CHARLOTTE — Football teams love nothing more than a routine, but they also know there are times when you need to be available to the ones you love.

So, with Christmas falling in the middle of the week, Panthers head coach Dave Canales is adjusting this week's schedule to make sure everyone has a chance to celebrate and also prepare for the Buccaneers game on Sunday.

The typical Tuesday off has been moved to Wednesday, and Wednesday's normal practice day will happen a day earlier.

"We'll get right to our Wednesday mode tomorrow, which will be Tuesday and Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas Day, the players will have their normal players' day off, so they'll be able to spend some time with family," Canales said. "Whether it's in person or calling people, to just be able to be available on Christmas Day, and then we'll hop right back to it on Thursday and just and get right back on the rhythm of our Thursday routine, Friday and everything from there will be normal."

Of course, coming on the heels of their fourth win of the season, the idea of this being a "normal" week is what Canales is trying to keep everyone mindful of, and his mind never strays far from the business of football. So, being able to review the film of Sunday's 36-30 overtime win against the Cardinals offered him a chance to celebrate the parts of it he wants to hang onto and critique the rest.

"Just great to be in another battle all the way to the end, all the way to overtime, a place that we've grown familiar with, and to be able to finish it this time with the win was great," he said. "Just a full team win. We had to cover kicks, we had to play defense, we had to play offense one more time, and we were able to get it done, so I was really thrilled about that."

More roster moves coming

Canales said that Monday's release of defensive end Jonathan Harris was done with future moves in mind, knowing they needed depth for the next two weeks. They got through Sunday's game with just three inside linebackers — Josey Jewell and Jacoby Windmon, with Jon Rhattigan focused exclusively on special teams — and they needed to add there.

They also have some other considerations, as practice squad running back Mike Boone used his third and final elevation, and if they want to be able to use him again this season, he'd need to be on the 53-man roster.

"So we've got to make a bunch of those important decisions going into this week to play the Bucs," Canales said. "Because we're going to try to run the ball, and to do that, we've got to make sure that we have guys available for that."

Miles Sanders remains on injured reserve, and Canales said they were following his return to play protocol, and any decision on his status would be primarily medical.

The Panthers also saw returner Raheem Blackshear get his first carries of the year (three for 13 yards) Sunday.

"I was glad to see Raheem get in there," Canales said. "He ran hard, made the most of the couple opportunities that he had, and read the runs properly, finished with his legs driving, so it was really good, really cool to see him in there."

Medical updates

Canales said center Cade Mays appears to be doing better after missing Sunday's game with a last-minute illness. Brady Christensen stepped back into the middle and was part of a line that blocked for a 243-yard rushing day.

He also said that rookie wideout Xavier Legette was "progressing really well" after missing Sunday's game with a groin injury, and there was some hope about getting him back on the field in the next two weeks.

"He was going through a return to play protocol through the weekend to try to make sure we got him on top of his availability for this week," Canales said. "But we like the strides that he's taking, and he's going to have to make pretty significant improvement in the next two days as we continue to evaluate him, but we definitely want to get him back out there."

Bryce Young impresses in and out of the pocket

While Panthers quarterback Bryce Young made more plays with his feet Sunday than we had seen previously. Canales said he was impressed with one throw in particular, when Young took a hard shot from a blitzer and delivered the ball to Tommy Tremble, just before his fourth-quarter touchdown to David Moore.

"He's shown courage in the pocket," Canales said. "He had an open receiver, we had an unblocked player right up the middle, and he was able to plant his back foot and throw an accurate ball to Tommy in that situation, and we got a first down out of it.

"So I was really proud of just the way that he was able to just play in rhythm and get it to the first guy in a timely fashion, especially because the guy was hot right up the middle."

Canales disagreed with hip-drop tackle call

Rookie linebacker Jacoby Windmon became a trivia question Sunday when he was the first player in the league penalized on the field for the banned "hip-drop" tackle technique. Other players have been fined after the fact, but Windmon was the first to draw a flag for it.

And after watching it again, Canales said he disagreed with their interpretation of the stop on James Conner (which wasn't the play on which Conner was injured).

"What I saw in the film was I saw Coby, he grabbed James Conner around the waist, and then it was a beautiful wrap tackle," he said. "His legs slid down on the ground and he brought him down so there wasn't a high-grab tackle, unload my weight to the lower extremities of the running back.

"I thought it was a clean open field tackle for a 1-yard gain. We should have been sitting at second-and-9 right there in that situation."

Instead, the Cardinals turned that 15-yard penalty into a touchdown three plays later. It was their first touchdown, cutting the lead to 20-10.