QB Andy Dalton on Panthers’ blowout loss to Bills: ‘I didn’t give us a chance’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Andy Dalton committed 3 turnovers, took seven sacks in 40-9 loss to Buffalo.
- Coaching choices and 3 separate injuries to offensive line starters hampered Panthers.
- Bryce Young (ankle) can’t get back soon enough for Panthers, who are at Green Bay next.
Andy Dalton ended the brief Era of Good Feelings for the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, and he ended it so completely that it was hard to fathom this was a team that had won three games in a row before the Buffalo Bills showed up in Charlotte
In a game full of problems, Dalton was the biggest one for a Carolina team that got blown out, 40-9, in Bank of America Stadium — much to the delight of a sold-out stadium that was 60% Bills Mafia at the beginning and 90% at the end.
Dalton committed three turnovers, took seven sacks and looked very old for Carolina (4-4). He actually isn’t old by normal human standards, but by NFL standards, he’s approaching Methuselah status — Dalton turns 38 on Wednesday. And while some other NFL quarterbacks this season have had success into their 40s, Dalton’s day turned into the polar opposite of that.
“I didn’t play like I was capable of playing,” Dalton said. “I felt like I didn’t give us a chance.”
True. The gap between Dalton and starter Bryce Young — out Sunday with an injured ankle, as had been expected all week — was a canyon on Sunday. All those sacks Young avoids with a quick sidestep? Dalton took those sacks, going down like a tree.
On the worst one, just before halftime, Carolina had a third-and-goal from the Buffalo 4-yard line with 17 seconds left and no timeouts.
Dalton had some time after the snap, but he didn’t like his first read. And with people all over the stadium (at least the 40% of the stadium that was Panthers fans) yelling, “Throw it away!”, Dalton instead held onto the ball and got sacked.
“Yeah, I can’t take a sack,” Dalton said.
By doing so, the Panthers tried a hurried, fire-drill field goal, which Ryan Fitzgerald then proceeded to miss, which meant the halftime score was 19-3, Buffalo, and soon to get much worse.
But was that even Dalton’s worst play? There were several to choose from.
In the first half alone, Dalton also fumbled the ball away on a scramble at the Buffalo 20 and then had a tunnel screen intercepted deep in his own territory. TV replays (and former Panther Greg Olsen, on the FOX broadcast) showed that former Panthers linebacker Shaq Thompson deciphered this play before the snap and told his Bills teammates it was coming.
“Seems likely,” Panthers offensive tackle Ickey Ekwonu said of this scenario. “Seems like maybe they kind of knew what was coming a little bit.”
Dalton, who admitted that Thompson was “communicating” with his teammates pre-snap, didn’t change the play and instead tried to throw the ball quickly. He threw it directly to Buffalo defensive end A.J. Epenesa at the Carolina 25. Epenesa returned it to the 1 — Dalton missing the tackle on the return — and Buffalo scored a touchdown immediately.
Was that Dalton’s worst play? There is still another contender. In the third quarter, on Carolina’s third offensive sack, Dalton dropped back, got pressure, couldn’t escape and fumbled again.
“I’ve got to be better,” Dalton said. “I think that’s the moral of it.”
Let’s stipulate three things here: Dalton lost three offensive linemen to injury during the game. Dalton was very accountable for his mistakes afterward. Dalton wasn’t helped by an unimaginative game plan from the offensive coaches.
But let’s also stipulate this: the Panthers are going to be in trouble again if Dalton starts at Green Bay. These Panthers are built around Young, whose mobility allows them more options, as well as a running game that was misused on Sunday (too much Chuba Hubbard, not enough Rico Dowdle).
By the time it was 40-3 and Buffalo (5-2) was pulling its starters, I thought the Panthers would have played Hendon Hooker — the backup for this game since Young was declared inactive. It couldn’t have hurt. Instead, head coach Dave Canales kept Dalton out there, and Dalton did manage one late touchdown drive to make the final score sound a tiny bit better.
Still, Dalton is now 1-6 as a starter in spot duty for the Panthers, and this game showed that Carolina is going to have to go shopping for a better veteran in the 2026 offseason, if not before. When you’re that immobile, it’s just not going to work anymore.
It certainly didn’t Sunday. That was the sort of game that, in some cases, would mean it was the last one you’d play in the NFL. But the weird thing is that Dalton may have to start next week in Green Bay. If so, watching him try to run away from Micah Parsons is going to be tough.
“You can say it’s a measuring stick,” Dalton said afterward. “At the end of the day, we didn’t even give ourselves a chance.”
No, they didn’t. The Panthers looked like a below-average team with a below-average quarterback who couldn’t run on Sunday. Bryce Young can’t return fast enough.
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