What some people don’t realize is the difference between Cooper Rush and Michael Penix (notice I’m using the masculine form after last night’s performance) is as wide as the difference between Michael Penix and Josh Allen. Maybe the Penix (upgrade) is wider. We already know it’s mightier than the sword, the pen is, at least.
Jokes aside, ignorance of this fact is what I believe causes stat nerds to overrate individual quarterbacks generally — yes Sam Darnold is way more valuable than peak Saquon Barkley if your alternative is Rush. But no he is not necessarily more valuable if your alternative is Kirk Cousins or in his case Drew Lock. In fact, Darnold WAS Lock a few years ago, five years into his career, before he became Darnold and he could easily become Lock again should circumstances conspire.
Bottom line, once Penix was starting and showing he was more or less at least the baseline NFL-caliber QB he was last year, the Falcons went from worst team in the league to garden-variety long-shot. And that long shot suddenly has a functioning offense with star players playing like stars. Except Kyle Pitts, who thrived last last year in the offense, but put up another virtual zero last night.
The Falcons had a smart game plan — run Bijan (and Brian) Robinson early and often until Penix felt comfortable and then open up the playbook, Bijan had a monster game (29-194-2, 2-2-19-0), and Brian (10-50-1) wasn’t bad, either. Al Michaels was gushing about Bijan’s running on the broadcast, but it was mostly warranted. The patience, stop/start, change of direction, acceleration, vision — he displayed it all.
Drake London (10-9-194-0) got open and caught everything thrown in his vicinity. He looked slow on some of the big plays, though, easily getting run down from behind by the DBs. London is a good red-zone target, so the TDs should come, but Tyreek Hill he is not.
Pitts (2-1-5-0) was such a non-factor I wondered whether he had gotten injured. I’d ordinarily buy-low on a guy with his pedigree and age, with the NFL-level QB finally back, but trusting Pitts is like taking the Chargers in Survivor — there’s history there.
I had Jordan Love going in one of my three Jaxson Dart leagues, and he put up a nice line in garbage time — 312 yards, two passing TDs. He was under pressure most of the night though and wasn’t that sharp.
Matthew Golden (12-5-100-1) and Christian Watson (10-7-96-1) are auto-starts now. Tucker Kraft (8-4-26-0) doesn’t look like himself, and I read somewhere he’s staying in to block more. The team misses Josh Jacobs’ power running, as the current group of backs isn’t giving them anything. Whether they get him back apparently depends on whether there’s video of him allegedly body-slamming his ex and whether the police department releases it to the NFL over the wishes of Jacobs and his ex.
The Falcons are now contenders in the NFC South. Maybe the Saints are good enough to run away with it, but if they’re not, it’s up for grabs. I bought some Falcons AFC South shares at seven cents before the game, and it’s now trading at 19.
Keep in mind the Packers were playing on a short week off an overtime game on Sunday. Might be a decent buy-low for Week 4, but I haven’t looked into it yet.