Falcons Rout Packers 35-14 as Michael Penix Jr. Returns, Bijan Robinson Explodes

The Atlanta Falcons finally have something to show for a season that had, until Thursday night, looked disastrous. Behind the long-awaited return of quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and a career night from running back Bijan Robinson, the Falcons dismantled the Green Bay Packers 35-14 at Lambeau Field, scoring 27 unanswered points after falling behind early and picking up their first win of the 2026 season in emphatic fashion.

The victory did more than snap Atlanta’s winless start. It reintroduced Penix Jr. to the field for the first time since a torn ACL ended his 2025 campaign in November, and it sent the Packers, previously considered one of the NFC’s steadier teams under head coach Matt LaFleur, to a deflating home loss that drops them to 1-2 on the young season.

Penix Jr. Makes His Long-Awaited Return

All eyes on Thursday night were on Michael Penix Jr., making his first appearance since his ACL injury sidelined him back in November. It was also his first start of the 2026 season, and the early signs suggested some rust — Penix and the Falcons offense started slowly, unable to find much rhythm in the opening stretch as Green Bay grabbed an early lead.

But as the game wore on, Penix settled in. According to game recaps, he “settled in nicely after a slow start,” steadily distributing the ball to his playmakers and orchestrating what became a complete offensive takeover in the second half. By the time the final whistle blew, Atlanta had piled up 498 total yards of offense, a number that reflects just how thoroughly the Falcons attack clicked once Penix found his footing.

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur had acknowledged before kickoff that Atlanta’s offense would look different with Penix under center, telling reporters the offense was “going to look a little bit different Thursday night” compared to the version of the Falcons his team had scouted with a backup at quarterback. That prediction proved accurate, though not in the way LaFleur would have hoped — Penix’s return coincided with the most explosive offensive performance Atlanta has produced all season.

Bijan Robinson’s Breakout Night

If Penix Jr.’s return was the headline storyline heading into the game, Bijan Robinson’s performance was the story coming out of it. The Falcons running back put together a monster outing, racking up more than 200 total scrimmage yards and finding the end zone twice, cementing himself as the offensive engine that carried Atlanta to its rout.

Robinson’s night reflected the kind of dual-threat production that has made him one of the league’s most dynamic offensive weapons — a combination of between-the-tackles power and receiving ability out of the backfield that Green Bay’s defense had no answer for as the game progressed. With Penix distributing the ball effectively and Robinson punishing the Packers on the ground and through the air, Atlanta’s offense became nearly impossible to contain by the second half.

Drake London Delivers a Career-Caliber Performance

Wide receiver Drake London turned in one of the best games of his career, hauling in nine catches for 194 receiving yards. London emerged as Penix’s clear go-to target in the passing game, consistently getting open and making difficult catches that kept Green Bay’s secondary off balance throughout the night.

The 194-yard outing places London among the most productive single-game receiving performances by a Falcons wideout in recent memory, and it underscored just how dangerous Atlanta’s offense can be when its passing and rushing attacks are both firing simultaneously. Between London’s big night through the air and Robinson’s dominant performance on the ground, the Packers’ defense simply had no way to focus its efforts on shutting down one threat without opening the door for the other.

27 Unanswered Points Bury Green Bay

Green Bay actually got off to the better start, taking an early lead before Atlanta’s offense found its footing. But once the Falcons started scoring, they didn’t stop — reeling off 27 unanswered points that turned a competitive early game into a decisive rout by the final whistle.

That kind of run reflects not just an offensive explosion but a complete defensive collapse on Green Bay’s side of the ball. The Packers’ defense, which had shown promise through the season’s first two weeks, could not contain the Falcons’ attack once Atlanta found its rhythm, allowing Penix, Robinson, and London to control the game almost entirely in the second half.

A Tough Night for Green Bay

The loss drops the Packers to 1-2 on the season, a jarring result for a team that entered the week with modest optimism after grinding out an overtime win over the Jets. Green Bay’s offense, according to game recaps, “remained out of sync” for most of the night, unable to generate the kind of sustained drives needed to keep pace with Atlanta’s suddenly potent attack.

The Packers also entered the game dealing with notable injury concerns that may have compounded their struggles. Offensive tackle depth was already a question mark heading into the matchup, and receiver Jayden Reed’s status coming off a neck injury added further uncertainty to Green Bay’s offensive game plan. Those absences and limitations showed up on the field, as the Packers’ offense struggled to establish any consistent rhythm against a Falcons defense that, for one night at least, did just enough to complement its high-powered offensive counterpart.

What It Means for Atlanta

For a Falcons team that had been held out of the red zone entirely through its first two games of the season — a level of offensive futility not seen from an NFL team since the 2008 St. Louis Rams, according to pregame reporting — Thursday’s performance represents a dramatic turnaround. The return of a healthy, effective Penix Jr. appears to have unlocked an offense that had looked lost without its starting quarterback, and the immediate chemistry between Penix, Robinson, and London suggests this version of the Falcons offense could be a very different, and much more dangerous, unit going forward.

Atlanta will look to build on the momentum from this win as the season progresses, while Green Bay heads back to the drawing board to figure out how a promising 1-1 start turned into a lopsided home loss on national television. For LaFleur, who already sat on a warmer coaching seat than usual entering the season, Thursday’s blowout loss adds fresh pressure heading into the coming weeks.

A Season-Defining Statement Game

It’s rare for a single regular-season Thursday night game to carry the kind of weight this one did for both franchises, but the context surrounding the matchup made it unavoidable. Atlanta entered the week 0-2 and mired in one of the most historically inept offensive stretches the league had seen in nearly two decades, with reporting ahead of kickoff noting the Falcons had failed to reach the red zone at all through their first two games — a level of offensive dysfunction the league hadn’t witnessed since the 2008 St. Louis Rams. Against that backdrop, a 35-point, 498-yard offensive explosion wasn’t just a good game. It was a complete inversion of everything Atlanta’s season had looked like just seven days earlier.

For Green Bay, the stakes cut the other direction. The Packers had opened the season with tempered but real optimism, including a hard-fought overtime win over the Jets that suggested a team capable of grinding out difficult results even when its own offense wasn’t clicking. Thursday’s loss punctures that early narrative, particularly given how comprehensively Atlanta took over the game once its offense found rhythm. A 27-0 run across the middle and late portions of the game is the kind of collapse that tends to draw scrutiny in the days that follow, both for the defensive coaching staff that couldn’t slow Atlanta down and for an offense that never found any answers of its own.

The result also reshapes the early-season conversation around both teams heading into Week 4. Atlanta, previously written off by many as one of the league’s most disappointing rosters through two weeks, now has tape showing exactly what its offense looks like when Penix, Robinson, and London are all clicking simultaneously — a version of the team opposing defensive coordinators will need to prepare for differently than the punchless unit that took the field in Weeks 1 and 2. Green Bay, meanwhile, will spend the coming week fielding questions about its offensive identity, its injury-thinned personnel, and whether Thursday’s performance was an aberration against a suddenly hot opponent or a sign of deeper issues that a 1-1 start had been masking.

Looking Ahead

Both franchises now turn quickly to the rest of their September schedules with very different questions to answer. Atlanta’s coaching staff will look to prove that Thursday’s performance reflects a genuine offensive identity built around a healthy Penix Jr., rather than a single explosive outlier against a struggling opponent. If Robinson and London can replicate anything close to their production from Lambeau Field in the coming weeks, the Falcons’ early-season outlook could shift considerably, transforming a team many had already written off into a legitimate factor in a competitive NFC South.

Green Bay, on the other hand, faces a shorter runway to sort out its issues given the short week that comes with any Thursday night matchup. The Packers’ coaching staff will need to evaluate whether their offensive struggles stemmed primarily from the absences created by injuries to key personnel, or from deeper structural issues that a somewhat fortunate 1-1 start had obscured. Either way, Thursday night’s result ensures that both teams will enter their next matchups under a brighter spotlight than either franchise anticipated heading into Week 3.

Sources

• NFL.com: Falcons-Packers on ‘Thursday Night Football’: What We Learned from Atlanta’s 35-14 win
• CBS Sports: Atlanta Falcons vs. Green Bay Packers Gametracker