The Carolina Panthers were able to get their 100th regular season win, Sunday, against the Atlanta Falcons.  Though the game wasn’t a blow out, the Panthers were able to put together a pretty convincing W, with the offense churning out 401 yards, and the defense limiting the Falcons to nine points.

On the third play of the game the Panthers took the lead with a Richard Marshall interception returned for a touchdown.  The play was called back, however, on a ruffing the passer call by referee Ed Hochuli.  Hochuli, who blew a call two weeks ago, effectively handing a win to Denver, is going to be in for a rough year, because every mistake he makes from now on will be under serious scrutiny.

Offensively the Panthers did just what they wanted to do.  Good rushing in the first quarter by DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart helped Jake Delhomme open up the deep passing game.  Finally the Panthers have gotten that second receiver back, with Muhsin Muhammad raking up 147 yards and one touchdown.  If teams continue to double team Steve Smith like they did Sunday, Moose will be the one receiving all the man-on-man, which means big numbers for the 35 year old receiver.

Rookie running back Jonathan Stewart was impressive as well, collecting 52 yards on 14 carries as well a a very nice touchdown run.  Stewart has shown great patience and ability to break tackles in the first few games, and has lived up to his first round expectations so far.  The one issue I still have with the offense is the number of pre-snap penalties they’ve had.  A false start and an illegal formation ended up stalling the offense on more that one occasion.  Also the play calling, on one particular play at least, has been a little questionable.  At one point in the second half the Panther were faced with a third an short, but instead of running it with Jonathan Stewart for the easy pickup, they threw the ball down field, resulting in an incomplete pass and a punt.  You go out and draft Otah and Stewart so you can pound the ball in those situations.

Defensively there is nothing to complain about.  The Panthers have still yet to allow a 100 yard rusher, very impressive considering who they’ve been up against.  The secondary has been just as good, limiting Matt Ryan to only 168 yards.  This is the kind of defense that will allow the Panthers to win games, even if the offense isn’t having a great day.

There were a couple of miscues on special teams with that blocked punt and would be missed field goal, but John Kasay has been money all year on field goals, and Rhys Lloyd invaluable on kickoffs.  The Panthers should have another easy match-up next week against the Chiefs before they travel to Tampa to take on the Bucs in another big NFC South divisional game.

Tags: falcons, panthers, richard marshall