CHARLOTTE — It was a game of "almosts." That's how Dave Canales described the Panthers' 30-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns in their first preseason game on Friday night.

The Panthers almost had five sacks, but ended up with only two. There was almost a chance for interceptions, but they fell through. Special teams almost had big plays, but little mistakes negated the chance for yards. They almost had multiple explosive plays, but penalties brought back a would-be 34-yarder to Jalen Coker.

Essentially, "It was a night of almost saying, can it be good enough," Canales said Saturday after watching the film from the game. "Going into the team meeting here shortly, and I get to just talk to the guys about the critical variables…all these critical moments where it matters."

One thing that did stand out from the film, though, was the physicality. It's what Canales and staff have been asking guys for since arriving, and especially this offseason, even implementing live plays during Fan Fest last week. It's raised the bar on expectations in that regard.

"I think I mentioned last night I was excited about the play style," Canales noted. "A lot of physical play, an uptick that way, just in terms of what we're expecting from our group, defensively, special teams, and then, you know, offensively in the run game, having everybody involved and playing physical. I was really pleased with that."

"We're looking for great effort, and I would say we're trending towards the standard. I thought there were still too many moments, kind of sprinkled throughout the game, where we saw a lack of strain to finish. You know, finishing each play with great speed and getting the guys to trust that this is going to pay dividends as you push yourself.

"Then I think the second part would be technique and fundamentals, and that's where these games really show us who are the guys that can take the drills, can take the preparation with their coaches and all the technical parts and the details of what we're trying to get done? Who are those guys that can carry it over into a game, and we learned a lot about our guys yesterday."

Starters to play more in Houston

After playing only one series in the preseason last year, Canales is prepared to play the starters multiple games this season. The starting offense and defense each got two series on Friday night. The Panthers head to Houston next week for a joint practice and the second preseason game Saturday night. And for now, the coach is prepared to play the first team for two, maybe even three series against the Texans.

"I think it's going to depend on—we got another great week of practice and we're going to have a joint practice so I think, you know, if we feel like we got enough work out of the practice part of it, it might look like tonight, but I'd love to play them just a little bit more," Canales said Friday night following the game.

"Just the more that you can do that, the more they can kind of you know refocus and come out for another drive."

The coach went on to add he's very pleased with the conditioning of the group, so the extra play time has nothing to do with shaking off rust. It's more so just the mental aspect of a game flow.

"I feel great about the conditioning level of the group, but it's really more about just all the mechanics, you know, just coming out of a huddle, different situations that may come up."

Carter impresses with limited reps

The Panthers were without starting left guard Damien Lewis against the Browns after he strained his shoulder in the joint practice on Wednesday. Canales said Lewis will, "be week to week just kind of as we evaluate his shoulder, but you know it's something that he's gonna have to prove that he gets the strength back."

Additionally, backup guard Chandler Zavala is rehabbing a patellar knee injury and is also week-to-week.

That meant Ja'Tyre Carter was lining up with the first team offensive line Friday night. He gave up a sack, which Canales admitted was his worst play of the night. But after watching the tape, coaches came away pleased with what they saw from the third-year guard.

"He had a really good, really good night, you know, in the couple of series he played," Canales said, pointing out the sack before continuing, "The rest of it was great anchor, movement in the run game, and did a fantastic job in his opportunity.

"We have guys, we're kind of blessed with guys who are pretty versatile, so you know, Cade Mays, Cade has played some guard this camp, mostly been center. We know Brady Christensen has played some guard in the past, so I think we have some versatility there, but I was excited to see JT and how he's gonna respond, and I thought he did a really good job for us."

Panthers come away injury-free, knock on wood

Often, the most vital part of a preseason game is ensuring that everyone walks off the field injury-free. The Panthers were able to do that Friday night, according to Canales.

"We came out clean, some bumps and bruises, nothing that's gonna keep people out of practices from the game," Canales shared.

There were guys, including starters, who didn't play against the Browns due to nagging injuries from the week, such as Derrick Brown (rib/oblique), Hunter Renfrow (hamstring), and Jaycee Horn (hand following a car wreck). But making it through the game unscathed was a point in the positive.

"We made it through pretty clean," added Canales, "about as clean as I can remember in a preseason game, so I'm really excited about that."

Idzik and Cooley back on the headset

The Panthers are big on being developmentally minded, from their players to their coaches. Last season, position coaches had the opportunity to call plays for a half in the final preseason game. This year, Canales wanted that experience to grow even further, so offensive coordinator Brad Idzik and defensive passing game coordinator Jonathan Cooley called the plays last night for their respective sides of the ball.

Canales stayed in Idzik's ear, but let him take the reins on the calls.

"I had the call sheet there, (Brad) kind of worked through a flow, worked through the openers, the first 15, so he kind of had his good amount of plays right there, the situational stuff, and I kind of was just in his ear with just the place, the style of plays that we were running and wanting to try…just kind of feeding him stuff but I wanted him to get that opportunity to be able to function with the guys and feel the flow of the game.

As for Cooley, Canales recapped," I think there were some pretty cool situations thrown at (Cooley). Short-yardage situations, the red zone —I think the only thing we didn't get defensively was a 2-minute drill. Those are pretty valuable too, to be able to communicate, get lined up, play tired, all that, like we expected.

"I thought it was a really good challenge for Cooley to kind of see a lot of those different situations and gave us a lot to talk about as we came into the office this morning."