CHARLOTTE — By the time Dave Canales walked in the locker room Sunday evening, following the Panthers' 27-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the message had already been delivered.

"Move on to next week," Jaycee Horn stated.

Bryce Young and Derrick Brown circled the locker room before the coach arrived, Horn shared with reporters after the loss, and the captains made sure every player knew what the mission would be, starting the moment the clock hit 0:00.

"That's just a testament to what kind of leaders we got in this locker room and our mindset. So, we're looking forward to next week," Horn said.

For a while now, it's felt like this season was all leading to Week 18. When the NFL put out the schedule for 2025 and the Panthers saw they would be playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice in the final three weeks of the season, even then, there was a sense even then that the two teams—one established, the other ascending—could be fighting for the division title and the right to represent the NFC South in the playoffs in these late season games.

Now, it's a reality.

"You got to go get it. You talk about it all year, where you want to go, and you want to have these opportunities. You got no choice but to go get it. So it is what it is," said Brown after Sunday's loss, about immediately looking ahead to next week.

"We got to flush this s-- and get back to work."

The Panthers had a chance to clinch the division on Sunday. It would have required the Dolphins defeating the Bucs, and the Panthers defeating the Seahawks. It would have meant beating their third different No. 1 team in the conference in a single season, the first two being the Packers and the Rams, a feat so rare, a team hasn't done it since the 2014 Seahawks.

Dave Canales only wanted his team to focus on the latter, and not worry about the former, so when the video boards in Bank of America Stadium flashed scores in-game from around the league on Sunday, there was one game noticeably missing.

"I wanted to make sure that our guys were focused on the task at hand," explained the coach. "It's every play, every series that matters right there. Didn't want anybody looking around, trying to figure out what was happening based on the score of that one. Let's play our best football. That's got to be the focus."

Of course, not being able to do so, and then coming into the locker room to find out the Bucs had, in fact, lost to the Dolphins, made the loss sting a bit more, but only for a second.

"I mean, yeah, a little bit, yeah, a little bit," admitted Horn. "But our mindset was we're going to have, we were going to have to go to Tampa Bay and win anyway, so we just got to go do that."

Added Brown, "I would love to have been in a situation, you know, where we're already locked in, but it is what it is."

Knowing that, does it make Sunday's loss easier to move on from quickly?

"I know we said it all year, but like, actually, like we got one game left, and it's for everything. So, yeah, to answer your question, yeah," said Nick Scott, "definitely easy to move on from this one and try to get a win next week."

Athletes are known for moving on quickly. They have to possess the mental fortitude to turn the page, flip the script, flush it, whatever metaphor you prefer, so as not let one loss snowball into two. The Panthers, in particular, have done well this season.

Since Week 7, the team hasn't won two in a row, but they also haven't lost two in a row. It's been a see-saw since the win against the Jets in mid-October, meaning this young, developing team has struggled to find consistency but has also become experts at bouncing back with a vengeance.

"I think it's just an attention to detail, the ability to lock in, and it's definitely the highest level it's going to require this week," explained Austin Corbett as to how the team has been able to respond so effectively after losses.

"We've done it before. We got no option but to do it now, so I think you got to continue at it, and I think guys are well built for it. We've done it before and again, there ain't no option but to do it."

To be in this position, heading into Week 18 in what will be the month of January by game time, with a chance to make the playoffs, is a position the Panthers haven't been in since 2017. For a growing team in the second year of a rebuild, it's a marked improvement. But it's not the goal.

"It really don't mean nothing because we ain't got it," bluntly stated Mike Jackson. "We ain't won the division yet. So once we go do that, then we can somewhat pat ourselves on the back. But right now it don't mean nothing."

That's what next weekend is for; a chance to win, a chance for it all to mean something, a chance to establish themselves as a team that can take control of their division.

"We get to start the playoffs a week early," said Young. "This is what we wanted, what we were excited for, so we'll have a quick 24. We'll come back tomorrow, make sure we grow from it, and we'll flush it, again, we get started one week early, so, we're grateful for that opportunity."

It's why, while their focus was entirely on the Seahawks this Sunday, the attention was able to so quickly shift by the time they made it to the locker room.

"If you got any type of grit to you, you wouldn't have it any other way against a division opponent with the opportunity to send them home. So, I think everybody's head and heart is in the right place," said Scott. "It's going to take everything. It's going to take everything we got."

Added Derrick Brown, "I mean, (expletive), if you don't understand what we got on the line now, I don't know what else to tell you. This is the s--- that we look for playing in the league. So to be able to have this opportunity, especially for me in a situation where I've never really had this opportunity, s---, I'm gonna lay it all on the line."