CHARLOTTE — If there's a silver lining to be taken from the Carolina Panthers 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers — and that's hard to see — it's that at least one point on the punch list was met. The defense upped their attempts on the ball, turning the ball over twice against the Chargers, an interception by Jaycee Horn and a fumble recovered by Josey Jewell.

"It was a great response from the group and it all starts off with them being in position," Dave Canales remarked following the game. "They did a great job of playing their leverage, which gives us a chance to make plays, to make punches on the ball, to be in phase for an interception and those things by just doing our job."

Ejiro Evero's group put an emphasis on attacking the ball during the week, with extra tip and punch-out drills. On the first play of the Chargers second drive, Jadeveon Clowney flushed Justin Herbert from the pocket, and the quarterback rolled to his right and tried to drop one into Ladd McConkey. Jaycee Horn jumped the pass before it could even make it that far, however, and gave the offense the ball back in Chargers territory.

"We did force a couple of turnovers, could have had three of them, got the ball out. So that's a plus," Horn reflected after the loss. "I know I was a little bit more conscious of it because the coach is doing a good job of just harping on it. So, I was a little bit more conscious of just shooting at the ball."

Horn ended the day with the interception, two passes defended and six tackles. None of that is what he'll remember though, when reflecting back on another game in which the Panthers explosive numbers were unbalanced.

On the first drive of the game, it looked like the defense was going to take over the turnover battle early on, as Horn knocked the ball lose on a catch, and Troy Hill recovered it. On review though, officials ruled it an incomplete pass.

The very next play, with the Chargers facing a third-and-10 from the Panthers 29-yard line, quarterback Justin Herbert took his one-on-one matchup between Horn and receiver Quentin Johnston down the left sideline. Horn had sticky coverage, but the ball went to the one spot it could be a catch.

"I mean, the play happened so fast," Horn said after of the touchdown. "I ain't looked at the replay, but, you know, that really don't matter. I still got to be better…it's the next play mentality and I just got to be better on the next play. I got to get that ball down and get our offense a chance to come out on the field."

The latter part was a rub in the game as well. All week Canales pointed to the in-balance of explosive plays the Panthers faced versus the Saints in Week 1. The trend continued on Sunday, as the Chargers garnered eight explosives (five runs of 10 or more yards and three passes of 15 or more) to the Panthers two (both Chuba Hubbard runs).

The Chargers grabbed seven points off one turnover from the Panthers, while the Carolina offense was unable to get any points off the two takeaways by the defense.

"You just got to focus on the next down," Jewell said of staying motivated when a game tilts. "How can you be better? How can you help the team? That's just something we need to keep on doing. We need to stack these days and we need to keep on getting maybe that 1 percent better and we can't falter, and we can't let the team fall apart."

Jewell grabbed the Panthers other turnover of the day.

Late in the third quarter, Herbert, facing a third-and-4, was getting swallowed up in the pocket and tried to dump down to a receiver. Before he could complete the throw however, outside linebacker DJ Johnson swiped to cause a popped-up fumble. Clowney tipped the ball down as it floated, and Jewell was there to recover the fumble.

It was a play that required all three guys to be in a place, taking advantage of opportunities as they have made a concerted effort to do. But it wasn't enough.

"First we got to stop the run," Jewell declared, "and then we can focus on punching the ball."

Whatever the opposite of a silver lining is, that was how the Panthers described their run game defense on Sunday. The Chargers picked up 219 yards on 44 rushes.

"Last week we gave up over 100. Today, it was over 200," nose guard Shy Tuttle said, giving an impassioned diatribe on his own game. "Just can't beat ourselves. It starts with me. It starts with me being a nose guard, just got to stop the run.

"It's not a good feeling, a team runs the ball for 200 yards on you."

This was, of course, the Panthers first game without Derrick Brown (season-ending knee injury), and there is something to be said for losing a Pro-Bowl defensive tackle, especially while facing such a stubborn rush attack.

"I mean, DB is a huge, huge, huge part of our defense," Tuttle said of life with a personnel group without Brown. "But thing about the NFL is, some people say next man up mentality, but the injury rate in the NFL is like 100 percent. And it sucks it happened to DB, because (he) plays every single play.

"If it's 70 snaps a game, he's on the field 67 of them, which is very impressive being his size, his endurance and stamina was crazy. But, you know, like, no one's going to feel sorry for us. Teams are probably more thankful that he's not on the field."

That is the reality the Panthers defense is facing now and one that won't get easier. Next week, Carolina travels to the desert to take on a Raiders team that came back to beat the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. Las Vegas put up 276 yards through the air, while only adding 27 yards on the ground and turning the ball over twice.

That stat line can't provide a false confidence for this defense though. The plan remains the same.

"If you don't stop the run in the NFL, you can't stop anything," Horn noted. "And then if you giving up explosives, it make it tough. So, you got to be able to get off the field on third down and just keep playing ball."

Added Tuttle, "We could go one of two ways. We could sit and be like, damn, I wish (Brown) was out there. Or we could you draw the line and be like, at some point we have to do something about this."