Michael Penix Jr.’s promising debut was less about the numbers and more about the opportunities it presented for the Falcons

So far, so good. A new era of Atlanta Falcons football was ushered in on Sunday when the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Michael Penix Jr., made his first career start at quarterback in place of the benched Kirk Cousins, whom Atlanta is likely to cut afterward becomes the season.

The Falcons beat the struggling Giants in Penix’s first start and kept their playoff hopes alive with an encouraging start for the rookie. Atlanta was able to expand the playbook a bit en route to a 34-7 victory, which at least bodes well for the future.

Head coach Raheem Morris called Penix “flawless” after the game, and while that’s a stretch, Penix completed 18 of 27 passes for 202 yards and one interception that wasn’t his fault.

“I was ready for the moment,” Penix said. “I prepared for this every day. It was a blessing. A great game. A great team game.”

On the first play of the game, the Falcons did something they were rarely able to do in Cousins’ starts: They ran a play-action bootleg. Penix rolled left and threw a dart to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud along the sideline, although McCloud dropped it. Penix managed to get the Falcons into field goal range on their first drive, but they missed the kick and had to go back to work on the remaining drives.

Overall, it was the Falcons’ best offense in weeks, and Penix can at least get them to do some things that weren’t possible before.

Atlanta saw a big increase in play-action usage this week: 22.6% of Atlanta’s passing plays came on play-action. According to TruMedia, the Falcons had not made play-actions on more than 15% of their dropbacks in any game.

This allowed Penix to make some easier throws and allowed Bijan Robinson to have one of his best games of the season. Robinson rushed for 94 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries as the Falcons’ offense was able to move up and down the field.

“You want the running game to be as explosive as possible for a guy like Mike coming in,” Robinson said. “While we help him, he helps us in the same way with his talent and his ability to bring the ball upfield. You don’t have a lot of people, eight in the penalty area, nine in the penalty area.”

The Falcons finished this game with an average of 2.22 points per drive, a big jump from the 1.37 they had averaged in the previous five games, which resulted in Cousins ​​being benched. The Falcons offense actually moved the ball at about the same rate in terms of success rate (48% in this game), but they were able to maximize their drives and actually score a few touchdowns. Penix was sharp, decisive, showed off his typical arm strength and handled the Giants’ few difficult moments well.

The defense was behind him. Jessie Bates III and Matthew Judon each returned interceptions for touchdowns, taking some of the pressure off Penix.

“As a defense, we had a conversation. ‘Hey, we need to be able to make plays and get through on third down and get turnovers and create short fields for Mike,'” Bates said. “I know he’s ready, but first of all we managed to get him settled in and I think our defense did that today.”

His only interception of the day came on a dropped pass from Kyle Pitts, but beyond that there were no negative plays from Penix in his first start. He wasn’t sacked and rarely put the ball in danger as he continued to shoot up the field. Penix isn’t the most mobile quarterback in the world, but he’s in a different class than Cousins ​​after his Achilles tendon injury. The Falcons no longer have a statue in their pocket and, in theory, it will be harder for defenses to simply run their passing game without help in sight.

There’s a caveat here when playing against the Giants, but the Falcons’ offense was stifled by the Maxx Crosby-less Raiders last week, so this is a real improvement over the Dirty Birds. With wins over the Commanders and Panthers, they may still be able to salvage their playoff hopes and complete their season. This would be an incredible start to the Penix era for the Falcons, but for now, just take everything one game at a time. The first insights were promising.