ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — In total, Bryce Young and the first-team offense played a mere 12 snaps in the Panthers preseason. One dozen chances to put all they've imbued this offseason on display and into game action. One drive to prove they had consumed Dave Canales' playbook and are ready to take it to the regular season. And in 12 plays, they went 85 yards, picked up five first downs and capped it with an 8-yard touchdown pass from Young to Jordan Matthews.

The Bills weren't playing starters, but Canales didn't seem bothered by that.

"Couldn't have dreamt it better," Canales said of the starters opening drive. "A nice long drive, 12 plays to get the guys some good work, get them tired in the drive."

While Young's 12 preseason snaps ahead of his second year are less than a quarter of what he played as a rookie in the same three-game stretch, the productive result told a much different story. With his dozen plays, Young touched on a little bit of everything Canales and staff have wanted to see out of the former No. 1 overall pick.

"A fourth-down conversion in there, but saw him extend plays with his legs, keeping his eyes down the field, finding guys," Canales bragged of his quarterback, "and you can see the carry-over from practice to the game of people creating space, the play after the play.

"Those are the things that are so critical for us. He handled the run game with great expertise and got us to the right runs in those situations."

On Young's first play from scrimmage, he slipped a little while turning to turn, but quickly caught himself, sending one in the flat to Matthews for 8 yards. It was really his only slip of the day.

After harping all offseason on using his legs and finding "the second play," Young was able to do just that, whether it was on bootlegs and designed, or on scrambles. On the second play from scrimmage, Young bided time behind the line, waiting until he had rookie tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders on an intermediate crosser, for a 13-yard gain.

On his next designed passing play, a second-and-6 from one yard shy of midfield, Young came a shoelace away from being sacked for a significant loss, but was able to step out of the traffic, scramble up the middle and get back to the original line of scrimmage. There was no gain on the play, and set up a third-and-long, but after a season in which he took a franchise tying worse 62 sacks, simply living to play another down with the same yardage was a net positive.

Two plays later, facing a fourth-and-3, Young felt pressure coming from behind and scrambled to his left. He took half a second to turn his hips and quasi reset, before throwing downfield while turning into a backpedal, hitting Diontae Johnson down the sideline for a 17-yard gain and conversion.

On the play, Canales saw, "Poise, eyes down the field, that aggressive nature, but being able to do it within the confines of what's the smartest thing to do in this situation."

The conversion, more than any other on the day, hit on the Panthers hope for Young to trust the offense, but more importantly, himself this season, finding explosives that may not appear obvious at first, but are always there. Furthermore, Canales' plan to shorten Young's throwing time to 2.7 seconds gives the young passer an internal clock. If the clock runs out on the first play, as Young explained Saturday, start the second one.

"We talk about that all the time, playing the time clock and when it's over, starting the second play," Young said.

"They've talked to me about that a lot, so just trying to listen to them. It's a great job in scramble drill for Diontae and he was not the only person, everyone else…we work on that in practice. So, it was good to see it come to life in the game and again, it's something for us to build off of."

Added Johnson, "Just trying to stay in phase. When the quarterback breaks the pocket, we want to keep his eyes down field. Guys on our side, it's our job to remember our rules when he breaks the pocket and just try to get open and make a play. And we did that."

One play later, on a naked boot, Young found Adam Thielen on a bubble and the old man in the group showed he's still young enough to move in a flash, getting up field for a 21-yard gain.

"We had two plays on for different looks and got to a play and it was a great job, great play," Young shared. "Adam did a great job of sitting in an area that we practice and rep, we'd had that in practice and it was good to see it translate."

The drive was capped with an eight-yard dart over the middle to Matthews for the score.

For this offense to be effective, it will rely on those sorts of plays from Young, from Johnson, from Thielen, and perhaps most importantly, the run game. Asking each unit to rely on what they do well, and not stress about working outside of that. In a league that can overcomplicate itself to death at times, the willingness to be effective instead of flashy can't be understated.

It's an attitude that has permeated the Panthers this offseason, showing up in moments on Saturday, like Ikem Ekwonu pushing aside Bills players to defend Jonathan Mingo after a suplex tackle. Or Chuba Hubbard, running it three straight times on his first drive of the preseason, to get 15 yards and flip field position.

"To be honest, everyone's going to have their opinion on us," Hubbard said. "Everyone's going to probably write us off or think they can throw us around, do this or that. But each day, each week, we're going to keep chopping the tree and we'll show our best and whoever's ready for, we'll be ready for it."

Added Johnson, "We know the offense is different. Obviously, we didn't have a full starting offense out there, but we were able to still move the ball and make plays, get in the end zone. I mean, that's really all that matters is just putting those, putting those plays on film and just seeing what we can correct on them the next time we go back out there.

Young didn't go under center during any of his 12 plays, a decision made largely in part to Austin Corbett's absence on the trip. He had a good reason to stay back in Charlotte however, as his son Cooper John Corbett was born on Saturday, and introduced to the world at halftime.

"We felt like because of the chemistry of the snap, sometimes you don't want to be under center with a new center," Canales explained. "So, we just kind of featured the pistol and the gun things which gives him a clean snap point."

For a brief period, Canales considered not even playing Young or other starters due to Corbett and guard Damien Lewis' absence (family matter). But the play of Chandler Zavala and Andrew Raym "helped me have the confidence to do it," the coach admitted.

"I wanted to see our skill players out there. We had Chuba and Miles Sanders and Diontae and Adam. So that was a good group, to be able to get a good look at what our systems are."

There was no set number of snaps and/or drives Canales was committed to for his starters, insisting instead it was mostly off of feel and having the chance to see them pre-coin toss.

"I could feel the difference in the locker room of guys getting ready to play and that's the purpose of doing it," Canales explained. "The bonus is when you have extended drives so you can really tap into their fitness level and focus and get the calls that way."

But when the first drive ended with the touchdown, it was an easy decision to let that be the starters final bow until the regular season.

Now, they turn their sights to when it really matters; Sept. 8 in New Orleans, opening with a divisional matchup against the Saints. The 12 plays from Saturday won't count on that day, but the momentum and lessons gathered can still show up in the Crescent City.

"It's something we can build off of for sure," Young said. "It's something for us to improve off of, build off of, but it doesn't carry over into next week. It doesn't carry over into the season. So, we've got to recenter, take the good, take the bad, see what we can do moving forward and in two weeks, focus on New Orleans."