CLEMSON, SC— It took Dave Canales approximately 15 seconds to address what he felt was the elephant in the room.

"We had a bunch of pre-snap penalties," the coach said, following the Panthers mock scrimmage during Fan Fest on Thursday night. "We got to address that."

The first and second team each had four drives during the scripted scrimmage, with Bryce Young leading the starters, and rookie Jack Plummer taking over for the injured Andy Dalton to lead the second team. But both units were plagued with a multitude of procedural penalties, from false starts to offsides.

"We got to make sure that we, whether it's the cadence or we going early, whatever the thing is, we got to talk through that," Canales said. "But it was very sloppy."

Granted, this was not even a preseason game. It was a practice, that included a mock scrimmage. If anything, it was a pre-pre-season game. Is that a thing? It's essentially what the Panthers held on Thursday night, performing in front of fans at Memorial Stadium, the original 1995 home of the Carolina Panthers.

Having the fans on hand is partly why Canales believes there were so many flags, especially in the first half.

"That's part of the fans being here and creating that extra energy," Canales said. "A little bit of that, you know, that game day excitement that might have gotten to some guys, so we needed that for sure, just to get a litmus test of where we're at because we'll be playing another game in about a week here."

Since this was still a week before the first preseason game, there is time to address everything that led to and was a result of the pre-snap issues. It's one reason running back Chuba Hubbard isn't pressing any sort of panic button just yet.

"First scrimmage, second padded practice; obviously, we can't shoot ourselves in the foot, but it's going to happen," Hubbard said. "I'm not too worried about it. We're getting ready for week one."

Still, Dave Canales was hired in part to put together a better performing offense, and having a smooth operation before the ball is even put into play can go a long way to fielding a productive unit. Each little setback pre-snap has a ripple effect after the snap. According to Canales, this offense and Bryce Young can't be all they can be until the "sloppy" parts are cleaned up.

"Protection wise, we got to do better up front just in terms of just making sure we're getting our leverage. Quarterbacks, making their plays on the run, which we know is going to happen. That happens when you have penalties early in the downs," Canales explained as to why the offense stalled so much in the first half. "Now we have to throw it a little bit to try to get half back and now we make ourselves vulnerable. That's not the intent. That's not the heart of what we do.

"The heart of what we do is we're efficient on first and second down with our runs, our play actions, we have favorable third downs. And that formula works. It didn't show up all night, but we had a couple of drives where it did surface."

In turn, the pre-snap penalties and flow—and subsequent offensive production—effected what Bryce Young was able to show in his first action under the new offense. Asked to evaluate his quarterback's performance, Canales pulled a contemplative frown and answered, "I would say good. I would say good, not great."

During what served as the second half to the scrimmage however, Young found more of a rhythm. The second-year passer moved more comfortably in the pocket, even when it was collapsing, rolled out on the run at times, and utilized the run game often to move down the field. On the last play of Young's last drive, he faked the handoff, stood strong in the pocket despite pressure, and made contact with Adam Thielen just as the veteran receiver broke free for a wide-open touchdown.

"I keep preaching finish and that type of finish on the last drive to see it all come together…that was great to see."

Part of the reason Canales thought the final drive went smoothly was because "Jadeveon Clowney wasn't out there" anymore. But more so, "We settled in, the pre-snap operation was smooth, it was clean, the plays were getting in in time. And (Bryce) had his opportunities and he took advantage of it."

With the final drive as a blueprint of what the offense can do when the pre-snap portion—something completely within their control— is done well, Canales will keep those issues in the forefront of things to work on moving forward.

"So, it's kind of like I'm real conflicted," Canales admitted. "I just feel so good about the amount of work we got, the speed of play, some of the really cool things that were executed on both sides of the ball and special teams as well.

"But penalties will hurt you…I definitely want to see the operation get better. That's inexcusable."

Andy Dalton to miss time; Panthers will look for another QB

Quarterback Andy Dalton will miss time with what Canales called a quad injury. The coach didn't have an exact timeline. Plummer took all of the second team reps Thursday night.

"It was good for Jack Plummer to get out there to get those reps," Canales began, "started off that first possession, missed a couple of open guys just high. Part of the jitters. It's so good to just see him work through that, settle himself and start making plays."

The Panthers are set to kick-off their preseason schedule in exactly one week, facing the New England Patriots on Thursday night. For now, the plan according to Canales is "Jack's going to play a lot."

They'll also look to bring in another quarterback, "for the time being while we don't have Andy."

Dalton was one of several not practicing on Thursday night. Others on hand but not participating for a variety of reasons were wide receiver Devin Carter, outside linebacker K'Lavon Chaisson, OLB Cam Gills, linebacker Shaq Thompson, guard Damien Lewis and tight end Tommy Tremble.

The nostalgia was high in Clemson

The Panthers gave a nod to the 1995 team, taking the three-hour bus ride to Clemson for Fan Fest. On the way down, Dom Capers—the head coach of that team and now serving as a senior defensive assistant—regaled Canales with tales of yore.

"He started telling me about how they would do the walkthroughs on Saturday, get on the buses, they would bust down here, you know, 2.5, 3 hours every home game every, every Saturday and get down here, spend the night," Canales shared.

"He had some good stories about trying to get back to Charlotte with all the fans going back too. So, it was really cool to just kind of feel all that."

Asked how the bus ride went (the team headed south on Wednesday), Canales laughed and said, "we got to keep some things in house, but we definitely had a great night in Clemson."

The trip to the Tigers home stadium also provided a chance to stoke old rivalries. Former South Carolina Gamecock Jaycee Horn said he called up the equipment manager at his alma mater as soon as he heard the Panthers would practice in Clemson and asked for some new gear.

"You knew I was going to rock the block 'C' out here. I had to," Horn joked.

His fellow Gamecock alum Xavier Legette embraced the new warm feelings from the stadium he was taught to hate, spending long stretches signing whatever autographs were asked for, and smiling for every picture that was requested.

Another Gamecock on the roster, Clowney, was 3-0 against the Tigers during his college career, something he reminded the assembled media of as he entered his press conference. Part of the allure of signing with the Panthers for the longtime vet was returning home, just a stone throw's away from his hometown of Rock Hill, South Carolina.

His family didn't make the trip to Memorial Stadium on Thursday night though.

"They won't ride up here," Clowney joked. "They'll go to Columbia though!"

The Panthers will be back on the field in Charlotte on Saturday, with another practice open to the public.