CHARLOTTE – Linebacker Luke Kuechly needed a moment to recover from the physical nature of his first game in more than a month, but he'll be ready to roll again come Sunday night.

"I was a little sore. That was the first time I got banged around in a while, so it caught up to me," said Kuechly, who had 14 tackles against the Seahawks coming off a concussion. "But I'm doing much better now."

Kuechly also hopes his Panthers do much better than they did the last time they faced the Philadelphia Eagles, a Monday night affair in 2014 that resulted in a 45-21 loss.

Both the Panthers (5-0) and the Eagles (3-3) are different teams, and Philadelphia has a new quarterback. Sam Bradford, whose last game versus Carolina was his last game played with the St. Louis Rams, a 30-15 loss to the Panthers in Week 7 of the 2013 season in which he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, is beginning to get settled in Chip Kelly's system.

"Don't let him sit back there and get comfortable," Kuechly said of the defensive plan. "Try to move him around a little bit, try get in his face, try to get guys around him. We were able to do that a little bit when we played him in '13. We've got to try to get guys around him and get him off his spot because when sits back there and there's nobody around him, he can pick you apart."