How Did QB Andy Dalton Lift Panthers?
Pocket Poise, Pinpoint Accuracy, More
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
After the Carolina Panthers posted their first win of the 2024 season, a 36-22 road victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, first-year Panthers head coach Dave Canales carefully deflected a bunch of questions about the undeniable star of the game, veteran quarterback Andy Dalton.
Dalton (26-for-37 passing, 319 yards, three touchdown passes, no interceptions) didn’t merely play well. He became the first National Football League quarterback to post a 300-yard, three-TD performance this season. In the process, he lifted the spirits of a previously frustrated, winless squad.
“I felt like the whole group, in general, showed up ready,” said Canales, a Southern California native who had several family members, including his parents, at the game. “This is a really serious and really focused group and something I’ve had to get used to because I’m so high-energy. I want things to be a party all the time. This group is like, ‘Coaches, tell us what you need and we’ll do it.’”
After Carolina’s ugly 0-2 start, Canales had demoted 2023 starting QB Bryce Young, the #1 overall pick in last year’s NFL draft. As they headed to Las Vegas, the Panthers were averaging a league-worst 6.5 points per game and giving up a league-worst 36.5 points per game.
A quarterbacks guru for much of his time as an assistant with Seattle (2010-22) and Tampa Bay (2023), Canales knew the Panthers needed better QB play. Young too often bailed from well-protected pockets and missed open receivers downfield. Carolina had plenty of other problems in the opening two weeks, too, but the offensive woes were especially disheartening.
Enter Dalton, a 36-year-old, 14th-year veteran with 163 previous NFL starts under his belt. A second-round 2011 draft pick from TCU, he was the starter for all nine of his seasons (including five playoff trips) with Cincinnati. He then started for Dallas (2020), Chicago (2021) and New Orleans (2022) before settling into a backup role behind Young with the Panthers last season.
Against the Raiders, Dalton repeatedly bought himself time in the pocket and/or converted the types of downfield throws that often had befuddled Young.
On the Panthers’ opening drive, Dalton threw a 17-yard dart to wide receiver Diontae Johnson on an out pattern along the left sideline and made it look easy, with Johnson having plenty of room to get both feet down before calmly stepping out of bounds.
Two plays later, when Dalton found tight end Tommy Tremble down the middle for a 20-yard gain, he threw the ball over two pursuing linebackers but in front of a charging safety, even giving Tremble an extra split-second to come down with the ball and brace for the inevitable collision.
One play later, Dalton hit running back Chuba Hubbard on a simple pass in the right flat, but he threw it in front of Hubbard, such that his forward momentum, quick acceleration and physicality enabled him to plow through two tacklers for the touchdown.
On all three Dalton throws, the precision of his pass minimized the play’s risks and maximized each receiver’s chance of success.
The Panthers had acquired Johnson, a very productive five-year starting wide receiver for Pittsburgh, in an offseason trade for starting cornerback Dante Jackson. In Johnson’s first two games with Young, he was targeted a total of 12 times and posted five receptions for only 34 yards. In Johnson’s one game with Dalton, he was targeted 14 times and posted eight receptions for 122 yards and a touchdown.
Early in the second quarter, Dalton had three more pinpoint tosses on a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that gave the Panthers a 14-7 lead:
#1-On a third-and-14 play, against a Raiders defense that hadn’t given up a single third-down conversion of 10 yards or more in its first two games, Dalton found Johnson down the middle and dropped his pass exactly in the middle of four defenders for a 23-yard gain. That sort of accuracy from the pocket, on a throw that traveled more than 30 yards in the air, is not something Young has delivered often during his season-plus with the Panthers. Again, Johnson had an extra split-second to come down with the ball and brace himself before getting hit.
#2-One play later, Dalton — nicknamed “Red Rifle” for his uncommon hair color/arm strength combination — fired an absolute bullet through a tiny window, and barely between two diving linebackers, to complete a pass to rookie wide receiver Xavier Legette. Again, the accuracy of the throw allowed Legette just a bit of breathing room, and he was able to accelerate down the left sideline for a 35-yard gain, all the way to the Las Vegas 10-yard line.
#3-Two plays later, in a trips-left formation from the five-yard line, Dalton somehow felt pressure from Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby on his back (blind) side, subtly took two short steps to his right, wisely ignored wide-open running back Miles Sanders in the flat, and floated a high-arcing pass toward the right corner of the end zone. Johnson was barely behind two Las Vegas defenders, and Dalton lofted the ball such that only Johnson had a chance to catch it. Johnson not only pulled it down, he had enough room to take four steps before crossing the end line.
There was more — much more — impressive work from Dalton at Las Vegas, in a game the Panthers often dominated and led 27-7 after three quarters.
On the Panthers’ final possession of the first half, on a play from the Las Vegas 31-yard line, Dalton threw yet another touchdown pass that doesn’t seem to be anywhere near Young’s arsenal at this stage of his career.
Again, Dalton appeared comfortable in the middle of a well-protected pocket. Again, he correctly anticipated something — whether he had enough room to get a long throw between a speedy cornerback (running stride-for-stride with veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen) and a late-helping safety converging from the middle of the field — that you just can’t learn easily in a playbook or even practice. Most importantly, Dalton threw the ball where only Thielen could get it — slightly inside the cornerback, slightly over the safety — from more than 30 yards away.
Thielen, who had shown his frustration with Young at times earlier this season, made a spectacular diving catch right at the goal line to give Carolina a 21-7 halftime lead. Thielen suffered a hamstring injury (it’s being re-evaluated today) on the play and didn’t return to the game, but that was one of the only negatives to an otherwise amazing day for the Panthers.
“It was exactly how you wanted it to go,” Dalton said. “They’re not all gonna go this way, but for us to come out and do what we did, it shows the potential of what we can be.”
