GLENDALE, Ariz. — On one hand, Panthers head coach Dave Canales loved the way his team fought Sunday.

On the other hand, the fact that they had to continues to bother him, because it shows him what they're capable of.

The Panthers rallied with three second-half touchdowns, but fell 27-22 to the Cardinals at State Farm Stadium on Sunday. And that's amazing, and it contained multitudes of positives they can carry forward.

But there were also the two turnovers on their first two possessions that staked the Cardinals to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.

"We've got to eliminate the mistakes," he said directly, as soon as he walked behind the lectern for his press conference. "You know, two weeks in a row, early self-inflicted wounds and 10 points just like that. Going to the half (down) 20-3, and we've got to change our mode, and we're not able to play the complementary football that we're looking for, to be able to mix the runs, the play actions, turned it into a drop-back game.

"I love our guys. I love that we battled all the way to the end. Nobody quit. Everybody did what they were supposed to do as we started to close the game. We have to be able to find a way to play that kind of football early on so we can see what we have. I believe in this group. I'm excited about this group and the players we have out there.

"But it's the mistakes, and I have to take full responsibility for that first and foremost for preparing our guys, and we've got to get right back to work. You can't play that type of football. It's the turnovers."

Canales was quick to credit the Cardinals; they're the ones who created and executed the plan that gave them so much trouble early. Both center Austin Corbett and right guard Robert Hunt (who left injured and will get tests tomorrow) said the Cardinals showed them pressure looks they hadn't seen on tape, and that followed the pattern of last week's loss in Jacksonville, when turnovers and an early deficit proved to be too much.

On the other hand, there was the way they played in the second half.

There may be a certain liberty when you're down 27-3 before you touch the ball in the second half, but you also have to do something with it.

Quarterback Bryce Young was 11-of-17 for 111 yards and an interception in the first half.

In the second half, he was 24-of-44 for 217 and three touchdowns, playing a completely different game.

"I have all the confidence in the world in this team, this group," Young said. "We know we have the right stuff. Just early on not giving ourselves a chance, that part is, it's frustrating now, obviously fresh after.

"But, you know, soon we're going to turn the page again, learn, grow. But I have all the confidence in the world."

That wasn't something that was likely to be said at halftime, when the only thing working was throwing it up to Tetairoa McMillan (four catches for 75 yards).

But in the second half, he began to spread the ball around, finding everyone from Hunter Renfrow (two touchdowns) to Brycen Tremayne (three catches for 48 yards).

And most importantly, he kept them in the game at a time when they needed reason to believe they were in it.

"Just the fight," Young said. "Great for us as a team, offense, defense, everyone. There's obviously a time where it didn't look the best, and no one flinched. No one batted an eye.

"We all just went to the next play, and I'm super proud of that. And then we just want to do a better job of executing. We want to make sure that we give ourselves a chance, that we don't put ourselves in bad positions. Obviously, that starts with me; we all take ownership in that."

The improvement in the second half was across the board, from the defense stiffening against the run to recovering an onside kick.

"I mean, you find out we got a fight in us, right?" defensive tackle Derrick Brown said. "I mean, losing is unacceptable. We're in the NFL.

"We want to go and do big things and you can't lose. It's 0-2 right now, but to see the guys out there and fight coming out halftime, only three points on the board, they drove down on us right there at the beginning of the second half. And then be able to come out and hold them and then just let the offense go do what they do."

They know that trailing 27-3 in the early third quarter, a lot of people changed the channel.

Canales is trying to change people's minds about that, beginning with his own team.

"Honestly, just don't pass judgment on the outcome of the game ever," he said of the ultimate lesson of the game. "Just continue to play football, regardless of what happens early on, regardless of what happens in the middle of it, you don't get to pass judgment on what the outcome of the game is going to be because you just have to keep playing ball.

"And if you do, and if you do right longer than the opponent, you give yourselves a chance to finish. And that's our definition of finish, and that's what I saw from the group was a group that continued to do right throughout the course of the game, fixing the things that we talked about early on, and finding execution."

Now, they just have to find it sooner.