ATLANTA — For over a year, Tetairoa McMillan has kept a shirt in his closet, waiting, knowing the right time to debut it would come eventually.

On Saturday, while packing for the Panthers' first road trip of the season to Atlanta, he pulled the shirt out. It was time.

He gave his teammate a heads-up that he'd be wearing it, and when McMillan walked into Mercedes-Benz Stadium Sunday morning, it was with a smile and a classic, vintage-washed Xavier Legette T-shirt, the Panthers receiver's face plastered in a blue-tinted collage.

"I just felt like it was a good day to wear an XL shirt," grinned McMillan after the Panthers 34-3 win over the Falcons. "I told him yesterday I was wearing his shirt. I was like, 'You're going to go off.'

And he was right.

Legette might have pulled in a mere two passes, but they were vital ones, including a 55-yard reception in the second quarter.

"What a big play," gushed coach Dave Canales. "To me, that was the tipping point. That was the shift in the momentum that we needed."

At that point, the Panthers were leading 13-3, but the Falcons had just scored their first points of the day on the previous drive. The Carolina defense had smothered Cooper Rush and the Falcons the entire first half, including coming away with two turnovers (they'd finish with five).

The offense had moved the ball, but penalties pulled them back, and they had already stalled twice in the red zone. The group needed a jolt of energy going into halftime to squash out any momentum the Falcons had from making it a 10-point game.

After a sack moved Bryce Young and the offense back 6 yards, they were facing second-and-16 from their own 35-yard line, with Legette isolated on the right side of the formation. Young wound up and heaved a pass deep down the middle of the field. By the time the Falcons' secondary realized what was happening, Legette had split the defense and hauled in the 55-yard pass.

"X's doing a great job of winning on a route like that," bragged Young. "Just trusting him to put it up there, him running underneath it, making a contested catch, but that's him. That's the stuff that he brings. There's no surprise that he was able to get open or make a catch like that."

The catch got the Panthers into the red zone, and two plays later, Young hit Darren Waller for the first of his two touchdowns on the day. This one made it 20-3 and gave Carolina all of the momentum heading into halftime.

"We needed a big play to be able to capture the game and take care of it," said Canales. "And of course, Bryce finished it off with a nice throw to Darren there, but credit to those guys, credit to (offensive coordinator) Brad (Idzik), for finding an opportunity to be able to get the right coverage he wanted and be aggressive."

McMillan had an inkling Saturday that Legette was going to make a big play. Canales had a feeling earlier in the week.

"Xavier had the best week he's had of practice since I've been around (on) Wednesday," shared Canales. "I mean, I think he hit three different balls down the field Bryce threw to him that were 40-plus yards, him running underneath at full speed, and it looked just like that. So something really cool for X to be able to build off of."

Legette's play might have been the spark the offense needed to capitalize on momentum, but it was also far from the only dynamic receiver performance on the day. Jalen Coker and McMillan continue to shred defenses with a two-headed attack on the outside and slot that keeps secondaries in flux.

McMillan casually finished with five receptions for a game-high 101 yards, the third 100-plus yard game of his young career. And while Coker didn't notch a third-straight game of 100-plus yards, he did pull in a game-high eight receptions for 66 yards.

"I feel like I just try to do my best, week in and week out," said McMillan. "If it's that and if it's not that, it really doesn't matter. We got the dub, so it doesn't matter."

Coker also made his presence felt on special teams. After Jimmy Horn was waived earlier in the week, Coker and McMillan volunteered to handle punt return if needed (John Metchie handled kickoff returns). It was Coker who was sent out for the first punt return of the game, and Canales fully expected his WR2 to call for a fair catch.

"Jalen Coker with an amazing first punt return. I thought he was going to fair catch it, and he had space, though, and we told him, like, 'Hey, it's your judgment; if you have enough space and feel like you can do something with it,'" shared Canales.

"But he had two really nice returns that got us some positive gains and positive yardage that led to points, so the coverage unit was really, really fast and physical today. So just the whole thing coming together exactly what we hoped for, so I'm fired up about this one."

His receiver and (for now) returner had a different plan the entire time and returned it 36 yards instead.

"No, I was going to take it," laughed Coker. "I was hearing from the sideline I had time, so I was going to go take it."

The Panthers talked all week about how special the passing game can be when McMillan and Coker are both clicking. It was evident on a drive in the second quarter when the offense needed to get something moving after punting on the previous drive. After a 13-yard Coker punt return, the Panthers set up at their own 20-yard line.

On third-and-5, Young hit McMillan for 12 yards on a comeback. The next play, with all the time in the world to throw, Young went to McMillan again, this time for a 27-yard chunk.

Now it was time to flip field position, so when Young saw Coker streaking deep on an outside crosser, he sent the ball that way. Coker had to dive for the fingertip catch as he skirted towards the sideline, but he made the catch, as he usually does, for a 25-yard gain that put the Panthers in field goal range. They cashed in on that field position to go up 13-0.

"I pride myself on moving the sticks and trying to be an option for Bryce," said Coker.

"I think my thing (on that play) was just keep running, throw the hands out there, and it stuck," he shrugged, brushing off an incredibly difficult play as routine. Because for him, that's what it has become.

And when the entire unit comes together — McMillan, Coker, Legette, the tight ends — TMac doesn't see much getting in their way. It certainly didn't on Sunday in Atlanta.

"It's hard to stop a team when everybody's doing their thing," said McMillan. "When everybody's getting the ball, throwing the ball around and Bryce is finding his guys and making his reads, it's hard to stop that team."