CHARLOTTE — You could see the frustration in the way Bryce Young sat in his locker before his press conference, staring straight ahead into the wall as he slowly and quietly slipped off his cleats.

You could hear it in his voice, and the voices of others, after a 17-7 loss at home to the Saints.

The fact that it came a week after a surprising win in Green Bay was little consolation; in fact, it made it harder to stomach for a lot of them. But because they want to be a week-to-week team, and they weren't this week, it stung.

When asked about the loss in the context of missing a chance to be 6-4 and in the playoff hunt, Young shook that off quickly.

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter," he said. "There's no long-term. We were 0-0 going into this game, now we're 0-1, and that sucks.

"So we've got to turn the page."

They'll do that tomorrow, and there will be plenty to discuss on Tell The Truth Monday.

They were outgained 388-175 by the 2-8 Saints. After an impressive opening-drive touchdown (their first since the loss at New England), they managed just 10 first downs and 108 yards the rest of the day. Young was 17-of-25 passing for 125 yards (5.0 yards per attempt), and he only completed one pass longer than 15 yards. On a day when Rico Dowdle was limited to 53 rushing yards, the passing game never came up with answers.

And Young turned it over twice, throwing an interception and fumbling a handoff to Jimmy Horn Jr., and that didn't enhance his mood.

"A bad read, bad ball," he said of the pick. "Again, 100 percent my fault. That's on me."

"That's on me, I always take that," he said of the fumble. "Jimmy came up to me and to take accountability because that's the type of competitor and the person he is, but, again, at the end of the day, I'm the guy who touched the ball, it's on me. So we have to get that out of our system; stuff had to be better."

Again, the clipped tone was a marked departure for Young; it was obvious they were agitated by the way it happened as much as the result itself.

"I don't like to lose. No one likes to lose. I'm definitely frustrated," Young said. "But that frustration isn't with the team, that's not with anybody, that's frustrated because we didn't win, we didn't execute, we didn't be the best, that best version of ourselves that we're chasing, that we know we can be."

That was the point head coach Dave Canales made, as he shot down a question alluding to the now-2-8 Saints and whether his team had overlooked them. He also steered every question about Young to the whole passing game, and his own implementation of it.

"I certainly hope not," Canales said. "Our approach is to come back to work every week, regardless of the opponent. We're in pursuit of our best football. That was not our best today, and we did not let the things that we've been successful with come alive today, so we have to make sure that we take the next opponent, look at what they're doing, and have that type of mentality.

"Our mindset has to be to find our best, find our best football. It can't depend on who the opponent. You respect a bunch of pros, and every week they're going to bring a bus full of pros every week. And so we have to make sure that we're detailed, we're locked in, and get back on track with our work."

Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu, who was able to rattle off a number of areas in which he wasn't, admitted that they might not have been as locked in last week.

"I feel like at the end of the day, the mindset this week, the preparation this week wasn't good enough, and I feel like it's showing on Sunday," Ekwonu said. "I think it's important to look within, player to player, individually look, and just see that makes sure that you're focused and make sure you're locked in to the details. I feel like if you start from the inside out, we're going to build that culture around the team."

Asked specifically about last week, Ekwonu said there were moments in practice that pointed to the result.

"I mean, there were too many repeats throughout the week," he said. "Just, we just weren't locked into the small details, and a couple of guys spoke about it. Coach spoke about it throughout the week. You can't get days back. If you have a tough day on Thursday, a tough day on Friday, or whatever, you can always look forward, but you can't get that day back. So that preparation, or a lack thereof, is going to add up, and unfortunately, it just is cultivated into what we saw today."

That led to a quiet locker room that thinned out quickly, and few words, and only the reality that tomorrow will not be any more fun than Sunday was.

"No one likes losing, so still in the 24 hours, doesn't feel great," Young said. "We'll flush it tomorrow and get back to work."