November 25, 2025 • 44 mins
Shock, Arch, and Rack are BACK for a WINNING edition of Falcons Audible. They break down how the Falcons snapped a 5-game losing streak on Sunday, which just so happened to be against the rival Saints. From the standouts on defense to Kirk Cousins' return, they get deep into the weeds on how the game unraveled. Finally, they turn the page to the New York Jets and what the Falcons need to do to keep the winning going.
0:00 - Intro
2:10 - Atmosphere & post game vibes
9:41 - Impressive outing on defense
13:16 - Divine Deablo's return
19:40 - Pass rush consistency
24:06 - Kirk Cousins & the offense
32:20 - Turning the page to NYJ
36:52 - Keys to the Game
42:53 - Outro
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fast, free delivery from the home Depot makes your projects
hassle free. Forget something you need, visit home depot dot
com or the home Depot app for free delivery on
millions of products, including same day and next day options.
Get delivery at the speed you need only at the
home Depot. How doers get more done? Order select in
(00:20):
stock items by four pm, subject to availability. We've been
told that we are.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
The big boys in town.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
He's into I'm talking about He is like, LI start great.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yeah, you guy can get chills a little bit thinking
about what these two guys can do.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Balcons Audible's back Ladies and gentlemen with the same trio
as always.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
That's DJ Shaker Dave Archer.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I'm Bear Crockey, presented by AT and P. And yes
we've been here the last five weeks after losses. So
today here here after a victory twenty four to ten
win on the road against the Saints, rivalry.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Goes in favor of the made It Back. I know
they were hot after taking that all.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Stuck out.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So it used to be when you in New Orleans.
They changed where the boxes and now you're like sitting
on the roof of the State but there was no
elevator that took you to that level, so you actually
had to get off the elevator like the beginning of
the three hundred level, if your merced has been stated,
and actually go up the stairs through the crowd to
(01:32):
get to the press box. Now they've since put in
a elevator. They found it was very counterproductive for the
other team's coaches to have to walk down through the crowd,
so they put an elevator. They extended the elevator up.
But yeah, there were a time. There was a time
like when we nailed them with a with a field
goal in overtime to win and we were able to
walk down through the crowd you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
That was good?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
You see you see what on the shirt rights a
little different body language after that, right exactly. So you know,
let's stay there arch. Let's talk about a little bit
of the atmosphere of the stadium. Not let's not get
to the locker room quite yet, but like atmosphere of
the stadium. How did you feel even had you had
a two and eight and a three and what's seven
team at the time?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Going at it, But sometimes the rivalries are just a
little bit different.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Well, unfortunately for these two fan bases. As you guys know,
these two teams have kind of been in this position
for almost their existence. There's been blips on the radar. Obviously,
Atlanta been to a couple of Super Bowls. New Orleans
has had a chance to break through and win a
Super Bowl, but that took a long time to happen, right,
And so there were a lot of years. In fact,
the years I was playing that the two teams were
(02:43):
kind of teetering on who was going to be in
the bottom and who wasn't, And so that in itself
generated an atmosphere between the two fan bases.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Plus it's so close.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
The place was inundated with Falcon fans. I mean I
was out on Canal Street and you guys know it.
You know, you go Canal about two blocks down and
there's burbustry, so it's all tied in there to get
there were Falcon fans everywhere, and I'm talking about walk
It was almost like they were taunting the Saint fans,
walking up down saying rise up and singing all this
stuff and walking around with all their stuff on. So
(03:16):
that was cool, and then that spilled over into the
stadium and you always get the I think these two
fan bases do a really good job of it being
one of the great robbery and I say great rivalries.
It is Atlanta won this weekend, as you guys know
that actually even the series in the regular season at
fifty six and fifty six. Wow, it was already tied
(03:39):
if you included the one postseason game, because Atlanta beat
him in a postseason game.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
But that's what a rivalry is.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I don't want to hear about.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Yeah, I don't want to hear about a rival Oh
you talk about these college football rivalries Oklahoma, Oklahoma State,
Welcaoma States, Olahoma State's went like for yeah, text record. Yeah.
I mean, so you got one that's got fourteen wins,
Yel's got one hundred.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I mean that's nottside.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, this one is truly that.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And you know, you when you begin to look at it,
I know the South knows more about this one than
than other places of the country do. I mean, Bears
Packers is a classic, you know, Eagles Giants classic, but
this one is a classic as well because there's been
some unbelievable plays. Some of it hasn't been for other
(04:28):
than hey, we're on top of you in the in
the division. But I thought that that atmosphere carried over again.
Now there's some pettiness in the in the crowd. They
will always throw out the twenty eight three things.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
They still did.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh yeah, the signs, Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
They had a picture of Matt Roman leaving the field.
This said the largest blown super Bowl. You know, as
long as they have a super Bowl championship and we don't,
that's gonna be a little stick in the side.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
They're going to continue to javis that.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
But I think in all actuality, there is a there's
a dislike this city was a bastion, a haven for
a number of people from New Orleans after Katrina that
came here and were welcomed into Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Effect.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
My next door, my neighbor across the street, unbelievably good dude, Cajun.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Guy, loves great cook all.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
But we get back and forth each other each each
each time we play one another. But I don't know
that I could defend the end about another guy that's
in my area like I could he. So I think
there's a there's a nastiness to it that's I think
on the level, but I think there's a there's a
respect level as well, so it's it was kind of cool,
but that that was kind of what permeated the building,
(05:37):
and you could see the air go out of there
balloon pretty quickly. Yeah, when Atlanta began to dominate.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
All right, we're gonna I'm gonna pivot here because I
want you to talk Arch about the feeling in the
locker room after the game. But I don't want this
to go thirty minutes before Shot gets to say something here,
because real quick, his feelings are hurt.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Okay, I'm cool.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I love hearing about it. I mean I asked Arch
about it. I literally just asked him how New orldans was.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Let's do this, Let's talk about the game, and then
once we finish up the game, then Arch can tell
us the mood in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
No, no, no, let's do locker room. Let's go I mean,
we can't go backwards. What happened in the locker room here.
It's a great locker room. No no, no, no, no.
You you do a great job at you want to
switch chairs? No, okay, this.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Is the only reason we're like this is because Shock
and I were on time.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And racks.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
So even though it's recording, you guys are picking this
up on a Wednesday or whatever it is on Tuesday,
and we had to.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Wait for our for the gate play six years here,
only been broadcasting for like five and I still can't
even get in the gate outside.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I'm sorry, who are you?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I have this parking pat.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Side.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
The player find schedule is still as it was, and
that's one hundred dollars a minute. That's seven hundred.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So anyway, real quickly.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Locker room.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
The locker not jubulant, no noose. The guys were happy
to win. I mean, five game losing streak, you kind
of scratch and you finally get a win.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I thought it was cool.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
The thing that I thought was probably the most overriding
thing in the locker room was the understanding that you
didn't have Drake London, you didn't have Michael pennockx junior
guys that are mainstays that have been part of this
team this season. You had other guys step in and
play extremely well. Whether it was David Sills Mooney makes
a play, you know, you got Kirk Cousins what he
(07:27):
did and how they how they played defensively, in as
a as a unit.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
So I think that there.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Was just a pride factor that they had put it together,
something that had been right on the right, on the
verge of doing for.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Four weeks in a row.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, and Art, you kind of mentioned something that that
triggered what I had talked about during the pregame show,
actually the two pregame shows this week, but one of
the things that I threw out as Okay, you mentioned
Falcons five game losing streak. Now, no Michael Pennix, no
Drake London, no Zach Harrison, no Billy Bowman, and all
I could think about was last year when Atlanta went
(08:00):
down to New Orleans, no Chris o Lave, no Rashid Shaheed,
Dennis Allen had just been fired, like all the reasons
why Atlanta should have stomped them, right, and the New
Orleans Saints won, right, So you could flip it almost
shocked that this was a somewhat similar situation. Obviously no
head coach being fired, but a lot of key contributors
that were not able to play. But they almost played
(08:22):
one of their better games that they played this entire season.
Did you kind of had that same sense as you
were watching this.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah you were. And I think at the end of
the day, when you're a professional and you got dudes
are out and not playing, the other team, don't care.
It don't matter. The game will still go on. And
guess what, they gonna still try to whoop you. They're
not gonna feel sorry that you don't have your best
guy and your quarterback just towards a cl okay about that.
They still want to whoop you. And I think you
(08:48):
go into this game saying, we can't use that as
an excuse. We've already had a number of things not
go away this season. We're all out of excuses, and
now we got to go win. They gotta go play
the ballgames. So I thought, yeah, everything says on paper,
maybe this team should have been a little down, should
have been a little bit sorry for herself. But when
(09:09):
you got a bunch of guys who are true professionals,
they're gonna keep grinding the finding a way. And as
we all know, each week, you work your tail off
to go win a ballgame, and it happens that Monday
you come back in after a ball game and you're
trying to figure out what went wrong. And this team
has done that for the last five weeks, and not
to say, you know, hey, those last five weeks they
didn't work hard. They did work hard, things just didn't
(09:32):
go your way. You come back this time, you get
an opportunity to go on the road to be the
division rival, and you do that in really great fashion,
and I was excited to see that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Fellas.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Generally, how we end up recapping these games, and I
don't know if it's just the nature of the beast.
I don't know if it's just human nature, but we
always end up starting with the offense. We talk about
how the quarterback played, and then how Jean Robinson played.
But again, I'm throwing a ranch in the game here, guys,
because I want to talk about how the defense played,
because there was three stops in this game that I
thought were truly impressive. Okay, they end up giving up
(10:06):
another big return on kickoff return.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
They start with.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Great field position, boom, lockdown, force them to a field
goal attempt that's missed. Then there's two other drives that
get deep down in the red zone and his defense
bows up arch. How about the response from the last
couple of weeks where this defense has been humbled a
little bit statistically, they were towards the top of the
league early on in the season. Then there was a
few bad games. You talk about what happened in Berlin
(10:32):
and obviously last week against Carolina, this defense seemed like
it played with a different attitude, especially on those three
drives getting those stops.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, red zone.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Stops were phenomenal over three for the Saints in the
red zone. And there was some things that happened, and
we can chop that up if you guys want to.
I thought that my key to the game, and it
might have been years two rat going into the game
was it landed given up twenty nine plays in their
last three games of fifteen yards or more. They had
played relatively good defensive football. I mean, look at the
(11:00):
sacks and the takeaways that they had done over the
last three weeks, and that continued in this game. That
you're like, you're talking about two more takeaways, five more sacks.
But what they did do is they eliminated the explosives.
Only four explosive plays.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
In this game.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Carolina was coming off a bye week, I'm sorry, Normans
was coming off a bye week, and their best game
explosive wise, was in Carolina two weeks ago where they
had seven plays of fifteen yards or more. So they
were coming in feeling pretty good about potentially with the
young quarterback and Shuck and maybe they'd found a little
bit of rhythm. Atlanta took all of that away. The
(11:37):
defense took all of that away, and in fact took
the run game away, and then put Shuck in a
pressure cooker, if you will, and began to kind of
melt the everything around him and get after him. But
in the red zone in particular, I thought there was
one play that I want to point to in the
red zone, and it might have been it was in
(11:58):
the second half, I believe. But they get down there
and Shock runs a quarterback suitep to the left side
and gets to the one yard it was on first down,
gets to the one yard line. To me, the arey
I'll talk about the missnap and the grounding, which was
a huge play. The play prior to that, it's second
in goal from the one foot line and they stone
(12:21):
them on that play, which forces Kellen Moore to go, Okay,
well we'll get the gadget guy in and we'll run
the shotgun quarterback, you know, lead play, and then the
guy snaps it over his head. But that's the key.
Make him play. How many plays can you make him play?
Can you make him force them into a mistake? And
they had almost snapped it over his head earlier in
(12:42):
the game. But the play to me was the second
in one play. The score is I believe it's sixteen
to seven at the time, so we're late in the
football game. Sixteen to seven a time. If they score now,
it's a two point game, right, and you keep them.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Out of the end zone.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
But I thought that second in a foot to score
was a really telling play to kind of overrode and
kind of gave you a story of what this defense was.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
The whole night.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
You talked about the pass rush in this game, five sacks,
six tackles for loss, just ten points allowed, and shock,
I want to turn to you because we talked once
Divine Dioblo got hurt. We talked about how I guess
different the defense was gonna look because of what he
brings to the table, right, And then I don't know
(13:28):
about you, guys, but like all of a sudden, you see, well,
he's gonna be back at practice, and then he practices
all week and then he gets activated and he has
no injury designation. And then I had seen earlier that
he had, you know, a big rap on his arm
and stuff. So he ends up missing a few games.
And we showed a full screen stat of comparison from
(13:49):
the first seven weeks to when he was out, and
the defensive numbers were dramatically worse when he came out
of the game. Now, you could contribute a lot of
factors to that. You can contribute a little bit of
the fact that he wasn't there. But watching the game, shock,
what did you feel like Diablo's presence back to the
defense meant to them?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
It's one word of physicality, and you look at the
way he plays, the way he fills gaps, the way
he can You know, there are times where we always
talking about old lineman got to get up to the
second level. They got better to get to that linebacker.
There are a lot of times those linemen cannot get
to him because he can diagnose things so fast, and
then he has the speed to go through it. You
talk about a guy who plays safety, now he plays linebacker.
(14:29):
So he has the speed, has the eyes as a
vision to go see things, and then when he's there,
the dude ain't going nowhere. The dude is shout out
of a cannon. And I mean the dude almost had
an interception with the big but the big club on
his hand, the old Pat Willers club in his hand.
But he is definitely a different style of player for
this defense. And you know, Obra kN Raheim knew from
(14:51):
day one this was the style of linebacker they wanted.
And he fits that molde and you add him with
ka Nelli's baby to move him around. But there are
just times where he's just unblockable. There are times where
he can see things and he will go and he
will go make the play, and you know he'll cover
some things up for you that maybe, oh if he's
not there, that's probably maybe an eight, nine ten yard
(15:14):
run and he turns it into maybe a one or
two yard game. But I just believe his physicality, his
presence on the field brings a lot to this defense.
And of course you gotta have the big boys up front.
You gotta give those guys a lot of credit, especially
those first and second year guys who are aggressive. They
were disruptive, they you know, they make things a lot harder.
(15:35):
I mean, there was one particular play. Give Old Brick
a lot of credit for the way he schemes things
up too. There are a lot of times where he
will put a guy like Kayen Nellis on on aline screen,
like James Pearce sack. You put kay Ellis on the line,
you think he's gonna blitch. You got Jayleen Walker sitting
right in the middle as that middle linebacker, and you
(15:56):
got a guy sitting right over the nose, and Jaylen
Walker's right behind him. On the snap of the football,
the guy who is the nose, he gets taken away,
but then Jama Walker comes. But then here's him coming
from the middle with the pressure. And then the guy
to tackle thinks Kate Nillis is coming off the edge.
He fakes and by the time he looks up, oh,
(16:16):
now James Spears has a one on one. He's split
the defenders. You got him come in the middle, You
got pierced other side the disguise that thought was pretty cool.
You had Diablow on the other side thinking he was
gonna blitz. Both those guys bail and you only end
up with a four man pressure, but it looks like
it's six guys coming. So give Old Brick a lot
of credit for a give those guys a lot of
credit to for making it look like some pre snap
(16:37):
and giving the young rookie something else to see post
snap and baby get home. But back to your point,
Dia Blow definitely is a guy that his presence alone
on the field, his athleticism, his physicality brings a different breed,
gotta be honest to that defense and is a big
reason why they have a lot of success when he's
on the field.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, I mean to me, he just he sets a
different tone and what he brings to the table with
his athleticism and the physicality, it is truly impressive.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
It's funny. It's a great mention by both of you guys.
And we talked so often about a backup quarterback comes
in and they said, oh, well, maybe you can give
him a spark, maybe he can spark.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Something on the offense side.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
I don't think there's any question that Diablo sparked the defense.
The guys up front have been rushing and I think
they're doing a better job of creating problems with just four.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
As you were talking about shock.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
All the bluffs, the speed, the athleticism around the line
of scrimmage and then all of a suddenly four come
and now you're still getting to the quarterback, and now
you can get seven back in coverage. Diablo gives you
that ability to do some things that maybe kayen Ellis
was having to do to cover up. And then he
had Ronnie Harrison having to do some JD. Birtraands having
to do something. It's all encompassed in one guy, and
(17:53):
so I thought that there was a spark there. I've
talked to him after the game. He had a grin.
Basically talk to him after the game and I said,
I knew you were going to catch the ball with
that man from your club on, but but he he
really enjoyed being back.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
On the field with his teammates.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, obviously they I think everybody was happy to have
him back out there, and probably a sense of relief
seeing number zero out there.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I do want to talk go ahead real quickly.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Defensively, I don't know if you want to shift gears
to from a defense here, don't you know?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And you're the host of the show screen.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
No, but I wanted I wanted to accentuate a player
that I think took a little bit of heat a
year ago and has played everywhere for Atlanta on defense,
de Offered has had to play both corners. Both corners
have been out at some point. Aj has been out,
Hughes has been out. He said, to play both corners
that discipline in itself, to be able to play the
(18:50):
wide side corner of the boundary corner is difficult. But
he also plays what you could argue is the most
difficult position to play in football now, and that's the
nickel spot. The two way go, the ability to fit
against the run, to understand blitz concepts, to read offensive
lineman and what they're doing reading tight ends, release. There's
(19:11):
so much that he had ten tackles in the game,
he had our fumble recovery, and remember Billy Bowman up
to Friday was going to start at the nickel spot.
So you talk about a guy that was ready to
play when they called him.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
De offer deserves a ton of credit for how he played.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Early on the game. He just seemed like he was
making every play and you mentioned the ten tackles that
led the team. So between that between Diablo and then
let's give like one thing that we were talking about
on the offensive side of the ball throughout the course
of the season really has been inconsistencies. And then we
talk about the defense and what was the biggest thing
(19:49):
that needed to get better this year was pass rush, Right,
that's the part that last year, the last few years
has been inconsistent. Well, now you could almost say that
the pass rush and has been consistent.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So, Arch, we saw Jaylen Walker again, we saw James
Pierce again, we saw Brandon Dorless again. These guys just
continue to get there. You mentioned some of the younger
pass rushers. To me, Arch, what's impressive is it's not
just they get one or one and a half in
a game and then they kind of go disappear for
about four or five weeks. This has been each and
every week. Now they're showing up in the backfield.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I was looking back on my card, I looking back
to the Patriot game, or I think it was where
we were, and I said, okay, we got sixteen sacks,
and all of a sudden, I look up and now
we got thirty nine sacks. There's something got hole. They've turned,
They've stepped on the accelerator. Thirty nine sacks. Thirteen players
have at least one sack, and nine players have at
least two sacks. That means you have absolutely no idea
(20:47):
who's coming and where they're going to get you from.
You're closing on some rarefied air.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
You got to go back to the Patrick Kearney Rod
Coleman era back in the mid in the mid, Yeah,
back in back when, back when Rack was playing, they
had forty nine sacks that season. I believe it was
the old four season when you guys went the NFC
Championship game forty nine sacks. This team's got thirty nine
sacks with six games to go.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Correct last year, what do you go back to?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Twenty three was the last time they had this mini
They had forty two. In twenty twenty three had forty
two sacks, could potentially go by that. This week, the
only other team the two team had forty seven sacks.
So you're talking about these guys are pushing the envelope
to go someplace. This team has never been in shock.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I made the comment in the pregame show when we
were talking a little bit about Zach Harrison and him
not being available obviously getting hurt, and I said that
I didn't think it was going to be as big
of an issue not to take anything away from Zach,
but to your point that so many different people have
been shipping in and bringing production when it comes to
(21:56):
pass rus. It's not like this team had one guy
that had eleven and a half sacks and everybody else
had ones and twos. Right to your point, everybody has
been getting into action. So when you lose somebody like
Zach Harrison, yes you hate to lose it. For a point,
he was a leading socker on this team. But you've
got so many different players now that continue to get better.
And I think these rookies, the young players continue to
(22:16):
get better every single week.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, it's a special thing. I mean you look over
and like Cleveland, you got mouth, Garrett got eighteen sacks.
You come to the game, you know we got to
make sure we know what that one guy is. Jayalen
Walker said it out of the game. He said, I
love playing in his defense because I know I'm gonna
get one on one because we got so many guys
who can win. So you come to lunch of scrimmage
and you got all these different guys at line were
talking about all these bluff and they gotta respect it
(22:40):
because this guy had two sacks last week, this guy
had a sacking hat. There's always gonna be somebody who
feels like, oh, they gave me to one on one
this time, I gotta go.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Rouke was talking to Arts week or two ago, and
he was talking about how somebody else got to say
He's like, oh, I gotta step on it now, I
gotta go get me one. Like that's the mindset. You
know that these guys gotten that, like, oh, our brothers
got one. Let me join the party. And you can
it's showing up in the stat sheet, it's showing up
on tape, it's showing up when these guys line up,
and you know, you got a lot of different things
(23:10):
going on, and these guys are getting home. And we
talked about at the beginning of the year, we said
we didn't want one guy to have twelve thirteen sacks.
We wanted a collective group. And that's what we got
right now. And you never know who is gonna be
from week to week. And I think the most impressive
thing is what we just talked about, is they're doing
it with four guys. A lot of the time, it
may look like it's a lot of guys in a
(23:31):
line of scrimmage. But when the ball snapped, those guys
are winning those one on ones. They're finding a way
to get home and they're getting the quarterback on the ground,
and that's forcing teams to to kind of play to
kind of play one side. I mean, you give up
three points in this ball game on the defense side
of the ball. Yeah, you stop to run. I mean,
it's it's fun to watch this group get after him,
and obviously they're just starting to hit their stride.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Seems like, let's go ahead and switch gears.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Talk a little bit about the offense and Kirk Cousins
obviously now elevated back to the starting role after the
injury to Michael PENNOCKX junior heads to IR and this
was a game where you could say that I think
he did a really good job being a game manager.
And I don't you know a lot of people think
that that game manager tag is like an insult, but
I think a quarterback needs to be a game manager
and a game changer at the same time. But I
(24:19):
felt like Kirk did a lot of things that were
really good. Numbers aren't going to blow you away. Sixteen
to twenty three hundred ninety nine yards two touchdowns, did
have an interception. It also showed a little bit of
physicality for anybody anticipated that. But arts breakdown which you
saw from Kirk Cousins back into that starting role.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Yeah, I thought that racket's a good point. You know,
the game manager thing for quarterbacks as always, Oh he's
a game manager, some kind of slight. Every quarterback that's
successful passes to manage the game. And you said that,
and that's a great way of putting it. I got
Cousin's decision making in distributing the ball, and I'm talking
(25:00):
about checking the ball down some there were some shots
down the field he turned down. Didn't want to put
the ball in harm's way. He knew the worst thing
he could do was turn the football over. So let
the defense play the way they were playing. Let's make
sure we take care of the football. But he got
the ball out quickly. You know, you get Charlie Warner.
I mean, I don't know is Charlie Warner had ever
(25:21):
had three or four grabs in a game. I mean,
but yeah, we were bagging Rayburn County Man. He was
catching the football, running with it, playing running back. No,
he but he understood to get the ball out, let
me take care of my offensive line. Nothing makes an
O line shot, you know, makes an O line feel
better than to look back and see the quarterbacks still
(25:41):
standing in the ball. Somebody's running with the ball down
the field.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
The worst thing they can do is see you run
in and trying to throw the ball away or laying
on your back back there. So I thought Kirk did
a really good job of that. Now he had a
couple of sacks, he ate the football, and there's gonna
be times you and I learned that, Hey, the best
thing to do is to take care of the football
and eat it. At that point, if you can throw
it away, throw it away. But I thought that he
just did that. I thought his decision making was really good.
(26:06):
I thought he looked really good. And Shock does a
great job of breaking down the Sills touchdown. So you
got to go check that out on atlantafalcons dot com.
He walks you through every little piece of what happens,
including what Kirk does with his eyes to help influence
the play, which is more what you're talking about, and
what Kirk brought to the table the veteran leadership. I
(26:26):
thought that the enthusiasm that he showed the touchdown was Sills.
He's pumping his fist the touchdown to Mooney, you know,
he jumps up in the air and they're lifting him up.
I thought that that was something that maybe we've been
lacking a little bit of that enthusiasm on the offense side.
I thought he brought all of.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
That and shock in the running game with one of
the other things that I was thinking about. Right have
no obviously influence on play calling, but this was to me,
this felt like a good game when you don't have
Drake London, when you don't have Michael Pennix, to get
Algier and Robinson a lot of action and maybe on
the field together at the same time, just because Robinson
(27:03):
may have had to be a little bit more of
a wide receiver this week, but I thought it was
a workman's like performance. Twenty nine carries, one hundred and
twenty one yards total, Robinson over one hundred yards total
again in this game, and they had that element that
was back. They were able to run the football. Felipe
Franks comes in in a short yardage situation and gets
back to his quarterback days, pounds his way for a
first down. The run game, I felt like had to
(27:26):
be there in order to let Kirk get back under
center have a little play action. And now they got
to respect it because both of those guys were on
the field quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
And that's a big thing. That's a great point is
how many times the Fox were able to use the
play action to their benefit because you have guys back
there who can run the rock like those two guys,
and I thought they affected the game in the run
game in a way that helped him have some big
plays down the field. I mean the play the cow
pits where you're faking the outside zone and they have
(27:56):
to respect it. You can literally see it. Take the
safety is fifteen yards deep and he is flying up
trying to get there for that outside zone. And the
guys played it really well. And then Kyle leaks out,
goes down the sideline and Kirk comes off and finds
that safety safety flying up. He dumps it to him
perfectly throwing football from Kirk. I love the way you
(28:16):
use Bijon and then you bring in the bowling ball
of razor blades for a whole drive and he just
pounds them and pounds them and gives you a different
feel and you see him get up smiling. That's got
to be the morelizing for a defense because he just
hit you for eight or nine and pounded you and
then boom, here he comes Bjon again. How about the
(28:37):
great call on the screen player's second in Freaking twenty
five and you dump a one yard route to Bjon
and he takes it, you know, thirty forty yards down
the field. I mean, just the way they use those
guys I thought was good. I mean the touchdown, the seals,
you got both guys in the ball game, Bijeon goes
out in motion, you got Tile in the backfield, the confusion.
(28:57):
I mean just I thought Zach did a really good
job of utilizing his personnel. I thought he did a
good job of using formation at times. If you watch
the ballgame, you know there was a lot of thirteen
personnel using his ballgame. But you was able to do
it in the past. Came in a run game, so
there's a lot too. You walk in this, you turn
(29:19):
on the table and say, man, they can do a
lot of different things, well, a lot of different personnels
with a lot of different formations and hurt you in
multiple ways. So give those guys a lot of credit.
And then also I talked about this probably a couple
of weeks ago, was we needed other guys than just
Drake London to be a factor, and I thought they
shared the wealth in this ballgame. Obviously talked about Drumming
having three catches, his first catch of the game, first
(29:41):
of his career, seals, getting his first touchdown. You had
multiple guys with three catches, multiple guys with two catches,
so you love that. A lot of guys were a
part of the action, and you couldn't just say, all right,
this is the one guy we got to stop. They
distributed and like you said earlier, did a good job
of just distributing the ball to a lot of different guys.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
All of a sudden, the re emergence of Darnell Mooney
too right. And Mooney's first catch in the game was
off of play face throw that comeback down the sideline.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
You talk about a catch.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Now he goes down there on his ankles to make
the grab.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
I thought that who was his?
Speaker 4 (30:14):
That was his best catch easily of this year, and
then it seemed to spark him. But to Shock's point,
seven of nine in play action for one hundred and
seventeen yards you know Kirk through for right at two
hundred yards. Well, you took advantage of those opportunities. And
I thought that, you know, give the guys up front
trying to simulate run because we talked about how play
(30:36):
action sometimes the offensive lines not showing play action, so
guys are bailing out of there.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I thought they did a much better job of kind
of showing run action.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
All right, fellas, I turned my page over here to
the next on our list for the show, which happened
to be turning the page to the New York Jets.
That's the next on the docket here.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
So before we go to can we put out one
last thing? I'm leaving but not need Here's where I'm surprised.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Because judge you, you know we need you.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Because we talked offense and defense, but there was another
factor in this ball game that was which score points?
I thought I thought was pretty in this building last year.
Come on, I mean the third phase of the game.
And we talked about earlier how they missed a couple
kicks in the ball game. My man Zane knocking through
a couple of fifty yarders. Yes, Mike Ford is an animal,
(31:25):
and special team aid me agnew with some nice returns
in the ball game. I mean that that's a part
of the game too. That's really special. When you get
that change field position, you're knocking down fifty yarders. That
demoralizes the team as well. But I thought that third
phase rack was big too.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, don't you have to go back to like Morton
Anderson more last time you've had multiple fifty plus yard
field goals game. I believe you got to go back
aways for that, so Zane really to erase the memory
of what had happened to your CoA because you.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Didn't do that.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
You know, had the one breakout on the kickoff return,
but the defense said, you know what, we got you back.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
You've got a complimentary football. But credit to Keazan Gonzales.
Raheem Morris actually gave him a game ball in the
locker room afterwards, because this team has been desperate for
a kicker to just go out there and have a
lights out game, and now we need to see that
week after week after week. And maybe he's a Gonzales
will get some opportunities this week against the Jets. So fellas,
let's talk a little bit about the New York Jets.
(32:23):
Obviously a team that has been struggling in their own
right this year two to nine, coming off of a
loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Arch give us a little
background as far as kind of what's going on with
Aaron Glenn and the New York Jets. I mean, they've
they've had issues with justin fields. They've turned the page
of Tyrod Taylor. Still have a really good running back
in the backfield, elite wide receiver on the outside. But
what is Atlanta going to see or what are the
(32:44):
fans going to see when the Falcons face off.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Well, you're going to see a team that wants to
run the football. I mean, if you go back and
look at their last couple of tapes, they've used twelve
and thirteen personnel. They want to try to get after
you up front. Breece Hall of course, former Iowa State
cyclonic Breecee is the is the belt cow there. But
they've got three guys that can run it. So Isaiah
Davis is a guy that can run it. And Braylan Allen,
who's who's been hurt. I think he's only played seven
(33:09):
games this year. He's been a little bit banged up,
but they've got three guys that can run the rock.
Plus you've got a quarterback and Justin Field should he play,
he can run the rock. And in Tyrod Taylor, who's
been around a long time, he can still take off
if he needs to. They run the conventional college zone.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Reed.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
They ran it this weekend against Baltimore and they're lost
to Baltimore. So you're gonna see, uh, some of that
college influence in the run game. On the other side
of the ball. I mean really, that's where you know,
that's where coach Glenn gets his breads is you know,
his butter's breaded or his bread his butter, bread butter.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Thank you. Easy for me to say, that's why you
host the show.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
But they're still playing pretty good defensive football guys. And
and I and I talked to Oldbrick about, you know,
getting back to Diablo and what Diablo brought to the table.
He trying to find jam And Sherwood. That's who's one
of the linebackers who now has one hundred and two
tackles or Quincy Williams, who has you know, ninety tackles.
(34:11):
What those are the two guys he was trying to
find to plug into this defense because I asked him,
I said, Wow, Diablo is a perfect fitty because I
had two of those guys in New York and so
he has great respect for who they are defensively, and
they're still playing at a good level defending the pass
pretty well. They've been pushed around a little bit in
the run game. Obviously, Quinn Williams no longer there traded away,
(34:32):
so that's a little bit of a gap in there,
but they they're gonna pride themselves on playing good defense
and they've been really close. Shock how many close games
does this team lost? I mean, whether four or five
one score games they've they've come up with the short
end of stick.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, And that was kind of the same theme for
the Falcons going up into this last game is not
finding a way to come away with a win. So
they've been in that struggling situation where teams are just
trying to fight their way out of a hole. Shak.
This question is kind of a simple layup question.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Is this one.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
About what the Jets are gonna do or is this
one about what Atlanta needs to do themselves.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
I think it's a little bit of both, obviously, But
I think you look back at the way this team
played last week, it felt like more about the Falcons,
more about their execution, more about them playing as one.
And you just mentioned it. Playing complimentary football that travels,
that goes anywhere, being able to run the football that travels,
taking care of the football, getting sacks. Those are all
(35:28):
things that regardless of your opponent, that equals probably a
win for you. So I think more than anything, if
this team goes out and plays the way they are expected,
which is within this building, they feel like that's the
kind of performance they should have every week. And we've
talked about it. They've been in a bunch of one
score ball games this year, just haven't been able to finish.
So I tell you this team has been there regardless
(35:49):
of the opponent. They played really good teams, play teams
who maybe not have really good records, but they have
found ways to at the end of ball games not
finish them. Well. On last Sunday, you just found the
way to go finish a ball game. And I think
that comes down to you doing what you need to
do to go within a ball game. And yeah, the
Jets are gonna pose a couple of issues for you.
I mean, just talked about a couple guys on the
(36:11):
defense side of the ball who are game records. You
gotta know what those guys are, Guys who can really
force the issue when it comes to maybe you in
the run game offensively. Brece Hall is a guy who
you gotta worry about in the run game and the
past game. If you go out there and say, you
know what, we're not worried about this cyclone doing, We're
just gonna you know, guess what he go. He gonna
(36:31):
hit you for a big day on the ground and
in the air. So yeah, you gotta go in prepare
for certain guys. But the end of the day, what
you've done, what you've shown is if you executed the
level that you're supposed to, ultimately that's enough to go
win your ball game. And I think that's possible. All right.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
So to finish up for fellas, we're gonna do our
keys to the game. Everybody's I'm gonna start here that way.
I give you think about it before you guys take
over and host the show without it. Yeah, it's from
Dave Archer, guys, because I saw it last week and
(37:07):
I felt like that's what needs to continue is minimizing
explosive plays on defense. I think when this defense is
able to keep everything in front of them, they are
able to go eat as the kids say, right, But
what happens is, all of a sudden, if you get
broken tackle, forty yard run, if you get fifty eight
yard pass like now, it's kind of like everything's reeling right,
(37:31):
like we're trying to we gotta give they got great
field position, like everybody's got to refocus, and then all
of a sudden, you look up and they score a touchdown.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I feel like if they minimize explosive plays, keep everything
in front of them, and then they can just attack, attack, attack, attack.
That's what we saw last week against New Orleans. I
think good things are gonna happen, and I'm looking forward
to seeing that the defense can stack another positive.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Performance on the top of it last week.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Arch.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
What is your key to this game?
Speaker 4 (37:57):
I think that I'm gonna look to You're going to
go outside and you and it's supposed to be the
weather's not supposed to be great up there. I think
that they're talking about the high forties rain. It seems
like every time we go. We played in New York
at rains. But and we've had some brutal games up there.
Remember when Matt Ryan had to take snaps from the
shotgun because he couldn't get the snaps under center. It
(38:18):
was just I mean, so you get some nasty weather
up there in Jersey, so at this time of year,
So I'm going to talk about ball security. I think
that Atlanta has been really good over the last few
weeks with the sacks and the takeaways, right, and they've
done a very good job of taking care of the football. Now,
all of a sudden, you're outside and our guys, for
(38:40):
whatever reason, haven't had to deal with that very much.
And so you've got guys that are going to carry
the football. But Jon has had to ball punched out
a couple of times. Tyler's been pretty good about taking
care of the ball. We've had a tough time catching
the football in a couple of positions, and so the
weather and wind and a little bit of rain is
going to accentuate that. So I'm spending the ball security
(39:02):
in catching you know, catch the football when it comes
to you. So just taking care of the ball and
then obviously getting it out. Can you get it out
from the jets, So that that's kind of where I'm leaning.
It's not obviously you can say turnovers, because turnovers would
be a key every time. There's two teams that have
sub five hundred records during the top ten in giveaway takeaway,
Atlanta's one of them. Atlanta's ranked eighth in the league
(39:23):
at plus five giveaway takeaway, and that's provided you opportunities
to be close. Now, you haven't been able to finish
until this last weekend, but that's going to give you
an opportunity to win the game.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
So I'm gonna go that route with shock, which you got,
I like it. I like it what you got for me.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I think a big kid in this ball game is
forcing Tyrod or whoever's playing quarterback to win from the pocket.
And I think we've shown that Billy Baby, get after
the quarterback with four, with five, whatever it is, I
think we can win those lists. Maybe get to the
quarterback where you don't want either of these guys to
be as outside the pocket creating and they can do
with their legs. And sometimes as a guy who was
(39:58):
athletic like this, sometimes you feel comfortable outside that pocket too.
And you made a lot of plays when you were
trying to create or guys weren't plastering. I think you're
good enough on the back end to if you just
rush four, you rush three, whatever it is to be
able to cover up the back end. Like you just mentioned,
the offered played really well, is really good on it.
He's gonna be a guy that's gonna be in that
spot this week, bro, probably for the rest of the season. Obviously,
(40:19):
aj coming back was a big deal. Hughes watch got
his you know what, he had third pick of the
ball game of the season. So I think you got
some guys who are definitely capable if you have to
just rush three or four, which leaves you more covered.
So I think forcing those guys to play for within
the pocket. Of these guys are really accurate throwing the football.
I think Tyrod's around sixty one percent. And you know,
(40:40):
obviously Justin's had a tough jime throwing the football. This
is a pass offense that's thirty second in the NFL,
only averaging one hundred and forty five yards a game.
So if you can force him to try to beat
you from the pocket, I think you feel good about that,
and they'll give you a few two So let's force
those guys to stay within the pocket, great Russian integrity
(41:01):
and just go get to quarterback like we've already been
doing rock real quickly.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
A piece that I'm interested in from your perspective, having
been a big part of the special teams units for here,
is when you get a team like the Jets, what
are they two in ten, two and nine something along
those lines. Okay, And so from a trade stamp, they've
done a lot of stuff up there, so they're setting
the table for and they're looking to next season, right, Okay,
(41:26):
they've already been eliminated from the playoffs and those kind
of things. So how dangerous does that make Aaron Glenn's team,
especially on special teams where some of the Shenanigans stuff
you can pull there.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yeah, this is one of those games where you have
to go in and expecting something like that fake punt,
fake field goal, some type of like a reverse, a
throwback on kickoff return. Maybe like these are all the
times when they always say like nothing to lose, right,
or maybe this is something that they've been thinking about
all season long, and it's like, you know what, let's
(41:59):
just let a rip now. So even though Atlanta has
had some issues on that third phase of the game. Right,
whether it's been big returns or it's been the missed
field goals, this is one of those where you definitely
got to be on your p's and q However, they
can create an advantage for themselves, right if things are struggling,
like maybe it's a fourth and five that they decide
(42:19):
that they're going to go for it, or you get
some type of center head bob on a punt team
trying to get just trying to get a little free
penalty right to get him a first down.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
You just never know.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
These It's a great point. These are the type of game. Yeah,
absolutely we have those head bob on two.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Anytime it was.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Fourth and four, fourth you never did that.
Speaker 5 (42:41):
Yeah, just you know, kind of move of a little
finger on top of the football or something I experience nothing,
all right.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Three keys of the game Racks was limited explosive plays,
arch was ball security potentially in the elements. And shocks
was let's force these quarterbacks to win from the pocket.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I think if we look.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Back next week, look back at those three, if they
succeed there, maybe falcons come away. All Right, A couple
of things before we go First of all, everybody, Happy
Thanksgiving week, have a very very happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving you
enjoy some football, and maybe if you are bored on
Thanksgiving you want to listen. Rack will be on the
call for the Cowboys and the Chiefs from Dallas, so
(43:25):
I'll be there on national radio with west Wood one Sports. Otherwise,
sit down on your TV after your second or your
third helping of Thanksgiving meal and enjoy NFL football.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
All right.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Also, I've got a note here that Pro Bowl voting
begins this week too, so make sure log on vote
for Dave Archer, Pro Bowl radio team broadcaster John Robinson,
maybe Mike Ford on special teams, maybe Xavier Watts.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
All right, vote for.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Trouble.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Voting opens this week. Let's help them get that honor
to get to the Pro Bowl. And of course, in
order to follow us like us comment all you all
the ways that you get your podcast material.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Is the Falcons Autum presented by AT and T once again.
Happy Thanksgiving week, everybody, and hopefully we're back here next
week recapping another when.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
We do it, go ahead, chalk, oh there we go.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Let men, all right, we'll see you guys, enjoy Thanksgiving,
see you next week.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
How can you have cleano fashion hate during Thanksgiving Week
Fast, free delivery from the home Depot makes your projects
hassle free. Forget something you need, visit home depot dot
com or the home Depot app for free delivery on
millions of products, including same day and next day options.
Get delivery at the speed you need only at the
home Depot. How doers get more done? Order select in
(00:20):
stock items by four pm, subject to availability. We've been
told that we are.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
The big boys in town.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
He's into I'm talking about He is like, LI start great.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yeah, you guy can get chills a little bit thinking
about what these two guys can do.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Balcons Audible's back Ladies and gentlemen with the same trio
as always.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
That's DJ Shaker Dave Archer.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
I'm Bear Crockey, presented by AT and P. And yes
we've been here the last five weeks after losses. So
today here here after a victory twenty four to ten
win on the road against the Saints, rivalry.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Goes in favor of the made It Back. I know
they were hot after taking that all.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Stuck out.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
So it used to be when you in New Orleans.
They changed where the boxes and now you're like sitting
on the roof of the State but there was no
elevator that took you to that level, so you actually
had to get off the elevator like the beginning of
the three hundred level, if your merced has been stated,
and actually go up the stairs through the crowd to
(01:32):
get to the press box. Now they've since put in
a elevator. They found it was very counterproductive for the
other team's coaches to have to walk down through the crowd,
so they put an elevator. They extended the elevator up.
But yeah, there were a time. There was a time
like when we nailed them with a with a field
goal in overtime to win and we were able to
walk down through the crowd you're talking about.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
That was good?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
You see you see what on the shirt rights a
little different body language after that, right exactly. So you know,
let's stay there arch. Let's talk about a little bit
of the atmosphere of the stadium. Not let's not get
to the locker room quite yet, but like atmosphere of
the stadium. How did you feel even had you had
a two and eight and a three and what's seven
team at the time?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Is that right? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Going at it, But sometimes the rivalries are just a
little bit different.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
Well, unfortunately for these two fan bases. As you guys know,
these two teams have kind of been in this position
for almost their existence. There's been blips on the radar. Obviously,
Atlanta been to a couple of Super Bowls. New Orleans
has had a chance to break through and win a
Super Bowl, but that took a long time to happen, right,
And so there were a lot of years. In fact,
the years I was playing that the two teams were
(02:43):
kind of teetering on who was going to be in
the bottom and who wasn't, And so that in itself
generated an atmosphere between the two fan bases.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Plus it's so close.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
The place was inundated with Falcon fans. I mean I
was out on Canal Street and you guys know it.
You know, you go Canal about two blocks down and
there's burbustry, so it's all tied in there to get
there were Falcon fans everywhere, and I'm talking about walk
It was almost like they were taunting the Saint fans,
walking up down saying rise up and singing all this
stuff and walking around with all their stuff on. So
(03:16):
that was cool, and then that spilled over into the
stadium and you always get the I think these two
fan bases do a really good job of it being
one of the great robbery and I say great rivalries.
It is Atlanta won this weekend, as you guys know
that actually even the series in the regular season at
fifty six and fifty six. Wow, it was already tied
(03:39):
if you included the one postseason game, because Atlanta beat
him in a postseason game.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
But that's what a rivalry is.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
I don't want to hear about.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Yeah, I don't want to hear about a rival Oh
you talk about these college football rivalries Oklahoma, Oklahoma State,
Welcaoma States, Olahoma State's went like for yeah, text record. Yeah.
I mean, so you got one that's got fourteen wins,
Yel's got one hundred.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
I mean that's nottside.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, this one is truly that.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
And you know, you when you begin to look at it,
I know the South knows more about this one than
than other places of the country do. I mean, Bears
Packers is a classic, you know, Eagles Giants classic, but
this one is a classic as well because there's been
some unbelievable plays. Some of it hasn't been for other
(04:28):
than hey, we're on top of you in the in
the division. But I thought that that atmosphere carried over again.
Now there's some pettiness in the in the crowd. They
will always throw out the twenty eight three things.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
They still did.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh yeah, the signs, Yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
They had a picture of Matt Roman leaving the field.
This said the largest blown super Bowl. You know, as
long as they have a super Bowl championship and we don't,
that's gonna be a little stick in the side.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
They're going to continue to javis that.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
But I think in all actuality, there is a there's
a dislike this city was a bastion, a haven for
a number of people from New Orleans after Katrina that
came here and were welcomed into Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Effect.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
My next door, my neighbor across the street, unbelievably good dude, Cajun.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Guy, loves great cook all.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
But we get back and forth each other each each
each time we play one another. But I don't know
that I could defend the end about another guy that's
in my area like I could he. So I think
there's a there's a nastiness to it that's I think
on the level, but I think there's a there's a
respect level as well, so it's it was kind of cool,
but that that was kind of what permeated the building,
(05:37):
and you could see the air go out of there
balloon pretty quickly. Yeah, when Atlanta began to dominate.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
All right, we're gonna I'm gonna pivot here because I
want you to talk Arch about the feeling in the
locker room after the game. But I don't want this
to go thirty minutes before Shot gets to say something here,
because real quick, his feelings are hurt.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Okay, I'm cool.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I love hearing about it. I mean I asked Arch
about it. I literally just asked him how New orldans was.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Let's do this, Let's talk about the game, and then
once we finish up the game, then Arch can tell
us the mood in the locker room.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
No, no, no, let's do locker room. Let's go I mean,
we can't go backwards. What happened in the locker room here.
It's a great locker room. No no, no, no, no.
You you do a great job at you want to
switch chairs? No, okay, this.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Is the only reason we're like this is because Shock
and I were on time.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
And racks.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
So even though it's recording, you guys are picking this
up on a Wednesday or whatever it is on Tuesday,
and we had to.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Wait for our for the gate play six years here,
only been broadcasting for like five and I still can't
even get in the gate outside.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I'm sorry, who are you?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I have this parking pat.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Side.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
The player find schedule is still as it was, and
that's one hundred dollars a minute. That's seven hundred.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
So anyway, real quickly.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Locker room.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
The locker not jubulant, no noose. The guys were happy
to win. I mean, five game losing streak, you kind
of scratch and you finally get a win.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I thought it was cool.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
The thing that I thought was probably the most overriding
thing in the locker room was the understanding that you
didn't have Drake London, you didn't have Michael pennockx junior
guys that are mainstays that have been part of this
team this season. You had other guys step in and
play extremely well. Whether it was David Sills Mooney makes
a play, you know, you got Kirk Cousins what he
(07:27):
did and how they how they played defensively, in as
a as a unit.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
So I think that there.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Was just a pride factor that they had put it together,
something that had been right on the right, on the
verge of doing for.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Four weeks in a row.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, and Art, you kind of mentioned something that that
triggered what I had talked about during the pregame show,
actually the two pregame shows this week, but one of
the things that I threw out as Okay, you mentioned
Falcons five game losing streak. Now, no Michael Pennix, no
Drake London, no Zach Harrison, no Billy Bowman, and all
I could think about was last year when Atlanta went
(08:00):
down to New Orleans, no Chris o Lave, no Rashid Shaheed,
Dennis Allen had just been fired, like all the reasons
why Atlanta should have stomped them, right, and the New
Orleans Saints won, right, So you could flip it almost
shocked that this was a somewhat similar situation. Obviously no
head coach being fired, but a lot of key contributors
that were not able to play. But they almost played
(08:22):
one of their better games that they played this entire season.
Did you kind of had that same sense as you
were watching this.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yeah you were. And I think at the end of
the day, when you're a professional and you got dudes
are out and not playing, the other team, don't care.
It don't matter. The game will still go on. And
guess what, they gonna still try to whoop you. They're
not gonna feel sorry that you don't have your best
guy and your quarterback just towards a cl okay about that.
They still want to whoop you. And I think you
(08:48):
go into this game saying, we can't use that as
an excuse. We've already had a number of things not
go away this season. We're all out of excuses, and
now we got to go win. They gotta go play
the ballgames. So I thought, yeah, everything says on paper,
maybe this team should have been a little down, should
have been a little bit sorry for herself. But when
(09:09):
you got a bunch of guys who are true professionals,
they're gonna keep grinding the finding a way. And as
we all know, each week, you work your tail off
to go win a ballgame, and it happens that Monday
you come back in after a ball game and you're
trying to figure out what went wrong. And this team
has done that for the last five weeks, and not
to say, you know, hey, those last five weeks they
didn't work hard. They did work hard, things just didn't
(09:32):
go your way. You come back this time, you get
an opportunity to go on the road to be the
division rival, and you do that in really great fashion,
and I was excited to see that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Fellas.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Generally, how we end up recapping these games, and I
don't know if it's just the nature of the beast.
I don't know if it's just human nature, but we
always end up starting with the offense. We talk about
how the quarterback played, and then how Jean Robinson played.
But again, I'm throwing a ranch in the game here, guys,
because I want to talk about how the defense played,
because there was three stops in this game that I
thought were truly impressive. Okay, they end up giving up
(10:06):
another big return on kickoff return.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
They start with.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Great field position, boom, lockdown, force them to a field
goal attempt that's missed. Then there's two other drives that
get deep down in the red zone and his defense
bows up arch. How about the response from the last
couple of weeks where this defense has been humbled a
little bit statistically, they were towards the top of the
league early on in the season. Then there was a
few bad games. You talk about what happened in Berlin
(10:32):
and obviously last week against Carolina, this defense seemed like
it played with a different attitude, especially on those three
drives getting those stops.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, red zone.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Stops were phenomenal over three for the Saints in the
red zone. And there was some things that happened, and
we can chop that up if you guys want to.
I thought that my key to the game, and it
might have been years two rat going into the game
was it landed given up twenty nine plays in their
last three games of fifteen yards or more. They had
played relatively good defensive football. I mean, look at the
(11:00):
sacks and the takeaways that they had done over the
last three weeks, and that continued in this game. That
you're like, you're talking about two more takeaways, five more sacks.
But what they did do is they eliminated the explosives.
Only four explosive plays.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
In this game.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
Carolina was coming off a bye week, I'm sorry, Normans
was coming off a bye week, and their best game
explosive wise, was in Carolina two weeks ago where they
had seven plays of fifteen yards or more. So they
were coming in feeling pretty good about potentially with the
young quarterback and Shuck and maybe they'd found a little
bit of rhythm. Atlanta took all of that away. The
(11:37):
defense took all of that away, and in fact took
the run game away, and then put Shuck in a
pressure cooker, if you will, and began to kind of
melt the everything around him and get after him. But
in the red zone in particular, I thought there was
one play that I want to point to in the
red zone, and it might have been it was in
(11:58):
the second half, I believe. But they get down there
and Shock runs a quarterback suitep to the left side
and gets to the one yard it was on first down,
gets to the one yard line. To me, the arey
I'll talk about the missnap and the grounding, which was
a huge play. The play prior to that, it's second
in goal from the one foot line and they stone
(12:21):
them on that play, which forces Kellen Moore to go, Okay,
well we'll get the gadget guy in and we'll run
the shotgun quarterback, you know, lead play, and then the
guy snaps it over his head. But that's the key.
Make him play. How many plays can you make him play?
Can you make him force them into a mistake? And
they had almost snapped it over his head earlier in
(12:42):
the game. But the play to me was the second
in one play. The score is I believe it's sixteen
to seven at the time, so we're late in the
football game. Sixteen to seven a time. If they score now,
it's a two point game, right, and you keep them.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Out of the end zone.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
But I thought that second in a foot to score
was a really telling play to kind of overrode and
kind of gave you a story of what this defense was.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
The whole night.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
You talked about the pass rush in this game, five sacks,
six tackles for loss, just ten points allowed, and shock,
I want to turn to you because we talked once
Divine Dioblo got hurt. We talked about how I guess
different the defense was gonna look because of what he
brings to the table, right, And then I don't know
(13:28):
about you, guys, but like all of a sudden, you see, well,
he's gonna be back at practice, and then he practices
all week and then he gets activated and he has
no injury designation. And then I had seen earlier that
he had, you know, a big rap on his arm
and stuff. So he ends up missing a few games.
And we showed a full screen stat of comparison from
(13:49):
the first seven weeks to when he was out, and
the defensive numbers were dramatically worse when he came out
of the game. Now, you could contribute a lot of
factors to that. You can contribute a little bit of
the fact that he wasn't there. But watching the game, shock,
what did you feel like Diablo's presence back to the
defense meant to them?
Speaker 3 (14:09):
It's one word of physicality, and you look at the
way he plays, the way he fills gaps, the way
he can You know, there are times where we always
talking about old lineman got to get up to the
second level. They got better to get to that linebacker.
There are a lot of times those linemen cannot get
to him because he can diagnose things so fast, and
then he has the speed to go through it. You
talk about a guy who plays safety, now he plays linebacker.
(14:29):
So he has the speed, has the eyes as a
vision to go see things, and then when he's there,
the dude ain't going nowhere. The dude is shout out
of a cannon. And I mean the dude almost had
an interception with the big but the big club on
his hand, the old Pat Willers club in his hand.
But he is definitely a different style of player for
this defense. And you know, Obra kN Raheim knew from
(14:51):
day one this was the style of linebacker they wanted.
And he fits that molde and you add him with
ka Nelli's baby to move him around. But there are
just times where he's just unblockable. There are times where
he can see things and he will go and he
will go make the play, and you know he'll cover
some things up for you that maybe, oh if he's
not there, that's probably maybe an eight, nine ten yard
(15:14):
run and he turns it into maybe a one or
two yard game. But I just believe his physicality, his
presence on the field brings a lot to this defense.
And of course you gotta have the big boys up front.
You gotta give those guys a lot of credit, especially
those first and second year guys who are aggressive. They
were disruptive, they you know, they make things a lot harder.
(15:35):
I mean, there was one particular play. Give Old Brick
a lot of credit for the way he schemes things
up too. There are a lot of times where he
will put a guy like Kayen Nellis on on aline screen,
like James Pearce sack. You put kay Ellis on the line,
you think he's gonna blitch. You got Jayleen Walker sitting
right in the middle as that middle linebacker, and you
(15:56):
got a guy sitting right over the nose, and Jaylen
Walker's right behind him. On the snap of the football,
the guy who is the nose, he gets taken away,
but then Jama Walker comes. But then here's him coming
from the middle with the pressure. And then the guy
to tackle thinks Kate Nillis is coming off the edge.
He fakes and by the time he looks up, oh,
(16:16):
now James Spears has a one on one. He's split
the defenders. You got him come in the middle, You
got pierced other side the disguise that thought was pretty cool.
You had Diablow on the other side thinking he was
gonna blitz. Both those guys bail and you only end
up with a four man pressure, but it looks like
it's six guys coming. So give Old Brick a lot
of credit for a give those guys a lot of
credit to for making it look like some pre snap
(16:37):
and giving the young rookie something else to see post
snap and baby get home. But back to your point,
Dia Blow definitely is a guy that his presence alone
on the field, his athleticism, his physicality brings a different breed,
gotta be honest to that defense and is a big
reason why they have a lot of success when he's
on the field.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, I mean to me, he just he sets a
different tone and what he brings to the table with
his athleticism and the physicality, it is truly impressive.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
It's funny. It's a great mention by both of you guys.
And we talked so often about a backup quarterback comes
in and they said, oh, well, maybe you can give
him a spark, maybe he can spark.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Something on the offense side.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
I don't think there's any question that Diablo sparked the defense.
The guys up front have been rushing and I think
they're doing a better job of creating problems with just four.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
As you were talking about shock.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
All the bluffs, the speed, the athleticism around the line
of scrimmage and then all of a suddenly four come
and now you're still getting to the quarterback, and now
you can get seven back in coverage. Diablo gives you
that ability to do some things that maybe kayen Ellis
was having to do to cover up. And then he
had Ronnie Harrison having to do some JD. Birtraands having
to do something. It's all encompassed in one guy, and
(17:53):
so I thought that there was a spark there. I've
talked to him after the game. He had a grin.
Basically talk to him after the game and I said,
I knew you were going to catch the ball with
that man from your club on, but but he he
really enjoyed being back.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
On the field with his teammates.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah, obviously they I think everybody was happy to have
him back out there, and probably a sense of relief
seeing number zero out there.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
I do want to talk go ahead real quickly.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Defensively, I don't know if you want to shift gears
to from a defense here, don't you know?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
And you're the host of the show screen.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
No, but I wanted I wanted to accentuate a player
that I think took a little bit of heat a
year ago and has played everywhere for Atlanta on defense,
de Offered has had to play both corners. Both corners
have been out at some point. Aj has been out,
Hughes has been out. He said, to play both corners
that discipline in itself, to be able to play the
(18:50):
wide side corner of the boundary corner is difficult. But
he also plays what you could argue is the most
difficult position to play in football now, and that's the
nickel spot. The two way go, the ability to fit
against the run, to understand blitz concepts, to read offensive
lineman and what they're doing reading tight ends, release. There's
(19:11):
so much that he had ten tackles in the game,
he had our fumble recovery, and remember Billy Bowman up
to Friday was going to start at the nickel spot.
So you talk about a guy that was ready to
play when they called him.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
De offer deserves a ton of credit for how he played.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Early on the game. He just seemed like he was
making every play and you mentioned the ten tackles that
led the team. So between that between Diablo and then
let's give like one thing that we were talking about
on the offensive side of the ball throughout the course
of the season really has been inconsistencies. And then we
talk about the defense and what was the biggest thing
(19:49):
that needed to get better this year was pass rush, Right,
that's the part that last year, the last few years
has been inconsistent. Well, now you could almost say that
the pass rush and has been consistent.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So, Arch, we saw Jaylen Walker again, we saw James
Pierce again, we saw Brandon Dorless again. These guys just
continue to get there. You mentioned some of the younger
pass rushers. To me, Arch, what's impressive is it's not
just they get one or one and a half in
a game and then they kind of go disappear for
about four or five weeks. This has been each and
every week. Now they're showing up in the backfield.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I was looking back on my card, I looking back
to the Patriot game, or I think it was where
we were, and I said, okay, we got sixteen sacks,
and all of a sudden, I look up and now
we got thirty nine sacks. There's something got hole. They've turned,
They've stepped on the accelerator. Thirty nine sacks. Thirteen players
have at least one sack, and nine players have at
least two sacks. That means you have absolutely no idea
(20:47):
who's coming and where they're going to get you from.
You're closing on some rarefied air.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Guys.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
You got to go back to the Patrick Kearney Rod
Coleman era back in the mid in the mid, Yeah,
back in back when, back when Rack was playing, they
had forty nine sacks that season. I believe it was
the old four season when you guys went the NFC
Championship game forty nine sacks. This team's got thirty nine
sacks with six games to go.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Correct last year, what do you go back to?
Speaker 4 (21:14):
Twenty three was the last time they had this mini
They had forty two. In twenty twenty three had forty
two sacks, could potentially go by that. This week, the
only other team the two team had forty seven sacks.
So you're talking about these guys are pushing the envelope
to go someplace. This team has never been in shock.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I made the comment in the pregame show when we
were talking a little bit about Zach Harrison and him
not being available obviously getting hurt, and I said that
I didn't think it was going to be as big
of an issue not to take anything away from Zach,
but to your point that so many different people have
been shipping in and bringing production when it comes to
(21:56):
pass rus. It's not like this team had one guy
that had eleven and a half sacks and everybody else
had ones and twos. Right to your point, everybody has
been getting into action. So when you lose somebody like
Zach Harrison, yes you hate to lose it. For a point,
he was a leading socker on this team. But you've
got so many different players now that continue to get better.
And I think these rookies, the young players continue to
(22:16):
get better every single week.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, it's a special thing. I mean you look over
and like Cleveland, you got mouth, Garrett got eighteen sacks.
You come to the game, you know we got to
make sure we know what that one guy is. Jayalen
Walker said it out of the game. He said, I
love playing in his defense because I know I'm gonna
get one on one because we got so many guys
who can win. So you come to lunch of scrimmage
and you got all these different guys at line were
talking about all these bluff and they gotta respect it
(22:40):
because this guy had two sacks last week, this guy
had a sacking hat. There's always gonna be somebody who
feels like, oh, they gave me to one on one
this time, I gotta go.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Rouke was talking to Arts week or two ago, and
he was talking about how somebody else got to say
He's like, oh, I gotta step on it now, I
gotta go get me one. Like that's the mindset. You
know that these guys gotten that, like, oh, our brothers
got one. Let me join the party. And you can
it's showing up in the stat sheet, it's showing up
on tape, it's showing up when these guys line up,
and you know, you got a lot of different things
(23:10):
going on, and these guys are getting home. And we
talked about at the beginning of the year, we said
we didn't want one guy to have twelve thirteen sacks.
We wanted a collective group. And that's what we got
right now. And you never know who is gonna be
from week to week. And I think the most impressive
thing is what we just talked about, is they're doing
it with four guys. A lot of the time, it
may look like it's a lot of guys in a
(23:31):
line of scrimmage. But when the ball snapped, those guys
are winning those one on ones. They're finding a way
to get home and they're getting the quarterback on the ground,
and that's forcing teams to to kind of play to
kind of play one side. I mean, you give up
three points in this ball game on the defense side
of the ball. Yeah, you stop to run. I mean,
it's it's fun to watch this group get after him,
and obviously they're just starting to hit their stride.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Seems like, let's go ahead and switch gears.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Talk a little bit about the offense and Kirk Cousins
obviously now elevated back to the starting role after the
injury to Michael PENNOCKX junior heads to IR and this
was a game where you could say that I think
he did a really good job being a game manager.
And I don't you know a lot of people think
that that game manager tag is like an insult, but
I think a quarterback needs to be a game manager
and a game changer at the same time. But I
(24:19):
felt like Kirk did a lot of things that were
really good. Numbers aren't going to blow you away. Sixteen
to twenty three hundred ninety nine yards two touchdowns, did
have an interception. It also showed a little bit of
physicality for anybody anticipated that. But arts breakdown which you
saw from Kirk Cousins back into that starting role.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
Yeah, I thought that racket's a good point. You know,
the game manager thing for quarterbacks as always, Oh he's
a game manager, some kind of slight. Every quarterback that's
successful passes to manage the game. And you said that,
and that's a great way of putting it. I got
Cousin's decision making in distributing the ball, and I'm talking
(25:00):
about checking the ball down some there were some shots
down the field he turned down. Didn't want to put
the ball in harm's way. He knew the worst thing
he could do was turn the football over. So let
the defense play the way they were playing. Let's make
sure we take care of the football. But he got
the ball out quickly. You know, you get Charlie Warner.
I mean, I don't know is Charlie Warner had ever
(25:21):
had three or four grabs in a game. I mean,
but yeah, we were bagging Rayburn County Man. He was
catching the football, running with it, playing running back. No,
he but he understood to get the ball out, let
me take care of my offensive line. Nothing makes an
O line shot, you know, makes an O line feel
better than to look back and see the quarterbacks still
(25:41):
standing in the ball. Somebody's running with the ball down
the field.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
The worst thing they can do is see you run
in and trying to throw the ball away or laying
on your back back there. So I thought Kirk did
a really good job of that. Now he had a
couple of sacks, he ate the football, and there's gonna
be times you and I learned that, Hey, the best
thing to do is to take care of the football
and eat it. At that point, if you can throw
it away, throw it away. But I thought that he
just did that. I thought his decision making was really good.
(26:06):
I thought he looked really good. And Shock does a
great job of breaking down the Sills touchdown. So you
got to go check that out on atlantafalcons dot com.
He walks you through every little piece of what happens,
including what Kirk does with his eyes to help influence
the play, which is more what you're talking about, and
what Kirk brought to the table the veteran leadership. I
(26:26):
thought that the enthusiasm that he showed the touchdown was Sills.
He's pumping his fist the touchdown to Mooney, you know,
he jumps up in the air and they're lifting him up.
I thought that that was something that maybe we've been
lacking a little bit of that enthusiasm on the offense side.
I thought he brought all of.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
That and shock in the running game with one of
the other things that I was thinking about. Right have
no obviously influence on play calling, but this was to me,
this felt like a good game when you don't have
Drake London, when you don't have Michael Pennix, to get
Algier and Robinson a lot of action and maybe on
the field together at the same time, just because Robinson
(27:03):
may have had to be a little bit more of
a wide receiver this week, but I thought it was
a workman's like performance. Twenty nine carries, one hundred and
twenty one yards total, Robinson over one hundred yards total
again in this game, and they had that element that
was back. They were able to run the football. Felipe
Franks comes in in a short yardage situation and gets
back to his quarterback days, pounds his way for a
first down. The run game, I felt like had to
(27:26):
be there in order to let Kirk get back under
center have a little play action. And now they got
to respect it because both of those guys were on
the field quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
And that's a big thing. That's a great point is
how many times the Fox were able to use the
play action to their benefit because you have guys back
there who can run the rock like those two guys,
and I thought they affected the game in the run
game in a way that helped him have some big
plays down the field. I mean the play the cow
pits where you're faking the outside zone and they have
(27:56):
to respect it. You can literally see it. Take the
safety is fifteen yards deep and he is flying up
trying to get there for that outside zone. And the
guys played it really well. And then Kyle leaks out,
goes down the sideline and Kirk comes off and finds
that safety safety flying up. He dumps it to him
perfectly throwing football from Kirk. I love the way you
(28:16):
use Bijon and then you bring in the bowling ball
of razor blades for a whole drive and he just
pounds them and pounds them and gives you a different
feel and you see him get up smiling. That's got
to be the morelizing for a defense because he just
hit you for eight or nine and pounded you and
then boom, here he comes Bjon again. How about the
(28:37):
great call on the screen player's second in Freaking twenty
five and you dump a one yard route to Bjon
and he takes it, you know, thirty forty yards down
the field. I mean, just the way they use those
guys I thought was good. I mean the touchdown, the seals,
you got both guys in the ball game, Bijeon goes
out in motion, you got Tile in the backfield, the confusion.
(28:57):
I mean just I thought Zach did a really good
job of utilizing his personnel. I thought he did a
good job of using formation at times. If you watch
the ballgame, you know there was a lot of thirteen
personnel using his ballgame. But you was able to do
it in the past. Came in a run game, so
there's a lot too. You walk in this, you turn
(29:19):
on the table and say, man, they can do a
lot of different things, well, a lot of different personnels
with a lot of different formations and hurt you in
multiple ways. So give those guys a lot of credit.
And then also I talked about this probably a couple
of weeks ago, was we needed other guys than just
Drake London to be a factor, and I thought they
shared the wealth in this ballgame. Obviously talked about Drumming
having three catches, his first catch of the game, first
(29:41):
of his career, seals, getting his first touchdown. You had
multiple guys with three catches, multiple guys with two catches,
so you love that. A lot of guys were a
part of the action, and you couldn't just say, all right,
this is the one guy we got to stop. They
distributed and like you said earlier, did a good job
of just distributing the ball to a lot of different guys.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
All of a sudden, the re emergence of Darnell Mooney
too right. And Mooney's first catch in the game was
off of play face throw that comeback down the sideline.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
You talk about a catch.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Now he goes down there on his ankles to make
the grab.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
I thought that who was his?
Speaker 4 (30:14):
That was his best catch easily of this year, and
then it seemed to spark him. But to Shock's point,
seven of nine in play action for one hundred and
seventeen yards you know Kirk through for right at two
hundred yards. Well, you took advantage of those opportunities. And
I thought that, you know, give the guys up front
trying to simulate run because we talked about how play
(30:36):
action sometimes the offensive lines not showing play action, so
guys are bailing out of there.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I thought they did a much better job of kind
of showing run action.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
All right, fellas, I turned my page over here to
the next on our list for the show, which happened
to be turning the page to the New York Jets.
That's the next on the docket here.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
So before we go to can we put out one
last thing? I'm leaving but not need Here's where I'm surprised.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Because judge you, you know we need you.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Because we talked offense and defense, but there was another
factor in this ball game that was which score points?
I thought I thought was pretty in this building last year.
Come on, I mean the third phase of the game.
And we talked about earlier how they missed a couple
kicks in the ball game. My man Zane knocking through
a couple of fifty yarders. Yes, Mike Ford is an animal,
(31:25):
and special team aid me agnew with some nice returns
in the ball game. I mean that that's a part
of the game too. That's really special. When you get
that change field position, you're knocking down fifty yarders. That
demoralizes the team as well. But I thought that third
phase rack was big too.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah, don't you have to go back to like Morton
Anderson more last time you've had multiple fifty plus yard
field goals game. I believe you got to go back
aways for that, so Zane really to erase the memory
of what had happened to your CoA because you.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Didn't do that.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
You know, had the one breakout on the kickoff return,
but the defense said, you know what, we got you back.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
You've got a complimentary football. But credit to Keazan Gonzales.
Raheem Morris actually gave him a game ball in the
locker room afterwards, because this team has been desperate for
a kicker to just go out there and have a
lights out game, and now we need to see that
week after week after week. And maybe he's a Gonzales
will get some opportunities this week against the Jets. So fellas,
let's talk a little bit about the New York Jets.
(32:23):
Obviously a team that has been struggling in their own
right this year two to nine, coming off of a
loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Arch give us a little
background as far as kind of what's going on with
Aaron Glenn and the New York Jets. I mean, they've
they've had issues with justin fields. They've turned the page
of Tyrod Taylor. Still have a really good running back
in the backfield, elite wide receiver on the outside. But
what is Atlanta going to see or what are the
(32:44):
fans going to see when the Falcons face off.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
Well, you're going to see a team that wants to
run the football. I mean, if you go back and
look at their last couple of tapes, they've used twelve
and thirteen personnel. They want to try to get after
you up front. Breece Hall of course, former Iowa State
cyclonic Breecee is the is the belt cow there. But
they've got three guys that can run it. So Isaiah
Davis is a guy that can run it. And Braylan Allen,
who's who's been hurt. I think he's only played seven
(33:09):
games this year. He's been a little bit banged up,
but they've got three guys that can run the rock.
Plus you've got a quarterback and Justin Field should he play,
he can run the rock. And in Tyrod Taylor, who's
been around a long time, he can still take off
if he needs to. They run the conventional college zone.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Reed.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
They ran it this weekend against Baltimore and they're lost
to Baltimore. So you're gonna see, uh, some of that
college influence in the run game. On the other side
of the ball. I mean really, that's where you know,
that's where coach Glenn gets his breads is you know,
his butter's breaded or his bread his butter, bread butter.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Thank you. Easy for me to say, that's why you
host the show.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
But they're still playing pretty good defensive football guys. And
and I and I talked to Oldbrick about, you know,
getting back to Diablo and what Diablo brought to the table.
He trying to find jam And Sherwood. That's who's one
of the linebackers who now has one hundred and two
tackles or Quincy Williams, who has you know, ninety tackles.
(34:11):
What those are the two guys he was trying to
find to plug into this defense because I asked him,
I said, Wow, Diablo is a perfect fitty because I
had two of those guys in New York and so
he has great respect for who they are defensively, and
they're still playing at a good level defending the pass
pretty well. They've been pushed around a little bit in
the run game. Obviously, Quinn Williams no longer there traded away,
(34:32):
so that's a little bit of a gap in there,
but they they're gonna pride themselves on playing good defense
and they've been really close. Shock how many close games
does this team lost? I mean, whether four or five
one score games they've they've come up with the short
end of stick.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, And that was kind of the same theme for
the Falcons going up into this last game is not
finding a way to come away with a win. So
they've been in that struggling situation where teams are just
trying to fight their way out of a hole. Shak.
This question is kind of a simple layup question.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Is this one.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
About what the Jets are gonna do or is this
one about what Atlanta needs to do themselves.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
I think it's a little bit of both, obviously, But
I think you look back at the way this team
played last week, it felt like more about the Falcons,
more about their execution, more about them playing as one.
And you just mentioned it. Playing complimentary football that travels,
that goes anywhere, being able to run the football that travels,
taking care of the football, getting sacks. Those are all
(35:28):
things that regardless of your opponent, that equals probably a
win for you. So I think more than anything, if
this team goes out and plays the way they are expected,
which is within this building, they feel like that's the
kind of performance they should have every week. And we've
talked about it. They've been in a bunch of one
score ball games this year, just haven't been able to finish.
So I tell you this team has been there regardless
(35:49):
of the opponent. They played really good teams, play teams
who maybe not have really good records, but they have
found ways to at the end of ball games not
finish them. Well. On last Sunday, you just found the
way to go finish a ball game. And I think
that comes down to you doing what you need to
do to go within a ball game. And yeah, the
Jets are gonna pose a couple of issues for you.
I mean, just talked about a couple guys on the
(36:11):
defense side of the ball who are game records. You
gotta know what those guys are, Guys who can really
force the issue when it comes to maybe you in
the run game offensively. Brece Hall is a guy who
you gotta worry about in the run game and the
past game. If you go out there and say, you
know what, we're not worried about this cyclone doing, We're
just gonna you know, guess what he go. He gonna
(36:31):
hit you for a big day on the ground and
in the air. So yeah, you gotta go in prepare
for certain guys. But the end of the day, what
you've done, what you've shown is if you executed the
level that you're supposed to, ultimately that's enough to go
win your ball game. And I think that's possible. All right.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
So to finish up for fellas, we're gonna do our
keys to the game. Everybody's I'm gonna start here that way.
I give you think about it before you guys take
over and host the show without it. Yeah, it's from
Dave Archer, guys, because I saw it last week and
(37:07):
I felt like that's what needs to continue is minimizing
explosive plays on defense. I think when this defense is
able to keep everything in front of them, they are
able to go eat as the kids say, right, But
what happens is, all of a sudden, if you get
broken tackle, forty yard run, if you get fifty eight
yard pass like now, it's kind of like everything's reeling right,
(37:31):
like we're trying to we gotta give they got great
field position, like everybody's got to refocus, and then all
of a sudden, you look up and they score a touchdown.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I feel like if they minimize explosive plays, keep everything
in front of them, and then they can just attack, attack, attack, attack.
That's what we saw last week against New Orleans. I
think good things are gonna happen, and I'm looking forward
to seeing that the defense can stack another positive.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
Performance on the top of it last week.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Arch.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
What is your key to this game?
Speaker 4 (37:57):
I think that I'm gonna look to You're going to
go outside and you and it's supposed to be the
weather's not supposed to be great up there. I think
that they're talking about the high forties rain. It seems
like every time we go. We played in New York
at rains. But and we've had some brutal games up there.
Remember when Matt Ryan had to take snaps from the
shotgun because he couldn't get the snaps under center. It
(38:18):
was just I mean, so you get some nasty weather
up there in Jersey, so at this time of year,
So I'm going to talk about ball security. I think
that Atlanta has been really good over the last few
weeks with the sacks and the takeaways, right, and they've
done a very good job of taking care of the football. Now,
all of a sudden, you're outside and our guys, for
(38:40):
whatever reason, haven't had to deal with that very much.
And so you've got guys that are going to carry
the football. But Jon has had to ball punched out
a couple of times. Tyler's been pretty good about taking
care of the ball. We've had a tough time catching
the football in a couple of positions, and so the
weather and wind and a little bit of rain is
going to accentuate that. So I'm spending the ball security
(39:02):
in catching you know, catch the football when it comes
to you. So just taking care of the ball and
then obviously getting it out. Can you get it out
from the jets, So that that's kind of where I'm leaning.
It's not obviously you can say turnovers, because turnovers would
be a key every time. There's two teams that have
sub five hundred records during the top ten in giveaway takeaway,
Atlanta's one of them. Atlanta's ranked eighth in the league
(39:23):
at plus five giveaway takeaway, and that's provided you opportunities
to be close. Now, you haven't been able to finish
until this last weekend, but that's going to give you
an opportunity to win the game.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
So I'm gonna go that route with shock, which you got,
I like it. I like it what you got for me.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
I think a big kid in this ball game is
forcing Tyrod or whoever's playing quarterback to win from the pocket.
And I think we've shown that Billy Baby, get after
the quarterback with four, with five, whatever it is, I
think we can win those lists. Maybe get to the
quarterback where you don't want either of these guys to
be as outside the pocket creating and they can do
with their legs. And sometimes as a guy who was
(39:58):
athletic like this, sometimes you feel comfortable outside that pocket too.
And you made a lot of plays when you were
trying to create or guys weren't plastering. I think you're
good enough on the back end to if you just
rush four, you rush three, whatever it is to be
able to cover up the back end. Like you just mentioned,
the offered played really well, is really good on it.
He's gonna be a guy that's gonna be in that
spot this week, bro, probably for the rest of the season. Obviously,
(40:19):
aj coming back was a big deal. Hughes watch got
his you know what, he had third pick of the
ball game of the season. So I think you got
some guys who are definitely capable if you have to
just rush three or four, which leaves you more covered.
So I think forcing those guys to play for within
the pocket. Of these guys are really accurate throwing the football.
I think Tyrod's around sixty one percent. And you know,
(40:40):
obviously Justin's had a tough jime throwing the football. This
is a pass offense that's thirty second in the NFL,
only averaging one hundred and forty five yards a game.
So if you can force him to try to beat
you from the pocket, I think you feel good about that,
and they'll give you a few two So let's force
those guys to stay within the pocket, great Russian integrity
(41:01):
and just go get to quarterback like we've already been
doing rock real quickly.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
A piece that I'm interested in from your perspective, having
been a big part of the special teams units for here,
is when you get a team like the Jets, what
are they two in ten, two and nine something along
those lines. Okay, And so from a trade stamp, they've
done a lot of stuff up there, so they're setting
the table for and they're looking to next season, right, Okay,
(41:26):
they've already been eliminated from the playoffs and those kind
of things. So how dangerous does that make Aaron Glenn's team,
especially on special teams where some of the Shenanigans stuff
you can pull there.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yeah, this is one of those games where you have
to go in and expecting something like that fake punt,
fake field goal, some type of like a reverse, a
throwback on kickoff return. Maybe like these are all the
times when they always say like nothing to lose, right,
or maybe this is something that they've been thinking about
all season long, and it's like, you know what, let's
(41:59):
just let a rip now. So even though Atlanta has
had some issues on that third phase of the game. Right,
whether it's been big returns or it's been the missed
field goals, this is one of those where you definitely
got to be on your p's and q However, they
can create an advantage for themselves, right if things are struggling,
like maybe it's a fourth and five that they decide
(42:19):
that they're going to go for it, or you get
some type of center head bob on a punt team
trying to get just trying to get a little free
penalty right to get him a first down.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
You just never know.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
These It's a great point. These are the type of game. Yeah,
absolutely we have those head bob on two.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Anytime it was.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Fourth and four, fourth you never did that.
Speaker 5 (42:41):
Yeah, just you know, kind of move of a little
finger on top of the football or something I experience nothing,
all right.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Three keys of the game Racks was limited explosive plays,
arch was ball security potentially in the elements. And shocks
was let's force these quarterbacks to win from the pocket.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I think if we look.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
Back next week, look back at those three, if they
succeed there, maybe falcons come away. All Right, A couple
of things before we go First of all, everybody, Happy
Thanksgiving week, have a very very happy Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving you
enjoy some football, and maybe if you are bored on
Thanksgiving you want to listen. Rack will be on the
call for the Cowboys and the Chiefs from Dallas, so
(43:25):
I'll be there on national radio with west Wood one Sports. Otherwise,
sit down on your TV after your second or your
third helping of Thanksgiving meal and enjoy NFL football.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
All right.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Also, I've got a note here that Pro Bowl voting
begins this week too, so make sure log on vote
for Dave Archer, Pro Bowl radio team broadcaster John Robinson,
maybe Mike Ford on special teams, maybe Xavier Watts.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
All right, vote for.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Trouble.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Voting opens this week. Let's help them get that honor
to get to the Pro Bowl. And of course, in
order to follow us like us comment all you all
the ways that you get your podcast material.
Speaker 2 (44:13):
Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Is the Falcons Autum presented by AT and T once again.
Happy Thanksgiving week, everybody, and hopefully we're back here next
week recapping another when.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
We do it, go ahead, chalk, oh there we go.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
Let men, all right, we'll see you guys, enjoy Thanksgiving,
see you next week.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
How can you have cleano fashion hate during Thanksgiving Week
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.