Locker Talk: Panthers Players Discuss Loss to 49ers, Confidence Level in Matt Rhule

Postgame quotes from the Carolina Panthers locker room.

QB Baker Mayfield

Injured ankle: "Little pain right now. Not sure exactly what it is. Examine that tomorrow and find out. Right now, I'm just managing the pain."

How to prevent this slow start from snowballing: "We have to get one under our belt. We have one win but we have to play a complete game. We have to build that confidence. I hate to say it's the same message that we've been preaching but it is. It's not the end of the world. We have to find a way. Find a way to win and stack it up."

Overriding feeling: "A lot of frustration. The more you think about it, angry because we haven't played to our capability, to be honest with you. Have to translate it to Sundays, plain and simple."

On Rhule's job security: "We're fine in that locker room when it comes to that. There's a lot of plays that we just have to flat-out make. He can't do that. He can't go make plays for us. He can't do the execution for us. There's one on ones, we have good players. We just have to make plays."

CB Donte Jackson

On fans booing: "I mean, they're entitled to their own opinion. They have all the right to be disappointed. They have all the right to be mad. The ball isn't good right now, so you can't expect them to be cheering us on when we losing and continue to make mistakes. We just got to be better."

On confidence in the coaching staff right now: "I'm not sure."

On not having Jeremy Chinn and Xavier Woods: "We got to be better. We got to execute. Everybody is always prepared to play. We just got to go out there, execute, and be better."

Faith in the season turning around: "We know what kind of ball is being coached. It's not losing ball. We got to be better as players."

OL Pat Elflein

If the fans booing get to the team: "You try to block all that out because there's such a big job to do on the field. You just try to not let that phase you. There's enough going on."

Standing up for Matt Rhule: "Yeah, we got to play better. We definitely didn't play good enough today. We got to play better."

QB PJ Walker

The difference between the turnaround at Temple and the first two-plus seasons here: "The atmosphere. The environment. From my experience, being at Temple we was 2-10 that first year. 6-6, .500 that next year. That's really the difference. And then that third year, things really started to take off, but it started off slow that third year as well. So for us, it's just find a way. Find a way. I think that's the hardest part. It's tough to win in this league but you've got to figure it out."

Hearing the fans boo: "It's tough. That's the business side of it. As players, we got to go out there and play better. If you don't want that outcome from the fans, you got to go out there and perform on the field."

RB Christian McCaffrey

Feelings right now: "Frustration. Excitement to get back to work next week."

The interception that was intended for him: "I've got to make the play."

Any criticisms about Matt Rhule that bother him: "Yeah, there's a lot of criticisms with Coach Rhule that bother me and of our coaching staff in general that bother me. I believe players win games and if players win games, players lose games. We gotta make plays. We gotta execute."

Rhule dealing with all the outside noise: "You can say what you want about him but I've been around a lot of coaches and he's somebody that's always had my back. You work hard, you do the right thing, he'll have your back...and that means something for what it's worth. I'm pissed that we can't get it done for him and for the rest of our staff. We need to play better as players."

What his message would be if David Tepper asked about his confidence in Matt Rhule: "I would say I have full confidence in Matt. Like I said, players win games. I've always believed that the head coach and the quarterback get way too much credit and way too much blame."

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