4 Biggest takeaways for the Atlanta Falcons in ugly week one win

1. Atlanta doesn't win this game without Jessie Bates

While this is somewhat pointing out the obvious it cannot be stressed enough how differently that this game plays out without Bates. Atlanta's defense played well but struggled at times to get home on the pass rush and Bates covered this up forcing three turnovers that all turned into points.

It is easy enough to make a case that without Bates not only does Carolina win this game but it tilts out of hand early.

Jessie Bates was an offense unto himself consistently on Sunday cooling down Bryce Young and making the rookie second guess himself after settling in early. Atlanta's secondary was consistently impressive and looked to be greatly improved even without the new additions of Mike Hughes and Jeff Okudah.

Bates was Atlanta's largest contract in free agency in the 2023 off-season and one game in it is clearly already worth the high cost. This is the player who helped the Bengals' defense make life easy for Joe Burrow and a Bengals team that clearly missed Jessie against the Browns on Sunday. There is still room for improvement for the defense overall but it is hard to have a more impressive first game than Bates just did.