ATLANTA — Michael Penix Jr. looked like an NFL veteran in his first professional start but not as much as he sounded like one when he took the podium after the game.

The Atlanta Falcons quarterback was at a local Costco shopping Tuesday night when head coach Raheem Morris informed him he would be making his first NFL start. After leading the Falcons to a 34-7 win over the New York Giants in that start, Penix was asked if he’d be celebrating the win at Costco on Sunday night.

“No, hopefully, something fancier,” Penix said. “Costco is great, though. Costco, hit me up.”

If the Falcons (8-7) keep playing like they did Sunday, Penix may get a sponsorship offer from the company, which would mean he replaced Kirk Cousins to become Atlanta’s Kirkland quarterback and pitch Costco’s signature line of products.

“Could not be more pleased with how the team responded, really rallied behind a young man,” Morris said. “He went out and played nearly flawless football and helped us get a win.”

Tampa Bay’s loss to Dallas on Sunday night put the Falcons back in the driver’s seat in the NFC South. If they win their final two games, at Washington and home against Carolina, they will host a playoff game.

The Falcons’ 27-point margin of victory was their second largest since the 2016 Super Bowl season, and they have now topped seven wins in a season for the first time since the 10-win 2017 season. The Giants (2-13) lost their 10th straight, the longest losing streak in franchise history.

“You do feel (nerves), but once I hit the field it goes away,” Penix said. “It’s the game I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old. It’s at a higher level, but it’s the same game.”

The Falcons drafted Penix eighth in April intending to let him understudy behind Cousins for a year or longer, but Cousins’ most recent five games convinced them to accelerate that timeline.

“The plan came a little bit sooner, but the kid was ready,” Morris said. “We had a lot of time to develop him, and the kid did a great job himself of getting ready where the moment wasn’t too big.”

Cousins swallowed the sting of being benched less than a year after signing a four-year, $180 million contract to mentor Penix throughout the week, Penix said. In the tunnel before the pair jogged out for warmups, Cousins said his weekly prayer and patted Penix on the back, gently pushing him to jog out in front of him.

“Kirk has been great all week, just being there for me and anything I need help with. He’s a great leader, great teammate,” Penix said. “Coming off the sidelines, he was asking me what I saw, and he continued to encourage me throughout the whole game.”

And, with a pat on the back from Kirk Cousins, here comes Michael Penix Jr. for the Atlanta Falcons. pic.twitter.com/xisQiO0SyR

— Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) December 22, 2024

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Penix finished 18-for-27 for 202 yards and one interception on a ball that bounced out of the hands of tight end Kyle Pitts near the goal line. The quarterback was victimized by three drops, including on his first throw of the game. Drops of his passes weren’t rare during his early practices because of his strong arm, but Penix has made big strides in throwing a more catchable ball, said wide receiver Darnell Mooney, who led the Falcons with five catches for 82 yards and then told reporters they might not want to stand too close to him in the locker room because he was feeling under the weather.

“When he first got here, he was (too excited) to throw the ball and everybody was dropping the ball everywhere,” Mooney said. “Now he’s just chilling, and he’s got some touch to him.”

Sunday’s drops didn’t rattle Penix, running back Bijan Robinson said.

“After the Kyle play, he was like, ‘We’re good,’” Robinson said. “A lot of guys would have put their heads down, but he was like, ‘We’re good, we’ll get it right back the next drive,’ and that’s what he did.”

Robinson carried the ball 22 times for 94 yards and is fourth in the league in rushing (1,196 yards). He ran for two touchdowns but was upset he didn’t get a receiving score because he was tripped up short of the goal line on a swing pass. Robinson returned to the huddle and apologized to Penix for not getting him his first NFL passing touchdown.

“I told him, ‘It’s all good, man. We won the football game,’” Penix said. “That just shows the person he is, not just him but everybody on this team, the character. He talked about getting me my first touchdown, but it’ll come. The biggest thing we want to do each and every week is win. We did that.”

GO DEEPER

What Michael Penix Jr.’s college film reveals about his chances as Atlanta’s QB

Atlanta’s defense had nothing to apologize for after returning two interceptions for touchdowns in the same game for the first time since 1983. Jessie Bates III jumped in front of a Drew Lock pass and returned it 55 yards in the second quarter, and then celebrated with Deion Sanders’ “Prime Time” dance. He said his inspiration was the throwback red helmets Atlanta wore Sunday.

“Something about these red helmets,” Bates said.

In the third quarter, defensive lineman Matthew Judon recorded the first interception and first touchdown of his nine-year career when he found himself holding a pass batted by Zach Harrison and rumbled 27 yards into the end zone.

“I just looked up and it fell right there. All glory to God,” said Judon, who became the first Falcon since Kroy Biermann in 2011 to have a pick six and a sack in the same game. “I am really grateful. I kept thanking Zach the whole time in (the locker room) until he left.”

The Falcons also recorded three sacks, one of which resulted in a fumble recovered by Arnold Ebiketie.

Penix, though, was the story of the day. Simply by providing a stabilizing element at the position, he gave the Falcons hope for their playoff push. His coaches and teammates said they never really doubted that the 24-year-old would.

The Falcons reorganized the “Mamba” periods they have used in practice this year where the starters from each side face off in competitive situations to give Penix some looks he hadn’t seen enough of, but other than that didn’t change their routine at all, Morris said.

“I think the guy is just a grown adult that came in with a high level of football experience,” the coach said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the young man. It was fun to watch.”

(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)

The moment was already destined for Dodgers lore.

Walker Buehler, arms extended, strutting off the Yankee Stadium mound, a World Series title having just been secured by his trademark knuckle-curveball.

Now, the scene will be a parting image for Buehler’s distinguished tenure with the club, too.

On Monday, Buehler agreed to a one-year, $21.05-million contract with the Boston Red Sox, as Yahoo Sports first reported, officially ending a seven-year run with the Dodgers that included tantalizing highs (two All-Star selections, two World Series titles and, from 2018-2021, the fourth-best ERA in the majors), injury-plagued lows (including two Tommy John surgeries that derailed his ascent as the Dodgers’ next great ace) and a fitting final act, with Buehler’s iconic save in Game 5 of the World Series proving to be his last game in a Dodgers uniform.

It’s a departure that, for most of this year, had been expected, as Buehler struggled mightily in the regular season returning from his second Tommy John procedure.

However, despite his 1-6 record and career-worst 5.38 ERA, Buehler sneaked into the Dodgers’ postseason rotation amid a rash of other pitching injuries and delivered in ways even he wasn’t fully expecting. Four shutout innings in a Game 3 win in the National League Championship Series. Five spotless frames in Game 3 of the Fall Classic. And then, on just one day of rest, a 16-pitch relief appearance to close out a championship.

For the first time in three years, flashes of Buehler’s once-dominant form returned.

And for a moment, a pathway for the impending free agent to re-sign in Los Angeles appeared to emerge.

“What Walker did, what he has done for us, what he did for us this year, his teammates, that does not go lost on us,” general manager Brandon Gomes said last month.

Alas, the chances of such a reunion were effectively dashed in the first week of the offseason, when the Dodgers decided not to extend a one-year, $21.05-million qualifying offer to the 30-year-old right-hander.

That move allowed Buehler to hit the open market without the burden of a draft-pick penalty. And, as the Dodgers looked elsewhere to shore up their rotation — they signed two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to a $182-million contract and remain engaged in the sweepstakes for star 23-year-old Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki — it became clear Buehler was unlikely to fit in their 2025 plans.

“I think there’s no better way to go out if I do,” Buehler said on the eve of the Fall Classic, when asked about 2024 potentially being his final season with the Dodgers, “than after hopefully a successful World Series.”

The Dodgers’ decision to not offer Buehler a QO — which was for virtually the same amount he will reportedly receive from the Red Sox — was met with some surprise around the industry.

In a vacuum, Buehler’s regular-season performance might not have warranted such a payday. The bleak history of two-time Tommy John pitchers added risk as well.

Nonetheless, Buehler was perhaps the best homegrown success story of this era of Dodgers baseball, going from a first-round draft pick out of Vanderbilt in 2017 to an integral member of the club’s 2020 and 2024 championship teams.

This year’s October heroics had rekindled the fan base’s love of the ever-confident veteran pitcher, evidenced by the raucous reception he got at the team’s championship parade last month while donning the vintage jersey that Orel Hersisher — a longtime mentor of his within the organization — had worn in the 1988 World Series.

At various points leading up to this offseason, Buehler had expressed a desire to remain in Los Angeles, saying before the World Series that “I’m very happy to be a Los Angeles Dodger, and I would love to stay here for as long as they’ll have me.”

Even then, though, Buehler hinted that the team’s QO decision would likely dictate his chances of a return.

“The first step in all that stuff is on the team,” he said of his upcoming free agency. “And that will happen really quickly one way or the other.”

While the Dodgers remained open to bringing back Buehler even after declining to offer him a QO, market dynamics always appeared likely to instead result in a split. Because Beuhler didn’t receive a QO, other teams weren’t forced to surrender a draft pick to sign him. And as a talented arm with a sterling postseason track record, he became an intriguing option for fellow contenders looking to round out their rotations.

Where he might have been a superfluous signing for a Dodgers team that is already well past the highest luxury tax threshold, and will be getting Shohei Ohtani, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin back from injuries next season, Buehler might now be a missing piece for the playoff-hungry Red Sox, who finished last season five games out of the American League wild-card picture.

“The past couple months,” Buehler said amid his postseason resurgence, “I’ve kind of built my confidence up a little bit to the point that there’ll be some teams that would want me on their team. I feel like a major league starting pitcher, whether it’s here or elsewhere.”

On Monday, the latter officially became reality.

Walker Buehler is no longer a Dodger. His championship-clinching curveball will be the lasting memory of his tenure with the team.

“I played my whole career here, I love playing here,” Buehler said during the World Series. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”