Falcons vs. Packers: Bijan Robinson's 194-Yard Night Ends Green Bay's Home-Opener Streak in Week 3

For 13 straight seasons, the home opener at Lambeau Field was the closest thing the NFL had to a guaranteed block party. On Thursday night, Bijan Robinson showed up uninvited, ran through the living room and left with the streak.

Robinson piled up 194 rushing yards and two touchdowns, Drake London matched him with 194 receiving yards, and the Atlanta Falcons flattened the Green Bay Packers 35-14 in Michael Penix Jr.'s return to the lineup. Atlanta fell behind 7-0, then rattled off 27 straight points while the Lambeau crowd switched from cheers to boos. Both teams leave Week 3 at 1-2. Only one of them got its season back.

A Fast Green Bay Start, Then a Green-and-Gold Meltdown

The Packers opened like the team they want to be. Penix's first drive back ended with Xavier McKinney picking him off, and Jordan Love later marched Green Bay 87 yards in nine plays before hitting Christian Watson for a 4-yard touchdown. It looked, briefly, like a reset.

Then came the flag that rewrote the night. Late in the first quarter, an incompletion on third-and-11 should have ended Atlanta's drive. Instead, Brenton Cox Jr. drew a roughing-the-passer flag. On the very next snap, Robinson took a handoff 55 yards. Moments later he punched in a 3-yard score, and the game was tied.

Nick Folk's 44-yard field goal made it 10-7. When the Packers answered with a drive into field-goal range, Zach Harrison knifed in and got a hand on Trey Smack's attempt. The Falcons took the gift and went 63 yards in eight plays, capped by gorgeous misdirection: Robinson motioned right, the defense followed him like he was handing out free merch, and Penix spun the other way to find a nearly uncovered Austin Hooper for a 5-yard touchdown on third-and-goal with 59 seconds left. Halftime: 17-7.

Green Bay opened the third quarter by driving to the Atlanta 7, then came up empty on fourth-and-1 when Love missed Watson in the end zone. Atlanta answered with a 92-yard, 6:18 grind that ended on Brian Robinson Jr.'s 7-yard run, and Folk tacked on a 31-yarder for a 27-7 cushion. Love found Matthew Golden for a 15-yard score, but Bijan's 2-yard plunge and Penix's two-point toss to Chris Blair made it 35-14. Xavier Watts picked off Love on the last real drive.

Bijan and Drake, Co-Headliners

Robinson carried 29 times at 6.7 yards a pop, caught two passes for 19 more and finished with 213 yards from scrimmage. Per the Falcons, he had 100 rushing yards before the break, and he is now only the 10th player ever to reach 6,000 career scrimmage yards by 25. That's not a running back. That's a cheat code someone forgot to patch.

London was the other half of the duet: nine catches on 10 targets, a career-high 194 yards and a 68-yard gain that broke Green Bay's spirit a little more. The chemistry is not an accident, either.

"Me and Drake, that's my real-life brother," Robinson said. "I call him my blood brother. We do everything together."

Penix shook off the rust in a hurry. He went 18 of 25 for 256 yards with a touchdown and an interception in his first game since a torn left ACL suffered against Carolina on Nov. 16. Per the team, he was 1 of 5 with the pick early, then 17 of 20 for 239 yards the rest of the way.

"I'm proud of him," Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski said. "It's not easy to rehab from injuries."

On defense, C.J. Henderson filled A.J. Terrell's spot with eight solo tackles and three pass breakups.

The Turning Point: Red Zone Exorcism

The roughing call flipped the scoreboard, but the bigger story was geography. Through two weeks, the Falcons had exactly zero snaps inside an opponent's 20, the first team since the 2008 Rams to manage that particular nightmare. On Thursday they went 4 for 5 in the red zone.

"That was the weight off the shoulders," Robinson said. A few breaths later he added: "When we scored, it was definitely something we enjoyed, and we kept on doing it."

Green Bay kept fumbling the group project. A penalty extended a dead drive. A kick got swatted. A fourth-and-1 at the 7 came up empty. Stacked together, those mistakes were a demolition plan.

Stats That Matter

• 242 to 17: Atlanta's rushing yards against Green Bay's. The Falcons had 15 rushing first downs; the Packers had one.
• 17 vs. 16: Atlanta's first-half points versus its total from the first two games combined.
• 3: Games with Robinson rushing for 150-plus and London receiving for 150-plus, an NFL record for one pair of teammates, per the Falcons.
• 1976: The last time two teammates each had at least 190 scrimmage yards in a road game, when Lawrence McCutcheon and Ron Jessie did it for the Rams at Miami.

What It Means: Atlanta Exhales, Green Bay Looks in the Mirror

For Atlanta, this was oxygen. The Falcons opened with a 20-13 loss at Pittsburgh and a 34-3 home beatdown by Carolina with Cooper Rush under center, an offense so stuck it could not find the red zone with a map. Now the offense finally looks like the one the roster was built for, and the Falcons get extra rest before visiting New Orleans on Monday night in Week 4. A 1-2 start is survivable. An 0-3 start was a eulogy.

For Green Bay, the alarms are louder. Their home-opener winning streak, 13 straight from 2013 through 2025 and tied with Miami's run from 1976 through 1988 for the NFL record, is over. The last time Green Bay dropped one of these, San Francisco won 30-22 in 2012. Love threw 53 times because nothing else worked; the backfield of MarShawn Lloyd and Kaleb Johnson managed 17 yards on eight totes. Without left guard Aaron Banks and right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele, the line featured rookie Jager Burton in his first career start and Anthony Belton at right tackle. It showed.

"We've got a couple extra days here, and everybody's got to take a long, hard look at themselves," Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. "We've got to find solutions and just come back ready to work."

Closing Take: Healthy, Happy and Finally Dangerous

Thursday night games are usually grim little slogs. This one was a buddy movie: Bijan as the charismatic lead, London as the scene-stealing best friend, Penix as the returning hero who just wanted to walk off in one piece.

"It felt great to get a win. It felt great to come out of there healthy. Just blessed, just blessed," Penix said.

The Packers have a mirror to look into. The Falcons have a pulse.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press. Additional notes from AtlantaFalcons.com.