The Carolina Panthers' Defense Earns The Franchise's First Shutout Win Since 2020.

Regardless of how it happened, the Carolina Panthers needed a win on Sunday.

Sitting at 0-2 and hosting Atlanta in its home opener, the Panthers turned in an all-time defensive performance to get into the win column, 30-0.

After pitching a first-half shutout, second-year defensive back Chau Smith-Wade jumped a Michael Penix Jr pass and pranced into the end-zone for a score.

Later in the second half, cornerback Mike Jackson nearly ran in a second pick-six — but was slowed down by Penix enough to be tackled during his return. The Panthers' offense tacked on a touchdown with Rico Dowdle plunging into the end-zone on a fourth-down carry.

The story of the first two games were the slow starts Carolina got off, too. But that storyline was completely flipped against the Falcons.

Once Atlanta missed a field goal on the first series of the day, Carolina jumped at the opportunity to score first when Bryce Young scampered into the end-zone on a seemingly broken play.

Falcons kicker Parker Romo, who was 5-of-5 on field goal attempts in Atlanta's Sunday-night win in Minnesota that prompted the release of veteran Younghoe Koo, missed a second field goal — this time from 55 yards away — later in the first half.

Carolina rookie Ryan Fitzgerald responded to Romo's lengthy miss by drilling a 57-yard kick to give the Panthers a 10-0 lead heading into halftime. Fitzgerald was a perfect 3-of-3 on field goals

The first-half shutout was the team's first since its overtime win over the Giants in Germany last year. As a matter of mere coincidence, that game was also the last time the Panthers wore the black-helmet-blue-jersey-black-pant uniform combination and the halftime score in Germany — and Sunday — was 10-0.

The last time the Panthers earned a complete-game shutout was against Detriot in 2020.

Any hopes of an Atlanta comeback were thwarted in the third quarter when Penix Jr threw his first two interceptions of the season.  First, it was Smith-Wade's Pick-6 and that was followed by Jackson's interception that was nearly ran in for a score as well.

The Panthers, who are now 1-2, will travel to New England next week. The matchup with the Patriots is followed by consecutive home games against Miami and Dallas.