2024 Week 6: Falcons 38 Panthers 20
I think this game was much closer than the score indicates. At the end of the third quarter, the Panthers were down 28-20 but Atlanta outscored them 10-0 in the 4th. This wasn’t a dominating game by the Falcons they’re just simply a better team.
The Falcons move up to (4-2) and lead the NFC South. It’s going to be a race to the division title between them and Tampa Bay, and I’ll be shocked if either team makes it out of the wildcard round.
The Panthers are (1-5) but they look better than a one-win team. If this team gets fully healthy they might win 2 or 3 more games this season. If they move back to Bryce they may eke out one more win. And that’s a big maybe.
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QB Report:
- The Falcons have a serious Kirk Cousins (19/30 for 225 yards, 1TD) problem. The injury he sustained last season looks to have aged him by a decade. He’s lost all zip, pep, pizzazz, and all the other z words from his game. The Falcons were smart to draft Michael Penix and if the Falcons go on a losing streak he may come in this year. At the very least he’ll be the starter in 2025. Kirko is only averaging 217 yards per game, if you ignore the 500-yard anomaly against TB.
- On the other hand, Andy Dalton (26/38 for 221 yards, 2 TDs/2 INTs) would be having a Sam Darnold-esc career revival if he were the one that ended up in Minnesota. I think Dalton looks great right now, he was the QB with all the zip, pep, and pizzazz in this game. He’s throwing into tight coverage successfully and is aggressive with where he puts the ball. Dalton knows when to take what the defense gives you and when to try and make a play… Kirk can hardly get the ball to a wide-open receiver.
RB Report:
- Tyler Allgeier (18-105-1, 1 catch for 3 yards) finally had a huge game and it was intentional. I’ve been saying for weeks now that Allgeier was a better back than Bijan Robinson (15-95-2, 3 catches for 10 yards) and I think head coach Raheem Morris knows it too. Bijan will still get his touches and more often than not, the majority of the touch count. That will just depend on the flow of the game. The Falcons will hide this as a split favoring Bijan but Allgeier gets most of the meaningful snaps, red zone, and short 3rd downs.
WR Report:
- The only player Cousins is throwing to is Drake London (6-74-1/10), open or not. If London were some kind of star, like Jefferson, then that makes sense… but Drake London is no different than any other big-bodied WR.
Darnell Mooney (3-38-0/5) was really close to a big game – Cousins overthrew him in the end zone and misplaced a throw that should have been a catch-and-run TD but instead was just a short 10-yard gain.
- Diontae Johnson (6-78-1/10) is working well with Dalton, the move to Andy has helped turn his career around.
The real surprise of the Panthers receiving group is that they’re actually getting UDFA WR Jalen Coker (3-30-0/3) involved. Coker was one of my favorite undrafted players this year, and we saw a little bit of his excellent route-running skills in the preseason. If Diontae Johnson is out this week he could have a big game.
image source: (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)