Colin Cowherd Podcast - INSTANT REACTION: Falcons STUN Eagles With Late Touchdown Drive

Colin reacts to Kirk Cousins and the Falcons stealing the game late on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles 22-21. He points out the importance on an experienced quarterback in the early part of the NFL season and why both the Eagles and Falcons can win their divisions. He also points out the reluctance to play starters in the preseason as a reason for the low offensive output league wide through two weeks.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Thursday Night Football's back and it's only on
Prime Video. This Thursday, the Patriots and the New York Jets.
I like New York two game winning streak for the Jets.
Join nol Michaels, kirkhurb Street, Kaylee Hartungu. These AFC East rivals, Well,
it's been lobsided for most of my life, but maybe

(00:22):
not anymore with Aaron Rodgers. Coverage begins at seven Eastern
with Football's Best Party, Thursday Night Football Tonight live from
MetLife Stadium. If you're not a Prime member, not a problem,
simply sign up for a thirty day free trial. You
can cancel any time. It's the Patriots Jets seven pm
Eastern on Thursday Night Football, and it's on Prime Video.
Restrictions apply. See Amazon dot Com slash Amazon Prime for details.

(00:50):
All right, that was fun instant reaction. Atlanta twenty two
to twenty one. So in the off season I picked
Atlanta to win their division. I thought they could win
twelve games. I think they're a really good football team.
I think in Week one Atlanta was at a coaching
disadvantage because Arthur Smith, their former coach, was now a
Steelers offensive coordinator. That's a huge advantage. I mean, that's

(01:14):
a really weak one advantage that you're just not going
to get some insight on personnel. And Pittsburgh's got a
very very good defense, and they gave kirk Cousins a
lot of trouble. I thought he had a little more
spring in his step now. In Week one against Pittsburgh,
he was static. He just stayed in the pocket. But
I thought tonight he moved a little better. He told
Troy Aikman, he's one hundred percent in the pocket. He's

(01:35):
not one hundred percent yet. But I think two things
are very clear about these two teams. Those were two
good offensive lines and two good run games. And Jalen
Hurts obviously part of Philadelphias run game. But Kirk Cousins
fifteen to twenty, three hundred and seventy yards, a touchdown,
no picks, and a great final drive, just pick pick picked,
nice passes. And by the way, when they paid for
Kirk Cousins and they drafted Michael Pennix, I said, you're

(01:59):
telling me that's a mistake. Look at all the rookie
quarterbacks right now. They're brutal. You know who isn't Michael
Pennix sitting behind like Mahomes who sat behind Alex Smith.
Michael Pennix is sitting behind Kirk Cousins and learning the
game of football, just like a Tom Brady did with
the Drew bledsoe. He's just sitting on the sidelines and watching.

(02:19):
That's what Mahomes did, you know, It's what Carson Palmer,
I believe, did this idea. Lamar Jackson sat for like
ten games behind Joe Flacco. So this idea that bringing
in Kirk Cousins to mentor and I said, I think
they can win the division. I love their personnel at
Their offensive line's great. They have multiple running backs. John

(02:42):
Robinson was under used last year. He's fantastic, but you
just and the Eagles have a good defensive front. They
pushed him back. Both those offensive lions had their weight tonight.
So I think Atlanta's a real team. I Philadelphia, you know,
I know they feel terrible about this loss, but Philadelphia lost.
I mean, what are upsets? San Francisco just got housed

(03:04):
by the Vikings. I mean Baltimore's oh and two. The
Rams season looks like it's over. You know, New England
beat Cincinnati. Cincinnati should have beaten Kansas City, So I
think you looked at two teams that will probably or
at least could The Sames look pretty good, could win
their division. So you know my take on Philadelphia, and

(03:26):
sometimes you just lose games. And I mean, hell Atlanta
with that Drake London, you know, taunting penalty late. Thank
God they have one of the best kickers in the league,
or they could have missed that extra point. So you
know it's it's I don't I don't think Philadelphia is
a bad football team. I think I think Atlanta and
Philadelphia could win their divisions. And I think what this

(03:47):
proves though, at least early as you're watching all these
young quarterbacks, they're completely over their skis bailing water and
Michael Pennix is just sitting back learning how to play football.
You're not winning that game with Michael Pennox tonight. You're
just not. And I thought Cousins, who by the way,
is four and one in his last five Monday Night
football games, Big stage. Kirk Cousins, after he started terribly.

(04:11):
You know, there used to be these discussions he didn't
like playing like off schedule games. He had a very
rigid schedule. He preferred the one o'clocks, especially at home.
I thought he looked really good tonight. And again he's
not moving much, but Aaron Rodgers doesn't move anymore. Jared
GoF doesn't move around much. You can win a lot
of football games that way, especially with that old line

(04:31):
and that run game. Falcons have three running backs. I
like two. I really like. You know, I thought Jalen
Hurts by and large played pretty well. I mean, he
had that last pick because he had pressure in his face.
But you know Philadelphia, you know these offenses. I got
this text tonight. I want to read to this. So

(04:52):
there's a lot of discussion about why are the offense
is so bad? Okay, why are the offense is so bad?
So few points through two weeks since twenty seventeen, averaging
forty two points a game combined, fewest touchdown passes through
two weeks since two thousand and six, eighteen years. And
I think a lot of this is the reluctance to

(05:13):
play any starters. Now that you've watched Bonix and Caleb
Williams and Jayden Daniels, couldn't you argue they should have
played virtually every snap of the preseason, every snap, you know.
I mean Atlanta played Michael Pennix I think one preseason
game and said we're done. Now. He didn't have to start.
But nobody's playing starters, and you've gone from four preseason

(05:35):
to three preseason games. You're going to go down to
two once they had an eighteenth game. And so I
think you just have to look at weeks one and
two is there's a lot of experimenting going on. There's
some bad offensive play, and the hardest unit of any
football team to build cohesion is arguably the most important
unit of any football team, the offensive line. So I

(05:58):
think the Jets offense of lines done fine so far,
but if there's any growth for the Jets that their
defense falls apart. Is you know, these older offensive linemen
will play together and their online hasn't been atrocious, but
it will certainly get better over time. So I think
it's kind of explainable starters aren't playing snaps on linemen
aren't playing snaps, especially if they're long in the tooth,

(06:20):
and the quarterbacks are paying the price they're on their back.
They're getting hammered. Also, I think because the owners are
richer than ever, they're willing to fire coaches after one year.
Coordinators move off quarterbacks early. I also think part of
the offensive struggle is it's hard to keep cohesion in
your coaching staff. Owners now will just it's a rounding

(06:42):
air to write a fifty million dollar check and fire
coordinators and coaches and staff. They don't care anymore. Used
to be owners, mate, you know, their net worth was
six hundred million dollars. Yeah, you know, you don't want
to write a sixty million dollar check. But when your
net worth is a you know, nine billion dollars, you'll
write that check to win games. Because now teams, you know,
they're all getting three and four one hundred and fifty

(07:04):
million dollar checks annually from the TV deal from the NFL,
especially since gambling was legalized in the gambling dollars, So
these owners now were getting massive checks. They're less patient.
It puts pressure top down in the organizations. You're moving
through coordinators, quarterbacks and coaches. You're playing quarterbacks earlier. So
I think there's a lot of things that explain it.

(07:24):
But another one is nobody's playing starters in the preseason
in the first two weeks. You can tell good for
at Lanta tonight, I took notes the entire game on
this and then it came down to the final two drives.
Pretty boring first quarter, but after that, I thought Jalen
Hurts really got hot in the second half. I thought
he looked good. And you know, it just goes to
show sometimes that these moves there's repercussions. Obviously for some

(07:50):
of these personnel moves. You know, the Giants move off
Saquon Barkley. So Saquon's obviously, you know, is a nice
get for Philadelphia. Now, he dropped that ball at the
end of the game that would have been a touchdown
out in the flat. That was a pretty good pass
and he dropped it. That wasn't one of his shining moments,
but he's obviously been a huge addition for Philadelphia. He's
going to win them some football games. Simultaneously, the Giants

(08:12):
are now zeroing too, and there's talk about Brian Dable
getting fired, who I think would get a job, you know,
within the year. But you know, you start you start
looking around when you give up a player like Saquon
Barkley to a division rival. If he'd caught that ball
tonight in a touchdown, I mean, if you're if you're
a Giant Staffer, New York Giant Stafford. Thank god Saquon

(08:34):
Barkley dropped that to night. He would have had the
game winning touchdown, so he adds he had. It's clearly
a dimension to Philadelphia. So I thought it was a
good a good football game, two good offensive lines, a
lot of good running backs are real resurgent and running
backs over the weekends. JK. Dobbins, Alvin Kamara. I mean there's,
you know, everything cyclical in sports and in the NFL.

(08:58):
I mean six months ago, nine months we were talking
about running backs don't get paid. Eventually, with all these
young quarterbacks playing right, you probably going forward are going
to need a stronger run game. I mean, obviously, you
know with JK. Dobbins and hardbass style, he's going to
run him extensively. But Atlanta looks like a team with

(09:18):
Kirk Cousins limitations run team. I think the Lions are
not running it enough with Montgomery and Gibbs. I mean,
there's some teams in this league that I think are
going to run over fifty percent of the time, or
at least should, and Atlanta's one of them. So nice
win for the Falcons. How about that division the NFC South,

(09:38):
Atlanta's a real team, Saints look like a completely different franchise,
Baker and Tampa Bay. Carolina's trash. But the NFC South,
I don't know, looks pretty good. And everybody's beating Carolina twice.
So those are two w's right there. Speaking of the NFC,
the last four undefeated teams in the NFC, the Vikings,

(10:03):
the Seahawks, the Bucks, and the Saints. Just like everybody
predicted that this league is so great by the way,
Saints veteran quarterback, Bucks veteran quarterback, Seahawks veteran quarterback, Vikings
veteran quarterback. That goes back to what we talked about
the preseason. These teams in the NFC that are starting strong,

(10:26):
we don't know how they'll finish. There may be ceilings
for Sam Darnold and Derek Carr and Baker Mayfield and
Gino Smith, but it is an advantage having you know,
one thousand reps in this league. In the first two
to three weeks of the NFL season, that's very clear
that a lot of these veteran guys who have bounced

(10:47):
around the league are off to really nice starts. They
feel like they you know they might not be masters
of the position, but they're miles ahead of these rookie
quarterbacks and younger quarterbacks just don't have the time in
the league. The volume all right, I want you to
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