CHARLOTTE — Dave Canales and Rico Dowdle agree.

The Panthers need to run more to achieve the kind of balance they need on offense.

Maybe this is where the handshake emoji goes.

Coming off a game in which the Panthers only had nine carries by their running backs, everybody involved acknowledged Wednesday that they'd prefer it the other way. The head coach told his players as much in the team meeting, and the running back admitted that his postgame social media emoji-usage was related to wondering why they didn't lean into the run game the way they generally have.

"Yeah, just was frustrated with the way the outcome of the game went," Dowdle admitted on Wednesday. "We lost, and I thought we had an opportunity to run the ball on them, so just frustration. Coach addressed it with the team, and it's all good. Let's focus on going to the next week. . . .

"Everybody knows, he knows that, he took ownership of it, so we take ownership of it as a team. We know what we've got to do, and definitely could have balanced that game out."

Considering the way the Panthers have reflexively reacted to certain events this season, it's reasonable to conclude that they want to get back to their run-game roots, and soon.

Dowdle even acknowledged the way the Panthers came back after a disappointing passing game against the Saints with a franchise-record day against the Falcons, so this is a thing they've done before.

But Canales has always been a coach who wants to run — he's talked about "running stubbornly" since he walked in the door. So when he discussed the issues on offense from last week, he admitted the accountability he expects from others works in both directions.

"I try to be really transparent with the players and to own up to the places in the areas I could do better in this situation, and I want them to understand, this is all of us, we're accountable to each other," Canales said. "We're all pushing to try to win, to try to improve our football, and I'm certainly a part of that as a head coach and then, of course, as the play caller.

"So we all have to be connected on that and we all have to be real about it, you know, and look at the opportunities. And while players may get the scrutiny for a missed play here, a missed block there, a dropped pass, an errant throw, a missed tackle, those types of things happen. The coaches are involved as well, and we've all got to be on the same page and be humble about it and be looking forward to improving.

"And for me, as a youngish play caller, pretty early in my career, every week is a lesson for me. Every week there's something to take, and I have great people around me that we talk to that we have accountability with, and I lean on those guys because I want to get better as well as we continue to do this process."

That's music to Dowdle's ears, seeing the 49ers showing "light boxes" and only getting six carries for 38 yards (a healthy 6.3 per carry). Even with that, Dowdle's tied for sixth in the league with 871 rushing yards, and his 788 since Week 5 are the most in the league.

The 69 yards they rushed for as a team was the third-lowest output of the season for a team that's averaging 122.3 yards per game, which is 11th in the league.

"The film speaks for itself, what we've been able to accomplish in the run game this year," Dowdle said. "So that's just pretty much it."

And as frustrated as he might have been after the game, having conversations with Canales since the meeting have convinced him they're on the same page.

"This is a great coach," Dowdle said when asked what the message told him about Canales. "You know, a lot of coaches don't, they won't, take that ownership or things like that. But every time, it's been the outcome of what it's been; he's come in, and he's taken ownership, and we had to take our ownership from our end as players as well. So, great player-coach relationship."

Of course, the Panthers want to get back to the kind of offense they've found success with, but guys who have been around know that's how some of these things go. When there's a problem, it tends to get addressed immediately.

"You just get in those moments when you're recapping, it's the attention to detail," center Austin Corbett said of the reflexive nature of swings like the run game has experienced. "You break down on these are the moments, so you lock in on those things, and it's a part of our learning curve as we learn to be a winning football team. What does it take week to week and not rely on the embarrassing, terrible, hurt-your-heart, break-your-feelings losses to do that for you?

"Anytime you get something called to your attention, that's where your attention's going to be. That's how you're gonna focus on it. It's all human nature."

That's why so many of the players around here, beginning but not limited to quarterback Bryce Young, talk about that "1-0 each week" mentality.

"I think it's one thing that we always try to work on as a football team," tight end Tommy Tremble said. "In the past, I feel like sometimes when we try to bounce back, it wasn't as easy, but I think the way the culture's kind of shifted in here, being able to do that, wipe a clean slate, know we're a good team, know we're good players. I think, with the coaching staff and their leadership, it's helped, it's easier for us collectively as a team to bounce back in situations like that.

"I think it's whatever we need to get done to get the win, and if that's the run game, pass game, whatever we need to do, we'll get it done."