GREEN BAY, Wis.— Okay, there are a few things to establish before diving into this story about the Panthers' defensive performance in the 16-13 win over the Packers on Sunday.

Let's start with the known facts of the situation: the Packers were driving on their first offensive possession, having worked their way into the red zone. After a screen to Savion Williams, the rookie receiver started to run into his own blocker. Jaycee Horn and Christian Rozeboom were in place to take advantage, wrapping up Williams for the tackle.

The ball came out, and safety Nick Scott was there to recover it for the Panthers.

Those are the indisputable facts.

After that is when things start to become more subjective, and debatable—and boy were they ever debated in the Panthers' locker room after the game.

Rozeboom was credited with the forced fumble on the stat sheet and by Dave Canales in postgame. Horn was initially credited in-game and appeared to have the punch on the replay, albeit in a swarm where it's impossible to tell exactly what was going on. But Horn tried to state his case in the postgame locker room.

"Me," Horn answered with passion when asked who forced it. "That's what the stat sheet says." (The stat sheet was later updated to say Rozeboom, and in typical linebacker fashion, he didn't stick around to argue his case, preferring to let the stats do the talking).

Scott, walking by and hearing the argument, tried to submit his own case: that the man who recovered the fumble should be credited with the whole play, but that's not how it works, and it's two separate stats for that reason, but we commend him for trying.

The main point here is that the unit was able to carry out their philosophy; the first guy makes the tackle, and the second guy makes the turnover. Both convened quickly enough to execute the plan. That has been the case for this defense more and more this season. Barring two performances that are increasingly looking like anomalies compared to the rest of the season (the Week 4 Patriots loss and the Week 8 Bills loss), the Panthers' defense is becoming who they want to be.

"We've been preaching all week, man, we lost a tough one, we lost bad last week," said defensive captain Derrick Brown. "We got our ass whooped, so to be able to come back out here and just get back into it, that's been a thing for us. We sat in there this week, and we're like, 'You've got to take that one on the chin.' We got to roll back, we got to roll back into what we do."

After Horn laughingly pushed Scott and his fumble argument further into the locker room and away from the mics, the Pro Bowl corner sobered for a minute, acknowledging what kind of a win Sunday was, considering the biggest point of contention after the game was who should get credit and pride for a momentum-changing play.

"It was execution, and it was putting pressure on the quarterback," Canales said, complimenting his defense. "When (Love) did have time, he hurt us on a couple of balls down the field and, when we put pressure on him, he let the ball out early. Mike Jack had an opportunity there at the end on that fourth down in the red zone to make it a little less interesting. I would have liked to see how far he could go on that one right there.

"It was all the guys working together, you know, attacking our rush plan, all that, and then just coming up with those opportunities. Boom (Rozeboom) with the punch out early on, that's a huge one you talk about, that early drive in the game, so, yeah, just really proud of these guys."

Coming into Sunday, the Packers only had four turnovers. By day's end, the Packers had forced Green Bay into two more, the fumble and a Tre'von Moehrig interception. There was almost a third, but Mike Jackson dropped what looked to be a sure interception in the end zone. It was fourth down, and the Panthers would take the ball back regardless, but Horn would like to take a moment to defend his teammate.

"You should have seen him after the game, he had an attitude like we just lost the game. Because it was probably the easiest pick," laughed Horn of his fellow corner. "But it really ain't that easy of a pick. When the balls hanging in the air like that and the wind's moving it, it looks easier than it actually is. But he should have brought it down for sure."

But the Panthers could live without Jackson's potential game-changing play there (although they commit to poking fun at him for a while) because there were enough others. There was Horn's pass breakup on Romeo Doubs in the back of the end zone as the first half wound down, keeping Green Bay from the touchdown on what would have been a go-ahead score.

"It was just film study," said Horn. "Seeing when they put him backside by himself, and I was off, and he inside released me, I pretty much knew a dig was coming because I hadn't seen nothing else on film."

There was Jackson's big pass break-up earlier in that same drive as well, which spurned an audible "Keep Pounding" chant from the Carolina fans in attendance.

There were Moehrig's multiple big plays, including an interception, two tackles for loss, and two passes defended.

"I've always been confident in myself, and not try to put a leg on my abilities, but it was a team effort, man," bragged Moehrig of his defense. "I mean, I caught the ball, but all 11 affect the play. So, big shout out to the guys."

There was Rozeboom's career best 15 tackles, the constant pressure from Nic Scourton and D.J. Wonnum that flushed Jordan Love into errant incompletions, the play Derrick Brown went into coverage (and succeeded!) or any other number of moments that stacked up to be a performance that bent at times but never broke, holding the Packers to 1-of-5 in the red zone.

"That's 2 weeks now, really, of playing quarterbacks who have the ability to extend the play with a really talented skill group," noted Canales, before bragging on the defense's resilience. "And making sure that we stay connected to guys all the way through the down.

"Even on the fourth down, you know, I've seen that play go the other way, and Jordan Love kind of reared back, throws it across the field, you know, and Mike Jack had the presence of mind to stay with his guy on that one and could have come up with a big interception, but either way he was in the right spot at the right time.

"So having to carry over from one week to the next and the emphasis of plaster, stay connected to your guys, really prepared us for this."

Regardless of what area of the defense you want to focus on, all of it added up to a 16-13 win in Lambeau over the top team in the NFC and what many considered one of the best offenses in the NFL. And as the Panthers packed up their bags in the locker room on Sunday, the only argument echoing off the low ceiling concerning who got credit for the fumble, there was also a sense of expectation.

This wasn't a fluke. This is who they want to be.

"Every win feels good. They're a good team," said Horn. "But it's the NFL. Every Sunday, whoever wakes up that morning is ready to play; that's when we win the game. So, any win we get in this league, we're definitely happy about, and it's the same 24-hour rule. Enjoy this one, enjoy the plane ride back, and we'll reset tomorrow."