Atlanta Falcons Collapse vs. Panthers as Offense, Special Teams Falter in Shutout

CHARLOTTE, NC – The Atlanta Falcons rolled into Charlotte riding high after one of their best performances of the Raheem Morris era against Minnesota. They left licking their wounds after one of their worst.

“This game will humble you, so we have to get back to practice,” said receiver Drake London after the game. “We have a long season ahead of us, and we have to get right and do everything we possibly can to make sure this never happens again.”

The loss is the second biggest of the Morris era, second only to a 32-point drubbing by the Denver Broncos in Week 11 of 2024, but the first shutout since Week 11 of 2021.

Nothing was working for the Falcons on Sunday, according to their head coach.

“I don’t think we played well in any of the phases,” Morris said to Dave Archer after the game on the Atlanta Falcons Radio Network. “We’ll go back and look at the tape. There are always going to be good things, there are always going to be correctable moments, and there will be more correctable moments in this game than any.”

On offense, Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. played what amounts to the worst professional game of his career. He threw a pair of interceptions, with one being returned for a touchdown. As a staff, they struggled to get play-calls in, forcing the team to burn timeouts and take delay of game penalties coming out of said timeouts.

On special teams, it was particularly devastating. The newly signed kicker, Parker Romo, missed both of his kicks just one week after going 5-for-5 and winning the job. Punter Bradley Pinion had a 25-yard punt. Fill-in returner, Ray-Ray McCloud, was tackled by his teammate, Billy Bowman, on a punt return. Nate Carter routinely mishandled kickoffs.

The defense is the least to blame in this sad state of affairs. They held the Panther offense to a meager 224 yards, but the pass rush, which showed an elite flash in Minnesota with six sacks and 11 quarterback hits, sacked Bryce Young just once.

All three phases had their struggles, but it was the offense that will take the majority of the blame for this debacle. One week after struggling with the red zone offense, the Falcons do not even get inside the Panthers’ 30-yard line.

“It’s unacceptable,” Jake Matthews told Archer and the Falcons Radio Network after the game. “We came into this game, I feel like, with a good plan and feeling confident off the Sunday night game the week before. No one was expecting this, you know, but that’s life in the NFL. You gotta take responsibility of it and we gotta find a way to come back and win. That’s part of being a pro.”

Penix, who was replaced in this game by Kirk Cousins in the fourth quarter, has failed to live up to the potential he flashed late in the season in 2024. The explosive offense has been totally absent. Penix’s yards per attempt (6.1) are 22nd in the NFL, while his deep passing percentage is down to 28th in the league (5.1%).

He has just one touchdown pass this season, and it came on a screen pass to running back Bijan Robinson.

The advanced numbers are even more jarring: he is 28th in EPA (-24.6), 29th in completion percentage over expected (-7.8%), 21st in total time to throw, 28th in quarterback rating (71.3)

Game-to-game struggles are to be expected for a young player in this league, and Morris confirmed after the game that there is no potential for a change at quarterback.

“I just think he missed his throws today,” Morris said afterwards. “We did not play well in any phase, and he did not play well. We have to play better across the board. I don’t worry about Mike’s confidence. You have to go back to the drawing board and do the things you are capable of doing, which we have seen him be able to do.”

The Falcons will rally. They have to. The Buccanneers have rallied for three straight comeback wins and find themselves sitting atop the division at 3-0, while the Falcons sit at 1-2 and 0-2 in the division.

"It just wasn’t good enough," safety Jessie Bates III said. "We know we’re a better team than that, and unfortunately, it didn’t show today. In this league, we’re a tight group. You win together and you lose together and you just have to stick together. It’s only Week 3. This game is not going to define who we are as a group and we know that so we just keep moving forward."

One week after riding the success of a huge win, they collapsed in Carolina. Now, we’ll learn whether this Falcons team can bounce back or if that inconsistency will define their season.