CHARLOTTE — Panthers head coach Dave Canales answered a number of questions Monday about the decision to bench quarterback Bryce Young in favor of Andy Dalton.

But ultimately, he made a decision based on the other 51 players on the roster.

Canales said the bottom line was making the best decision for the entire team and the effort to curb an 0-2 start beginning with this week's trip to Las Vegas.

"We want to play more football," Canales said. "A lot of factors that go into it, you know, for this decision, you know, and ultimately, it just kind of lands on my shoulders to be able to make the best decision for our group to give us our chance, our best chance to win this week.

"And we focus on the weeks, we focus on the challenge at hand, and we feel like Andy gives us our best chance to meet the challenge."

Canales made a number of references to this week, avoiding discussions of the future.

Of course, the context is unavoidable, considering the effort to acquire Young a year ago. But Canales kept coming back to the collective importance of right now, and with the way the offense had played this year, it was possibly unavoidable.

"Ultimately, this comes on me, and my number one responsibility is to help the Panthers win," Canales said. "And so this move, I believe, puts us in the best chance to do that this week."

Canales said he spoke with both Dalton and Young this morning, and informed the entire team at their meeting this afternoon.

And while the mood in the locker room was obviously subdued after a decision of this kind of importance, players acknowledged that the first priority was to win games.

Tight end Tommy Tremble — like a number of players in the aftermath of Sunday's loss — said the burden was on the entire room.

"You know, we together couldn't get it done, and I feel for him because it's a team effort, and we can't put it on one guy," Tremble said. "So I feel bad that we failed him in our aspect. We've got to do our job better...

"I think in the NFL, a lot of guys forget that this is your job, and if you're not getting the job done, that's how this stuff usually works for any position. So I think it emphasizes that when you get certain details throughout the week, and you're not executing them, like everyone's got to do it. That's how the NFL works. You've got to do your job. That's number one."

Canales said making this kind of decision this early in his tenure was not the kind of thing he took lightly, but after discussions with his coaches and Dan Morgan and Brandt Tilis, he came to the conclusion he had to serve the greater good.

"This is my decision," he said. "This is our football team, this is trying to win on a weekly basis. And while it's my decision, I gather information from the people that are critical to making these kinds of decisions.

"But this is something that I felt like gives us our chance to take a step forward in our play-style and to be able to compete this week against a really good Raiders team."

Game changing call on special teams, explained

One of the moments in the Panthers' loss to the Chargers that got lost in the shuffle, was a call on special teams in the first quarter. On the Panthers second offensive drive of the game, Johnny Hekker punted to the Chargers 15-yard line. The Chargers' Derius Davis seemed to muff the punt, and the Panthers jumped on it for the recovery. Before Carolina could really even celebrate getting the ball back within the Chargers 20-yard line, officials threw a flag.

Lonnie Johnson was charged with kick-catch interference, meaning the Chargers retained the punt and would take over at the 30-yard line instead. At the time, the game was 6-0 Chargers. The call, safety and special teams ace Nick Scott said Monday, was purely a judgement call.

Scott said on the field Sunday, officials explained the penalty by saying Johnson had thrown his hands up, impeding Davis' ability to see and catch the ball, but "that's not a rule," according to Scott. Johnson never touched Davis either. The halo rule, allowing 1-2 yards of a catch radius, is not explicitly stated and/or enforced in the NFL any longer. Instead, it's a judgement call by the official, and one the Panthers found enforced fairly tightly on Sunday.

The Chargers would eventually punt on the ensuing drive, not garnering any points off the possession. But looking back on the possibility of the Panthers getting the ball in the redzone, down only one possession at the time, as Scott said Monday, it could have been "a game changer."

Defensive line leaning on each other as they adjust to injuries

Defensive end A'Shawn Robinson said he's "great" after limping off the field on Sunday against the Chargers.

"I just got a little banged up in the game and I feel good," Robinson said. "There was nothing that significantly happened to me. I kept playing, played the whole game."

According to Dave Canales, nose tackle Shy Tuttle has, "a foot injury that we're evaluating right now." More should be known about the extent of Tuttle's injury later in the week.

The Panthers' defensive line is coming off a game in which they gave up over 200 yards on the ground (219 total). In their first outing without Derrick Brown, Robinson said, "I don't think we held the standard of our brother and I think we just got to, play with the proper technique and execute our game plan and just be who we are."

And who is that?

"A team that's going to finish, tough, grind things out, doing the work and do everything that needs to be done to be better," Robinson said.

Whether it's looking back at the Chargers matchup, or looking ahead to the Raiders matchup and what the defensive line will face there, Nick Thurman said the question is not about either of those teams, but rather "what the Panthers are going to do."

"We have to be better. We have to come as a more cohesive unit. We have to believe in each other. We have to believe in our scheme," Thurman continued.

As the Panthers defense awaits word on Tuttle's status and continues to adjust to a scheme that doesn't involve Brown, Thurman is confident the mindset is in place to persevere.

"I think one thing that I can take from last year is that even when things were going doom and gloom, we all stayed together," Thurman said. "We all had the attitude that no matter what was happening, we was going to prepare to win. And I think that attitude still reigns in this locker room."