ATLANTA — A week ago, there were questions about Bryce Young and the Panthers passing game, and they were reasonable.

But Sunday against the Falcons, not only did Young answer a lot of them, he did it in a way that no one had.

Young completed 31-of-45 passes for 448 yards and three touchdowns Sunday, leading the Panthers to a dramatic 30-27 overtime win at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

And as head coach Dave Canales surveyed it, it was the broad-based quality of the attack that he was encouraged by. Nine different players caught passes. Tetairoa McMillan had 130 yards and two touchdowns, Xavier Legette had 83 yards and a touchdown, and Jalen Coker had 55 yards and a crucial two-point conversion. Coupled with Rico Dowdle hitting 100 yards from scrimmage with his 55 receiving yards, and the contributions of the rest of the group, it was a well-rounded day for Young.

"It's really just my dream and vision for our group, is you try to create a focal point," Canales said. "And TMac has been unbelievable in terms of how he's made himself available, dealing with different looks, different challenging coverages, and that's where everybody else gets opportunities and matchups, and Xavier had a couple of great places where the matchup and the ball should have gone, and Bryce took advantage of those.

"And you love to see the tight ends getting involved, and Jalen making a couple of plays as well because the field starts to tilt when TMac plays as well as he has been, and then today just felt like a balanced, a balanced deal where Bryce had options and different places to go."

And in going there, Young reached something no one in franchise history had done.

His 448 yards marked the team's all-time single-game passing record, eclipsing one of the all-time hot streaks.

Cam Newton's 432-yard day against the Packers in 2011 was part of a streak of games in his first season, in which he put up three of the top four passing performances in team history in his first month on the job.

Panthers all-time single-game passing yardage leaders

And since Newton won an MVP here in 2015 and took a team to a Super Bowl, the significance of breaking one of his records was not lost on Young.

"Definitely an honor," Young said. "I have so much respect for Cam, for all that he has accomplished, for the player he is, all the stuff. I have so much respect for him, so hearing that is definitely an honor."

(Young channeling a little bit of Newton's style by hitting the dab in his postgame celebration was also a nice touch.)

But through it all, Young remains locked into the picture bigger than any one game.

The win was his 10th game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime since 2023, the most in the league over that span. With Sunday's win, he broke out of a tie with Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Geno Smith, a group that includes Super Bowl champions and MVPs. And, they're 6-5 and a half-game out of first in the NFC South.

"You didn't want me to say it first, but I'm still going to repeat it, individual awards, that's not what I'm after," Young said with a grin. "It doesn't mean anything. I'm grateful that we won; we had the most important stat today, and it was a win. That's all that matters.

"But again, being able to be mentioned with Cam, with a player of that caliber who I have so much respect for, it's definitely an honor."