LANDOVER, Md. — As wide receiver Diontae Johnson approached a group of reporters waiting for him in the locker room, he let out a sigh.

"Same old, same old," he said.

It was easy to feel that way about the result in general, but the way the offense, in particular, played Sunday was unique in that it fell flat early, and the team never recovered in a 40-7 loss to the Washington Commanders.

After Andy Dalton threw two early picks, the first of which was returned for a 67-yard touchdown, the game was never really in question, and the offensive competence they had displayed in recent weeks never really showed up.

When a well-meaning soul asked Dalton after the game if there was any positive to be taken from a loss like that one, his answer was quick and clear.

"No, not today," he said with a shake of his head. "Yeah. No."

The fact it was relatively out of character for the Panthers was part of what made the loss that dropped them to 1-6 so stunning. Even when an understaffed defense wasn't able to get off the field often enough, the offense had moved the ball, protected Dalton, ran with a degree of authority, and made some plays in the passing game.

Sunday, none of that happened.

They ran for just 95 yards (the lowest total of the last five games since Dalton has been starting), and the two early turnovers were killers, leading to a quick 10-0 deficit that would only grow. Dalton threw for just 93 yards, and his previous low was the 172 in Chicago two weeks ago, the previous time they brought Bryce Young in to finish up a game that got away. (Head coach Dave Canales made it clear Dalton would continue to start next week in Denver.)

Even in smaller moments, the way this one came unraveled was clear, with Canales mentioning a failed fourth-down attempt, in which workhorse back Chuba Hubbard was met in the backfield when Washington linebacker Dante Fowler Jr. slipped through the line barely touched and dropped Hubbard for a loss.

"Part of that's on me; part of that's just allowing them to just hammer the core of our principles, not keeping them off balance with certain things," Canales said. "And parts on the players with execution, just the basic parts of what we're trying to get done.

"And we can't have people running in the backfield on runs; that's not who we are; that hasn't shown up that way in any of the games we've played."

Canales talks a lot about finding out what they want to be, but Sunday's result was out of character for what they have been. When he mentioned the late cosmetic touchdown drive, which ended with Hubbard scoring his team-high fourth touchdown of the season, Canales said it was a momentary reminder.

"Mustered up a nice drive there at the end; we look like us," he said. "And we didn't look like us early on. So, trying to figure out how to get that consistency to show up for our group."

The thing Canales talks about more than that identity is the importance of the ball, and the two turnovers were immediately impactful.

"Starts with the football," he began. "You've got to take care of the ball if you want to be able to be competitive in games in this league. Two early ones turned into scores; between giving the ball away and just not being able to get off the field, I think they scored on all but one drive.

"We're going to have to get right back to the film and just kind of look at the basics and the fundamentals of what we're trying to do, all across the board. So, that's really the story of the game."

As to the interceptions, Dalton took ownership of them, saying he should have "dirted" the first one on an attempted screen to Miles Sanders, which was returned 67 yards by Fowler for a touchdown.

He described the second as a "miscommunication" as the ball went into an area between Xavier Legette and Johnson.

"We really have to put this behind us, but also, we have to go look ourselves in the mirror and say, all right, why do these games keep going like this?" Dalton said. "I think that's the biggest thing. For us, there's so many little details that we're going to go back and look at, and we're going to say we have to have certain things happen, we have to make sure that we have a good understanding of everything that we're doing. And when you don't, it turns out like it did today.

"So I think we've got to be honest and real, and everybody has to do it, and I'm talking to myself too. We've got to make sure that when we come out on Sundays, we have to perform, and we have to know all the ins and outs of everything that we're doing, go out there, and do our job."

And when asked if the Commanders had somehow surprised them tactically, Dalton again shook his head.

"No, this was us," he said. "I mean, we hurt ourselves early. I hurt the team early with the turnovers, and we couldn't recover."