Panthers 34, Falcons 3: Devin Lloyd Intercepts Two as Carolina Forces Five Turnovers

The Carolina Panthers forced five turnovers and held the Atlanta Falcons to one field goal on Sunday, winning 34-3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta a week after giving up 59 points to Chicago. Linebacker Devin Lloyd intercepted two passes and returned one 16 yards for a touchdown.

The win evens Carolina's record at 1-1 and leaves the Panthers tied with New Orleans for first place in the NFC South. Atlanta, which started Cooper Rush at quarterback with Tua Tagovailoa and Michael Penix Jr. both on the inactive list, fell to 0-2.

Two possessions, two turnovers

On the first play from scrimmage, Rush scrambled to his right for 9 yards and lost the ball when safety Zakee Wheatley, playing in his first NFL game, knocked it loose. Safety Nick Scott recovered at the Atlanta 35, and a replay review upheld the call. "I was hoping I was down," Rush said afterward. "Got to hang on to it either way."

Carolina needed eight plays to cover those 35 yards and scored on fourth-and-goal from the 3, when quarterback Bryce Young threw to running back Chuba Hubbard for the touchdown. "To me, it was a no brainer in that one," head coach Dave Canales said of going for it.

Atlanta's second possession lasted four plays. On third-and-5, Lloyd tipped a Rush pass intended for running back Bijan Robinson, and linebacker Bobby Okereke caught the deflection for his first interception as a Panther. According to the team, it was the first time Carolina had forced turnovers on consecutive drives to open a game since Week 1 of 2016, against Denver.

Ryan Fitzgerald's 37-yard field goal made it 10-0. Late in the first quarter, Atlanta went for it on fourth-and-1 at the Carolina 31, and Lloyd stopped the ball carrier for a 2-yard loss. "In that play specifically, I give them credit," Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said.

Lloyd's afternoon

Lloyd, who signed with Carolina in March, finished with nine tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, three passes defensed and two interceptions. The team's postgame notes say he is the first linebacker since 1982, when the sack became an official individual statistic, to record at least eight tackles, two interceptions, an interception return for a touchdown and a sack in one game.

Both interceptions came in the third quarter, a little more than four minutes of game time apart. With Carolina ahead 27-3, he picked off Rush at the Carolina 27 and returned the ball 53 yards to the Atlanta 20. The Panthers drove to the 2 and turned it over on downs.

Atlanta then sent in backup quarterback Jack Strand. On third-and-2 from the Falcons' 10, Strand threw his first pass of the game, intended for receiver Jahan Dotson. Lloyd caught it at the 16 and ran it back for a touchdown, making it 34-3 with 2:58 left in the third quarter. Neither team scored again.

"I don't know if I've seen a better performance out of a linebacker in 17 years of coaching in the NFL," Canales said. He added: "I didn't realize his hands were that good."

What changed from Week 1

Chicago ran for 291 yards against Carolina in the opener. Atlanta ran for 157 on 32 carries, an average of 4.9, with Bijan Robinson gaining 72 on 16 attempts. Canales said the Falcons "had a couple runs that got out, but we were able to corral and get them down."

Carolina also faced Atlanta without two of its quarterbacks. The pregame inactive list gives no reason for Tagovailoa or Penix sitting out; asked about Penix afterward, Stefanski said, "Mike is continuing to progress." Asked how he weighed his defense's improvement against the quarterback it faced, Canales said, "It was a collective effort."

The offense

Young completed 23 of 36 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns without an interception. His 204 passing yards in the first half were the most of his career in a first half, according to the team.

The play Canales singled out came just before halftime. Atlanta had cut the lead to 13-3 on a 41-yard field goal with 1:07 left. Facing second-and-16 from its own 35 with 48 seconds remaining, Young threw deep to Xavier Legette for 55 yards, the longest catch of his career, per the team. Three plays later, Young found tight end Darren Waller for a 7-yard touchdown with 20 seconds left, and Carolina led 20-3 at the half.

"To me, that was the tipping point," Canales said of the Legette catch. "That was the shift in the momentum that we needed."

Waller scored again on a 12-yard catch on the opening drive of the third quarter. The team says he is the first Panthers tight end with two touchdown catches in a game since Greg Olsen in 2019. Tetairoa McMillan caught five passes for 101 yards. Jalen Coker caught eight for 66, which the team says makes him the first player in franchise history with eight catches in each of the season's first two games, and returned two punts for 49 yards.

Carolina did not turn the ball over, but it scored touchdowns on only three of six trips inside the Atlanta 20, ran for 68 yards on 22 carries and was penalized nine times for 63 yards. "We didn't finish some of those in the red zone. So left some stuff out there," Canales said, and he estimated the penalties "probably took 60 to 70 yards of rushing off of our game."

Atlanta's side

Rush completed 10 of 17 passes for 86 yards with two interceptions before Strand replaced him. Strand went 8 of 15 for 59 yards with the one interception, and lost a fumble on a sack in the final minute that defensive lineman Aaron Hall recovered. Atlanta also missed a 53-yard field goal wide right in the fourth quarter.

In his opening statement, Stefanski said giveaways and takeaways "are the key to this game." Atlanta gave the ball away five times and did not take it away once. "There's no way to win in the NFL like that," he said.

Reporters asked several Falcons about booing from the home crowd. "I'm going to be real, I do not blame them," linebacker Divine Deablo said. "They came here to see us win games, and we're not doing that right now."

Where it leaves them

Carolina has scored 71 points and allowed 62. The team says 71 is the most it has scored through two games in franchise history. Sunday was also Carolina's fourth straight win over Atlanta, which the team says is its longest winning streak in the series.

New Orleans is also 1-1 in the NFC South; Atlanta and Tampa Bay are 0-2. The Falcons play Green Bay on Thursday night. The Panthers play at Cleveland on Sunday, Sept. 27.