CHARLOTTE — The Panthers might be eliminated from playoff contention, but they still have three games to play.

But for Panthers head coach Dave Canales, that's three chances to build for the future and the team he wants to create.

That's a long-term goal with a short-term focus.

Canales said Monday, in the wake of the 30-14 loss to the Cowboys, that all of his attention would be on this week's game against the Cardinals, followed by the following week's game at Tampa Bay, and then the following week's finale at Atlanta.

He was asked in the context of playing younger players down the stretch — such that the Panthers have many options at this point in the season — but Canales said the emphasis was still on winning every game they had a chance to play.

"I think it's important to set the culture that every game is a championship opportunity," Canales said. "Because they all, you look back and you watch the film and you see these games, whether you're at home or on the road, and you just try to replicate the importance of each one, the importance of each day, each practice. So that's first and foremost, like that's the culture that we would love to have is that we hold each opponent in such high regard. We hold each opportunity that we have in such high regard. . . .

"But my focus can't go too far out into the future for the respect of the guys that have this opportunity today on our 2024 Panthers team, and I owe it to them to the coaching staff who are working hard to get these guys ready and troubleshoot the issues that we talk about, that we're trying to face. So, the thoughts are there, but at the same time, it's got to be about this week, and I want the guys to get used to this, which is the most important game that we have."

The Cardinals are a game out of first in the NFC West, and the Falcons will be a game behind the NFC South-leading Bucs if they beat the Raiders tonight.

That gives the Panthers the opportunity to play spoiler for other team's playoff hopes, but that's also not anything they use as motivation.

"Yeah, I guess I don't really like that verbiage," linebacker Josey Jewell said. We're just gonna play to our best ability. Don't worry about theirs.

"I think there's, you know, a chance that we can beat all these teams, but it's going to take that consistency and the physicality; we need to bump that up so we can play some of our best ball at the end of the year."

Xavier Legette "week-to-week" with groin injury

Canales suggested that it was unlikely that rookie wide receiver Xavier Legette would be available Sunday against the Cardinals after leaving the game with a groin injury in the second half. He did not return and was getting more tests on Monday to determine the severity.

"He's week-to-week right now," Canales said. "We're still doing all the work-up on that for him right now, and we'll give you a better picture of that in the next couple of days. But right now, we see him as week-to-week, and I'd love for him to have a chance to finish strong with us."

Legette has 41 catches for 439 yards and four touchdowns this season.

If he's not able to go, they could be a little thin there, as they finished the game with Jalen Coker, Adam Thielen, David Moore, and return man Deven Thompkins.

Tape shows different factors in turnovers

Since taking back the starting job in Week 8, Bryce Young had done a fair job of taking care of the football, beholding to Canales' most important pillar: "it's all about the ball." Against the Cowboys though, they came in fast and furious. A lost fumble on the opening offensive drive was the first of two, and Young added two interceptions as well, for four total turnovers.

"Really tough one for us," Canales admitted Monday. "Just starting off right off the bat, about the ball, the turnovers make it difficult."

While the turnovers as a whole wrote the story of the game, there weren't a lot of common threads between them; each one came about in a different way.

On the first fumble, Young was scrambling and started to go to the ground."We got to go down with two hands to lock it and protect it," Canales said of the play. "That's a vulnerable spot that we try to highlight and talk about."

The second fumble came on a strip-sack. Young had been able to avoid getting sacked in the first half, even escaping a couple of them Houdini style. While such a play is admiral and impressive, the lesson Canales pointed out on Monday was protecting the ball supersedes escaping the tackle.

"Sacks happen. We hate sacks, but at the same time, it's not the worst thing if, let's finish the play with the ball," Canales explained. "If we got to live with the third and longer or second and longer or something like that, we can do that."

The Panthers third offensive drive of the day came to a quick close with an interception on a popped-up ball. Unlike the overthrow interception later in the fourth-quarter, this play was more a product of football than mistakes.

"I thought the Thielen play was a bang, bang play," Canales said after watching the tape. "A great play by the defender, (Jourdan) Lewis on that one, and the ball careened up, right into (Eric) Kendrick's hands, but I thought we had a surface on that one and, I thought he made a great play on that."

Playing every game grateful

Scary news reverberated across the NFL on Sunday, when Dolphins second year receiver Grant DuBose suffered a head injury and was stretchered off the field to a local hospital. He was kept overnight in Dallas for evaluation and the latest update on Monday said DuBose had movements in all his extremities and initial tests were positive.

DuBose played his college ball at UNC-Charlotte, leading an already worrisome story to hit even closer to home in the Panthers building this weekend.

"Just prayers up for him and I pray for a speedy recovery for him," right tackle Taylor Moton offered Monday. "That's a tough situation to be in, scary."

It also echoed a message Moton had already preached on Monday, following the 30-14 loss the day before to Dallas.

"It's a lesson, right," Moton said. "I'm blessed to have an opportunity to go out there and perform next week. And it's just really a blessing because a lot of people don't know when the last game is. People lose sight of that.

"You got to go out there like every game, every play is your last because you never know what could happen. God blessed, hopefully by Sunday, the opportunity to go out there (again) and play the best of our ability and finish the season out strong, one game at a time."