After last Sunday’s embarrassing loss to the New Orleans Saints, Bryce Young and the Panthers had a chip on their shoulders. While Young’s offense was restricted to just 7 points against the Saints, the quarterback had one of his worst outings of the season with a QBR of just 13. But this Sunday was a whole different story. Though the Panthers claimed victory in an overtime thriller against the Falcons with the 24-year-old QB delivering his best performance this season, the victory came with some controversy tagged along with it.

Reports say the refs messed up the overtime coin toss. Young was mistakenly allowed to choose both whether to kick/receive and which direction to play. Normally, the team that wins the toss picks kick or receive, and the other team chooses the direction. But the officials skipped the Falcons entirely and let Carolina pick everything, starting the OT exactly how Young wanted. Could this mistake have changed the results? Well, we can’t say for sure, but this was a pretty basic game administration error that no referee should be expected to make.

“At the end of regulation, the referee will toss a coin to determine which team will possess the ball first in overtime. The visiting team captain will call the toss,” the NFL rulebook for the regular season overtime says. It’s literally there in black and white. But somehow, for the second time, they completely mishandled a simple coin toss in the Falcons game.

Last week, the refs gave the coin-toss call to the Colts, even though the Falcons were the visiting team. They should’ve made the call.

If the officials continue to repeat such minor mistakes in these high-stakes games like this week, Atlanta might have to struggle a bit more to turn things around, and teams like Carolina will continue to exploit the opportunity.

Beyond Bryce Young, Carolina continues to deny Atlanta any solace

The last time the Panthers went against the Falcons was in week 3 when Carolina thrashed Atlanta in a 30-0 victory. The Panthers are second in the AFC South and searching for the top spot, just behind the Buccaneers. However, the Falcons have yet to find an antidote for Carolina. Though Michael Penix Jr. and his team did fight hard this time, they ultimately got humbled by Young.

Bryce Young wrapped the game with 31 of 45 for 448 yards, including three touchdowns and no interceptions. His performance saw a massive spike from the last time he went against Atlanta. In week 3, Young could only manage 16 of 24 for 121 yards.

“(Young) gutted it out,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said during his post-game press conference, per Panthers.com. “He wanted to do that for his teammates.”

Though Penix was rolling the offense, he had to exit the game due to a knee injury with a QBR of 89.8 and a completion rate of 81.3%, his best this season. Kirk Cousins was handed the keys to the offense but could not make much of an impact. He completed just 6 of 14 for just 48 yards. That offensive miscommunication and costly penalties (6) added fuel to the fire. Getting flagged in key moments halted the promising drives, leaving the offense stuck in tough situations.

All these moments, including that “unfair advantage” to the Young in overtime, cost the Falcons their 5th consecutive loss this season.