There's no getting around the fact that the Atlanta Falcons' offense was a dumpster fire in Pittsburgh last week.
Some of it was out of their control, to be fair. You don't plan for Tua Tagovailoa, your best available QB, to injure his oblique two days before the first game of the season, forcing you to hand the starting job to your 3rd-string QB Cooper Rush with no time to properly prepare him with first-team practice reps.
Add that misfortune to the already difficult task of having to face maybe the league's most ferocious defensive front on the road in your first game with an overhauled coaching staff, and you've got yourself a classic recipe for disaster. And that's exactly what it was.
Per rbsdm.com, the Falcons offense was 31st in Week 1 in overall EPA/Play, 28th in Success Rate, and dead last in both categories as a passing attack. Cooper Rush was completely shut out down the field, and finished with a league-worst -0.493 Adjusted EPA/Play. For reference, out of 59 qualified QBs in 2025 (min 50 att), Rush's Adj. EPA/Play from Sunday would have ranked 58th.
Yes, it was that bad. But there is legitimate hope for much, much better performances moving forward. Here are three reasons why Falcons fans should expect a fairly significant rebound from the offense in Week 2 against the Panthers in Mercedez-Benz Stadium.
Why to believe in the Atlanta Falcons' offense in their home opener
1. A more manageable matchup up front
The Steelers defensive front is notoriously disruptive as mentioned, but the Panthers' group is a completely differnet story. The Panthers just allowed 552 total yards and 59 points to the Chicago Bears, and a big reason was that Carolina only mustered a 16.1% pressure rate on Caleb Williams. That's the worst rate in the league in week 1.
The Falcons' offensive line should be able to protect whoever starts at QB much better in Week 2, and also get more push up front in the run game, which leads to reason number 2.
2. Bijan Robinson should have room in the run game
The Bears were able to dominate Carolina on the ground to the tune of 224 total yards and a whopping 8.0 yds/carry average. It was the worst run defense performance by EPA/Play allowed (0.378) in the league last week by far, and nothing against DeAndre Swift, but he is not Bijan Robinson. There's a chance that Robinson could win this game by himself (he almost did against Pittsburgh). All the Falcons have to do is give him consistent room to work, and he should have a big week 2.
3. More opportunities for explosives in the passing game
The Falcons' receiving group matches up well with a Panthers' secondary that features one stud CB in Jaycee Horn and not much else to rely on. The trio of Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Jahan Dotson should be able to find holes in Carolina's zone heavy defensive approach, and one would expect Kevin Stefanski to be able to move London around the formation enough to avoid Jaycee Horn on every snap, matching him up against some of their more suspect defenders in the secondary.
It doesn't have to be a dominant performance from the Falcons this week to make fans feel better about the direction of the season. The silver lining from the loss to Pittsburgh was just how good the defense was despite all the pieces missing up front. A solid outing against a bad defense would help alleviate the alarm bells going off in Atlanta.
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