The Atlanta Falcons have their QB1 back.
The Atlanta Falcons earned their first victory of the season on Thursday night with an absolute dismantling of the Green Bay Packers in a much-needed strong performance after some serious struggles the first two weeks.
Headed into the game, the main storyline was of course the return of Michael Penix Jr. after such a putrid offensive showing the first couple of weeks for the team. Not only did Penix come in and have a nice night, the offense looked like an entirely different unit racking up nearly 500 total yards and score 35 points on the road.
The reason this was so encouraging from Penix though was not any sort of statistical huge night or lighting the Green Bay defense up through the air, it was the way he bounced back from a rough start.
Penix Looked Rusty Early, But Bounce Back Was Extremely Impressive
The first drive for the Falcons had fans in an absolute frenzy as even with the quarterback change the product looked the same. As Penix settled in and got more comfortable though, it became very clear that this was an entirely new offense.
Bijan Robinson having the night he had certainly helped Penix not have to do too much, but this is a glimpse of exactly what this offense would look like in an ideal world. Things are always going to run through Robinson, and Penix simply had to make the plays when they were there once he shook the rust off and was able to get into the flow of the game.
Atlanta is ultimately going to need more from their third-year quarterback who made just his 13th start last night, but as far as the first game in return from a third serious knee injury of his career, this was about as good as it gets.
Penix is going to keep getting better as he gets further and further removed from the injury and gets more reps under his belt, but what he did on Thursday night was good enough for this team to win a whole lot of games.
He deserves a ton of credit for the way he performed, and the coaching staff was clearly very proud of the young quarterback. If Penix can keep getting better and use this as a launching pad, the Falcons are going to have a chance to contend for this division as well as a spot in the playoffs.
