Strong ‘vet presence’ pays off for Dalton with big day in Panthers’ win

LAS VEGAS —  Carolina Panthers quarterback Andy Dalton looked relaxed and comfortable as he paused from Sunday’s pregame warmups to pose for a picture with his wife and friends on the sideline at Allegiant Stadium.

It was that demeanor first-year coach Dave Canales was looking for earlier in the week when he benched Bryce Young in favor of the 36-year-old veteran, who delivered with three first-half touchdown passes in a 36-22 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders.

It was that demeanor Canales believed a squad stinging from an 0-2 start by a combined 60 points needed to jump-start an offense and team he thought was closer to finding an identity than the losses made things appear.

“That was one of things coming into this, I got a chance to just be me and be out there like how I normally am,” Dalton said after completing 26 of 37 passes for 319 yards and three touchdowns. “I’m normally pretty calm, I’m normally relaxed.

“Guys were having fun. I was just trying to make sure guys were having fun, because you put in a ton of work for this thing … and now you get a time to just go and enjoy the work you put in.”

Nothing had been fun for the Panthers in a 47-10 loss to New Orleans opening week and a 26-3 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers in the home opener coming off an NFL-worst 2-15 season.

It had been especially hard offensively with Young, the top pick of the 2023 draft, putting up historically bad numbers.

Benching the quarterback who a year ago team owner David Tepper proclaimed would win “Super Bowls” at Carolina made for what Canales called a “really heavy week.” Seeing it all come together in a complete team victory was satisfying even if he was less than his normal cheerful self in his postgame presser following his first win as an NFL head coach.

“I’m smiling inside,” Canales said. “I’m absolutely beat. This has been an amazing week, but again a really heavy week just with all the factors, just getting back to work and to continue to push to establish our culture and process.”

Canales pushes complementary football and stays away from giving too much praise to one player. He never credited Dalton specifically with jump-starting the turnaround after two weeks of critics calling Carolina the worst team in the league.

But it was Dalton who set the tone. He led Carolina to a touchdown on its opening series, ending the NFL’s longest active streak of a team failing to accomplish that at 20 games.

His three first-half touchdowns were the most by a Carolina quarterback since Cam Newton had the same number on Dec. 20, 2015, against the New York Giants during his NFL MVP season.

It was the first time since Week 16 of 2022 that Carolina had been up by seven-plus points in the first half. The Panthers had gone seven straight games without holding any lead, period — the third-longest streak over the past 20 seasons.

So it had been dismal, and the biggest difference from the first two games was Dalton, known since college as the “Red Rifle” for his bright red hair.

“A vet presence,” wide receiver Diontae Johnson said of what Dalton brought that had been missing. “Just having a quarterback back there to get us in position, score, execute plays. We just did a great job of staying locked in. Every play called we made the most of it.”

Johnson, acquired in an offseason trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers to help Young improve, finished with a career-high 122 yards and a touchdown on eight catches. He had only five catches for 34 yards the first two games with Young.

The running game flourished with Dalton as well. Chuba Hubbard had 114 yards on 21 carries and caught five passes for 55 yards and the first touchdown.

It was Carolina’s first game with a 300-yard passer, 100-yard rusher and 100-yard receiver since Week 8 of 2022 against the Atlanta Falcons.

“Panthers football,” said Canales, who has stressed for weeks that the team still was searching for an identity. “That’s Panthers’ football, team football right there. And I get to show [the players] that, and I get to show them how it all complements and plays off each other.”

For Dalton, the game solidified that he still has what it takes at the end of his career to play winning football. For Young, it justified why he was benched and amplified that, like most rookie quarterbacks, he needs time to develop.

While Dalton and the Panthers were celebrating, Young was on the sideline observing without much expression. His first move after the game was to find Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew and give him a hug.

“It definitely was a heavy week, and hard on a lot of people,” Dalton said. “Bryce and I have had conversations throughout this whole thing. Those conversations are between us.”

The heavy week became a joyous Sunday with the team holding a fourth-quarter lead with time on the clock for the first time in 20 games dating back to Week 18 of 2022.

Dalton was all smiles and tried his best to get Canales to smile afterward.

Even wide receiver Adam Thielen, who suffered a hamstring injury on a 31-yard, second-quarter touchdown catch that could force him to miss games, was smiling. Dalton, who gets to face the team ( Cincinnati Bengals) that drafted him in 2011 next week, was a big reason.

“Andy did a great job of just communicating and leading us and starting fast,” said Thielen, who plans to have an MRI on Monday. “That was his message to us — we’ve got to start fast — and he was able to lead that first drive and get that momentum.”