For Panthers defense, Sunday was a hard lesson, but one of 17

Well, perhaps not all good. A loss of this size is going to leave a mark, as evidenced by Derrick Brown taking ownership of his part.

And head coach Dave Canales admitted he didn’t even want to think about the positives, like the generally better play of the offense, which scored 37 points, with Bryce Young and Jalen Coker in particular connecting.

Because when you give up 59 points, 291 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns, and all the other grotesque stats, the most critical part will be the “Tell The Truth Monday” ritual, which isn’t going to be a fun one.

“I saw the guys battle. I saw them play really hard. Toughness, physicality, all that stuff is not the problem,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales said. “We’ve just got to make sure we’re all connected with the run game, so we’re not trying to make a play that’s not ours to make, and I think that’s what’s going to show up without having watched the film. Typically, when it happens that way, it’s somebody playing out of their responsibility and not trusting the guy next to them to be able to do theirs, and that’s the part where we have to come together, and we’ve got to make sure that we solidify: just trust your responsibility, play together so we can mitigate some of those big plays.

“We’ve just got to get back to work. The guys are here. They’re ours. We’re all together. We’re a team. We’ll hit it that way. They’ll be studs about it. Ask them to do that, just in the locker room, say we’re going to come back. Let’s be truthful about what it is and let’s just take the next step and get better.”