CHARLOTTE — Plenty of teams can plaster a saying on a wall. They can print a phrase on a t-shirt or type a motto on a presentation.

What does it mean, though, to see it come alive?

Since Dave Canales has arrived, he's preached "Finish." It is, in fact, on the walls, the presentations, the t-shirts. But saying it and putting it into action are two different things.

It starts by presenting it not as a mantra, but as a mindset.

"Finish is one of our pillars," said quarterback Bryce Young. "I don't know if there's anything we talk about more in the building."

It has been Canales' and his staff's approach for a year and a half now, and began to show up when the Panthers won close, last-minute games last season, such as the overtime win in Germany against the Giants, or the overtime win against the Cardinals, or the overtime win against Atlanta to end the season. See a pattern?

But there were also still plenty of games where the Panthers pushed right up to the line, then faltered. Games such as the walk-off loss to the Chiefs, the fourth-quarter stumble against the Eagles, the overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs. It was a lesson, as humbling as it may be, that getting close isn't good enough.

So this offseason, the coaches added a layer to "finish." Now, especially on offense, they are preaching "focus and refocus."

"When you go back into that huddle, it is a new page," offensive coordinator Brad Idzik said. "And all those guys have really bought into it."

Through the first six games of the 2025 season, the mindset is paying dividends. The Panthers have outscored opponents in the fourth quarter 61-23 this season. Some of that can be attributed to attempting to stage comebacks, such as in the Week 2 game against the Cardinals, when Carolina outscored Arizona 13-0 in the fourth but fell short due to early turnovers proving detrimental. Even in the season's three wins, though, the Panthers have outscored their opponents 34-10. What do players attribute that to?

"Dave," answers offensive lineman Brady Christensen, without hesitation. "His culture. He's been preaching finishing everything strong since he got here. Everything has a finish opportunity, and so I think that's just like ingrained in us to do right longer."

"Early in the season, we were working on, let's come out of the gates with true focus going into a game," Idzik said. "And then when bad things, when something unexpected—not necessarily bad—when something unexpected happens, whether it's good explosive play down the field, and we got to refocus, or it's a turnover or a sudden change situation, we have to refocus.

"We've been putting our thumb down on that culturally, on the offensive side of the ball, since the start of the season. And those guys have really bought into it. And it starts in practice, the tempo in and out of the huddle, moving on to the next play, just really clicking them back in."

It's a philosophy that can even take place sometimes within a play. It shaped the 2.7-second approach Canales employed with Young last season, teaching the quarterback to refocus after a play had lasted 2.7 seconds, refocusing on the next available option.

"I think for us it's just, every time that—whether it's after a play, it's after something mid-play, it's after a series, after a quarter, just finding opportunities to refocus," Young said. "I think we know that we can focus and lock in and have a small, small focus, but making sure that we recapture, find every time we can to just reset and log back in. That's something that the coaches have been emphasizing."

It is also what Idzik credits for Young and the offense not panicking when they fell behind 17-0 to the Miami Dolphins due to early turnovers, or after an early interception against the Cowboys.

It's common at sporting events, especially football, to see teams acknowledge the beginning of the fourth quarter. That's when games can be won. But doing right longer is less about locking in when the clock ticks to the fourth, and more about maintaining the same intensity that carries throughout the game.

"It's not a, 'All right, now it's coming to an end or now it's the time.' It's just like, we talk about finishing opportunities all the time," Young said. "There's an opportunity to find the finish line, and we always pride ourselves in sprinting through any finish line we can find."

There are some quarterbacks who are all fire. That's exciting to watch as a fan and can definitely help spark a team. The danger, however, is that a fire can be doused. Canales' program foundation is built on consistency, day in and day out, game in and game out, play in and play out. To "finish" in the fourth quarter means having the mental discipline to "focus and refocus" no matter what and be the same person in the lunchroom as you are in the huddle of a game-winning drive.

Perhaps that's why Young has started to prove himself as the QB to employ it with the Panthers.

"Bryce is a consummate leader of that because of his personality," praised Idzik. "One of his best traits is how cool he is under pressure, and how he can just stay even keeled even in the biggest moments, and that inspires those guys to refocus, click back in.

"It brings out a maturity in the players of, 'Ok, you can celebrate a success, but now we know we're back in the huddle, we're clicking back in, and you can see the look in Bryce's eye when he's calling the play. 'All right, hey guys, I need you here with me. Let's get to this next call and this next situation. What's the circumstances? What's the context? Let's move on.'"

Football is a funny, fickle thing. For every fourth-quarter outscoring opponents and staging comeback wins, there is a game like the Week 3 loss to the Patriots, in which New England dominated nearly wire-to-wire (the Panthers did score on their first offensive possession). But to "finish" means more than just staging and succeeding with a comeback win. It means "refocusing" even after a loss, and understanding that it is far from the end of the story.

"It's definitely something we embody, we embrace," Young said. "It's always talked about, and just having consistency in that, not just on Sundays but in everything we do."