How an early interception settled Michael Penix Jr., drove Falcons’ offense
GREEN BAY, Wis. — His hands clutching a tablet and his face buried in the screen, Michael Penix Jr. took a seat on the Falcons’ sideline and tried to wrap his mind around the interception that ravaged his first drive in 10 months.
He soon had a visitor. Star running back Bijan Robinson walked over, tapped Penix on his right knee and gave him advice that helped spearhead the Falcons’ offensive brilliance in a 35-14 win over the Packers on Thursday night at Lambeau Field.
“I was like, ‘Yo, Mike, flush it. Like, who cares, bro?’” Robinson said. “I just wanted him to know that we all have his back and we all are right here. He’s not alone, and that’s why he has playmakers to go take it off him.”
Penix barely acknowledged it. But the point lingered. Results changed. The Falcons rolled.
“He played exceptional after that,” Robinson said, “and it was cool to see.”
The Falcons punted on the drive after Penix’s interception, then scored on six of their final seven possessions. Through two series, Penix was 1-for-5 passing, his lone completion a screen pass to Robinson. He proceeded to hit 17 of his final 20 attempts, finishing 18-for-25 passing for 256 yards, one touchdown and turnover-free ball after his interception.
Penix felt the interception was a turning point. He became more comfortable. He found a rhythm. And in his first start since tearing his ACL last November, he became himself.
“He’s a gamer, so when that happened, he was like, ‘OK, nothing else could get no worse than this,’” receiver Drake London said. “So, he just goes out there and he plays. That’s what he does.”
The Falcons’ offense had 524 total yards in its first two games. The Penix-led unit collected 498 yards Thursday night alone. The offensive identity the Falcons showed this summer — quick screens, intermediate concepts, a flare for the deep ball and a steady balance with the run game — appeared for the first time this summer.
Penix is the point guard, and he magnified the Falcons’ high-priced offensive weapons. Robinson rushed 29 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns. London caught nine passes for a career-high 194 yards. Both players referred to each other as future Hall of Famers afterward.
Such was the vibe in the Falcons’ tight-knit locker room in the bowels of Lambeau Field, where dreams of brighter days blossomed each time Penix rifled a pass to London and Robinson ran and weaved his way around Packers’ defenders grasping at thin air.
“It’s the start of something, for sure,” London said. “It was a sloppy game in the beginning, but we have stuff that we clean up and keep on working toward, and the games will get cleaner as we keep on going. That’s a good sign.”
The Falcons entered Thursday wanting to tap into concepts comfortable to Penix so he could get his legs underneath him. There was an abundance of quick screens and underneath throws — eight of his attempts were at or behind the line of scrimmage, according to Next Gen Stats — but Penix pushed the ball, too.
And offensive coordinator Tommy Rees put his creativity on full display. The Falcons leaned heavily on motions and frequently changed personnel packages. The Packers tried to disguise looks, Penix said, but the Falcons often had answers.
The Falcons debuted a new part of their playbook Thursday night: the jumbo package. Perhaps it’s merely because the Falcons didn’t reach the red-zone in their first two games and didn’t get the chance to show it, or maybe they merely liked the matchup against Green Bay.
But on two of the Falcons’ three touchdown runs, they operated with seven offensive linemen — the starting five, plus two additional bulldozers who paved holes for Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr. to run through untouched.
Reserve guard Kyle Hinton, an esteemed add-on in the jumbo package, said the concept is owed directly to offensive line coach Bill Callahan.
“As soon as he got here, we started working on it in OTAs and everything, so I’m glad we finally got them off the call sheet,” Hinton told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It keeps defenses on their toes. Especially, like, we haven’t put it on film at all.
“So, we definitely caught them off guard, and you could tell.”
The Falcons didn’t necessarily need more mass to impose their will on the Packers. Atlanta’s offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage and kept Penix upright — he wasn’t sacked, took only one hit and, according to Next Gen Stats, was pressured on just 20% of his dropbacks.
And the Falcons’ running backs had sizable holes to run through all night, which resulted in 244 rushing yards between Brian Robinson Jr. and Bijan Robinson.
“We believe we can run for 250 every week with the room we have,” Brian Robinson Jr. told the AJC. “We have that much confidence in our room. We believe we can do that every single week. So, putting it all together and making it happen today was beautiful.”
Penix was, by and large, the missing piece to the Falcons’ offensive puzzle. They exited the season’s first two games ranked in the top 10 in both rushing yards and pass-protection metrics but last in passing yards.
There are throws Penix wants back — the interception, for starters — but if Thursday night is the start of his mission toward proving he’s the Falcons’ franchise quarterback, he checked the box.
Penix, after all, embodies the franchise’s identity.
The Falcons entered Thursday at 0-2, reeling off the worst loss in Mercedes-Benz Stadium history and staring down their worst start in six years. To flush a 34-3 loss to the Carolina Panthers in four days with a dominant effort under the primetime microscope requires resilience, coach Kevin Stefanski said.
So, too, does navigating the 10-month ACL rehab process like Penix did, spending extra time in weight rooms and running sprints when nobody — except an observant Stefanski — saw it.
“I’m proud of him,” Stefanski said. “It’s not easy to rehab from injuries. I got to witness it, and this, tonight, is something you can build on.”
Penix, however, knows he wasn’t perfect. That’s his benchmark. It may be unreachable, but after a debut as encouraging as it was reviving, the Falcons warn against putting restrictions on their offense under Penix’s leadership.
“I think he has a lot more,” London said. “I think we all have a lot more that’s untapped here. Obviously, it was good, but again, this is the first game back in, like, 300-something days. So, just wait.”