Falcons Beat Packers 35-14: Penix Shines at Lambeau

Michael Penix Jr. had not played in more than ten months when he jogged out of the tunnel at Lambeau Field on Thursday night. By the fourth quarter, you would not have known. Penix threw for 256 yards and a touchdown in his return from ACL surgery, and the Atlanta Falcons beat Packers 35-14 to get their first win of the season.

The night started badly for the Falcons. Penix threw an interception on the opening possession, picked off by Xavier McKinney, and Green Bay drove down to take a 7-0 lead. Then Penix settled. He completed his next handful of throws, found a rhythm, and finished 18 of 25 with a scoring pass to Austin Hooper just before halftime. According to Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski, the moment was the payoff for a grueling rehab. "It's not easy to rehab from injuries," Stefanski said after the game. "That's a tough thing to do, that he's put himself through — the extra workouts in the weight room, the extra treatments in the training room."

Penix tore the ACL in his left knee on Nov. 16 in a loss to Carolina, and the Falcons had sputtered without him. Now he had Bijan Robinson doing the heavy lifting. Robinson ran 29 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns, after managing only 80 yards on 37 carries across the first two games. "That was the weight off the shoulders — just getting back to the red zone," Robinson said. "And we knew we had to punch it in every opportunity we get when we get down there."

Drake London gave Green Bay's secondary its own problems. The third-year receiver caught nine passes for just under 200 yards, the best game of his career, including a 68-yard gain in the fourth quarter that set up a score. According to NBC Sports, Robinson and London became the first pair of teammates to each reach 190 yards from scrimmage in a road game since the 1976 Rams did it. For two weeks the Falcons' offense had looked lifeless. On Thursday it looked dangerous.

The ground game told the whole story

Atlanta ran for 242 yards. Green Bay ran for 17. That gap explains almost everything else: the Falcons held the ball for 37 minutes and 5 seconds, converted six of ten third downs, and outgained the Packers 498 to 328. It also explains why the Falcons kept finding the end zone. Atlanta had not run a single play inside an opponent's 20-yard line in its first two games, with Cooper Rush starting at quarterback. On Thursday night, the red-zone trips came again and again, and the offense finished nearly all of them.

Green Bay's plan fell apart up front. The Packers lost left guard Aaron Banks to a toe injury and right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele tore his patellar tendon, which will cost him the rest of the season, reported by The Associated Press. A rookie fifth-round pick started at left guard, and the running game never got going. MarShawn Lloyd and Kaleb Johnson combined for eight carries and fewer than 20 yards, and the Packers' defense spent the night chasing.

A record streak ends in Green Bay

The loss stung for reasons beyond the score. Green Bay had not lost a home opener since a 30-22 defeat to San Francisco in 2012. The Packers then won 13 home openers in a row, a run that tied an NFL record held by the Miami Dolphins, who won 13 straight across the late seventies and eighties. The Lambeau crowd let the home team hear it as the lead slipped away. Green Bay struck first, on Christian Watson's fourth touchdown catch of the season from Jordan Love, and then gave up 27 unanswered points before Matthew Golden found the end zone late.

Love finished 28 of 53 for 312 yards with two touchdowns and one interception, most of it in comeback mode. He was not the only quarterback in a bad spot around the league this week: Caleb Williams was carted off as the Bears fell to the Vikings, and the Giants put Jaxson Dart on injured reserve after season-ending knee surgery. The Falcons' Xavier Watts picked him off late to close it out. More details on the game are available in NBC Sports' recap of Thursday Night Football and Sky Sports' report on the Packers' home loss.

Both teams are now one win and two losses, and the schedule does not get easier. Atlanta travels to New Orleans to face the Saints on Monday Night Football in Week 4. The night the Falcons beat Packers at Lambeau came down to two things: a quarterback making it all the way back, and a running game that finally broke through. One win does not fix a season, but it showed what Atlanta's offense is supposed to look like when its quarterback is healthy and its best players are touching the ball.