Carolina Panthers quarterback Andy Dalton had himself a busy day in his spot start for Bryce Young. Nonetheless, it probably didn’t translate the way he wanted it to.
The 35-year-old veteran tossed for a career-high 58 passing attempts in Sunday’s 37-27 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He was asked about all that work after the game.
“I wouldn’t have thought I would throw 58,” he said. “I just think how the game went on and how things went—I mean, especially when you get into the end of the game. I mean, obviously, you’re going to be throwing almost every down. Tryin’ to claw your way back in it. I think that inflates the number there, too.
“But we have to find a way to be balanced. We gotta find a way to run the ball better than we did. And we didn’t run it good enough today.”
Dalton’s activity led to a bit of productivity in the box score, as the team finished with 334 passing yards (361 for Dalton) and two touchdowns. But as the 13th-year veteran alluded to, there was a considerable lack of balance—as the ground attack came out with all of 44 yards on 14 tries. (Heck, they had only six more rushing attempts than they did false starts.)
Luckily, he thinks the Panthers—even at 0-3—are too well-equipped to keep dragging along.
“We keep fightin’,” he replied when asked for signs of encouragement. “There’s no quit in this team. That’s one thing you can’t coach. It’s the mentality of just this group. We gotta find a way to get it fixed, though. There’s too many good players, too many good coaches, too many good people in this organization to not get fixed.”
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