CHARLOTTE — There are games that turn into celebrations, and immediately.

But for Panthers head coach Dave Canales, his reaction to Sunday's 30-0 win over the Falcons was almost muted, for him at least.

He laughed and chalked it up to being "punchy" after calling plays all day, but there was also the sense that this was how he's always wanted these games to go, so overboard reactions weren't necessarily the order of the day.

Canales said he was discussing things with offensive coordinator Brad Idzik and assistant head coach Harold Goodwin between series, when things were calm rather than chaotic.

"I expect execution, it'll give us a chance to win, and so when the guys do that, I just feel a sense of peace and support from them," Canales said. "I've got to give all our players all the credit. This is a group where I stopped talking to them before we come out of the tunnels, like this is your team, what do you want to say to each other?

"And they're doing such a great job of challenging each other the right way, and there was a focus about the group this week. And this has been a really focused group, but for them to take the challenges, I'm just really proud of this week."

When Canales talks about wanting this to become a player-driven team, he looks to the leaders. That means guys like Derrick Brown stuffing the run, that means Chuba Hubbard leading the way on the ground, that means Jaycee Horn forcing traffic the other direction, which allows Mike Jackson and Chau Smith-Wade to end up with interceptions.

So when it was over, when they went back into a locker room that was more businesslike than joyous, Hubbard was there to remind them this was the expectation within the room as well.

"I was saying it when everyone's coming in here, I said get used to this feeling," Hubbard said. "Get used to this style of ball. If we keep doing this, it's going to be a good feeling like this every week. So we're just going to keep stacking.

"We told ourselves, look, we know how to finish. We just need to carry that through the first half and play all four quarters. So we told ourselves that's what we're going to do and that's what we did, so it was a good feeling."

Hubbard's one of the guys they point to as an example, from the way he's almost always the first one on the practice field, to the way he catches passes off the Jugs machine three hours before kickoff. So, as one of the guys who uphold the standards, seeing this kind of across-the-board game was gratifying after two weeks of disappointing displays.

"I think everybody knew what we were capable of," Hubbard said. "It just wasn't quite clicking for us. It was the little things kind of getting past us, and like I said at the beginning of the week, we just put it on ourselves. Look, we're going to play our style ball, the ball that we prepped in OTAs in camp, and this whole past year. We're going to put it together for a whole four quarters. So to see it all kind of come full circle for us, from the defense balling out, from special teams making lots of plays, from offense getting the end zone, it just shows that look, this is working, and regardless of what all the outside noise is saying, it's going to come together regardless.

"It's our whole team. It's our whole group. I mean, we have leaders from the top down, and I can say it, Jaycee can say it, but everyone has to be on the same page and believe it as well. So to see even the young guys step up from the old guys, everyone around the team just know and do their job at a high level, like I said it's a good feeling."

The vibe of the win superseded any of the individual components, because there will be plenty to look at when they convene for "Tell The Truth Monday" tomorrow.

Quarterback Bryce Young missed some shots downfield, and they only threw for 121 yards. There was a fumble on a punt by rookie Trevor Etienne that caused them to swap him out for veteran David Moore. The defense played well for the most part against the run, but allowed reserve running back Nathan Carter to go seven carries for 47 yards late to push the team rushing total to 132 yards, on a day when the run defense played better than a team that gave up 132.

"I'm super proud of this team, just complete team performance, all three phases," Young said. "Special teams, I mean, they played phenomenal all night, so you know this is great. We have a 24-hour rule, so I'm happy, and then it's one week. So for now it's great, and then you come back tomorrow.

"We'll come back tomorrow, we'll watch the film, see what we can replicate, see what we can learn from, and turn the page, but it feels good right now."

Young talked about having a sense of urgency early, and the offense didn't turn it over the way they did in the first two weeks.

So that allowed Canales to get into what he referred to as a "normal" mode of football, and accidentally almost quote a former Panthers coach who was known for being willing to sacrifice style points for effectiveness.

"Absolutely if we can play normal football, and we can play complementary football, a punt's not the worst thing," Canales said.

He walked right up to the line of John Fox's classic "a punt is not a bad play," and this win was similar in style to what Fox always wanted. Opportunistic defense. Offense that was stable rather than explosive. And special teams that forced mistakes rather than making them.

As Young said, it was one game. It was a good one, but it was one. And as Canales looks around the tunnel at his team, their expectations of building on it will determine how successful they can be.