CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At the far end of a locker room that had pretty much emptied out Sunday afternoon, Carolina Panthers outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips considered a question about a play in which Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams eluded the Panthers’ pass rush and took off for a long scramble.“Which one?” Phillips said with a little laugh.Take your pick.There were lots of Bears’ offensive highlights to sift through in the wake of their jarring, 59-37 shellacking of Carolina at Bank of America Stadium, and Panthers coach Dave Canales said he wanted to look through all of them before making any pronouncements following one of the worst defensive performances in team history.“It was an incredible day by the Bears and again, I can’t wait to watch the film so I can get to the heart of what that was,” Canales said.Top Plays from Bears @ PanthersCanales’ film review will reveal a defense, despite the $165 million spent on free agents Phillips and Devin Lloyd over the winter, getting taken apart by Williams and the Bears’ rushing attack. The Panthers allowed a pair of 100-yard rushers (D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai) and had no solution for Williams, the slippery, dual-threat athlete who accounted for 334 yards (including 65 on the ground) and three touchdowns.Losing in Week 1 is not new for the Panthers, who haven’t won an opener since Sam Darnold beat the New York Jets in 2021. But getting beaten like this was different.The Panthers had scored 10 points in each of three Week 1 defeats since Bryce Young arrived with the No. 1 pick in 2023. But Young was exceptional Sunday, going big play for big play with the quarterback the Bears drafted first overall in 2024 with one of the picks the Panthers traded away for Young.Young completed 23 of 37 passes for 361 yards and three touchdowns and also ran for a TD while leading the Panthers to their second-highest point total with Young behind center. And still, they lost by three touchdowns.The Panthers gave up the most points in a single game in their 32-year-history (they’d twice allowed 52), while surrendering 552 total yards and 291 rushing yards, both the third-highest totals by an opponent.But it was that first number that had players shaking their heads when they would glance at the scoreboard, which the Bears treated like their own personal pinball machine.“Fifty-nine is an ugly score to put up as a defense. It’s embarrassing. But I do think it’s a good opportunity for us,” Phillips said. “It’s a critical moment in the sense that getting beat this badly as a defense is really going to define us moving forward in terms of the urgency that we have to make these corrections and get better.”The Panthers made a leap from the bottom of the league in defense to the middle of the pack last year and many predicted another jump this year after bringing in Phillips on a four-year, $120 million deal ($80 million guaranteed) and adding Lloyd on a three-year, $45 million contract ($25 million guaranteed).Both played well, but not flawlessly. Lloyd collected a game-high 13 tackles, but missed Swift on a 32-yard run and gave up a 22-yard touchdown to tight end Cole Kmet on a perfectly placed ball by Williams. Phillips had one of the Panthers’ two sacks, but couldn’t corral Williams when he bolted out of the pocket for a 29-yard touchdown late in the first half.Lloyd empathized with fans who tuned in expecting to see a beefed-up defense and instead saw the Bears run up a point total that tied for the 10th-highest since the NFL merger in 1970.“However you feel, I completely understand. Because we obviously got paid a lot of money to come here and play well,” Lloyd said. “So it’s on us to play well, regardless of what people say or what they think. We’ve gotta perform and we have to do better.”On a positive note, defensive players took accountability Sunday, none doing so with more f-bombs than Derrick Brown, the team’s Pro Bowl defensive tackle. Brown committed two uncharacteristic penalties in the second half that led directly to two Chicago touchdowns.With the score tied at 31 and Williams retreating from pressure, Brown knocked the Bears QB down after he released the ball, erasing a second-and-20 and setting Swift up for a 1-yard touchdown run three plays later.The Panthers were down 45-31 midway through the fourth quarter when defensive tackle Bobby Brown intercepted Williams in the end zone. But Derrick Brown had lined up offsides; two plays later, Williams found Jahdae Williams for another TD that put the game out of reach.“Those two flags that put 14 points on the board for (Chicago), that was bad s––– by me. Late hit, being offsides, can’t f–––ing have it,” said Brown, who vowed to be better.“Make no mistake about it, they’re gonna get the best version of me. I hang my hat on it. I’m accountable to these guys in here. Nothing I can do about it now, but going forward it won’t happen again.”Bryce Young had one of his best days as a pro. He threw for 361 yards — the second-highest total of his career — and ran for a TD to go along with three TD passes. (Jim Dedmon / Imagn Images)When he was a highly sought-out offensive coordinator in Detroit in 2023, Bears coach Ben Johnson removed his name from consideration for the Panthers’ head-coaching vacancy a day before he was scheduled to interview. He waited two years before taking the job in Chicago, then in his first season led the Bears to an NFC North title and their first playoff win in 15 years.Players thought defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero had them prepared for Johnson’s scheme. Canales reserved judgment, though that won’t silence the criticisms of a defensive coordinator whose Panthers tenure started a year before Canales became head coach.“We knew how they were gonna attack us. We practiced a lot of their concepts and we got a lot of their concepts on game day,” linebacker Bobby Okereke said. “We executed a good bit, but just the run game bit us in the ass today and we’ve gotta be a lot better there.”If there were silver linings, they were the performance of Young and the offense, and the fact that the NFC South still thinks, with all four teams starting 0-1. Another bright spot: The Panthers next week travel to Atlanta, where the Falcons might be trying to talk Matt Ryan out of retirement at the rate their quarterbacks are getting injured.But none of that was of much consolation to Brown, who was as animated as he’s been after a game.“It sucks, but it’s one f–––ing game. We’ve got a whole season. I’m not fixin’ to f–––ing sit here and hit the panic button for nobody. I’ve still got faith in every single man in this room,” he said.“We’ve been down and out before. I will f–––ing hang it on me for those two touchdowns that they got, for those two stupid-ass penalties on me. But we’re gonna get in here and go back to work this week.”