With a 1-7 record at the unofficial halfway point of the season, the Atlanta Falcons were the unquestioned, undisputed laughingstock of the NFC South . . . that is, until, they got their hands on the Carolina Panthers.
Sunday’s trip to Atlanta marked a new low for the floundering Panthers—whose collective hearts, minds and bodies seemingly stayed at home with the freshly dismissed Ron Rivera. In true holiday spirit, they gave the game away.
The first gift came late in the second quarter with the Panthers down 10-3, when tight end Ian Thomas mishandled what should have been a near-30-yard completion. Thomas bobbled a perfect toss from quarterback Kyle Allen, allowing an easy pick for safety Damontae Kazee. While they did limit the damage, redeeming one another on a one-yard touchdown connection to bring the deficit to three at the break, another teammate let Allen down soon after.
On the opening play of the third quarter, rookie left tackle Dennis Daley faltered in protection and gave Falcons defensive end Vic Beasley an open lane to the pocket. Beasley delivered a booming blindside hit to Allen’s back, forcing a fumble that’d set up a five-play, 46-yard touchdown drive for Atlanta.
Five minutes and a 93-yard touchdown catch by undrafted wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus later, returner Greg Dortch conjured up a fumble of his own, one that embarrassingly wound up in the hands of kicker Younghoe Koo. (Yup, it was that kind of day.) The Falcons capitalized on that as well, adding three more points to effectively put the game away at 30-10 with 4:55 left in the third.
Allen provided the cherry on top of the turnover-fest to wrap up the quarter. He’d miss Jarius Wright badly downfield, rewarding yet another layup to Kazee for his second interception.
Those four giveaways, added with the four from Week 10, have now given Atlanta eight of their 14 takeaways on the campaign. Oh, and they’ve given them half of their wins thus far, too.
Unfortunately, this is who the Carolina Panthers currently are and have been without a healthy Cam Newton under center, making today’s early report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport that much more perplexing.
Since sustaining what is believed to be the major blow to his throwing shoulder on a hit from Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt a year ago, Newton has been playing with some sort of injury, whether it be to his arm or foot, since Week 10 of last season. The Panthers have gone 6-13 during that time.
With this latest defeat, Carolina has gone 0-4 against the Falcons over the last two seasons, bringing their NFC South record to 3-8 since 2018. If you expand that another year back and include their divisional round-loss to the New Orleans Saints in 2017, that record drops to 6-12.
The Panthers are now carrying a five-game losing streak on their backs, the second such streak over these last two dreadful, regrettable seasons.
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