Falcons enter ‘Thursday Night Football’ as slight favorites over Panthers

The Carolina Panthers are bad. The Atlanta Falcons are ... weird. Both teams are coming off of losses on Sunday — The Panthers fresh off a throttling by the Bengals, and the Falcons reeling from a game they gave away against the Chargers.

These two bad-weird teams will meet for Thursday Night Football — the Falcons' first primetime affair of the season — where DraftKings Sportsbook has Atlanta as 2.5-point favorites in the opening odds.

This is just the second time the Falcons have entered a contest as favorites all year.

For Atlanta, Thursday is a chance to rebound after an embarrassing loss at home against Los Angeles, a game where they squandered multiple opportunities and allowed the Chargers to seal the win with a last-second field goal.

It was another Black Monday in Carolina, as the Panthers fired yet another couple of coaches after losing 42-21 in Cincinnati. Things are clearly going swimmingly in the NFC South.

The Falcons can move back to an even record with a win on Thursday, and once more move ever closer to the first winning record they’ve held since 2017.