Coming out of a bye week, I expect a team to look better. It doesn't have to be perfect, but with an extra week to look at what's working and what isn't, I want to see some evidence that the time off actually helped.

I think we saw some of that from the Panthers in Sunday's 25-14 win over Philadelphia. Carolina finished with 399 yards, didn't turn the ball over, and held the Eagles to 222 yards. More importantly, the Panthers went on the road and won a game they were supposed to win.

But if we're grading Dave Canales specifically, I can't just look at the final score and give him an A. There were things I liked, especially as the game went along, but there were also a couple of decisions that I didn't understand.

There Was Plenty to Like Coming Out of the Bye

The Panthers didn't have much of a running game in the first half. Chuba Hubbard had eight carries for 24 yards, and Philadelphia was doing a pretty good job of keeping him from getting anything going.

Carolina stayed with it, and eventually Hubbard started finding room. He finished with 28 carries for 120 yards and a touchdown, including a 19-yard run on fourth-and-1 in the second half. I liked that the Panthers didn't decide after a bad first half that the running game wasn't going to work.

We also finally got to see what the passing game could look like with Jalen Coker and Tetairoa McMillan out there together. Coker finished with six catches for 97 yards, McMillan had six for 86, so the two combined for 183 yards. That's something Carolina can build on because Young doesn't have to spend the entire game depending on McMillan to make every big play.

Tommy Tremble was another part of the offense I liked. He caught four passes for 46 yards and two touchdowns, but Carolina also found other ways to use him. Tremble lined up at fullback and helped lead Hubbard on that 19-yard fourth-down run, then the Panthers showed a similar look later, and Young got Philadelphia to jump with a hard count.

The fourth quarter was probably what I liked most. Philadelphia cut the lead to 19-14 and suddenly had some life, but Carolina didn't let the game get away from them. Young and the offense answered, with Tremble's 19-yard touchdown giving the Panthers some breathing room again.

That's something this team hasn't always done very well.

But I Still Have Some Questions for Canales

The penalties are the obvious place to start. Carolina finished with 13 of them for a franchise-record 149 yards, and eight of those penalties for 105 yards came in the first half.

Canales called the number "outrageous" afterward, and that's a pretty good way to describe it. He's obviously not the one committing the penalties, and some of them were more costly than others. But when your team is coming out of a bye and gives away 149 yards, I think the head coach has to own part of that.

The decision at the end of the first half bothered me even more.

Carolina faced fourth-and-1 at its own 45 with more than 30 seconds remaining and still had all three timeouts. Canales didn't want to go for it on fourth down, which I can understand, with the Panthers already leading 10-7 and getting the ball to start the second half.

What I didn't understand was letting the clock completely run out. Why not run it down, call a timeout with a few seconds left, and at least give Young a chance to throw one toward the end zone? Maybe nothing comes from it, but there wasn't much to lose by trying.

There was another decision earlier in the half that I didn't love. Canales chose not to challenge what appeared to be an incomplete pass on Philadelphia's only touchdown drive of the first half. The play stood, the drive continued and the Eagles eventually scored.

Neither decision cost Carolina the game. That's important, but it also doesn't mean I forget about them when I'm grading the head coach.

Final grade: B

I thought there was more good than bad from Canales and the Panthers coming out of the bye. The offense stuck with the running game, found some different ways to use Tremble, got Coker and McMillan going together, and answered when Philadelphia made it a five-point game in the fourth quarter.

But I can't get to an A with 149 penalty yards and a couple of game-management decisions that could've mattered a lot more if this game had gone differently. Carolina won on the road, improved to 3-2, and did what it was supposed to do.

I'll take the B and the win.