CHARLOTTE — Football can be an emotional game — on Sundays.

Come Wednesday, the Panthers have turned this into a cold and academic exercise — because for them, that's what it has to be.

While there may still be a lot of conversation about last week's 17-7 loss to the Saints, defensive end A'Shawn Robinson said the next steps proceed as they always do, and the Panthers are still 5-5 and thinking only about the Falcons.

"Still November, still playoff games," Robinson said coolly on Wednesday, which was in almost every way like every other Wednesday. "This is a business. Every day we line up, it's a business."

Bouncing back from emotional losses

That kind of attitude might be the key to some similar situations they've been in this year.

An embarrassing 42-13 loss in New England was immediately followed by a franchise-record-tying comeback win at home against the Dolphins the following week. An embarrassing 40-9 home loss to the Bills was immediately followed by the win at Green Bay.

So as raw as the emotions were after Sunday's 17-7 loss here to the Saints, the Panthers have figured out that the only way past it is through it, which requires a clinical mindset.

"No, nothing," quarterback Bryce Young replied when asked if there were common threads following the Patriots and Bills games. "There's no magic, no magic speech, nothing different. Coach does a great job of being consistent, with how he is, and the schedule he has us do, so we know what to expect.

"We know the work it takes. It's just about getting to it."

So Wednesday they did, having "turned the page," to use one of Young's standard lines.

For head coach Dave Canales, it becomes an opportunity to tap into one of his common themes, the ability to refocus on the fly — within week-to-week stretches, and from play-to-play within a game. The fact that the Patriots and Bills are among the AFC's best teams and the Saints improved to 2-8 with that win doesn't change things for him.

"This game is humbling, because every single week you play a group of professionals, regardless of what the record says," Canales said. "These are pros, and there are phenomenal players in every group, and if you don't play to your best, if you don't execute, and we don't play complementary football together, you can lose every week. And you can also win by playing a certain way and by taking care of the details and the critical parts of our game. So it's a reminder, and it's a wake-up call.

"Now with me at least for a year and a half, we have to make sure that we lean on our processes, we lean on the things that count on that we count on to get our bodies right, to get our minds right so we can be confident and we can play fast on Sundays."

Of course, these are still human beings we're dealing with.

Veteran right tackle Taylor Moton admitted that absorbing losses of the emotional magnitude of big margins or missed opportunities still hurts.

It's the act of compartmentalizing that hurt and filing it away to get onto the next thing that becomes the next thing.

"You've just got to learn and grow from it, right?" Moton said. "Ultimately, I believe we're all really locked into practice. We did everything we could to make sure that attention to detail was there while staying with that enthusiasm, right? Because now we're on the Falcons and doing everything we can to just lock in on winning that game, right? Because you can't get those losses back in my opinion, but you can learn from them and grow from them and do anything we can to hone in.

"I know that there are things that I want to work on. That's all I can do from that loss is go back and watch a film. OK, I need to do this better, that better, that and the third better, you know. I can help the guys out up front with this or that. That's it, really. It's just feedback and we know where we're at and you know, on to the next one, right?"

Of course, it takes a few days to get to that point.

In the aftermath of Sunday's loss, the normally stoic Young was as angry as we've seen him — the antithesis of the week before when he was smiling and loose as he walked onto the field for what would ultimately become the game-winning drive.

Taking those emotions and using them in the proper way is as important as making the technical corrections on film.

"I think it can be," Young replied when asked if anger was useful. "Again, everyone's different, and everything on a day-to-day basis changes. There are times, it's personal, or you look at other people, you're always looking at what you need. You're always looking at what you need to bring and always evaluating on a day-to-day basis, on a game-to-game basis, what it is you may need. So there's times that you know you could use whatever emotion that it is to kind of aid you in playing, and then for me personally, it's always about seeing where I'm at figuring out what I need; what I need to add, what I need to take away, and trying to be in the best mindset to go and have success."

And if nothing else, having the experience in this situation gives them a playbook on how to bounce back, which they've done successfully twice now.

"Coach talks about it all the time," Young said. "Just find opportunities to refocus. He talks about that in the immediate on game days, after plays, after series, and then after games, after weeks. So that's been a theme for us, again, after good after bad, whatever it is, we put emphasis on refocusing, making sure that we get lost in the work.

"We're process-oriented, so that's the battle right now, and you know we're excited to have the opportunity."

That was a very businesslike response. That's exactly what they wanted Wednesday to be.