The Panthers lost on two key points Sunday afternoon. One was the laundry list of injuries they suffered and most importantly the scoreboard.
Bryce Young, who was benched in Week 3, watched stoically from the sideline as Chicago Bears quarterback and No. 1 pick Caleb Williams faced third-and-13 with 1:27 to play in the third quarter. With a wired headset in his left ear, Young walked up and down the sideline, as his overmatched Carolina Panthers attempted to muster a comeback from a 20-point-and-growing deficit.
Williams, the quarterback who will forever be connected to Young in NFL lore, found veteran receiver Keenan Allen on third down but Allen fell two yards short of the chains.
Young alternated between clapping for and high-fiving his defensive unit as they ran off the field before the punt. He was supportive, but this is not how he envisioned his future and career when he was coming out of Alabama.
The Panthers did not trade two first-round picks, two second-round picks and their No. 1 receiver D.J. Moore, to draft a cheerleader who would be benched two games into his second season.
They did not trade up from the ninth to first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft with the expectation Young would throw 11 touchdowns to 10 interceptions in his rookie campaign, completing an unacceptable 59.8% of his passes while getting pummeled with 62 sacks for a league-worst 477 yards.
Realistic or not, the Panthers had expected Young to step in immediately upon arrival as Williams has shown to be this season for the Bears.
Instead, the Panthers conducted a trade that sped up the Bears rebuild and severely set back their own to a snail’s pace with no end in sight, as Young’s 2-14 rookie season gift wrapped Chicago the first overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft that it used on Williams out of USC.
As the two teams faced off on Sunday for the first time since Chicago drafted Williams, the Bears’ 36-10 blowout victory highlighted with neon lights just how far apart these franchises are.
Former Bulls star Derrick Rose got a huge ovation when he was shown on the videoboard before the second quarter. Chants of “MVP! MVP!” rang through Soldier Field for the recently retired point guard from Chicago.
This game was more than just about an outcome that vaulted the Bears back above .500 at 3-2 while the Panthers take the long, disappointing flight home 1-4. This was about the players who dictated that result, starting off with the quarterbacks and one game-changing receiver.
“That’s definitely how we want to play,” Williams said. “Definitely what we envisioned as an offense and as a team. We’ve got to keep doing it.”
The Panthers held their own early in the contest, each team going three-and-out prior to exchanging touchdown drives.
But after Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard raced up the heart of Chicago’s generally stout and stingy defense, untouched for a 38-yard score. The Bears did not just find pay dirt with just any random players; they made it a priority to find the end zone with the two players they would not have if not for Carolina.
Embed from Getty ImagesWith 5:44 to go in the first quarter, Williams seemed to sense that as Panthers’ cornerback Jaycee Horn let his man streak from left to right, no defender picked engaged with Moore, part of Carolina’s blockbuster trade package to Chicago for the 2023 No. 1 pick.
The Panthers’ 2018 first-round pick, turned Chicago Bear, caught Williams’ perfect pass and covered the distance to the end zone, a 34-yard touchdown against the organization for whom he was very productive, scoring 21 in five years.
In the second quarter, the Bears put their foot on the Panthers’ neck and pulled away. Carolina did not score at all as Chicago twice punctuated scoring drives with 1-yard rushing touchdowns.
With 24 seconds remaining in the first half, Williams looked off his safety to the right and pumped faked slightly. He hooked up with Moore once again in the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown, Moore catching the backside pass as if Carolina cornerback Michael Jackson was not covering him as thoroughly as he was.
“It took five weeks to get the down-the-field pass game going,” Moore said. “When it hits, it hits and it was good today.”
The Panthers could never find their footing and comeback from a 27-7 halftime deficit, scoring just one more field goal in the second half and even benching Dalton for the final drive.
That brought Young in for mop up duty, who started out solid against a defense determined to bend but not break. Young found Miles Sanders for 27 yards with his first throw before later hitting Jalen Coker for 16 and 15 each. Ultimately, a dropped interception, short scramble and fourth-down sack prompted a turnover on downs.
Dalton finished the game 18 of 28 for 136 yards, an interception and two fumbles, while Young, completed 4 of 7 attempts for 58 yards.
For the Bears, Williams continued to make significant strides, going 20 of 29 for 304 yards, two touchdowns and played football with no mistakes. Williams also used his legs rushing for 34 yards on five carries.
“He’s just learning and growing and you can see that in these games that we’ve had,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “He knows that. So, he’s just got to level up, keep leveling up and every time we’ve challenged him, he’s done that ever since the summer.”
Panthers coach Dave Canales was impressed.
“I just thought he did a fantastic job extending plays,” he said. “We had him dead to rights a couple times. He wiggled out of great rushes, great pressure on him. We had things covered, live looking at it, and he extended the play and found completions.”
The Panthers host Kirk Cousins and their division rival Atlanta Falcons in a NFC South battle next Sunday.
The Bears travel across the pond to take on Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars in London next Sunday.
