The Atlanta Falcons may be facing the toughest game of their 2026 schedule so far this week when they host the Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears at the Benz.
After initially opening as 1.5-point favorites, the Falcons are now three-point underdogs
- which likely is related to Williams expecting to make his return to the lineup for the Bears after missing their last three games due to a hamstring injury.Atlanta is dealing with an injury of their own at quarterback, as Michael Penix was knocked out late in Sunday's loss to the Baltimore Ravens after taking a blind-side shot to his ribs. Penix says he expects to play, but it wouldn't come as a surprise if he's not operating at 100% this week.
Here's Nick Shook at NFL.com breaking
down the concern over Penix - as well as the collapse of the Falcons' defense.
"Atlanta's transformation into an imposing offensive force with a sneaky-good defense fell apart in the second half Sunday night. The main cause: Michael Penix Jr.'s ribs injury, which eliminated his sharp passing from the equation late in the contest and led to backup Tua Tagovailoa taking over in overtime. It was also a night when Bijan Robinson wasn't quite the game-breaking back he'd been over the previous few weeks. Atlanta's inability to keep the Ravens out of the end zone late in the fourth quarter was disappointing, but Penix's injury is most concerning. Hopefully, this isn't something that lingers."
Despite the injury and the disappointing home loss to a backup quarterback, Shook has the Falcons placed 15th in his power rankings, the same spot as last week.
While Penix's ribs are a fair cause of concern, we'd be far more worried about how the defense is going to perform against the Bears' offense. In Week 2, the elite defense of the Minnesota Vikings held the Bears to just nine points, but in Week 1 they dropped 59 on the Panthers. Odds are they will be closer to the latter than the former this week.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: NFL analyst breaks down Falcons' biggest concern going into Week 6
