CHARLOTTE -- At various points since the start of training camp, Carolina's defense has made do without seven first-teamers and another who plays starter's minutes as a pass-rushing defensive end. They've used three defensive tackles who weren't with the team during training camp, one of whom, 
But to defensive tackle
"After the second or third day of camp, you're beat up. The physical part is the physical part," Lewis said. "But the mental part of the game is the edge. That's where you win games and lose games.
"Talent is so even in this league right now that it's the mental aspect of it, and right now mentally we're not where we're supposed to be on defense with our fits and stuff like that, and that's more mental than physical ... If you're hestitant, it's going to show up on the field."
This doesn't merely show up on the scoreboard -- where the Panthers rank 30th in points allowed with 87 through three games -- or even in total yardage. Where it does reveal itself is in time of possession, where the Panthers also rank 30th in the league, illustrating the defense's issues at getting the opponent off the field.
Pursuit isn't the problem, Lewis maintains.
"Physically, there isn't a team in the league playing harder than we're playing," Lewis said. "You turn on the tape, we've got 11 guys out there flying around. But we need to get a target for this missile we've got on the field right now.
"We're not on target right now. We're missing. We have a lot of (missed assignments), mental errors on the field. We need to clean that up."
The missed tackles incurred by the defense are missed assignments, Lewis added.
"That's Pop Warner. You've got to be able to wrap up and tackle," he said. "But most of it is that we're not where we're supposed to be. If you're not where you're supposed to be, then you're reaching instead of being there in position to make tackles.
"We're way better. It's unbelievable how much better we are physically than what we're playing. But it's the mental aspect of the game we have to (work on). We have to be where we're supposed to be, and that's the bottom line. There's really nothing else to say about us on defense. We are not where we're supposed to be too many times in the game."
Which is why the bye comes at an ideal juncture, given the defense's issues.
"This couldn't be better. We can take (a step back), look at what's going on and focus on what we're doing individually and figure out what we're doing to help the team perform better on Sundays as a group and as indviduals.
"Being 0-3 and having two tough losses like the Atlanta game and this game, very winnable games for us, and to not get them -- the difference between last year and this year is we got those wins in those games. Like the Chicago game (in Week 2 of 2008), we won that game. And then in San Diego (a week earlier), we got that game on the last play. So just to be in that situation -- we need to sit back, refocus and kind of get the fire rekindled and come back out here and make a run."
