Ironically enough, the 5-foot-10, 204-pound Bryce Young was the elephant in the room at Allegiant Stadium this afternoon.
The Carolina Panthers, in their very first game after benching the struggling second-year quarterback, pulled off a shocking 36-22 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Sunday’s outing, although a triumphant one, must’ve been a particularly weird scene for the 23-year-old Young—who has been a star at every level of his football career.
Head coach Dave Canales was asked how Young handled his first game as the team’s backup following the victory.
“It was the same,” Canales said of Young’s preparation. “He had a great process of just being ready. He’s always gotta be ready to play. And I don’t expect anything different there. So just taking that same approach and being ready, locked in and focused. So that was excellent.”
Speaking of excellent, Young’s replacement became the first NFL quarterback this season to throw for at least 300 yards and three touchdowns in a game. And that was 14th-year veteran Andy Dalton—who completed 26 of his 37 passes for 319 yards and a trio of first-half scores.
Dalton’s performance helped the Panthers to 437 yards of total offense and five successful third-down conversions, more than double of what Young and the unit were able to record in the first two weeks combined.
