The Panthers benched Bryce Young two games into the 2024 season and inserted Andy Dalton into the starting lineup.
Also subbing in for Carolina alongside Dalton?
Hope.
With Dalton, the 36-year-old veteran, suddenly handed the reins, the Panthers blasted the Las Vegas Raiders, 36-22, Sunday in front of a bunch of stunned and angry fans at the Raiders’ home opener.
Young had thrown for 204 yards in the first two games — combined — as Carolina lost its first two games of the season by a combined score of 73-13.
Against the Raiders, Dalton had thrown for 212 yards by the end of the first half. He also had three touchdown passes in those first 30 minutes for a Carolina offense that looked completely different with No. 14 at the helm. It may have been a mirage, of course, but it felt like the Panthers’ entire trajectory changed Sunday.
Granted, the Raiders (1-2) aren’t NFL world-beaters. Then again, the Panthers (1-2) were also the NFL’s doormat until Sunday.
But the Red Rifle joined the fray this week, and the entire team got inspired after Dalton led the Panthers to a first-drive touchdown. That was a 6-yard pass to Chuba Hubbard, and it was followed by two unbelievable throws by Dalton in the first half — a 5-yard lob to Diontae Johnson and a 31-yard fastball TD to Adam Thielen.
The whole thing was a “ton of fun,” said Dalton, who smiled frequently throughout the game.
“I wouldn’t let anybody else have more fun than I was out there,” Dalton said.
The victory was also the first for head coach Dave Canales, who conducted a straight-faced news conference a few minutes after getting handed a game ball by owner David Tepper in an exuberant Carolina locker room. When asked about his stony visage, Canales said: “I’m smiling inside. This has been an amazing week. But again, just a really heavy week.”
The heaviness occurred largely because of the seismic decision Canales made at quarterback — and he insisted throughout the week it was his decision and no one else’s.
To bench Young after only two games of his second season sounded a whole lot like not just a demotion, but also an admission that the Panthers did the wrong thing when they traded up to select Young No. 1 overall in the 2023 NFL draft. As good as Dalton was Sunday, he will turn 37 next month, and at best he’s a short-term answer for Carolina at the game’s most important position.
But those are decisions for another day. On Sunday, the Panthers were glad just to have one really good gameday, because it had been so long. They thoroughly outplayed the Raiders in every phase of the game, and only a last-minute touchdown by Las Vegas made the score sound a little less like the blowout it actually was.
The Panthers’ offense, so threadbare throughout Young’s 18-game reign as a starter when Carolina went 2-16, gushed superlatives like a slot machine that finally hit a jackpot.
Not only did the Panthers have a 300-yard passer (Dalton, 319), but they also boasted a 100-yard receiver (Johnson, 122) and a 100-yard rusher (Hubbard, 114). The defense, meanwhile, held the Raiders to 55 yards rushing, and had three sacks and one turnover. For a change, it was the other team that was in turmoil.
“We got our ass whooped,” Las Vegas coach Antonio Pierce said afterward. And, Pierce intimated, some Raiders didn’t put forth enough effort as the Panthers took what was at one point a 33-7 lead.
“I think there (were) definitely some individuals that made business decisions,” Pierce growled. “And we’ll make business decisions going forward as well.”
The Panthers, meanwhile, will stick by their QB decision and try to go 2-2 next week at home against Cincinnati, Dalton’s old team. Dalton entered the NFL in the same year as Cam Newton (2011) and has started 164 games in the league, with 133 of those coming for the Bengals in his glory days. His well-known red hair is now punctuated by flecks of gray in his beard.
This was only Dalton’s second start for the Panthers. He played one game last year when Young was hurt and threw for a season-high 361 yards for Carolina in a loss. So perhaps this shouldn’t have been a surprise.
Said Canales of Dalton: “He did a fantastic job of just playing efficiently and made some explosive plays and found those opportunities down the field when they were available.”
Dalton made so many good throws that something happened after the game that is rare in Pantherland. When I asked Dalton to describe all of his touchdown throws, there were so many that he forgot one.
“Let me think,” Dalton started. “The one to Diontae — we had man coverage. We had a great play call. Great design. … I had just enough time to get it up. Diontae did a great job separating and great play. The one to Adam, I said: ‘Please get it over the safety.’ Adam did a great job making a great catch.’ (Thielen hurt his hamstring on the play and didn’t return — the receiver said after the game they were just trying to “figure out the injury’s seriousness.) And then … what was the other one?”
That was the one to Hubbard in the flat, way back on the first drive.
Young, meanwhile, watched the game quietly from the sideline. As a captain, he came out for the pregame coin toss, but didn’t see the field again.
“It definitely was a heavy week and hard on a lot of people,” Dalton said. “So Bryce and I have had conversations through this whole thing. Those conversations are between us.”
For the Panthers, though, this game will at least partly change the conversation around a team that had played so poorly in its first two games under Canales. The coach had most of his family, based on the West Coast, at the game. Afterward, Canales was privately thrilled, but kept trying to redirect the credit to the players. He did recognize the symbolism of his first win, though.
“Up until this point, until you actually find that success and see it work, it’s just a bunch of talk. It’s just a bunch of speeches. And philosophy doesn’t mean anything until you can feel it come to life,” he said.
For the Panthers, though, Sunday was a time to dream a little.
They won on a day that the NFC South’s two division leaders lost. So now, at 1-2, the Panthers are only a game behind the division leaders. With Dalton slinging the ball around like this, who’s to say what’s next?
