After scraping bottom, Michael Penix Jr. delivers a defining performance

Evidently, drawing conclusions about Michael Penix Jr. after the sixth start of his career was at least one game premature.

A week after committing crimes against football, the Falcons quarterback gave the fan base a defining moment.

He completed passes with defenders bearing down on him. He delivered on-target throws deep downfield, utilizing a strength of his game that had been largely holstered.

In the game’s pivotal moments, he didn’t hold back and came through. In short, after a game in which he looked uncomfortable, made bad decisions with the ball and was at the center of one of the ugliest games in franchise history, he was what Falcons fans hope he can be.

“I feel like I showed myself that I deserve to be here and I belong,” Penix said.

It would be foolish to expect smooth sailing from here forward, a chain of 300-yard passing games from here to retirement. There are surely more bumps on the way for a quarterback with fewer than 250 pass attempts under his belt. Even in his brilliance Sunday against Washington, he did make a costly error — an interception on the Falcons side of the field that turned into points for Washington.

But Sunday felt like a game that we might someday look back on and recognize its importance in his career arc, when Penix responded to playing poorly enough to get benched by playing easily the best game of his young career.

“I was really encouraged that he would be able to do that,” head coach Raheem Morris, who awarded Penix a game ball, said. “This young man is one of those guys who is the definition of grit, the definition of resilience. We’ve talked about his calm demeanor since he’s been here and just another opportunity to go out there and show it.”

Penix finished 20-for-26 for 313 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He finished with a passer rating of 126.0, which far exceeded his best in his first six starts, a 93.2 against Tampa Bay in the season opener.

Another way of framing his efficiency: He averaged 12 yards per attempt. In 234 career regular season starts, Matt Ryan exceeded 12.0 yards per attempt only three times.

It was a vindicating moment for Penix, for an offense littered with first-round picks that had heretofore been among the least efficient in the NFL, for offensive coordinator Zac Robinson and for Morris. The fan-base upheaval following the 30-0 loss to Carolina can be tempered.

Unfortunately for all involved, vindication in the NFL typically lasts no longer than seven days, but it beats the alternative.

As Morris and others described it, Penix was not flustered by his play against Carolina. Morris said he took confidence from Penix’s behavior as soon as the work week began Monday.

“There was no moping, there was no finger pointing,” Morris said. “He took it on himself and he came out and fixed it.”

Penix said he took wisdom from quarterbacks coach D.J. Williams.

“Something that D.J. told me, he was like, ‘Just be yourself,’” Penix said. “’Don’t go out there and feel like you’ve got to be Superman and try to do everything.’ At the end of the day, we’re all here for a reason and we’ve just got to believe in that. Just go out there and execute and we’ll be all good.”

Sunday, Penix linked up with wide receiver Drake London eight times for 110 yards and a touchdown, including a 43-yard reception down the sideline that led to the Falcons’ second touchdown of the game for a 17-7 lead in the second quarter.

London’s touchdown catch, a five-yarder late in the first quarter, was the first of the year for the receiver group.

Penix finished with a flourish, as well. With a touchdown and two-point conversion, Washington closed the gap to 31-24 with 8:48 to play in the fourth quarter. It was a dicey moment. A change of possession would give the Commanders a chance to tie the game.

With the drive starting at the Falcons 23-yard line, Penix converted a third-and-4 by escaping the pocket and outracing Washington defensive lineman Dorance Armstrong to the first-down marker. Against a five-man blitz, he picked up a third-and-6 with a 22-yard downfield strike to tight end Kyle Pitts Sr. against coverage so tight it drew a pass-interference penalty.

On a third-and-7 from the Washington 37-yard line, Penix threw a quick hitter to London as he broke to the sideline, a pass low and away to not give cornerback Marshon Lattimore a shot at the ball, but still high and close enough to give London a chance to make a play. The sure-handed London reached down to secure it for the first down that closed the Falcons to within field-goal range and enabled them to burn more time off the clock.

By the time John Parker Romo made a 26-yarder for the final 34-24 advantage, the Commanders had only two minutes and no timeouts, which proved insufficient.