Smiling faces have been in short supply for the Panthers in recent years, but there were plenty of them in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon.

Andy Dalton threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns in his first game since replacing quarterback Bryce Young and the Panthers beat the Raiders 36-22. The team managed more yards than in its first two games combined, and Dalton’s experienced presence under center had the impact the Panthers had hoped for after the quarterback change.

Dalton called it a “tough week” because of the change, but Sunday’s win lifted a heavy weight off many people’s shoulders.

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

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