Bryce Young inspires hope once more in excellent outing vs. Cardinals

The Bryce Young of old (Weeks 9-14) showed up again.

Dec 22, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) scores a touchdown as Arizona Cardinals safety Jalen Thompson (34) defends in the second quarter at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images / Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

After a dismal outing last week, Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (who wasn't solely to blame for the 30-14 loss) had a lot of eyes on him. Would he bounce back against a better defense this week? Or was the four-turnover outing last week indicative of a regression or worse, that the last few weeks were an anomaly?

Young emphatically answered those questions with a brilliant performance in spoiling things for the Arizona Cardinals. With how porous the Panthers defense was much of Sunday, the onus was on Young to perform. He did just that.

Bryce Young lands exceptional grade vs. Cards

Bryce Young had one of the best performances of his NFL career. The second-year player had a great day passing and rushing, finishing 17/26 for 158 yards and two touchdowns. He added a third touchdown on the ground with 68 yards.

There was a sequence in the fourth quarter that perfectly encapsulates how well Young played. He took an unblocked rusher straight to the jaw but managed to deliver a pristine throw to Tommy Tremble across the middle. He followed that up with a moonball that would have made prime Russell Wilson proud for his second TD pass of the day to David Moore.

The first pass of the game was a dime down the sideline to Adam Thielen, who dropped it. That didn't faze Young, who turned in arguably the best performance of his career. The image of Young with a gleeful smile on his face after the aforementioned hit was a beautiful sight for Panthers fans, and it indicated that last week was the fluke, not the other way around.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the game was not that Young had an exceptional day throwing the ball. It was that he used his legs so effectively. On the first two drives (both of which yielded touchdowns), Young ran for 62 yards. On one drive, he had a 34-yard run and a 23-yard touchdown scramble.

There were very few mistakes made by Young. He took just one sack, and he didn't miss many throws. He made good decisions with the football, including knowing when to throw it away and survive the down.

Rather than forcing it into questionable situations, as he did at times last week, he played very smart, which can't be said for Kyler Murray. The Panthers also put the ball in his hands to ice the game instead of running three times to burn the Cards' timeouts, but he missed just one throw that would have sealed it.

In overtime, Young was tripped by his own lineman on a sack that ended the Panthers' first drive. On the second, Young needed only to hand the ball to Chuba Hubbard, who walked into the end zone to walk it off. Young's grade: A+.

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