CHARLOTTE — Yes, it was a much better opener for Bryce Young.

But no, he wasn't in much of a mood to enjoy it.

Young had the best regular-season opener of his career, but it came during a 59-37 loss to the Bears, which kept it from feeling like anything other than a loss.

"None of that, none of that at all," Young responded when asked if it was hard to score as they did and lose by that margin. "We're a team. There's a lot of stuff that was out there that we could have done better. There's a lot of plays that we all take accountability for.

"The Panthers lost today; we're a team. There's no one or two sides. So, there's no consolation prizes. We didn't get the job done today."

The team didn't, but that also can't completely overshadow the fact that Young had his best regular-season opener by far. That's a low bar, since the Panthers scored just 10 points in each of his three previous season openers, and he totaled just 461 yards, with two touchdowns and six interceptions, for a 44.2 passer rating.

Sunday against the Bears, he threw for 361 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception (110.3 passer rating), and also ran for a touchdown. That was the second-highest yardage total of his career, and just the second time he threw for three and ran for a score. (He joined 1999 Steve Beuerlein in Green Bay as just the second quarterback in franchise history to throw for 350, three touchdowns, and run for one.)

But again, it was hard to celebrate anything Sunday.

"I wish I could sit here and tell you about the good stuff that happened," Panthers head coach Dave Canales deadpanned. "But that doesn't matter."

When he was asked if 37 points should have been enough (it was more than they scored in any game last year, and the most since the 2024 finale in Atlanta), Canales was again blunt.

"To beat this team, we did not," he replied when asked if the offense played well enough to win.

But he also recognized the strides Young made.

"I thought Bryce was rhythmic," Canales said. "He extended plays, made some stuff happen with his legs. I really loved the way he played, hit some nice balls down the field to Jalen Coker, and gave the guys opportunities, gave us an opportunity to move the chains that way. And then, I'll be able to comment more about that once I see the whole thing, but I'm excited about that. Again, I wish I could dive more into the stuff I'm excited about. I can't. We didn't play great; we didn't play good enough in any of the phases of the game to win the game. So we have to all collectively take that."

But there were enough moments that the Panthers were able to at least glimpse flickers of positives.

"He did what he had to do," veteran guard Robert Hunt said of Young. "He felt good. He felt confident, and he sat in the pocket and delivered the football well, and the guy made plays, and we did a good job protecting. So, that's what it was. Bryce did a fantastic job today, man. He looked good."

But good luck convincing him of that. Young's mood was as dour as anyone's in the locker room, despite his personal success.

If anything, he appreciated the operational aspects, since this was also the first game with offensive coordinator Brad Idzik calling plays.

"Yeah, Brad did a great job," Young said. "I thought that the communication was great; on the sideline, communication was great. I think he did a great job calling it; it's on us to make some more stuff come to life for him. Again, we didn't do enough today, but I thought that, you know, especially this being his first game, we have a lot of respect for that defense; they did a great job, so it was great.

"Now it's tomorrow, come back, and a lot of stuff we've got to be better at, so we're going to grow from it."