- 16 minutes ago
The Atlanta Falcons had their backs against the wall after an 0-2 start to begin the Kevin Stefanski regime. Heading to the famous Lambeau Field for the Green Bay Packers home opener, the Falcons traveled north on a short week and won convincingly with Michael Penix Jr. under center. Bijan Robinson and Drake London made NFL history together as the pair each went over 150 yards rushing/receiving respectively. And all while the defense dominated once again.
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00:01Now that is a Falcons football team to be proud of.
00:06That is what Atlanta Falcons football fans have been waiting for.
00:11Oh man, what a feeling.
00:12What a feeling it is to see this team go to Lambeau Field and beat the Green Bay Packers
00:17on Thursday night football, 35-14, just beat the absolute brakes off of them in the home
00:23opener for such a historic club, a public team as Vegas might say, and so many good
00:29things, basically only good things coming out of this game for the Falcons.
00:34That includes Michael Penix's return, his first football action since late November of
00:40last year, having missed so much time.
00:44Bijan Robinson, just absolutely dominant once again in a primetime game in front of a national
00:51TV audience.
00:52Drake London goes off again.
00:55He's done it before in front of a primetime audience as well, but he goes near to the
00:59200 yards.
01:01This defense absolutely dominates another opponent, just like it did against Pittsburgh in week
01:07one.
01:08Unfortunately, the team didn't have an offense, and that meant that they could not win that
01:12football game.
01:13But man, so many storylines.
01:16We're going to talk about them all here on Joe Patrick on Football.
01:18Thank you guys for joining us for this instant reaction to the Falcons' win.
01:23And man, this is exactly what you would have hoped for.
01:27I'm a bit fascinated by this idea of a team responding to the kind of adversity that we
01:35saw them in after that Carolina game, or even during the Carolina game, but in response to
01:41that Carolina game.
01:42Because what was so interesting about that adversity is that it wasn't just having to do with the
01:47win-loss record, or a dramatic moment in the season as far as making the playoffs is concerned.
01:52That was more personal.
01:55When you were getting booed, basically throughout the game, because it started very early on,
02:00if not in the actual pregame introduction itself.
02:03Although you could potentially say that the boos were coops.
02:08But, I mean, the team, ultimately, it wasn't just Cooper Rush by the end.
02:11I mean, every aspect of the team was getting, you know, eviscerated by this fan base, whether
02:17it was in the stadium, or obviously on our airways here at 92.9 The Game, where you can subscribe
02:21to our YouTube channel.
02:23But, you know, it's just, it's brutal when you go through something like that as an athlete,
02:27I have to imagine.
02:28Because it does, I'm sure, feel personal for them.
02:32And then to get the response that they got tonight.
02:35You know, we saw, and I know Maria Martin from 11 Alive had it on her Twitter, Chris
02:41Lindstrom just firing the guys up.
02:42And he said, nobody believes in this team.
02:45And that was definitely the feeling that they were left with when they left that stadium
02:49at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday.
02:52And rightfully so, you know, like they had put up some of the worst performances that
02:56Atlanta Falcons fans have seen.
02:59And certainly that performance against Carolina was, I mean, I can't remember anything
03:04really close to it, especially as far as the quarterback performance itself goes.
03:11So, obviously, we're on the back end of that, coming off of all of that baggage from that
03:16Carolina game, coming into this one.
03:18And then you have the huge return of Michael Penix, which is announced shortly after that
03:21game, which really kind of felt like it had to happen.
03:24I know that with what Mike has said, it's just, it's been about how he feels.
03:27And he just so happened to feel good after that.
03:29But, you know, maybe Tua certainly was dressed for this game.
03:33Maybe he would have played if Penix couldn't go.
03:35But obviously, it could not have been Cooper Rush again.
03:38But Penix does make his return.
03:40And man, what, this game was so fascinating because my Falcons friends, you know, our group
03:48chat was going crazy when this game was 0-0.
03:52Michael Penix throws an interception on, I believe, the fourth play of the game.
03:56It was his third pass attempt.
03:58And listen, I mean, threw into traffic.
04:01I actually liked at least that he was throwing over the middle, that he was going for a ball
04:05like that.
04:06Pretty bold of him.
04:07But, you know, that's the kind of confidence I would want to see in the quarterback.
04:11But, you know, obviously gets picked there, so you're concerned about it.
04:15But then you see the Falcons immediately get a three and out.
04:17They get the ball back.
04:19It's still 0-0.
04:20And then that's kind of the way the game trended from there was those kinds of occurrences
04:25where the Falcons kind of were coming out better on the other end of whenever, well,
04:29nothing really too much bad happened after that, let's be perfectly honest, after that
04:33Penix interception.
04:34Because after that, they basically started handing the ball to Bajon Robinson.
04:38And he took that ball and he ran with it.
04:40He ran with it very well.
04:41He ran with it all the way down the field multiple times.
04:44I mean, just incredible.
04:47He's, at one point, you're just holding your hands up.
04:50Like, this guy's insane.
04:52The way that he's able to accelerate and decelerate, you know, there's obviously the
04:57jump cuts and he's got that great vision and patience and feel for when those holes are
05:01going to open up.
05:02And by the way, I think that that feel allows him to avoid some of the biggest contact that
05:10he could potentially come across when he's in some of these moments.
05:15But I say that because it's like, okay, the guy is still taking an absolute beating.
05:19I was noticing in the third quarter, he comes to the sideline to do kind of a close-up of
05:23him and he's got blood on his shoulder pads.
05:25And he's like, but he's just like in that mode, you know, of just like being a warrior.
05:30Basically, that's how these guys feel when they're out there on the field.
05:33But he's just got that feel that allows him to just get those little bit of extra yards.
05:37It kind of almost reminds me of like that Warwick Dunn, if any of our viewers remember
05:43the Warwick Dunn days, the DVD days.
05:45You know, he could like squirt like as he was falling down and kind of get a couple,
05:49two or three extra yards.
05:50And it feels like Bajan is able to do that.
05:52Sometimes he's able to just power through some tacklers who kind of lose their energy
05:56at the end of the scrum.
05:58And he's just keeps the feet moving and just pushes the pile a little bit.
06:03And those extra yards just help so much keep the team in down distances.
06:07Or the down and distances you want to be in.
06:09But, man, he just put it all on display tonight, you know, with all different types of runs,
06:15different types of cuts, just unbelievable.
06:17And the stats, 29 carries, first of all.
06:21So he had 29 touches.
06:22I believe he would have had more touches tonight because he certainly had a reception.
06:26I know he had a reception on the second play of the game.
06:28Looks like he had two catches looking at the stats.
06:32And 29 carries.
06:34So, you know, at the 30 touch mark, that's a lot.
06:38But, hey, 194 yards, you got paid off.
06:41And clearly that was the mindset that this team wanted to have coming into this game was,
06:46we want to run the football.
06:47We want to punch you in the mouth.
06:48We want to be physical and just physically dominate you.
06:51Like, that's the way we have to rely upon to win this football game.
06:55If we get something from Michael Penix, you know, then that would be great.
07:00But, ultimately, this game is going to come down to us just winning the physical portion of the game.
07:07And they certainly did that.
07:08Even Brian Robinson got in on the action with 10 carries for 50 yards and a touchdown himself.
07:14And he looked really good on a lot of those carries.
07:16So, just a really, really impressive performance from the Falcons responding, again, to that adversity in exactly the way that
07:26you would have wanted.
07:27You kind of would obviously worry for the team pretty significantly if they did not get the response that they
07:34got tonight.
07:35Because, obviously, the record, you know, again, assuming they lose, that means they lose the game.
07:39They go to 0-3, and that puts them in the tank.
07:41And then you just don't have that emotional kind of, just that impetus to, like, get going, you know, get
07:49yourself going through the season.
07:50So, such an important game.
07:52Let's talk about a little bit more about Penix.
07:55So, you know, like we talked about, he had that interception early on, which kind of threw the game in,
08:02or the feelings about his return, I guess, into some peril.
08:06But then he just settled in over the course of the game.
08:09It just felt like, honestly, he got better and better.
08:12And I don't have them in front of me.
08:14We can do some more analysis.
08:15But I wish I had the splits from the first half and second half.
08:19Because the second half, it almost felt like he was, like, back to old Mike.
08:25Like, we were, you know, seeing some of the deep comebacks, the glance routes.
08:31You know, he was throwing some darts kind of down the middle of the field, which was cool to see.
08:36Because I think that they can really do a lot with that.
08:39And we'll talk a little bit more about that with Drake in a second.
08:41But just, you know, just continue to get settled.
08:44There was one moment that he took early.
08:46It was in the first half at some point where he gets taken to ground.
08:50You know, his legs kind of come together and get twisted.
08:53And he's kind of spinning to the ground.
08:56And I think all Falcons fans probably held their breath for a little bit while that happened.
09:00Yeah, I certainly was interested to see what he looked like.
09:03But, no, he got back up.
09:04And it wasn't all perfect.
09:06You know, I think he was 13 for 20 at halftime.
09:09So, a little bit over 50%.
09:10It was a little bit embarrassing at one point early in the game.
09:13Because not only did he have the interception.
09:15But after that, there were still just a lot of errant throws.
09:18Just, and pretty big misses.
09:20Not really coming close.
09:21But, you know, I think a lot of that has to do, that's the rust that we talk about
09:26with a player like this who's taking some, or just has a long-term injury
09:30and has missed a lot of time on the field.
09:33It's one thing to obviously kind of get routes drilled down with guys,
09:37whether they're on air or even in seven-on-sevens or even in practice.
09:39But then when you get in a game, it is a different kind of level that you have to have
09:44instinctually
09:45when you're reacting to things on the field.
09:47Everything just moves a tick faster.
09:49But I thought that, you know, it was perfect.
09:52It was exactly what you would have wanted to see in terms of adjusting to those early errors
09:58and then just kind of getting settled in and being able to run the offense as it had to be
10:04run.
10:04And that was certainly aided by what Bijan did in this running game, as we talked about.
10:10But, you know, that's team football.
10:12That's the way that you have a successful offense is you play off of one another.
10:17So just a really, really good night.
10:20It's exactly what you would have wanted to see from Pennix.
10:22And obviously kind of the icing on the cake for Pennix is that he was hooking up big with Drake
10:29London tonight,
10:29who had nine catches on only – or I shouldn't say only ten targets.
10:34But, you know, catching nine out of ten targets is obviously a fantastic rate, 194 yards,
10:39and kind of killing me because I got you, Drake, on my fantasy team.
10:43And 26.9 points is great.
10:45I'm not complaining.
10:46I guess I am complaining because no touchdowns.
10:48Like, 26.9 points without a touchdown is kind of wild.
10:55And I think he feels like he probably should have scored a touchdown.
10:59I think he's not looking forward to the ribbing he's going to get when the team is watching this film
11:05because there were a couple times he was in green grass, green acres in front of him,
11:10and he got chased down from behind.
11:13He's just – you know, that's the receiver he is.
11:15It's – you know, I can't help but think about that – was it against the Bills,
11:19the primetime game last year where he caught that slant and it was as that front –
11:24the first half is expiring and, you know, tries to make a play by running after the catch
11:28and is just – you know, the – barely gets taken down before he reaches the ball over the goal
11:35line.
11:35And it feels like that's just how it goes for someone like him.
11:39But he's so physically impressive.
11:41And it's funny that he had this game I was doing – the tailgate show is –
11:45I hope you guys are familiar – know about, but on 99th Game,
11:48I hope – co-host the tailgate show, typically with Andy Bunker,
11:51but I was doing it with Abe Gordon, the Andy and Randy producer today.
11:54And we were talking about Drake and, you know, I was just commenting on how big he is.
11:59Like – and it's not just the height.
12:01It's like when you're – when you're next to him, like the hands are big,
12:05the wrists are big, the – it's just like a big structure.
12:08He's just like a big, strong dude.
12:11And you can see how much that helps him when he's in some of these one-on-one matchups especially.
12:16I was watching a little bit on the Amazon – I forget what they call it.
12:20It's basically like the Madden view, essentially, with the sky cam.
12:24And you kind of get to see more of the routes down the field.
12:27And, you know, when he's in those one-on-ones against a corner on the outside,
12:32it's never a bad option to just throw it up to him.
12:35And you can – it's like – I don't know if it's 50-50.
12:38If you don't know what the exact rate is that he's coming down with that certain –
12:41tonight, it felt like it was happening every time they threw it.
12:43Obviously, he caught nine of ten targets.
12:45But there's a huge chance for an explosive, like a big play by just – you know,
12:50just if you get that look, that one-on-one look.
12:52And so if teams have to protect for that, then obviously that opens things up.
12:55And, you know, the way that Bijan was running tonight, it opens things up.
12:59So, yeah.
12:59I mean, that's how – that's how this offense clicks, basically.
13:02And it will be interesting to see how they evolve from here.
13:06Can Kyle Pitts get more involved?
13:09You know, that's still something that hasn't quite happened.
13:11And I'm sure it will continue to be a narrative of, like,
13:14can Drake and Kyle get it going in the same night?
13:17Because it feels like they haven't done that.
13:19But, yeah, we'll see.
13:21But if it works out like tonight, then I don't know if it matters all that much.
13:25But also, I want to give credit to Tommy Reese.
13:27I thought he – especially, again, as the game grew on,
13:30I felt like he and Mike Penix just, like, kind of were figuring –
13:35getting it – I just say figuring out together.
13:38Like, they were figuring each other out and getting a better idea
13:40of how they could exploit Green Bay.
13:45And a couple – like, a couple different just illustrations of this.
13:49One is, like, you know, again, I mentioned those glance routes to Drake.
13:52But when he's kind of lined up on the inside and he was running those –
13:54just those little skinny posts, getting that inside leverage on that defender,
13:58and then Mike just kind of putting it on him, it feels like a very consistent way
14:02that they can get that connection going.
14:04And it's good yardage, you know.
14:06You're getting really vertical on those routes.
14:09And Drake, again, has that physicality to just kind of box guys out in those situations.
14:13And I think it's something that can be effective for this team.
14:17And then we also saw Drake have a big play on what appeared to me to be some sort of,
14:21like,
14:23drawn-up way for the Falcons to potentially break some match coverage rules by Green Bay.
14:30Because Drake – I only say that because Drake was kind of coming from that slot position
14:33and kind of, you know, rotating out to being the outside wide receiver after the snap.
14:38And that can kind of sometimes give the match – depending on the match rules,
14:42it can kind of screw guys up.
14:43Or it can just kind of freeze a defender, which I think we know that's exactly what happened,
14:48whether it had to do with them being in some sort of coverage scheme or not.
14:50But Drake just goes by the guy.
14:53And so, you know, I tend to give credit in those instances to, you know, the play caller
14:57for basically being able to exploit something, whether it was within the schematics of the play
15:03or a player itself in a good spot.
15:05Maybe it was just pure luck.
15:07But, you know, I thought it was a good night for Tommy Reese and this offense overall, obviously.
15:11Scoring 30 – getting a 30-burger up there, just a great night.
15:16But also a great night for the defense.
15:17And this one, I felt like it was a little bit more predictable.
15:22I mean, when – again, to kind of throw back to the tailgate show with Abe,
15:24we were both predicting a pretty low-scoring game.
15:26I think I ended up having it 16-13.
15:29And he said he gave it an odd score, like an 18-11.
15:33But I think both of us thought that this defense was going to do really well
15:37against a Green Bay offense that was just missing so many pieces.
15:40I mean, this was like a Falcons offense that didn't have Bijan – I guess Jahan Dotson,
15:48like the second receiver, but that probably doesn't do enough justice to Jaden Reed.
15:53And Jake Matthews and Matthew Bergeron, or something to that effect.
15:58Or Chris Lindstrom, actually, because he's really – their best offensive lineman
16:01was their right tackle.
16:03I forget the guy.
16:04I'm not even going to say the guy's name.
16:06But he was one of the ones who was out as well as their starting left guard.
16:09So this Falcons defensive line was able to get after them.
16:12Didn't really get home in the pass rush too much.
16:16Cam Thomas picked up the only sack, I believe it was, for the Falcons.
16:19And it was just kind of a short, you know, loss of yards
16:25because Jordan Love was kind of able to climb the pocket.
16:27But only 17 rushing yards for Green Bay in this game.
16:31They had to just throw the ball.
16:33And obviously the kind of score in game state dictated that to a great extent.
16:37But Jordan Love was still only 28 for 53 in this game, you know,
16:41just kind of a little bit over 50%.
16:44So while they may not have gotten home for too many sacks,
16:47they were definitely affecting Jordan Love.
16:50I mean, he was actually kind of running all over the place.
16:53And it's probably a testament to his athleticism that he didn't get sacked more.
16:57He had the one kind of crazy play where he – it was technically, I think,
17:00a lateral that very well could have ended up in Billy Bowman's hands.
17:04I mean, the Falcons missed out on several potential turnovers,
17:09but still obviously a very good performance.
17:12One thing that did stand out on a negative was Mike Hughes got kind of burned
17:16a couple times, two or three times if you include, like, a penalty he had
17:20that was kind of unfortunate because it was just kind of a tangling of feet.
17:23But it is a penalty, you know, so not great.
17:27Again, after having a poor game the day before, the game before against Carolina,
17:32I have a little concern about Jesse Bates.
17:35I mean, he – there's a little bit of a scare with him at one point in this game
17:38where he was down.
17:39It looked to me like he was kind of reaching for his back,
17:42which I believe is what was holding him out of training camp.
17:46He ultimately comes back one play later, so he didn't really miss any time
17:49with the injury, but I'm more concerned with him with some of the decisions
17:54that it looked like he was making, like, basically trying to make plays,
17:58trying to break up passes, and making some pretty bad – like, he was trying –
18:04he tried to undercut a couple balls that he just had no chance of ever getting to,
18:09and then it leaves the guy who was in coverage kind of totally exposed
18:12without his help over the top because he's cut under the play,
18:16and so it kind of just left them very vulnerable at times.
18:20And it's just concerning because of how drastic – how clear it was
18:24that he was not going to be able to make the play the way that he was kind of
18:27thinking he could.
18:28So we'll be interesting to see how that goes.
18:31You know, I didn't mention when I started to see some of these things
18:34that I feel like it kind of went under-discussed amongst Falcons media
18:38and fans about his absence.
18:41You know, he probably missed about a week and a half
18:43for maybe even two weeks of camp completely without practicing.
18:48This would have been around the time – I remember one of the practices he missed
18:51was that Lanier high school night.
18:54But then even when he came back, he was never practicing in the team scrimmaging.
18:59He was, from what I could see, only doing individual.
19:03And I actually don't know if we ever did see him practicing with the team
19:10by the time that can't – like, media stopped being able to see the entire practices.
19:16Obviously, he's been playing since the season started,
19:18but I just feel like he's maybe feeling the effects of having missed that time
19:22or potentially, you know, looked like tonight.
19:25I was thinking, ah, well, maybe the reason why, you know,
19:28some of these plays look so off that he's trying to make
19:30is because he's been dealing – you know, he's dealing with an injury
19:32or obviously kind of not 100%, which is probably the case.
19:35Obviously, no players 100%, but hopefully they can – I don't know if they'll have time
19:40to, like, get them healthy or whatever, but they do have 11 days,
19:43the Falcons do, after this game.
19:45They get the little mini-bye, and plus they're playing on Monday nights.
19:49They played the first game of week three, and then they play the last game of week four,
19:53so they get a little bit of extra time.
19:54And hopefully that'll help somebody like Jesse Bates.
19:56But what a great trip home the team will have in that plane,
20:00and what a way to spend the next 11 days.
20:03Maybe not for the team.
20:05They'll enjoy it, you know, for three or four days.
20:07They get the weekend, but we get to enjoy it basically the entire time.
20:11And I think it'll be very interesting to hear, you know, from you guys.
20:16I definitely want to know in the comments,
20:17please tell me kind of what you're feeling about this season now.
20:22What kind of different perspective does this put it in?
20:25Because I think one of my friends said the Cooper Rush era of Falcons football is over,
20:30and I only say that to say that, you know, there's a very big reason why this team
20:36performed so differently tonight versus what they did the previous two games.
20:40And with the real Falcons, please stand up.
20:42We'll find out more about that when they have more difficult tests coming up
20:46against the Saints and then the Ravens, all on primetime, which should be great.
20:50So thank you guys so much for watching another episode of Joe Patrick on football.
20:53Please like the video.
20:54Please, before you go, just click the like for me.
20:57Please, please, I'm just like begging at this point.
21:02But thank you guys so much again for watching.
21:04We'll be back, obviously, with more.
21:06I don't know if it will be until Monday.
21:08We'll probably not be.
21:10We'll see.
21:11We'll see if there's if there's something interesting that comes out of Stefanski.
21:14We might come back tomorrow, but otherwise count on Monday.
21:17But I can't wait to continue to break this game down and talk more about it
21:21because so much good happened.
21:22It was great.
21:23See you guys later.
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