Everyone loves an underdog. It’s even easier to love one when the team on the other sideline is Green Bay, and for roughly three quarters of the NFC North, Thursday night was pure entertainment. If you live by FTP, this one was for you.
On paper it looked like a get-right game for the Packers. Atlanta came into Lambeau 0-2 under a brand new head coach in Kevin Stefanski, with an offense that had scored 16 points total across two weeks and hadn’t run a single play in the red zone. Green Bay was a five-point favorite in its home opener. Michael Penix Jr. was making his first start of the season, coming back from the partially torn ACL that ended his last one.
For about one drive, the script held. Penix threw an interception on Atlanta’s opening possession, and Christian Watson caught his fourth touchdown of the year to put Green Bay up 7-0. I figured I’d be changing the channel by halftime.
Then Atlanta scored 27 straight points.
Penix settled in and went 13-of-15 with a touchdown across the second and third quarters. He finished 18-of-25 for 256 yards, one touchdown and the one early pick. That’s a quarterback who shook off a bad start instead of letting it snowball, which is more than I can say for some quarterbacks I watch every Sunday.
The real damage came from Drake London and Bijan Robinson. London had nine catches for 194 yards after managing six for 80 in the first two games combined. Robinson ran it 29 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns, plus two catches for 19 more. For context, he’d had 80 rushing yards total through two weeks. According to the stat nerds, they’re the first pair of teammates to each clear 190 yards from scrimmage in a road game since 1976. Doing that at Lambeau is a nice touch.
Green Bay’s run game, meanwhile, produced 17 yards. Seventeen. Jordan Love threw it 53 times for 312 yards and two touchdowns, and Matthew Golden got his first career touchdown with a 100-yard night, but most of that came while the Packers were chasing a game that was already gone. Atlanta outgained them 498 to 328 and went 6-of-10 on third down. It would have been over 500 yards if not for a couple of kneel-downs at the end.
Final: Falcons 35, Packers 14. It’s Green Bay’s first home-opener loss since 2012, and it leaves them at 1-2, with the Week 1 loss to Minnesota already on the books.
I’m not going to pretend three weeks settles anything in this division. Green Bay will be fine eventually; they usually are, which is exactly why a night like this is so satisfying. As a Lions fan, I’ll take a Packers team that couldn’t run the ball or stop the run at home against an 0-2 team, and I’ll enjoy it for the rest of the weekend. The Lions have their own problems to sort out against the Jets on Sunday, but that’s a post for another day.
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