On Sunday, Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young bounced back from yet another loss—and maybe yet another benching. The third-year passer put a horrendous start behind him in Week 5, helping lead the Panthers to a 27-24 comeback win over the Miami Dolphins.
Young began the outing by coughing up a fumble on the first possession, followed by throwing an interception on the second, which helped gift the Dolphins a 17-0 edge with 10:48 left in the first half. Despite the rough start, head coach Dave Canales praised Young’s resilience throughout the afternoon.
“I just felt the maturity of this group,” Canales said of his team’s performance. “You’re gonna face adversity. You’re gonna face hard times. We can make it harder on ourselves by the decisions or—Bryce’s pass was too high for Xavier [Legette], he was open in the middle of the field. He’d be up here, he’d tell you that right now—he’d love to have that one back.”
“But it’s the response. This game is about how you respond to adversity. And I saw us take a step—in terms of collectively staying together, not looking around and saying, ‘Okay, however we ended up here, defense, we gotta go back out and play again.'”
Young finished the victory having completed 19 of 30 passing attempts for 198 yards and two touchdowns. His scores found the hands of Legette, which cut the deficit to 10 points near the end of the second quarter, and rookie tight end Mitchell Evans, who caught the eventual game-winner in the fourth quarter.
When asked if he had considered benching Young after the early giveaways, Canales responded: “We just keep playing football. Ask him to execute and keep taking our chances. Fortunately for us, we were able to stay balanced with our attack and the run game got going—which allowed us to have a different kind of attack and settle back in. Then he made his throws when we needed it.”
The Panthers’ balanced attack also led to a season-high 239 rushing yards for Carolina. Running back Rico Dowdle spearheaded the ground game with a career-high 206 rushing yards.
With this win, Young and the Panthers tied for the largest comeback victory in franchise history and improved to 2-0 at home this season.
https://pantherswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/panthers/2025/10/05/panthers-dolphins-week-5-dave-canales-bryce-young/86538933007/