Winners and losers from Packers' Thursday Night Football dud vs. Falcons - USA Today
The Atlanta Falcons played like a rejuvenated team that finally had its quarterback back. The Green Bay Packers had the look of an undermanned squad still asking too much of its own quarterback.
That pretty much summed up an ugly Thursday night game in Wisconsin, the Falcons steamrolling the Packers 35-14 for their first win of the season as QB Michael Penix Jr. made his 2026 debut. Atlanta, which had 16 points all season entering the game, rolled off 27 in a row at one point in a runaway that immediately restored them to relevance in the NFC South. The Pack, meanwhile − still without injured superstar OLB Micah Parsons and Pro Bowl RB Josh Jacobs, among others − moved into the basement of the NFC North with a 1-2 record that somehow seems far more problematic than Atlanta’s.
The Falcons quarterback, and team’s highly scrutinized first-round pick from 2024, started his first game in nearly a year after sufficiently recovering from the third ACL reconstruction of his football career, dating back to his college days. He threw an interception while getting reacclimated on his first drive, but ultimately completed 18 of 25 throws for 256 yards and a TD. His connection with WR Drake London certainly seemed fully intact, the duo hooking up nine times for 194 yards. Playing on a Thursday night also confers another benefit to Penix, who now gets 11 days to recover and gauge how his body responds with Atlanta scheduled to next play Oct. 5 in New Orleans, Week 4’s Monday nighter.
In the depths of their 0-2 start, the Falcons entered the game with nary a touchdown in the previous seven quarters – and just one all season – and had not played a snap in the opposition red-zone in 2026, a dry spell no team had experienced through its first two games since 2008. Thursday, they scored four touchdowns in five visits inside Green Bay's 20-yard line.
Y’all remember he’s a two-time NFL Coach of the Year, right? That seems to get obscured a bit after the rocky end to his six-year tenure with the Cleveland Browns – where all tenures end rockily – and was certainly accentuated by Atlanta’s ghastly start to this season. But if Penix didn’t completely unlock Stefanski’s offense, which did rack up a gaudy 498 yards, he certainly stabilized it and provided ample hope that the Falcons could still be a contender for the divisional throne this season. After notching his first win as Atlanta's HC, Stefanski is also now 6-0 on Thursday nights … 41-60 (playoffs included) during the rest of the week.
Maybe the lone silver lining for the Green and Gold, the fifth-year receiver continues to show what he's capable of when healthy, which has been the biggest obstacle to date during his career. Watson's first-quarter TD catch, which staked Green Bay to an early lead, was his fourth of the season, tying him for the league lead − albeit with one more game under his belt than Seattle's Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Detroit's Amon-Ra St. Brown.
It's been a rough year-plus for the Atlanta defensive coordinator, even more so off the field than on. In 2025, Ulbrich's son infamously prank-called then-Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders as he tumbled into the third day of the draft, embarrassing the family and lightening the coach's wallet. This year has been much worse, Ulbrich's wife losing her battle with cancer in July. An inspired defensive effort against the Packers − and with the Falcons down several key starters due to injuries and pass rusher James Pearce Jr.'s suspension − only counts for so much, but it's nice to see something go right for the NFL lifer given all he's been through on a personal level.
As you’d expect, Bijan Robinson provided plenty of mustard to the Falcons offense, rushing for 194 yards and two scores. However he also got some nice backup from RB2 Brian Robinson Jr. (no relation), who chipped in with 50 yards and a score of his own.
Boy, do the Packers miss Jacobs – to say nothing of the legitimacy he provides to the play-action approach coach Matt LaFleur favored in 2025, a strategy that was obviously dead in the water against Atlanta ... yet curiously employed on fourth-and-1 from the Falcons' 7-yard line on the Packers' first possession of the second half. (The play failed miserably.) After averaging a meager 64.5 yards on the ground in their first two games, the Pack were far more ineffectual Thursday – producing all of 17 yards, among the lowest totals in the storied franchise's history. And with no return in sight for Jacobs, who remains on the commissioner’s exempt list – not to mention a battered O-line that was missing LG Aaron Banks and RT Zach Bako-Bewele, who’s out for the season with a knee injury – little reason to believe matters will improve any time soon.
The leader of the Pack on the field and at the bank – with a contract averaging $55 million annually – Love understandably continues to struggle trying to operate an offense that’s completely out of kilter while attempting to compensate for a defense that’s been grated for at least 35 points twice in three weeks. Aside from the lopsided pass-run ratio (54 dropbacks vs. nine rushes on Thursday), Love was also navigating his new blocking combination without injured WR Jayden Reed. While his position and paycheck put the onus on him, Love, who’s barely completing 50% of his passes this season − despite 312 empty-calorie yards and two TDs through the air Thursday − continues to be stuck in what’s presently a very unenviable position.
"I think a lot of areas we need to improve. But at the end of the day, I'll just sit here and look at myself and say there's so much stuff I can improve on to make us as an offense better," Love said afterward. "It always starts with me. To be the leader of the team, I've got to improve and be better in a lot of areas. There's a lot of stuff that I'll look at on film that I won't be happy with how I performed tonight."
There shouldn't be too much blame assessed to the Packers pass rusher. But we can't ignore that his roughing penalty on Penix late in the first quarter − when the Packers were leading 7-0 − kept the Falcons on the field following what appeared to be a failed third down. Bijan Robinson escaped for a 55-yard run on the next play, was in the end zone two snaps later, and the Falcons never looked back. Oops.
If you took the Falcons' Kyle Pitts or Packers' Tucker Kraft with an early pick in your fantasy draft ... bummer. They've combined for 11 receptions, none for TDs ... all season.
Unless Penix gets reinjured − sadly, his history suggests it will happen − the Dolphins castoff ain't playing extensively here. Expected to start in Week 1 before he injured an oblique muscle in practice, Tagovailoa's best bet to rekindle his career in 2026 might entail a release from his one-year deal or a trade to a quarterback-needy team, say the New York Giants potentially?
Arguably the most iconic stadium in the NFL, it’s been privy to a lot of good football in recent decades – and most certainly on opening night. But not Thursday. The loss to the previously winless and inept Falcons was not only embarrassing and frustrating for the locals, it also ended the Packers’ streak of winning 13 consecutive home openers.
