Panthers had interesting reason for putting Bryce Young back on field last week

Andy Dalton led the Panthers on a first-quarter touchdown drive at Chicago last week. But after Chuba Hubbard continued his strong start with a 38-yard touchdown run, the Bears scored 30 unanswered points in a 36-10 win.

Carolina placed center Austin Corbett on season-ending injured reserve after he tore his biceps at Chicago. The Panthers also had to play without right tackle Taylor Moton, whose triceps injury will keep him out of the lineup at home against Atlanta (3-2) on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, FOX).

After Hubbard’s fourth-quarter fumble set up the Bears’ final touchdown, Carolina head coach Dave Canales looked at the scoreboard, weighed his injury situation and decided to put Bryce Young back in a game for the first time since Canales benched him after his Week 2 start.

“Just saw it as an opportunity there,” Canales said, courtesy of beat writer Joe Person. “We had a couple of injuries on the offensive line and, again, just wanted to get him in there to get some live reps. And he did a fantastic job, playing with energy, extending plays, finding some completions down the field, which was all fantastic. It’s a hard situation but at that point, with the different things happening along the offensive line, it was something where I wanted to get Andy out of there.”

The Panthers (1-4) have now lost consecutive games after Dalton led them to a resounding 36-22 win Sept. 22 at Las Vegas. While most thought it would never happen after Canales benched him, Young could certainly return to the starting lineup at some point. Last week, he was 4 of 7 for 58 yards in his fourth-quarter series.

What’s interesting, however, is that Canales cited an injured offensive line for removing Dalton and putting Young back on the field, considering Mel Kiper’s criticism for the way the Panthers handled Young.

In a similar situation before the season, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo committed to starting Jacoby Brissett over Drake Maye in part due to an injured offensive line, despite Maye outplaying Brissett in preseason games.