It’s rare that a sequel lives up to the original, and that proved to be true for the Falcons tonight in Charlotte as Atlanta and Carolina met just 11 days after the overtime thriller at Mercedes Benz Stadium. After putting up 37 points in the previous meeting, the Falcons' offense was largely anemic in a 25-15 loss as they drop to 4-6 on the year.
While the Falcons have out-kicked most preseason expectations at this point, Marcus Mariota’s inability to move the offense created quite a stir on social media with rookie Desmond Ridder’s name continuously trending on Twitter as the night progressed.
Whether it was overthrowing a wide-open Kyle Pitts or nearly committing one of the most bizarre turnovers this league has seen in some time, Mariota’s decision making and overall performance left plenty to be desired in the loss, finishing with 19 completions on 30 attempts for 186 yards 2 touchdowns and a pick.
Mariota isn’t solely to blame as he was playing behind an offensive line that didn’t provide much protection and the weather didn’t help either, but that’s the life of a quarterback. The Falcons came into the night with the league’s 4th-ranked rushing attack, but on a night where the ground game wasn’t firing on all cylinders early, Mariota had to prove he could beat the Panthers with his arm, and that wasn’t the case.
If you polled Falcons fans before the season began and offered up 4-6 and 2nd place in the NFC South 10 weeks in, many may have taken it. However, the way this one played out leaves a bad taste as the Falcons get ten days off before welcoming the Bears to Atlanta—perhaps enough time to get the 3rd-round pick from Cincinnati ready for his first start?
Atlanta rushed for 138 yards but never established the rhythm needed to take control. Instead, it was Carolina that jumped out to a 10-0 lead, allowing Steve Wilkes’ team to dictate the pace of the game. When the Falcons did make a push with a touchdown drive that saw Drake London find the end zone for the third time this season to cut the lead down to 13-9, Carolina responded. After scoring three touchdowns in the Week 8 meeting, D’Onta Foreman broke free for a 12-yard score to put Carolina right back in the driver’s seat at 19-9 late in the 3rd quarter. Foreman surpassed his Week 8 total with 31 carries for 130 yards and the score as the Panthers rushed for 232 total yards.
Back under center after being benched in Cincinnati, PJ Walker wasn’t asked to do much for Carolina going 10 of 16 for 108 yards.
With five minutes to play, the Falcons' final comeback effort saw the offense move the ball 97 yards in eight plays with Mariota finding a wide-open KhaDarel Hodge for a touchdown to cut the lead down to 22-15 as Younghoe Koo missed his second PAT of the night. Atlanta would get the ball back with a chance to tie things up but they’d move 15 yards in the wrong direction before turning the ball over on downs and Eddy Pineiro tacked on three more Panther points.
While the final score looks like this was a close one in Carolina, the Falcons were outplayed and failed to show the fight we’ve come to expect from this team through the first nine weeks of the season. Still, in a weak division, there’s plenty of football left to be played and time to get things corrected, but it remains to be seen how drastic some of those changes will be in the coming days.