The Panthers (3-7) piled up 232 yards on the ground and Eddie Pineiro had four touchdowns after missing two crucial kicks in a 37-34 overtime loss to the Falcons 11 days earlier. Marcus Mariota finished 19 of 30 for 186 yards and two touchdowns, but was sacked five times and intercepted once. Atlanta fell to 4-6, leaving Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-5) alone atop the NFC South. The Bucs play the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in Munich, Germany. Carolina improved to 2-3 since coach Matt Rhule was fired and replaced on an interim basis by Steve Wilks. Foreman, who ran for 118 yards and three TDs in the last meeting on Oct. 30 in Atlanta, capped a crucial seven-play, 84-yard drive with a 12-yard right tackle to give Carolina a 19-9 lead. with 1:51 left in the third quarter. The Falcons cut Carolina’s lead to 22-15 when Mariota found a wide open KhaDarel Hodge for a 25-yard touchdown with 3:01 left in the game after the Panthers failed a coverage assignment. Younghoe Koo, who had kicked 71 straight extra points, missed his second PAT of the game to keep the margin at seven points. The Falcons got one last shot to tie the game, taking over at their 34 with 2 1/2 minutes to play. But Carolina’s Marquis Haynes sacked Mariota twice and the Falcons turned the ball over at the 15. Carolina’s defense, which allowed Cincinnati’s Joe Mixon to run for 153 yards and four touchdowns — and the Bengals to amass 241 yards as a team — on Sunday, held the league’s fourth-best rushing attack to 138 yards. Atlanta averaged 162.9 yards on the ground. The Panthers often stacked the box and sold out against the run, daring Mariota to beat them. Shenault gave Carolina a 10-0 lead in the second quarter when he caught a pass from PJ Walker, circled the backfield on the move and drove down the left sideline, past five Falcons defenders – two of whom collided and they took each other out of the game. . The touchdown was ruled a rush because Walker’s throw was not a forward pass. Pineiro, who missed a game-winning extra point late in regulation and a field goal in overtime in the previous meeting with the Falcons, connected on field goals of 46, 49, 40 and 37 yards for Carolina on a wet field. He missed an extra point.
