CHARLOTTE — Jaycee Horn left Sunday's Panthers' game and, as is custom, sought out the person whose football opinion he respects above all: his dad.

Joe Horn was a wide receiver in the NFL for 12 years, with the Saints, Falcons, and Chiefs, setting receiving records with the Saints that stand to this day, and earned him a spot in the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame. As a four-time Pro Bowler, Joe Horn pushes for excellence from his son.

Still, he also knows what makes an impressive catch, so Jaycee Horn thought maybe, just maybe, his dad would say something about the one-handed interception Horn made during the game that the NFL recently tabbed as a Top 3 play of opening weekend.

"My dad don't give me many props," Jaycee chuckled on Thursday, recapping the conversation from Sunday in Jacksonville. "I talked to my dad after the game and he just talked about how we need to be better on defense and he ain't say nothing about the interception.

"So then, later, like two days ago, I sent him a picture of the interception. He didn't even respond to it," Horn guffawed.

Objectively, the interception was extremely impressive. Trevor Lawrence was looking for Travis Hunter down the seam. The receiver already had his hands out for the catch; it would've been a wide-open 82-yard house call. But Horn read the pass quicker than the rookie and showed off a vertical that couldn't be fully appreciated without something to measure it against, sticking his right hand straight into the air to intercept the pass in every sense of the word.

Horn spent much of training camp with stitches in his left hand after a minor car accident. But he wanted to still be involved, so he went through individual drills each day, catching only with his right hand.

"It definitely helped me, all the reps I was getting in individual drills at that time," Horn reflected Thursday. "I could only use my right hand, and when I went up in the game, it was stretching my right hand naturally, so I think it helped."

It might not have been enough to draw audible praise from dad, who Jaycee said prefers a more intense play—"he likes physical tackles"—but the Panthers' Pro Bowl corner is OK with that. Because he knows every lesson he's learned from his own Pro Bowl father and every example Joe Horn set along the way can only make him greater.

"I'm glad to have him in my corner, guiding me since I was a kid, and everything he's been telling me since I was a kid worked out for me, so I'm just going to keep listening to him and going behind him," Horn praised.

It's developed an intensity in the younger Horn that is helping set a tone for the Panthers. Following the loss on Sunday, the team came out to practice on Wednesday with an attitude Dave Canales described as "a little testy." The coach went on to say he loved seeing that response.

It was led by Horn, who admitted he was still upset at the game's outcome and was determined to push himself and his teammates to a better result this week.

"I think when you lose a game, obviously, guys are going to come in next week, you know, we want to go harder because obviously what we did leading up to Week 1 wasn't enough, so we've got to up the tone a little bit."

It's a mindset he learned from his dad, an approach he's seen work his entire life. And this week, it was rewarded when the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame announced Joe Horn would be their newest inductee.

"His legacy, it's crazy," Jaycee Horn said, shaking his head at the feeling he couldn't quite put into words. "I just sat back like it's crazy I had a dad in the league that long and now I'm in the league trying to do at least half of what he done as a pro."

For now, though, all Joe Horn wants to see from his son is a win. Any individual accolade or highlight will remain second to the leadership he can show in guiding his defense to a dominant performance. And it's a goal Jaycee Horn is happy to chase.

"A win, that's when he'll be happy, when we start winning games," Horn said. "So, that's what we're going to try to do."