After their third narrow defeat in a row, the Panthers were tired of talking about a close game

The focus now is on narrowing the gap between sooner and later.

Veteran right defenseman Robert Hunt, who came from a Miami team that developed into a winner, sighed and admitted that it was difficult to have the same conversations after every game. But he also stressed that recognizing the signs of quality football — the running game, the competitiveness, Young’s continued development — also instills a sense of confidence.

“I know we’re close,” Hunt said. “I think everyone here knows we are close. The thing is, yeah, we’re close, and that’s only good for what? Honestly, it’s only good to be close in this league. You have to win games; we.” I didn’t win the games, you know what I mean?

“Of course we do good things, but the idea is to change the narrative of proximity. At the end of the day, closeness is not good. We’re still losing games so hopefully that’s not good enough. We want to win the games and I think we have the guys to do it and I think it’s going to happen soon, man.

“I just don’t want to discredit this team. Do you understand what I mean? Being close doesn’t mean we’re good. “It’s not deserved, but we were in those games to win them; I think we have a lot of people here working hard to win the game and unfortunately we couldn’t do it again today.