Missed opportunities loom large in Panthers' loss to Saints

But Carolina's defense turned the Saints over on downs, giving Young and the Panthers another chance for a go-ahead drive. However, Young threw a back-breaking interception that led to a New Orleans touchdown that all but sealed the game. 

Saints quarterback Tyler Shough earned his first NFL win as a starter, while Young — who has only thrown for more than 200 yards once this season — threw for 124 yards and one interception on Sunday on 25 pass attempts. 

"Just frustration," Canales said. "Because we didn't play our version of football. That was not us. We can't have that. We can't give up big plays and we can't turn the ball over. Offense has to be more opportunistic and take advantage of some of the situations where the defense made some adversity stops and got the ball back for us."

It was a tough loss for a Panthers squad that could've started making some serious noise in the playoff picture with a win on Sunday. Now sitting at 5-5, Carolina has a tough schedule the rest of the way: two games against the division-rival Buccaneers, one against the Falcons, a rematch against the Saints in New Orleans and contests against the Rams, Seahawks and 49ers. That's certainly not the easiest schedule in the world for a team such as Carolina to try and make a playoff push against, especially in a competitive NFC.