Benching No. 1 pick pays off big in NFC team’s first win of season

This story has been updated with new information.

Andy Dalton didn’t take long to reward Dave Canales for the Carolina Panthers coach’s bold move.

The veteran quarterback helped spark the Panthers to a 36-22 win Sunday over the Las Vegas Raiders, marking the team’s first victory of the season and a much-needed moment of relief for the franchise just six days after it benched former No. 1 pick Bryce Young.

Dalton finished with 319 yards and three touchdowns on 26-of-37 passing, helping the Panthers pile up 437 total yards. The 14-year veteran’s scores through the air were the offense’s first of the season, and his first-half passing yardage total (212) exceeded Carolina’s sum from its first two games (204).

He also became the first NFL quarterback this season to throw for at least 300 yards with three touchdowns.

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‘It felt great,’ Dalton said in a postgame news conference. ‘Obviously for me to get the opportunity to be out there and for it to go the way it did, couldn’t have drawn it up any better. … We never slowed down. And that was the fun part about it. We didn’t just put one drive together. We did it the whole game.’

Dalton provided a stark contrast out of the gates, marching the offense 70 yards on a nine-play opening series, which he capped by finding running back Chuba Hubbard for a 9-yard score. It marked the first touchdown on the Panthers’ first drive of a game since Week 17 in 2022.

He added two more touchdown passes in the second quarter: a 5-yard connection with Diontae Johnson and a 31-yard strike to Adam Thielen, in which Dalton split two defenders to deliver the highlight-reel throw.

In the Panthers’ first two games, the team converted a league-low two of its 22 third-down conversions. On Sunday, Carolina found success on five of 12 third-down looks.

‘The whole thing revolves around that,’ Canales said in a postgame news conference. ‘Both offensively and defensively, the story was third down. We did a better job, so we could play our kind of ball.’