FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — On a day like Sunday, there's only so much that can be said.

So Panthers head coach Dave Canales began his explanation for a 42-13 loss to the Patriots by talking about himself and his role in it.

"Certainly, not the execution we're looking for, and this is in all phases, first and foremost, giving the credit to the Patriots," he began. "They outplayed us in every phase offensively, defensively, and on special teams, with the big return yardage. When it's a full team effort like this, I have to put that on myself.

"I have to look at how I'm preparing the team, how we're going about our work. I have to look at that and compete to find an edge to get these guys to work together to focus, so we can get the execution that we're seeing happen in our processes, but this is the only way to work through these things is to go right back to work, to attack it head-on."

That will begin when they get back to Charlotte and review the film on a day when no phase played well enough to win. The defense allowed 42 the week after allowing zero to the Falcons. The offense put an impressive drive together and then didn't again until the game was well in hand for the Patriots. And the special teams, which were so good all season, did not meet that standard.

So all Canales knows is to go back to work.

"I told them in the locker room like, hey, a loss is a loss," he said. "We've got to look at this stuff. We've got to look in the mirror, and figure out who we want to be as a team, so that we can get the execution that we're calling for and that we're looking for. I can honestly say that the effort and the energy from our guys is there. It keeps coming back to the execution. I have to look at that myself. Are we putting our guys in the best situation to be successful in every phase? I have to make sure that we have those conversations and that we keep progressing our football forward, to find, I know who our guys are. I know they're not going to quit. I know they're going to continue to punch. They're going to continue to fight all the way through it, but it's not enough.

"We have to be able to come out and execute for four quarters, to become the football team that I believe we can become, and the work starts right now. You know, it starts with me, it starts with our coaching staff. The players understand as well that this is not acceptable, and this is something that we have to come together and make sure that we're together on this thing, so we're pushing forward."

A week after a three-phases win, Canales took questions about whether Bryce Youngwas going to remain the starting quarterback (he is) and whether there would be changes to the coaching staff, or whether he planned to give up play-calling responsibilities.

He was steadfast throughout, saying he believed in the method and was committed to solving it.

And in the locker room, his players knew there was more to it than could be pinned on any one person, a refrain sounded by everyone from Jaycee Horn to Derrick Brown to Chuba Hubbard and beyond.

"I mean, that's what you're supposed to say, but he can't go out there and play," Horn said. "Like we've got to come ready to play. We've got to be ready to play on all three phases, and we weren't. Offense, we weren't ready. Defense, we weren't ready, special teams, we weren't ready. . . . But you can't wake everybody up Sunday morning and have them ready to play. Like, we had a great week of practice. I can tell you that we looked prepared all week at practice. That don't mean you're going to play good on Sunday. You've got to show up and do it, and that's not on him.

"We've got to be ready, it falls on me too, the DB, the team leaders, Chuba. We've got to do a better job of upholding the standard in practice, and having the guys ready too. So it falls on all of us and not just on coach Canales, even though that's what everybody is going to say."

Brown said that meant it was as much on the players as any of the coaches.

"I mean, coach takes the blame for us all the time, and we've got to step up," Brown said. "We've got to have his back, you know what I'm saying? That feeling of last week is one that we need to keep having, and it's one that we've got to, we've got to keep working on if we want to achieve every week, right?

"We appreciate him, but I mean, like this team knows that we want to be a player-run team. We want to be a player-led team to where it doesn't matter what he calls. We want to go out there and have execution at the highest level so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor."

Sunday, they did not. And as they left Gillette Stadium with a 1-3 record, Canales wasn't going to put that on anyone other than himself.

"Just the collective execution when it happens in all phases, I'm the common denominator," he said. "And I have to take responsibility for that. I have to make sure that I'm pushing the guys the right way. I have to evaluate what we're doing, how we're working, and how we're preparing our guys.

"I felt confident about that part, but we're not getting the results, and so this is something where I have to really just press in and make sure that we're not overlooking anything and make sure we're having the right combination of guys out there, in every phase."