September 19, 2022 • 29 mins
Scott and Tori make sense of that crazy game between the Falcons and Rams, analyzing how Atlanta got in trouble and how it nearly erased a massive deficit down the stretch. We also look at Kyle Pitts’ relative lack of production over the first two weeks, plus how Drake London has made a truly instant impact Timecodes: (00:00:15): Intro, recap of crazy loss to Rams (00:04:34): What to make of Falcons furious comeback attempt (00:12:30): Red-zone, third-down inefficiencies and what went wrong over first three quarters (00:19:27): What was said about Kyle Pitts’ lack of production in the early going (00:23:18): How Drake London has made an instant impact
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
What's up, everybody, and welcome to the latest edition of
the Falcons Final Whistle Podcast. I'm Scott Bear. Across from
me in the workroom adjacent to the chairman suite of
the Falcons team hotel is Tory mclaney. We just got
off of a plane, then got onto a bus, then
got off of off of a bus and checked into
(00:28):
the rooms and immediately came here to record a podcast
for you. Fine fellows. You know you're welcome. Atlanta Falcons
fans obviously trying to break down and analyze figure out
what happened after a thirty one to twenty seven loss
to the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, California, Los Angeles,
a city that we that we're really just in and
(00:50):
I have now left because the Falcons are on a
two game road swing across the West Coast, playing the
Rams and the Seahawks. We're not going to get into
the Seahawks just yet. You will have a weeks where
the coverage for that. Let's dive into Tory. This game
against the Rams, which didn't start well right. They fell
down twenty five points in the second half. They were
(01:12):
down twenty one to three in the first half, then
came roaring back thanks to some opportune defense and an
excellent special team's play, and found themselves ever so close
to winning this game. I just said a whole lot
of things in a row. He did, give me your
impression of what it was like to experience and then
(01:35):
listen to others speak and react to what was a
crazy finish. Yeah, it was a really honestly, from start
to finish, it felt like the first two quarters of
the game were just vastly different than the last two quarters. Obviously,
but being there and watching it, it didn't feel it
(01:55):
was crazy because it didn't feel like there was a
comeback mounting until Troy Anderson blocked the punt and Lorenzo
Carter ran it in for a touchdown. I thought that
was with five minutes to Yeah, that was a five
minutes to go, And even before then, I never felt
like this was like a mounting comeback. But as soon
as that happened, I was like, Oh, shoot, like we've
got ourselves a game here. Now. Does that negate what
(02:20):
happened in the first half? No, And I'm sure we're
going to get into all of that, But like for me,
it was a fun game to cover and as much
as I think people are probably upset by the outcome,
I mean that's this type of craziness is what we
love about football from start to finish. So I don't
hate it. Yeah, And this is the kind of craziness
(02:41):
that Falcons fans experienced a lot last year. They lost
games by some significant margins, they won a bunch of them.
It's almost like they flipped it from last week. Like
last week, they play three quarters of great football and
then kind of like fall off the wheels fall off
in the fourth quarter, and then you switch it and
now it's like play not great in the first half,
(03:05):
and then the second half. In the fourth quarter it's
like like what you said, they come roaring back. And
so it's kind of flipping. It's on its head, yeah,
and I don't. And so we are going to address
a number of different topics on this Falcons Final whistle,
which is taking place at ten nineteen pm that specific time.
So everybody in Atlanta is snuggled up tight in their
(03:26):
beds our voices, we're very tired, but we were not
going to skip. That's not what we do here at
the Falcons Final whistle. What we are going to do
on this episode is we're going to kind of break
this thing down, get a get a bit deeper into
what was a pretty significant comeback where the Falcons had
three minutes to score a touchdown to win it, not
(03:48):
just to tie it, but to win it, and they
had all of the big mo they had all the momentum.
We're also going to to talk about some things that
happened in the first half that allowed them to fall
into such a deep hole, namely their red zone inefficiency,
their struggles on third down, and then we're going to
get into two specific individuals. Number one, Kyle Pitts, who
(04:09):
to this point only has four catches for thirty eight
yards on ten targets, and Drake London, who has more
than one hundred and fifty and scored a touchdown in
his NFL debut. So we're going we're going to get
to all of that over the course of the next
fifteen ish minutes or until stop talking right exactly, or
(04:30):
maybe until we just you know, fall asleep. That's that's true,
whichever one comes first. So let's let's start this podcast
at the end of the game, and we talked a
little bit about this comeback and when it kind of
felt real. But it's weird because if you look at
it and the tide kind of turned by by scoring.
(04:51):
You know, Drake London scores his first NFL touchdown in
the third quarter with three minutes left. That felt like
kind of like a garbage time touchdown. Yeah. And then
the defense, which it has done a lot over the
first two games, made a big play. Yep, Michael Walker,
huge interception that turns into that Drake London touchdown. Alaminda
(05:13):
Zakia scores a touchdown. I think I was writing frantically.
I'm not even sure if I knew that had happened. Yeah, No,
I think I said. They scored another touchdown, and you're like, oh, okay, great,
And then all of a sudden, when everything got really
really real and SOFI Stadium got really tense. Yeah, is
when Troy Anderson busts through the Rams defensive line. I'm sorry,
(05:35):
their Rams kind of put coverage line blocks the punt.
Zoe Carter picks it up, runs it in for a touchdown.
And then and then you're looking at it and you're like,
this is a whole different can of worms now, right,
and they were in it. I think that was what
was I mean, for so long, it felt like watching
the game was just kind of it felt like it
was dragging and it was like they and it did
(05:58):
feel like there were certain points in the first half
where it was like, if the Falcons would just get
out of their own way, they would be able to
do some things. And I think that was like that.
Once you got to the second half and that fourth
quarter specifically, you saw the defense kind of come alive,
and you saw the offense get moving in a way
(06:18):
that they hadn't been moving before. And so it really
did feel like the atmosphere kind of shifted, especially after
that blocked punt. And here's the crazy thing. There's still
more crazy things too, at least bring up now we
all know that you watched it, but I think something
that that gets forgotten and all of these wacky plays
is that so after that the block punt and the
(06:41):
touchdown scored, the Rams get the ball. They have a
third down stafford to Cooper Cup. As automatic as it is,
Cooper Cup converts the third down, which seems like end
of the road right until Darren Hall punches the ball
out and then it kind of just rolls around for
like a couple of seconds and then he's the one
that ends up grabbing it before he steps out of bounds.
(07:01):
That play in terms of just like not giving up,
like I know Arthur Smith talks a lot about, like
if there's one thing this team is like, we're gonna
play until the end, like until the last whistle blows,
until the last minute second has ticked off the clock.
Like we're gonna be physical and we're going to fight
until the end. And that play I think was indicative
of that mindset. I think it completely personified this never
(07:25):
say die attitude that I talked to Michael Walker after
the game and Jake Matthews and Kyle Pitt said it,
it's just this this willingness to continue to swing even
when they're down thirty one to ten in the fourth quarter.
The continuing effort that is there. Okay, effort is great.
We're not giving out grades for effort here, right, not
(07:47):
in a zero sum game like the NFL. You can
discuss gray areas, that's what we do for a living,
but when it comes down to it, did you win
or did you lose? And the Falcons ultimately lost this
game because after Darren recovered his own fumble right the
Falcons had three minutes, plenty of time to drive. Marcus
Mariota throws an interception on third and thirteen, I believe,
(08:10):
and it was one of those balls that we're gonna
have to go back and watch the tape, but it
just felt to me. So Jalen Ramsey goes over the
top and plucks it. It It sort of seemed like you
you'd mentioned them, Yeah, it felt like that maybe like yeah,
that Brian Edwards maybe jumped too early or too late,
Like it just felt like the timing of his jump
was also off, and it allowed Jalen Ramsey to kind
of have an easier time getting to the ball. And
(08:33):
that play was I think really frustrating because at in
that moment, the Falcons actually had time on their side.
It was they honestly they didn't need to scord too
early and because they didn't want to give the ball
back to the Rams and then but you don't want
to like waste too much time and you're looking at
a third and long situation, which isn't great, but in
(08:54):
that scenario, you know that you have two tries at it,
and so you think, okay, you can pick up six
and then try on fourth down and then you know,
that's for all the marbles. But to throw an interception
in that moment I think was really tough, and that
that was I think the moment that it really like
sucked the air out of the for lack of a
(09:15):
better word, like the Falcons sales, you know. Yeah, and
then they still had it, and then they still had
a chance. And then they still had a chance because
the Rams can't convert, they score a safety on themselves,
free kick it out of bounds, setting up a fifty
yard essentially one play hail Mary that never got off
the ground. Marcus Mariota doesn't even get the pass off,
and ultimately the Falcons lose this one. And just a
(09:38):
quick note about about the Brian Edwards play. We're talking
about this in an instant reaction format. We don't have
a benefit of slowing it down on coaches film, so
we can evaluate that a lot more in the future.
We're just giving you initial impressions. So with all that
kind of being said, there were opportunities for the Falcons
to finish this game out right. We've seen Arthur Smith
(09:59):
Falcon and teams do that before. But the head coach
would be the first to say that each team is
its own unique thing, and everyone's tired of hearing me
say how how performance in close games is not always translatable, right,
unless you have an Aaron Rodgers type elite quarterback, then
it remains with that individual. But nonetheless, when you like,
(10:20):
when you look at it, how like, how do you
look at it? Because because you were saying you didn't
even really feel like this was like a real serious
comeback attempt until five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Yeah,
do you view it as like opportunity lost? Do you
view it as man, they had to come back from
so much? How do you view this comeback attempt that
(10:41):
we're talking about independent of everything that we're going to
talk about next that happened earlier on. I think if
I'm only looking at the fourth quarter alone, I'm very
impressed by what I saw from this team, both offensively
and defensively. Like when you look at the first like
what ten toteen minutes of the fourth quarter, you see
(11:04):
a team that is very much fighting and very much
in the game. If you ask me that of the
first half, I'm like, no, I don't feel like they're
in the game, because it didn't feel that way there
were a lot of moments where I wanted to see
the Falcons play cleaner football, particularly in the red zone.
But then you get them in the fourth quarter, and
(11:24):
it feels like a different group. It feels like a
group that's rejuvenated and having something to prove and wanting
to out and play well. And I wish that we
could just talk about the fourth quarter without the context
of the other three the same exact way that I
felt like we I wanted to be able to talk
about the first three quarters of the Saints loss and
(11:46):
not talk about the fourth. But when you're talking about
these games, the fair way to do it is to
talk about it in the full context of the game
and all four quarters. And it's I think, you know,
Arthur Smith has said it before, and it's like one play,
even though sometimes a lot of games come down to
one play, that one play isn't the maker break deal
(12:06):
of the game. You have to take into context all
of the plays that led up to it. And so
for us, it was like that was why after the game,
I was like, Yeah, the comeback's great and everything, and
you love to see that fight, but it doesn't negate
going fifty percent in the red zone and not scoring
a touchdown until what three minutes left to go in
(12:27):
the third? Like that to me, if you are battling
it out through four quarters, it's a different conversation than
having to come to put a lot of pressure on
yourself to come back in the fourth. Yeah, and that's
you are the queen of podcast podcast transitions because it
leads us directly in, like into this next topic, something
I touched on ever so briefly in the instant replay.
(12:49):
Go read that and you delve into in great detail
in Tory's takeaways, And I think it's worthy of everybody
going back to Tory's story and really take you're just
saying that, Yeah, I mean I want the page of
view for you and for me and Bluss. I wrote
mine during the game when I'm frantically typing as fastumingly possible. Yeah,
(13:10):
you had a chance to ponder. I did. I got
to sit and just kind of sink it. Let it
all sink in. But I do go back to those
those first two drives where the Falcons got deep, in
deep into the red zone. They had medium length distance
to either score a touchdown or convert a first down.
Penalties put them in long distances and ultimately left them
(13:31):
with two field goal attempts, one went through, one which
of which did not. That's if you're the best case scenario,
you get forced fourteen points. Nearly worst case scenario, which
is what the Falcons had, you only get three, and
they like and they hurt themselves, and that was an issue.
Young Way was very busy against the Saints. This is
(13:52):
a continuing issue, a trend that that simply has to
be rectified. Yeah, for the last two weeks the Falcons
have gone They have a fifty percent touchdown conversion rate
inside the red zone. Not good enough, and Arthur Smith
is set that like, that's not gonna win games in
this league where everybody else is. It's just not and
(14:14):
you have to convert. And as much and I've said
this before and I'll say it again, as much as
I think this fan base loves and endures Young Waiku,
it'd be great to see less of him, and it'd
be great to not put so much pressure on him.
I would love to see six or seven points, not three.
And I think Jake Matthews said it best after the game.
It's like the goal is to score touchdowns when you're
(14:37):
in the red zone like that, that's the goal. The
goal isn't to kick field goals, even though that's all
well and good. You get points on the board, but
the goal is to get it in the end zone.
And I think it was really those drives where you're
looking at. The Rams had a fourteen to three lead
in after those two drives, and it was like, fourteen
(14:58):
to three is very different than fourteen to ten, fourteen
to seven, like if they score a touchdown on one
of those. And then also going back to what you
were saying in terms of the penalties inside the red zone,
I mean, those hurt you as much as anything, and
I think that was the frustrating part and that was
what I was looking at after the game. It's like
(15:22):
you can't go back, you can't say what if, what if?
What if? But it's like if you put any points
on the board on that first drive to not come
away with any points like that. We were talking last
week and Arthur Smith was talking about the red zone
inefficiencies in the fourth quarter against the Saints and not
being able to punch it in. He was like, you know,
you when you only settle for three, it mounts up
(15:45):
and that can hurt you later. We saw that actively
happen in Week two against the Rams. They don't score
in the first half, and then you go or don't
score a touchdown in the first half, and then you
go into the fourth quarter and you're playing super well.
I mean you those points you miss them, you really do.
You go back to this first drive and I'm not
(16:06):
going to get super micro on this, but thirteen plays,
eight minutes, six second drive, fifty four yards, zero points.
That's that's a hard pital swallow that the Rams turned
into a touchdown. The next drive they go for it.
I think on fourth and two turn it over on downs,
the Rams turn that into a touchdown. Yeah, and now
(16:27):
you're down fourteen nothing and you're not exactly sure what
happened because you feel like you're playing pretty well, but
somehow you're down two scores and then then everything changes,
the game plans alter, and then you have to find
heroic ways. But I do like again the way the
Falcon stuck with it. But I think Tory, I think
what I think we've I think what I think that.
I think that's too many things. It's like I'm friends,
(16:48):
like they don't know that we know that they know exactly,
but I I believe I'm not gonna think again. I
believe it's important that we showed what was good late,
what was missing early. And when you have these things
that are missing on a team in transition with a
lot of dead money not spent on talent, and a
(17:10):
team that has to fight and scrap for everything, they
don't have the luxury of margin for error that some
of these better teams naturally do. So when you give
away these opportunities, it hurts the Falcons in their current
state more than it would another team. I hope that
that makes sense to everybody, but I think ultimately that's
an issue here. Yeah, I think also too, like when
(17:30):
you think about it, the Falcons were not only in
these games, but could have won these games, right And
if you are, I don't know who said it. It
may again, it may have been Jake Matthews that was like,
if we make one more player, if we do what
we need to do correctly in the moments that matter,
this is a completely different conversation that we're having. That
(17:52):
means that the Falcons would be have two games won
against two very very good teams, And that's a completely
conversation Obviously that's not the conversation that we're having right now,
but they're not. They're I mean, they lost these games
by what a total of five points? Right? That's crazy
to me to think about it, because I think a
(18:14):
lot of people think that I have thought that this
team wouldn't be competitive in a lot of regards because
of the transition that it's going through. But we are
seeing them play competitive football. It's not pretty all the time,
it's not perfect all the time, but they're in the
last two games now. Of course, no moral victories being
in games when you don't pull them out, but I
(18:34):
mean there is stuff that you can take from this. Yeah,
and this is game two of a seventeen game season.
Then this team has to find a way to take
that next step, which is finishing games. And I wrote
one version of a headline of my column that's where
I was like, don't include the word finish. It's just
kind of a four letter word in this fan base.
(18:55):
It doesn't make it any less importance just because it
triggers something in the fan base. And if we're looking
at this team as its own individual entity and what
Arthur Smith and Terry Fund or trying to do building it.
They're trying to change some of these not narratives they
don't like, they don't care about narratives, but they don't
want to like. They want to finish. They want to
(19:16):
be known as a team that can finish. They want
to be known as an exposive team. Something that has
come up at the end of this game was that
Kyle Pitts, thee who turned in the second best season
ever by a rookie tight end last year, who had
a fantastic training camp and I don't use that word
lightly four catches for thirty eight yards on ten targets.
(19:38):
Through two games, he was targeted seven times. In the
first game, he was targeted three times, and this one,
one of those targets drew a thirty six yard past
interference call. Let's add that to his total. What the
heck call at seventy yards? And it's still when you like,
when you're losing games and your best player, regardless of position,
(19:59):
I think that's fair to say, isn't producing steadily or
isn't overwhelmingly targeted and you're losing, the questions naturally come up,
and they have come up about why kyleism or actively
involved in the game. It was I don't know if
flashpoints too much of a term, but it was a
topic of conversation after this one. It's something that we're
(20:22):
gonna explore more. Yeah, It's something that I think that
we need to explore more. Yeah, because I mean I
was asked about it to the game as well. Yeah,
And I know I have a lot of questions too, because,
like you know, we are talking about this within a
couple hours of this game being over. We haven't seen
in all twenty two film. We don't know how the
(20:43):
RAMS defense was pressuring coupits, how much there was shading
coverage to him, how that impacted what the Falcons could
or couldn't do. There are a lot of things I
think that go into the targets that we didn't see
Coalpits have tonight. If if I'm being honest, and you're right,
Like Arthur Smith was asked about it, and his whole
(21:04):
thing is he said, he was like, Kyle's a huge
part of our offense, and the thing is you have
to take it with context. Is the same thing we're
trying to win, and he has a huge impact on
the game. And he was going through it and he
was talking about him being an important piece and how
essentially he used the example of Cadaro Hodge who had
(21:28):
a really great play. I can't remember what quarter it was,
all of it first half. Yeah, and Arthur Smith says,
you know, here's the example. You target him on a
play and if they cover him or they account from him,
then Cadaryl Hodge comes in and makes a big play.
It happened a few times things like that. It's not
fantasy football. We're just trying to win and will continue
(21:48):
to look at everything and try to get better. And
that was his quote, and like that's kind of where
we are. I think there's a lot more analyzing to do,
a lot more conversations to have about what is happening,
whether it's at the quarterback position, tied end position, secondary,
they have a say in where a quarterback goes with
the ball. I mean, all of these questions I think
(22:10):
are valid to ask and also valid to try and
figure out an answer. Yeah, because he's an impact player
and the Falcons need him to be that impact player
in ways beyond Look, he's doing better as a blocker,
he's drawing coverage away, all those types of things. The
Falcons again in their current state, like they need their
stars to really produce. How how Patterson has done to
(22:33):
this point. And also like we were talking to Kyle
in the locker room after the game, and I mean
he was getting grilled on this lack of targets and
if he was upset about it, and he kept saying
like like what do you want me to do? You
want me to go and scream at Arthur or do
you want me to go and scream at Marcus or
not getting the bill? He's like, I don't operate like that.
(22:55):
He's like, I'm that's true, that's not no, that's not
his personality. And like he kept saying I think he
said it three or four times while we're sitting there
talking to him, like I'm not a selfish player. I
want to win. I'm not a selfish player. I want
to win if And that's like the mantra that came
from him after only being targeted a handful number of
times today, Right, and can I transition to Drake London
(23:18):
and then and then moving on to our our final topic,
which is Drake London. He's got again. I don't have
the full stats in front of me. I apologize, it's
late but Drake London has had at least seventy yards
receiving in both games to this point. He had eighty
six today. I leave seventy four last week. That sounds
very right. He scored his NF he scored his first
(23:40):
league touchdown, first NFL touchdown. He saved the ball. He said,
it's going in a case now going to his parents' house.
Is going to his house. He's gonna keep it with him.
That's a big moment. But this wasn't This wasn't a
cause for universal celebration. Yeah, because they lost, and Drake
London understands that that you can have individual accolades and
(24:02):
he can be proud of some good moments that he had,
but they still lost the game. And he seemed to
find the right balance of that when he was talking
when I was there too, and when he was talking
to me and some other reporters as well. Seemed to
strike a good tone there. But something that Arthur Smith
said on Sunday night, and he said before, is it's
(24:25):
confirming why they drafted him. Yeah, because he's going out there.
I haven't asked him. Just feel like this NFL trends,
this NFL thing is easier maybe than you thought. He's like, no,
it's not easy. It's just it shows that they're putting
me in positions to win. And I think a lot
of hard, detail oriented work I've been doing on my
own with the team sent from the spring in the
summer is starting to pay off that It's not oh,
(24:47):
I walked in and now I'm good. Now he's really
worked on his craft, on subtle things that help him
get open and help him be what is he has
the complete package of traits to make him a complete receiver. Yeah,
and what he's done to this point has been good.
Of course, again he wants them right. And I think
(25:09):
I go back to something that you know, he was
coming off of that knee injury, and I think I
even said it on the last podcast, like, I don't
think anybody really realized how much that injury was impacting
him in the preseason, because when he was talking, it
really did feel like it was a pretty significant injury
that it almost it didn't feel that way in the moment,
(25:29):
And so to see him come out and do what
he's done the last two weeks, I think is very commendable.
But there was a moment it was one of the
first times that we saw him back out on the
field after the injury, and he was talking to t J. Yates,
who is the Falcons wide receivers coach, and their conversation
(25:50):
it was very it was like watching two people like
just trying to figure each other out and like what works,
what doesn't work. And I and I'm standing kind of
like off to the side, you know, I can't hear
what they're saying, but they're literally talking about like arm
movements and like how you would move like your wrist
(26:11):
and your elbow like to get by a defender. It
was really fascinating to see them working on something as
small and minute as that's your arm placement and it's
that type of stuff that and also just Drake Lendon
is a lot more. You know, we watch him in
the pre draft process and see the highlights and everything.
Drake Lindon. I'll say this about Drake Lendon, Drake London
(26:33):
is way more of a fierce competitor than I originally
thought he was because when we talk to him, he's
very calm, very quiet, cool collected, just chill. On the field,
he is he like gets mad, like he wants like
there was a moment where Marcus through a quote unquote
(26:56):
interception but it was called a pass interference. It was
hinded for elominate as a kiss. And it lands and
I can't remember whose hands, and Drake comes up and
like kind of like punches the ball and he comes
over to the side and he has his helmet on.
He kind of slaps it, and it's like, this guy
is a very fierce competitor. This is a guy who
really really wants to win. Not saying that everybody doesn't
(27:16):
want to win. Everybody does want to win. But to
see kind of how Drake London operates in these games
scenarios and how fierce and heated he gets, it's very fun.
He's a very very fun player to watch. I mean
even hurdling a guy down the sideline. I mean he's
making these plays that it's like, Okay, this all makes sense.
(27:37):
He's the guy that they wanted to go after in
the draft. Yeah, and I think ultimately, look, Kyle Pitts
is gonna get his. Yeah, he just will. He's too
good to not. Yeah, So he's gonna get his. Drake
London is gonna get his. The Falcons are gonna win
some games. They're gonna lose some more too, but they're
gonna win. And this team, these individuals are going to
(27:58):
continue to evolve and grow. What I think fans should
really try to keep an eye on, big picture wise,
is how are they progressing week to week? How are
they continuing to get better? And Arthur Smith said it
it's time for a breakthrough, and a breakthrough is a win.
Jake Matthew said, I don't care if it's three to
not four. That is our next step, no more. We're
doing some good things dot dot dot. But the next
(28:20):
thing is we are doing some good things that resulted
in a victory. And that's what we're going to be
looking on throughout the course of this week. We're gonna
end a complete game. I very much want to see
a complete game, and we're gonna be keeping an eye
out for all of those types of things. We're going
to be in the great state of Washington for the
entire week. Tory mcilaney and I look forward to with
lots of exclusive content. They're gonna be practicing up here
(28:43):
and we're gonna have full coverage down Atlanta. Falcons dot com.
Do your thing, y'all right? Rate review subscribe that it's
so late. Yeah, and now Falcons Final Whistle is part
of of one individual channel. If you subscribe to Falcons
Final Whistle, awesome, Thank you. We have something called the
(29:06):
Atlanta Falcons Podcast Network, which is Falcons Audible, our new podcast,
Falcons in Focus, and Falcons Final Whistle all on one channel.
Subscribe to one. Get all the good stuff. Go over
to YouTube, do your thing. There's a bunch of different
ways you can consume this content. Appreciate you sticking around,
probably on a Monday morning at this point listening to
this and know that it's ten forty five. I haven't
(29:27):
edited this thing yet, so I'm staying up late for
you people. Anyway, we're all getting ready to go to bed.
Thank you so much, Tory, and thank you guys for
downloading and listening. Talk to you next week.
What's up, everybody, and welcome to the latest edition of
the Falcons Final Whistle Podcast. I'm Scott Bear. Across from
me in the workroom adjacent to the chairman suite of
the Falcons team hotel is Tory mclaney. We just got
off of a plane, then got onto a bus, then
got off of off of a bus and checked into
(00:28):
the rooms and immediately came here to record a podcast
for you. Fine fellows. You know you're welcome. Atlanta Falcons
fans obviously trying to break down and analyze figure out
what happened after a thirty one to twenty seven loss
to the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, California, Los Angeles,
a city that we that we're really just in and
(00:50):
I have now left because the Falcons are on a
two game road swing across the West Coast, playing the
Rams and the Seahawks. We're not going to get into
the Seahawks just yet. You will have a weeks where
the coverage for that. Let's dive into Tory. This game
against the Rams, which didn't start well right. They fell
down twenty five points in the second half. They were
(01:12):
down twenty one to three in the first half, then
came roaring back thanks to some opportune defense and an
excellent special team's play, and found themselves ever so close
to winning this game. I just said a whole lot
of things in a row. He did, give me your
impression of what it was like to experience and then
(01:35):
listen to others speak and react to what was a
crazy finish. Yeah, it was a really honestly, from start
to finish, it felt like the first two quarters of
the game were just vastly different than the last two quarters. Obviously,
but being there and watching it, it didn't feel it
(01:55):
was crazy because it didn't feel like there was a
comeback mounting until Troy Anderson blocked the punt and Lorenzo
Carter ran it in for a touchdown. I thought that
was with five minutes to Yeah, that was a five
minutes to go, And even before then, I never felt
like this was like a mounting comeback. But as soon
as that happened, I was like, Oh, shoot, like we've
got ourselves a game here. Now. Does that negate what
(02:20):
happened in the first half? No, And I'm sure we're
going to get into all of that, But like for me,
it was a fun game to cover and as much
as I think people are probably upset by the outcome,
I mean that's this type of craziness is what we
love about football from start to finish. So I don't
hate it. Yeah, And this is the kind of craziness
(02:41):
that Falcons fans experienced a lot last year. They lost
games by some significant margins, they won a bunch of them.
It's almost like they flipped it from last week. Like
last week, they play three quarters of great football and
then kind of like fall off the wheels fall off
in the fourth quarter, and then you switch it and
now it's like play not great in the first half,
(03:05):
and then the second half. In the fourth quarter it's
like like what you said, they come roaring back. And
so it's kind of flipping. It's on its head, yeah,
and I don't. And so we are going to address
a number of different topics on this Falcons Final whistle,
which is taking place at ten nineteen pm that specific time.
So everybody in Atlanta is snuggled up tight in their
(03:26):
beds our voices, we're very tired, but we were not
going to skip. That's not what we do here at
the Falcons Final whistle. What we are going to do
on this episode is we're going to kind of break
this thing down, get a get a bit deeper into
what was a pretty significant comeback where the Falcons had
three minutes to score a touchdown to win it, not
(03:48):
just to tie it, but to win it, and they
had all of the big mo they had all the momentum.
We're also going to to talk about some things that
happened in the first half that allowed them to fall
into such a deep hole, namely their red zone inefficiency,
their struggles on third down, and then we're going to
get into two specific individuals. Number one, Kyle Pitts, who
(04:09):
to this point only has four catches for thirty eight
yards on ten targets, and Drake London, who has more
than one hundred and fifty and scored a touchdown in
his NFL debut. So we're going we're going to get
to all of that over the course of the next
fifteen ish minutes or until stop talking right exactly, or
(04:30):
maybe until we just you know, fall asleep. That's that's true,
whichever one comes first. So let's let's start this podcast
at the end of the game, and we talked a
little bit about this comeback and when it kind of
felt real. But it's weird because if you look at
it and the tide kind of turned by by scoring.
(04:51):
You know, Drake London scores his first NFL touchdown in
the third quarter with three minutes left. That felt like
kind of like a garbage time touchdown. Yeah. And then
the defense, which it has done a lot over the
first two games, made a big play. Yep, Michael Walker,
huge interception that turns into that Drake London touchdown. Alaminda
(05:13):
Zakia scores a touchdown. I think I was writing frantically.
I'm not even sure if I knew that had happened. Yeah, No,
I think I said. They scored another touchdown, and you're like, oh, okay, great,
And then all of a sudden, when everything got really
really real and SOFI Stadium got really tense. Yeah, is
when Troy Anderson busts through the Rams defensive line. I'm sorry,
(05:35):
their Rams kind of put coverage line blocks the punt.
Zoe Carter picks it up, runs it in for a touchdown.
And then and then you're looking at it and you're like,
this is a whole different can of worms now, right,
and they were in it. I think that was what
was I mean, for so long, it felt like watching
the game was just kind of it felt like it
was dragging and it was like they and it did
(05:58):
feel like there were certain points in the first half
where it was like, if the Falcons would just get
out of their own way, they would be able to
do some things. And I think that was like that.
Once you got to the second half and that fourth
quarter specifically, you saw the defense kind of come alive,
and you saw the offense get moving in a way
(06:18):
that they hadn't been moving before. And so it really
did feel like the atmosphere kind of shifted, especially after
that blocked punt. And here's the crazy thing. There's still
more crazy things too, at least bring up now we
all know that you watched it, but I think something
that that gets forgotten and all of these wacky plays
is that so after that the block punt and the
(06:41):
touchdown scored, the Rams get the ball. They have a
third down stafford to Cooper Cup. As automatic as it is,
Cooper Cup converts the third down, which seems like end
of the road right until Darren Hall punches the ball
out and then it kind of just rolls around for
like a couple of seconds and then he's the one
that ends up grabbing it before he steps out of bounds.
(07:01):
That play in terms of just like not giving up,
like I know Arthur Smith talks a lot about, like
if there's one thing this team is like, we're gonna
play until the end, like until the last whistle blows,
until the last minute second has ticked off the clock.
Like we're gonna be physical and we're going to fight
until the end. And that play I think was indicative
of that mindset. I think it completely personified this never
(07:25):
say die attitude that I talked to Michael Walker after
the game and Jake Matthews and Kyle Pitt said it,
it's just this this willingness to continue to swing even
when they're down thirty one to ten in the fourth quarter.
The continuing effort that is there. Okay, effort is great.
We're not giving out grades for effort here, right, not
(07:47):
in a zero sum game like the NFL. You can
discuss gray areas, that's what we do for a living,
but when it comes down to it, did you win
or did you lose? And the Falcons ultimately lost this
game because after Darren recovered his own fumble right the
Falcons had three minutes, plenty of time to drive. Marcus
Mariota throws an interception on third and thirteen, I believe,
(08:10):
and it was one of those balls that we're gonna
have to go back and watch the tape, but it
just felt to me. So Jalen Ramsey goes over the
top and plucks it. It It sort of seemed like you
you'd mentioned them, Yeah, it felt like that maybe like yeah,
that Brian Edwards maybe jumped too early or too late,
Like it just felt like the timing of his jump
was also off, and it allowed Jalen Ramsey to kind
of have an easier time getting to the ball. And
(08:33):
that play was I think really frustrating because at in
that moment, the Falcons actually had time on their side.
It was they honestly they didn't need to scord too
early and because they didn't want to give the ball
back to the Rams and then but you don't want
to like waste too much time and you're looking at
a third and long situation, which isn't great, but in
(08:54):
that scenario, you know that you have two tries at it,
and so you think, okay, you can pick up six
and then try on fourth down and then you know,
that's for all the marbles. But to throw an interception
in that moment I think was really tough, and that
that was I think the moment that it really like
sucked the air out of the for lack of a
(09:15):
better word, like the Falcons sales, you know. Yeah, and
then they still had it, and then they still had
a chance. And then they still had a chance because
the Rams can't convert, they score a safety on themselves,
free kick it out of bounds, setting up a fifty
yard essentially one play hail Mary that never got off
the ground. Marcus Mariota doesn't even get the pass off,
and ultimately the Falcons lose this one. And just a
(09:38):
quick note about about the Brian Edwards play. We're talking
about this in an instant reaction format. We don't have
a benefit of slowing it down on coaches film, so
we can evaluate that a lot more in the future.
We're just giving you initial impressions. So with all that
kind of being said, there were opportunities for the Falcons
to finish this game out right. We've seen Arthur Smith
(09:59):
Falcon and teams do that before. But the head coach
would be the first to say that each team is
its own unique thing, and everyone's tired of hearing me
say how how performance in close games is not always translatable, right,
unless you have an Aaron Rodgers type elite quarterback, then
it remains with that individual. But nonetheless, when you like,
(10:20):
when you look at it, how like, how do you
look at it? Because because you were saying you didn't
even really feel like this was like a real serious
comeback attempt until five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Yeah,
do you view it as like opportunity lost? Do you
view it as man, they had to come back from
so much? How do you view this comeback attempt that
(10:41):
we're talking about independent of everything that we're going to
talk about next that happened earlier on. I think if
I'm only looking at the fourth quarter alone, I'm very
impressed by what I saw from this team, both offensively
and defensively. Like when you look at the first like
what ten toteen minutes of the fourth quarter, you see
(11:04):
a team that is very much fighting and very much
in the game. If you ask me that of the
first half, I'm like, no, I don't feel like they're
in the game, because it didn't feel that way there
were a lot of moments where I wanted to see
the Falcons play cleaner football, particularly in the red zone.
But then you get them in the fourth quarter, and
(11:24):
it feels like a different group. It feels like a
group that's rejuvenated and having something to prove and wanting
to out and play well. And I wish that we
could just talk about the fourth quarter without the context
of the other three the same exact way that I
felt like we I wanted to be able to talk
about the first three quarters of the Saints loss and
(11:46):
not talk about the fourth. But when you're talking about
these games, the fair way to do it is to
talk about it in the full context of the game
and all four quarters. And it's I think, you know,
Arthur Smith has said it before, and it's like one play,
even though sometimes a lot of games come down to
one play, that one play isn't the maker break deal
(12:06):
of the game. You have to take into context all
of the plays that led up to it. And so
for us, it was like that was why after the game,
I was like, Yeah, the comeback's great and everything, and
you love to see that fight, but it doesn't negate
going fifty percent in the red zone and not scoring
a touchdown until what three minutes left to go in
(12:27):
the third? Like that to me, if you are battling
it out through four quarters, it's a different conversation than
having to come to put a lot of pressure on
yourself to come back in the fourth. Yeah, and that's
you are the queen of podcast podcast transitions because it
leads us directly in, like into this next topic, something
I touched on ever so briefly in the instant replay.
(12:49):
Go read that and you delve into in great detail
in Tory's takeaways, And I think it's worthy of everybody
going back to Tory's story and really take you're just
saying that, Yeah, I mean I want the page of
view for you and for me and Bluss. I wrote
mine during the game when I'm frantically typing as fastumingly possible. Yeah,
(13:10):
you had a chance to ponder. I did. I got
to sit and just kind of sink it. Let it
all sink in. But I do go back to those
those first two drives where the Falcons got deep, in
deep into the red zone. They had medium length distance
to either score a touchdown or convert a first down.
Penalties put them in long distances and ultimately left them
(13:31):
with two field goal attempts, one went through, one which
of which did not. That's if you're the best case scenario,
you get forced fourteen points. Nearly worst case scenario, which
is what the Falcons had, you only get three, and
they like and they hurt themselves, and that was an issue.
Young Way was very busy against the Saints. This is
(13:52):
a continuing issue, a trend that that simply has to
be rectified. Yeah, for the last two weeks the Falcons
have gone They have a fifty percent touchdown conversion rate
inside the red zone. Not good enough, and Arthur Smith
is set that like, that's not gonna win games in
this league where everybody else is. It's just not and
(14:14):
you have to convert. And as much and I've said
this before and I'll say it again, as much as
I think this fan base loves and endures Young Waiku,
it'd be great to see less of him, and it'd
be great to not put so much pressure on him.
I would love to see six or seven points, not three.
And I think Jake Matthews said it best after the game.
It's like the goal is to score touchdowns when you're
(14:37):
in the red zone like that, that's the goal. The
goal isn't to kick field goals, even though that's all
well and good. You get points on the board, but
the goal is to get it in the end zone.
And I think it was really those drives where you're
looking at. The Rams had a fourteen to three lead
in after those two drives, and it was like, fourteen
(14:58):
to three is very different than fourteen to ten, fourteen
to seven, like if they score a touchdown on one
of those. And then also going back to what you
were saying in terms of the penalties inside the red zone,
I mean, those hurt you as much as anything, and
I think that was the frustrating part and that was
what I was looking at after the game. It's like
(15:22):
you can't go back, you can't say what if, what if?
What if? But it's like if you put any points
on the board on that first drive to not come
away with any points like that. We were talking last
week and Arthur Smith was talking about the red zone
inefficiencies in the fourth quarter against the Saints and not
being able to punch it in. He was like, you know,
you when you only settle for three, it mounts up
(15:45):
and that can hurt you later. We saw that actively
happen in Week two against the Rams. They don't score
in the first half, and then you go or don't
score a touchdown in the first half, and then you
go into the fourth quarter and you're playing super well.
I mean you those points you miss them, you really do.
You go back to this first drive and I'm not
(16:06):
going to get super micro on this, but thirteen plays,
eight minutes, six second drive, fifty four yards, zero points.
That's that's a hard pital swallow that the Rams turned
into a touchdown. The next drive they go for it.
I think on fourth and two turn it over on downs,
the Rams turn that into a touchdown. Yeah, and now
(16:27):
you're down fourteen nothing and you're not exactly sure what
happened because you feel like you're playing pretty well, but
somehow you're down two scores and then then everything changes,
the game plans alter, and then you have to find
heroic ways. But I do like again the way the
Falcon stuck with it. But I think Tory, I think
what I think we've I think what I think that.
I think that's too many things. It's like I'm friends,
(16:48):
like they don't know that we know that they know exactly,
but I I believe I'm not gonna think again. I
believe it's important that we showed what was good late,
what was missing early. And when you have these things
that are missing on a team in transition with a
lot of dead money not spent on talent, and a
(17:10):
team that has to fight and scrap for everything, they
don't have the luxury of margin for error that some
of these better teams naturally do. So when you give
away these opportunities, it hurts the Falcons in their current
state more than it would another team. I hope that
that makes sense to everybody, but I think ultimately that's
an issue here. Yeah, I think also too, like when
(17:30):
you think about it, the Falcons were not only in
these games, but could have won these games, right And
if you are, I don't know who said it. It
may again, it may have been Jake Matthews that was like,
if we make one more player, if we do what
we need to do correctly in the moments that matter,
this is a completely different conversation that we're having. That
(17:52):
means that the Falcons would be have two games won
against two very very good teams, And that's a completely
conversation Obviously that's not the conversation that we're having right now,
but they're not. They're I mean, they lost these games
by what a total of five points? Right? That's crazy
to me to think about it, because I think a
(18:14):
lot of people think that I have thought that this
team wouldn't be competitive in a lot of regards because
of the transition that it's going through. But we are
seeing them play competitive football. It's not pretty all the time,
it's not perfect all the time, but they're in the
last two games now. Of course, no moral victories being
in games when you don't pull them out, but I
(18:34):
mean there is stuff that you can take from this. Yeah,
and this is game two of a seventeen game season.
Then this team has to find a way to take
that next step, which is finishing games. And I wrote
one version of a headline of my column that's where
I was like, don't include the word finish. It's just
kind of a four letter word in this fan base.
(18:55):
It doesn't make it any less importance just because it
triggers something in the fan base. And if we're looking
at this team as its own individual entity and what
Arthur Smith and Terry Fund or trying to do building it.
They're trying to change some of these not narratives they
don't like, they don't care about narratives, but they don't
want to like. They want to finish. They want to
(19:16):
be known as a team that can finish. They want
to be known as an exposive team. Something that has
come up at the end of this game was that
Kyle Pitts, thee who turned in the second best season
ever by a rookie tight end last year, who had
a fantastic training camp and I don't use that word
lightly four catches for thirty eight yards on ten targets.
(19:38):
Through two games, he was targeted seven times. In the
first game, he was targeted three times, and this one,
one of those targets drew a thirty six yard past
interference call. Let's add that to his total. What the
heck call at seventy yards? And it's still when you like,
when you're losing games and your best player, regardless of position,
(19:59):
I think that's fair to say, isn't producing steadily or
isn't overwhelmingly targeted and you're losing, the questions naturally come up,
and they have come up about why kyleism or actively
involved in the game. It was I don't know if
flashpoints too much of a term, but it was a
topic of conversation after this one. It's something that we're
(20:22):
gonna explore more. Yeah, It's something that I think that
we need to explore more. Yeah, because I mean I
was asked about it to the game as well. Yeah,
And I know I have a lot of questions too, because,
like you know, we are talking about this within a
couple hours of this game being over. We haven't seen
in all twenty two film. We don't know how the
(20:43):
RAMS defense was pressuring coupits, how much there was shading
coverage to him, how that impacted what the Falcons could
or couldn't do. There are a lot of things I
think that go into the targets that we didn't see
Coalpits have tonight. If if I'm being honest, and you're right,
Like Arthur Smith was asked about it, and his whole
(21:04):
thing is he said, he was like, Kyle's a huge
part of our offense, and the thing is you have
to take it with context. Is the same thing we're
trying to win, and he has a huge impact on
the game. And he was going through it and he
was talking about him being an important piece and how
essentially he used the example of Cadaro Hodge who had
(21:28):
a really great play. I can't remember what quarter it was,
all of it first half. Yeah, and Arthur Smith says,
you know, here's the example. You target him on a
play and if they cover him or they account from him,
then Cadaryl Hodge comes in and makes a big play.
It happened a few times things like that. It's not
fantasy football. We're just trying to win and will continue
(21:48):
to look at everything and try to get better. And
that was his quote, and like that's kind of where
we are. I think there's a lot more analyzing to do,
a lot more conversations to have about what is happening,
whether it's at the quarterback position, tied end position, secondary,
they have a say in where a quarterback goes with
the ball. I mean, all of these questions I think
(22:10):
are valid to ask and also valid to try and
figure out an answer. Yeah, because he's an impact player
and the Falcons need him to be that impact player
in ways beyond Look, he's doing better as a blocker,
he's drawing coverage away, all those types of things. The
Falcons again in their current state, like they need their
stars to really produce. How how Patterson has done to
(22:33):
this point. And also like we were talking to Kyle
in the locker room after the game, and I mean
he was getting grilled on this lack of targets and
if he was upset about it, and he kept saying
like like what do you want me to do? You
want me to go and scream at Arthur or do
you want me to go and scream at Marcus or
not getting the bill? He's like, I don't operate like that.
(22:55):
He's like, I'm that's true, that's not no, that's not
his personality. And like he kept saying I think he
said it three or four times while we're sitting there
talking to him, like I'm not a selfish player. I
want to win. I'm not a selfish player. I want
to win if And that's like the mantra that came
from him after only being targeted a handful number of
times today, Right, and can I transition to Drake London
(23:18):
and then and then moving on to our our final topic,
which is Drake London. He's got again. I don't have
the full stats in front of me. I apologize, it's
late but Drake London has had at least seventy yards
receiving in both games to this point. He had eighty
six today. I leave seventy four last week. That sounds
very right. He scored his NF he scored his first
(23:40):
league touchdown, first NFL touchdown. He saved the ball. He said,
it's going in a case now going to his parents' house.
Is going to his house. He's gonna keep it with him.
That's a big moment. But this wasn't This wasn't a
cause for universal celebration. Yeah, because they lost, and Drake
London understands that that you can have individual accolades and
(24:02):
he can be proud of some good moments that he had,
but they still lost the game. And he seemed to
find the right balance of that when he was talking
when I was there too, and when he was talking
to me and some other reporters as well. Seemed to
strike a good tone there. But something that Arthur Smith
said on Sunday night, and he said before, is it's
(24:25):
confirming why they drafted him. Yeah, because he's going out there.
I haven't asked him. Just feel like this NFL trends,
this NFL thing is easier maybe than you thought. He's like, no,
it's not easy. It's just it shows that they're putting
me in positions to win. And I think a lot
of hard, detail oriented work I've been doing on my
own with the team sent from the spring in the
summer is starting to pay off that It's not oh,
(24:47):
I walked in and now I'm good. Now he's really
worked on his craft, on subtle things that help him
get open and help him be what is he has
the complete package of traits to make him a complete receiver. Yeah,
and what he's done to this point has been good.
Of course, again he wants them right. And I think
(25:09):
I go back to something that you know, he was
coming off of that knee injury, and I think I
even said it on the last podcast, like, I don't
think anybody really realized how much that injury was impacting
him in the preseason, because when he was talking, it
really did feel like it was a pretty significant injury
that it almost it didn't feel that way in the moment,
(25:29):
And so to see him come out and do what
he's done the last two weeks, I think is very commendable.
But there was a moment it was one of the
first times that we saw him back out on the
field after the injury, and he was talking to t J. Yates,
who is the Falcons wide receivers coach, and their conversation
(25:50):
it was very it was like watching two people like
just trying to figure each other out and like what works,
what doesn't work. And I and I'm standing kind of
like off to the side, you know, I can't hear
what they're saying, but they're literally talking about like arm
movements and like how you would move like your wrist
(26:11):
and your elbow like to get by a defender. It
was really fascinating to see them working on something as
small and minute as that's your arm placement and it's
that type of stuff that and also just Drake Lendon
is a lot more. You know, we watch him in
the pre draft process and see the highlights and everything.
Drake Lindon. I'll say this about Drake Lendon, Drake London
(26:33):
is way more of a fierce competitor than I originally
thought he was because when we talk to him, he's
very calm, very quiet, cool collected, just chill. On the field,
he is he like gets mad, like he wants like
there was a moment where Marcus through a quote unquote
(26:56):
interception but it was called a pass interference. It was
hinded for elominate as a kiss. And it lands and
I can't remember whose hands, and Drake comes up and
like kind of like punches the ball and he comes
over to the side and he has his helmet on.
He kind of slaps it, and it's like, this guy
is a very fierce competitor. This is a guy who
really really wants to win. Not saying that everybody doesn't
(27:16):
want to win. Everybody does want to win. But to
see kind of how Drake London operates in these games
scenarios and how fierce and heated he gets, it's very fun.
He's a very very fun player to watch. I mean
even hurdling a guy down the sideline. I mean he's
making these plays that it's like, Okay, this all makes sense.
(27:37):
He's the guy that they wanted to go after in
the draft. Yeah, and I think ultimately, look, Kyle Pitts
is gonna get his. Yeah, he just will. He's too
good to not. Yeah, So he's gonna get his. Drake
London is gonna get his. The Falcons are gonna win
some games. They're gonna lose some more too, but they're
gonna win. And this team, these individuals are going to
(27:58):
continue to evolve and grow. What I think fans should
really try to keep an eye on, big picture wise,
is how are they progressing week to week? How are
they continuing to get better? And Arthur Smith said it
it's time for a breakthrough, and a breakthrough is a win.
Jake Matthew said, I don't care if it's three to
not four. That is our next step, no more. We're
doing some good things dot dot dot. But the next
(28:20):
thing is we are doing some good things that resulted
in a victory. And that's what we're going to be
looking on throughout the course of this week. We're gonna
end a complete game. I very much want to see
a complete game, and we're gonna be keeping an eye
out for all of those types of things. We're going
to be in the great state of Washington for the
entire week. Tory mcilaney and I look forward to with
lots of exclusive content. They're gonna be practicing up here
(28:43):
and we're gonna have full coverage down Atlanta. Falcons dot com.
Do your thing, y'all right? Rate review subscribe that it's
so late. Yeah, and now Falcons Final Whistle is part
of of one individual channel. If you subscribe to Falcons
Final Whistle, awesome, Thank you. We have something called the
(29:06):
Atlanta Falcons Podcast Network, which is Falcons Audible, our new podcast,
Falcons in Focus, and Falcons Final Whistle all on one channel.
Subscribe to one. Get all the good stuff. Go over
to YouTube, do your thing. There's a bunch of different
ways you can consume this content. Appreciate you sticking around,
probably on a Monday morning at this point listening to
this and know that it's ten forty five. I haven't
(29:27):
edited this thing yet, so I'm staying up late for
you people. Anyway, we're all getting ready to go to bed.
Thank you so much, Tory, and thank you guys for
downloading and listening. Talk to you next week.
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