CHARLOTTE — There were only so many ways to say it.

And at a certain point, you run out of words.

"I mean, sometimes good on good, you just get got," Panthers outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips said Sunday, in the aftermath of a 59-37 loss to the Bears.

That's as succinctly as you can say it, and he's not wrong.

The Bears got them in every way possible.

The 59 points were the most allowed by the Panthers in a single game, eclipsing the 52 they gave up in Oakland in 2000 and Pittsburgh in 2018.

The 552 yards were the fourth-most the Panthers had allowed in a single game.

The 291 rushing yards were the third-most in franchise history.

It was that kind of day, and that led to a lot of clipped answers, because at a certain point, what can you say?

"Just watch the tape, show up tomorrow, and win next week," cornerback Jaycee Horn replied when asked how they process this one.

Others were more verbose, but this one was a surprise to a Panthers defense that went from the worst in the league in 2024 to the middle of the pack last year, and had higher expectations. After spending heavily on free agents Phillips and Devin Lloyd this offseason, this was obviously not what they were hoping to see in the opener.

"I mean, you never expect to, to play a game and give up that many points, so it, it, it's definitely disappointing," Lloyd said. "But at the same time, it's Week 1, and we've got a lot of ball left, and we got to clean it up because we've got a lot more really good teams that we're going to play."

And at that level, Phillips agreed that putting too fine a point on one game might be counterproductive. When asked if there were times he looked at the scoreboard with disbelief, he admitted it.

"Many times, yeah, especially towards the end," Phillips said. I mean, 59 is an ugly, ugly score to put up as a defense, so it's embarrassing. But at the end of the day, you know, I do think that it's a good opportunity for us.

"It's a critical moment in the sense that, you know, 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 corrections and to get better, so you know it's all good, man."

Well, perhaps not all good. A loss of this size is going to leave a mark, as evidenced by Derrick Brown taking ownership of his part.

And head coach Dave Canales admitted he didn't even want to think about the positives, like the generally better play of the offense, which scored 37 points, with Bryce Young and Jalen Coker in particular connecting.

Because when you give up 59 points, 291 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns, and all the other grotesque stats, the most critical part will be the "Tell The Truth Monday" ritual, which isn't going to be a fun one.

"I saw the guys battle. I saw them play really hard. Toughness, physicality, all that stuff is not the problem," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said. "We've just got to make sure we're all connected with the run game, so we're not trying to make a play that's not ours to make, and I think that's what's going to show up without having watched the film. Typically, when it happens that way, it's somebody playing out of their responsibility and not trusting the guy next to them to be able to do theirs, and that's the part where we have to come together, and we've got to make sure that we solidify: just trust your responsibility, play together so we can mitigate some of those big plays.

"We've just got to get back to work. The guys are here. They're ours. We're all together. We're a team. We'll hit it that way. They'll be studs about it. Ask them to do that, just in the locker room, say we're going to come back. Let's be truthful about what it is and let's just take the next step and get better."

That's a hard step to take, but this is Week 1, and that's as real as the numbers on the scoreboard. Phillips used the word "unacceptable" and he wasn't wrong, but he's also realistic about the length of the season.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure everybody's had their dog days," Phillips began. "Maybe not with the score being as high as it was, but there's just times where, I mean, you just can't get right. Just a lot of self-inflicted things that we were doing to ourselves. Like I said, it's embarrassing, but ultimately, I'm taking a really positive outlook from this because we can only get better from here."