Whatever he did say set off a chain reaction that involved both teams coming together, pushing and shoving to the point Penix ended up on the ground with a sea of other blue and black jerseys. Drake London — one of the first to Penix’s defense — had his helmet ripped off before he was separated from the bunch. It took coaches, player personnel staff and officials a few minutes to break the mess up. Emotions remained intense as the next play got off, with Chris Lindstrom and Kaleb McGary getting in some extra back-and-forth action with Titans outside linebacker Oluwafemi Oladejo after the play was whistled dead. Somehow, McGary’s helmet got ripped off (whether or not he did it himself or Oladejo is up for debate).
The coaches pulled the first teams off the field, subbing in the second team to let tensions cool. Kirk Cousins and Co. then proceeded to put together one of the most fruitful drives of the day thereafter, much to the first team’s loud delight. Elijah Wilkinson and Teagan Quintoriano sprung Jashaun Corbin for a big breakaway run. What followed was Cousins going three-for-three down the field to end the period, connecting with David Sills V and Dylan Drummond twice.
After that, the teams came together once again during the following special teams period. Only after that did things calm down enough to continue practice on a regular schedule.
Asked about the moment, quarterbacks coach D.J. Williams said his own feelings were twofold. While he liked seeing the fire from his young quarterback and the entire Falcons offense coming to his aide, it maybe got a bit too heated for their liking in the moment.
“At the end of the day, I always tell him that he’s the CEO of the offense,” Williams said. “You have to run the show. And, obviously, emotions get high and that’s football, right? We’re playing a competitive sport. It’s hot out here and a bunch of guys are fighting for their lives. But at the end of the day we always have to come back down and understand that we have to operate the offense because everybody relies on (the quarterback) to tell them the play, tell them what they are doing, come back down and do what we do.”
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