CHARLOTTE — For much of Sunday's game against the Saints, the Panthers' defense held Tyler Shough and company — primarily Chris Olave — in check. Through three quarters, Shough was held to 11-of-14 for 110 yards and no touchdowns, while Olave had one reception for 7 yards.

Then, in the fourth quarter, everything fell apart. Shough went 13-of-19 for 162 yards and a touchdown in that one period, while Olave pulled in five of those receptions for 78 yards and the score.

"Everything that could have went wrong went wrong in the 4th quarter, and they were just able to sneak away with it," said Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn on Monday, reflecting on the 20-17 loss in New Orleans

"I feel like that was a game that we had for three quarters. We were playing dominating football, defensively, and we just, in the last two drives, it got away from us, so we just got to do better at executing and communicating."

On the Saints' second-to-last drive, they started at their own 22-yard line with 4:37 to play. Shough threw four straight passes of over 10 yards, all completions. Three of those were to Olave: 17 yards, 18 yards, and 16 yards, respectively. Then there were two incompletions, before a quick crosser to Juwan Johnson put New Orleans into the red zone.

The next play, a third-down pass to Olave, helped the receiver slip past Horn and into the end zone for the tying score.

The seven-play drive lasted 2:08.

"They hit us with the tempo, and that was good on their part to catch us on our heels," Horn admitted. "They were just going tempo, and they were catching us in the same call, damn near the whole drive, and they were just getting easy completions. We were in zone, and that's just how it played out."

In total, the longest pass play given up on the day to the Saints was 19 yards, and before the final two drives, the Panthers had only given up four passes of 15 yards or more. But when New Orleans went into their two-minute drill on the penultimate drive, it forced Carolina to stay in a base defense with no adjustments.

"Basically, like you stay in base call just because the coach ain't really got time to get a play call in, and I don't know, it just seemed like they knew what we were in because they were just going tempo," explained Horn. "I think they hit 12 (Olave) with a dig right on my side and came back to the same play on the other side with Mike.

"And that's just, it's just coverage beaters for real."

That will happen in games, though, whenever teams run two-minute drills in end-of-game scenarios. The Panthers know they have to be better prepared for when the situation arises.

"It ain't got nothing to do with the tempo," said Mike Jackson, explaining that the tempo might be a reason but not an excuse. "It's just us because there's times where they tempo'd us the first game and we were on the same page, so it ain't got nothing to do with the tempo."

Instead, coach Dave Canales pointed to a communication issue that arose at the worst possible time.

"We were totally disjointed on the back end, and that part is something we're talking about right now, and it was the linebacker hook droppers, the carry players, all those things. It was completely disjointed," Canales said Monday.

"They did a great job of staying on the ball and really just kind of executing a couple of plays and finding the completions there, but I don't want to get into the specifics of the breakdowns of all that, but these are like base calls that we have to be more connected on.

"It was the communication that was disjointed and just guys not owning their landmarks."

That has not really been an issue before Sunday, Jackson was quick to point out: "This is the first time y'all really asking about it, so no, it ain't really been a problem. It's just one game."

Horn added that he felt the communication issues weren't so much on the touchdown drive, explaining, "They were just going tempo and catching us in the same call and we were just in true zone most of the time, so it wasn't much me and Mike could really do on some of those dig and breaking routes."—but on the field goal drive, the communication problem did arise.

"You just got to find a way to get on the same page and execute and get off the grass when they are going fast like that," said Horn.

The most critical moment to get off the grass came with 12 seconds remaining. The Saints were facing a second-and-10 from the Panthers' 48-yard line. With no timeouts, one would presume they'd take a shot toward the boundaries, so Carolina lined up as such.

"So in an outside situation, try to deny them from getting out of bounds, and that was kind of the mindset for that whole drive," explained Horn. "So when you're seeing 12 catch the digs and stuff like that, we playing heavy outside to try to keep them from getting out of bounds, stopping the clock.

"So, I see what coach E (defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero) was thinking. And it was no pass rush. So if they dropped back to pass, it would have took a lot of time off the clock because he would have been searching for somebody to throw to, or he would have had to just throw it away, and they wouldn't have been in field goal range, so it was kind of like a last play of the game mentality. Just don't let them get out of bounds because they ain't have time outs."

Instead, Shough—who had been sacked 5.0 times by the Panthers' pass rush that day—took a risk that paid off, running up the middle for four yards, sliding, and taking a hit that gave New Orleans an additional 15 yards for a game-winning field goal.

A lot has been and will be made of that play, understandably so. But as the Panthers' corners explained Monday, so much happened in the minutes right before that led to the game slipping away.

"Really just those last two drives. I mean, that's really what it came down to," said Horn. "And then the last drive, when they got in field goal range, just flags too that hurt us."

Added Jackson, "We just weren't on the same page. That's really it. We got to just be better next week…that's life in the NFL, week-by-week."