October 14, 2025 • 42 mins
Rack, Arch, and Shock break down the Atlanta Falcons’ 24-14 Monday Night Football victory over the Buffalo Bills. They share their first impressions of the big win and marvel at the insane performances by Bijan Robinson and Drake London before looking to how the Falcons can secure two primetime wins in a row.
0:00 - Intro
1:53 - First impressions
12:13 - Bijan & Drake: Certified stars
22:23 - Another primetime game vs 49ers
29:58 - Where can the Falcons improve?
36:07 - Keys to win vs San Francisco
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
We've been told that we are the big boys in town.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
He got that. He's into I'm talking about He is
like lit.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Because I want to start great.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Yeah, guy can get chills a little bit thinking about
what these two guys can do.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We are back here at Top Double presented by.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
AT and T.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
A Falcons Victory Falcons Audible presented by AT and T,
A twenty four to fourteen win primetime Monday night football
matchup Atlanta Falcons over the Buffalo Bills. Guys, we knew
this matchup coming in had a lot of shall we
call it implications, right, not necessarily postseason implications, but when
(01:06):
you are trying to measure where you're at as an
organization against a team that has basically lived in the postseason.
You know, seven out of the last eight years had
been in the postseason, been the two AFC title games.
Buffalo Bills raining MVP at quarterback, arguably one of the
best players in the league, and Josh Allen is you know,
you're gonna be tested and if you want to kind
(01:28):
of figure out where you fit in the grand scheme
of things. I listened to the press conference last night.
Raheem Morris was even saying like, that's the type of
organization team that we are trying to be, right is
you had a prime opportunity to show everybody in America
what you are and the growth that you have made,
and they did just that. So shock, let's get your
kind of overwhelming feelings about the game. Like after you
(01:53):
ended up stepping away from the game, you just saw
everything that happened. Some of your first impressions were.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Man, that's a good question because the mind is going everywhere,
because there are a lot of good things that happened
in that ball game last night. As we were recording
this obviously on Tuesday, and you know, obviously the player
part of it in me, you know, looks at a
certain couple of players here there, you know, defensively, offensively,
stuff that happened. But when I stepped away from it
(02:22):
and I thought even deeper about it, the one thing
that stuck out to me was I thought the coordinator shined.
I thought both coordinators on both sides of the ball
showed the entire country. Like you just talked about what
these what these two sides of the ball could look
like when they're firing on all similars, And I thought,
(02:46):
this is the vision that Raheem Moore's Terry Fonto all
thought about way back when when none of us knew
exactly what they were trying to do, all the different
pieces they were trying to pull together, and you see
it all kind of come together in this ballgame. Now,
there's certainly things that they want to work on and
get better, but there were a lot of opportunities in
(03:06):
this ball game. You say, man, this is a fun
team to watch. They can do a lot of different things.
And I thought, give a lot of credit to Zrob
and his crew on that offensive side for the player
they put together. Obviously you got too to get that going.
And defensively, you just talked about all the things that
they have going on that side the ball. For the
Bills and the way you I want to say, you
(03:30):
almost bully Josh Allen and the bulls on that side
of the side of the ball with some of the
things you did, some of the looks you created, some
of the the blitzes, some of the you know, pre
and posting things that were really really fun to watch
as a guy who you know, don't just see the
game for just what it is, and just fun to
see the coordinators shine in that moment on the biggest
(03:51):
stage and see some of our guys who a lot
of people on the national stage hasn't given them their due,
and to be able to see them do it on
that stage where the likes of Lebron James and everybody
is tweeting about Man, these dudes are different and that's
what you want. And I think you continue this and
it's the reason why you can put on Prime Time
(04:12):
five times this year because I think a lot of
people knew there's a lot of talent on this team.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
DJ. You mentioned the coordinators, and I'm sure we're probably
all going to talk about some different moments or plays
in the game, but one stuck out to me, actually two,
but it's one concept stuck out to me. First half motion.
Felipe Franks, the former quarterback under center, takes the snap,
picks up the first down. But then they run the
exact same play in the second half on this game
(04:37):
defining drive. But it wasn't the fact that they ran
to play. It was the timing of when he ended
up running the play again, but this time exact same look.
Franks gets under center and hard counts it and you know,
they repped it, you know, they drilled it, but it
was like it sometimes it's like we like the concept,
we liked the play. They hadn't seen this before, but
(05:00):
it's the time that you do it right. And they
had to pick up one yard to really force Buffalo's hand.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Felipe Franks gets under center, goes hardcount, they jump off
sides free first down right, And I said on the
air last night, I said, that was the perfect time
to run that variation of the play because they'd already
seen in the first half.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
They're thinking this is quarterback sneak. We already saw it.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
We got to jump the snap right and they get
the false start, which turns into three Buffalo timeouts afterwards,
which really hamstrung them. So that was kind of when
you mentioned play calling, there was a couple of times
arts that I said the same thing, like that was
a great call, That was a great call. That was
a great call. Had two weeks to prepare, but the
right time for some of these plays I thought was
(05:43):
perfect last night.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah, I thought that you guys are bang on, and
obviously guys have to impulment and implement the plan, right,
you got to go make plays, but you gotta have
a plan to start off with, and you guys are
dead on. I thought that both guys z Rob does
a great job on the offensive side and Brick did
a great job with the defense. And that was where
the real challenge was, what was Brick gonna do Jeff
(06:07):
Ulbrick our defensive coordinator, What was he going to do
with Josh Allen and the ability to as Shock talked
about last week, the second piece of the play, or
the second play within the play is what he's king at.
His ability at sixty five two and forty pounds to
pull the ball, run through arm tackles, break down your
pass rush, let you get in pass rush lanes and
(06:28):
pick a lane and go take off all those kind
of things. He had a twenty four yard run at
the end of the game. That upped his number a
little bit. I think he was held to five carries
for like eighteen eighteen yards in the game. I mean,
that's unbelievable. We played him four years or three years
ago in Buffalo. He had eighty two yards in two
touchdowns in that game to three picks in the game.
(06:49):
But he killed us running the football right and Buffalo
won the game. But the coordinator piece of it is
so dead on by both of you guys, and I
thought it was because we played with our personality. Jeff
Ulbrick wants to attack. We talked about it all through preseason.
We're gonna tack up the field. We're a gap attacking team.
(07:10):
That's who we're gonna be. We're gonna play some man
coverage in the secondary. We're gonna attack the quarterback. I
talked to him on Thursday of this last week. He goes, Hey,
this guy's gonna make some plays, but we're gonna attack him.
We're gonna make him make some plays. We're gonna get
after him. That's exactly what they did. And on the
offensive side of the football, Zach did the same thing.
(07:31):
On offense the final drive where you're trying to kill clock,
run the ball, Beajon's run for one hundred and seventy
yards in the game. What do you do your four
your first five plays are throw, You throw the football,
and because of your efficiency and not putting it on
the ground and throwing in completions, you're running the clock
and getting first downs. And you know, Sean mcdermot's over
there looking what the hell's going on? You know, I
(07:53):
thought that it was the personality. You guys talked about
the plays and the execution and the casiza, the x's
and o's. I'm just talking about playing with personality. Your
personality is to be aggressive on both sides of the ball.
And that they went and won. They went and took
the football game. Buffalo didn't make much of it. They
took the game away from Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I was on the national call last night with Kevin Kugler,
and I was talking to Kevin during the break right
before that last Falcons offensive drive, and I'm looking up
at the clock and I'm looking at the score, and
I believe it was about six thirty seven, six forty
seven left on the clock. And I said to Kevin
in the break, I said, if Atlanta wants to become
a next level team, I said, they can go win
(08:34):
the game right here. I said, they could put together
a long drive and really handcuff Buffalo. And that's exactly
what they did. Is I look, fourteen plays sixty eight yards,
five minutes off of the clock, okay, which kind of
culminated in the play that I was talking about. Was
involved in that and what happens is like there are
think about the flip side of that. If that would
(08:55):
have been a three and out that took about a
minute and seven seconds off the clock. You give Josh
Allen the football back with call it five five and
a half minutes left, that's an eternity for them with
three timeouts a way, okay, there are so many things
that he can do in that amount of time with
them down by because they wouldn't have got the field goal, right,
they would only been down seven points at the time.
(09:16):
But that's the drive that you need. Like I said,
I mentioned it afterwards, like we always talk about being
situationally smart. Well, I'm not quite sure there was a
definition that one being a situation in the book, but
it's kind of one of those situations like, go out
and win a game, right, And that was, to me,
was a defining drive for them in this season because
the offense did what they had to do to make
(09:38):
it extremely difficult on the Buffalo Bills. And you mentioned
Josh Allen had a nice run there, kind of tried
to make it exciting, but then we ended up seeing
an interception and they end up getting the victory.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Well, and that's two games in a row rack that
they've done. Now you go back to the Washington game.
They had a fourteen play drive to eat up what's
seven and a half minutes off the clock against Washington
and pretty much killed the clock and you ran the
ball to all of the fourteen times. You flip the
script here. If you're Buffalo, you're thinking, okay, this is
they're going to try to run the football, but Jon's
killed us. We'll crowd the line of scrimmage and all
(10:08):
of a sudden, Bejon's catch it in the flat. Here's
Drake catching the football. Now it wasn't all clean. Let's
be real here, Michael throws a ball that he's got
to learn from that should have been picked off. Shaq
Thompson jumps a slant route down near the red zone
and he should steal it, and he's probably going to
be in a foot race to keep you out of
the end zone. So and I talked to Michael postgame.
(10:30):
I said, hey, you know, how'd you feel like you
You know how I feel like you played? And he said,
there were some things I left on the table, some
things I got to clean up. And so he's already
thinking about that. And you know, his quarterbacks were thinking
about the negative plays. We don't think about the positive plays.
So there's so many little things about it that make
you feel good that you got guys that understand, Hey,
(10:51):
this isn't the top of the mountain. I didn't play
anywhere near as good as I can, and yet you
win games. And how much fun we've all got a
chance to do this. Me probably less than you guys,
but to be able to enjoy a win and still
fix stuff. Yeah, right, and that's kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Well, that's the good part about it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, one of the things that sticks out to me
and arts when you said personality. One thing set out
to me was the personality of the head coach. And
I think we got to go back to the beginning
of the ball game. You take the football to start
the ball game. Your personality is your head coach saying,
guess what, we ain't afraid of these dudes. We're gonna
go We're gonna dictate how this game starts, and we're
(11:29):
not gonna worry about the middle aid and all that
kind of stuff. We're gonna go take the football and
they do that, go right down to score three consecutive
opening drives for touchdowns at home is really big. So
I love the aggressive nature that Rod had to start
his ball game and his team failed off at and say, hey,
we had some things within our offense we knew we
(11:51):
felt good about, and we were gonna started with the
football in our hands.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Guys. We talked about this last week about coming into
the game, the challenge that was facing Atlanta Falcons with
Josh Shall, But guess what flip it around the challenge
facing the Buffalo Bills with Bjehon Robinson. Okay, can we
go ahead and just start saying right now that this
dude is a legitimate, if not front runner for the
m v P right now? I mean, this dude is special.
(12:16):
Many times do we say that, like last the best
player in the least league get period, better than that.
Last week.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
We did all the talking about Josh Allen, We talked
about James Cook, we talked about all the weapons on there,
our shit, hold on, hold on, Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Got some stuff. They gotta worry about. Two and I'll
be damn well. I mean, not only was it was
it Jon in the first half, but I mean Drake London.
I mean and Ria Raheem said it after the game.
He said, this dude is a dog and you watch
him when he gets like I've met. I was talking
to a colleague this morning, right, and I said, when
Drake London and Jon Robinson get going, I said, this
(12:57):
team is dangerous because everybody else just feed off their energy.
But specifically with Drake, like when he gets the football,
it's like he's got a little anger to right, Like thatsicality,
Like he's he uses his size. It is yeah, and
and and yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
If you mess with one of his guys, he's the
first guy in you think, okay, here comes an offensive lineman,
me a defensive line. No, it's five fives right on
top of you.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I mean the maturation of him over the years, guys,
I mean with the catch that he makes on the
one yard line, gets wrapped up and takes the football
and just reaches it across the plane, like to get
the ball from you. Right, that's your little brother.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Now you can't.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
He's like you're draped on me. But look you see
this here, that's a touchdown right there. It just watching
his continued development. I'm sure he was frustrated early on
the season wasn't able to get in the end zone.
But Michael Pennix has found a way to say, this
guy gets open. I'm getting him the football, and I
feel like that energy that he brings arch makes everybody
(13:59):
else on this off its even more excited.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Couldn't gree with you more. I think that there's no
question that Drake has an energy around him that people
feed off of. He's got there's a there's an angry
is the right way to say. If he plays angry,
you know, and and he's angry at himself if he
doesn't make a play. But he's gonna get angry if
you you try to make a play, you know. And
I thought that, And we're gonna get some film breakdown
(14:23):
from Shock here on Atlanta Falcons dot com where he's
gonna go in depth on Drake and show you some
of the intricacies that Drake is gonna that break brings
to the table, and that's gonna be a lot of fun.
SHOT's going to really break some stuff down. So if
you want to tune into that, tune in, stay tuned
to Atlanta Falcons dot com and watch his breakdown of
some of the film. That's gonna be a lot of
fun to see. But you you've got some guys, you know,
(14:45):
we've got guys like that that are star players. You know,
when your star players are your glue guys. I mean, man,
you got something going on now, yeah, But Jehan Robinson
and Drake London are your star players if you put
stars on this team. And I'll fantasy has something to
do with that because I can get points. But for
a fans perspective in California or Toronto, Canada, wherever you are,
(15:08):
you're gonna look at Drake London and Jon Robinson. They're
your glue guys too. They keep the team together. You
it's the usually it's those worker be guys that kind
of glue the team together, your best players. That says
a lot to you. Go back to talk about you're
talking about Raheem and talking about the personality of the
coaches and all that kind of stuff. That's what culture is.
(15:28):
I think the fan has been beaten over the head
with the idea of culture. That's what it is is
when your best players are your glue guys. Yeah, I
mean that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
What's what's what's crazy is the fact we sitting here
weekly and we are surprised by the things that number
seven does every week. Like every week you watched him,
You're like, man, that was crazy. I don't know how
he did that. And then the next week there's something different.
The amount of things that he adds to an offense,
(16:00):
to a team is quite unbelievable. And to have, I know,
z Robs one of the probably most excited guys every
night to go to bed, to wake up the next morning,
to be able to draw Stu up for this guy,
because it doesn't matter where you put him on. I
mean they threw the guy's speed out in the game
the other day, Like, come on, man, this man does everything,
not just a running back that we'll go out and
(16:21):
run an option around was like everybody else, right, this
guy runs the route tree. But also you throw them
the ball in the flat for two yards and I
literally saw him make six seven guys and miss within
a small window and pick up twelve yards. Like, come on, man,
this dude is is is different. And I with raw,
I mean, you put him next to anybody, I'm like,
(16:42):
I'm taking sem all day.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Some of the numbers on Bejon are unbelievable. And I'm
gonna leave a couple to you. Yeah, I'm gonna say,
I'm gonna mention a couple, and I'll mention Drake and
Bejon because that's where we are. And then I'll let
you you talk about Bajon and where he is from
a from a historical standpoint, Jon and Drake one hundred
and fifty yards receiving hundred fifty yards rushing between with
both those two guys, that's only happened one other time
(17:04):
in team history. As it turns out, they were the
guys that last year, last year in team history. Last
night we celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of this football team.
That's been done by two other guys.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It's the same two guys.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
They did it last right in January, right, so they've
done it twice in the same calendar year. But there's
some unbelievable numbers. Rack, I'll let you dive into them.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Guys. It's kind of funny because when you play in
the NFL, like, at the end of the day, Rahee
Morris is right, like, the only thing you're worried about
is getting a win, right, And so he's kind of
joked a couple of times, and he said stats are
for losers, right, So I guess you could just throw
me in the category that I'm a loser. But we're
in the media, so we talk about stats a little bit.
One thing I thought was interesting in the first half. Okay,
(17:47):
by the way, Atlanta Falcons three hundred and thirty five
yards in the first half, both most by any team
and a half the season, and most by the Falcons
in the first half since two thousand and nine. Okay,
let me just let me just talk about those numbers.
Though it was one hundred and sixty eight rushing in
one hundred and sixty seven passing. Okay, perfect balance. But
do you guys remember the very last play of the first.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Half what happened?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yes, he didn't get that was shot by how long
halfil technically one yard, So if Drake gets into the
end zone, their first half numbers would have been won
sixty eight one six, right, which is which is bizarre. Right,
Falcons not able to get the final touchdown as the
clock was expiring. But I think at that moment, you
just you gotta let Drake be Drake and just see
(18:29):
if he ends up beating she gets into the end zone.
There's a whole sheet here of stats. When it comes
to be John Robinson, I'm just gonna throw out two
of them. Two hundred and thirty eight yards from scrimmage,
career best, one hundred and seventy rushing and sixty eight receiving,
the most scrimmage yards by a running back on Monday
Night Football since nineteen eighty six. Joe Morris nineteen six.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I played against je.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Just like I played against that dude. And then through
five weeks, through five games, first second player, excuse me
to reach four hundred and fifty rushing yards and three
hundred receiving yards in NFL history, joining Thurman Thomas.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Like, sometimes when you get into a category with certain
players and that's it, Like that's a pretty good company
to be sitting in. So it shows what he's been
able to do just early on this season, and there's
nothing to say that this is not going to continue.
You watch them each every week and it's like you
could throw the most athletic defensive lineman, the most athletic linebackers,
(19:29):
secondary players. He's a mismatch for everybody that he goes against.
And even the eighty one yard touchdown, I can't remember
who it was, Maybe it was Bishop or somebody had
him like and they were wrapped up around his waist
and then he just ran through it. And I'm sure
that he was laying on the turf saying like yo,
I had him, like, how did he not go down?
(19:50):
Because that's how he's different. Not only is he quick,
not only is he fast, but he is deceptively strong,
especially with the lower half.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Tried to say it. He is the matrix. And mister
Robinson miss Robins one other stat and I know the
stats is as Raheem says the losers, But Bracket, I've
got a million stats UND eight hundred and twenty two
scrimmage yards in the first five games. And you talk
about going back in history now since McCaffrey, it's the
(20:18):
most since uh McCaffrey, Christian McCaffrey in twenty nineteen. But
the only other guy on the list prior to that O. J.
Simpson in nineteen seventy three and seventy five. He did
it twice. Those are the only four guys, or the
only three guys that have had more yards from scrimmage
in the first five games in the John Robinson, it's
(20:38):
just amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
You want to add one?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
I want to stat Yeah, I mean one, go ahead,
get you A man has surpassed four case scrimmage yards.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Tis the great William Andrews and thirty nine games, the
only time to do it, youngest to do it at
twenty three.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Come on, man, we'll be played to the Auburn hammer too,
by the way.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, I mean it's.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
It's It's one of those situations where again I was
talking to Kevin Cougar before the game. He was like, yeah,
kind of give me a breakdown of Atlanta and I
was like, how much have you seen of John Robinson.
He's like, I've seen a little bit of him.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I'm like, what did he say?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Get ready?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Belt?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Right? So we talked a lot about the offense, but
the defense as well.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Four sacks and held bills to two of ten on
conversion down, so third and fourth down they hold the
Bills to two of ten. So the defense does their
job against one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the
National Football League. And we talked this week, Fellas, one
of my keys to the game was the Falcons are
going to have to score because Buffalo came in averaging
(21:42):
over thirty points a game, thirty point six, it was
third best in the National Football League, and they scored
a season low twenty against the Patriots. They hold him
to fourteen, a team that had been lighting up the scoreboard.
So it kind of goes back to what you guys
were originally talking about with these coordinators putting together great
eight game plans coming off of bye week, but not
(22:02):
only that, the players executing. Every coach will tell you
you can put together the greatest game plan, but if
a player does not go out and execute it, if
your team, your unit does not go out and execute,
it doesn't matter how good the game plan was. So Fellas,
here's the thing. It was a great win, but you
we've all been there. You celebrated for what maybe twenty
(22:24):
four out maybe because as we're standing right now, the
players are already looking at San Francisco and guess what,
you get another prime time matchup to go out and
stack victory. So that's what it's all about, right, consistency,
stacking positive performances, and then you just never know how
the score is going to shake out in the end.
So Arch, let's switch gears. Let's talk about San Francisco
(22:45):
forty nine ers. As the Falcons are going to go
on the road, travel across the country. We already talked
about the schedule, right, They're gonna have to tune all
the noise out as far as thirteen straight weeks, gotta
go out west, gotta go overseas. Hey, that's the hand
your dealt. Now you just go to go out and execute.
Early reports are that George Kittle's gonna come back and
practice this week. Maybe Brock Purty's going to come back. However,
(23:06):
they also lose one of their all time greatest players,
all Pro player in the linebacker Fred Warner, goes out
for the season. Give the folks that are listening and
watching a little bit of flavor of what the forty
nine ers are this year at four and two.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Well, and the first thing you got to know is
there's a lot of pride in that team. That team's
been in the mix late in seasons. I'm talking about
deep in playoff runs. Much like Buffalo. This is going
to be a team that's expecting to be in the
playoff run and they still do. They have been banged
up significantly last year. They had a lot of injuries.
Wide receiver corps was depleted. They are banged up again
(23:42):
this year in some places. But make no mistake, Robert
Sala their due defensive cord. It comes over after being
the head coach of the Jets. He's a guy that
kind of fashioned that defense and what it was he
and Demico Ryans and what they put together out there.
You can bet that they're going to come back. They
gave up thirty points to Tampa this weekend, and they
gave up arguably the run of the year. Baker Mayfield
(24:04):
pulls it down and makes some kind of weird run
because like your grandfather running with the ball and stuff,
and he's bouncing off people and he lays out and
dies for a first down. But that if there's another
guy that's in the MVP voting, that's the guy.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I mean, the Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
He's been phenomenal, but they ended up losing the football game.
It's the first game they've played where it hasn't been
a one score game. They played in five to one
what five to one score games up to this point,
and so they lose this when thirty to nineteen. Mac
Jones has played really well at quarterback that he'd been
undefeated in playing for back party. We know that Kyle
Shanahan's an outstanding game planner. You know they're going to
(24:41):
want to run the football and get back to kind
of some of what they are is running the ball.
I think they've gotten away from a little bit of that.
I think they've maybe gotten a little bit too pass happy.
I expect them to run a little bit, especially if
you look at what Buffalo was able to do on
the opening drive of the second half in this game.
I thought that, I said at halftime, Wes asked me
(25:02):
on the radio, says, what do you think? What do
you think we're going to see it? And I said,
Buffalo is going to get back the run game. Yeah,
they're going to start trying to pound cook. You can
bet that mccaffery's going to see a number of touches
in this game. They're going to try to hit. He's
their best football player. Get him the football. It'll be
interesting to see how they adjust defensively. Obviously Bosa's out,
he's out for the year, and now Warner's out for
the year. Those are two of their main stays on
(25:24):
the defensive side of the football. So you've got to
figure in, maybe not in Sala's head, but in Kyle
Shanahan said, we got to go score points. We need
to go put points on the board. I think they'll
be aggressive, but I think they will want to run
the football.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
A lot of familiarity from a staff perspective in this game. Obviously, Shanahan,
the head coach, has spent time with the Atlanta Falcons organization.
You mentioned sala Ulbrick was working for him at the Jets.
There's a lot of familiarity there. So these staves are
dj quite familiar with how each one wants to attack. Now,
everything changes week to week in the National Football League.
(25:56):
But not only that, You've got the other player though,
the one other that I would put in the right now,
in the same stratosphere. And this is no offense to
sa Kwan Barkley, because he's fantastic with Christian McCaffrey. I
think it is probably the one player in the NFL
and what he's done throughout the course of his career
that most closely emulates Bijon Robinson. And so you're gonna
have those two guys on the same field. They're electric
(26:19):
in the run game, they're electric in the past game,
and they're gonna get to go not necessarily head to head,
but they're gonna go against each other. This is still
shaping out to be an excellent matchup.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
It is. And you know, the one guy who Bijon
went and trained with this offseason was Christian McCaffrey. So
you know he recognized the ability and the value that
Christian McCaffrey has. And I'm sure the valgals will come
in with that same kind of mindset, coming in obviously
similar to what you did this week. And every week
there's a plan. Okay, here's their guy, here's what we
have to focus on. Last week it was Josh Allen.
(26:49):
They did a really good job of focusing on that.
This week will be Christian McCaffrey. For sure, you have
to come in with a plan for him. But give
this defense a lot of credit. I mean, we've talked
about it a lot. This defense five straight weeks holding
opponents under three hundred yards, hasn't allowed a two hundred
yard passer the season. This is a defense that wants
to get out of you. One thing that I enjoy
watching this pass ball game and the last few ball
(27:11):
games obviously, is the depth we have on the defense
side of the ball, which is gonna help you and
I love you. Look at a guy like the Alfer
last night who had to come in. Billy Bowmen was out,
so we had to play in the shlot last couple weeks.
He was out there on the perimeter holding it down
and not to call his name much. Having that kind
of depth you look up front, I mean the guys.
You just see waves of guys coming in playing. Obviously,
(27:33):
Ruke and Dorles are playing really good. We saw on
your mind to get a sack. You're talking about we
got fourteen sacks on the season. Twelve guys have at
least half a sack, a sack sack and a half.
A lot of guys flowing to the football. And that's
what we talked about againting the year, we said, do
we want one guy We want to Little Florida go
out here and have ten twelve sacks. We rather have
(27:53):
multiple guys. And I think it's a credit to what
you guys.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Just talked about.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
With what Brick is doing and guys flying to the football.
Everybody's happy for each other, and I think this bodes
well for going on the West Coast. And I remember
when I played you guys did the same thing. You
know exactly what I'm going to say. When you have
a short week like this, the game plan is a
little bit simpler because you want to go out and
(28:17):
you want to play fast, you want to put in
a whole bunch of different stuff. Then you're out there
thinking about it. I think they have a plan of, hey,
here's a lot of things that we do really well.
Let's make sure we're really good on these things. And yeah,
we have a couple of wrinkles here and there, and
make sure we know who they are. But for the
most part, when you have this short week, get your
body back right. You're gonna go to the West coast,
long flight. You got to make sure the small things,
(28:38):
the details are there for you. And this is gonna
be one of those kind of games where going on
the road, there are a lot of different distractions that
you can have and you can say, all right, here's
why you know this happened in this ballgame. Good teams
don't allow that. So I think this is a prime
example of another time where you get a chance to
show the country what you're all about on prime time
again and putting together consecutive good performances that people can say,
(28:59):
you know what they offer real.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Yeah. One of the things that happens, and Shock makes
a really good point. Short week. What happens in those
bye weeks is, yes, you're doing self evaluation, self scout.
You hear that all the time. But what also happens
is there's a there's a portion of the building that
is a advanced scouting and they're preparing stuff for the
forty nine ers. So there was they've already been working
on San Francisco. So if you're at home saying, oh
(29:23):
my god, it's a short week and they're not going
to be ready, no, they've already had a group of
people working on getting the analytics and everything put together
for what the forty nine ers are going to look like.
So when they can present that to the players when
they come in tomorrow, you got we've all sat in
those meetings. They're ready to go, So it don't don't
feel like that that's not going to be the case.
I want to ask you guys a question. Okay, you're
(29:44):
three and two. There's been two really good performances here
back to back. We know we had a really poor
performance in week three. What do you want to see
as we emerge from this game? What would you like
to see the Falcons be better at or with in
this weekend against San Francisco? Where can they improve in
your mind?
Speaker 1 (30:04):
That's a great question because it's like we're I was
going to ask you guys keys, but this is a
little bit of a twist on that. Where do they improve?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I think I.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Actually I think about last week and I think about
some areas where if they especially with McCaffrey, like this
defense and their ability to stuff the run. Because to
your point, like I think what San Francisco is going
to look at is that opening drive in the third
quarter and how they handed the ball off to James
Cook and for whatever reason, Buffalo went away from it.
(30:34):
And I think James Cook was upset about that by
the way I saw him on the sidelines a couple
of times but they're going to look at that and
they're going to say, gosh, there was quite a few
seams there, and we've got Christian McCaffrey, Like, let's make
sure we stay committed to the run game and see
if they've got it fixed. A lot of times in
the NFL when there are issues, people put things into
(30:55):
the game plan to see if they got to fix right,
Like it's still going to be a problem, or can
we take advantage of it? Can we exploit it?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Right?
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And you look up and the Falcons defense for the
most part statistically towards the top of the National Football League,
but there's always little areas that you can find tune
and the times that you see somebody in the run
game kind of gash because that drive guys, it was
like eight yards, twelve yards, nine yards, seven yards, eleven yards.
Like that gets a little worrisome because now they control
(31:26):
the pace of the game like they did in the
third quarter. Buffalo controlled the third quarter because of their
ability to run the football. So tighten up there, knowing
that the challenge is going to be just as difficult,
if not more, with the guy that they're gonna face
in Christian McCaffrey, What do you think For me?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
You know, my mind goes to as much as I
love Drake, getness catches, love seeing Bijon get it. Drake
was targeted sixteen times in a bulgate. He was the
only wide receiver they called a passing the bulgate. Cale
Pitts had three. Obviously Bijon has six. I believe it was.
You know, Casey had a couple targets. But I want
(32:04):
to see the other guys have production, see other guys
spread the wealth for sure, Like there's gonna be times
where yeah, becau ze, Rob does a great job of scheming.
You know, Drake open a bunch of times, but sixteen
targets to Drake, I mean we gotta spread. I want
to see more guys have an impact in his ball game.
And yeah, Bijon and Drake, no doubt about it. Get
(32:26):
them at targets. They got to touch the football. That's
that's a no brainer. But you can't go into every
ball game saying, okay, these are the only two guys
that are really gonna make an impact. Yeah, Kyle had
a couple catches here and there, but he could even
have more production and going forward.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
So for me.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
It points to, let's have a spreading of the wealth
like you just mentioned on the offensive side of the ball.
And if that helped, guess what, that opens up even
more things for this offense. That helps us even be
more explosive than it is now. And you know, obviously,
you know you don't have Mooney back yet, he's still
you know, going through the paces. You want to make
sure that you have an equal amount of guys who
(33:01):
can make some plays in this offense. And we've seen
it happen. But down the road you're gonna need more
guys to come along with you to make this office
even better.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Aren't you posed the question? Now you get to answer cubes.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
Think the same because that was exactly that. That's exactly
what I would have said, is, hey, we got to
have more than two guys make plays. And we did that.
You know, if you go back and look at it
at the game against Washington, you had four different guys
score touchdowns. So it's there. It's capability.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
And you got to learn as a quarterback if you're
Michael Pennix and you're the guy distributing the football and
even the play caller to a certain extent, even though
the play doesn't design Okay, you're gonna throw it to
him specifically, there's a read to it, but you do.
Rashak will tell you get a guy that's that's catching
it the way Drake is your naturally migrant to that guy.
To give him an opportunity. I'll pose mine more as
(33:52):
a concern. Jake Matthews left the game with an ankle injury.
Don't know the significance right now. The injury we'll find
out tomorrow from Raheem where recording Tuesday. As Shaq said,
Wednesday is the first injury report. Not sure whether Drake
or j will be able to go. He is at
Andy four consecutive starts, which is incredible to think. It
(34:14):
was an ankle injury that forced him out. Early on
in his career, he missed a game or two with
an ankle injury. So Michael Jarrell, who came in at
left tackle, was an option. He's a guy that Atlanta
traded for right at the beginning of right at the
beginning of the season. Wilkinson's done a good job of
filling in for McGary. I had the storm. Norton is close, guys,
He's the swing tackle. He's he's close to coming out
(34:36):
coming back. Here's one I'll pose to you. Jarrell played
right tackle in Seattle last year. He had to get
three starts ten games. He played three starts. Wilkinson started
at left tackle during the preseason. You also have a
guy playing left guard that played forty five games at
left tackle at Syracuse. So there's some interesting kind of
(35:00):
things that could develop there, and as well as Storm
Norton potentially being available for you this week. It's a
problem obviously. You don't like to lose those two edge
guys that protect, you know, protect the quarterback coming off
the edge and get that run game going. But that'll
be something Elf look or so that's a concern for me,
is what you look.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
For version news working together, man was was pretty good
in this Oh, no question, no question, I want to
break that.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Well, yeah, you don't really want to mess with the
chemistry that the News already being messed with, right, true,
and so so that left side was pretty pretty fruitful
early on in the game with Jake and and Burge
coming off with with new Zel inside.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, I mean credit this this offensive line I think
has been doing a great job, not only with the
holes that they've been opening for Robinson, but also in
the past protection there was many a times that Michael
Pennix had plenty of time for these routes to develop
downfield without really feeling a ton of pressure and and
a lot of this offense that we talked about happens
because the offensive line is doing their job up front.
All right, guys, before we go, let's do we did.
(35:59):
We did kind of a concern that we were looking
to maybe get fixed. Let's talk about a key here.
I want you guys to all to give me one
key in this game that you're gonna think is vitally
important that Atlanta has to execute or something has to
happen shock in order for them to win this game
in the second primetime matchup back to back weeks. What
do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I think for me is continue to stay ahead of
the chains. That's something that obviously you were pretty good
on this ball game. You're about forty two percent on
third down this ballgame. But I think if you stay
ahead of the chains, it makes life for zob a
lot easier when you're in third, medium, third, and short,
whatever it may be, to have opportunities to do whatever
(36:37):
you want within his offense, and yeah, they converted a
couple of thirty longs in this ballgame, but I don't
think that's where you want to live, especially on the
road against a Robert Solid style defense, so you know,
wants to be attacking as well. But I think if
you stay ahead of the chains, run the football the
way you're supposed to, I think then your offense continues
to flourish. I'm not sure how you stop it or
(36:58):
slow it down. If they're clicking on all celers and
you loook up and hey, Michael Pennis can hand it
off on third and four or five, or you can
throw it. There's a lot of opportunity out there to win.
So stay ahead of the chains of this ball game.
I think you'd be just find especially come offensively.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
I love it. A huge proponent of that art. What
are you thinking, it's funny.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
I my first four years of school were in the
Bay Area, California, so I went to four hundred games,
Giant games, A's games, Raider games, and I remember one
of the things we used to do in the off
seat when we were going to games is my family
used to like it was back in the day, they
called them flea markets where you went and got stuff,
kind of giving stuff away. It was kind of stuff
(37:34):
for free or very minimal price stuff. Right, Let's not
make this a flea market for the forty nine ers
in that. Let's not give them stuff for free. Let's
make them earn stuff. We had some penalties in the
back end.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
You like that. It wasn't I didn't know where it
was going, but it makes sense like we had.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
I think we had three secondary penalties. And that's gonna
happen when you play man coverage and you got a
guy like Josh Allen that can float around. Now Brockbirdy plays.
Brock doesn't have the prowess from a physical standpoint to do,
but he does have the ability to buy time. Mac
Jones does not. He's going to try to, but he's
a little banged up. I don't know that he's gonna
be able to do that. Let's not give them any
(38:17):
free plays down the field. I think they extended what
two to three drives because the penalties on the back end.
They gaj had a couple and that's going to happen
in man coverage and the other side. Is probably a
follow up to what Shock says to stay ahead of
the chains. Got eliminate the pre snap penalties. He can't
have the unnecessary. We shouldn't have false start penalties in
our own building anyway. But you're probably you're going to
(38:39):
have a pretty good crowd out in San Francisco, Santa
Clara where the stadium is. Let's not give them anything free.
So no flea market is this week in California, No
flea marks.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
See how he brought that back, circle right back. I
mean that storytelling, guys. My key is actually a combination
of what you guys said. The two things that came
to my mind that I felt like Atlanta did pretty well.
And even though you did talk about penalties Atlanta, the
two areas were turnovers and penalties. Right, no turnovers, and
yes they had six penalties, but they went for thirty
five yards, right, and when you look up, that's not
(39:11):
that bad in the grand scheme of things. And one
of the things that I was talking about as a
key for Buffalo last week is they've been having penalty issues.
They their last two games they had eleven penalties apiece.
And you talk about fighting against the chains, think about
how many times Buffalo was fighting against the chains they
had so many third and long situations in that game
on Monday night. So I reverse it and I say,
(39:32):
for Atlanta, they don't turn the ball over and they
don't have a lot of penalties, and that's both sides
of the ball. That's not putting yourself in bad situations
and offense and giving away a lot of free first
downs on defense. This team is talented enough to be
able to beat anybody in the league when they don't
do those things. But when you have a lot of
penalties and you make things hard on yourself to get
(39:54):
off the field on defense, and you have third down
and twelve all the time because it's it's first and
fifteen or it's second and ten because of holding penalties.
Like I don't care who your play caller is, it
gets difficult, right, So turnover department and penalties, I think
that was those discipline in those two areas is going
to give them the best chance to have success on
(40:15):
both sides of the ball going out to the Bay Area.
Let it go all right. So that's it. That's your
initial areas of concern that we need to grow on.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And that's the game next week.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
And if you got some time and you you know,
go to the flea market. Don't let people nickel and diamond. Okay,
well give.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
Me a go to flea market and give me a
DJ Shockley babble. I got a battle head.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
If they do, it's real cheap. One of the first times, everybody,
just so you know, one of the first times that
I saw DJ get a little uncomfortable was last night.
I asked them what his government name. I said, like,
so I just started guessing stuff. I was like Donald James,
like Desmond Juniper. And he was very uncomfortable. Didn't like this.
So maybe next week maybe I'll get on the internet
(41:00):
webs and I'll figure out what this is. But he
was like, no, he's very adamant. Now my name is DJ.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Go Google nobody, Go Google nobody.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Well, we got a team of juniors, and he's a junior,
so we're.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Yeah, all right, remember to follow us all your podcast apps, YouTube,
Atlanta Falcons dot com. Dave Archer already gave you a
teaser that DJ has got some film breakdown coming on you. Right,
You've got some film breakdown, you know, an atam minimum.
Just continue to come check us out. But we got
(41:31):
podcasts for you all week long. With the Atlanta Falcons.
Check it out Monday, Wednesday Friday. All your Atlanta Falcons
fix on the podcast here, so make sure you follow
us on all your different podcast apps, YouTube, and of course,
Atlanta Falcons dot com is your answer for all the
Falcons material you could be looking for. That's gonna do
it here for the Falcons Audible presented by AT and T.
That's DJ Shockley, ak uh shock. That's Dave Archer a
(41:54):
k A ARCH. I'm Derek Rackley AKA.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I just wanted to run throughs. You're a first time
viewer or listener. We sometimes show these nicknames on you
never know exactly who we're talking about. That's us, Thanks
so much to join us. Falcons is Audible presented by
AT and T. That'll wrap it up. We'll be back
next week to wrap up primetime matchup Sunday Night Football
Falcons at forty nine ers. Thanks so much for joining us.
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(00:20):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
We've been told that we are the big boys in town.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
He got that. He's into I'm talking about He is
like lit.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Because I want to start great.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Yeah, guy can get chills a little bit thinking about
what these two guys can do.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
We are back here at Top Double presented by.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
AT and T.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
A Falcons Victory Falcons Audible presented by AT and T,
A twenty four to fourteen win primetime Monday night football
matchup Atlanta Falcons over the Buffalo Bills. Guys, we knew
this matchup coming in had a lot of shall we
call it implications, right, not necessarily postseason implications, but when
(01:06):
you are trying to measure where you're at as an
organization against a team that has basically lived in the postseason.
You know, seven out of the last eight years had
been in the postseason, been the two AFC title games.
Buffalo Bills raining MVP at quarterback, arguably one of the
best players in the league, and Josh Allen is you know,
you're gonna be tested and if you want to kind
(01:28):
of figure out where you fit in the grand scheme
of things. I listened to the press conference last night.
Raheem Morris was even saying like, that's the type of
organization team that we are trying to be, right is
you had a prime opportunity to show everybody in America
what you are and the growth that you have made,
and they did just that. So shock, let's get your
kind of overwhelming feelings about the game. Like after you
(01:53):
ended up stepping away from the game, you just saw
everything that happened. Some of your first impressions were.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Man, that's a good question because the mind is going everywhere,
because there are a lot of good things that happened
in that ball game last night. As we were recording
this obviously on Tuesday, and you know, obviously the player
part of it in me, you know, looks at a
certain couple of players here there, you know, defensively, offensively,
stuff that happened. But when I stepped away from it
(02:22):
and I thought even deeper about it, the one thing
that stuck out to me was I thought the coordinator shined.
I thought both coordinators on both sides of the ball
showed the entire country. Like you just talked about what
these what these two sides of the ball could look
like when they're firing on all similars, And I thought,
(02:46):
this is the vision that Raheem Moore's Terry Fonto all
thought about way back when when none of us knew
exactly what they were trying to do, all the different
pieces they were trying to pull together, and you see
it all kind of come together in this ballgame. Now,
there's certainly things that they want to work on and
get better, but there were a lot of opportunities in
(03:06):
this ball game. You say, man, this is a fun
team to watch. They can do a lot of different things.
And I thought, give a lot of credit to Zrob
and his crew on that offensive side for the player
they put together. Obviously you got too to get that going.
And defensively, you just talked about all the things that
they have going on that side the ball. For the
Bills and the way you I want to say, you
(03:30):
almost bully Josh Allen and the bulls on that side
of the side of the ball with some of the
things you did, some of the looks you created, some
of the the blitzes, some of the you know, pre
and posting things that were really really fun to watch
as a guy who you know, don't just see the
game for just what it is, and just fun to
see the coordinators shine in that moment on the biggest
(03:51):
stage and see some of our guys who a lot
of people on the national stage hasn't given them their due,
and to be able to see them do it on
that stage where the likes of Lebron James and everybody
is tweeting about Man, these dudes are different and that's
what you want. And I think you continue this and
it's the reason why you can put on Prime Time
(04:12):
five times this year because I think a lot of
people knew there's a lot of talent on this team.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
DJ. You mentioned the coordinators, and I'm sure we're probably
all going to talk about some different moments or plays
in the game, but one stuck out to me, actually two,
but it's one concept stuck out to me. First half motion.
Felipe Franks, the former quarterback under center, takes the snap,
picks up the first down. But then they run the
exact same play in the second half on this game
(04:37):
defining drive. But it wasn't the fact that they ran
to play. It was the timing of when he ended
up running the play again, but this time exact same look.
Franks gets under center and hard counts it and you know,
they repped it, you know, they drilled it, but it
was like it sometimes it's like we like the concept,
we liked the play. They hadn't seen this before, but
(05:00):
it's the time that you do it right. And they
had to pick up one yard to really force Buffalo's hand.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Felipe Franks gets under center, goes hardcount, they jump off
sides free first down right, And I said on the
air last night, I said, that was the perfect time
to run that variation of the play because they'd already
seen in the first half.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
They're thinking this is quarterback sneak. We already saw it.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
We got to jump the snap right and they get
the false start, which turns into three Buffalo timeouts afterwards,
which really hamstrung them. So that was kind of when
you mentioned play calling, there was a couple of times
arts that I said the same thing, like that was
a great call, That was a great call. That was
a great call. Had two weeks to prepare, but the
right time for some of these plays I thought was
(05:43):
perfect last night.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
Yeah, I thought that you guys are bang on, and
obviously guys have to impulment and implement the plan, right,
you got to go make plays, but you gotta have
a plan to start off with, and you guys are
dead on. I thought that both guys z Rob does
a great job on the offensive side and Brick did
a great job with the defense. And that was where
the real challenge was, what was Brick gonna do Jeff
(06:07):
Ulbrick our defensive coordinator, What was he going to do
with Josh Allen and the ability to as Shock talked
about last week, the second piece of the play, or
the second play within the play is what he's king at.
His ability at sixty five two and forty pounds to
pull the ball, run through arm tackles, break down your
pass rush, let you get in pass rush lanes and
(06:28):
pick a lane and go take off all those kind
of things. He had a twenty four yard run at
the end of the game. That upped his number a
little bit. I think he was held to five carries
for like eighteen eighteen yards in the game. I mean,
that's unbelievable. We played him four years or three years
ago in Buffalo. He had eighty two yards in two
touchdowns in that game to three picks in the game.
(06:49):
But he killed us running the football right and Buffalo
won the game. But the coordinator piece of it is
so dead on by both of you guys, and I
thought it was because we played with our personality. Jeff
Ulbrick wants to attack. We talked about it all through preseason.
We're gonna tack up the field. We're a gap attacking team.
(07:10):
That's who we're gonna be. We're gonna play some man
coverage in the secondary. We're gonna attack the quarterback. I
talked to him on Thursday of this last week. He goes, Hey,
this guy's gonna make some plays, but we're gonna attack him.
We're gonna make him make some plays. We're gonna get
after him. That's exactly what they did. And on the
offensive side of the football, Zach did the same thing.
(07:31):
On offense the final drive where you're trying to kill clock,
run the ball, Beajon's run for one hundred and seventy
yards in the game. What do you do your four
your first five plays are throw, You throw the football,
and because of your efficiency and not putting it on
the ground and throwing in completions, you're running the clock
and getting first downs. And you know, Sean mcdermot's over
there looking what the hell's going on? You know, I
(07:53):
thought that it was the personality. You guys talked about
the plays and the execution and the casiza, the x's
and o's. I'm just talking about playing with personality. Your
personality is to be aggressive on both sides of the ball.
And that they went and won. They went and took
the football game. Buffalo didn't make much of it. They
took the game away from Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
I was on the national call last night with Kevin Kugler,
and I was talking to Kevin during the break right
before that last Falcons offensive drive, and I'm looking up
at the clock and I'm looking at the score, and
I believe it was about six thirty seven, six forty
seven left on the clock. And I said to Kevin
in the break, I said, if Atlanta wants to become
a next level team, I said, they can go win
(08:34):
the game right here. I said, they could put together
a long drive and really handcuff Buffalo. And that's exactly
what they did. Is I look, fourteen plays sixty eight yards,
five minutes off of the clock, okay, which kind of
culminated in the play that I was talking about. Was
involved in that and what happens is like there are
think about the flip side of that. If that would
(08:55):
have been a three and out that took about a
minute and seven seconds off the clock. You give Josh
Allen the football back with call it five five and
a half minutes left, that's an eternity for them with
three timeouts a way, okay, there are so many things
that he can do in that amount of time with
them down by because they wouldn't have got the field goal, right,
they would only been down seven points at the time.
(09:16):
But that's the drive that you need. Like I said,
I mentioned it afterwards, like we always talk about being
situationally smart. Well, I'm not quite sure there was a
definition that one being a situation in the book, but
it's kind of one of those situations like, go out
and win a game, right, And that was, to me,
was a defining drive for them in this season because
the offense did what they had to do to make
(09:38):
it extremely difficult on the Buffalo Bills. And you mentioned
Josh Allen had a nice run there, kind of tried
to make it exciting, but then we ended up seeing
an interception and they end up getting the victory.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Well, and that's two games in a row rack that
they've done. Now you go back to the Washington game.
They had a fourteen play drive to eat up what's
seven and a half minutes off the clock against Washington
and pretty much killed the clock and you ran the
ball to all of the fourteen times. You flip the
script here. If you're Buffalo, you're thinking, okay, this is
they're going to try to run the football, but Jon's
killed us. We'll crowd the line of scrimmage and all
(10:08):
of a sudden, Bejon's catch it in the flat. Here's
Drake catching the football. Now it wasn't all clean. Let's
be real here, Michael throws a ball that he's got
to learn from that should have been picked off. Shaq
Thompson jumps a slant route down near the red zone
and he should steal it, and he's probably going to
be in a foot race to keep you out of
the end zone. So and I talked to Michael postgame.
(10:30):
I said, hey, you know, how'd you feel like you
You know how I feel like you played? And he said,
there were some things I left on the table, some
things I got to clean up. And so he's already
thinking about that. And you know, his quarterbacks were thinking
about the negative plays. We don't think about the positive plays.
So there's so many little things about it that make
you feel good that you got guys that understand, Hey,
(10:51):
this isn't the top of the mountain. I didn't play
anywhere near as good as I can, and yet you
win games. And how much fun we've all got a
chance to do this. Me probably less than you guys,
but to be able to enjoy a win and still
fix stuff. Yeah, right, and that's kind of fun.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Well, that's the good part about it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, one of the things that sticks out to me
and arts when you said personality. One thing set out
to me was the personality of the head coach. And
I think we got to go back to the beginning
of the ball game. You take the football to start
the ball game. Your personality is your head coach saying,
guess what, we ain't afraid of these dudes. We're gonna
go We're gonna dictate how this game starts, and we're
(11:29):
not gonna worry about the middle aid and all that
kind of stuff. We're gonna go take the football and
they do that, go right down to score three consecutive
opening drives for touchdowns at home is really big. So
I love the aggressive nature that Rod had to start
his ball game and his team failed off at and say, hey,
we had some things within our offense we knew we
(11:51):
felt good about, and we were gonna started with the
football in our hands.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Guys. We talked about this last week about coming into
the game, the challenge that was facing Atlanta Falcons with
Josh Shall, But guess what flip it around the challenge
facing the Buffalo Bills with Bjehon Robinson. Okay, can we
go ahead and just start saying right now that this
dude is a legitimate, if not front runner for the
m v P right now? I mean, this dude is special.
(12:16):
Many times do we say that, like last the best
player in the least league get period, better than that.
Last week.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
We did all the talking about Josh Allen, We talked
about James Cook, we talked about all the weapons on there,
our shit, hold on, hold on, Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Got some stuff. They gotta worry about. Two and I'll
be damn well. I mean, not only was it was
it Jon in the first half, but I mean Drake London.
I mean and Ria Raheem said it after the game.
He said, this dude is a dog and you watch
him when he gets like I've met. I was talking
to a colleague this morning, right, and I said, when
Drake London and Jon Robinson get going, I said, this
(12:57):
team is dangerous because everybody else just feed off their energy.
But specifically with Drake, like when he gets the football,
it's like he's got a little anger to right, Like thatsicality,
Like he's he uses his size. It is yeah, and
and and yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:14):
If you mess with one of his guys, he's the
first guy in you think, okay, here comes an offensive lineman,
me a defensive line. No, it's five fives right on
top of you.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I mean the maturation of him over the years, guys,
I mean with the catch that he makes on the
one yard line, gets wrapped up and takes the football
and just reaches it across the plane, like to get
the ball from you. Right, that's your little brother.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Now you can't.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
He's like you're draped on me. But look you see
this here, that's a touchdown right there. It just watching
his continued development. I'm sure he was frustrated early on
the season wasn't able to get in the end zone.
But Michael Pennix has found a way to say, this
guy gets open. I'm getting him the football, and I
feel like that energy that he brings arch makes everybody
(13:59):
else on this off its even more excited.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Couldn't gree with you more. I think that there's no
question that Drake has an energy around him that people
feed off of. He's got there's a there's an angry
is the right way to say. If he plays angry,
you know, and and he's angry at himself if he
doesn't make a play. But he's gonna get angry if
you you try to make a play, you know. And
I thought that, And we're gonna get some film breakdown
(14:23):
from Shock here on Atlanta Falcons dot com where he's
gonna go in depth on Drake and show you some
of the intricacies that Drake is gonna that break brings
to the table, and that's gonna be a lot of fun.
SHOT's going to really break some stuff down. So if
you want to tune into that, tune in, stay tuned
to Atlanta Falcons dot com and watch his breakdown of
some of the film. That's gonna be a lot of
fun to see. But you you've got some guys, you know,
(14:45):
we've got guys like that that are star players. You know,
when your star players are your glue guys. I mean, man,
you got something going on now, yeah, But Jehan Robinson
and Drake London are your star players if you put
stars on this team. And I'll fantasy has something to
do with that because I can get points. But for
a fans perspective in California or Toronto, Canada, wherever you are,
(15:08):
you're gonna look at Drake London and Jon Robinson. They're
your glue guys too. They keep the team together. You
it's the usually it's those worker be guys that kind
of glue the team together, your best players. That says
a lot to you. Go back to talk about you're
talking about Raheem and talking about the personality of the
coaches and all that kind of stuff. That's what culture is.
(15:28):
I think the fan has been beaten over the head
with the idea of culture. That's what it is is
when your best players are your glue guys. Yeah, I
mean that's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
What's what's what's crazy is the fact we sitting here
weekly and we are surprised by the things that number
seven does every week. Like every week you watched him,
You're like, man, that was crazy. I don't know how
he did that. And then the next week there's something different.
The amount of things that he adds to an offense,
(16:00):
to a team is quite unbelievable. And to have, I know,
z Robs one of the probably most excited guys every
night to go to bed, to wake up the next morning,
to be able to draw Stu up for this guy,
because it doesn't matter where you put him on. I
mean they threw the guy's speed out in the game
the other day, Like, come on, man, this man does everything,
not just a running back that we'll go out and
(16:21):
run an option around was like everybody else, right, this
guy runs the route tree. But also you throw them
the ball in the flat for two yards and I
literally saw him make six seven guys and miss within
a small window and pick up twelve yards. Like, come on, man,
this dude is is is different. And I with raw,
I mean, you put him next to anybody, I'm like,
(16:42):
I'm taking sem all day.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
Some of the numbers on Bejon are unbelievable. And I'm
gonna leave a couple to you. Yeah, I'm gonna say,
I'm gonna mention a couple, and I'll mention Drake and
Bejon because that's where we are. And then I'll let
you you talk about Bajon and where he is from
a from a historical standpoint, Jon and Drake one hundred
and fifty yards receiving hundred fifty yards rushing between with
both those two guys, that's only happened one other time
(17:04):
in team history. As it turns out, they were the
guys that last year, last year in team history. Last
night we celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of this football team.
That's been done by two other guys.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
It's the same two guys.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
They did it last right in January, right, so they've
done it twice in the same calendar year. But there's
some unbelievable numbers. Rack, I'll let you dive into them.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Guys. It's kind of funny because when you play in
the NFL, like, at the end of the day, Rahee
Morris is right, like, the only thing you're worried about
is getting a win, right, And so he's kind of
joked a couple of times, and he said stats are
for losers, right, So I guess you could just throw
me in the category that I'm a loser. But we're
in the media, so we talk about stats a little bit.
One thing I thought was interesting in the first half. Okay,
(17:47):
by the way, Atlanta Falcons three hundred and thirty five
yards in the first half, both most by any team
and a half the season, and most by the Falcons
in the first half since two thousand and nine. Okay,
let me just let me just talk about those numbers.
Though it was one hundred and sixty eight rushing in
one hundred and sixty seven passing. Okay, perfect balance. But
do you guys remember the very last play of the first.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Half what happened?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yes, he didn't get that was shot by how long
halfil technically one yard, So if Drake gets into the
end zone, their first half numbers would have been won
sixty eight one six, right, which is which is bizarre. Right,
Falcons not able to get the final touchdown as the
clock was expiring. But I think at that moment, you
just you gotta let Drake be Drake and just see
(18:29):
if he ends up beating she gets into the end zone.
There's a whole sheet here of stats. When it comes
to be John Robinson, I'm just gonna throw out two
of them. Two hundred and thirty eight yards from scrimmage,
career best, one hundred and seventy rushing and sixty eight receiving,
the most scrimmage yards by a running back on Monday
Night Football since nineteen eighty six. Joe Morris nineteen six.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
I played against je.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Just like I played against that dude. And then through
five weeks, through five games, first second player, excuse me
to reach four hundred and fifty rushing yards and three
hundred receiving yards in NFL history, joining Thurman Thomas.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Like, sometimes when you get into a category with certain
players and that's it, Like that's a pretty good company
to be sitting in. So it shows what he's been
able to do just early on this season, and there's
nothing to say that this is not going to continue.
You watch them each every week and it's like you
could throw the most athletic defensive lineman, the most athletic linebackers,
(19:29):
secondary players. He's a mismatch for everybody that he goes against.
And even the eighty one yard touchdown, I can't remember
who it was, Maybe it was Bishop or somebody had
him like and they were wrapped up around his waist
and then he just ran through it. And I'm sure
that he was laying on the turf saying like yo,
I had him, like, how did he not go down?
(19:50):
Because that's how he's different. Not only is he quick,
not only is he fast, but he is deceptively strong,
especially with the lower half.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Tried to say it. He is the matrix. And mister
Robinson miss Robins one other stat and I know the
stats is as Raheem says the losers, But Bracket, I've
got a million stats UND eight hundred and twenty two
scrimmage yards in the first five games. And you talk
about going back in history now since McCaffrey, it's the
(20:18):
most since uh McCaffrey, Christian McCaffrey in twenty nineteen. But
the only other guy on the list prior to that O. J.
Simpson in nineteen seventy three and seventy five. He did
it twice. Those are the only four guys, or the
only three guys that have had more yards from scrimmage
in the first five games in the John Robinson, it's
(20:38):
just amazing.
Speaker 1 (20:39):
You want to add one?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
I want to stat Yeah, I mean one, go ahead,
get you A man has surpassed four case scrimmage yards.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
How about that?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Tis the great William Andrews and thirty nine games, the
only time to do it, youngest to do it at
twenty three.
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Come on, man, we'll be played to the Auburn hammer too,
by the way.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, I mean it's.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
It's It's one of those situations where again I was
talking to Kevin Cougar before the game. He was like, yeah,
kind of give me a breakdown of Atlanta and I
was like, how much have you seen of John Robinson.
He's like, I've seen a little bit of him.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
I'm like, what did he say?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Get ready?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Belt?
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Right? So we talked a lot about the offense, but
the defense as well.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Four sacks and held bills to two of ten on
conversion down, so third and fourth down they hold the
Bills to two of ten. So the defense does their
job against one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in the
National Football League. And we talked this week, Fellas, one
of my keys to the game was the Falcons are
going to have to score because Buffalo came in averaging
(21:42):
over thirty points a game, thirty point six, it was
third best in the National Football League, and they scored
a season low twenty against the Patriots. They hold him
to fourteen, a team that had been lighting up the scoreboard.
So it kind of goes back to what you guys
were originally talking about with these coordinators putting together great
eight game plans coming off of bye week, but not
(22:02):
only that, the players executing. Every coach will tell you
you can put together the greatest game plan, but if
a player does not go out and execute it, if
your team, your unit does not go out and execute,
it doesn't matter how good the game plan was. So Fellas,
here's the thing. It was a great win, but you
we've all been there. You celebrated for what maybe twenty
(22:24):
four out maybe because as we're standing right now, the
players are already looking at San Francisco and guess what,
you get another prime time matchup to go out and
stack victory. So that's what it's all about, right, consistency,
stacking positive performances, and then you just never know how
the score is going to shake out in the end.
So Arch, let's switch gears. Let's talk about San Francisco
(22:45):
forty nine ers. As the Falcons are going to go
on the road, travel across the country. We already talked
about the schedule, right, They're gonna have to tune all
the noise out as far as thirteen straight weeks, gotta
go out west, gotta go overseas. Hey, that's the hand
your dealt. Now you just go to go out and execute.
Early reports are that George Kittle's gonna come back and
practice this week. Maybe Brock Purty's going to come back. However,
(23:06):
they also lose one of their all time greatest players,
all Pro player in the linebacker Fred Warner, goes out
for the season. Give the folks that are listening and
watching a little bit of flavor of what the forty
nine ers are this year at four and two.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
Well, and the first thing you got to know is
there's a lot of pride in that team. That team's
been in the mix late in seasons. I'm talking about
deep in playoff runs. Much like Buffalo. This is going
to be a team that's expecting to be in the
playoff run and they still do. They have been banged
up significantly last year. They had a lot of injuries.
Wide receiver corps was depleted. They are banged up again
(23:42):
this year in some places. But make no mistake, Robert
Sala their due defensive cord. It comes over after being
the head coach of the Jets. He's a guy that
kind of fashioned that defense and what it was he
and Demico Ryans and what they put together out there.
You can bet that they're going to come back. They
gave up thirty points to Tampa this weekend, and they
gave up arguably the run of the year. Baker Mayfield
(24:04):
pulls it down and makes some kind of weird run
because like your grandfather running with the ball and stuff,
and he's bouncing off people and he lays out and
dies for a first down. But that if there's another
guy that's in the MVP voting, that's the guy.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I mean, the Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
He's been phenomenal, but they ended up losing the football game.
It's the first game they've played where it hasn't been
a one score game. They played in five to one
what five to one score games up to this point,
and so they lose this when thirty to nineteen. Mac
Jones has played really well at quarterback that he'd been
undefeated in playing for back party. We know that Kyle
Shanahan's an outstanding game planner. You know they're going to
(24:41):
want to run the football and get back to kind
of some of what they are is running the ball.
I think they've gotten away from a little bit of that.
I think they've maybe gotten a little bit too pass happy.
I expect them to run a little bit, especially if
you look at what Buffalo was able to do on
the opening drive of the second half in this game.
I thought that, I said at halftime, Wes asked me
(25:02):
on the radio, says, what do you think? What do
you think we're going to see it? And I said,
Buffalo is going to get back the run game. Yeah,
they're going to start trying to pound cook. You can
bet that mccaffery's going to see a number of touches
in this game. They're going to try to hit. He's
their best football player. Get him the football. It'll be
interesting to see how they adjust defensively. Obviously Bosa's out,
he's out for the year, and now Warner's out for
the year. Those are two of their main stays on
(25:24):
the defensive side of the football. So you've got to
figure in, maybe not in Sala's head, but in Kyle
Shanahan said, we got to go score points. We need
to go put points on the board. I think they'll
be aggressive, but I think they will want to run
the football.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
A lot of familiarity from a staff perspective in this game. Obviously, Shanahan,
the head coach, has spent time with the Atlanta Falcons organization.
You mentioned sala Ulbrick was working for him at the Jets.
There's a lot of familiarity there. So these staves are
dj quite familiar with how each one wants to attack. Now,
everything changes week to week in the National Football League.
(25:56):
But not only that, You've got the other player though,
the one other that I would put in the right now,
in the same stratosphere. And this is no offense to
sa Kwan Barkley, because he's fantastic with Christian McCaffrey. I
think it is probably the one player in the NFL
and what he's done throughout the course of his career
that most closely emulates Bijon Robinson. And so you're gonna
have those two guys on the same field. They're electric
(26:19):
in the run game, they're electric in the past game,
and they're gonna get to go not necessarily head to head,
but they're gonna go against each other. This is still
shaping out to be an excellent matchup.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
It is. And you know, the one guy who Bijon
went and trained with this offseason was Christian McCaffrey. So
you know he recognized the ability and the value that
Christian McCaffrey has. And I'm sure the valgals will come
in with that same kind of mindset, coming in obviously
similar to what you did this week. And every week
there's a plan. Okay, here's their guy, here's what we
have to focus on. Last week it was Josh Allen.
(26:49):
They did a really good job of focusing on that.
This week will be Christian McCaffrey. For sure, you have
to come in with a plan for him. But give
this defense a lot of credit. I mean, we've talked
about it a lot. This defense five straight weeks holding
opponents under three hundred yards, hasn't allowed a two hundred
yard passer the season. This is a defense that wants
to get out of you. One thing that I enjoy
watching this pass ball game and the last few ball
(27:11):
games obviously, is the depth we have on the defense
side of the ball, which is gonna help you and
I love you. Look at a guy like the Alfer
last night who had to come in. Billy Bowmen was out,
so we had to play in the shlot last couple weeks.
He was out there on the perimeter holding it down
and not to call his name much. Having that kind
of depth you look up front, I mean the guys.
You just see waves of guys coming in playing. Obviously,
(27:33):
Ruke and Dorles are playing really good. We saw on
your mind to get a sack. You're talking about we
got fourteen sacks on the season. Twelve guys have at
least half a sack, a sack sack and a half.
A lot of guys flowing to the football. And that's
what we talked about againting the year, we said, do
we want one guy We want to Little Florida go
out here and have ten twelve sacks. We rather have
(27:53):
multiple guys. And I think it's a credit to what
you guys.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Just talked about.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
With what Brick is doing and guys flying to the football.
Everybody's happy for each other, and I think this bodes
well for going on the West Coast. And I remember
when I played you guys did the same thing. You
know exactly what I'm going to say. When you have
a short week like this, the game plan is a
little bit simpler because you want to go out and
(28:17):
you want to play fast, you want to put in
a whole bunch of different stuff. Then you're out there
thinking about it. I think they have a plan of, hey,
here's a lot of things that we do really well.
Let's make sure we're really good on these things. And yeah,
we have a couple of wrinkles here and there, and
make sure we know who they are. But for the
most part, when you have this short week, get your
body back right. You're gonna go to the West coast,
long flight. You got to make sure the small things,
(28:38):
the details are there for you. And this is gonna
be one of those kind of games where going on
the road, there are a lot of different distractions that
you can have and you can say, all right, here's
why you know this happened in this ballgame. Good teams
don't allow that. So I think this is a prime
example of another time where you get a chance to
show the country what you're all about on prime time
again and putting together consecutive good performances that people can say,
(28:59):
you know what they offer real.
Speaker 4 (29:01):
Yeah. One of the things that happens, and Shock makes
a really good point. Short week. What happens in those
bye weeks is, yes, you're doing self evaluation, self scout.
You hear that all the time. But what also happens
is there's a there's a portion of the building that
is a advanced scouting and they're preparing stuff for the
forty nine ers. So there was they've already been working
on San Francisco. So if you're at home saying, oh
(29:23):
my god, it's a short week and they're not going
to be ready, no, they've already had a group of
people working on getting the analytics and everything put together
for what the forty nine ers are going to look like.
So when they can present that to the players when
they come in tomorrow, you got we've all sat in
those meetings. They're ready to go, So it don't don't
feel like that that's not going to be the case.
I want to ask you guys a question. Okay, you're
(29:44):
three and two. There's been two really good performances here
back to back. We know we had a really poor
performance in week three. What do you want to see
as we emerge from this game? What would you like
to see the Falcons be better at or with in
this weekend against San Francisco? Where can they improve in
your mind?
Speaker 1 (30:04):
That's a great question because it's like we're I was
going to ask you guys keys, but this is a
little bit of a twist on that. Where do they improve?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
I think I.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Actually I think about last week and I think about
some areas where if they especially with McCaffrey, like this
defense and their ability to stuff the run. Because to
your point, like I think what San Francisco is going
to look at is that opening drive in the third
quarter and how they handed the ball off to James
Cook and for whatever reason, Buffalo went away from it.
(30:34):
And I think James Cook was upset about that by
the way I saw him on the sidelines a couple
of times but they're going to look at that and
they're going to say, gosh, there was quite a few
seams there, and we've got Christian McCaffrey, Like, let's make
sure we stay committed to the run game and see
if they've got it fixed. A lot of times in
the NFL when there are issues, people put things into
(30:55):
the game plan to see if they got to fix right,
Like it's still going to be a problem, or can
we take advantage of it? Can we exploit it?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Right?
Speaker 1 (31:04):
And you look up and the Falcons defense for the
most part statistically towards the top of the National Football League,
but there's always little areas that you can find tune
and the times that you see somebody in the run
game kind of gash because that drive guys, it was
like eight yards, twelve yards, nine yards, seven yards, eleven yards.
Like that gets a little worrisome because now they control
(31:26):
the pace of the game like they did in the
third quarter. Buffalo controlled the third quarter because of their
ability to run the football. So tighten up there, knowing
that the challenge is going to be just as difficult,
if not more, with the guy that they're gonna face
in Christian McCaffrey, What do you think For me?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
You know, my mind goes to as much as I
love Drake, getness catches, love seeing Bijon get it. Drake
was targeted sixteen times in a bulgate. He was the
only wide receiver they called a passing the bulgate. Cale
Pitts had three. Obviously Bijon has six. I believe it was.
You know, Casey had a couple targets. But I want
(32:04):
to see the other guys have production, see other guys
spread the wealth for sure, Like there's gonna be times
where yeah, becau ze, Rob does a great job of scheming.
You know, Drake open a bunch of times, but sixteen
targets to Drake, I mean we gotta spread. I want
to see more guys have an impact in his ball game.
And yeah, Bijon and Drake, no doubt about it. Get
(32:26):
them at targets. They got to touch the football. That's
that's a no brainer. But you can't go into every
ball game saying, okay, these are the only two guys
that are really gonna make an impact. Yeah, Kyle had
a couple catches here and there, but he could even
have more production and going forward.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
So for me.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
It points to, let's have a spreading of the wealth
like you just mentioned on the offensive side of the ball.
And if that helped, guess what, that opens up even
more things for this offense. That helps us even be
more explosive than it is now. And you know, obviously,
you know you don't have Mooney back yet, he's still
you know, going through the paces. You want to make
sure that you have an equal amount of guys who
(33:01):
can make some plays in this offense. And we've seen
it happen. But down the road you're gonna need more
guys to come along with you to make this office
even better.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Aren't you posed the question? Now you get to answer cubes.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
Think the same because that was exactly that. That's exactly
what I would have said, is, hey, we got to
have more than two guys make plays. And we did that.
You know, if you go back and look at it
at the game against Washington, you had four different guys
score touchdowns. So it's there. It's capability.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
And you got to learn as a quarterback if you're
Michael Pennix and you're the guy distributing the football and
even the play caller to a certain extent, even though
the play doesn't design Okay, you're gonna throw it to
him specifically, there's a read to it, but you do.
Rashak will tell you get a guy that's that's catching
it the way Drake is your naturally migrant to that guy.
To give him an opportunity. I'll pose mine more as
(33:52):
a concern. Jake Matthews left the game with an ankle injury.
Don't know the significance right now. The injury we'll find
out tomorrow from Raheem where recording Tuesday. As Shaq said,
Wednesday is the first injury report. Not sure whether Drake
or j will be able to go. He is at
Andy four consecutive starts, which is incredible to think. It
(34:14):
was an ankle injury that forced him out. Early on
in his career, he missed a game or two with
an ankle injury. So Michael Jarrell, who came in at
left tackle, was an option. He's a guy that Atlanta
traded for right at the beginning of right at the
beginning of the season. Wilkinson's done a good job of
filling in for McGary. I had the storm. Norton is close, guys,
He's the swing tackle. He's he's close to coming out
(34:36):
coming back. Here's one I'll pose to you. Jarrell played
right tackle in Seattle last year. He had to get
three starts ten games. He played three starts. Wilkinson started
at left tackle during the preseason. You also have a
guy playing left guard that played forty five games at
left tackle at Syracuse. So there's some interesting kind of
(35:00):
things that could develop there, and as well as Storm
Norton potentially being available for you this week. It's a
problem obviously. You don't like to lose those two edge
guys that protect, you know, protect the quarterback coming off
the edge and get that run game going. But that'll
be something Elf look or so that's a concern for me,
is what you look.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
For version news working together, man was was pretty good
in this Oh, no question, no question, I want to
break that.
Speaker 4 (35:25):
Well, yeah, you don't really want to mess with the
chemistry that the News already being messed with, right, true,
and so so that left side was pretty pretty fruitful
early on in the game with Jake and and Burge
coming off with with new Zel inside.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, I mean credit this this offensive line I think
has been doing a great job, not only with the
holes that they've been opening for Robinson, but also in
the past protection there was many a times that Michael
Pennix had plenty of time for these routes to develop
downfield without really feeling a ton of pressure and and
a lot of this offense that we talked about happens
because the offensive line is doing their job up front.
All right, guys, before we go, let's do we did.
(35:59):
We did kind of a concern that we were looking
to maybe get fixed. Let's talk about a key here.
I want you guys to all to give me one
key in this game that you're gonna think is vitally
important that Atlanta has to execute or something has to
happen shock in order for them to win this game
in the second primetime matchup back to back weeks. What
do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (36:17):
I think for me is continue to stay ahead of
the chains. That's something that obviously you were pretty good
on this ball game. You're about forty two percent on
third down this ballgame. But I think if you stay
ahead of the chains, it makes life for zob a
lot easier when you're in third, medium, third, and short,
whatever it may be, to have opportunities to do whatever
(36:37):
you want within his offense, and yeah, they converted a
couple of thirty longs in this ballgame, but I don't
think that's where you want to live, especially on the
road against a Robert Solid style defense, so you know,
wants to be attacking as well. But I think if
you stay ahead of the chains, run the football the
way you're supposed to, I think then your offense continues
to flourish. I'm not sure how you stop it or
(36:58):
slow it down. If they're clicking on all celers and
you loook up and hey, Michael Pennis can hand it
off on third and four or five, or you can
throw it. There's a lot of opportunity out there to win.
So stay ahead of the chains of this ball game.
I think you'd be just find especially come offensively.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
I love it. A huge proponent of that art. What
are you thinking, it's funny.
Speaker 4 (37:14):
I my first four years of school were in the
Bay Area, California, so I went to four hundred games,
Giant games, A's games, Raider games, and I remember one
of the things we used to do in the off
seat when we were going to games is my family
used to like it was back in the day, they
called them flea markets where you went and got stuff,
kind of giving stuff away. It was kind of stuff
(37:34):
for free or very minimal price stuff. Right, Let's not
make this a flea market for the forty nine ers
in that. Let's not give them stuff for free. Let's
make them earn stuff. We had some penalties in the
back end.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
You like that. It wasn't I didn't know where it
was going, but it makes sense like we had.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
I think we had three secondary penalties. And that's gonna
happen when you play man coverage and you got a
guy like Josh Allen that can float around. Now Brockbirdy plays.
Brock doesn't have the prowess from a physical standpoint to do,
but he does have the ability to buy time. Mac
Jones does not. He's going to try to, but he's
a little banged up. I don't know that he's gonna
be able to do that. Let's not give them any
(38:17):
free plays down the field. I think they extended what
two to three drives because the penalties on the back end.
They gaj had a couple and that's going to happen
in man coverage and the other side. Is probably a
follow up to what Shock says to stay ahead of
the chains. Got eliminate the pre snap penalties. He can't
have the unnecessary. We shouldn't have false start penalties in
our own building anyway. But you're probably you're going to
(38:39):
have a pretty good crowd out in San Francisco, Santa
Clara where the stadium is. Let's not give them anything free.
So no flea market is this week in California, No
flea marks.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
See how he brought that back, circle right back. I
mean that storytelling, guys. My key is actually a combination
of what you guys said. The two things that came
to my mind that I felt like Atlanta did pretty well.
And even though you did talk about penalties Atlanta, the
two areas were turnovers and penalties. Right, no turnovers, and
yes they had six penalties, but they went for thirty
five yards, right, and when you look up, that's not
(39:11):
that bad in the grand scheme of things. And one
of the things that I was talking about as a
key for Buffalo last week is they've been having penalty issues.
They their last two games they had eleven penalties apiece.
And you talk about fighting against the chains, think about
how many times Buffalo was fighting against the chains they
had so many third and long situations in that game
on Monday night. So I reverse it and I say,
(39:32):
for Atlanta, they don't turn the ball over and they
don't have a lot of penalties, and that's both sides
of the ball. That's not putting yourself in bad situations
and offense and giving away a lot of free first
downs on defense. This team is talented enough to be
able to beat anybody in the league when they don't
do those things. But when you have a lot of
penalties and you make things hard on yourself to get
(39:54):
off the field on defense, and you have third down
and twelve all the time because it's it's first and
fifteen or it's second and ten because of holding penalties.
Like I don't care who your play caller is, it
gets difficult, right, So turnover department and penalties, I think
that was those discipline in those two areas is going
to give them the best chance to have success on
(40:15):
both sides of the ball going out to the Bay Area.
Let it go all right. So that's it. That's your
initial areas of concern that we need to grow on.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And that's the game next week.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
And if you got some time and you you know,
go to the flea market. Don't let people nickel and diamond. Okay,
well give.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
Me a go to flea market and give me a
DJ Shockley babble. I got a battle head.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
If they do, it's real cheap. One of the first times, everybody,
just so you know, one of the first times that
I saw DJ get a little uncomfortable was last night.
I asked them what his government name. I said, like,
so I just started guessing stuff. I was like Donald James,
like Desmond Juniper. And he was very uncomfortable. Didn't like this.
So maybe next week maybe I'll get on the internet
(41:00):
webs and I'll figure out what this is. But he
was like, no, he's very adamant. Now my name is DJ.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Go Google nobody, Go Google nobody.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Well, we got a team of juniors, and he's a junior,
so we're.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Yeah, all right, remember to follow us all your podcast apps, YouTube,
Atlanta Falcons dot com. Dave Archer already gave you a
teaser that DJ has got some film breakdown coming on you. Right,
You've got some film breakdown, you know, an atam minimum.
Just continue to come check us out. But we got
(41:31):
podcasts for you all week long. With the Atlanta Falcons.
Check it out Monday, Wednesday Friday. All your Atlanta Falcons
fix on the podcast here, so make sure you follow
us on all your different podcast apps, YouTube, and of course,
Atlanta Falcons dot com is your answer for all the
Falcons material you could be looking for. That's gonna do
it here for the Falcons Audible presented by AT and T.
That's DJ Shockley, ak uh shock. That's Dave Archer a
(41:54):
k A ARCH. I'm Derek Rackley AKA.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
You know.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I just wanted to run throughs. You're a first time
viewer or listener. We sometimes show these nicknames on you
never know exactly who we're talking about. That's us, Thanks
so much to join us. Falcons is Audible presented by
AT and T. That'll wrap it up. We'll be back
next week to wrap up primetime matchup Sunday Night Football
Falcons at forty nine ers. Thanks so much for joining us.
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