Panthers vs. Raiders game review: Raiders routed by the Red Rifle

Andy Dalton’s first game as the starter went about as well you could possibly hope.

After looking like the worst team in the NFL for two weeks, the Carolina Panthers looked rejuvenated with Andy Dalton leading the team to a decisive victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. In true Las Vegas fashion, the Panthers had walked up to the roulette wheel and went all in on “Red 14”. When the ball stopped rolling Sunday evening, the Panthers came out with 36 points and a renewed sense of optimism for the rest of the season.

There may be a dozen different reasonable topics this week’s game review could focus on, but the return of the Red Rifle and the monumental impact he had on the game stands head and shoulders above the other options. Settle in Panthers fans, after all the poor quarterback performances produced in process blue the past few years, it’s time to take a deeper dive into one worth celebrating.

Dalton finished the game 26 of 37 for 319 yards with 3 touchdowns and no turnovers. That’s a 70% completion rate and 8.6 yards per attempt with a 123.6 passer rating. After Sunday, no other quarterback in the NFL but Andy Dalton had accomplished a 300 yard, 3 touchdown performance this season.

Everyone’s favorite graders over at ProFootballFocus had Dalton grading out with a 77.2 overall grade with a 73.8 passing grade, good for 5th in the league. According to PFF, Dalton had a 2.01 second average time to throw, 2nd fastest in the league in week 3 and well under Head Coach and play caller Dave Canales desired mark of 2.7 seconds. Dalton was credited with two “big time throws”, both 20+ yards down the field, giving him an elite deep passing grade of 93.3 for the game.

One thing of note is that Dalton was only pressured on 7 of his 39 drop backs. 2 of those 7 ended in a sack, 4 ended up in an incomplete pass, and 1 ended with a dime to the back right corner of the endzone to Diontae Johnson for a touchdown. Keeping the 36 year old quarterback clean will remain a priority going forward. To his credit, though, of those 7 pressures given up none were attributed to Dalton.

For those who love play action, you may be surprised to find out that Andy Dalton had the worst PFF passing grade off play-action in the NFL with a 32.4. interestingly, Dalton’s grade for non play-action passing was a league high 91.6. The sample size is only one week, but Dalton’s passing splits using/not using play-action will be interesting to monitor going forward. Historically, Dalton has graded out as an average to slightly above average passer using play-action, so no need to sound any alarms just yet.

Andy Dalton had an expected points added (EPA) per drop back of +0.27, which is currently 4th in the NFL through the first 3 weeks of the season. Here’s a visual of how that looks across most quarterbacks who have played this season:

Not to harp on the performances during Weeks 1 and 2, but if you are looking for a sentence to explain why the Panthers felt the need to play Dalton over Bryce Young, it’s this: on a per drop back basis, Dalton is expected to earn .8 more points than Young.

Dalton played a fantastic game on Sunday, some would even say that Dalton played football like Lebron plays basketball. He’s clearly the guy going forward for the Panthers and I, for one, am excited to see how this plays out going forward.

I’ll see you all back here next week to review the Panthers as they take on the Cincinnati Bengals. Keep pounding.