The Carolina Panthers watched a crucial scoring chance slip away on Monday night, with a Bryce Young interception flipping the momentum in a 20-9 loss vs. the San Francisco 49ers. After reaching the 1-yard line off a takeaway, the moment instead exposed lingering Panthers red zone struggles. With pressure on both the third-year quarterback and the staff, attention quickly turned to the Dave Canales play call to throw on first-and-one and how it shaped the outcome.

FOX Sports Radio 1340’s Sheena Quick took to her X (formerly known as Twitter) and shared a video of the Panthers second-year coach walking through the play that unraveled just a yard from a touchdown. She posted the clip with a note pointing to the costly sequence as the team tried to seize early control.

“Dave Canales on the play call at first & goal from the 1 yard line and coming away with an interception. #Panthers”

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The full clip shows Canales detailing how the design was built around play action, giving Young a chance to hit Mitchell Evans or attack the front pylon.

“The plan was a great action. He had Mitch open in the back half. There's an option to take off [and] run it to the front pylon. He saw Mitch right when he turns back. They have a defender on the edge who popped out [and] intercepted it. At the time, [he] made a great play on the ball. But we've been running the ball there in that situation—felt like we'd get another chance to run it if we didn't get the completion on that roll. But I liked the call. It was an aggressive call, a play action that we had opportunities on, and unfortunately came away with an interception.”

The 49ers defense took over at the 20, wiping out a chance that could have changed the night. For a 6-6 Panthers team still searching for rhythm, the missed opportunity underscored how costly execution lapses can be.