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ATLANTA — Until the closing minutes, the joke heard earlier at the Georgia Dome didn't apply.

"How do you say interception in French?" the Atlanta Falcons fan had quipped. When he didn't get a quick response, he answered himself. "Delhomme," he cracked, getting the laugh he'd hoped for from his companion.

Poor Jake Delhomme. The Carolina Panthers quarterback has become a punch line even on days when he generally plays well.

Mistake free previously on Sunday, Delhomme threw a fourth-down interception near the goal line with under 3 minutes to play and Panthers fell to 0-2 with a 28-20 loss to the Falcons (2-0).

Despite the defeat, it was a bounce-back performance for the beleaguered veteran.

"It couldn't get any worse," said Delhomme, who threw four interceptions and lost a fumble in the opener against Philadelphia before being benched. "Last week I couldn't throw it in the ocean."

This week?

"I felt really good out there," Delhomme said.

But Delhomme couldn't match the Falcons' red-hot Matt Ryan, who threw three first-half touchdown passes and finished 21-of-27 for 220 yards and a quarterback rating of 122.2 despite an interception of his own.

Ryan completed 13 consecutive passes during one stretch, and the Falcons were 6-for-12 on third down and 2-for-2 on fourth down.

"We couldn't get them off the field," said cornerback Richard Marshall, who had the Carolina interception. "We pride ourselves on getting the job done on third down and we couldn't do it."

"I don't know what the numbers were, but they must have been pretty bad," said middle linebacker Jon Beason.

"The defense didn't play very well," outside linebacker Thomas Davis said. "We didn't get enough third-down stops."

The offense, with Delhomme quieting his critics, did enough, though, to make it close.

"You never feel good when you lose, but this is a lot easier to take," Panthers center Ryan Kalil said. "We're starting to look like the offense we were last year. I still have a lot of confidence in this team."

Delhomme, sacked once, was 25-of-41 for 308 yards and hit tight end Dante Rosario with an 11-yard TD pass to close the gap to eight points with 6:45 remaining.

"Jake seemed much more comfortable," Rosario said. "It was good for him and good for us. He's our leader and we need him."

The Panthers drove down the field after getting the ball back from the Falcons and reached the 17-yard line. But Delhomme followed two incomplete passes with his fourth-down interception, trying to force the ball into Steve Smith, who had eight catches for 131 yards.

"We were expecting pressure, so we went with play action," Delhomme said. "But they dropped everybody. There was nothing there. I tried Jeff King and [Muhsin Muhammad], then went to Steve. It was fourth down and I had to try to make a play."

Instead it was Atlanta cornerback Chris Houston who came through, picking off the pass.

After being undone by five interceptions in the NFC championship game against Arizona last season and tossing four picks against Philadelphia last week, Delhomme couldn't overcome a lone turnover against the Falcons.

The Panthers did get one fnal chance at possibly tying the game with a last-second TD and two-point conversion, but Dwayne Jarrett came up short on a diving attempt to grab a deflected heave in the end zone.

"I tried to act it out, but I wasn't that close to getting it," Jarrett said. "It would have had to stay in the air another second."

It doesn't get any easier for Carolina. The Panthers play at Dallas in a Monday Night Game next week before getting an early-season bye.

"This early, it's no time to panic," Carolina defensive tackle Damione Lewis said.

"It's not something you want, but that's what we are," Delhomme said of the 0-2 start. " ... It's still a long season."

Carolina 3 10 0 7 — 20
Atlanta 7 14 0 7 — 28

Car—FG Kasay 38.
Atl—Gonzalez 24 pass from Ryan (Elam kick).
Car—D.Williams 3 run (Kasay kick).
Atl—Snelling 10 pass from Ryan (Elam kick).
Car—FG Kasay 50.
Atl—White 7 pass from Ryan (Elam kick).
Atl—Turner 1 run (Elam kick).
Car—Rosario 11 pass from Delhomme (Kasay kick).
A—67,313.

First downs — Carolina 24, Atlanta 23
Total Net Yards — Carolina 440, Atlanta 371
Rushes-yards — Carolina 25-144, Atlanta 37-151
Passing — Carolina 296, Atlanta 220
Punt Returns — Carolina 2-17, Atlanta 0-0
Kickoff Returns — Carolina 0-0, Atlanta 3-102
Interceptions Ret. — Carolina 1-13, Atlanta 1-4
Comp-Att-Int — Carolina 25-41-1, Atlanta 21-27-1
Sacked-Yards Lost — Carolina 1-12, Atlanta 0-0
Punts — Carolina 2-25.5, Atlanta 3-49.7
Fumbles-Lost — Carolina 2-1, Atlanta 1-1
Penalties-Yards — Carolina 6-35, Atlanta 6-40
Time of Possession 28:28 31:32

RUSHING
Carolina — D.Williams 16-79, Stewart 9-65.
Atlanta — Turner 28-105, Snelling 6-37, Norwood 1-6, Ryan 2-3.

PASSING
Carolina — Delhomme 25-41-1-308.
Atlanta — Ryan 21-27-1-220.

RECEIVING
Carolina — Smith 8-131, Muhammad 4-47, D.Williams 3-32, Rosario 3-31, Stewart 3-14, King 2-38, Jarrett 1-9, K.Moore 1-6.
Atlanta — Gonzalez 7-71, White 6-53, Jenkins 3-33, Booker 2-42, Snelling 1-10, Finneran 1-6, Turner 1-5.