Cincinnati's offense, Michael Penix Jr's mobility and more notes from Falcons vs. Bengals

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Welcome back to Early Bird Report!

The Falcons are back from Madrid and closely studying their 34-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, which has dropped them to 3-6 on the season. Atlanta was penalized a season-high 12 times on Sunday, which negated a few big plays and set the offense back in scoring opportunities.

"Way too many self-inflicted wounds and things that were uncharacteristic of us," head coach Kevin Stefanski said. "But we have to be better in those 60 minutes out there on the grass, and we were not today. And that's obviously disappointing."

Atlanta had not been flagged more than 5 times in its previous three games and had not had double-digit penalties in any…