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.
Carolina Panthers' lack of WR separation
It is safe to say the absence of D.J. Moore will hurt the Carolina Panthers a lot this season. And his absence was glaring during a poor loss at the Atlanta Falcons to begin the 2023 campaign.
One of the bright spots from the Week 1 loss was the performance of the offensive line. Many times in the game, Bryce Young had a lot of time to read the defense in the pocket, but completions were hard to come by. And while the rookie quarterback should do better, the receiving core had a poor performance in terms of creating space.
While the rookie quarterback did not play well, a portion of Young's incompletions are on his receivers not making plays or running good routes. And there are a few plays when the rookie signal-caller had to throw the ball away because everyone was tightly covered by Atlanta's defense.
More repetitions and built-up chemistry between Young and his receiving core will help the passing offense improve throughout the season. Getting D.J. Chark on the field after he recovers from his injury will also help, but early signs from the preseason and in Week 1 are not good.
Carolina Panthers' generic offensive scheme
If Week 1 was an indication of what Frank Reich's offensive play calling will be, more and more fans will be clamoring for Thomas Brown to take over those duties relatively soon. Multiple times in the game, there were situations where creativity and aggressiveness were optimal, yet the majority of the Carolina Panthers' passing plays were short route concepts.
The rushing attack did a solid job throughout the game of moving the Panthers forward. However, the NFL is a passing league, and the statistics from Sunday speak for themselves.
Bryce Young went 20-for-38 with only 146 passing yards. The yards per passing attempt was a woeful 3.6.
Even though Young and his receivers did a poor job creating plays that could have been there, other coaches around the league always find ways to scheme guys open. The Panthers did that a few times when creative plays were called, but those were rare.
Additionally, there were times when the offense seemed congested. While D.J. Chark being out removes a deep threat for Carolina, that does not mean the primary play call should be short routes.
The two deep shots Young took would have been big plays if he and his receivers executed slightly better. More of those calls will provide the Panthers offense more room to throw the ball underneath and give them chances at chunk plays.
No matter how he does it, Reich has to be a more aggressive play-caller if he wants Carolina's offense to get going.
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.