For the eighth time in the last nine seasons, the Falcons have stumbled out of the starting gate with a defeat in their opening game of the season. It was a rock fight between Atlanta and Pittsburgh, and one where an inept Cooper Rush-led offense was too much for the defense to overcome.
Now, the Birds welcome the division rival Carolina Panthers to town for their home opener, in a midst of a tumultuous week at Flowery Branch where (as of this writing) we still have no idea who the starting quarterback will even be.
It’s only September, but it feels like things could start heading south fast if the Falcons don’t take control of this ship’s steering wheel.
Here is the scenario the Falcons face if they beat the Carolina Panthers in Week 2, as well as if they lose.
If the Falcons win
A lot of the noise around Flowery Branch will begin to calm for the time being, as the team has been routinely making national headlines due to the quarterback uncertainty. It’s feasible that the uncertainty remains even after this game, but winning games is the cure for many issues.
They will also mark an end to a three game losing streak the Falcons currently have in games against the Panthers. They have also lost four of the last five matchups. Carolina has owned this game over the last couple of years and Kevin Stefanski’s first real impact would be stopping that bleeding.
The difficult part of the schedule in October and onward still looms, and the Falcons will be doing themselves a great service with a victory, ahead of their Thursday Night Football game in Green Bay next week. They likely need to be able to scrounge two wins by the end of the first quarter of the season and this would get them halfway there, while also giving them a big division win early on.
We’re still in the “way too early” part of the season when the division standings are in question, but Atlanta would come out of Sunday in first place in the NFC South due to their superior division record, even if Tampa and New Orleans both win to match their 1-1 overall record.
If the Falcons lose
Things could start going sideways really quickly. That difficult part of the schedule I referenced begins in Week 5, and the team really can’t afford to be sitting at anything worse than 2-2 going into that stretch. Starting in an 0-2 hole puts immense pressure on them to win primetime road games at Green Bay and New Orleans over the next two weeks, and I could argue that this game against Carolina will be their easiest until Week 14 in Cleveland.
Stefanski will follow in the footsteps of Arthur Smith in 2021 as a new Falcons head coach to endure losses in his first two games. He’s on a five year contract and this is a very long term project with 2026 maybe not being a win now year, but that won’t relieve the angst from a fanbase which is creeping closer and closer to a full decade without seeing any success.
For the first time in their respective histories in this matchup, the Panthers will have beaten the Falcons on four consecutive occasions. It will also be just the second time in which they won this specific game five times over the course of six tries. the first coming between 2012 and 2015, in the middle of Cam Newton’s prime.
