Trailing 10-0 late in the first half, and everything seeming to go wrong on the offensive side of the ball, the Panthers needed a spark. It wasn’t a 34-yard Cam Newton naked bootleg that fired up the team. Or a fifty-yard Michael Palardy punt that was downed by Curtis Samuel at the three-yard-line. Of course, when the team needs a spark in 2017, they count on their defense, and when the Falcons faced a third-and-one at the Panthers’ 35-yard-line after driving 62 yards, Kawann Short was more than happy to oblige with a stuff of Tevin Coleman. And when Dan Quinn rolled out the offense again, it was safety Kurt Coleman shedding a block to make the stuff along with Thomas Davis to give the Panthers the ball back.
And just like that, the Panthers had their spark. And when they needed a stop to send Panthers fans home with a 20-17 victory over their division rival the Atlanta Falcons, they would get that too. “It’s just a sense of pride around here, man. Those guys challenged us and you’ve got to step up as a defense,” said Short about the fourth down stops. “We strive to be the best in those kind of situations; we’ve got to take control and win.”
“We want to be that dominant defense on fourth-and-one, we’ve got to do whatever to get the offense back the ball.”
The Panthers would turn that second quarter stop into a touchdown after Cam Newton would engineer a 50-yard drive that was highlighted by a 24-yard catch-and-run by Devin Funchess in which Funchess would point out a block that he needed to fellow wide receiver Curtis Samuel and an unnecessary roughness penalty on cornerback Brian Poole. The drive would conclude with rookie Christian McCaffrey’s first rushing touchdown of his career. McCaffrey, who again lined up all over the field, would finish with 14 carries for 63 yards and five catches for 28 yards, including a 17-yard run, the longest run of his career.
“Well, C-Mac’s a dynamic player and you can feel the vibe around him that he feels like he’s not doing enough,” said Cam Newton after the game. “The guy’s touched, he’s blessed, man. You’ve just got to give him the ball and just step back and be in awe. Whether it’s in the run game, the passing game, I’m a [proponent] of seeing how much he can digest before we ease off of him because when the ball’s in his hands, man, that’s a good thing for us as an offense.”
The next drive would end quickly for the Falcons, with safety Mike Adams securing his second interception in as many weeks and returning it 40 yards to the Falcons 31-yard line. It was Matt Ryan’s seventh pick of the season after throwing only seven in all of his 2016 MVP campaign; Ryan would finish 24-of-38 for 313 yards, two touchdowns and the interception.
The next touchdown drive would be even sweeter for the Panthers, with a short field eaten up quickly with two McCaffrey plays before Cam Newton would scramble to his right, run six yards and leap from the three yard line with his arm and the ball outstretched, breaking the plane with the ball before getting slammed backwards by Desmond Trufant; Newton said he doesn’t worry about his body on plays like that, especially not in a divisional game. The Panthers would head to halftime up 14-10 with the momentum firmly in their corner and Newton would finish with 86 yards rushing, his most of the season and the most of any quarterback in the NFL this season; the quarterback has led the team in rushing for four straight contests.
Cam out there dunking on people now? I’ll have to ask him what that feeling is like later #iplaybelowtherim
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) November 5, 2017
Before the Panthers made their defensive stand, the Falcons appeared to be clearly in control of the game, with their first drive easily going 40 yards for a Matt Bryant field goal to go up 3-0, even after two penalties pushed them back ten yards. James Bradberry knew the Atlanta Falcons were going to come right after him, and on the first play from scrimmage, they certainly did. Julio Jones, called by Luke Kuechly one of the top-two receivers in the NFL on Thursday, was targeted on the first play of the game by Matt Ryan and as Bradberry went to mirror his cut, slipped and gave Jones enough space to catch the ball and run for additional yardage before being tackled for a 34-yard gain. The Panthers would barely escape another huge play when Matt Ryan overthrew Jones in the endzone with a step on safety Kurt Coleman and the Falcons would settle for three.
After trading three-and-outs, a Jonathan Stewart fumble gave the Falcons another chance and Ryan went back to Julio Jones, who caught a 21-yard pass in between two defenders, one of whom was James Bradberry. Ryan picked apart the Panthers defense for an eight-play, 66-yard drive that culminated in a six-yard touchdown pass to Mohammed Sanu, who easily beat cornerback Daryl Worley for the score.
After the Panthers went up 14-10, it was same-old, same-old for a Panthers defense that had been absolutely dominant for much of the 2017 season. After having 217 yards in the first half, the Falcons would only pick up seven net in the third quarter as the Panthers would add two field goals to head into the fourth quarter up 20-10.
With their first possession of the fourth quarter, Ryan looked as if he had solved the Panthers defense with a 42-yard drive to get the Falcons to the Panthers 39-yard line before the defense would stiffen to force a fourth-and-7, with Ryan uncorking a deep ball to a wide-open Julio Jones running a dig-and-go that would cut the lead to—oh, wait–what happened?
Another angle of the Julio Jones drop pic.twitter.com/PyC7dGoRkM
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 5, 2017
Well, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Perhaps cornerback Kevon Seymour said it best after the game when asked what went through his head seeing Jones drop the ball.
“Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you so much.”
The Falcons would continue their offensive turnaround on the next drive with a seven-play, 92-yard touchdown drive that featured a 40-yard completion to Taylor Gabriel in which he cut around Kevon Seymour and accelerated inside the Panthers red zone and was followed by a 19-yard touchdown pass to Tevin Coleman to cut the lead to 20-17 with 3:25 left in the game.
The Panthers got the ball back and immediately went three-and-out to give the ball back to the Falcons with 2:35 left in the game. With the game on the line, the first play was a swing pass that Kurt Coleman stopped in the backfield with a hard-hitting open-field tackle to take the game to the two-minute warning. The second was Kawann Short putting a hit on Matt Ryan to force an incompletion. The third was an incompletion where Matt Ryan couldn’t find anyone open, and on fourth down, the Panthers would come up with another stop, their third of the game, as Luke Kuechly and Kevon Seymour would converge on Taylor Gabriel to force another turnover on downs to get an important divisional win.
Additional Notes:
- Center Ryan Kalil was inactive for the fifth time this season, with Tyler Larsen again starting in place of the six-time Pro Bowler. Brenton Bersin, who was resigned to the team on Wednesday following the trade of Kelvin Benjamin to the Buffalo Bills, was active for the team.
- Jonathan Stewart has had three fumbles each of the last three seasons, but had two in his first four carries. He would finish with 11 carries for 21 yards and only three carries in the second half.
- The Panthers are now 6-0 when leading after halftime thus far in 2017; they led 14-10 at the half.
- In their second game back from injury, Kurt Coleman and Luke Kuechly would again lead the team in tackles with 21 tackles combined for the second week in a row.
- Tight end Chris Manhertz entered the NFL’s concussion protocol in the first quarter and did not return.
- Mario Addison and Wes Horton each had a sack for the Panthers, Addison has 6.5 on the season and has had over six sacks for four consecutive seasons.
- The Panthers held Devonta Freeman to just 46 yards rushing, the 13th straight game the team has gone without allowing a 100-yard rusher. That’s the second longest streak in the NFL, and only once before in team history (2002) has the team gone nine straight games to open the season without allowing one.
- In their first game after trading Kelvin Benjamin, Devin Funchess would finish with five catches for a season-high 86 yards. No Panther would catch a pass aside from Funchess and rookies Curtis Samuel and Christian McCaffrey.
