Falcons
The flip side of the rough night for the Vikings offense in Week 2 was a Falcons defense that looks like it’s finally fixed some of the issues that have plagued it for legitimately years. Atlanta piled up six sacks and forced three turnovers while holding Minnesota to just six points. Several young players added in the past two offseasons came up big, including first-round DEs James Pearce and Jalon Walker , fourth-round CB Billy Bowman Jr. and third-round S Xavier Watts .
“It’s what we talked about all throughout the offseason, those guys having big roles for us whether it was rushing, whether it was ball hawking for us. Both of those things were on display today,” Falcons HC Raheem Morris said via Tori McElhaney of the team’s website. “I can’t say enough about those young guys. I can’t say enough about what they’ve done. They’re learning how to play football every single day. They are learning how to live this NFL life every single day and they’re loving it and they’re embracing it.”
The Panthers fell short on a furious comeback attempt in Week 2 against the Cardinals, coming from down 27-3 in the third quarter to within a drive of taking the lead after a successful onside kick. But the theoretical game-winning drive went sidewise with QB Bryce Young missing on all six of his pass attempts, only one of which was in the direction of first-round WR Tetairoa McMillan who had six grabs for 100 yards on the day.
“Once T-Mac made a couple of plays, they started to do some things coverage-wise to try to minimize what he was doing on that side. And Bryce did a good job finding his other progressions in different concepts,” Panthers HC Dave Canales explained via the Athletic’s Joe Person. “Now once they do that, the other guys have to continue to make their plays and show up for us.”
The way the Panthers responded after falling behind was a silver lining the locker room was holding on to afterward, even acknowledging there’s a lot to clean up to get to where they want to be as a team.
“There was obviously a time when it didn’t look the best and no one flinched. No one batted an eye. Just went to the next play, and I’m super proud of that,” Young said. “We just want to do a better job executing. We want to make sure that we give ourselves a chance.”
