Falcons SILENCE the Vikings! Bijan pops off in big win + we look ahead to Carolina | Falcons Audible
September 16, 2025 • 46 mins
Derek, Dave, and DJ unpack the Atlanta Falcons' 22-6 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football, from Bijan's incredible performance to the defensive dominance at the line of scrimmage. The guys then turn the page to Carolina and discuss how the Falcons can keep the momentum rolling into Week 3.
0:00 - Intro
1:00 - Combating Minnesota's noise
6:50 - Getting the run game going
11:35 - Bijan Robinson is SPECIAL
15:55 - Parker Romo goes 5/5
20:10 - Struggles in the red zone
24:50 - Defense & pass rush
32:30 - Rookies & Atlanta's secondary
38:49 - Turning the page to Carolina
45:00 - Outro
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've been told that we are the big boys in
the town.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
He's into he is like, I'm gonna start break.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
Guy can get chills a little bit thinking about what
these two guys do.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We are back on the Falcons Audible presented by AT
and T. You got the trio back with you got
DJ Shock. We've thrown up the doves. The doves and
Dave Archer here throwing up the skull champ from the
beginning again. May well, yeah, maybe Falcons said no, you
can go ahead and put that down. Twenty two to
six Atlanta Falcons victory over the Vikings on the road. Gentlemen,
(00:37):
we talked so much about this matchup last week, and Arch,
I'm going to start with you. You were in the building.
We knew one of the biggest challenges was going to
be the environment, and before we came on the air,
you said that place was rocking. And then we saw
early on in the game Falcons often struggled a little
bit against that noise factor, if you will. For the
people that weren't there, explain to him how really loud
(01:00):
it was and difficult to communicate it had to have
been for the players.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I've got some noise canceling headphones on so I can
do the broadcast. I was. I can hear the engineer,
I can hear West talking to me and stuff. I
could barely hear them, that's how loud it was. You
guys were in the building at Niland Stadium in Knoxville
this weekend. Anybody to watch that game if you missed it,
unbelievable environment, concredible, it had to have been similar to that.
But they do some really cool stuff pre game, much
like we do here at Mercedes Been Stadium. But they
(01:26):
have this fake snow that falls out of the sky
and they darken the building where it feels like you're
on a Scandinavian landscape, and they got Thor's hammer. It's
a really cool way to come in. And they got
this guy's voice that's like four octaves lower than anybody else.
That low.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, welcome in.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
He's introduce these guys in the place was completely going
berserk because obviously they'd won on the road in Monday night.
They had a young quarterback that they felt great about
in the fourth quarter. He was the NFC Player of
the week coming back and they had all this energy
and so it is filtering through these fans and the
way they introduced their team and the environment that was there,
(02:06):
and it certainly was on display in that opening drive rack.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah and Shock. He talked about us being at Nyland
Stadium and we were in a loud atmosphere as well.
But I think it's good for you guys to talk
about it, as quarterbacks that have had to navigate places
that are extremely loud create that home field advantage. Like
talk to the people about what it was like for
Michael Pennix as he's trying to get the play call
(02:31):
coming through his his headphones as helmet from Zach Robinson.
You could see him trying to cover the ear the
holes in his helmet to try to hear it, and
they were having struggles early on with that.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And here's the crazy thing about it is nowadays the
quarterbacks have things inside the ears that you know, covers
the ear hole so that you know, you don't get
as much noise in and to still be covering that
is crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
But I've been there before.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Arch.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I know you've been there before. I remember playing one
year at Lashoot and we're backed up maybe like a
ten to five yard line and watching Michael Pennox in
the huddle literally looks like he's yelling at his guys
and they're like two feet from his face.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I know what that feels like, and it's kind of.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
The worst feeling to be yelling so hard at guys
and they don't understand you, or maybe they don't hear you,
and they're leaning hard. You see guys leaving the huddle
still trying to ask again what they're saying. It's a
tough deal man, to have the crowd noise and then
you're trying to get a playout so that every person
could hear it, because you know, if one guy doesn't
hear it, one guy is off, or he doesn't understand,
(03:37):
or he hears he thinks he hears something else that
could ruin the entire place. So I totally understand what
Michael Penninks was going through early in that ball game,
trying to get the play call, trying to get the
right formation, maybe a emotion here, trying to make sure
he relays that to his teammates. That is a tough
deal in a road environment and the crowd knows it.
And you know, we've been in a bunch of stadiums
(03:59):
where they're really intelligent crowds in a lot of places. Yeah,
and they understand when the turn at octave up a
little bit. Yeah, And I know Minnesota was one of
those places that knew, okay, once that quarterback starts to
walk into the huddle, it's time to ramp it up.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
And you can see they did that.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yeah, It's one of those things guys where in shock
great way of describing guys that can't hear because you're
leaning in. Now you've got ten helmets that are trying
to lean in to hear what you're saying. And there'll
be times why did it takes along together huddle?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Why was it?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Why were we so on the You're having to tell
quadrants of the huddle what the play is. So you're
actually leaning in and maybe telling these three guys. Then
you got to go tell these four guys, and then
you got to tell these because they can't hear it
all together. You can't get in close enough. I thought
that that was part of what was going on. I've
experienced that in New Orleans because of that concrete roof.
(04:49):
One of the worst places I ever played from a
noise standpoint was in Seattle, and their Old Kingdom was
very similar with that concrete roof and everything was coming
back down. So it was similar to that. But the
problem is, if you're a young quarterback, you've been geared
during the week. Okay, if we see this look, we're
gonna get to this. And I didn't think Michael changed
(05:10):
gears and I can't do that at the lineup sprint
and maybe even to a certain extent, Zach Robinson getting
plays in, I've got to come with a more universal
play here that's gonna work against whatever they do from
a pressure look, or if I feel like they're gonna
play off in coverage, I've got to have a play
that services all of that. And I thought Zach made
(05:30):
some adjustments in his play calling that allowed Michael to
not have to do stuff in line of scrimms because
remember we had to burn a time out because it
got so close to the wire. Because Michael got to
the line of Scrimmy said wait a minute, we can't
run that against that. Yeah, so we're gonna change it.
And so I thought that the adjustment both quarterback wise
from an environment standpoint and the coach was a good adjustment.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, last thing, to Archer's point, they're talking about having
a uniform play. I may when I played for Greg
Nap recipes Greg Nap West Coast Guy the verb which
was really really long, so play calls were ten, twelve,
fifteen words long, and there were times where maybe you
didn't get it, maybe it didn't come in. And he
used to always tell us, you need to have two
(06:11):
default plays ready to go at all times, regardless of formation,
regardless of down distance. You need to have two default
plays whether it's a run or pass or whoever's in.
And I think that's part of the scenario too, But
you gotta it's tough to do. I mean, in that moment,
you ain't thinking about those defaut plays. You're trying to
make sure you get that play out. But Arts is
definitely right. Glad they tried to simplify things a little
(06:32):
bit as they went on because it's tough crowd.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
However, with all the stuff that we've talked about, Falcons
just five penalties for twenty nine yards and they won
the game right playing on the road, so they handled
it well. After a few speed bumps early on in
the game. And guys, since we're talking about the offense,
let's just go ahead and stay there. One of the
areas they struggled against Tampa was running the football, and
that had to be a focus coming out in this game.
(06:57):
And boy did they ever come out and make it
a farcus and win up front running the football arch
as a quarterback, how much of a luxury is it
when you turn around, hand the ball off the bijon
and it's seven twelve Tyler comes in six eight first down.
I mean they were ripping on all cylinders running the football.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
You see this big grin on. That's as a quarterback.
Best friend of a quarterback is running game. And we
didn't have that last week. And Penis, I thought, did
a great job of handling that and maybe having to
throw the ball maybe more than they wanted to forty
two times last week. This week he had the run
game going. We talked about last week on this show
(07:39):
how we knew having been in meeting rooms, how tight
knit an offensive line group is and how much they
take offence to not have played to their capabilities. This
is an offensive group that has been able to run
the football, regardless of who the offensive coordinators, They've been
able to run the football for the last several years. Here,
You've got arguably one of the three backs in the
(08:00):
National Football League and maybe the best backup running back
in the National Football League. We're going to run the
football and they got frankly, they got embarrassed a little
bit in how they handled the physical piece of the game.
Last week. We all knew and we said it on
the show that this group is going to play exponentially better,
and they took it to another level. When I said,
(08:23):
I asked Raheem after or I actually said it to
Raheem after in his interview after the game. When you
run the ball for one hundred and fifty yards in
this league, in the NFL, you've pushed people around physically.
When you run for over two hundred yards, you have
kicked their ass. Okay, sorry, I mean that's just you
don't do that to teams. You don't run for two
hundred Georgia running for two hundred yards and that's a
(08:47):
good day, yeah, But in the NFL, you don't do
that against a group like that against a Brian for
his defense, phenomenal performance.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, thirty nine carries two hundred and eighteen yards. This
is one of those performances.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
DJ.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
When you look at Michael Pennix and his numbers thirteen
to twenty one hundred and thirty five, no touchdowns, no picks,
and you're like, gosh, did he really play that? Well,
guess what, he didn't have to. So think about the
two games. The first game he had to throw it.
Running game wasn't working. They were behind. They had to
get back in the game by throwing it. This one
didn't have to because run game was not only there
(09:22):
from the jump, but it was there the entire game. Right,
So when you get run game in the NFL and
you get defense a lot of times, your quarterback doesn't
have to do a whole lot and Michael Pennix didn't
have to do a whole lot through the air because
things were so efficient running the football and just chewing
up big yards every single play.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
But how scary is that that the week before you
got it done in the pass game, and then week
two you turn on and run football. So now you
turn on the tape and you say, you know what,
these guys can beat us in any kind of way,
and it shows this team has the abillity, babe, get
it done in both ways. It wasn't like you had
to come out like our mentioning, hey guy, throw it
forty two more times. You got to find a way
(10:02):
to get it down the field, but you showed it.
And I love the fact that his offensive line took
it personal. I love the fact that Rahie Morris took
it personal that they wanted to run the football. And
you look all the way across the board. Tight ends,
saw receivers, saw Drake, saw saw all these guys on
the outsip blocking as well. You saw an old line
getting up to that second level, getting on backers, hat
on the hat. And then there were times where you
(10:23):
know what the vikings were there and on seven May dudes,
miss number seven turned a negative a one yard game
into eighteen yard run like and then you just couple
all that together. It just shows that this offense has
the capability to be really really special once it's all
put together. But also at any given time, you could
do whatever it needs to win. Go back to last
(10:44):
week and we were talking about it, and ours talked
to Michael Pennings about, you know, hey, did you think
coming to this game you had to throw it these
many eight times? And he said, all I care about
is winning. All I care about is whatever the game
calls for. I'm willing to do it. And what other
people failed to realize to or may I know, is
Michael Pennick is involved in a run game, and maybe
(11:04):
it's not him physically running the football, but it's maybe
him getting them into a better run. Maybe this player
is supposed to go outside zoone left, they bring the
safety down, he swapped it over the other side. Now
you pick up seven eight yards instead of as being
just a zero yard game. So there's so many things
that goes un in the line of the scrimmage of
him getting them into the right run that helps them
become a really good football team when it comes to
(11:26):
running the ball. So there are a lot of factors
that go into it as well. With the quarterback, even
though he's not quote unquote use his legs.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Arch You mentioned Bijon Robinson top three, and during the broadcast,
they played the interview of Saquon Barkley him talking about
Jon Robinson saying that he's basically the best cutter in
the National Football League, like nobody else can move and
Saquan saying, I feel like I'm pretty good. He's like
I can't do what he can do. In every single
(11:54):
week he's doing that he's making some people miss. So
whether you want to have the argument or not, but
it's probably Jon Saquon, Derrick Henry right now is probably
your top three in the National Football League. And you
could almost make an argument that John Robinson is number
one with what he has been doing, what he's shown
on display so far this year. John Robinson one hundred
(12:16):
and sixty eight total yards in the game. Minnesota Vikings
one hundred and ninety eight total yards in the game. Yeah,
John almost matched the entire offense from Minnesota.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Well, you know how I like to make movie references, please,
so we're gonna go ahead. We're gonna go ahead and
label him now. And it's been used in some places,
but I believe I'm now gonna call it. He's not
mister Anderson. He's mister Robinson, and he is the matrix.
He is now the matrix number saying you talk about
finding he made some his last I had a chance
(12:46):
to talk to bajon postgame and I said, dude, I've
never seen a guy make as many moves in a
phone booth the.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Way you do.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
And I said the last run of the game that
he had, I think before they brought Tyler in the
bowling ball of razor blades that just cut him up.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The rest of the way.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
He made three people miss in like a three yard
area and it was like a five yard game, but
it was boom jump here, bang bang, and you got guys.
You know it's a yard sale because guy's stuff is
just flying off of trying to keep and he gets
a feeling. He goes, well, he says, I watch I
like to watch Barry Sander. Yeah, that works, and that's
the guy. When you begin to think, you go back
(13:26):
and if you've never seen Barry Sanders, you know, where
have you been? But go look at some tape of
Barry Sanders and his ability to jump backwards sideways. I
would say Bjohn Robinson is the two point zero version
of Barry Sanders. And Barry Sanders a Hall of Famer
and it's just amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
So knock on.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Wood, let's keep gus, keep seving head healthy.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
One other things from that conversation with Arts that I
loved and I thought was like, like, bro, this can't
be real, Like why would you say this about a
dude or say this about a defensive player a period
arch ask him, you know about running and all this
kind of stuff, and what are you thinking about?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
He says.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
When it's him and a linebacker or whoever in the hole,
he wants to make that guy as uncomfortable as possible.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
What did you want to make that guy?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
And y'all are in the hole together, and he wants
to make that first guy as uncomfortable as possible. That
tells you the mindset he has, like, oh, this first one,
forget about. It ain't no chance. And you gotta love that.
You got a back who's like that. And we see
it time and time again, like you think you can't
get away from something, or the hole is not there,
or like in the phone booth and the dude comes
out the other end of it.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
And I mean the play where he thought he was.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Down, he rolls over, the guy keeps his balance and
then you know, two three guys jump on his back.
He still goes for another three four yards. I mean,
he's an unbelievable runner.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
For shure, take the pill. Yes, it's either the red
pill or the blue pillar.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
It's the nature.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm either going to embarrass you with my speed or
I'm gonna undress you with a move.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
He said.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
He wants to make people uncomfortable in the whole right.
That that just sells me number one, how much confidence
he has himself right, and then number two, the fact
that you compare him not only to Barry Sanders, but
that he can do that. It's one thing to say, like, oh,
I like to watch Barry Sanders film no offense to
Derrick Henry, But Derek Henry can't do what Barry Sanders did.
(15:24):
But John Robinson ken his feet and the way that
his body moves, in his body control is good enough
to do that. That's what's probably so impressive. There just
hasn't been people like Barry. There hasn't been people that
can duplicate it because.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It was that unique.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
I mean, come on tole and Thomas and Thomason had that.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Top end speed just go see you later. Go hey,
well give him credit. He picked some pretty good romans
if you will. Hey, can we give a little bit
of love to Parker Romeo As we were here last week?
I think he was one of many guys that was
getting worked out. He ends up getting signed, obviously, has
a good week. Organizations decides to go with him and
(16:06):
the game, and not only that, he gets five opportunities
nails all of them. As a former specialist, the one
thing that stuck out to me was how freaking high
he kicks the ball.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Goods Okay, the.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Very first one went over the upright and it was close,
but once it goes over the upright, it's not reviewable.
But the reason why I say that is when you
got a kicker that has distance but also height, you
don't think as much about the ball getting blocked because
he understands how to elevate the ball immediately right off
(16:38):
the ground. But not only that fellas it was the
fact that there had to have been some nerves. He
just got picked up because there was a shaky kicker situation.
He had played for Minnesota before he knew he knew
the circumstances, and he goes out there and he drills
five field goals. To me, that was an impressive performance
for a young man. And get gets one of the
(16:59):
game balls out after the game he's getting interviewed, kind
of a joke that he didn't even really know who
Leonard Floyd was. I thought it was great, but.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I don't know who who it is. I would do it,
but good call.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
But as a specialist, you told me we always talk
about the importance of three points Arch and it wasn't
just three, it was fifteen, and he hammered him.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
It was huge for the Falcons. It was huge to
be able to scratch for points. And we're going to
talk about red zone and all that kind of stuff
in a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
But when you're.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Unable to punch it in, I've got to get points.
I've got to make sure that we get points when
we have an opportunity. And that's frankly, what we had
not been doing. We can go back to some games
a year ago where you move the football and at
some point the other side is getting paid to they're
going to get some stops. We got to scratch for
points because a lot of these games come down to
(17:51):
one scores. We talked about what was it last week?
Twelve of the sixteen games were one score games. Wasn't
quite as many this year. This week I think it
was eight half the games maybe or one score games,
but that's generally how it is. I mean, Raheem Morris
has coached nineteen games now as an Atlanta Falcon head coach.
Thirteen of those have been one score games. We needed
to get points, and he pounded him through nicknames. Okay,
(18:14):
I didn't even know this, but I talked to Raheem
and his coaches show for the radio a few days
ago and or yesterday. We're recording this on Tuesday, and
he said that the nickname for Parker Romo the Undertaker,
the Undertaker, the Undertaker, the kicker he's that is through
dirt on the on the vikings. He had that on
(18:35):
the game, I guess, So, I don't know that came
up and came out of nowhere. He called him the Undertaker. Now,
I don't know if Raheem gets credit for that, and
that was like the initial foray on the under love it.
Five field goals is definitely throwing dirt on the other team.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, And so Raheem Morris was asked in his virtual
press conference yesterday about the kicker situation, and without being
overly committal, but he pretty much said ninety percent chance
he's going to be there and the performance that he had,
So this is just one of those scenarios. We talked
about it last week. There was an opportunity for a
new kicker. He came in and he sees the opportunity.
(19:10):
Don't know what's gonna happen at the kicker situation for
Atlanta moving out throughout the rest of the season. But
it's at least it's encouraging from what you saw from
week one to week two that Atlanta feels much more
comfortable now with that position.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
How locked in can you be to not know you
kicked a fifty four yarder? This is what he said
after the ballgame. They told him, oh, yeah, you had
this this and you know that's what it was, a
fifty four. He said, oh, it's fifty four. I didn't
even realize that.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
That's how locked in you got to be to know that.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I got one singular focus and it's putting it through
the uprights and a dude goes out and smash.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
It, So yeah, you're right. I mean, how much pressure
is it to go out there and kick for guys that.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
You not don't really know for real, Like you on
the team and all these dudes are depending on you
and you don't really know who they are, but you
come through. I guess what, they all know who pak
Aromo is. Yeah, that's a good deal, and.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
They like him a little bit more every time he
came off the sideline. Now, one thing I will say,
is Parker Romo gets opportunities, he kicks field goals. However,
that came at the expense of scoring touchdowns, so.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
You alluded to it. Arch.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Let's talk a little bit about red zone. You always
come in after a game, win or loss. How do
we get better? Well, one of those areas has to
be red zone. Right, Atlanta has struggled so far in
the red zone twenty eight point six percent in the
red zone through two games. Anything that you're noticing that's
sticking out or is this just literally lack of execution
(20:34):
in the red zone?
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Well, I think execution certainly will be at the tip
of the spear on this thing. But there are many
reasons why in watching the tape, for me is you've
missed some shots. I can go to one particular play
where you've got a very similar play that you hit
Kyle on in Washington on Sunday night on fourth down
(20:59):
to touchdown and said overtime, very similar play. He's got
Kyle right side and Kyle right Kyle is bending, he
bends the backer inside of a two deep look and
he's got a shot. Now there's it's a tight window throw,
not nearly as tight as the window as he hit
in Washington, but he's got it, didn't take it, okay,
So we're early in the year, you know, wraps and
(21:20):
those kind of things, the things you're looking. I thought
that he sped up his process on a couple outside
breaking routes. I thought that there was a lack of urgency.
And you know as well as I do, shock when
you get down there tighter. It's a tighter window type
scenario where my sense of urgency on the route has
to be at the highest possible level. And when I
(21:40):
say urgency, I can't kind of dead leg the guy
coming on. I got to get into my route and
get out of it because I'm not having a lot
of time back there to sort things out because confined
area from a yardage standpoint, so we have to be
really precise in the passing game. I thought Rey Ray
on a route on the right side on an outside
breaking route, had a chance, but it kind he kind
(22:03):
of got delayed out of his route. Timing was bad.
And then I thought Darnell Mooney was back on the
field for the first time since early in training camp. Darnell.
I saw Darnell bounding himself on the leg. I didn't
think he ran a very good route for him in
the left corner of the end zone. So you talk
about execution, Okay, there's execution from the quarterback. There's execution
up front and giving him time so he can stand
(22:23):
there not having a guy in his face, make a
clean throw, and then your route execution. So execution is
a great way to put it, yes, But I think
there's multiple pieces to it. It's not just the quarterback
the receiver. It's also the protection and those kind of things.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Shock as we know in the red zone, defensive backs
they don't have to continue to backpedal. They know that
they've got the back of the end zone, so they're
sitting more right. So to Arch's point, this is where
the ball. You got to cut it loose, you got
to trust it, and like as soon as somebody comes
out of a break, that ball's got to be coming
because you might be throwing it in between a backer
(22:58):
and right with a corner hanging right over the top.
And not only does it have to come out quick,
it's got to be on the front shoulder because otherwise
somebody's gonna rake it out. Things just get more precise
when you get in the red zone.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And it's a good point to what I mentioned how
things are so confined and then things got to be
so so on point and you have to trust it
more than anything. And the tough part about that is
if you trust it and you let it go and
the guy is little lax coming out of it, or
the dB beats him to a spot, it's a turnover
(23:31):
and it turns into you get no points. So as
a quarterback, your mind goes, all right, we already got points.
That's the first thing you know. You're taught as a quarterback.
Once you get in the red zone, guess what, Let's
make sure we get points here. And sometimes it's still
early in the season and you want to make sure
that everything is what it is. And it's tough to
say that, and it's a thin line because you want
(23:52):
to be able to anticipate and trust your guys and
know them. And you've done tons of red zone work
coming into this season and you're getting the ball game
and you're like, okay, but steal, I gotta make sure
that this guy's gonna be where he's supposed to be
and I can let it go there. So I think
if the season goes on you start to gain that
trust even more even though you have it with you guys,
(24:13):
But there's still a difference. When you get in the
ball game and you know you got points and you're
in a critical moment in the game and you don't
want to turn the football over.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
So I think that time will come where those little, small,
little new details on everybody's end will.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Just be like boom, let's rip it in. Though.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I like your comment, because you're right, at the end
of the day, it could have been a whole lot worse.
They did get points, they didn't turn the ball over,
it wasn't a fumble, there wasn't a pick in the
end zone, right, So sometimes you do have to take
the good out of it. But there's going to come
a point, not only one game, but multiple games this
season where they're going to need red zone touchdowns and
it's going to have to improve.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
All right, guys, let's flip it.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Over the other side of the ball.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Oh did we play defense in this Yeah, there was
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Of defense that happened, right, Fellas we talked a little
bit about pass rush.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
This offseason, didn't we about what we.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Talked about edge rushers this offseason, didn't we six sacks,
eleven quarterback hits, numerous guys getting in on the party. Now,
here's what I will say. Minnesota was a little banged
up on the offensive line, and they got more banged
up throughout the course of the game. Oh guess what,
it doesn't matter when that happens. That's when you feast
and you take advantage. And it was before Ryan Kelly
(25:25):
got hurt, and then it was after Ryan Kelly got hurt.
But it was almost a meet me at the quarterback
type day, right Arch, Yeah, feel what do we serve
brisket today?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
We gotta pull pork today. My guys are eating.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, my guys are coming. And I don't care how
you're serving it, whether it's the backup guys serving it,
the extra chef serving it, hut coming. I thought that
Jeff Olbrick did an outstanding job of telling these guys, hey,
you're first of all, not downplaying what they did the
week before. They won the top five teams in the league.
(25:57):
The week before against Baker Mayfield, got out and made
some plays, they won the game. Good on them, But
you're on the top five teams in the league and
pressure in the quarterback. He said, we're close, guys. Now
we need to finish. We need to finish. Okay, this
is what we need to do to finish. Let's keep
our rush integrity. Let's keep the quarterback himed in, but
let's get after him. I'm not turning things down because
(26:20):
the quarterback got out of the pocket a couple times
last week. We're still coming. Let's just make sure we were.
The thing that I want people to remember, and I
wrote down a couple of notes about it, is the
ability to remember. This is a young group. Okay, you've
got two edge guys that are rookies. You've got two
interior guys that played to combine ten games last year
(26:40):
in a roller row played eight, dor Less played two. Okay,
got a young group up there. You've got a bunch
of new guys that come in Divine Diablo. You've got
Leonard Floyd new guys. Okay, we got to learn how
to play together. Stunts where I'm running et stunts where
the tackle is going to go outside, try to pick
the their offensive tackle off and we're going to loop
(27:01):
back to the inside. That takes time to put all
that together at game speed, and so they're learning. Hey,
you know what, this is a fast learning group and
you put six You talked about edge guys. We Dorless
got Sacks, a Roller, Row was there on Yamata was
getting it. I mean there were a lot of guys
that were involved in this. And yes, our two young
(27:23):
edge guys got theirs, which is cool to get those guys.
I thought that Jalen's rush down in the red zone
was a key rush got you know, this is the
speed rush around. Got his dance on afterward, and and
guys Fee and guys feed off of it. Who feeds
off of it? The ballhawks in the back and I
know you want to get to those guys, but let's
talk about this just a pass rush. That's what kind
(27:45):
of struck me. Young group still learning a new system
and learning how to play together, and man, we saw
what it could look like when they get it.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Shock, Harrison, Dorless, Walker, Pierce, Floyd, Rower, Row, all of
them got into the mix.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So yeah, I mean certain times to certain players, right,
like Michael Parsons, Like maybe Michael Parsons gets two and
a half in one game. The encouraging thing is you
had multiple players getting to the quarterback, right, and if
this is one area that that Falcons needed to see
the most improvement, they saw in the second game. Now,
through two games this year, falcons seven sacks. Last year
(28:25):
through two games three sacks, already seeing the importance. Granted
a lot of them came in Week two, but still
very encouraging that it showed up.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
I think we've talked about this before is would you
rather have one guy with thirteen fourteen sacks or have
a collection of guys with six, seven, eight nine sacks?
And I think you saw in game two that's a possibility.
You saw guys winning one on one efforts. Jalen Walker rips,
climbs through, go gets the quarterback. How quickly he does
(28:53):
You gets that James Pierce Art just talked about et
stunt on both sides, wheels round from the middle, still
runs through the offensive lineman, bes got to the quarterback.
It comes durless. It's like feeding frenzy. They smell blood
in the word. They're going to get him float. They
just don't even block him. But he does such a
great job of JJ McCarthy thinks, oh maybe I can
throw that. He palls a little bit second and then
(29:14):
he goes and gets him. I mean, you got guys
who know how to get to the quarterback but also
know how to get the guy on the ground. And
we saw that, you know, in week one where the
pressure was there, and Baker's just one of those kind
of guys, very elusive, that can make guys miss McCarthy.
You saw him the week before. He was able to
get out and make plays with his legs and there
was nowhere for him to go. I thought the great
thing about the way they rushed, what Ars mentioned was
(29:37):
the discipline they had.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
They had. It was aggressive, but it was under control.
You can go back and watch the tape.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
There are four or five times where they get sacks
and the edge guys are at the level of the quarterback.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
They didn't go too far so that you go too far.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Okay, he can just climb with the pocket and go now,
but then you set the level of where the quarterback
is and then you get pushed from the inside. There's
nowhere for the quarterback to go. You saw that number
amount of times in this ball game where they were aggressive.
They were under control, but they also knew how to
have really good discipline in their rush lanes. And each
guy did not get out of it. And then the
(30:12):
other part about it is when you get to a
level and the guy does able to climb up. You
saw guys retracing their steps coming back down here and
go on to get the quarterback and he wasn't running
out of that. They were wanting to run him down
and like he when it happens comes in, a bunch
of the guys are excited and it was just great
to see those guys have that. And I think the
last part about it is you saw there were times
(30:32):
where you rush with four and it just wasn't anywhere
to go with the football. So you're talking about the
front end working with the back end, back in working
with the front end, and that's dangerous where you got
nowhere to go with the football as the quarterbacks seem
like they're like, oh where do I go now? And
you can't even hardly get out of the pocket either.
So it was a fun grip to watch, you know,
Sunday night, and it was good to see these guys
(30:53):
put it on tape and now these guys can just
build on that. And I think we talked about it
with some of the young guys of learning how to
play this game. And learn trying to learn how the
speed of it, what to use on certain guys. We
saw in preseason couple own we saw Jayla Walker kind
of get swallowed up at times in the preseason it
unless he gets swallowed and well, he is a quick learner.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And it's fun to watch all these guys.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Pierce's been that guy we've seen all camp edgy getting
out around the corner, having a speed. So it's gonna
be good to see these guys continue to grow as
pass rushing.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Now the cool part about it is, too, guys, is
the this is two weeks in a row. You've taken
a run game away from a team that wants to
run the ball. We knew Tampa came in it coming
in last week was what number four in the league.
You're going running the football. You took the run game
away from Now, we didn't finish the part of it.
You fix that this weekend. But Minnesota when they got
back into the game against Chicago, they got the run
(31:45):
game cranked up. Jordan Mason got cranked up in that
fourth cordner and started running it. JJ got out of
the pocket, made a couple of plays. You snuffed the
run game out he had no other thing to go to.
He had to throw the football and then Olbrooke was
able to We talked about this some of these coordinators,
Bulls and Flores who we faced early in the year
here in some of the exotics they can come with.
(32:07):
Jeff Oldbrooks got his little bag of tricks too, the
stuff he wants to come with, Divine Diablo coming through
the middle, you know, loop and pierce around, a lot
of stuff that they can come with. Billy Bowman coming
off the edge, there's some things that he can dial
up as well. So it's fun to see that they're
taking care of the first piece of it. Take the
run game away. That's gonna be critical this weekend against Carolina.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Twenty twenty five draft class on full display. Pierson Walker
with their first sacks, Billy Bowman Junior Xavier Watts with
their first interceptions. Dare I say Billy Bowman almost had
two of them. Almost had two guys in the offseason
We talked so much about these guys ball skills, right,
and Xavier Wats probably a little frustrated in the first
(32:47):
game he had a couple of opportunities, didn't make them. Well,
it was only the next week, Week two, both of
them get their hands on the football. Even more encouraging
as the pass rush comes up front arch the players
in the back are feasting on it and taking advantage.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Well, And don't think that those guys up front, knowing
that effort they're putting in is going.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
To pay off back there.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
They know that, Hey, if I can get there, get
in the face of the quarterback, my guys on the
back end are going to steal it. Really good job
by both those guys, the two young guys. I thought
Bowman's interception was incredible because he's in the hip pocket
outside breaking route. He's right there, you know, makes the play,
you know, kind of being jumbled around by the other player.
Almost came up with another one. As you said, I
(33:28):
thought he got beat on one play where they ran
an out route. The rest of the time he had
and you talk about learning and kind of Xavier Watts
I was a little too shallow last week and threw
it over the top of me.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Where was he this time?
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Yeah, he's behind the receiver. We know he's got receiver skills.
Played receiver's rookieyear or his freshman year at Notre Dame
twenty four current interceptions between those two guys, and they
already have they already have each have an interception in
two games.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
That bodes well.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, so very very encouraging, as not only the pass
rush was there, the secondary was there to make plays.
The last thing I want to talk about from last week, guys,
is the only somewhat unfortunate news is Ajterrell ended up
going down early reports our hamstring injury. Raheem Morris was
asked yesterday and his virtual press conference what the status is.
They say that we're going to continue this throughout the
(34:15):
day or throughout every day this week. So he's day
to day, So we're not gonna go ahead and guess
on what's going to happen with him. But this might
be an opportunity arts to talk a little bit about
the depth behind them if he is not able to
go this week against Carolyn.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah, you're looking at Natron Brooks. You're looking at d Offered,
who came in at corner. By the way, the first
play AJ was out, d makes a really good play
on a deep route. He was right in the hip pocket.
I don't know if it was justin Jefferson or who
it was, but he was writing his hip pocket and
incomplete play. So Dee immediately came in and paid dividends
and give Jeff Ulbrick, give Jerry Gray all the staff
(34:50):
on the defensive side for cross training those guys. Remember
Dee was working a ton at Nickel. In fact, as
you're starting Nickel a year ago, they shifted him the
last two weeks of training camp to playing school Civilly outside.
They had Mike Ford playing inside at the Nickel spot
with Billy Bowman, and they got decent a whole bunch
of reps at the corner spot. Here we are in
week two. Boom, He's in the game and immediately plays dividends.
(35:12):
But nature and Brooks has the ability to play play
there as well. Remember Clark Phillips is really close to
coming off being able to play. They've had to inactivate
him because of a rib injury. He's very close to
being ready to play. And then you've got a couple
of guys waiting in the wings in Kobe Bryant and CJ. Henderson,
guys that are on your practice squad. So you have
some depth there, albeit a couple guys or young guys,
(35:32):
but you've got guys that have played in the league.
You're talking about CJ. Henderson's played a ton if you
want to elevate him. Clark Phillips we know has started
and played and of course d offered the way he played.
So I think you got your You're okay.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
There, shock.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
This is the name of the game in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
These injuries.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I mean, just ask the Cincinnati Bengals, right, they're going
to lose their quarterback. I mean, these things happen, right, Okay,
But the whole mantra in the league is next man up. Right,
when you get your opportunity, it's time to take advantage
of it. Don't make excuses, go out there and make
plays and find a way to help your team win.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
So if AJ.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Terrell is not there, guys like the Offered and the
rest of that depth, it's their opportunity to go out
and make plays.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
No doubt about it. And that's why you go through
a training camp. You see what guys are capable of.
You go through a training camp and see, Okay, if
a guy is down, Kennis gotta feel the boy for us.
And I think we all saw Natron Brooks in preseason.
It felt really good about his level of play. We
know what the offer is about his ability to play
inside and outside. It gives you a lot of confidence
with this defense on the back end, and I think
(36:29):
when you get into the nuts and boats of it,
this is a really tight knit group of defensive back.
It was a very tough competition going through training camp.
So you know, to make this ball club, you had
to be on your game every single day. And I
think that's what players once you get to this level
understand is that once you get to a place in
this league where you make a ball club, there's probably
(36:50):
a really good chance that you're gonna play, especially in
the defensive back or because of just the nature of
the business. And now aj Terrell goes down, here's another
spot for another guy to step in. Talking about the
offer first play making a play coming in there, and
they don't expect a falloff. They expect you to step
in and continue that standard, which is playing really good football.
So I expect to whoever steps ten, whoever to play
in the back back there, to continue to play at
(37:13):
a high level.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
And that's why you're on this ball club for one,
because they feel though you can't.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Well and there's a conversation, Okay, does that change what
we do defensively? To my knowledge, guys, with jeff Olbrick
calling the shots defensively, I did not notice, and maybe
you guys did. I did not notice whether I didn't
see AJ traveling with Justin Jefferson, and that means he
goes wherever he went. AJ was playing his side, Hughes
(37:37):
was playing his side. That makes it easier to plug
in d offered or whoever's going to start. Potentially, if
AJ can't go, we don't even know if AG can
go or not. That's going to be a day to
day such your situation. But that even magnifies the fact. No,
we're going to do what we do defensively. We've got
guys we have confidence in. We saw Darryl Stingley, who
if you watch the game on Sunday night, Stingley was
(37:59):
following Mike Evans right. He followed him all over the field.
I haven't seen that in the first couple weeks of
the season with Oldbricks defense. I think he likes his
corner's day on either side. Now, it doesn't mean you
can't do that, but I'm just trying to emphasize the
fact that people sitting home well Yeah, it AJ goes
with the best receiver that they have. He has done
that before. Don't know that he's been doing it the
(38:20):
year time. Yeah, and it's not an every time thing.
So you can stay with your philosophy. How you want
to play defense?
Speaker 1 (38:25):
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doers get more done? Order select in stock items by
four pm subject to availability. All Right, so we will
metaphorically and actually turn the pay to next week as
the Atlanta Falcons get another divisional matchup. They got to
go on the road once again, but this time they're
gonna get the zh to two Carolina Panthers. Carolina has
(39:03):
lost to Jacksonville twenty six to ten and Arizona twenty
seven and twenty two. So ARX, let me throw this
straight back to you. You get right back into do
a divisional matchup you see in Tampa ends up winning again.
On Monday Night, Baker Mayfield shows what he does at
the end of games once again, So Tampa starts two
to zero. And this is kind of life in the
NFL and life in divisional plays. Sometimes it's keep up.
(39:26):
Sometimes you think about the next game is the most
important game, and guess what the next game for the
Falcons is a divisional game on the road.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
Really immediately got to shift gears. Talked about how young
this team is, rack and we've been around young players
that kind of get caught up in the previous performance.
And we got to shift gears that in the NFL,
you got to get on to the next week. I
think Raheem does a really good job of making sure
and I asked him about this is the focus got
to shift right now? Okay, hey, that was cool.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
We left that.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
We were now a few days of removed from that.
That's in the rear view mirror. We've got that in
the stockpile of wins. Now we need to go get
us another one. This is a divisional opponent. This is
an opponent that, quite frankly, if you're a defensive player,
embarrassed you in Week eighteen last year. You know that
they put up forty four points Beach in overtime, Bryce
(40:13):
Young looked like he had just transformed himself into Tom Brady,
throwing the ball over the yard three touchdowns, So you
got to get ready. They got a really good running
back in Chewba Hubbard. You got to control the run
game like you have in the first two weeks of
the season. So to your point, got immediately shift gears.
And we know how paramount it is to make sure
you win in division, and you've already lost one at
(40:35):
home in division. Need to go take one on the
road in division.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
And Shack you talked a lot about the pass rush
and how they were so disciplined against Minnesota, right the
guys on the outside getting upfield, but also retreating when
they feel like they're getting too far, and then still
getting that continued pressure up the middle. We know that
Bryce Young doesn't want to run with the football, but
he's got enough athleticism to extend plays. To me, it
(40:58):
seems like a very similar con except this week is
we got to cage him in just to make sure
that he doesn't slide up in the pocket and get outside,
because all he's trying to do is keep the play
alive to find an open receiver. He will run with
it a little bit, but that's not.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
What he wants to do.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
But it's got to be a very similar all four,
all five, all six, however you want to call it.
Pass rushers have to be disciplined in their attack to
make sure he stays inside you.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yeah, I think that's a good point because Bryan's young
is the type of quarterback that once he does escape,
he's looking to throw the football.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
He wants to throw the ball down the field.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
So it's one of those games where, yeah, once he
gets out, you got to think, oh, I still have
to plaster on the backside, but you still have to
rush with the same kind of ticket. I think playing
against the two guys you've played against in the first
two ball games, bowl well for you're heading into Week
three against Carolina and guarantee you he's gonna go back
and watch that game from last year and say, you know,
here was some things that we did really well that
(41:49):
they're gonna try to emulate coming into this ballgame. And
we talked about it earlier with Michael Pennix and having
a run game has been big. Well, he hasn't had
that tube Hubbers got ninety five yards on twenty six
cars in two ball games.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
They haven't ran the ball really well. Bright Younges the.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Next you know best next top guy with forty two
yards and you know in the last two ball games
he's got ninety pass attempts. In the last two ball games.
We talked about being able to first game, our compendons
had to throw it forty two times. In this game
he didn't have to. Well, Bright Youngs had to do that.
So when you come to this ball game, not saying Okay,
they're not gonna run it, because they're absolutely gonna try
(42:26):
to run the football.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
But if they can't, you know where they're gonna go.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
So I think this is another ball game where you
do what you've done the first two ballgames, which is
take away the run game be really you know, feelsical
in that part of it. But then also be aware
that you have a guy who wants to throw the
football down the field. He will take some chances, but
once he gets outside, he does want to create with
his arm, like you mentioned, more than his legs.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Fellas we finally hear as we kind of glimpsed last
week of you prepare for the opponent, but you handle
your business. So What I mean by that is, you
prepare for the Carolina Panthers. You look at tape, you
look at tenancies, you look at matchups that you can exploit.
But if Atlanta goes out and they execute by running
the football on offense like we saw against Minnesota, stopping
(43:08):
the run on defense like they did against Minnesota, taking
advantage of the pass rush when they opportunities present themselves
after you stop the run and they have to throw
the football how many times the first two games a lot?
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Then you do what you do and you come out
and you execute and win. Right, It's not so much
about them and what they're going to do and what
their personnel is. It's can you continue to execute the
game plan, running the football, stopping the run, getting after
the quarterback and pass rush.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Yeah, how much can you It's a great point rack
how much can you make it about you?
Speaker 3 (43:38):
You know?
Speaker 4 (43:39):
And if you can make it about you? And yes,
as you said, you prepare, watch tape, all those.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Kind of things.
Speaker 4 (43:44):
This is a team in the last two games you've
run for almost two hundred yards in game one. You're
one hundred and ninety eight yards in game one against
them in a win was it thirty eight to twenty
one in Carolina year ago and then in the last
week of the season for two hundred and twenty seven
yards and you lost that football game in overtime. So
(44:05):
you've had your way running the football.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Now.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
The one caveat to the A'll say is, as much
as we want to make it about us, Derek Brown's
going to be back on the field in the interior.
He is six foot five, three hundred and twenty pounds,
and he has been a guy that's a nightmare to block.
Atlanta struggled with him in the games he's played. Oh,
by the way, they've added in free agency Bobby Brown. No,
not the new kid on the block, but Bobby Brown.
(44:29):
He's six foot four, three hundred and thirty two pounds.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
In the year.
Speaker 4 (44:32):
Those are the two defensive tackles in the interior. So
it is going to be a physical all day fight
with those guys they've got. They've got eight different players
on their defensive side of the football that didn't play
last year. They went out in free agency. This is
a little bit different defense that we're going to see now.
They've had their moments here in the first couple weeks
of the season. But as much as you want to
(44:54):
make it about them or make it about you, you
better make sure that you have these guys block and
those whose interior guys, you're gonna be big.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Bobby Brown,
the R and B artist, Can you name me one
of his best songs that he ever had?
Speaker 4 (45:06):
It was the one from Ghostbusters.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
That's it, you know what, the first one that came
into my mind?
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Ron Ron Roney.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Didn't he do my prerogative? Yes, it's my prerogative. No,
I remember thetive.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Next we go have Arch due to day is to
wear pagatived. Yeah, I gotta go work right now.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
I don't think we could talk about football after we
just talked about Bobby Brown, my prerogative and watching Arch
put on the pants next week sequs and everything on it.
I mean that would make my year, all right, Okay,
all right? So Falcons even it up one in one
on the season after a victory against Minnesota Vikings. This week,
they're on the road once again to play the Carolina Panthers,
(45:53):
who are zero and two. Atlanta looking to get their
first Divisional win and improve their record to two and
one this year that's gonna do it. Here for the
Falcons Attible presented by AT and T. That's DJ Shockley,
that's Arch saying stop with all that skull stuff in Minnesota,
and I'm Derek Rackley.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
We'll see you next week. Thanks for joining us, everybody,
We've been told that we are the big boys in
the town.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
He's into he is like, I'm gonna start break.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
Guy can get chills a little bit thinking about what
these two guys do.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We are back on the Falcons Audible presented by AT
and T. You got the trio back with you got
DJ Shock. We've thrown up the doves. The doves and
Dave Archer here throwing up the skull champ from the
beginning again. May well, yeah, maybe Falcons said no, you
can go ahead and put that down. Twenty two to
six Atlanta Falcons victory over the Vikings on the road. Gentlemen,
(00:37):
we talked so much about this matchup last week, and Arch,
I'm going to start with you. You were in the building.
We knew one of the biggest challenges was going to
be the environment, and before we came on the air,
you said that place was rocking. And then we saw
early on in the game Falcons often struggled a little
bit against that noise factor, if you will. For the
people that weren't there, explain to him how really loud
(01:00):
it was and difficult to communicate it had to have
been for the players.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
I've got some noise canceling headphones on so I can
do the broadcast. I was. I can hear the engineer,
I can hear West talking to me and stuff. I
could barely hear them, that's how loud it was. You
guys were in the building at Niland Stadium in Knoxville
this weekend. Anybody to watch that game if you missed it,
unbelievable environment, concredible, it had to have been similar to that.
But they do some really cool stuff pre game, much
like we do here at Mercedes Been Stadium. But they
(01:26):
have this fake snow that falls out of the sky
and they darken the building where it feels like you're
on a Scandinavian landscape, and they got Thor's hammer. It's
a really cool way to come in. And they got
this guy's voice that's like four octaves lower than anybody else.
That low.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, welcome in.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
He's introduce these guys in the place was completely going
berserk because obviously they'd won on the road in Monday night.
They had a young quarterback that they felt great about
in the fourth quarter. He was the NFC Player of
the week coming back and they had all this energy
and so it is filtering through these fans and the
way they introduced their team and the environment that was there,
(02:06):
and it certainly was on display in that opening drive rack.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah and Shock. He talked about us being at Nyland
Stadium and we were in a loud atmosphere as well.
But I think it's good for you guys to talk
about it, as quarterbacks that have had to navigate places
that are extremely loud create that home field advantage. Like
talk to the people about what it was like for
Michael Pennix as he's trying to get the play call
(02:31):
coming through his his headphones as helmet from Zach Robinson.
You could see him trying to cover the ear the
holes in his helmet to try to hear it, and
they were having struggles early on with that.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And here's the crazy thing about it is nowadays the
quarterbacks have things inside the ears that you know, covers
the ear hole so that you know, you don't get
as much noise in and to still be covering that
is crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
But I've been there before.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Arch.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
I know you've been there before. I remember playing one
year at Lashoot and we're backed up maybe like a
ten to five yard line and watching Michael Pennox in
the huddle literally looks like he's yelling at his guys
and they're like two feet from his face.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I know what that feels like, and it's kind of.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
The worst feeling to be yelling so hard at guys
and they don't understand you, or maybe they don't hear you,
and they're leaning hard. You see guys leaving the huddle
still trying to ask again what they're saying. It's a
tough deal man, to have the crowd noise and then
you're trying to get a playout so that every person
could hear it, because you know, if one guy doesn't
hear it, one guy is off, or he doesn't understand,
(03:37):
or he hears he thinks he hears something else that
could ruin the entire place. So I totally understand what
Michael Penninks was going through early in that ball game,
trying to get the play call, trying to get the
right formation, maybe a emotion here, trying to make sure
he relays that to his teammates. That is a tough
deal in a road environment and the crowd knows it.
And you know, we've been in a bunch of stadiums
(03:59):
where they're really intelligent crowds in a lot of places. Yeah,
and they understand when the turn at octave up a
little bit. Yeah, And I know Minnesota was one of
those places that knew, okay, once that quarterback starts to
walk into the huddle, it's time to ramp it up.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
And you can see they did that.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yeah, It's one of those things guys where in shock
great way of describing guys that can't hear because you're
leaning in. Now you've got ten helmets that are trying
to lean in to hear what you're saying. And there'll
be times why did it takes along together huddle?
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Why was it?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Why were we so on the You're having to tell
quadrants of the huddle what the play is. So you're
actually leaning in and maybe telling these three guys. Then
you got to go tell these four guys, and then
you got to tell these because they can't hear it
all together. You can't get in close enough. I thought
that that was part of what was going on. I've
experienced that in New Orleans because of that concrete roof.
(04:49):
One of the worst places I ever played from a
noise standpoint was in Seattle, and their Old Kingdom was
very similar with that concrete roof and everything was coming
back down. So it was similar to that. But the
problem is, if you're a young quarterback, you've been geared
during the week. Okay, if we see this look, we're
gonna get to this. And I didn't think Michael changed
(05:10):
gears and I can't do that at the lineup sprint
and maybe even to a certain extent, Zach Robinson getting
plays in, I've got to come with a more universal
play here that's gonna work against whatever they do from
a pressure look, or if I feel like they're gonna
play off in coverage, I've got to have a play
that services all of that. And I thought Zach made
(05:30):
some adjustments in his play calling that allowed Michael to
not have to do stuff in line of scrimms because
remember we had to burn a time out because it
got so close to the wire. Because Michael got to
the line of Scrimmy said wait a minute, we can't
run that against that. Yeah, so we're gonna change it.
And so I thought that the adjustment both quarterback wise
from an environment standpoint and the coach was a good adjustment.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, last thing, to Archer's point, they're talking about having
a uniform play. I may when I played for Greg
Nap recipes Greg Nap West Coast Guy the verb which
was really really long, so play calls were ten, twelve,
fifteen words long, and there were times where maybe you
didn't get it, maybe it didn't come in. And he
used to always tell us, you need to have two
(06:11):
default plays ready to go at all times, regardless of formation,
regardless of down distance. You need to have two default
plays whether it's a run or pass or whoever's in.
And I think that's part of the scenario too, But
you gotta it's tough to do. I mean, in that moment,
you ain't thinking about those defaut plays. You're trying to
make sure you get that play out. But Arts is
definitely right. Glad they tried to simplify things a little
(06:32):
bit as they went on because it's tough crowd.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
However, with all the stuff that we've talked about, Falcons
just five penalties for twenty nine yards and they won
the game right playing on the road, so they handled
it well. After a few speed bumps early on in
the game. And guys, since we're talking about the offense,
let's just go ahead and stay there. One of the
areas they struggled against Tampa was running the football, and
that had to be a focus coming out in this game.
(06:57):
And boy did they ever come out and make it
a farcus and win up front running the football arch
as a quarterback, how much of a luxury is it
when you turn around, hand the ball off the bijon
and it's seven twelve Tyler comes in six eight first down.
I mean they were ripping on all cylinders running the football.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
You see this big grin on. That's as a quarterback.
Best friend of a quarterback is running game. And we
didn't have that last week. And Penis, I thought, did
a great job of handling that and maybe having to
throw the ball maybe more than they wanted to forty
two times last week. This week he had the run
game going. We talked about last week on this show
(07:39):
how we knew having been in meeting rooms, how tight
knit an offensive line group is and how much they
take offence to not have played to their capabilities. This
is an offensive group that has been able to run
the football, regardless of who the offensive coordinators, They've been
able to run the football for the last several years. Here,
You've got arguably one of the three backs in the
(08:00):
National Football League and maybe the best backup running back
in the National Football League. We're going to run the
football and they got frankly, they got embarrassed a little
bit in how they handled the physical piece of the game.
Last week. We all knew and we said it on
the show that this group is going to play exponentially better,
and they took it to another level. When I said,
(08:23):
I asked Raheem after or I actually said it to
Raheem after in his interview after the game. When you
run the ball for one hundred and fifty yards in
this league, in the NFL, you've pushed people around physically.
When you run for over two hundred yards, you have
kicked their ass. Okay, sorry, I mean that's just you
don't do that to teams. You don't run for two
hundred Georgia running for two hundred yards and that's a
(08:47):
good day, yeah, But in the NFL, you don't do
that against a group like that against a Brian for
his defense, phenomenal performance.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Yeah, thirty nine carries two hundred and eighteen yards. This
is one of those performances.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
DJ.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
When you look at Michael Pennix and his numbers thirteen
to twenty one hundred and thirty five, no touchdowns, no picks,
and you're like, gosh, did he really play that? Well,
guess what, he didn't have to. So think about the
two games. The first game he had to throw it.
Running game wasn't working. They were behind. They had to
get back in the game by throwing it. This one
didn't have to because run game was not only there
(09:22):
from the jump, but it was there the entire game. Right,
So when you get run game in the NFL and
you get defense a lot of times, your quarterback doesn't
have to do a whole lot and Michael Pennix didn't
have to do a whole lot through the air because
things were so efficient running the football and just chewing
up big yards every single play.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
But how scary is that that the week before you
got it done in the pass game, and then week
two you turn on and run football. So now you
turn on the tape and you say, you know what,
these guys can beat us in any kind of way,
and it shows this team has the abillity, babe, get
it done in both ways. It wasn't like you had
to come out like our mentioning, hey guy, throw it
forty two more times. You got to find a way
(10:02):
to get it down the field, but you showed it.
And I love the fact that his offensive line took
it personal. I love the fact that Rahie Morris took
it personal that they wanted to run the football. And
you look all the way across the board. Tight ends,
saw receivers, saw Drake, saw saw all these guys on
the outsip blocking as well. You saw an old line
getting up to that second level, getting on backers, hat
on the hat. And then there were times where you
(10:23):
know what the vikings were there and on seven May dudes,
miss number seven turned a negative a one yard game
into eighteen yard run like and then you just couple
all that together. It just shows that this offense has
the capability to be really really special once it's all
put together. But also at any given time, you could
do whatever it needs to win. Go back to last
(10:44):
week and we were talking about it, and ours talked
to Michael Pennings about, you know, hey, did you think
coming to this game you had to throw it these
many eight times? And he said, all I care about
is winning. All I care about is whatever the game
calls for. I'm willing to do it. And what other
people failed to realize to or may I know, is
Michael Pennick is involved in a run game, and maybe
(11:04):
it's not him physically running the football, but it's maybe
him getting them into a better run. Maybe this player
is supposed to go outside zoone left, they bring the
safety down, he swapped it over the other side. Now
you pick up seven eight yards instead of as being
just a zero yard game. So there's so many things
that goes un in the line of the scrimmage of
him getting them into the right run that helps them
become a really good football team when it comes to
(11:26):
running the ball. So there are a lot of factors
that go into it as well. With the quarterback, even
though he's not quote unquote use his legs.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Arch You mentioned Bijon Robinson top three, and during the broadcast,
they played the interview of Saquon Barkley him talking about
Jon Robinson saying that he's basically the best cutter in
the National Football League, like nobody else can move and
Saquan saying, I feel like I'm pretty good. He's like
I can't do what he can do. In every single
(11:54):
week he's doing that he's making some people miss. So
whether you want to have the argument or not, but
it's probably Jon Saquon, Derrick Henry right now is probably
your top three in the National Football League. And you
could almost make an argument that John Robinson is number
one with what he has been doing, what he's shown
on display so far this year. John Robinson one hundred
(12:16):
and sixty eight total yards in the game. Minnesota Vikings
one hundred and ninety eight total yards in the game. Yeah,
John almost matched the entire offense from Minnesota.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Well, you know how I like to make movie references, please,
so we're gonna go ahead. We're gonna go ahead and
label him now. And it's been used in some places,
but I believe I'm now gonna call it. He's not
mister Anderson. He's mister Robinson, and he is the matrix.
He is now the matrix number saying you talk about
finding he made some his last I had a chance
(12:46):
to talk to bajon postgame and I said, dude, I've
never seen a guy make as many moves in a
phone booth the.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Way you do.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
And I said the last run of the game that
he had, I think before they brought Tyler in the
bowling ball of razor blades that just cut him up.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
The rest of the way.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
He made three people miss in like a three yard
area and it was like a five yard game, but
it was boom jump here, bang bang, and you got guys.
You know it's a yard sale because guy's stuff is
just flying off of trying to keep and he gets
a feeling. He goes, well, he says, I watch I
like to watch Barry Sander. Yeah, that works, and that's
the guy. When you begin to think, you go back
(13:26):
and if you've never seen Barry Sanders, you know, where
have you been? But go look at some tape of
Barry Sanders and his ability to jump backwards sideways. I
would say Bjohn Robinson is the two point zero version
of Barry Sanders. And Barry Sanders a Hall of Famer
and it's just amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
So knock on.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
Wood, let's keep gus, keep seving head healthy.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
One other things from that conversation with Arts that I
loved and I thought was like, like, bro, this can't
be real, Like why would you say this about a
dude or say this about a defensive player a period
arch ask him, you know about running and all this
kind of stuff, and what are you thinking about?
Speaker 2 (14:08):
He says.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
When it's him and a linebacker or whoever in the hole,
he wants to make that guy as uncomfortable as possible.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
What did you want to make that guy?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
And y'all are in the hole together, and he wants
to make that first guy as uncomfortable as possible. That
tells you the mindset he has, like, oh, this first one,
forget about. It ain't no chance. And you gotta love that.
You got a back who's like that. And we see
it time and time again, like you think you can't
get away from something, or the hole is not there,
or like in the phone booth and the dude comes
out the other end of it.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
And I mean the play where he thought he was.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Down, he rolls over, the guy keeps his balance and
then you know, two three guys jump on his back.
He still goes for another three four yards. I mean,
he's an unbelievable runner.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
For shure, take the pill. Yes, it's either the red
pill or the blue pillar.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
It's the nature.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm either going to embarrass you with my speed or
I'm gonna undress you with a move.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
He said.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
He wants to make people uncomfortable in the whole right.
That that just sells me number one, how much confidence
he has himself right, and then number two, the fact
that you compare him not only to Barry Sanders, but
that he can do that. It's one thing to say, like, oh,
I like to watch Barry Sanders film no offense to
Derrick Henry, But Derek Henry can't do what Barry Sanders did.
(15:24):
But John Robinson ken his feet and the way that
his body moves, in his body control is good enough
to do that. That's what's probably so impressive. There just
hasn't been people like Barry. There hasn't been people that
can duplicate it because.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
It was that unique.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
I mean, come on tole and Thomas and Thomason had that.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Top end speed just go see you later. Go hey,
well give him credit. He picked some pretty good romans
if you will. Hey, can we give a little bit
of love to Parker Romeo As we were here last week?
I think he was one of many guys that was
getting worked out. He ends up getting signed, obviously, has
a good week. Organizations decides to go with him and
(16:06):
the game, and not only that, he gets five opportunities
nails all of them. As a former specialist, the one
thing that stuck out to me was how freaking high
he kicks the ball.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Goods Okay, the.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Very first one went over the upright and it was close,
but once it goes over the upright, it's not reviewable.
But the reason why I say that is when you
got a kicker that has distance but also height, you
don't think as much about the ball getting blocked because
he understands how to elevate the ball immediately right off
(16:38):
the ground. But not only that fellas it was the
fact that there had to have been some nerves. He
just got picked up because there was a shaky kicker situation.
He had played for Minnesota before he knew he knew
the circumstances, and he goes out there and he drills
five field goals. To me, that was an impressive performance
for a young man. And get gets one of the
(16:59):
game balls out after the game he's getting interviewed, kind
of a joke that he didn't even really know who
Leonard Floyd was. I thought it was great, but.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I don't know who who it is. I would do it,
but good call.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
But as a specialist, you told me we always talk
about the importance of three points Arch and it wasn't
just three, it was fifteen, and he hammered him.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
It was huge for the Falcons. It was huge to
be able to scratch for points. And we're going to
talk about red zone and all that kind of stuff
in a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
But when you're.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Unable to punch it in, I've got to get points.
I've got to make sure that we get points when
we have an opportunity. And that's frankly, what we had
not been doing. We can go back to some games
a year ago where you move the football and at
some point the other side is getting paid to they're
going to get some stops. We got to scratch for
points because a lot of these games come down to
(17:51):
one scores. We talked about what was it last week?
Twelve of the sixteen games were one score games. Wasn't
quite as many this year. This week I think it
was eight half the games maybe or one score games,
but that's generally how it is. I mean, Raheem Morris
has coached nineteen games now as an Atlanta Falcon head coach.
Thirteen of those have been one score games. We needed
to get points, and he pounded him through nicknames. Okay,
(18:14):
I didn't even know this, but I talked to Raheem
and his coaches show for the radio a few days
ago and or yesterday. We're recording this on Tuesday, and
he said that the nickname for Parker Romo the Undertaker,
the Undertaker, the Undertaker, the kicker he's that is through
dirt on the on the vikings. He had that on
(18:35):
the game, I guess, So, I don't know that came
up and came out of nowhere. He called him the Undertaker. Now,
I don't know if Raheem gets credit for that, and
that was like the initial foray on the under love it.
Five field goals is definitely throwing dirt on the other team.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Yeah, And so Raheem Morris was asked in his virtual
press conference yesterday about the kicker situation, and without being
overly committal, but he pretty much said ninety percent chance
he's going to be there and the performance that he had,
So this is just one of those scenarios. We talked
about it last week. There was an opportunity for a
new kicker. He came in and he sees the opportunity.
(19:10):
Don't know what's gonna happen at the kicker situation for
Atlanta moving out throughout the rest of the season. But
it's at least it's encouraging from what you saw from
week one to week two that Atlanta feels much more
comfortable now with that position.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
How locked in can you be to not know you
kicked a fifty four yarder? This is what he said
after the ballgame. They told him, oh, yeah, you had
this this and you know that's what it was, a
fifty four. He said, oh, it's fifty four. I didn't
even realize that.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
That's how locked in you got to be to know that.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I got one singular focus and it's putting it through
the uprights and a dude goes out and smash.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
It, So yeah, you're right. I mean, how much pressure
is it to go out there and kick for guys that.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
You not don't really know for real, Like you on
the team and all these dudes are depending on you
and you don't really know who they are, but you
come through. I guess what, they all know who pak
Aromo is. Yeah, that's a good deal, and.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
They like him a little bit more every time he
came off the sideline. Now, one thing I will say,
is Parker Romo gets opportunities, he kicks field goals. However,
that came at the expense of scoring touchdowns, so.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
You alluded to it. Arch.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Let's talk a little bit about red zone. You always
come in after a game, win or loss. How do
we get better? Well, one of those areas has to
be red zone. Right, Atlanta has struggled so far in
the red zone twenty eight point six percent in the
red zone through two games. Anything that you're noticing that's
sticking out or is this just literally lack of execution
(20:34):
in the red zone?
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Well, I think execution certainly will be at the tip
of the spear on this thing. But there are many
reasons why in watching the tape, for me is you've
missed some shots. I can go to one particular play
where you've got a very similar play that you hit
Kyle on in Washington on Sunday night on fourth down
(20:59):
to touchdown and said overtime, very similar play. He's got
Kyle right side and Kyle right Kyle is bending, he
bends the backer inside of a two deep look and
he's got a shot. Now there's it's a tight window throw,
not nearly as tight as the window as he hit
in Washington, but he's got it, didn't take it, okay,
So we're early in the year, you know, wraps and
(21:20):
those kind of things, the things you're looking. I thought
that he sped up his process on a couple outside
breaking routes. I thought that there was a lack of urgency.
And you know as well as I do, shock when
you get down there tighter. It's a tighter window type
scenario where my sense of urgency on the route has
to be at the highest possible level. And when I
(21:40):
say urgency, I can't kind of dead leg the guy
coming on. I got to get into my route and
get out of it because I'm not having a lot
of time back there to sort things out because confined
area from a yardage standpoint, so we have to be
really precise in the passing game. I thought Rey Ray
on a route on the right side on an outside
breaking route, had a chance, but it kind he kind
(22:03):
of got delayed out of his route. Timing was bad.
And then I thought Darnell Mooney was back on the
field for the first time since early in training camp. Darnell.
I saw Darnell bounding himself on the leg. I didn't
think he ran a very good route for him in
the left corner of the end zone. So you talk
about execution, Okay, there's execution from the quarterback. There's execution
up front and giving him time so he can stand
(22:23):
there not having a guy in his face, make a
clean throw, and then your route execution. So execution is
a great way to put it, yes, But I think
there's multiple pieces to it. It's not just the quarterback
the receiver. It's also the protection and those kind of things.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Shock as we know in the red zone, defensive backs
they don't have to continue to backpedal. They know that
they've got the back of the end zone, so they're
sitting more right. So to Arch's point, this is where
the ball. You got to cut it loose, you got
to trust it, and like as soon as somebody comes
out of a break, that ball's got to be coming
because you might be throwing it in between a backer
(22:58):
and right with a corner hanging right over the top.
And not only does it have to come out quick,
it's got to be on the front shoulder because otherwise
somebody's gonna rake it out. Things just get more precise
when you get in the red zone.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And it's a good point to what I mentioned how
things are so confined and then things got to be
so so on point and you have to trust it
more than anything. And the tough part about that is
if you trust it and you let it go and
the guy is little lax coming out of it, or
the dB beats him to a spot, it's a turnover
(23:31):
and it turns into you get no points. So as
a quarterback, your mind goes, all right, we already got points.
That's the first thing you know. You're taught as a quarterback.
Once you get in the red zone, guess what, Let's
make sure we get points here. And sometimes it's still
early in the season and you want to make sure
that everything is what it is. And it's tough to
say that, and it's a thin line because you want
(23:52):
to be able to anticipate and trust your guys and
know them. And you've done tons of red zone work
coming into this season and you're getting the ball game
and you're like, okay, but steal, I gotta make sure
that this guy's gonna be where he's supposed to be
and I can let it go there. So I think
if the season goes on you start to gain that
trust even more even though you have it with you guys,
(24:13):
But there's still a difference. When you get in the
ball game and you know you got points and you're
in a critical moment in the game and you don't
want to turn the football over.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
So I think that time will come where those little, small,
little new details on everybody's end will.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Just be like boom, let's rip it in. Though.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I like your comment, because you're right, at the end
of the day, it could have been a whole lot worse.
They did get points, they didn't turn the ball over,
it wasn't a fumble, there wasn't a pick in the
end zone, right, So sometimes you do have to take
the good out of it. But there's going to come
a point, not only one game, but multiple games this
season where they're going to need red zone touchdowns and
it's going to have to improve.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
All right, guys, let's flip it.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Over the other side of the ball.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Oh did we play defense in this Yeah, there was
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Of defense that happened, right, Fellas we talked a little
bit about pass rush.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
This offseason, didn't we about what we.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Talked about edge rushers this offseason, didn't we six sacks,
eleven quarterback hits, numerous guys getting in on the party. Now,
here's what I will say. Minnesota was a little banged
up on the offensive line, and they got more banged
up throughout the course of the game. Oh guess what,
it doesn't matter when that happens. That's when you feast
and you take advantage. And it was before Ryan Kelly
(25:25):
got hurt, and then it was after Ryan Kelly got hurt.
But it was almost a meet me at the quarterback
type day, right Arch, Yeah, feel what do we serve
brisket today?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
We gotta pull pork today. My guys are eating.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, my guys are coming. And I don't care how
you're serving it, whether it's the backup guys serving it,
the extra chef serving it, hut coming. I thought that
Jeff Olbrick did an outstanding job of telling these guys, hey,
you're first of all, not downplaying what they did the
week before. They won the top five teams in the league.
(25:57):
The week before against Baker Mayfield, got out and made
some plays, they won the game. Good on them, But
you're on the top five teams in the league and
pressure in the quarterback. He said, we're close, guys. Now
we need to finish. We need to finish. Okay, this
is what we need to do to finish. Let's keep
our rush integrity. Let's keep the quarterback himed in, but
let's get after him. I'm not turning things down because
(26:20):
the quarterback got out of the pocket a couple times
last week. We're still coming. Let's just make sure we were.
The thing that I want people to remember, and I
wrote down a couple of notes about it, is the
ability to remember. This is a young group. Okay, you've
got two edge guys that are rookies. You've got two
interior guys that played to combine ten games last year
(26:40):
in a roller row played eight, dor Less played two. Okay,
got a young group up there. You've got a bunch
of new guys that come in Divine Diablo. You've got
Leonard Floyd new guys. Okay, we got to learn how
to play together. Stunts where I'm running et stunts where
the tackle is going to go outside, try to pick
the their offensive tackle off and we're going to loop
(27:01):
back to the inside. That takes time to put all
that together at game speed, and so they're learning. Hey,
you know what, this is a fast learning group and
you put six You talked about edge guys. We Dorless
got Sacks, a Roller, Row was there on Yamata was
getting it. I mean there were a lot of guys
that were involved in this. And yes, our two young
(27:23):
edge guys got theirs, which is cool to get those guys.
I thought that Jalen's rush down in the red zone
was a key rush got you know, this is the
speed rush around. Got his dance on afterward, and and
guys Fee and guys feed off of it. Who feeds
off of it? The ballhawks in the back and I
know you want to get to those guys, but let's
talk about this just a pass rush. That's what kind
(27:45):
of struck me. Young group still learning a new system
and learning how to play together, and man, we saw
what it could look like when they get it.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Shock, Harrison, Dorless, Walker, Pierce, Floyd, Rower, Row, all of
them got into the mix.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Right.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So yeah, I mean certain times to certain players, right,
like Michael Parsons, Like maybe Michael Parsons gets two and
a half in one game. The encouraging thing is you
had multiple players getting to the quarterback, right, and if
this is one area that that Falcons needed to see
the most improvement, they saw in the second game. Now,
through two games this year, falcons seven sacks. Last year
(28:25):
through two games three sacks, already seeing the importance. Granted
a lot of them came in Week two, but still
very encouraging that it showed up.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
I think we've talked about this before is would you
rather have one guy with thirteen fourteen sacks or have
a collection of guys with six, seven, eight nine sacks?
And I think you saw in game two that's a possibility.
You saw guys winning one on one efforts. Jalen Walker rips,
climbs through, go gets the quarterback. How quickly he does
(28:53):
You gets that James Pierce Art just talked about et
stunt on both sides, wheels round from the middle, still
runs through the offensive lineman, bes got to the quarterback.
It comes durless. It's like feeding frenzy. They smell blood
in the word. They're going to get him float. They
just don't even block him. But he does such a
great job of JJ McCarthy thinks, oh maybe I can
throw that. He palls a little bit second and then
(29:14):
he goes and gets him. I mean, you got guys
who know how to get to the quarterback but also
know how to get the guy on the ground. And
we saw that, you know, in week one where the
pressure was there, and Baker's just one of those kind
of guys, very elusive, that can make guys miss McCarthy.
You saw him the week before. He was able to
get out and make plays with his legs and there
was nowhere for him to go. I thought the great
thing about the way they rushed, what Ars mentioned was
(29:37):
the discipline they had.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
They had. It was aggressive, but it was under control.
You can go back and watch the tape.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
There are four or five times where they get sacks
and the edge guys are at the level of the quarterback.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
They didn't go too far so that you go too far.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Okay, he can just climb with the pocket and go now,
but then you set the level of where the quarterback
is and then you get pushed from the inside. There's
nowhere for the quarterback to go. You saw that number
amount of times in this ball game where they were aggressive.
They were under control, but they also knew how to
have really good discipline in their rush lanes. And each
guy did not get out of it. And then the
(30:12):
other part about it is when you get to a
level and the guy does able to climb up. You
saw guys retracing their steps coming back down here and
go on to get the quarterback and he wasn't running
out of that. They were wanting to run him down
and like he when it happens comes in, a bunch
of the guys are excited and it was just great
to see those guys have that. And I think the
last part about it is you saw there were times
(30:32):
where you rush with four and it just wasn't anywhere
to go with the football. So you're talking about the
front end working with the back end, back in working
with the front end, and that's dangerous where you got
nowhere to go with the football as the quarterbacks seem
like they're like, oh where do I go now? And
you can't even hardly get out of the pocket either.
So it was a fun grip to watch, you know,
Sunday night, and it was good to see these guys
(30:53):
put it on tape and now these guys can just
build on that. And I think we talked about it
with some of the young guys of learning how to
play this game. And learn trying to learn how the
speed of it, what to use on certain guys. We
saw in preseason couple own we saw Jayla Walker kind
of get swallowed up at times in the preseason it
unless he gets swallowed and well, he is a quick learner.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
And it's fun to watch all these guys.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Pierce's been that guy we've seen all camp edgy getting
out around the corner, having a speed. So it's gonna
be good to see these guys continue to grow as
pass rushing.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
Now the cool part about it is, too, guys, is
the this is two weeks in a row. You've taken
a run game away from a team that wants to
run the ball. We knew Tampa came in it coming
in last week was what number four in the league.
You're going running the football. You took the run game
away from Now, we didn't finish the part of it.
You fix that this weekend. But Minnesota when they got
back into the game against Chicago, they got the run
(31:45):
game cranked up. Jordan Mason got cranked up in that
fourth cordner and started running it. JJ got out of
the pocket, made a couple of plays. You snuffed the
run game out he had no other thing to go to.
He had to throw the football and then Olbrooke was
able to We talked about this some of these coordinators,
Bulls and Flores who we faced early in the year
here in some of the exotics they can come with.
(32:07):
Jeff Oldbrooks got his little bag of tricks too, the
stuff he wants to come with, Divine Diablo coming through
the middle, you know, loop and pierce around, a lot
of stuff that they can come with. Billy Bowman coming
off the edge, there's some things that he can dial
up as well. So it's fun to see that they're
taking care of the first piece of it. Take the
run game away. That's gonna be critical this weekend against Carolina.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Twenty twenty five draft class on full display. Pierson Walker
with their first sacks, Billy Bowman Junior Xavier Watts with
their first interceptions. Dare I say Billy Bowman almost had
two of them. Almost had two guys in the offseason
We talked so much about these guys ball skills, right,
and Xavier Wats probably a little frustrated in the first
(32:47):
game he had a couple of opportunities, didn't make them. Well,
it was only the next week, Week two, both of
them get their hands on the football. Even more encouraging
as the pass rush comes up front arch the players
in the back are feasting on it and taking advantage.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
Well, And don't think that those guys up front, knowing
that effort they're putting in is going.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
To pay off back there.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
They know that, Hey, if I can get there, get
in the face of the quarterback, my guys on the
back end are going to steal it. Really good job
by both those guys, the two young guys. I thought
Bowman's interception was incredible because he's in the hip pocket
outside breaking route. He's right there, you know, makes the play,
you know, kind of being jumbled around by the other player.
Almost came up with another one. As you said, I
(33:28):
thought he got beat on one play where they ran
an out route. The rest of the time he had
and you talk about learning and kind of Xavier Watts
I was a little too shallow last week and threw
it over the top of me.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Where was he this time?
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Yeah, he's behind the receiver. We know he's got receiver skills.
Played receiver's rookieyear or his freshman year at Notre Dame
twenty four current interceptions between those two guys, and they
already have they already have each have an interception in
two games.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
That bodes well.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, so very very encouraging, as not only the pass
rush was there, the secondary was there to make plays.
The last thing I want to talk about from last week, guys,
is the only somewhat unfortunate news is Ajterrell ended up
going down early reports our hamstring injury. Raheem Morris was
asked yesterday and his virtual press conference what the status is.
They say that we're going to continue this throughout the
(34:15):
day or throughout every day this week. So he's day
to day, So we're not gonna go ahead and guess
on what's going to happen with him. But this might
be an opportunity arts to talk a little bit about
the depth behind them if he is not able to
go this week against Carolyn.
Speaker 4 (34:28):
Yeah, you're looking at Natron Brooks. You're looking at d Offered,
who came in at corner. By the way, the first
play AJ was out, d makes a really good play
on a deep route. He was right in the hip pocket.
I don't know if it was justin Jefferson or who
it was, but he was writing his hip pocket and
incomplete play. So Dee immediately came in and paid dividends
and give Jeff Ulbrick, give Jerry Gray all the staff
(34:50):
on the defensive side for cross training those guys. Remember
Dee was working a ton at Nickel. In fact, as
you're starting Nickel a year ago, they shifted him the
last two weeks of training camp to playing school Civilly outside.
They had Mike Ford playing inside at the Nickel spot
with Billy Bowman, and they got decent a whole bunch
of reps at the corner spot. Here we are in
week two. Boom, He's in the game and immediately plays dividends.
(35:12):
But nature and Brooks has the ability to play play
there as well. Remember Clark Phillips is really close to
coming off being able to play. They've had to inactivate
him because of a rib injury. He's very close to
being ready to play. And then you've got a couple
of guys waiting in the wings in Kobe Bryant and CJ. Henderson,
guys that are on your practice squad. So you have
some depth there, albeit a couple guys or young guys,
(35:32):
but you've got guys that have played in the league.
You're talking about CJ. Henderson's played a ton if you
want to elevate him. Clark Phillips we know has started
and played and of course d offered the way he played.
So I think you got your You're okay.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
There, shock.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
This is the name of the game in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
These injuries.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
I mean, just ask the Cincinnati Bengals, right, they're going
to lose their quarterback. I mean, these things happen, right, Okay,
But the whole mantra in the league is next man up. Right,
when you get your opportunity, it's time to take advantage
of it. Don't make excuses, go out there and make
plays and find a way to help your team win.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
So if AJ.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Terrell is not there, guys like the Offered and the
rest of that depth, it's their opportunity to go out
and make plays.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
No doubt about it. And that's why you go through
a training camp. You see what guys are capable of.
You go through a training camp and see, Okay, if
a guy is down, Kennis gotta feel the boy for us.
And I think we all saw Natron Brooks in preseason.
It felt really good about his level of play. We
know what the offer is about his ability to play
inside and outside. It gives you a lot of confidence
with this defense on the back end, and I think
(36:29):
when you get into the nuts and boats of it,
this is a really tight knit group of defensive back.
It was a very tough competition going through training camp.
So you know, to make this ball club, you had
to be on your game every single day. And I
think that's what players once you get to this level
understand is that once you get to a place in
this league where you make a ball club, there's probably
(36:50):
a really good chance that you're gonna play, especially in
the defensive back or because of just the nature of
the business. And now aj Terrell goes down, here's another
spot for another guy to step in. Talking about the
offer first play making a play coming in there, and
they don't expect a falloff. They expect you to step
in and continue that standard, which is playing really good football.
So I expect to whoever steps ten, whoever to play
in the back back there, to continue to play at
(37:13):
a high level.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
And that's why you're on this ball club for one,
because they feel though you can't.
Speaker 4 (37:17):
Well and there's a conversation, Okay, does that change what
we do defensively? To my knowledge, guys, with jeff Olbrick
calling the shots defensively, I did not notice, and maybe
you guys did. I did not notice whether I didn't
see AJ traveling with Justin Jefferson, and that means he
goes wherever he went. AJ was playing his side, Hughes
(37:37):
was playing his side. That makes it easier to plug
in d offered or whoever's going to start. Potentially, if
AJ can't go, we don't even know if AG can
go or not. That's going to be a day to
day such your situation. But that even magnifies the fact. No,
we're going to do what we do defensively. We've got
guys we have confidence in. We saw Darryl Stingley, who
if you watch the game on Sunday night, Stingley was
(37:59):
following Mike Evans right. He followed him all over the field.
I haven't seen that in the first couple weeks of
the season with Oldbricks defense. I think he likes his
corner's day on either side. Now, it doesn't mean you
can't do that, but I'm just trying to emphasize the
fact that people sitting home well Yeah, it AJ goes
with the best receiver that they have. He has done
that before. Don't know that he's been doing it the
(38:20):
year time. Yeah, and it's not an every time thing.
So you can stay with your philosophy. How you want
to play defense?
Speaker 1 (38:25):
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Speaker 4 (38:39):
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doers get more done? Order select in stock items by
four pm subject to availability. All Right, so we will
metaphorically and actually turn the pay to next week as
the Atlanta Falcons get another divisional matchup. They got to
go on the road once again, but this time they're
gonna get the zh to two Carolina Panthers. Carolina has
(39:03):
lost to Jacksonville twenty six to ten and Arizona twenty
seven and twenty two. So ARX, let me throw this
straight back to you. You get right back into do
a divisional matchup you see in Tampa ends up winning again.
On Monday Night, Baker Mayfield shows what he does at
the end of games once again, So Tampa starts two
to zero. And this is kind of life in the
NFL and life in divisional plays. Sometimes it's keep up.
(39:26):
Sometimes you think about the next game is the most
important game, and guess what the next game for the
Falcons is a divisional game on the road.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:33):
Really immediately got to shift gears. Talked about how young
this team is, rack and we've been around young players
that kind of get caught up in the previous performance.
And we got to shift gears that in the NFL,
you got to get on to the next week. I
think Raheem does a really good job of making sure
and I asked him about this is the focus got
to shift right now? Okay, hey, that was cool.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
We left that.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
We were now a few days of removed from that.
That's in the rear view mirror. We've got that in
the stockpile of wins. Now we need to go get
us another one. This is a divisional opponent. This is
an opponent that, quite frankly, if you're a defensive player,
embarrassed you in Week eighteen last year. You know that
they put up forty four points Beach in overtime, Bryce
(40:13):
Young looked like he had just transformed himself into Tom Brady,
throwing the ball over the yard three touchdowns, So you
got to get ready. They got a really good running
back in Chewba Hubbard. You got to control the run
game like you have in the first two weeks of
the season. So to your point, got immediately shift gears.
And we know how paramount it is to make sure
you win in division, and you've already lost one at
(40:35):
home in division. Need to go take one on the
road in division.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
And Shack you talked a lot about the pass rush
and how they were so disciplined against Minnesota, right the
guys on the outside getting upfield, but also retreating when
they feel like they're getting too far, and then still
getting that continued pressure up the middle. We know that
Bryce Young doesn't want to run with the football, but
he's got enough athleticism to extend plays. To me, it
(40:58):
seems like a very similar con except this week is
we got to cage him in just to make sure
that he doesn't slide up in the pocket and get outside,
because all he's trying to do is keep the play
alive to find an open receiver. He will run with
it a little bit, but that's not.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
What he wants to do.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
But it's got to be a very similar all four,
all five, all six, however you want to call it.
Pass rushers have to be disciplined in their attack to
make sure he stays inside you.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Yeah, I think that's a good point because Bryan's young
is the type of quarterback that once he does escape,
he's looking to throw the football.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
He wants to throw the ball down the field.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
So it's one of those games where, yeah, once he
gets out, you got to think, oh, I still have
to plaster on the backside, but you still have to
rush with the same kind of ticket. I think playing
against the two guys you've played against in the first
two ball games, bowl well for you're heading into Week
three against Carolina and guarantee you he's gonna go back
and watch that game from last year and say, you know,
here was some things that we did really well that
(41:49):
they're gonna try to emulate coming into this ballgame. And
we talked about it earlier with Michael Pennix and having
a run game has been big. Well, he hasn't had
that tube Hubbers got ninety five yards on twenty six
cars in two ball games.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
They haven't ran the ball really well. Bright Younges the.
Speaker 3 (42:05):
Next you know best next top guy with forty two
yards and you know in the last two ball games
he's got ninety pass attempts. In the last two ball games.
We talked about being able to first game, our compendons
had to throw it forty two times. In this game
he didn't have to. Well, Bright Youngs had to do that.
So when you come to this ball game, not saying Okay,
they're not gonna run it, because they're absolutely gonna try
(42:26):
to run the football.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
But if they can't, you know where they're gonna go.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
So I think this is another ball game where you
do what you've done the first two ballgames, which is
take away the run game be really you know, feelsical
in that part of it. But then also be aware
that you have a guy who wants to throw the
football down the field. He will take some chances, but
once he gets outside, he does want to create with
his arm, like you mentioned, more than his legs.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Fellas we finally hear as we kind of glimpsed last
week of you prepare for the opponent, but you handle
your business. So What I mean by that is, you
prepare for the Carolina Panthers. You look at tape, you
look at tenancies, you look at matchups that you can exploit.
But if Atlanta goes out and they execute by running
the football on offense like we saw against Minnesota, stopping
(43:08):
the run on defense like they did against Minnesota, taking
advantage of the pass rush when they opportunities present themselves
after you stop the run and they have to throw
the football how many times the first two games a lot?
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (43:21):
Then you do what you do and you come out
and you execute and win. Right, It's not so much
about them and what they're going to do and what
their personnel is. It's can you continue to execute the
game plan, running the football, stopping the run, getting after
the quarterback and pass rush.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
Yeah, how much can you It's a great point rack
how much can you make it about you?
Speaker 3 (43:38):
You know?
Speaker 4 (43:39):
And if you can make it about you? And yes,
as you said, you prepare, watch tape, all those.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Kind of things.
Speaker 4 (43:44):
This is a team in the last two games you've
run for almost two hundred yards in game one. You're
one hundred and ninety eight yards in game one against
them in a win was it thirty eight to twenty
one in Carolina year ago and then in the last
week of the season for two hundred and twenty seven
yards and you lost that football game in overtime. So
(44:05):
you've had your way running the football.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Now.
Speaker 4 (44:07):
The one caveat to the A'll say is, as much
as we want to make it about us, Derek Brown's
going to be back on the field in the interior.
He is six foot five, three hundred and twenty pounds,
and he has been a guy that's a nightmare to block.
Atlanta struggled with him in the games he's played. Oh,
by the way, they've added in free agency Bobby Brown. No,
not the new kid on the block, but Bobby Brown.
(44:29):
He's six foot four, three hundred and thirty two pounds.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
In the year.
Speaker 4 (44:32):
Those are the two defensive tackles in the interior. So
it is going to be a physical all day fight
with those guys they've got. They've got eight different players
on their defensive side of the football that didn't play
last year. They went out in free agency. This is
a little bit different defense that we're going to see now.
They've had their moments here in the first couple weeks
of the season. But as much as you want to
(44:54):
make it about them or make it about you, you
better make sure that you have these guys block and
those whose interior guys, you're gonna be big.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Bobby Brown,
the R and B artist, Can you name me one
of his best songs that he ever had?
Speaker 4 (45:06):
It was the one from Ghostbusters.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
That's it, you know what, the first one that came
into my mind?
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Ron Ron Roney.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Didn't he do my prerogative? Yes, it's my prerogative. No,
I remember thetive.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Next we go have Arch due to day is to
wear pagatived. Yeah, I gotta go work right now.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
I don't think we could talk about football after we
just talked about Bobby Brown, my prerogative and watching Arch
put on the pants next week sequs and everything on it.
I mean that would make my year, all right, Okay,
all right? So Falcons even it up one in one
on the season after a victory against Minnesota Vikings. This week,
they're on the road once again to play the Carolina Panthers,
(45:53):
who are zero and two. Atlanta looking to get their
first Divisional win and improve their record to two and
one this year that's gonna do it. Here for the
Falcons Attible presented by AT and T. That's DJ Shockley,
that's Arch saying stop with all that skull stuff in Minnesota,
and I'm Derek Rackley.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
We'll see you next week. Thanks for joining us, everybody,
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!