Panthers coach Ron Rivera's comments to media after Carolina's 20-9 Week 1 win in Jacksonville.

Opening statement:
"It's a tough, physical win. Not satisfied that we made too many mistakes. They're a good football team and they went and did some things and got after us and we missed some opportunities. You can't miss opportunities when you have them in this game. We kicked too many field goals; that's disappointing. We had some opportunities to put the ball in the end zone and we didn't do that. Defensively, we gave up a couple of big plays. We were bad with our initial read, we missed a couple of tackles and gave them a chance. And we got a field goal blocked which was disappointing. There were too many mistakes that we made. I'm disappointed in that. The inverse, I thought our guys up front battled, I thought some guys step up to make some plays. The WR corps was good for the most part. I know everybody wishes Ted [Ginn] would have caught that one. Ted came back and made a couple big catches for us and put us in a position to score. On the fourth down, I decided to go for it because I felt comfortable and confident that we were winning at the point of attack on that drive and thought it was a good opportunity to go for it. I'm really pleased with what Jerricho Cotchery did, with that catch, willing to get that first down conversion, it was huge. Guys like that make plays, and that's what you're looking for with that veteran leadership and he was terrific. A lot of positives to grow and build on and a lot of mistakes that we're gonna correct and get better at."

How do you think the defense played after Luke went out?
"The beautiful thing is that they rallied around A.J. [Klein] and he did his job by playing very well. We were rotating him and Bene [Benwikere] and Shaq [Thompson] in terms of different packages we were running in and out of the game and then we lost one of the packages when A.J. moved to the Mike linebacker. I thought he did a heck of a job. I thought Josh Norman did a great job. With the interception, he read that very cleanly and got in position to make a play. [Thomas Davis'] play was a terrific play that started with the rush up front, getting the hands up and tipping the ball and then TD's play to make it."

Update on Kuechly's injury?
"The only thing I know is that he'll be in the concussion protocol and that was it. I got that on the sideline. I haven't gone in and asked the doctors yet. I'll check it. The only other one I know is that Daryl Williams, they're checking his knee and I don't the details. I haven't asked that yet."

Scary moment with Luke?
"It was a little bit of a scary moment, I'm not quite sure what the extent of it was, but from my understanding, he'll be in the protocol."

How defense stepped up without Kuechly?
"It shows we have some depth. It's not just the guy who steps in and plays, but the group around him who rally and not feeling like they have to do more than their job. That's one of the biggest mistakes a lot of guys make. Somebody key goes down and all of a sudden, everybody feels like they gotta do more than they need to. If everybody does their job, the 11 guys, you've got an opportunity to be good and win and that's what happened today. A little disappointed we didn't really take advantage of the opportunities we had but give them credit, they played a good football game and I think [Blake Bortles] will be a really solid player."

Josh Norman's seemed to provide a spark?
"It's something we work on, we do work on punching the ball out and Josh Norman made a terrific play as far as that was concerned and we recovered it and set the offense up with an opportunity to score and on the interception, he read that nicely and made a good break."

Running game struggled to get going until the end?
"We got a little inconsistent at times and we may have outsmarted ourselves a couple of times earlier, but what we did in that four-minute offense. Being able to hammer the ball and mix up the play calls with different personal groups that [Offensive Coordinator Mike Shula] had, it was impressive and I was real pleased with the effort we got from our front."

Did Daryl Williams' injury change plans?
"Yes it did. We wanted to give him a chance to play a little bit and not just going into the jumbo package, so that was unfortunate. But we'll have to see how he is and hopefully it's nothing serious and he'll be back shortly."

So Ryan Kalil ended up having to play every play?
"Unfortunately yes, so he's gonna be sore and we're gonna have to pamper him a little bit, but knowing Ryan, he'll dog it out and be ready to go."

Was Trai Turner banged up?
"Trai got a little knock on the shoulder and he came off. They rubbed it out and he went back in a couple plays later. I'm not sure what extent of that was, but I assume it was the shoulder."

Reaction after Norman's pick-6?
"All of a sudden somebody steps up and makes a play and next thing you know the energy level picked up. Defense and offense energy picked up. We saw some positive things after that. I was pleased with what we did after. I think the bottom line is that we have to stop waiting for everybody else to make a play and just go make a play."

Charles Johnson and the pass rush had a good second half?
"Late in the game it was obvious. That's when you should get your pressures and sacks and take-aways. That was what you needed to do. You needed to have some timing plays. I would have loved to see us do that on their touchdown drives but we didn't have anybody step up. When we needed them too, they stepped up. I liked the play across the board. Just a couple things I saw that were disappointing, we had some guys in run gaps and they creased us a couple times in terms of running."

What'd you see at halftime with players reaction that Luke was out for the game?
"They talked about rallying around each other, stepping up and doing what they do. When something like [Luke's injury] happens, that reaction is what has to happen. You can't sit there and go woe is me. It's next man up, let's do our job and do it better. One of the more vocal guys was [Thomas Davis] and Ryan Kalil, pretty much the captains. I was pleased with what Cam did coming out. He gathered some momentum, converting that fourth down play. We have to do that more often."

Long drive to run off eight minutes and ice the game?
"That was huge when you can control clock like that in the fourth quarter to get your defense on the sidelines and leave them on the sidelines; that's perfect. The nice thing is that Cam did a really good job of milking the clock, paying attention to and snapping with six seconds or less on the clock, which was great. That's what you need to do."

Why was Cameron Artis-Payne, not extremely involved in running game?
"Jonathan ran hard and did some really good things, so that was good to see. Fozzy played the role he needed and Mike Tolbert did what he needed to do. Probably how it's going to go. I want to see how many carries we give Jonathan because ideally I'd love to see him get 15, but I know he was in there for about 40 plays, 35 plays and that might be a lot."