CHARLOTTE — If you ask any coach or player which game is most important, they'll say the next one, because it's the only one they have. But this Sunday's game has a few extra layers. After coming off a 59-37 loss to the Chicago Bears, Carolina is looking to bounce back, and they have a chance to do so against a divisional opponent.

After every NFC South team lost in Week 1, this Sunday's matchup is a chance for a team to take control of the standings. And after needing every divisional win to become NFC South champions last year, the Panthers are well aware of how small the margin for error is here.

"You try to understand that it's a long season, but at the end of the season you look back at these games, like that's the difference," said linebacker Devin Lloyd this week. "One game is the difference, and so they're all big."

this Sunday's matchup is a chance for a team to take control of the standings. And after needing every divisional win to become NFC South champions last year, the Panthers are well aware of how small the margin for error is here.

"You try to understand that it's a long season, but at the end of the season you look back at these games, like that's the difference," said linebacker Devin Lloyd this week. "One game is the difference, and so they're all big."

The Panthers have won four of their last five against the Falcons, and Bryce Young has won four in a row as a starting quarterback in this series. The Falcons are coming off a 20-13 loss to the Steelers and practiced all week with quarterback questions surrounding their top three passing options.

But anything can happen in a divisional matchup, and records often go out the window. There are still several contributing factors, though, so get ready for the game with these five things to watch.

Getting down Bijan Robinson

As long as Bijan Robinson is on the field, any game plan will have to center around him. He is the Falcons' offense even when there aren't quarterback questions, and even more so with the uncertainty around the position. Therefore, he is the center of the Panthers' defensive game plan as well.

Robinson has four straight games against the Panthers of 100-plus scrimmage yards and has averaged 133 yards per game in that span.

The goal? Get him down, and quickly. That's easier said than done.

Robinson forced 12 missed tackles in Week 1, tying a career high previously set in Week 17 of 2025. Nine of his missed tackles Sunday were on rushing plays. Robinson totaled 83 rushing yards and 99 yards after contact, his 10th career game with more yards after contact than total yards.

Last season, the Panthers allowed 2.8 yards after contact per carry, the eighth-fewest in the NFL. In Week 1 against the Bears, they allowed 4.8 yards after contact per carry, their highest in a game since Week 10, 2020 (5.2), and missed 13 tackles on rushing plays, tied for their third-most in a single game since at least 2018, when Next Gen Stats began tracking the number.

The Falcons use Robinson in a number of ways, since he can strike from anywhere on the field and force missed tackles as a receiver as well.

Through the air, Robinson gained a career-high 114 yards after the catch, the second-highest total by a running back in a single game since 2024, trailing only Jahmyr Gibbs in Week 11, 2025 (122 yards). He recorded 41 yards after contact and forced two missed tackles on catches. Robinson recorded a career-high 50 yards after contact on total receptions and forced three missed tackles on catches, tied for the third most in his career.

"A guy like that, it takes all 11 to be willing to tackle and get him down and not let him turn small yardage runs into a big play," said corner Jaycee Horn.

Despite Robinson's ability to plug into any and every part of the offense (he was the league's leader in scrimmage yards in 2025), he is first and foremost a dynamic running back. The Panthers are coming off a run defense performance in which they allowed 291 yards on the ground to the Bears. Bringing down Robinson will require every bit of focus and effort.

"It's just about execution," said defensive lineman Derrick Brown. "It's many moving pieces, but it's about execution. That's what it comes down to, being physical up front and trying to dominate a lot of scrimmage."

Canales told reporters on Friday that the Panthers will have second-year defensive tackle Cam Jackson — who the coach called " our biggest human on the team" — up for this game, with Bobby Brown III (back) ruled out.

Does Bryce have to spread the ball around more?

While Robinson is the Falcons' home run hitter, Bryce Young has become extremely adept at beating the Falcons. The Panthers quarterback, coaches, and teammates all downplayed Young's four-game winning streak this week, not wanting to feed any fire into something that has no actual, tangible impact on the game.

But as Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich acknowledged this week of Young, "He's become scary in a lot of different ways," and few teams are as aware of that as Atlanta.

Last season in a Week 11 win, Young put on a career-best and franchise-record performance with 448 passing yards and three touchdowns. And in his five total games against Atlanta (4-1), he's completed 66.7 percent of his passes for 1,133 yards, seven touchdowns, and just two interceptions for a 95.3 rating. Young has not lost to the Falcons since the 2023 opener.

So yes, the Falcons are well aware of what Young can do to them. But it is dependent on receivers (or tight end Tommy Tremble) making it easy.

In the 2025 visit to Atlanta, Tetairoa McMillan also had a career day, pulling in eight receptions for 130 yards and two touchdowns en route to a rookie of the year title. He is especially a favorite target for Young when blitzed: McMillan's target share was 34.1 percent against the blitz in 2025, the fourth-highest in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats.

The Falcons blitzed on 37.4% of passing plays in 2025, the second-highest blitz rate in the NFL. In Week 1, the Falcons blitzed on 11.6% of passing plays, their lowest rate in a game since Week 15, 2024 (10.9%).

Defenses are also going to pay a lot of attention to Jalen Coker, who has now posted consecutive games of 130-plus yards, with three touchdowns over that span. Coker accounted for nearly half of the yardage on Young's downfield throws in Week 1, according to NGS.

Suffice to say, McMillan and Coker will likely receive a lot of attention from the Falcons. They have shown a propensity for getting open anyway, and shifting coverage to one will open up the other. Still, if Atlanta goes all in on shutting down the duo, Young will likely look towards Xavier Legette and John Metchie III. The latter has also been practicing punt returns this week.

Canales referred to Metchie multiple times this week as a guy Young trusts, referencing their time together in college at Alabama. Young won the Heisman Trophy in 2021, a year in which Metchie had a career-best season with 96 receptions for 1,142 yards and eight touchdowns.

Can the defense rush Rush?

The Falcons finally named a starting quarterback late Friday afternoon. For the second week in a row, they'll put the ball in Cooper Rush's hands. He went 12-of-22 for 143 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions in the Falcons Week 1 loss to the Steelers (20-13).

The Steelers sacked Rush four times, despite posting the lowest blitz rate and second-lowest pressure rate in the league in Week 1.

The Panthers, however, blitzed Caleb Williams at the second-highest rate of any defense in their 2026 debut, at 51.3 percent of the time. The blitz, theoretically, worked most of the time, with a middle-of-the-pack (15th overall) pressure rate of 33.3 percent. The issue, of course, being that Williams makes magic on the run. He scrambled more than any other quarterback in Week 1 (minimum 10 plays) and had the fifth-highest success rate on those scrambles.

Rush, for what it's worth, did not scramble once during Week 1.

Does this give the pass-rush a chance to bounce back? Possibly. But it will require getting to Rush quickly enough. Even without the Steelers pressuring him much, Rush got the ball out with the seventh-quickest time in Week 1 (2.65 seconds).

Patrick Jones II was a limited participant in practice all week and is questionable for the game. Jones has not played since Week 4 of last season, when he went down with a back injury. A second, separate back injury hit him during training camp and forced him to miss the season opener. He is officially listed as questionable for the game. If he can take the field, Canales knows the outside linebacker can make an impact not only with Rush but Robinson as well.

"What Pat brings uniquely is just his physical style of play," Canales said. "He's a big man, floats around 260 pounds, 6-5, and plays with violence, with great effort and strain, all those things. That's his style of ball.

"Our guys play their tails off as well, you know, but Pat certainly does make a difference when he's out there, you know, in the run game, and he's versatile in terms of how he can rush, sometimes. Inside sometimes, on the edge, so it just has a lot of things that he brings to the group.

"And we're going to kind of take this thing, day to day, probably all the way up to game day to see if we can get him out there, but again we're always going to make decisions in what's best for the player."

The Panthers have been pleased with the play of Trevis Gipson , as he continues to become a bigger part of this pass-rush unit as well. He played 60 percent of the defensive snaps in Week 1, finishing with two tackles, including one for loss.

"I'll just talk about Trevis Gibson. He's got versatility as well," said Canales. "He's been able to help us and give us quality downs. He's played well all through camp, preseason, and in the game. A guy that can kind of do it all. He can go inside and rush. He can rush from the outside.

"He can play on first and second down, and he's certainly helpful on special teams, and a guy that we were able to get last year and has become one of my favorite guys in terms of just the great energy he brings every day, big smile, connects with his teammates, plays his butt off. So I love that we have a guy that can step into those roles."

Getting the run game going early

If Young is going to spread the ball around, whether it be to McMillan, Coker, or others, the run game is going to have to keep things open. In Week 1, the Panthers relied more on the passing game, picking up 353 of their 478 yards through the air. But Canales and offensive coordinator Brad Idzik have maintained that this is a run-first offense, and without that ability, the call sheet can diminish.

The Falcons secondary features All-Pro Jessie Bates III and A.J. Terrell Jr. Terrell is questionable for Sunday with a shoulder injury. However, he told reporters on Thursday he expects to play. Atlanta also added Xavier Watts last season. In his rookie season, Watts had 11 passes defensed and five interceptions.

A stout rushing attack can negate and open up some of the backfield options. That will ask a lot of Chuba Hubbard.

"He looked fresh," Idzik said of Hubbard in Week 1. The running back was sidelined early in 2025 with a hamstring injury and never saw the same snap share the rest of the year as Rico Dowdle took control of the unit during Hubbard's absence.

After an offseason targeting his hamstring, Hubbard says he feels better than ever, and Idzik saw it in action in the opener, on the play before a deep touchdown to Coker.

"(There was a run), a simple wide zone run that we give to Chuba, and he's roaring off the ball and he gets his 5 yards and I went right up to him after that drive, and I said, 'You getting us 5 rather than a grimy 3 — just because of his aggressiveness off the ball and the way the O-line just came off the ball — that keeps us ahead of the sticks and that allows us to play balanced football and take play action shots.

"That all comes back to Chuba just playing fast and aggressive, and I showed that to the whole group, because I really want them all to think that way. If we come off fast and aggressive, we can rotate guys in.

"I want them to be fresh. I want them to have that mentality every time they're touching the ball and not be afraid of,'Hey, if I come out for a snap or two, like that's going to limit my carries.' It's like, no, I want those carries to look like that's the only one you got for the day. And I thought Chuba, every touch he had, it looked like that."

Metchie takes over the return game

If Dave Canales said it once this week, he said it a thousand times: John Metchie III being on the field Sunday has little to do with his status as a punt and kickoff returner, and much more to do with his ability as a receiver, especially considering the uncertainty around Jalen Coker earlier in the week (Coker is good to play Sunday).

"(Return) is something that we're going to ask him to do, and he's taking to the opportunity. He loves this challenge of it. This move wasn't about punt return. I wanted to make that clear," Canales reiterated Friday. "This was about a guy that Bryce trusts, a guy that's shown us versatility."

However, Metchie's presence does give the Panthers a pair of receivers' hands to send back for special teams returns. Carolina waived Jimmy Horn Jr. earlier in the week in an effort to balance some roster numbers. Horn signed with the Cleveland Browns practice squad, meaning that until Trevor Etienne returns from Injured Reserve (he must remain there at least the first four weeks, and with a Week 5 bye, his earliest return could be Week 6), Carolina was without an experienced returner.

Metchie has returned seven kickoffs in his NFL career for 120 yards, but has never returned a punt in a regular-season game. In an effort to bolster that depth this offseason, the Panthers tried several guys at the position during preseason games, including Metchie. He led the team with four kickoff returns for 111 yards. He also returned one punt for 8 yards.

Simply fielding the punts cleanly is all he's being asked to do this weekend. There also, as always, remains the possibility of calling someone up from the practice squad for the role.