DENVER — The plan was to just keep trying to find some spark. That's what factored through Dave Canales' mind when he made an aggressive call in what would eventually become a 28-14 loss to the Denver Broncos. Deep in their own territory, and down by 14 points at that time in the third quarter, the Panthers decided to try a fake punt.

"For me, it was just about competing, trying to find an opportunity," Canales explained after the game. "We had something on them, you know, where they were kind of off, kind of with their back turned and we had an opportunity on the play."

Instead, the pass from punter Johnny Hekker to special teams captain and gunner, Sam Franklin Jr. fluttered just past Franklin's hands.

It wasn't an unheard-of idea with Hekker at punter. Coming into Sunday, the 13-year veteran had gone 15-25 on fake punts, for 193 yards and a touchdown. His long was 23-yards in 2019. That particular fake was to current Panthers teammate, safety and personal protector Nick Scott.

There was an attempt earlier this season as well that was also unsuccessful. Against the Bengals in Week 4, Hekker lofted a pass down the middle to Feleipe Franks. All week, the play worked in practice, those a part of the play said. But the Bengals ran a defender behind Franks that hadn't shown up on tape, and he popped the ball out of Franks hands.

That attempt though was on a fourth-and-3, from the Panthers 35-yard line. Aided by a penalty, the defense was able to hold the Bengals to a field goal.

On Sunday, against the Broncos, Carolina was facing a fourth-and-7, from their own 23-yard line. The shorter field meant that if unsuccessful, the Broncos would be knocking on the red zone. But given the score and amount of time left in the game, Canales felt those factors weighed more than field position.

"It was just the opportunity," Canales explained. "We're kind of looking at where that was going to come up. It happened to be in that spot and, you know, I wanted to see if we can try to get back out there and just get another shot at another drive."

The Broncos did in fact capitalize, scoring on the 23-yard touchdown drive to make it a 21-point game. The Panthers added a late touchdown, and one can see the line of thinking, that if the fake punt had been successful, and extended a drive that ended in a score, the Panthers would have made the game a lot closer. And that was how Canales approached the initial decision.

"With the way that we've been struggling offensively, defensively at times, it's like, where are those opportunities where we can find an edge? And I felt like that was one. I made the decision and it didn't work out for us."

The idea was for Hekker to throw left and hit Franklin near the edge, where he could turn up field. The safety was back in his first game of the season, after starting the season on injured reserve with a broken foot. The duo had repped the fake punt a lot during the 2023 season, and even connected once in a game, although that particular try was called back due to penalty.

Given Franklin's injury, the two haven't been able to practice it much this year however, only putting it into the game plan on Friday.

"I got to my depth. I just got to come back down and make the play. Johnny threw a good ball, I just got to make it," Franklin admitted.

"I just feel like me and Johnny worked that a lot of times last year…it's something we repped a lot (last year). He got confidence in me, I got confidence in him. We just didn't get a lot of reps leading up to this game."

While the attempt to Franks wasn't successful in Week 4, it was a reminder that Hekker is more than capable of executing a fake punt, giving the Panthers hope to keep the option in the play book. The pass on Sunday wasn't as on the money but hasn't lessened the coaching staff's desire to keep it in their back pocket.

"It's about competing," Canales reiterated. "We have to just try to find an edge. With this team as we're continuing to learn our processes, as we're continuing to try to find a way to have success, we got to fight and scratch and see if there's any little edge, anything that can bring us a little spark, to continue these drives."