers fans – to bring them a brand of football that they love to watch, that allows them to connect with each other and that brings the community together. I’m very proud of all of those things. I’m sad that we couldn’t do it for our team tonight.”
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The Panthers have experienced concrete improvement since Canales and his staff took over. After inheriting a 2-15 team, Canales led Carolina to a 5-12 mark in 2024 and then an 8-9 mark (and NFC South title) in 2025.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers give HC Dave Canales emotional locker room speech after loss to Rams
