One of my favorite Saturday morning pastimes as a kid was watching NFL Quarterback Club.

While, I’m sure, so many of my friends were watching Batman or Bugs Bunny or some other cartoon, I was captivated by quarterbacks in jerseys and backwards hats unfurling spirals at targets being driven around the field by trucks, seeing how far they could chuck it in distance competitions, and running through an obstacle course.

See, I thought this was tied exclusively to the Pro Bowl, and ESPN just jammed it into Saturday programming windows to compete for eyeballs; that may be just another Mandela Effect from life in the early ‘90s.

While Michael Penix Jr. paid the cover on Thursday night in a bombastic return, powering the Falcons past the listless Packers, NFL Week 3 belongs to the Backup Quarterback Club.

The lights will turn on when Tyson Bagent closes down last call, guiding the Chicago Bears against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.

Penix Jr. may still evolve into a franchise quarterback, but as much as Winston, Mariota, and Bagent would like to be elevated into the glamorous role that a starting quarterback job brings with it, let’s face it; Jim Kelly, John Elway, and Randall Cunningham, they are not.

For one week, though, they may as well have been.

Forcing a backup into action creates some major logistical concerns for coaching staffs, that Ben Johnson’s Bears, John Harbaugh’s Giants, Dan Quinn’s Commanders, and Kevin Stefanski’s Falcons all had to navigate over the past week.

This season already made some history, as six backups have started games so far, the highest total since 2019, according to ESPN.

Already this season, backups have played a starring role as Carson Wentz played all but the first series of the Vikings’ 2-0 start with wins over the Packers and Bears. Drew Lock was inserted into the Seahawks’ multi-faceted offensive attack after five snaps, and Seattle didn’t skip a beat.

There’s a good reason for that, and it comes down to preparation.

“You have to keep it simple,” an offensive coach tells Between The Hashmarks. “You do what he likes and what he’s comfortable with. We had Gardner Minshew his rookie season, and he was a six-time Rookie of the Week winner.”

In East Rutherford, after deconstructing a system built around Jaxson Dart’s best traits, and morphing Matt Nagy’s scheme to what Jameis Winston is most comfortable executing, the Giants had to survive Robert Saleh’s Titans defense, and the howling wind and swirling rain from a September Nor’easter.

Not exactly ideal conditions for Winston, who was held to just 14-of-22 passing for 118 yards and one tackle for loss of Cam Skattebo that nearly resulted in the Giants’ running back committing a safety.

Still, even though the Winston-led Giants offense ran aground in the swamps of Jersey, New York survived, 12-7, and now sit 2-1, despite major quarterback uncertainty.

Meanwhile, Mariota is no stranger to the Commanders’ offense.

Amid miserable conditions, against a swarming defense that may be the stingiest in the league, Mariota issued a national reminder of why his teammates very nearly voted him a captain over the summer.

Starting his eighth game in a Commanders uniform, in his third season playing in the shadow of the nation’s capital, Mariota led an all-out assault on the Seahawks, passing for 183 yards with three touchdowns, rushing for 11 more, including sprinting for a first down to set up the chance to put the defending champs into victory formation.

Mariota steadied the Commanders, a week after Jayden Daniels suffered a dislocated left elbow, and may have just sparked some hope that at 1-2 all hope isn’t lost for the season ahead.

Finally, Penix Jr. was a revelation for the Falcons.

Back in August, I wrote that Atlanta may have the worst quarterback situation in football, doubled down on that stance last week, but maybe I should have listened more closely to a rival NFC South Personnel Executive a couple of weeks ago, when he told me that “Penix is the one, and if he gets healthy, the Falcons will be fine.”

Atlanta looked far better than fine at Lambeau.

Penix Jr. shrugged off a sluggish start to complete 18-of-25 passes for 256 yards with one touchdown and one interception, improving as the game went along.

Stefanski unscrewed the training wheels just as the young quarterback started to tighten his chemistry with Drake London, who accounted for 194 of those yards.

Mariota, Winston, and Penix Jr. went 3-0 on in Week 3, underscoring the value and importance of backup quarterbacks in a sport where injuries at the position seem like unavoidable roadblocks teams must navigate.

Time will tell if the Backup Quarterback Club can steady their teams’ seasons, but each survived and advanced.

Sunday wasn’t just about the backup quarterbacks who thrived; it was a record-setting day and night that saw 12 games decided by one score or less, with the final moments of each viewing window, the waning seconds of each game, more frenetic than the last.

Back in August, if someone suggested the Rams and Broncos could emerge from their respective gauntlets and meet at SoFi Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, no one should have batted an eye.

If Sunday night was any indication, we just might see this game again come February.