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The Carolina Panthers have an offense that looks ready for prime time.
As for the defense they tried so hard to fix in the offseason, though — it was historically and absolutely awful in Week 1.
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Carolina wasted a monstrous offensive performance in its 59-37 loss to Chicago on a 90-degree afternoon Sunday, as the Bears shredded the Panthers defense for 552 total yards and one enormous play after another.
The 59 points allowed set a new Panthers record for futility, eclipsing the 52 points given up twice before.
The combined 96 points set an NFL record for most points ever scored in Week 1.
It was at least a different way to lose a season opener — Carolina’s first three Week 1 games under Bryce Young netted only 30 total points (10 per game) and caused all sorts of offensive consternation. This time the Panthers surpassed that point total in a single game, but lost anyway because their defense got creamed.
Much like the playoff game the Panthers hosted in January — a 34-31 win by the L.A. Rams — the Carolina D didn’t come close to holding its end of the bargain. It looked like a team of eighth-graders facing a senior-laden varsity squad, as the Bears did almost anything they wanted.
The Panthers’ high-priced offseason acquisitions of edge rusher Jaelan Phillips and inside linebacker Devin Lloyd didn’t make nearly enough difference, as Carolina made Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams look like a superstar. Three turnovers also hurt the Panthers’ cause considerably, as did two huge penalties on defensive lineman Derrick Brown.
Carolina, with the worst career winning percentage in the NFL in season openers, hasn’t won one of these Week 1 games since 2021, back when Sam Darnold was the quarterback.
The Bears’ 59 points were tied for the 10th-most ever scored in an NFL game, since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger.
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The first half of the game was as nutty as an NFL game can get in terms of scoring. The 55 combined points were the most ever in a first half played by the Panthers. The Bears led 31-24 at halftime, despite committing nine first-half penalties, fumbling the ball away once and going for a fourth-and-1 from their own 21 and not making it.
Besides that, though, Chicago seemed to score every time it had the ball.
Most of that was due to the magic of Williams, whose improvised scrambles just killed the Panthers again and again, including scrambles of 29 and 9 yards for touchdowns. Carolina also couldn’t stop the run with any regularity, and Williams carved them up when he had any amount of time in the pocket, which is how you give up 31 points in a single half.
Carolina stayed close, though, due to its own offensive fireworks.
Young had three TDs himself by halftime — a 51-yard deep ball to Jalen Coker (who was a bright spot all afternoon and scored twice), a 4-yarder to Chuba Hubbard in which Young neatly eluded a rusher to make the throw and a 7-yard scramble when he took a tough hit at the end.
Still, it wasn’t enough. In the NFL, 37 points should be good enough to win you a game. Sunday, because of Carolina’s shoddy defense, it wasn’t even close.
If you want the glass half-full version: the Panthers play 0-1 teams in each of the next two weeks. Both Atlanta and Cleveland appear very beatable.
On Sunday, however, so did the Panthers.
This story was originally published September 13, 2026 at 4:51 PM with the headline “A horrid defensive performance by Carolina Panthers ensures Week 1 loss to Bears.”
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