The Falcoholic
The Falcons take to the road for their second divisional matchup of the season, and this one against a team that has been a little brother of sorts since entering the NFL in 1995. Atlanta has an overall 37-23 lead through 60 total games against the Carolina Panthers
It’s been 30 years of Panthers football, and they have faced off against the Falcons exactly twice in every one of those seasons. Those first three years, the new expansion franchise actually had the upper hand, going 4-2 against the Birds.
Between 1998 and 2002, however, Atlanta won nine out of 10 games over their I-85 rivals and they haven’t looked back as far as the series lead has been concerned. Carolina’s best run came in Cam Newton’s prime, between 2012 and 2015, when they won five out of six against the Falcons but that was immediately followed with Matt Ryan leading the Birds to eight wins in the next nine games head to head.
Of late, the spoils have consistently been shared, with a split happening in each of the last five years.
It was pride on the line for Carolina while the Falcons were still mathematically alive in the NFC South race when these teams kicked off in the 2024 season finale, Atlanta coming off a disappointing Sunday Night Football defeat to Washington, which lost them control of their own destiny.
Elsewhere, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went on to beat the New Orleans Saints so this one wound up being moot in the grand scheme of things, but it was an explosive shootout between Michael Penix and Bryce Young, leading both fanbases to an entire offseason of optimism drawn primarily from this game.
Following a pair of matched field goals in the first quarter, these teams combined for five second quarter touchdowns, capped off with Penix leading an 81-yard scoring drive in less than 40 seconds before the break to take a 24-17 lead. Bryce Young was the one who stayed hot through the third quarter, flipping that seven point advantage in Carolina’s favor by leading two TD drives, before the Falcons successfully caught up in the fourth.
The two young quarterbacks combined to account for eight touchdowns and it felt like the winner of the coin toss in overtime would win the game, which is exactly what happened after it went in Carolina’s favor. Jimmy Lake’s defense was as helpless as ever, as Young put together an easy 70-yard drive capped off by a game winning Miles Sanders 1-yard touchdown plunge.
