ATLANTA — The NFC South suffered the indignity of having four teams finish with losing records last season and take Week 1 losses to open the 2026 season.
Panthers run defense vs. Falcons running back Bijan Robinson. Last week: Panthers lost Bears 59-37; Falcons lost to Steelers 20-13. The Panthers allowed two Chicago running backs to reach 100 rushing yards in the Bears’ 59-37 win last week in Charlotte. Overall, the Bears rushed for 291 yards and six touchdowns and averaged 7.5 yards per carry. Robinson had 21 carries for 83 yards and eight receptions for 90 yards in the Falcons’ 20-13 loss at Pittsburgh as the focal point of an offense that had a limited passing game. — The Panthers and Bears combined to score 96 points in Week 1, making it the highest-scoring season-opening game in NFL history. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they gave up 59 of those points, the most in franchise history. — Panthers WR Jalen Coker had eight catches for a career-high 138 yards and two touchdowns in the Week 1 shootout with the Bears. — Young is 4-1 against the Falcons, completing 110 of 165 pass attempts for 1,133 yards and seven touchdowns. He is 10-30 as a starter against the rest of the league.
Obviously those division wins mean so much when you’re trying to accomplish that goal. You have the same process for every game — you don’t get too high or too low, but this is a business and we are all players and we understand what is at stake every time there is a division opponent. We know what this game means. Despite continued uncertainty at quarterback this week, the Falcons’ bigger problem may be finding a way to contain Young and the Panthers’ passing game. “I think they’ve done a lot of really good things to help him bring out his strengths in his game, whether that’s them going to empty or rhythm-type of throws to help them out. I think that he’s definitely become a really high-level quarterback in this league for sure.”
Young set a franchise record by passing for 448 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions in Carolina’s 30-27 overtime win at Atlanta to sweep the Falcons last season.
“Coach talks about it all of the time,” Young said. ”Our first goal is to win the South. “He’s a very smart quarterback,” said Falcons safety Jessie Bates III of Young.
