4 burning Carolina Panthers fan questions entering Week 4 vs. the Bengals

What does the Carolina Panthers' future hold?

Is this (the Week 3 result) a sign that A) Dalton is actually a good QB, B) Young is actually garbage, C) the Raiders are either a pushover or not trying against us, or D) everyone on our team got it together for this game and it won’t last once teams have film of Dalton’s current game? – Nicholas Brooks Bobbitt

We’ll make this the last question for this week’s mailbag since it’s a loaded one. Thanks to all that submitted questions, as always - much appreciated. And this from Nicholas is an astute one.

The Week 3 matchup between the Carolina Panthers and Las Vegas Raiders was a classic letdown spot for the home favorites. Antonio Pierce's men were coming off an emotional and unexpected upset win against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 2. Historically, the odds of a single-game regression are notable after a win as such. Add in the fact that the challenger was the bottom-feeder of the league and just made a change at the quarterback position; it was the real-life NFL version of Sebastian Junger’s ‘The Perfect Storm’.

But that shouldn’t discredit the individual performance of Andy Dalton, who hadn’t started a game in a calendar year. He was coming off an injury during the offseason program and didn’t even get preseason reps. It was fair to expect rust from the grizzly gunslinger.

However, he wasn’t rusty. He was remarkably impressive. That was a show. And it was a team win. It was a testament to how the players in the locker room rallied for their coaches, specifically the first-time head honcho, Dave Canales.

Is Bryce Young garbage? That’s a harsh evaluation. But for the sake of fairness, the consensus top quarterback prospect of the 2023 class had played his worst two games of professional football to start the season, and that couldn’t have been more detrimental to his outlook as the starter. He must accept the blame for his role in the team’s shortcomings. He's done this. His story isn't written in full just yet. But it probably won’t be told in Process Blue.

The Raiders aren’t as good as their win against the Ravens, most likely. That was a prime example of ‘Any Given Sunday'. To label them a pushover might be a touch extreme, especially considering they were going against the club everyone else had been blasting as a pushover for over a year. Pierce did come out and say he was unhappy with the effort from his squad, so it’s fair to say that the Panthers caught them flat-footed and took full advantage of it.

Will this carry over into more games this season? The Panthers are staring down a home game against one of Dalton’s former teams, with the Cincinnati Bengals coming off a short week after playing on Monday Night Football where they lost to rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders.

The Panthers have an opportunity to keep the momentum rolling against a defense that has been susceptible to giving up points and could be exploited by a strong and stubborn rushing approach. That bodes well.

There’s no way to tell exactly what will come of the glory that was last week’s game, but I’ll finish off with this thought: I certainly enjoyed watching Panthers football last Sunday. If that’s the brand we can expect moving forward? Knock on my door and sign me up.

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