Ask Carolina coach Ron Rivera how a practice went or how a player performed, and he'll almost always skew positive. But after the Panthers' opened up their third and final phase of OTAs Tuesday, he wasn't as glass-half-full as he tends to be.

"I was real pleased with what I saw, for the most part. There were some things that went very well for us," Rivera said, before adding, "Some of us were a little bit rusty."

Like quarterback Cam Newton, for example.

"Believe me, we weren't mistake free," Rivera said. "I'd like to believe that we understand the sense of urgency. We play in about 107 days and everything I think we need to do is get better on the football field."

Wait, you know there are exactly 107 days until the season opener in Denver?

"I think I counted [correctly]. I might be wrong."

Nope, you're right. Anyway, go on.

"I don't want us out here thinking we'll pick it up when it's time," Rivera continued.

"The message out here is 'You don't start from where you finish, you start from the beginning,' and that's what we're doing. We're going to start from the beginning and work our way up."

Rivera is well aware of what's ahead. He's been told about the psychological hangover that follows a Super Bowl loss. He'll continue to hear about the 1993 Bills and why they're the last team that lost a Super Bowl and then returned the next season.

Now it's his job to push the right buttons.

When asked about playing the hunted instead of the hunter, Rivera replied:

"Getting caught in the trap that you've arrived, that you're there, that you just show up. I think the thing that we have to understand is that you've got to earn it. We do have a target on our back a little bit. People are going to look at us a little bit differently."

That's a big change from last year when Rivera played the "we crashed the party" card to near perfection. Few will now overlook a team coming off a 15-1 regular season and an NFC Championship.

Rivera has long hoped to make the Panthers relevant. Now that they are, the challenge has changed.

"It's easy to feel all the pats on the back and listen to what everybody says and read everything that's out there," Rivera said. "The truth of the matter is we've got to stay focused if we want to attain our goal.

"We didn't achieve the goal last year, by any means, but we got there. That's good, but it's not good enough. And I want to make sure we understand that message."