If you’ve been squinting through the Panthers’ preseason with a mix of hope and nerves, it looked more like a slow-motion turnover than a fresh start. Three games, three losses, and Charlotte’s August scoreboard is starting to read like a warning sign. But after the Steelers’ loss? The fans might have officially reached the breaking points.

Calling one slip-up a blunder doesn’t really cover it. Dave Canales pretty much got everything wrong. But the most glaring misstep in the finale was how Canales and his staff handled the lineup: resting every starter and most of the key reserves, then tossing depth guys into the fire in front of the home crowd. As Joe Person put it firmly, “Thought Dave Canales would let Matthew Wright try a FG at the end. He didn’t. Steelers win 19-10. Panthers finish the preseason 0-3 and were outscored 69-23. On to Jacksonville.”

You’re not supposed to rest all of your stars and let your backups carry the heavy workload. Not in the final game of the preseason, right when week 1 is around the corner. And add in those tactical nuances that he got wrong. Everyone thought the only sensible thing to do was to let Matthew Wright go for a field goal at the end of 4th quarter. Canales didn’t, for some reason.

And no, these weren’t the only blunders. Start with the quarterbacks. Canales rolled with Jack Plummer in place of Bryce Young and the sidelined Andy Dalton, and Plummer’s red-zone pick on Carolina’s third drive set a bad tone the offense never shook off. He did scrap his way back to finish 7-of-14 for 48 yards and a short score, but that early turnover in the end zone proved costly. What else would you expect when you don’t play starters?

On defense and special teams, the Panthers had plenty of their own head-scratchers. Mike Tomlin’s Steelers pushed tempo at Carolina’s backups, took advantage of sloppy tackling, and piled on with penalties that Tomlin himself highlighted. Pittsburgh kicker Ben Sauls calmly nailed four field goals, and that was the difference on the scoreboard.

And then comes the play-calling philosophy. Canales had handed off play-calling in the first two preseason games, then flipped it back to himself and DC Ejiro Evero for the finale. And that just fueled the choppy game-planning across three tune-ups. When the voice in a quarterback’s headset changes week to week, backups are left adjusting to new cues and tempos, and that’s hardly the right way to prep a young roster. And of course, the fans took to X to make their feelings known.

The fans obviously couldn’t help themselves

Yeah, when you’ve lost three out of three preseason games while getting outscored 69-23, you can’t just shut your mouths and let it happen. You have to make your feelings known. And that’s exactly what the Panthers fans did. One fan wrote, “The misery never ends.” And yeah, it doesn’t, if you’re a Panthers fan.

The Panthers haven’t posted a winning season since 2017, and after sitting through three straight preseason losses capped by Canales’ misstep, it feels like the same old loop on replay.

“😭😭😭 this who is supposed to win the nfc south lol,” another wrote. Brutal reality check. It makes it even funnier when you remember the NFC South was the league’s softest spot in 2024, with Tampa stumbling into the playoffs at 8–9. If Carolina can’t even find its footing in August, talking about a division crown feels less like a target and more like the setup to a joke.

One frustrated fan couldn’t believe what they saw: “What the f** was that by the Panthers?! Running out the clock and not even giving these guys a chance to show out and try to score. Loser organization.” And honestly, they’ve got a point. Running out the clock when you kind of know you’re going to lose is unreal work.

Finally, another remarked, “Uhhh I know it’s preseason but not scoring there is retarded. Panthers L.” Yeah, every Panthers fan was probably screaming out their lungs saying “just score the damn field goal” towards the end. But Dave Canales had other plans. Now it’s 0-3 in the preseason. Next up, Jaguars. Good luck, Panthers fans.