What stood out in Falcons game vs. Panthers on Thursday night

CHARLOTTE — Falcons safety Richie Grant characterized Thursday night’s game against the Carolina Panthers as a “must-win.”

That’s always a claim to validate in Week 10, with so much season left to play. There’s no doubting, however, that it was an important one. Massively so, as a matter of fact, for a team trying win an NFC South title. Especially, as a matter of fact, after a tough Week 9 loss to the L.A. Chargers.

Atlanta wasn’t able to secure an important game on the schedule, emerging from a rain-soaked affair with a 25-15 result at Bank of American Stadium. The Falcons mounted a comeback as time wound down, but couldn’t complete it in the end.

Let’s dive into what stood out for the Falcons in this divisional contest:

The Falcons possess one of the NFL’s best rushing games. They’ve exceeded 200 yards three times and 150 on seven occasions, averaging 162 yards per game. Their run defense was pretty good as well, ranking No. 8 overall that category entering Thursday night’s action.

That’s when things flipped. The Panthers stole a play from the Falcons book, rushing 40-plus times for 200-plus yards. That included some large gains that led to scores.

While the Falcons eventually got well into triple digits and had some bright moments, rushing in the first half was a slog. They had just 33 yards on 12 carries early on, which in turn led their offense to struggle.

The Falcons couldn’t string enough passes together to score on the regular or erase a deficit they dealt with from the beginning. Marcus Mariota sent a few errant passes skyward, including a few to open receivers. As the game wore on and the Falcons remained down multiple scores, Carolina’s defense was able to blitz and overwhelm Mariota’s protection.

Being down and required to throw often is not a place where the Falcons, or any team for that matter, prefer to operate. The offense wasn’t bailed out by turnovers, instead forced to claw back in it the old-fashioned way. The Falcons cut it to within one score on a 25-yard touchdown strike to Khadarel Hodge. Then the Falcons forced a three and out to set up the possibility of a game-tying drive with two-and-a-half minutes remaining.

They just didn’t do anything with it.

That wasn’t in the cards, and the Falcons ended up losing a tough one where the didn’t set the tone.

Getting beat in the run game was an odd, unexpected turn especially after the Falcons had been a dominant force on the ground, both running the football and…