Michael Penix Jr. owns the four interceptions that cost the Falcons a win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday. The shutout loss left the team at 3-5 and dropped them to a low point in the season. Penix admits the game was hard to watch on film, yet he insists the team must fix the errors to move forward. The quarterback takes full blame for the mistakes while the team prepares for a critical matchup in Spain.
Fixing Errors in Madrid
The Falcons face the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Penix said the team spent the day after the loss reviewing what went wrong. He believes reflection is the only path to getting better.
Penix noted that the team has already started to regain confidence during practice in Madrid. He observed that the players are focusing on small details and executing at a high level. “We had a couple of walkthroughs, but just the attention to detail and the guys just executing at a high level today, and that’s all it is,” he said.
Teammates Back the Quarterback
Wide receiver Drake London refuses to let the poor performance define Penix’s season. London believes the quarterback will simply put the loss behind him and work harder. “He just puts it behind him and moves forward,” London said. He added that dwelling on the past helps no one, so Penix is already working on a clean slate.
Penix has stated that he wants to win games for this team and takes personal responsibility when things go wrong. “I want to win football games for this team. And whenever you have a game like last week, you know, you kind of point the finger at yourself,” he said. He emphasized that he always wants to be the best version of himself for the roster.
The Stakes of a 3-5 Start
While Penix focuses on his own play, other voices question the team’s ability to make a deep playoff run. ESPN analyst Bill Barnwell wrote that the Falcons “can’t have serious aspirations about making a deep playoff run,” despite their standing in the NFC South, according to Heavy.com. This assessment highlights the difficulty of the road ahead for Atlanta. The team has slipped to 3-5 after the loss to the Buccaneers.
The Falcons must prove these critics wrong by beating the Bengals in a neutral site game. Bates has 28 career interceptions., but he has four this season along with 46 tackles and three forced fumbles. As Penix said, “So we spent that next day doing our correcting. And then after that, it was, we’re moving on.”
