The Carolina Panthers‘ 20–9 loss to the San Francisco 49ers has just triggered a full-scale reckoning inside the building after flawed execution from the Panthers. And at the center of it stood head coach Dave Canales, who wasted little time addressing the coaching mistake that helped derail the Panthers’ upset bid.

”Yeah, like I said, he [Dave Canales] addressed it with the team, and he talked to me this morning about it,” Carolina’s RB Rico Dowdle confirmed HC Canales’ action. ” You know, we’ve got to run the ball, man. We’re the first to have our best chances and things like that.”

When asked if he was satisfied or still skeptical that he’d be used enough going forward, Dowdle didn’t hesitate:

”I’m definitely satisfied, it’s understandable. Everybody knows, he knows, we took ownership of it. We take ownership of it as a team.”

Notably, during the Niners-Panthers, Carolina’s offense seemed disjointed, confused, and surprisingly pass-heavy against a 49ers front that was not loading the box. That imbalance did not go unnoticed, most especially by Rico Dowdle, the leading rusher of the team, who was stunned to finish with just six carries in a game that clearly called for a heavier ground attack.

The Panthers had strayed away from their identity, and the locker room knew it. The moment begged for accountability, and Canales responded.

Even though Canales took ownership of the mistake, he surely is not going anywhere.

“Every week is a lesson for me,” Canales said. “Every week there’s something to take, and I have great people around me that we talk to, that we have accountability with, and I lean on those guys because I want to get better, as well, as we continue this process.”

That accountability carries weight given Dowdle’s production. In his previous five starts, he averaged 23 carries, and the Panthers went 4-1. His explosive two-game stretch of 473 scrimmage yards shattered a franchise record and forced Canales to abandon a two-back split with Chuba Hubbard and fully lean into Dowdle as the workhorse. He rewarded that faith with dominant performances, including a 130-yard, two-touchdown performance in Green Bay.

So when the Panthers handed him just six carries against a 49ers defense that wasn’t loading the box, the decision became even more baffling. Dowdle averaged 6.3 yards per attempt; Hubbard added 5.3 on his limited touches. The opportunity was obvious to the players, but not reflected in the play sheet.

“We had an opportunity to run it on them,” Dowdle said. “They didn’t give us heavy boxes. So I thought we could have run it on them.”

On a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line, with Carolina trailing only 7–0, Canales dialed up a rollout pass that was intercepted by Bryce Young.

Dowdle refused to second-guess the call, instead saying, ”Got to trust coach with his playcall. He was open for a while. The safety just fell off and made a good play. There’s multiple ways we can get in the end zone.”

But the message was unmistakable: the run game was there, and it wasn’t used.

Rico Dowdle lashes out amid Panthers’ defeat to the 49ers

That frustration didn’t end at the postgame podium. Early Tuesday morning, Dowdle tweeted out a dizzy-face emoji via X, a tweet that could clearly be interpreted as reflective of shock or confusion, or both.

Coming off a game in which Carolina’s backfield combined for only nine total carries, it wasn’t hard to read between the lines. Fans took it as a direct response to Canales’ game plan, and Dowdle would later indicate his belief that the offense was inconsistent, which has been the case the whole year.

On Tuesday, when asked whether he had spoken to Dowdle about the social media post or his workload, HC Canales had a surprisingly curt response.

Fans were furious, analysts were baffled, and Dowdle himself admitted he had “no idea” why the coaching staff chose that approach. Adding to the tension is the fact that Dowdle is playing in a contract year. Low usage doesn’t just affect production; it affects future earnings.

Carolina still controls its path in the NFC South, but abandoning its most reliable offensive weapon is questionable. If the Panthers want to stay in the race, they can’t ignore this.