In recent years, there has been little to see on the faces of the Panthers fans, but on Sunday afternoon there was plenty to see in Las Vegas.

Andy Dalton threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns in his first start since benching quarterback Bryce Young as the Panthers rolled to a 36-22 victory over the Raiders. The team gained more yards than they had in their first two games combined, and Dalton’s veteran presence at quarterback had the impact the Panthers were hoping to see in the aftermath of the quarterback change.

Dalton called it “a tough week” because of the change, but Sunday’s win lifted the burden from many shoulders.

“I mean, it shows what we can do,” Dalton said via the team’s website. “And I think that’s for us, it’s like, okay, we’ve shown what our standard is, we know what we can do and the goal is to be able to prove that every week. And for us, this was a big win, the first one of the year and now it’s like, okay, let’s go. We know the possibilities that are out there. We have to play at that level.”

Dalton welcomes its first NFL team to town next weekend, and the key to beating the Bengals will be to build on Sunday’s success while maintaining the calm, confident approach the team brought to the game. The quarterback should be a plus for that effort, which is a welcome change to the landscape in Carolina.