Tropical Storm Nicole caused some messy conditions in Thursday night's game between the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panther.
11 days after the Falcons beat the panthers in a wild game at Atlanta, the panthers came through with a 25-15 victory.
The Carolina Panthers are relevant in the south. The division is winnable for a team that is 3-7 after their victory over the Falcons. Carolina is only a game and a half behind the first place team in the league. The Falcons have a 0-1 record against it. The Carolinas have the best division record and are the 27th toughest team in the league. The New Orleans team's schedule is the toughest in the league. Don't laugh anymore. The 3-8-1 Carolina team won the final four to win the South and then the playoffs.
Since trading star running back Christian McCaffrey after a Week 6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, the Carolinas have averaged 169 yards on the ground. They averaged 135.7 yards, 11th best in the league. The number is going up because of the team's performance against Atlanta. He had at least 118 yards rushing in three of the four games. Carolina has a chance to be in games if it continues to run the ball and play good defense.
PJ Walker wasn't great, but he didn't have to be on a night when the running game was on fire. Is he going to keep the starting job against the Ravens? He had a chance to pass to DJ Moore in the end zone, but he didn't see Sullivan open in the first quarter. He was taken out of field goal range by a sack. The panthers want him to do more. Sam Darnold is a quarterback who could be given another chance.
The panthers will make Walker the backup next week, and that's a bold prediction. At best, Baker Mayfield is inactive and at worst, the backup. The team wants to get a look at the young quarterback, who was 4-7 as the starter last year. It will happen sometime next week or soon after that. He's a player the team could consider as a veteran to help mentor the team's next quarterback.
At Ravens, the next game will be played. It's Sunday.
It's just awful.
The Falcons were described that way on Thursday. Nothing worked in prime time. It's not close.
The offense wasn't effective. The defense couldn't defend itself. The kicker missed two extra points for the first time in his career The Falcons didn't look like they had a chance in the game, and it doesn't seem like a big deal on the stat sheet.
Atlanta will rue another missed opportunity to get to first place in a poor division in a contest that they could have won and brought them back to.500.
The ineffectiveness of the division doesn't mean that the Falcons are out of the race, but it does mean that Atlanta is back in the thick of things. That's right, so. It's pretty ugly.
The Marcus Mariota - KylePitts misconnection continued. The first play of the game was a connection between the two players. He wasn't able to find his tight end again until the fourth quarter. After just two catches for 28 yards on eight targets, the quarterback-tight end combination of Mariota and Pitts entered the game connecting on less than half of their passes.
The biggest hole in the game plan was caused by the fact that Carolina would run the ball. That did not make a difference. The Atlanta defense was completely overwhelmed by the 236 yard run by the Carolinas. In the first half, the Falcons had Mykal Walker and Troy Andersen in the middle.
The quarterback breakdown is more like broken down. Even if the statistics aren't as bad, this was the worst game of the season for the quarterback. His stat line is below average but his play was worse. His deep passes weren't always on target, and for one of the first times in 2022, his decision-making was poor. He wasn't assisted by many low snaps from center Drew Dalman and shaky offensive line play.
The silver lining is that it's a cool moment. He scored his first receiving touchdown. He got his first score on his fourth team.
The next game is against the Bears. It's Sunday.
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