The Atlanta Falcons were defeated on Sunday Night at home by the Baltimore Ravens after losing a late lead and heading to overtime, a loss that will be tough for fans to stomach this week against a backup quarterback.

Tyler Huntley played a very admirable game and made the plays when they needed to be made, but it still feels like Atlanta let this one slip away instead of winning their third straight game and taking control of the NFC South. Undeniably, a massive part of why they lost was a late injury to Michael Penix Jr. forcing him to the sidelines and a brutal interception from Tua Tagovailoa was the game-defining play.

Penix however did not think after the game the rib injury was serious, but his quotes following the loss make it even more frustrating that he was not out there.

"Knowing me, I'm going to be ready to go next week because I sat out enough in my career, but I'm going to do everything I can in the training room, make sure I get back to where I want to be," Penix said. "It's frustrating, but I think the biggest thing is just I want to be out there, especially in a big moment in a game like that...I just felt like I needed to be out there."

It's not to say Penix was not being tough or anything like that, but if he felt like he needed to be out there, why was he not out there? Perhaps the training staff made the call, but it does feel like if Penix pushed to stay in the game, the coaches would have considered leaving him in.

This is a guy who has been through a whole lot in terms of injuries, and it makes sense why the team would operate out of an abundance of caution. With that being said, at a certain point players have to play through pain, and Penix for whatever reason did not feel like he was able to do that in this case.

Seeing how disastrous things have been for this team when he is not on the field, Penix and the coaching staff should be making every effort to keep him out there, even if it means he is not fully 100 percent himself.

Moving forward, fans are going to have to hope Penix can gut it out and play next week, because the Falcons have proven they essentially have no chance when he is not on the field. With the Chicago Bears on deck next week, Atlanta desperately needs their starting quarterback out there, and if he is not, it's become clear this year that the Falcons might as well not even show up.

Time will tell what the injury report looks like, but the Falcons must play Penix if he is physically capable of playing.