I can't believe it! Carolina actually won a game

and the reason why they won that game is likely going to surprise a few people and perhaps anger fans and management who thought the acquisition of tiny quarterback Bryce Young was a bad idea. While it is not fair to blame the performance of a 22-person team effort on one person, it is undeniable that the Panthers looked like a much better team without their new quarterback at the helm.

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I didn't give this matchup between Carolina and the Las Vegas Raiders much of a look because the performance of Carolina has been so awful this season that I didn't bother tuning in on time. When I switched over to the game to see that the Panthers were winning 14-7 at the time at first I thought I was dreaming and then I noticed a very big difference in who was on the field. Andy Dalton, pictured above, was on the field and not 1st round draft pick Bryce Young.

Dalton has been on the Carolina roster since 2023, but he rarely got to see any field time, playing a mere 3 games last season but I guess that wasn't good enough for the management because they went all in on Bryce Young. In his 3 games last season he threw zero interceptions whereas Bryce seems to pass to the other team for fun in nearly every game. Thus far in 2024, Carolina has fielded Dalton in only 2 games and once again, he is yet to throw a single interception. Of course he still plays for Carolina so he gets sacked badly a few times as well.

In the performance against Las Vegas, this veteran QB that has been in the NFL since 2013. A lot of people don't even know this guy exists because for most of his professional career he has been overshadowed because of either being on a team that was terrible at the time such as when he played for Cincinnati, or he was just a reserve QB that was seemingly reluctantly put on the field at all such as when he spent one season at Chicago and one season at New Orleans. I can understand why coaches would be a bit reluctant to have faith in him because early in his career he was an interception-throwing machine.

Has this changed? Does he have some new pep in his step because he perhaps feels as though his career is over if he doesn't perform at the top of his game? Does he feel as though he has to out-perform Bryce Young to keep the paychecks flowing?

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Most fans of both Carolina and Las Vegas were completely shocked that this guy who forgot even plays anymore, basically had a perfect half throwing amazing pinpoint passes for 3 touchdowns while avoiding, bobbing and weaving, and just outsmarting the Las Vegas defense at the same time.

Bryce Young hasn't thrown a TB pass in the first quarter so far in 2024. Dalton has 2 in just a single game. If there was any doubt that Bryce needs to keep the seat warm on the sidelines, I think that Dalton's performance kind of solidified that notion. Myself and many other Carolina fans groaned when the first overall draft pick was squandered on a guy that is inexperienced and honestly, too small to play in the NFL. Now I wouldn't say that to Bryce's face because he is still an exceptional athlete and is very strong but this isn't the locker-room at your local gym, this is the NFL where everyone on the field is built like a juggernaut and 5 foot 10 and 200 lbs simply doesn't cut it. You are too small!

I am hopeful that in tomorrow's game that Carolina decides to keep Bryce benched for more reasons than me not having any faith in the guy and the fact that it appears as though Bryce has no faith in himself. Tomorrow's game is against a team that discarded Dalton and he probably would like to show them what they missed out on.

Let's not get too excited over one win though. Despite the fact that the Cincinnati Bengals are 0-3 they are still -225 favorites on a straight bet and -4.5 on the point spread.

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Based on the total number of existing bets based on these stats I think we can suggest that a single win and a single stunning performance by Dalton doesn't have the Vegas world convinced that anything has really changed as far as Carolina is concerned. This will be their true test next week because Cincy is a seriously weak team as well. We could be looking at the "best of the worst" tomorrow.

I'll be tuning in with my usual pessimistic attitude. If I see Bryce on the field, I am going to return to assuming that Carolina doesn't actually want a winning season.