HEAD COACH RON RIVERA

Opening Statement: "It was a tough, physical win. I'm not satisfied because we made too many mistakes. They are a good football team, they really are, and they went out and did some things to get after us. We missed opportunities and you can't miss opportunities when you have them, especially in this game. We had too many field goals and that was disappointing. We had some opportunities to put the ball in the end zone and we didn't do that. Defensively, we gave up a couple of big plays. We got bad with our initial read(s). We missed a couple of tackles and gave them a chance. We had a field goal blocked which was disappointing. Again, there were too many mistakes made. I'm disappointed in that."

On the Panthers' second-half defense after Luke Kuechly's injury: "The beautiful thing is they rallied around A.J. (Klein). A.J. held up his end by playing really well. I was really pleased with what I got out of A.J. Klein. He is a solid football player. We are rotating him and Shaq (Thompson) and Bene (Bewikere) out with the different packages we were running. We lost one of the packages, obviously, when A.J. moved to Mike linebacker. I thought he did a heck of a job. I thought Josh Norman did a nice job on the break for the interception. He read it pretty clearly and put him into position to make a play. Again, TD's play (Thomas Davis) was a terrific play too. It all started with the rush up front and get his hands up and tipping the ball and TD made the play."

On Kuechly's injury: "The only thing I know is they told me he would be in the protocol; that was it. I got it on the sidelines. I haven't gone in and asked the doctors anything yet. I will check on how everybody came out as far as the injuries are concerned. The only other one is Daryl Williams. They were checking his knee and I don't know what the extent of that is. Again, I haven't asked yet."

On the Panthers' defense causing turnovers: "It's something we work on. We do work on punching the ball out and Josh Norman made a terrific play as far as that was concerned. We recovered it (the fumble) and set the offense up with another opportunity to score. On the interception, again as I said, he read that nicely and made a good break. A lot of good things happen when you win the takeaway battle."

QB CAM NEWTON

Thoughts on opening day: "It was a great team win. We're not satisfied by any means, but it took every single person on our roster to contribute today. It wasn't pretty at times, but we showed flashes of what we're capable of doing. It's fun to be out there finding ways to win football games rather than finding ways to lose."

On playing in Jacksonville: "It's a hostile environment and a big hats off to our fans. That was a big difference-maker today.  They helped us a lot. I don't think we learned anything today.  It's the first game. We found a way to win. We did play a great Jacksonville team that's very young.  We just have to keep gaining momentum."

On his touchdown pass to Jerricho Cotchery: "Jericho played big today. I missed him over the middle, but we came back to him and still scored on that drive. We're going to need effort like that each and every game.  Everybody played a big part in this win today."

On the Panthers' long late-game drive: "That's extremely important in an away game. We took the crowd out of it with that eight-minute drive and found a way to win. We kept the Jaguars in it and couldn't impose our will.  Defense made a big play and Josh took a big load off with the big pick-six but we can't keep expecting that without any help from us.  It's a give and take thing."

On Josh Norman's pick-six: "Josh had a big day today. It's no surprise from a lot of us.  With help from guys like Tillman and veterans that are constantly in his ear. He's a person that knows what we're expecting from him and plays are there to be made."

C RYAN KALIL

On the offensive line's performance: "We did a lot of good things and made a lot of big plays but the thing we're trying to strive to be more consistent each week, especially when you get in the big game situations. That's something we're working on and something we have to do a better job of."

On finding playmakers: "I think we have a lot of go-to guys and I think we do a good job of moving the ball around and getting different guys the ball. That's what you want to be and you want an offense that could both run and pass. Those are things we're constantly working on and like I said, trying to be consistent with that."

On the defensive effort: "Those guys played incredible today and they gave us a lot of opportunities to go back out and score, and we have to do a better job of capitalizing on that."

LB A.J. KLEIN

On coming in for the injured Kuechly:"Obviously you get reps in practice throughout the week and when this kind of thing happens, you just have to be next man up. Luke goes out, I go in, it's simple as that."

On the defense's performance: "It was good and those turnovers helped, with the pick-six by Josh (Norman) and TD (Thomas Davis) with the interception at the end. We put a lot of pressure on the quarterback and he got a little rattled; obviously that had something to do with T.D.'s pick at the end."

On Kuechly's injury: "First you want to make sure he's all right and everything is OK. Hopefully he will be healthy and ready to get back next week."

CB JOSH NORMAN

On his interception returned for a touchdown:  "I broke on it, caught the ball, made sure I had it, said goodbye to him and that was it.  I like to give the defense something to get up for. I like to give credit to those guys because they're a formidable opponent. You just have to pay your dues. I think he (Blake Bortles) will learn from that. He's a good quarterback and I don't want to take anything away from that."

CB CHARLES TILLMAN

On Josh Norman's pick-six: "With J-NO getting that pick-six to start the second half, that really sparked us. This is a league of learning. When you lose a game, don't lose the lesson of 'why did you lose?' I really think he does a great job of getting the ball out quick. That is a little frustrating for us as defensive backs, because we have a monster line and we have to cover long enough to give those guys time to sack the quarterback."

On veteran leadership: "I think we're leaders leading leaders.  We all have that role and I don't think there's one designated leader.  Depending on the situation, any one of us can lead at any time."