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Of all the awful plays the Carolina defense made Sunday in a 59-37 loss to the Chicago Bears, two of the most incomprehensible came from one of their best and smartest players.
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Veteran defensive lineman Derrick Brown had two second-half penalties that felt like rookie mistakes: one a roughing-the-passer penalty and the second when he lined up offsides in a goal-to-go situation and by doing so negated a Panthers interception. On both drives, Chicago scoried touchdowns — two of their eight TDs on the day.
“Two bonehead plays,” Brown labeled them, and he was right. On an afternoon when the Panthers gave up the most points in their 32-year franchise history, the defense fell apart so completely that it was unfathomable.
I asked Jaelan Phillips, the Panthers’ new $120-million pass rusher, if he ever looked up at the scoreboard Sunday and just shook his head.
“Many times,” Phillips said. “Especially toward the end. I mean, 59 is an ugly, ugly score to put up as a defense.”
Jaelan Phillips
This is a result that calls into question everything the Panthers did on defense in the offseason. Phillips did have a sack but was stymied too often. Devin Lloyd, the team’s expensive inside linebacker, had a game-high 13 tackles but also got beat on a 22-yard TD pass over his head. And Carolina defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero had no answers, just like he didn’t on the L.A. Rams’ final drive against very soft coverage when Carolina came from ahead to lose a playoff game in January.
Yes, Chicago quarterback Caleb Williams is terrific. But still — 59 points?! Carolina’s previous worst was 52, and this one was so weird in part because of who was making the big mistakes.
Brown’s first penalty came when the game was tied at 31-all in the third quarter. At that point, Williams and Carolina’s Bryce Young were engaged in a spectacular shootout. Chicago got to a 2nd-and-10 on the Carolina 11 and lost a yard on a rush. But the Bears also held on the play.
Panthers coach Dave Canales then had a decision to make, and I thought he made the wrong one. Instead of putting the Bears in a 3rd-and-11 from the Carolina 12, he instead chose to give Williams two downs to work with on a 2nd-and-20. Williams was good for an explosive play about every other down Sunday, so I would have given him one less shot at it and put the Bears in 3rd-and-11.
Still, it looked like it might work out. Williams scrambled 15 yards backward under a heavy rush on second down, then just threw the ball away. But Brown took two more steps and banged into Williams, who sold the flag by falling down like he was a tree that had just been felled by a chainsaw.
First down, Bears. After three D’Andre Swift runs, Chicago was into the end zone again.
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“I thought it was one step,” Brown said of his tackle of Williams (one step is allowed; two is not once the QB releases the ball). “But like I said, it was a bonehead move.”
The next time came with Chicago ahead, 45-31, and at the Carolina 1-yard line. Brown lined up offside. Williams, for once, threw a bad ball over the middle on the play, and it was intercepted by Bobby Brown III.
But the flag meant the play didn’t count. Williams quickly threw another TD pass, and the score ballooned to 52-31.
“Should have looked down there (to the sideline) and seen I was too far over (the line of scrimmage),” Brown said. “Bobby’s pick should have counted.”
Brown took accountability with his teammates for his poor play after the game and offered an impassioned, profanity-laden defense of the Carolina D.
“It sucks,” Brown said, “but it’s one (bleep) game. We’ve got a whole season. I’m not (bleeping) sitting here and hitting the panic button. I’ve still got faith in every single man in this room… I’ve been down and out before. I will (bleep) hang it on me for those two touchdowns that they got for those two stupid a– penalties on me.”
The only good news for the Panthers is that they will play an 0-1 Atlanta team next week, followed by 0-1 Cleveland. There will be opportunities.
“I wouldn’t say anything really caught us by surprise,” Lloyd said. “It just came down to execution today. And at the end of the day, 59 points — that’s on the whole defense. It wasn’t just one play. It wasn’t just one person. We have to be better. And we will be better.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2026 at 7:40 PM with the headline “Carolina Panthers star says ‘two bonehead plays’ cost team in record-breaking loss.”
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