JACKSONVILLE, Fla.— Jaycee Horn knows it would be easy to spiral. He knows the last few years of Carolina Panthers football lend themselves to a particular reputation and expectations, high or otherwise. And he knows the vast majority of fans, the NFL world, and even those who have been in the Panthers locker room in recent years could look at the result of today's Week 1 season opening 26-10 loss to the Jaguars and write this off as yet another in a long line of disappointing performances.

"Just a bad day," said Horn following the game. "I feel like, as a defense, we started slow…Just starting faster, I feel like as a defense we would have been good if we did that."

But Jaycee Horn has also been in the NFL for going on five years now, and he knows what the ebbs and flows of a 17-game season look like.

"It's Week 1, you know what I'm saying? I know it feels like just because we've been through it the past couple of years, it's like the end of the world, but it's Week 1.

"I mean, it's tough, especially for guys that's been here because that feeling is kind of familiar, but at the end of the day, when you look at it, like I said, it's just Week 1. We go back, we come, go out there next week and win, it's a whole different situation, and we know what type of team we are. We just ain't played our best ball today."

But why the disconnect? The Panthers' defense gave up 378 total yards—with 200 on the ground—and 19 first downs. There was a litany of things that went wrong, including what Canales called "not great" tackling.

Outside linebacker D.J. Wonnum agreed.

"A tackle is a want to," said Wonnum. "That's not nothing, you, it's not something, not schematic or anything. You just got to go tackle. We're football players and we've been playing tackle since we were in high school, middle school, so we got to come ready to go."

Additionally, Wonnum identified communication issues. Some of that could be credited to having four new starters on the defense, in addition to rookies who played significant snaps. But Wonnum isn't using it as an excuse.

"We've got to continue playing together, continue communicating a little better. I feel like that was an issue today, but now that we get those things better, we're good to go," said Wonnum.

"Just being vocal, loud, everybody talking, you know what I'm saying, even the quiet guys, everybody just knowing what the person beside you is doing so you can play off with them and just be ready to go out."

The communication, however, was not to blame for the Jaguars' first touchdown, a 6-yard floater from Trevor Lawrence to tight end Hunter Long. That was an instance of a perfect play call on offense, according to safety Nick Scott.

"That's a tough look," said Scott. "So they kind of sneak that guy under the linebackers. They go under one linebacker and then go quickly to the other backers, and so typically you want the backside flat player to take that.

"It's just, you know, this game is so (expletive) hard, like, they bring all that action. You got your linebackers thinking about run. They show heavy run action, and they sneak a guy under the nose and pop him out the back. Like it's a good play, it's a tough thing to defend.

"You have to have damn near the perfect call, and your flat player has to know it's coming, and if not, that's the result. Guys play hard, and we read our keys, and we floated the ball, and we try to make plays, and doing that sometimes stuff gets past you."

The touchdown came on a drive that began with a turnover, though, an interception in plus territory for the Jags off a deflected Bryce Young pass. In total, Jacksonville notched 10 points off the Panthers' turnovers (Young also fumbled the ball on a scramble).

"I feel like we've got to be better in sudden change situations, to be able to put out the fire to help the team out a little bit, you know, maybe hold them to three," admitted Horn.

Added Canales, "We turned the ball over four times, you know, really the last one was at the end of the game, but you're talking about three meaningful turnovers throughout the course of the game. When you give an offense that has talent, that has special players like that, and you give them more opportunities, then we start to expose ourselves, and that's part of playing complementary football, is we have to be able to take care of the ball on offense, and then we got to be able to get off the field on defense.

"So I think it really just, it plays both ways. When you don't play complimentary football, then all of a sudden you're giving the other team opportunities."

Now the challenge becomes fixing these issues within a week. The tackling, the communication, and the reaction to quick-change situations are all things Horn promises can be addressed before their next game. Based on their experiences in camp, he and his teammates feel confident that it's possible.

"That's the message I was echoing on the sideline like it's week one, man," reiterated Horn. "I know it feel like, 'Oh, it's just the same Panthers again, came out here and let everybody down,' but we just got to worry about us, stay together as a team because we go out there and win next week, they will be saying something different, so we just got to get back next week, work even harder, because this is the worst we're going to be."

When the game was over, Scott gathered a few other vocal leaders in the locker room and reminded them of what the next few days should look like from their perspective.

"I was just telling guys like Jaycee and our other leaders that where this will get dangerous is if guys start blending what happened last year or the year before with this year," Scott shared. "It's totally new. We're all one right now. We're not freaking. This is a new season, and we have a lot to look forward to.

"I think guys are really disappointed, myself included, because we know for a fact we are way better than we were last year, and everybody in this locker room cares so much, and we wanted to show everybody that we have gotten better. And as of right now, we didn't show anybody.

"We're not to anybody except for ourselves better than we were last year, and that's OK because we only need the people in this locker room to believe it, because it's the truth, but you've got to show it on Sunday. We have to be better in our communication, defense has to tackle better. We got to do all the little things, you know, because this league is hard and you can't just feel better.

In a way, disappointment is better than resignation. The latter leads to apathy. The former inspired motivation. It's that determination that players promise they are carrying out of Jacksonville and into preparation for Arizona.

"I don't think guys should be worried at all," said Scott. "We're just disappointed because we know we're better than that. We know we're better than who we were. It was totally different to me, and we're excited about it, and we're excited to show people; we just have to put it together."