Falcons QB Penix (rib) exits loss late, doesn't expect injury to be long term

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  Marc RaimondiOct 12, 2026, 01:15 AM ET

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  Marc Raimondi's first year covering the Falcons was 2024, but it wasn't his first year at ESPN. He joined the company in 2019 and was a top combat sports reporter. He also covered professional wrestling and wrote the book "Say Hello to the Bad Guys: How Pro Wrestling's New World Order Changed America," which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2025. Raimondi also worked for the New York Post and Newsday, beginning in 2009, covering high school and college sports, plus the NFL, NFL, MLB and NHL.

ATLANTA -- Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. came out of Sunday night's 30-23 overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens late with a rib injury, but he does not believe it will be a long-term issue.

"Knowing me, I'm going to be ready to go next week because I sat out enough in my career, but I'm going to do everything I can in the training room, make sure I get back to where I want to be," Penix said.

Penix was sacked by Tavius Robinson with 27 seconds left in a tie game and stayed down on the grass briefly. He walked off under his own power, backup Tua Tagovailoa came in for one play and then Penix re-entered.

The Falcons ended up having to punt and the game went into overtime, for which Penix did not return. Tagovailoa came back in and threw what would be the game-ending interception to Kyle Hamilton with 2:11 left.

Penix said that if the Falcons got the ball to begin overtime, he probably would have come back in. But as he sat on the bench and got cold during a long Ravens drive to begin the period, the pain got worse and worse.

Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said Penix was trying to get comfortable on the bench, but was not able to.

"It's frustrating, but I think the biggest thing is just I want to be out there, especially in a big moment in a game like that," Penix said. "I just felt like I needed to be out there."

Penix just returned in Week 3 from left ACL surgery. It was his third ACL surgery; Penix tore his right ACL twice in college.

The Falcons offense was terrible the first two weeks of the season with Penix and Tagovailoa (oblique) injured. Third-stringer Cooper Rush led Atlanta to a combined 16 points in Weeks 1 and 2. When Penix returned, the Falcons scored 80 points in his first two starts combined.

On Sunday, Penix was 19-of-32 passing for 240 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions before getting injured.

"I hope he's great," Falcons running back Bijan Robinson said of Penix. "I hope that it could maybe only be just a bruise or something like that and it just felt a little like that in the moment, but I just pray he's all right. I know the whole team does."