CHARLOTTE — The Panthers had been able to count on Rico Dowdle to carry the load.

On a day when the opponent was determined not to let him, the Panthers weren't able to adjust, in a 17-7 loss to the Saints.

Dowdle, the NFC's leading rusher heading into the week, was held to just 53 yards rushing on 18 carries (2.9 per attempt).

And he could see it coming by the way the Saints lined up, and every time they adjusted, the Saints brought more big people and more pressure.

"Heavy boxes from the start, safeties dropping out of the sky, things like that," he said with a shake of his head at the Saints' defensive emphasis.

The Panthers were averaging 139.7 per game as a team, fifth in the league, and Dowdle was the main part of that.

He had 735 rushing yards entering the game and was averaging 5.6 per carry. So this was a dramatic departure, and the Panthers' offense wasn't able to adjust.

"I mean, when you can't play complementary football, when we can't move the ball in the run game, it just makes everything harder," center Cade Mays said. "Harder on the defense, harder on us, harder on everybody.

"I mean, obviously they respected our run game, and we didn't do good enough today to get it going and get the offense going."

The Panthers were starting their eighth different offensive line in 10 games, but they were all known commodities, with Austin Corbett at right guard, and Mays and right tackle Taylor Moton back in the starting lineup after missing last week. They've run with this group.

"Oh man, like any other team, you've just got to go back, see what we did wrong, see what the defense did and adjust to it, got to make adjustments," left guard Damien Lewis said. "The Saints got a great defense, they played some good ball today, I took my hat off to them.

"They came to play, we've got to go back and watch film and get back to work, see what we can do better."

The Panthers have been in this situation before, including last year when it was Chuba Hubbard in the backfield running for 1,195 yards, and getting hot down the stretch. And while he only got three carries Sunday (for 14 yards), Hubbard has also seen the benefit of being stubborn about the run.

"I think just continue to stay true to our process, continue to play clean football," Hubbard said. " It's going to be grimy sometimes. It's hard to win in this league. It's hard to run the ball, hard to do, pass the ball, all these different things.

"Everyone's giving their best, so I think just continue to rely on our fundamentals and technique and what we're being coached to do, and eventually those grimy runs will start to pop and turn into bigger chunks."

They've seen that in weeks past, with Dowdle able to open lanes for the passing game. But Sunday, they only completed one pass longer than 15 yards, and the passing game wasn't able to relieve the pressure on the run game.

"I've got to do a better job of making sure that we have answers and complements to our run game," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said. "They did a fantastic job taking care of that part of it, and we had a couple of passes, but not enough. I've got to make sure that we put our heads together and game plan so that we have answers, for when teams make it difficult to run the ball."

And for a team that prides itself on running the ball always, that was hard to swallow.

"Like I said, we just got to continue to keep fighting," Dowdle said. "Obviously, we lost to a team that came here very hungry and beat us. And losing is never acceptable. So yeah, everybody's frustrated."