(Here’s you weekly serving of 9 items on the Falcons at 9 a.m. every Wednesday this season.)
1. The no-spin zone: Three of the six quarterbacks drafted in the first round of the draft made their NFL debuts in Week 1.
Chicago’s Caleb Williams, Washington’s Jayden Daniels and Denver’s Bo Nix all started. New England’s Drake Maye and the Falcons’ Michael Penix Jr. did not play. Minnesota’s J.J. McCarthy is out for the season with a knee injury.
“Coming out, running out on the field, it was cool just coming out,” Penix said. “It was cool to just know that I’m in the NFL, first regular-season game. The crowd, they were super-hyped.”
Penix played a supporting role to veteran Kirk Cousins, who was entering his 14th season in the NFL and coming back from a ruptured right Achilles.
“After every drive, we go through the plays and then after we go through the plays, I get up and I watch the defense,” Penix said. “As soon as we get off (the field), I do a sit down (with) him every time. That is just part of what we do. I go look at the iPad. See some of the looks that we (received). Once we get done with that, if Kirk wants to stay on the bench, he can stay on the bench. If he wants to get up and move, he can. Me, I want to see the game, so I get up.”
Penix is listening to Cousins during those sessions, but sometimes he also has questions.
“For me, being a backup, just whatever I see, he’s good with it,” Penix said. “He’s always like, ‘if you see anything just let me know. Just talk to me throughout the game.’ That’s the same (way) I am whenever I’m out there. When I was a starter in college, I was always telling my backups that I definitely want the information. I want their input. So, yeah, we have those conversations about what we saw and stuff like that.”
The Falcons thought the Steelers would be more aggressive.
“We thought they’d come with more exotic fronts, more pressures and stuff like that,” Penix said. “They didn’t pressure as much. That’s really the biggest difference. We thought they’d pressure more on big third-down plays, but they didn’t really pressure. They played coverage a lot.”
2. Rookie QB corner: The Bears won despite the play of Williams, who completed 14 of 29 passes for 93 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions.
Daniels and the Commanders were beaten by Tampa Bay. Daniels completed 17 of 24 passes for 184 yards.
The Broncos loss to Seattle 26-20. Nix completed 26 of 42 passes for 138 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions.
3. Penix’s preparation: Penix said he plans to get ready as if he’s the starter.
“Throughout the week the process is the same,” Penix said. “You have to get ready. You never know when your time is. I always have the same process throughout the week.”
Penix has his game-day routine.
“Come game-day I’m watching the play, I’m listening to it in my helmet,” Penix said. “I’m just processing it and thinking about what I’d do in that situation. Obviously, it’s different being on the sideline, but it’s like I would throw it there or I’d do this. But you don’t feel the rush, and you’re not getting hit and stuff like that. So, I do as best as I can as far as the mental reps.”
Penix wants to make sure he’s supporting Cousins.
“We talked about it the week before, ‘hey, Kirk how do you want the sideline stuff to be,’” Penix said. “Is he a guy who wants to watch it by himself, just go through it and process it himself. Kirk was like, ‘I’m all in, if you’ve got anything to say, just let me know. I’m definitely all ears.’”
Penix appreciates Cousins’ approach.
“He’s been in the league a long time, and he knows that he might not see everything,” Penix said. “You can’t see from sideline to sideline. So, maybe, he made a throw, a completion, but back side, this is coming open because the safety is biting on our cheese. ... He wants to know that stuff.”
4. Robinson’s screen play: Bijan Robinson was close to scoring on the screen pass the Falcons threw him on third-and-goal from the 13.
“That was pretty close,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. “Drake London is locked on his guy. He’s got him pretty good. Bijan gets it in there tight. The guy falls off Drake and jumps on the back of his leg. I believe Bijan’s going to make that next guy miss that’s in front of him, which he’s really focused on, as good runners look ahead.
“The guy jumps on the back of his legs and makes that tackle. But, we were that close to scoring in the opening drive, which would have been really good for the confidence.”
5. On Cousins’ decision-making: Morris was asked about Cousins’ decision-making in the game against the Steelers.
“The assessment is easy for him,” Morris said. “It wasn’t good enough. We threw two interceptions. We’ve got to make better decisions in the passing game all around. We can’t turn the ball over; (we have) to allow our defense to go out and get some big stops for us, which they did. But, it just wasn’t good enough.”
Morris said the staff will be clear when assessing how all players played.
“Whether it’s wins or losses, we always make those assessments to our quarterback and to everybody else,” Morris said. “It’s just the quarterback will get the most attention at all times, along with me. We know that. We’ve addressed that (Monday). Our guys will go out there, and they’ll come back better.”
6. Is Cousins fully recovered? There’s a video of every Cousins’ throw out there on the internet. He clearly doesn’t put any pressure on his surgically repaired right Achilles.
“I feel like Kirk Cousins is healthy,” Morris said. “He’s been healthy since he’s been here, since he’s been back. Obviously, the restrictions we obviously put on him when he first got here, being smart with the OTA days … (in) the training camp he was full-go.”
Cousins was scrambling around in training camp, and Morris would blow the whistle so that Cousins didn’t get hit.
“Towards the end of training camp, we allowed those things to happen, got him ready to go,” Morris said. “We got to a game (Sunday), and we’ve got to get better.”
7. First-game issues: The Falcons didn’t play their starters in the exhibition games, and it showed on offense.
“There were some slips up,” Robinson said. “There were some miscommunication things. I think for the most part, we were on the same page. We all got the play calls. We all knew our assignments, but there are some different things that can really hurt you. It’s those small details that cause a turnover. So, those are the kind of plays that we have to eliminate this week in practice.”
8. Where to watch, listen, livestream: What you should know about Monday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles (1-0) and the Falcons (0-1), which is set for 8:15 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field.
TV: ESPN/ABC: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
Local radio: 92.9 The Game. Play-by-play: Wes Durham. Analyst: Dave Archer. Executive producer: Beau Morgan. Engineer: Jake Cook. Pregame/Postgame show – Hosts: Chris Goforth and Mike Johnson. Dylan Matthews and Orin Romain (studio producers). Dylan Matthews (network studio producer) and Chris Thomas (local studio producer).
Satellite radio: SiriusXM NFL Radio. Falcons channel 225. Eagles channel 226 and on the APP.
Livestream: Streaming inside the Atlanta market: Fans in the Atlanta market can stream the game on the Atlanta Falcons app. NFL app (subscription required). Out of the country: GamePass International. There are several other subscription services.
9. Depth chart: Here’s a look at the Falcons’ official 53-man depth chart heading into Monday’s game with the Eagles, which is set for 8:15 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field.
Here’s the depth chart:
OFFENSE
QB: Kirk Cousins, Michael Penix Jr.
RB: Bijan Robinson, Tyler Allgeier, Avery Williams, Jase McClelland
WR: Drake London
WR: Darnell Mooney, Casey Washington
SWR: Ray-Ray McCloud, KhaDarel Hodge
TE: Kyle Pitts
TE: Charlie Woerner, Ross Dwelley
LT: Jake Matthews, Storm Norton
LG: Matthew Bergeron, Jovaughn Gwyn
C: Drew Dalman, Ryan Neuzil
RG: Chris Lindstrom, Kyle Hinton
RT: Kaleb McGary, Brandon Parker
DEFENSE
ROLB: Lorenzo Carter, James Smith-Williams, DeAngelo Malone
DE – Grady Jarrett, Kentavious Street, Eddie Goldman
NT – David Onyemata, Ruke Orhorhoro
DE – Zach Harrison, Ta’Quon Graham, Brandon Dorlus
LOLB – Matthew Judon, Arnold Ebiketie
ILB – Kaden Elliss, JD Bertrand
ILB – Troy Anderson, Nate Landman
LCB -- A.J. Terrell
RCB -- Mike Hughes, Clark Phillips III
NCB – Dee Alford, Antonio Hamilton Sr.
SS -- Justin Simmons, Richie Grant
FS -- Jessie Bates III, Micah Abernathy
Special teams
K -- Younghoe Koo
P -- Bradley Pinion
LS -- Liam McCullough
KR – Avery Williams, Mike Hughes
PR – Avery Williams, Mike Hughes
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