The soon to be 15-2 Carolina Panthers overcame uncharacteristic competence to win their home opener against the Atlanta Falcons. All jokes aside, that was the first game in years that felt good, looked good, and stayed good from start to finish. Just as the first two games were team losses, with key mistakes from across the roster, yesterday was a team win.
The offense, led by a careful Bryce Young, played mistake-free football. Special teams kicked the ball out of the park, with shout outs earned
by the coverage teams and by kicker Ryan Fitzgerald. And, perhaps most surprisingly, the defense showed up big. A pick six and the team’s first shut out since 2020 are fitting accolades for the most complete performance Ejiro Evero’s unit has put together since the much maligned defensive coordinator joined the Panthers in 2023.
What I liked
The offensive line
Bryce Young had a clean pocket most of the day and made enough of it to keep the Panthers competitive against a flailing Falcons team. The Arizona Cardinals game got off to a horrific start in large part because the line allowed free rushers in Young’s face within moments of the snap, resulting in two turnovers and ten points in the first two minutes.
It was easy to expect something similar against an ascendant Falcons defense and without Robert Hunt and Austin Corbett. Instead, Chandler Zavala and Cade Mays more than held their own in relief. Young repaid the favor by not making bone headed decisions and keeping the ball in the hands of the Panthers.
Young and the offense’s day overall was clean and efficient with only a few missed connections. There were fewer deflating drops, missed passes, and runs for negative yardage than we had seen in the past two weeks. Credit for that starts with the line stepping up. Kudos, once again, to Zavala and Mays for excellent work.
The defensive secondary
Chau Smith-Wade and Mike Jackson both got their picks. Jaycee Horn dropped a third while making several other splash pass break ups and tackles. Even the safeties stepped up, keeping Bijan Robinson in check and holding their opponent to a second consecutive game under 200 yards rushing.
Yes, we celebrate clearing low bars here.
The front seven controlled the line of scrimmage reasonably well, but applied very little pressure in the passing game and missed what felt like dozens of tackles in the running game. The secondary was able to hold everything together and still pitch the shut out. That’s incredible given what the box score looks like:
Ryan Fitzgerald
Out of six kickoffs, Fitzgerald landed one at the Falcons 12, one at their 9, two as touchbacks, one at their two, and one at their three yard line. He was also perfect kicking on the day with three extra points and field goals of 35, 41, and 57 yards.
The defense should get a lot of credit for how they performed yesterday, but there were two factors outside of their control that made significant contributions to their shut out. One was the offense not forcing them to play from behind the whole day. The other was Fitzgerald doing a great job making sure they Falcons had poor field position.
The open thread
Fans have been through a lot in the past eight years following the Panthers. It’s no wonder people turned on this team after just two games. Two comments from yesterday’s game thread stood out to me as typifying the Panthers fan experience.
The first, at the start of the second quarter, came from user panthersfan1995:
“I’m having a hard time getting excited by what I’m what I’m seeing. I keep waiting for the Panthers to show up.”
The second, from user JKizzle:
Best game in nearly a decade, and unlike the vast majority of wins we’ve managed…it is early in the season, against a divisional opponent, when we are still alive.
Close em out and lets get out of here
We’re not used to games like this. We’re used to tearing down coaching decisions, quarterback play, tackling efforts and the like as watch opportunity after opportunity get missed en route to a bigger-than-it-should-have-been loss or a narrow win. Beating a divisional rival 30-0 isn’t like that.
We shouldn’t get used to games like this. We all know this isn’t happening again for years, but I’m honestly glad that the open thread and post game thread were largely happy places. It’s good that we can still enjoy these when they come along.
What’s next?
I’m not going to nitpick a win when they have been so few and far between. We all know the Falcons were bad yesterday. We all know Young did not play a world-beating level of football and that the Panthers edge rushers need some help. All of that may be important in the coming weeks, but right now let’s celebrate the shut out win.
The Carolina Panthers were near universally expected to lose yesterday and, instead, won 30-0 to advance to second place in the NFC South. We’re entering Week 4 still alive for the season for the first time since 2022. Young (and Chau Smith-Wade) and company have out scored their oppponents over the last six quarters 49-7 despite looking like they were operating at 50% of their potential the whole time.
Let’s hang our hopes on the defense getting it’s depth healthy again and playing with a lead a little more often. Let’s hang our hopes on Fitzgerald making more 50+ yard field goals look easy. Let’s hang our hopes on Young locking in the timing of this offense with Hunter Renfrow, Xavier Legette, and Jalen Coler in the weeks to come. Let’s hang our hopes on Tetairoa McMillan still leading the team as a receiver in a game where he had multiple “rookie mistakes.”
Let’s hang our hopes there because those hopes—when nurtured and grown to fruition—will have us watching a team that will be expected to shut out the Falcons 56-0 when the Panthers visit them in Atlanta in Week 12.
Oh, right, I said all jokes aside way back at the start of this. I guess I’m only being partly facetious here. The truth is that the Panthers did this to an actual NFL team. They won’t pitch shut outs every week, but set aside all your caveats and buts. The Falcons looked no worse than the Panthers have on their worst days in recent years. Mistakes may have been made on their end, but they remain an actual NFL team. The Panthers hung thirty points on them in a shutout.
Limiting mistakes, moving the chains, and controlling the clock are reasonable goals for this Panthers team. They are also keys to be competitive in any game, against any team. They might not beat most teams this season, but they could be a heck of a lot more fun to watch than what we saw in the first two weeks.
