Atlanta Falcons star running back Bijan Robinson tore through Green Bay’s front seven on Thursday night and left the Packers’ run defense looking nothing like the unit that had opened the season near the top of the league.
The Falcons’ running back carried 29 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-14 win at Lambeau Field. He averaged 6.7 yards per attempt, ripped off a 55-yard burst and finished one yard short of the career-high 195 rushing yards he posted last December against the Los Angeles Rams.
Green Bay had allowed only 2.85 yards per carry through two games, second-best in the NFL. The Packers had given up 174 rushing yards total in those contests and just two running-back carries of at least 14 yards.
Robinson nearly matched that two-game total by himself. Atlanta finished with 244 rushing yards. Green Bay managed 17 yards on nine carries.
The Falcons held the ball for more than 37 minutes and piled up 498 yards of offense. It was their first real explosion after scoring only 16 points in season-opening losses to Pittsburgh and Carolina.
Afterward, Robinson described what he saw when Packers defenders had to tackle him in space. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported from the locker room that Robinson said he can see defenders’ eyes get big as he makes them miss.
“Their eyes were really big Thursday night,” Robinson said.
The 55-yard run in the first half flipped the game. It set up Robinson’s three-yard touchdown that tied the score at 7-7 after Green Bay had taken an early lead on Jordan Love’s four-yard pass to Christian Watson. Robinson later scored from two yards out with 3:35 left to make it 33-14 before Michael Penix Jr. hit the two-point conversion.
Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski pointed to the mix of elusiveness and power that makes Robinson hard to square up.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s fun to watch. He’s got a very unique style into how he runs the ball, and some of the stop and start, and he does have the ability just to put his head down and gain hard yards as well,” Stefanski said.
Penix returned from last year’s torn ACL and completed 18 of 25 passes for 256 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Drake London caught nine passes for 194 yards. Brian Robinson Jr. added a rushing touchdown as Atlanta scored 27 unanswered points at one stretch.
The win was Stefanski’s first as Atlanta’s head coach and snapped Green Bay’s 13-game home-opener winning streak. Both teams sit at 1-2.
Robinson now has 349 rushing yards on 66 carries through three games, plus 13 receptions for 118 yards and a receiving touchdown. His 213 yards from scrimmage against Green Bay pushed his career total past 6,000 before his 25th birthday. He became the 10th player in NFL history to reach that mark before turning 25.
Love finished 28 of 53 for 312 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, but most of that production came after the game had gotten away. Packers coach Matt LaFleur called the night a “butt-whooping.”
The numbers on the ground told the story. A defense that had been stuffing runs for two weeks spent Thursday night chasing Robinson in the open field, and the eyes he described kept getting bigger.
