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

Carolina Panthers suffered back-breaking turnovers

Losing the turnover battle in the NFL is very tough to overcome, and the Carolina Panthers were not able to do that after going -3 in that statistic in the loss. Seventeen of the Atlanta Falcons' 24 points came from three turnovers.

Even with a lack of explosiveness on offense, the Panthers would have won the game if they had taken care of the football. Sadly, they did not.

All three turnovers were forced by Falcons safety Jessie Bates III, who was signed in free agency by Atlanta to bolster their defense. He made the biggest impact in the game on Sunday against Carolina, gaining two interceptions and forcing a Miles Sanders fumble.

Both interceptions by Young were misreads. Bates sat over two separate yet identical in-breaking routes and jumped them to give Atlanta short fields. The rookie will learn with playing time and improve, but those two picks were very costly.

Sanders has had fumbling issues throughout his career since his days at Penn State. One has to wonder if Chuba Hubbard will see more of the backfield snaps next week against the New Orleans Saints despite how good the former second-round pick can be when he is playing well.

Defensively, Carolina did all they could for the majority of the game, but every team in the NFL will struggle to win if the opposing team is handed three extra possessions in a game. That is exactly what the Panthers did against Atlanta.

If there is one thing that must be cleaned up for Week 2, it is the turnovers. If the Panthers make a trend of this throughout the campaign, it will be a long one.