Falcons Dealt Two Key Injuries in Loss to 49ers

While he did remain in the game for the final minutes, the second-year quarterback was limping back to the huddle. 

“We don’t know that yet,” Head coach Raheem Morris said when asked about Penix’s potential injury. “He gave me a thumbs-up on the sideline when we asked him, and he was able to finish the game for us.”

Penix has had an extensive injury history dating back to college. The 25-year-old has had four season-ending injuries. He suffered two ACL tears in both 2018 and 2020 and two shoulder injuries in 2019 and 2021. 

Now the quarterback is three years removed from injury, but they now hope that keeping Penix in the game, despite the obvious limp and a double-digit deficit in the final minutes, didn’t aggravate a potentially serious injury. 

Morris had benched Penix earlier in the season, in a Week 3 30-0 loss to the Carolina Panthers, because he did not want the quarterback to get hurt in a game that was out of reach.

“The game was out of hand,” Morris responded when asked why Kirk Cousins was put into the game. “You know you move on, keep him [Penix] out of harm’s way. Keep our guys out of harm’s way.” 

On Sunday night, Morris kept Penix in the game, despite the Falcons being down by 10 points with less than two minutes to go and only two timeouts, a puzzling decision with how cautious he had been with Penix earlier in the season. 

And Penix wasn’t the only Falcon to leave the game banged up. Linebacker Divine Deablo, one of Atlanta’s top defensive playmakers, left the game after the 49ers' first offensive drive in the first quarter and would not return. Deablo was spotted leaving the locker room after the loss with his left arm in a sling. 

The two injuries cap off a frustrating night for Atlanta, which had many chances to win Sunday’s game but could not capitalize on them. Now the Falcons return home not only nursing a tough loss, but also anxiously awaiting updates on their injured players.

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