4 reasons why Carolina Panthers lost at the Falcons in Week 1

Why did the Carolina Panthers end up losing at the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1 to get their 2023 campaign off on a bad note?

The season did not open the way many people around the Carolina Panthers organization envisioned on Sunday. The Atlanta Falcons defeated Frank Reich's men 24-10 in a game where many things went wrong.

Previous games in Atlanta have gone poorly for Carolina. Unfortunately for the new regime, Sunday afternoon was no different.

That said, what are the four primary reasons the Panthers lost against the Falcons?

Carolina Panthers run defense

Since Arthur Smith took over as the Falcons head coach, they have been a run-oriented team focused on ball control. Sunday was a clinic by Atlanta.

Newly minted Bijan Robinson scored a receiving touchdown on a screen and added 56 rushing yards. While Tyler Allgeier rushed for 75 yards and two scores as well.

The Carolina Panthers defense did a solid job for most of the game to shut down the Atlanta passing game, but there were plays where the Falcons gashed Ejiro Evero's defense for long runs. The second half, in particular, wasn't good.

The Falcons called a few counterplays to cut to the backside against the aggressive Carolina defense. And they found a lot of success.

There will not be too many games this season where the run defense is challenged by as good of a rushing attack as the Falcons have. But if Carolina wants to become an elite defense, they will need more out of the front seven against the run.

Despite that, the Panthers' defense still performed well in the game, and they are not largely to blame for the 0-1 start.