LAS VEGAS — As Andy Dalton prepared to do a postgame interview with CBS, Bryce Young stood a few yards away on the Las Vegas Raiders’ iconic logo, dapping up Gardner Minshew and a few other Raiders players.
It was hard not to look at this moment as a changing of the guard for the Carolina Panthers and validation that Dave Canales made the right decision in benching Young, last year’s No. 1 pick, just two games into his second season.
Canales hoped the move would energize his team after his tenure started with a pair of embarrassing losses by a combined 60 points against the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Chargers.
But no one could have imagined this. The first opening-series touchdown in Canales’ two years as a play caller. Pinpoint passes. Third-down conversions. Fourth-down stops for the defense. A fourth-quarter lead (!) — the first one with time on the clock since Jan. 1, 2023, a span of 20 games. Carolina even had a 100-yard rusher (Chuba Hubbard), 100-yard receiver (Diontae Johnson) and 300-yard passer (Dalton) in the same game for the first time since Oct. 30, 2022.
And a convincing 36-22 win that assures Dalton will get at least one more start (and likely a lot more, barring injury) next week against the Cincinnati Bengals, who he led to the playoffs in his first five seasons.
“It was,” Dalton said, “exactly how you wanted it to go.”
“They’re not all gonna go this way,” he added. “But for us to come out and do what we did, it shows the potential of what we can be.”
With Young standing alone and watching from the visitors sideline at Allegiant Stadium, the 36-year-old Dalton delivered a master class. Starting with an opening drive in which he completed 5-of-6 passes and then feathered a touchdown pass to Johnson over two defenders for Carolina’s second score, Dalton was on point.
Picture Perfect Dime
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— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) September 22, 2024
He went through his reads quickly, stayed in the pocket — something a shellshocked Young seemed reluctant to do after taking 62 sacks in 2023 — and delivered the ball on time. Dalton also mixed in several downfield throws, which had been missing in the first two games and causing consternation among the receivers.
The Panthers traded for Johnson to give Young a shifty receiver who could separate from coverage. Johnson had three catches for 15 yards against the Chargers and Young finished with 84 yards, tied for the fourth-fewest by a quarterback with 25 pass attempts in franchise history.
With Dalton targeting him 14 times Sunday, Johnson pulled down eight passes for a career-high 122 yards and the TD. Afterward, Johnson cited Dalton’s experience for the offensive turnaround.
“You need a guy like that. That makes the offense play harder. Not saying we weren’t doing that with Bryce. But it’s different when you’ve got a vet because you know what to expect from him. You know what you’re getting,” Johnson said.
“Once we got out there between the lines, you seen it was different when Andy was back there. Getting the ball out to the receivers. We were running the ball pretty well. Gotta give a shoutout to the O-line.”
Dalton was 26-of-37 passing for 319 yards and three first-half touchdowns, giving the Panthers a 21-7 halftime lead and supplying a jolt of confidence to a team that had been dragged through the media mud, with many analysts criticizing David Tepper and the organization for what they viewed as quarterback malpractice for failing to provide Young with enough protection or playmakers his rookie year.
That’s a fair argument. But anyone who watched Young abandon clean pockets, fail to go through his progressions and throw jump passes and with other shoddy mechanics knew he had to sit down. Otherwise, as mentioned last week, Canales risked losing the locker room while alienating the fan base and further eroding Young’s confidence.
It’s not an easy decision to bench a player the franchise had invested so much in, and the strain showed on Canales’ face, which was missing his trademark smile.
“I’m smiling inside,” Canales said. “I’m absolutely beat. This has been an amazing week, but just a really heavy week with all the factors.”
Dalton agreed with Canales’ characterization, saying the QB change had been hard on a lot of people. Dalton said he and Young had conversations about the situation throughout the week, which he declined to divulge.
But Jadeveon Clowney overheard one of them, and was impressed with what Young had to say.
“I heard him talking to Dalton saying he’s going to be anything he needs him to be on the sideline. Hats off to that guy for just dealing with this whole situation as far as being No. 1, being sat and watching your team move the ball,” said Clowney, the veteran edge rusher from South Carolina who was the first pick in 2014.
“You know how that’d be. I was No. 1. That’s not a good feeling. But you want to be a great teammate and you want to continue to be the help that Dalton needs because he was there for you when you had your time.”
Clowney said Dalton’s strong play early benefited the defense, which kept All-Pro receiver Davante Adams and rookie tight end Brock Bowers in check.
“You see somebody come out there and move the ball and just getting first downs, and all of a sudden they put up 7 points at the start of the game,” Clowney said, “it’s just an energy boost for your defense to go out here and hurry up and give them the ball back.”
Playing with a lead allowed Clowney to be more aggressive with his pass rushes: Clowney’s second-half sack of Minshew was his first as a Panther.
But the postgame focus was on Dalton, who improved to 4-0 in four starts against the Raiders. After showing touch on the TD to Johnson, Dalton lasered one in tight coverage for a 31-yard score to Adam Thielen on what Canales called a beautiful play. That beauty came at a cost: Thielen injured his hamstring on the play, sat out the second half and will undergo testing Monday.
Thielen said Dalton didn’t do anything his teammates haven’t seen the past two years at practice and in his lone start last season at Seattle.
“He has a really good ability to do a lot of things well. Deep ball, intermediate stuff, the short stuff. Give receivers friendly balls to be able to catch and run,” Thielen said. “I think a lot of it today, there was a lot of catch and runs. And a lot of that is credit to him just putting it on guys and allowing them to use their ability after that.”
Young has ability, too. You don’t win a Heisman Trophy at Alabama and sit at the top of many teams’ draft boards if you can’t play. A number of his teammates said so last week, and several teams called the Panthers asking whether Young was available. He’s not, at least at the moment.
“His story’s not over. It’s just the beginning,” Clowney said. “I think he’ll be back out there. You never know where or when. But I think his story’s not over.”
But the story Sunday was Dalton, who for one week provided a welcome break from fans booing and wearing bags on their heads. Dalton tried to deflect the attention, but it was impossible not to see how much things changed with the switch at the game’s most important position.
“I felt like if I came out here and was me, hopefully guys would feed off of it. I felt like we responded really well,” he said. “I wasn’t the only one out there. I think the energy in the locker room before the game was right. I think everyone went (in) with the right mentality that we were gonna get it done, however it was gonna happen.”
(Top photo of Andy Dalton: Stephen R. Sylvanie / Imagn Images)
