CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Panthers have lost three straight since Andy Dalton delivered a feel-good win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
That victory came just days after first-year head coach Dave Canales made a bold decision to bench Bryce Young. But Canales said he has no plans to go back to last year’s No. 1 overall pick, saying Dalton will start next Sunday at Washington despite a costly fourth-quarter interception in a 38-20 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
“Andy will be playing against the Commanders,” Canales said without elaboration.
Young has only seen the field in mop-up duty since being benched after two highly unimpressive starts to begin the season, which dropped his record as an NFL starter to 2-16.
Dalton finished finished 26 of 38 for 221 yards with two first-half touchdown passes and two second-half interceptions against the Falcons to fall to 1-3 as Carolina’s starter. The Panthers haven’t won since veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen went down with a hamstring injury and they played without two starting offensive linemen Sunday.
Before his first interception early in the fourth quarter, the Panthers were moving the ball well on the ground with Chuba Hubbard picking up 9, 12, 5 and 8 yards on four consecutive runs and three first downs.
Canales, the team’s offensive play caller, thought it was good time to throw in a pass, figuring the Falcons would be focused on stopping Hubbard from gashing them on the ground again.
But Dalton’s rollout and toss deep along the right sideline to tight end Ian Thomas into triple coverage was picked off by A.J. Terrell, killing any momentum and silencing the home crowd.
The Falcons then took to punishing the Panthers on the ground, driving 84 yards for a clinching touchdown behind Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier, who combined for 200 yards rushing on 33 carries and three touchdowns.
Dalton said in hindsight he should have let the ball go earlier, or even checked it down.
It may not have helped that he hasn’t had a lot of time to work in practice with Thomas, who had his first playing time since coming off injured reserve.
“That was a big drive for us, especially with the momentum that we had at that point,” Dalton said. “That one hurt and set us back and it’s on me. I’ve got to make better decisions in that moment.”
It’s difficult to put the blame on the 36-year-old Dalton, who has at least found ways to get the Panthers in the end zone since taking over in Week 3. The Panthers averaged 6.5 points in two games under Young; and 22.5 in four under Dalton.
And it seems the Panthers are under pressure to score on every drive given the status of their leaky defense.
The Panthers are in the midst of a historically bad season on that side of the ball. Carolina has allowed an average of 33.8 points per game, which ranks as ninth most in the Super Bowl era.
The always upbeat Canales is still searching for positives, urging his team — which hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2017 — to simply get better each week.
“You know, the message to the team is just consistency,” Canales said. “Can we just play consistent football still working through all of the issues that we need to work through? But can we keep taking steps to where we come out of a game and feel like there was balance to what we were doing? We had a better day on third down, which allowed us to get into our run game and hit some passes downfield.
“But it’s about the finish.”