With only five seconds left for the Carolina Panthers from the 26-yard line, quarterback Cam Newton targeted the rookie wideout that had taken a catch and run 51 yards to the end zone – the first catch of his young career – on the previous possession; Newton lofted a ball towards the corner of the end zone, in between two defenders and what appeared to be directly into the hands of first-round pick DJ Moore.
Who couldn’t hang on.
“I was just trying to give somebody the opportunity to make a play,” said Cam Newton about his throw that bounced off both Robert Alford and Moore’s arms. “That was as close of a one-on-one as anybody had as I surveyed the field – and I just tried to give him a chance.”
“I had a good shot at it, but it came down so fast through his arms,” said Moore. “Real frustrating – you want to make that play for the team.”
A drop of a catchable ball – albeit one that would have made for a spectacular catch – was par for the course on a day when Newton’s pass catchers let him down throughout the game, be it a pass that bounced off the hands of running back CJ Anderson and into safety Ricardo Allen’s for an interception – or through the hands of rookie tight end Ian Thomas in the end zone. Newton would finish with 13 incompletions, but at least seven of those should have been caught.
But the blame doesn’t lie completely with the offense – a loss can never be attributed to one side of the ball.
The Carolina Panthers defense prides itself on being able to stop the run – they hadn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher in 21 games – since Thomas Rawls went over the century mark in 2016. That franchise record was broken in Atlanta Sunday after Tevin Coleman rushed for 107 yards on 16 carries – a symbol of the struggle the Panthers defense faced all day – and Matt Ryan rushed for two scores for the first time in his career as the Panthers fell to the Falcons 31-24 .
After a dominating performance in their opening game against the Cowboys, Eric Washington’s group couldn’t replicate their success against the division rival Atlanta Falcons as they fell to the Falcons and 1-1 on the season. After only allowing 293 yards and eight points to Dallas a week earlier, the Panthers defensive unit allowed Atlanta to almost eclipse those numbers in the first half alone as the Falcons scored 17 points and racked up 222 yards in the first thirty minutes – their first drive of the second half would result in a touchdown as well, their third consecutive score.
“We just missed tackles, man,” said Kawann Short, who finished with six tackles as he expressed his frustration after the game. “[We didn’t] get in our gaps, we didn’t communicate as well up front – we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and not let it get ahead of ourselves.”
Before the Falcons would pull away, an early controversy would spark the Panthers to an early lead.
Although there are times when Cam Newton seems indestructible – particularly when he’s trucking a safety for a first down or shaking off a linebacker to avoid a sack or leaping over a defender towards the end zone for a score; but as he writhed on the ground after a vicious shot to the chin from the crown of the helmet of Falcons safety Damontae Kazee, it looked as if the Falcons had found a way to eliminate the Panthers biggest weapon in his return to his hometown.
Turns out he didn’t even miss a play.
While the referees consulted to eventually eject Kazee after the hit on Newton, who had given himself up in a slide after a ten yard third-down scramble, Newton was presumably evaluated for a concussion in the blue medical tent on the sidelines – but Newton’s fired up screaming shown on the FOX broadcast after the hit may have tipped fans off that the 6-5 quarterback wasn’t as hurt as it appeared at first blush; six plays later and Newton found Jarius Wright in the middle of the end zone for a five-yard touchdown and an early 10-3 lead.
“It looked worse than it did, I’m just lucky nothing pretty much happened,” said Newton. “This game isn’t fit for cheap shots like that, but at the end of the day, I can’t blame him – he’s playing as hard as he can and I’m playing as hard as I can. That’s what this football game brings.”
Newton would finish with 32 of 45 for 335 yards and three scores to go along with 42 yards rushing – and 100% of the snaps.
The lead wouldn’t last, however, as the Falcons would use a key third down pass interference penalty on rookie cornerback Donte Jackson to spark a nine-play, 75-yard drive that would end in the first touchdown reception of Calvin Ridley’s career – Ridley would also have a key 22-yard reception on the Falcons’ next drive, a seven play, 85-yard drive that took only 1:13 to complete and would send the Falcons into halftime with a 17-10 lead after a short touchdown catch by tight end Austin Hooper.
Jackson would come down with his first interception to start the second half, a deep throw intended for Julio Jones that hung up for too long after pressure was applied to Ryan by defensive end Wes Horton – the rookie would leave the game in the third quarter with a hamstring injury and not return after notching his first interception.
It was an erratic day for the brash Jackson; ups and downs are to be expected for a rookie starting his first road game, but the Falcons first touchdown drive was not a good one for the Panthers’ second-round pick: a juke by Tevin Coleman resulted in a 36-yard gain – but the running back was chased down from behind by a recovering Jackson as he flashed the 4.3 speed that made him one of the fastest players in the 2017 Draft; Jackson was also responsible for Ridley on the rookie wideout’s touchdown grab – Jackson would finish with six tackles to go along with the interception, but Ridley would win the battle of the rookies with four catches for 64 yards and a score while DJ Moore would match Ridley’s first score with his own – a 51-yard catch and run to pull the Panthers within seven in the fourth quarter before their final effort fell just short.
The Panthers would pull to within one score in the fourth quarter with a touchdown drive engineered by Cam Newton and capped off with a three-yard touchdown pass to Torrey Smith to make it 24-17, but the Falcons would answer back immediately with a seven-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Ryan’s second rushing touchdown of the day before Moore’s touchdown.
Additional Notes:
- Fourth-round pick Marquis Haynes was active for the first time in his career – DE Bryan Cox, Jr. was inactive after getting a jersey in Week 1 and having two tackles in the season-opening win over the Cowboys.
- After only allowing two third-down conversions in Week 1 against the Cowboys, they allowed the Falcons to convert three times in the first quarter alone.
- On the same play in which Kazee was ejected in the second quarter, wide receiver Torrey Smith was flagged for a retaliation penalty as he came to the aid of his quarterback – Smith was also called for two false start penalties in the first half.
- Though it was announced as a sellout, there were lots of empty seats – Hurricane Florence was forecasted to be in the metro Atlanta area, but missed Atlanta – Charlotte wasn’t so lucky as the storm deluged the Queen City with rain and caused flooding in the Charlotte metro area Sunday.
- The Panthers started Chris Clark at left tackle after signing the veteran lineman on Wednesday – the offensive line struggled at times, but was fairly effective, giving Cam Newton time to pass for the most part and opening up holes in the run game; the Panthers averaged over six yards per carry, albeit on only 17 carries – Christian McCaffrey would finish with 14 catches for 102 yards.
- Da’Norris Searcy left shortly before halftime with his second concussion of the 2018 season – Searcy also missed the final two games of the preseason with a head injury.
- With Greg Olsen breaking his foot last week, rookie Ian Thomas was expected to step up in his absence: the fourth-rounder only had two catches for 10 yards and an egregious drop in the end zone on a perfect pass from Cam Newton.
