September 10, 2025 • 50 mins
Derek, Dave, and DJ are back to breakdown the Atlanta Falcons 23-20 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. From Michael Penix Jr.'s performance to the special team struggles, thee guys give their thoughts as to where the game was won and lost. They then turn the page to Sunday Night Football vs the Minnesota Vikings and where the Falcons will have to improve in order to come away with a W.
0:00 - Intro
1:56 - Biggest takeaways from Week 1
9:08 - Michael Penix Jr.'s performance
20:54 - Special Teams struggles
29:28 - Slow start for the run game
35:00 - Turning the page to Minnesota
43:50 - Where the game will be won
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
We've been told that we are the big boys in town.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
He's into it. I'm telling me. He is like to
start great.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Yeah, I can get chills a little bit thinking about
what these two guys can do.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
This is the Falcon's audible, presented by AT and T.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
And look who we got back in the house.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Appreciate you guys, say you guys, miss call me. I
love the present.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You're welcome, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Thanks?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Did we call you off?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Sometimes I kind of turn the page.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You got that going on? You know you different?
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Yes? Yeah, he said we lost you.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I said, I think I tried to come back and
say we didn't really got some stuff.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
So that's sixty on the anniversary right there. Yeah, sixtieth
anniversary right there. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Uh, of course, Dave Archers here, I'm here Derek ractly,
we're here, We're gonna here, and.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We're gonna get right into it.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
We're gonna talk about, unfortunately, a Falcons loss to Tampa Bay.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
As we all know, these games against Tampa Bay at
least recently have been barnburners. Falcons won both of them
last year, but they both came down to the wire.
This one came down to the wire again. Guys, there's
so many things that we can take away from this.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But let's DJ.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Since you were gone last week, I'm gonna start with
you and let's get kind of your overarching thought.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, hey, you don't.
Speaker 6 (01:39):
You don't get to eat right, I'll expect to say,
all right, here we go back.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Let's go take a minute.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Hey, that's why I looked at Hey. You said it's
go take a minute. I do you have a time
around here? So ready?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
All right, DJ, your overarching thoughts on the game and go.
Speaker 6 (01:56):
Like you mentioned, there were a lot of things that
you could point to in his ball and good or bad.
She could say, okay, but I was excited one to
see the group of guys who we all been wanting
to see go out and play.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
And that's on both sides. Of the ball. Obviously, it starts.
Speaker 6 (02:13):
With Mike and Michael Pennick Junior and the way he played.
I mean, we're gonna get into all the good things
he did. Some of the things that I know he
was a couple of throws he wanted back. But I
think when you look back at the totality of the game,
a lot of things that well, not a lot of things.
A couple of things that stuck out was didn'ibillity bey
to run the football was a big deal.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
You thought coming in that wouldn't be an issue. You
thought you be abele run the football. And now we did,
you know, maybe have a little extra runs to the
left as opposed to the right at times considering what
we had going on.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
But I also thought in this ball game, the thing
that stuck out to me was a bunch of the
hidden yards in this game that hurt us. And on offense,
you look at some of the penalties early down situations
that put you behind the change. Now you're fighting trying
to get back into manageable situations. Defensively, I thought, uh,
Baker's ability to be able to get outside the pocket.
I thought you did a good job of you know,
(03:04):
pushing the pocket, getting around and putting pressure on him
and then he finds ways to escape and extend and
that kind of hurts you at times too. And then, uh,
the third phase of it was just you know, I
thought that the punt returns, you know, those were the
hidding yards you think about on there that that hurts you.
That gave them great fields just to give them opportunity
to go score points. But there's so many other things
(03:26):
that you can think about. But when you talk about
just things that popped my brain right away, those are
some of the things that's kind of stuck out right
away from.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Me that actually wasn't bad. It was only a minute
a half.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Then you yeah, very concise.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Away.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Two things I'll point out and then are trying to
get your over arching thoughts is number one I will
say as a former uh Special teams player, it was
it was not a good Special teams performance. I think
it's it's sometimes you got to call spade a spade.
Uh Raheem Morris was asked about it yesterday, not only
the kicking game, but the Special teams overall, and he
was he was up for honest about it, and it's
not an area that Atlanta usually struggles is on special teams,
(04:04):
and it's got to be better. And that's some of
that hidden yardage that you talked about. But Arch, one
of my three keys to the game last weekend was
a clean, fundamental performance. And what I meant by that
is week one of the season, especially when you don't
play a lot of starters in the preseason, are basically
any is you can expect or you try to avoid
the sloppy play, the false starts, the holding penalties, all
(04:28):
of the things that back you up behind the chains.
And I know Elijah Wilkinson had a couple of false starts,
and those penalties sometimes are hard to overcome, especially when
you have a younger quarterback and you have a running
game that was uncharacteristically not on What was your kind
of overarching thoughts about this. I know I'm using that
word and it's part.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Of your last nice and I thought that was a
really tough ask of you last year or last week.
I thought one of your keys was clean football. Can
we play clean football? Eight penalties fifty five yards? That
makes you kind of herky jerky on the offensive side
of the football. So I thought it was a tough
ask another one of your ass was to win the
(05:06):
line of scrimmage and didn't really do that either. Obviously
weren't able to run the football, so you had two
areas that we needed to excel in and didn't get
it done. So I thought that was a really good
point on your Partrack just the the overall feel to it.
First game of the year. You're looking for, as you mentioned,
(05:27):
some clean play, but you're also looking for some of
those guys to kind of step forward that you're gonna
be able to hang your hat on. Jon Robinson was
one of those guys that we knew that we're going
to need to hang our hat on, not that you
hoped you're going to be able to do that. And
I thought it didn't take long and guys, you guys
were in the building the third play of the game,
when Pennix looks to take a shot, play, reads it
(05:50):
out properly, dumps it into the right flat to be
Jon Robinson, and he goes fifty for a touchdown and
the roof blows off the building. I'm staying I don't
normally get up and I'm staying beat on the window
and stuff. It was an incredible play. Those are some
of the things that you'd hope to see. We had
talked about home run plays and things like that. That
was something that stuck out to me Pennix's play, and
(06:12):
I know we'll dive in deeper into Pennock's play. I
thought he was extremely poised and did some really good stuff,
especially late in the football game, to be a chance
to win. And I thought that there's some undue criticism
from my perspective that's falling on the defense.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
This was a.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Defense that gave up eighteen plays of fifteen yards or
more in the last two games against Tampa.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
They gave up four on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Okay, unfortunately two of them were touchdowns, and one of
them is probably a play that if you go back,
Xavier Watts just takes the wrong angle. He's in the
proper position to make a play on the ball goes
over his head, and of course they took advantage of
Jesse Bates's aggressiveness and threw over the top for a touchdown.
But this is a defense that gave up two hundred
(06:56):
and sixty yards of total offense. Tampa was number three
in the league offense last year, and they were held
under three hundred yards three times all last season. You
held them to two hundred and sixty yards. That's to
my my, my impression in the explosives. You add that in,
that's winning football.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, you know, And I.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Think that some of that gets gets brushed in he
because we end up losing the football game and there
was some dysfunction potentially on the offensive side. But those
are kind of some of the over eyeing things that
kind of stuck in my mind.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, and I think the couple things from the defensive
side that I want to throw into it and then
we'll get to some other things. Is we talked about
the storyline of Godwin not playing for Tampa and that
was going to be a quote unquote loss for them.
But on the pregame show, I was telling Taylor Viismore,
I said, a Mecca Buka is the real deal. Okay,
so don't think that without Godwin playing that they're going
(07:48):
to take a huge step back because a Mecca Buka
has played in the most pressure environments that you could
kind of draw up in college football and he had
some of the best success of any Ohio state wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Okay, guy, come off a national championship. I kind of knew.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I had a feeling in my head that he was
going to slide in and fill that role of god
Win pretty easily. But the other thing that I thought
was impressive is, Guys, Mike Evans is eleven straight seasons
over one thousand yards and he had four excuse me,
five catches for fifty one yards in this game. You'd
think that, Okay, maybe Godwin is out, that Evans is
going to go off right, Well, they kept him under
wraps number one, number two in the first half. I'm
(08:26):
on my headset with the guys down in the control
room and I'm just kind of talking about what I see.
And the one thing that I noticed about the defense, guys,
is it looked faster. The defense looked like they had
a little bit extra juice to him this year. And
I'm going to point out Devine Diablo. I liked what
I saw out of him, the way that he filled holes,
the way that.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
He ran side to side.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I think I think he's only going to make cayd
and Ellis better this year because now they've got another
inside linebacker that can can control in between the tackles
and let Caden Ellis kind of Bekiden nellis, play.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Behind the line of scrimmage, play on the line of GrimAge.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So those were some positives before we kind of dive
into what went bad. DJ, I think we should talk
about some of the positives. And you guys talked about
Michael Pennox Junior. Again, I'm on the set here with
two quarterbacks. I feel like were his first performance in
twenty twenty five, when all the expectations were on his shoulders,
was pretty darn good. What did you make of his performance.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
When you look at you know, I go back to
when Raye Morris first got here and when we were
all talking about looking for a quarterback. We knew that
was one of the top priorities for this organization. And
the first thing that ray Moore said was we want
a guy who is an elite processor. And I think
in this game we saw a guy who processed information
(09:42):
at the highest level and did it in that amount
of time. I thought he was accurate. I thought he
did a good job of taking what the defense gave
him when he took take checkdowns. I thought he showed toughness.
I thought that he showed the athleticism, showed a little juice,
showed a little you know, Moxie about him inside the pocket.
I thought they were plays that we're out there and.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
He made him.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
I remember one particular throw a guy's barreling down on
him and he lets it go, throws his corner out
the casey washing it on the fire sideline, and gets
right back up and goals. But I thought he did
a good job of handling the biggest moments of the
game the best. And you're talking about situationally, third down,
you're talking about at the end of the ball game,
when time is you know of the essence, and you
(10:24):
know certain situations where all right, I remember it's eleven
seconds on the clock, and you know, you're like, all right, role,
you're gonna you're gonna really go for this right now.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know what I'm saying. We were in range, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
And but the wheldfall for him to know, all right,
this ball's got to go either to the sideline or
it's got to go in the end zone. And obviously
we know. So one he throws at Candeill Hodge and
obviously we don't come up with it, but it gives
you an opportunity. I thought he did a good job
of one getting the football out of his hands, which
was you know, in this game, we talked about the front,
talking about how good they were defensively, all the things
(10:56):
that Todd Bowles does to you, and he let the
football go get his guy is a chance to make
plays with it down the field. But you're talking about
decision making. Was number one. Didn't turn the ball over.
You throw a forty some times, you don't turn it over.
That's a big deal. Wasn't in harm ways did a
really good job of running this offense, and it didn't
look like, oh yeah, he didn't play in preseason.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I thought he did really what.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
I thought he looked really good without having those quote
unquote preseason game set to play in. So he was
a guy that you say, you know what, you got
some And I heard Baker Mayfield tell him out of
the game, you're gonna be a dude in his league
for a long time. And the way you played shows
you know, diviidens and you know, I think that's why
a lot of people were excited about this team coming in.
(11:40):
And if you're out here, you've ever seen him in practice,
you knew there was a little something different about that dude.
Number nine, and you know he gave you a chance
in that ball, and that's all you can ask for.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Yeah, let's throw a share in on top of it
or rack and great points about what Pennix was in
this game, and you kind of knew what you had
and mature guy that had played a lot of ball
prior to getting here got the three games a year ago.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
But let's give some credit to TJ.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yates.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Let's give some credit to Zach Robinson in talking him
through some of this stuff and practicing some of it
out on the field, because you're exactly right. Shock I said, Okay,
there's eleven seconds left in the clock, and I'm trying
to explain to the to the audience that I'm talking
to on radio, you don't have enough time for the
ball to be completed in bounds and rush up and
kill it. That's going to take somewhere between twelve and
(12:27):
fifteen seconds. You don't have enough time to kill it.
This is a real gamble. He's got to understand that
he can't throw it, and what's he do comes back
and his only look is to keep the safety in
the middle field. He's going to take a shot to
Cadarill hodge down the left sideline and he makes.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
A really good thrust.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
If Kadarrel didn't get bumped a little bit at the
top of the route, he may have a chance to
catch at in the back corner of the end zone.
But he understood the situation. And I think a lot
of it is Pinnis, but a good bit of it
is also the coaching in the preparation they gave the
young quarterback to say, hey, we trust you in these situations.
Let's keep this in mind. And Raheem he told me
(13:05):
yesterday on his radio show. He said, Hey, they kicked
me off the field because I was yelling out, hey,
remember the clock, remember what's going on. So they were
reminders right up the tea and you knew Zach Robinson
was in his ear as well. So I think that
a lot of teamwork went into that with Pennicks operating
the way he did. But give Michael his due man,
the dude played his played as were end off.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
One thing we knew going into the game, going into
his career, if you will, is he was going to
be different when it comes from a athleticism standpoint. And guys,
the two scrambles that we saw was enough to show
me that he's got it like here, like he wants
to win.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
The one that was initially ruled short, they over They
went back and they reviewed it and the effort from
him laying out legs, stay off the ground, reaching the
ball across they thought it got knocked out, he still
had possession of it clearly over the line.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And then the rushing touchdown. Same thing.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
It's just like understanding the moment, right, we talk about
situationally smart quarterbacks and.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
He's like, I don't like it. I don't like it.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I got you right.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It's a little bit of that Josh Allen right, like, hey,
if it's not there, I trust my athleticism to make
a play.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
And I don't think people understand how real that is
that you're talking about, because there are times where you're
in that pocket and it's it's crunch time.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
This is third, fourth down, and things are.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Happening so fast. It's so easy to just panic in
that moment and throw it up to a guy or
or throw it away or you know, just get ad
you in the pocket. There are times where you can
feel that way and to see him as cool as ever, Oh,
here comes pressure. Let's get out of here. And that's
what it looked like he did. It was like, all right,
guy comes off the edge. I gotta get outside. And
(14:48):
I don't know if you if people saw it, but
there was an extra gear on that fourth down to
get around that corner and go lunch for that first down.
The effort to keep both knees up on that fourth
down and standing that football to get in his zone.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Come on, man, that's different.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, the ironic for me, guys, and I know you
guys will remember these plays. If you go back to
Michael Pennix, as I believe a freshman in Indiana.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
He gets out of the pocket early in.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
The season against Penn State, penn State, highly ranked, goes
to the corner. He actually gets hurt on the play,
but dives of the pylon very similar. It immediately hit
me as he got out of the pocket that I
knew he was going to go for the pylon, and
I thought, oh no, no, no, don't get banged up it,
don't get hurt. But he makes this play no hesitation
on his part at all to go get that and
then well and then go and then the other piece
(15:38):
of the irony is when he gets through the pocket
on fourth down and lays out.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
I immediately go back to three.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Michael Vick laying out against Carolina and elevates. It was
like Superman diving through the air to get in the end.
So Wes even talked about it on the raid we
have we haven't seen anything like that since Michael Vick.
And for his presence of mind to get that hand down,
not let the touch and break the plane, there's a
there's an unawareness and that's what you were talking about, Shaq,
(16:06):
an awareness of him that belies how much playtime he
has in this league. And I think, Wow, You're You're
in a really good place, Atlanta with your quarterback. There's
no question about that. This kid is he's a kid,
but he's a.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Man, a guy, very mature, younger quarterback.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
The last thing I wanted to say about Michael Pennix
is I was listening to the press conference yesterday and
one of the reporters asked the question to Raheem Morris
about do you go into a game with an idea
in mind? How many times you want to throw it
right with a young quarterback? And I love this question
because and this is there's no disrespect, but like to me,
it's like you haven't been in a locker room before,
you'd ever game planned before, You've never been in the
(16:45):
fire before. Because what happens is sometimes you got to
get completely off script to win a game.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Okay, yeah, you may not dial up forty two passes
initially coming into it, but sometimes the game dictates what
you have to do that. And guess what you remember
is that he was a first round pick. Yeah, there's
a reason why he was a first round pick because
everybody in this organization had that much confidence in his
(17:10):
ability as a passer, as a quarterback, as a decision maker,
as an elite process.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
I think the number one example that sticks out to
me right now as we sit here and you say
that is he's talking to Arch after the game. I mean,
Art's asking him that exact same question. Oh, you know,
you guys had to throw up more. He probably wanted to,
you know, the run game wasn't there? You know, was
that a kind of a goal objective as you guys
go in And the one thing he said was we
(17:37):
just want to win the game. So that tells you
whatever it takes run pass, we didn't come to the
game thinking I had to throw it forty some times.
We didn't think we had to come to the game
and run it forty five times. Whatever it is, we're
gonna do it to win the ball game. And I
think that speaks volumes for how his mind is. And
it doesn't matter what it takes to get the job done,
you're gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Every coaching staff in the NFL is gonna tell you
that if you throw it forty to forty five to
fifty times a game, something is going to happen, right
like you're putting the ball in harm's way. I don't
care if you're Michael Pennock junior year Tom Brady, you
throw it fifty times a lot of times, mistakes are
going to happen sometimes.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Did we hear that from coaches?
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Kate, you put the ball in the earth, three things
are going to happen to them are bad.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
But the fact that you have a quarterback in this
organization that you feel like, hey, we can throw it
forty two times. We have the confidence this early in
the season to do it. Now, they came up short.
But sometimes you have to extrapolate the good, even out
of a losing performance. One thing I did want to
mention before we kind of turn gears a little bit.
John Robinson in the passing game was lights out once again.
(18:40):
He actually did have the one drop, and his numbers
would have been even better it coming out of the backfield.
He's electric in open space. He makes catching look easy
and I would hate to be a defender trying to
tackle him. You and I were talking about this but
before halftime.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
His ability to break people's ankles unbelievable.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
And you know, the big stat that comes up is
how many mistackles he had last season and all this
kind of stuff and continues. We were talking about that
at halftime. And then the other guy that I think
deserves a little credit in this Filly in for Darnell
movie was Casey Washington.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
How many big third down catches he had?
Speaker 6 (19:12):
There was one, Well, he runs a hit right outside
and the balls a little bit off and he snags
that thing come across. I mean, just an unbelievable job
of Casey stepping into those spots. Even banged up a
couple times in the game. But you know, not having
Mooney out there was you know, obviously not ideal, but
it's a reason why they feel good about Casey Washington.
We saw a couple of instances in the ball game
where he stepped up and made catches for you too.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I know we're gonna talk about some things that didn't
go well and they're gonna have to they're gonna have
to fix to get ready for Minnesota. But let's give
credit where credits To've been a lot of conversation about
Kyle Pitts and what Kyle Pitts is going to bring
to the table. I thought, you know, Drake gets banged
up a little bit late in the game, Casey was
a little wounded it. I thought Kyle stepped up big
time late in the game. He made some really good plays,
(19:54):
made a nice stiff arm on a guy, got went
and got a first down. Seven catches I think fifty
eight yards for Kyle Pitts. He saves his best for
Tampa for whatever reason. I think he had some twelve
catches a year ago for almost two hundred yards and
two touchdowns against the two in the two games against Tampa,
but I thought Kyle understood the situation and stepped up
(20:14):
for his quarterback to make some play, So that bodes
well moving forward.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
I don't know how you stiff dude who's squared up
on you, right at you.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
That was unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Get off me, like shockly.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I think I also saw Derek Henry do that on
Sunday Night Football, but he's just a different animal altogether,
so we won't go there.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Well, I also I saw him lay the ball on
the ground too, so.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Those those were some of the positives. But gentlemen, we
we gotta be honest and we gotta we gotta discuss
why the Falcons ended up losing this game because of
areas of concern, areas that need to be cleaned up
in quite frankly, areas that were not good enough. And
I'm going to start this conversation because this is where
I made my career and I talked about it is
that special teams was not good enough, from the return
yardage to giving away yards on kicks and and also
(21:01):
the kicking game. And it's I mentioned it earlier. Raheem
Morris had to answer questions for about the first six
minutes of his press conference about the kicker situation. Guys,
this is a what have you done for me lately?
Speaker 5 (21:16):
League?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Okay, I lived it, you guys lived it even more
so in the specialist position. And I feel like I'm
somewhat qualified to answer this or talk about it because
a lot of coaching staffs will have players like Jeff
Ulbrick okay, that played the game, played it at a
high level, and coached positions that he played, so they
(21:40):
know the good, the bad, the mental struggles, the physical struggles,
so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Very rarely, very rarely.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Does any coaching staff have a former kicker, former punter,
or former long snapper. Okay, those guys are human too,
They have their mental struggles. Many other physicians have coaches
that can help players work through mental struggles. Most coaches
have no idea of any of the mechanics, technique, and
(22:09):
fundamentals of being a specialist. And I'm not making any excuses,
and young Waiku is not going to make any excuses because.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
He knows what his job is.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I knew what my job was was to snap the
ball and needed to be near perfect every single time.
Or guess what, they go find somebody else.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
I think that's a good point, and I would love
to throw it back at you because Archie and I
play quarterback. We have a bad throw. We throw it
in the ground on first time. I guess what we
can come back on second. Now we can try to
get You know, we had an all game to try
to get it right. You guys have one opportunity to
do that in that particular sequence. How do you mentally
(22:46):
get yourself locked in on that one opportunity, because if
you messed that one opportunity up is magnified more than
the sixty plays that we have in a ball game.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
How do you flush it out of your mind?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
This is one of those guys that, to me, it
just goes back to how much confidence do you have
in yourself right, Because once you start doubting yourself, then
all those negative things start coming into your mind right,
and you get to a pressure moment and you instead
of thinking about I'm gonna drill this and I'm gonna
tie the game, I'm gonna win the game, I'm gonna
(23:17):
knock doun what I s We saw a fifty nine
yarder from Minnesota last night, Jeu. There's no way that
Reker makes that if he doesn't have the utmost confidence
in his ability, his kicking stroke, and everybody else around
him to do that. The moment you have some doubts
about oh gosh, this is to tie the game, or
I missed one against this team last year, or for
(23:38):
some reason, I'm always pulling it left or I'm pushing
it right. Whatever it is, whatever that thought is that
comes into your mind. As a long snapper, I don't
know if this one's gonna be at his knees or
at his shoulders. If you're a punter, am I gonna
kick this ball out of bounds? Or am I gonna
kicked this fifty with a five second.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Hang time the moment you start going thinking about all that,
it's over. It's over this.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
So it's so interesting Rack that I know what you're
talking about, the mental piece of it, And people say, well,
you just flushed that out of your mind.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
You move on to the next one.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Yeah, but like what Shock's talking about, if I throw
onto the sideline, it's almost picked off or is picked
off the next time. I might not be as willing
to tell you, but I've got a guy in a
flat I can dump it. Or I got to look
at a crossing and kind of get myself restarted again.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
You don't get that opportunity to get.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
The crossing route.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeah, you don't get to restart that, So flushing that
out of your mind and just to go into the game.
If you go into the game, for young way, remember
the extra point prior to the kick, kisses the right
upright and kicks in. So okay, I'm thinking, okay, I
got that one a little bit right, I flushed. Can
I flush that out of my mind and get back
(24:42):
to the rhythm that he hit the first two with right?
And so there is that. Okay, I don't get a
chance to kind of feel my way back to it
like we would, you know. And I'm not trying to
make excuses for the kicker. They had a tough time
last year. Some of that was injury related, but it
is so what have you done for me lately?
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Business? And certainly Atlanta's looking at that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So what I'll add to it is, I'm sure there's
a lot of viewers and listeners that are watching and
hearing us, and they're saying, that's all fine and dandy, guys.
I enjoy what you're saying, and I appreciate everything that
you're talking about the mental side of it. But guess what,
we as fans, we as an organization, we as a
team want to see balls going through the uprights. So
Rahee Morris was very honest about it, and he said,
we're going to create competition there. We're going to bring
(25:25):
some guys in, whether it's young, whether it's old, and
they're going to continue to create competition. And that's just
one of those areas that I think a lot of
fans don't truly understand unless you are in that moment
right is, and a lot of people don't have any sympathy,
Like I don't care. This guy makes two million dollars
a year. His job is to make kicks. But now
that job and that livelihood is on the line because
(25:47):
this organization needs a kicker that they can count on
to make a field goal, to tie the game, to
win the game, whatever the case may be. You've got
to do as an organization, which you've got to do
to win.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Rec Let me double down real quickly. Twelve of the
sixteen games this weekend were one score game.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Okay, okay, well, and then if.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
You go if extrapolate that out a little bit further.
For he Morris has been the head football coach here
for eighteen games. Thirteen of the games are one score games.
Come on and Atlanta's only won six of the thirteen games.
So you can see how that magnifies this situation as
we've got to get this right and that's what that's
(26:28):
what they're trying to do.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
And even to a lesser degree than what Archer is
talking about. And those numbers were amazing. I mean, it
tells you exactly the margin, how small the question there
is in this league. In this ballgame, the Falcons had
ten drives. How many drives Minnesota had ten? So that
tells you every I mean, as players we talk at
(26:51):
all time, you never know which drive it is because
it may come down to that particular player sequeens to
drive when you come to a ball game. You got
in this ball game, you had the exact amount of
opportunities to win the ball game, Zach montitut's to lose
the ball game. And it just shows you how small
that marginer erea is and how much every single play
matters in a ball game. And the numbers you just
(27:12):
mentioned are amazing. And you think about how each and
every week, how each and every game, how really good
players are in this league, and how good coaches are
in this league that it comes down to one score
game you think about to a ball game and how
many plays you go through it and you get to
it and it comes down to the last two or
three plays of a ball game. I mean, that's it's
(27:33):
an unbelievable thing. You think about that, you know, it
goes a long way. We think about the margin.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Era and that's how important that third down catch in
the first quarter is as much as kicking the kick
that wins it. And everybody wants to go, well, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but it came down to the kick. There was one
hundred and twenty six plays running this game, and that's
why players talk about I've got to play every play
like it's my last play. And I know it's rhetoric
(27:59):
and it's maybe cliched type stuff, but truly, what Shock's
talking about, what the numbers I gave. These games come
down to just one or two plays, and it might
be that sideline catch on third down or a drop
on a slant on first down that puts you in
third medium to extend to drive and you go back
and look, dang, if we'd made that play, we still
(28:19):
have the football. Maybe that's ends up in being a score.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
And it played double ask a little bit.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
Look on the other side of Tampa, they're looking at
this ball game like, if we make our extra point,
if we make our field goal, we're at by seven
going into that last jund we got we got to
force them to do if they make that last extra point,
up by four, and now the foulons think we got
to go score a touchdown. So now the mindset changes
a little bit just because of one score here, one
kick here, one play there. So there are a lot
(28:44):
of things that go into every play in the ball
game that could obviously end up in what happens at
the end.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Up We all know, guys, there's a fifty three man
active roster, and three of those players are a long snapper,
a punter, and a kicker, and they are just as
important as all the other fifty players the team for
situations just like we're talking about right now. So we
have not acknowledged here the head coach, the front office
has acknowledged it. They're going to create competitions. So don't
(29:10):
be surprised if there's a new face in here this
week to compete with young Waykub. That's just the nature
of the beast in the National Football League. You produce,
you win, games, everybody loves you, you end up struggling.
That's when they go try to find a way to
get better, and sometimes getting better as finding new personnel.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Guys. Let's talk a little.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Bit more about the run game, which was an area.
I don't think that we came into this game thinking
was going to struggle. However, we all know Tampa's got
a really good front. They're very well coordinated on the
defensive side of the ball. It wasn't going to be easy.
But even with a new right tackle, you still had
four other guys that have been there for a couple
of years. You had two solid, maybe the best running
(29:49):
back tandem in the National Football League, and still weren't
able to muster anything. Arch when you were watching this
game unfold, where was the struggles in the run game happening?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
I thought it was happening the board rack. Everybody wants
to point d Vida Veya. You know, the guy that's
got his own solar system at six to five, three
hundred and sixty pounds, and he was a problem.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
There ain't no question about it. Okay, this is a dude.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You got a block with like five guys, and we
really have five guys up front. But I thought that
their defensive front came in and played a physical brand
of football. And I'm talking about the front seven. I
thought Servasier Dennis, their linebacker, who's very similar to Vine Diablo,
a guy can run blitz. We know how much you'd
(30:33):
mentioned how much how much Bulls likes to bring his guys.
I thought they played really well in the front seven,
and you might even call it the front eight because
they crowded the line of scrimmage, much like we thought
about Rack. We talked about it last week. Okay, is
Todd Bowles gonna come up and say, hey, you're not
running the ball against us. We're gonna make the young
QB throw at forty plus times to beat us. Because
(30:55):
there was eight man fronts across the board. You go
back and look at the tape. Tyke Smith is in
the box. They've got a dime. They've got a dime.
Say safety in there as well. They're crowd in the box.
They're shooting guys through the gaps, trying to blow up
run schemes.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
I thought they, for the most.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Part, maybe played a little bit more physical than we
did upfront. Now, the guy, the main guy there is
going to be videvea and trying to get him blocked
in the interior. Most people don't have them. This was
the number four run defense of the National Football League
a year ago. They only gave up ninety four yards rushing.
We didn't light them up last year running the football.
If you remember in Week five last year, in a
(31:31):
game we won an overtime with Cadarro Hodges play, we
ran for sixty yards in that game. Well, we ran
for sixty two yards in this game. We just didn't
could not get either guy going. And I think that
I would think that Zach Robinson came in and I
know there as much as we don't. We didn't go
in the plan with a plan that we're going to
throw at forty two times. But I think they had
an idea that the run game was going to kind
of be a change up to try to keep them
(31:53):
somewhat disciplined upfront, and we're going to take shots down
the field. I think that was kind of the plan
coming in. It kind of unfolded that way. I want
to flip it over to the other side. This is
a team at one hundred and sixty yards rushing against
US in Week five. Here a year ago ran for
like two hundred and sixty yards, and the two games combined.
If you take away and you can't, you take away
Baker mayfield scrambles which aren't scheduled runs, they ran for
(32:16):
sixty three yards. This was a team that had Bucky
Irving and Rashad White and guys a run. I know
I'm flipping it away from the offense five, but I
thought either team, and you talked about trench warfare and
the play in there, I thought Atlanta held up really
good against their run game and forced Baker into some
things that he didn't want to have, actually forced him
into some bad throws as well. So I thought both
(32:38):
teams played well against the run. Atlanta had a tough
time from a physicality standpoint, handling their front seven and
maybe got out numbered a number of tens.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
I think what people or fans have to realize or
understand is when you're playing teams that are really good
running the football, you got a group of guys back
in the backfield are really good. The things you want
to do is like muddy to water, and I think
both teams did a good job of muddy in the
water and plugging gaps some of divand Yabolot running through
with a reckless abandon and just clogging things up. And
(33:08):
that gives you fits because now it.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Throws off people. It throws things off.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Just to give people a little just an example, everybody
remembers the big third down play. They try to throw
a screen and Xavier Watch comes back and makes a plug. Unbelievable,
unbelievable play. You look, if you go back and look
at it. Our Edvacatie comes in and he gives just
enough of a nudge on the guard who's going to
(33:35):
go out and block Exavier Wats and throws them off
just a little bit. That little bit of throwing him
off of Muddy in the water a little bit does
allow him to get up on Exavier Wats. And now
Watch recognizes because he hasn't been man coveraged, and he
falls off and makes a play. If he don't make
that play, they got another linement already out in front
of him.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
And it's third and eight already it might be a
house call.
Speaker 6 (33:54):
So you're just talking about small little players here Muddy
in the Water to make yourself, you know, have some
positive plays in it. Now's an unbelievable play by young
rookie recognize understanding. Then other guys find out. But you
never hear about you know what Aby Katie did on
that play In the statu sheet, all you see is,
you know, hey, we got out the field.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
We talked about some of the good plays, We talked
about some of the missed opportunities. I think I've mentioned
this before on our podcast, but one of my college
coaches back in the day, Glenn Mason, used to always
say in every game, there's three to five plays that
generally make the difference in the game. And I think
we've kind of outlined three to five plays that head
the Falcons made there might have been.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
A different result. And that to me is so true.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
You go watch any football game and usually three to
five plays either one team makes or one team doesn't make,
and that ends up drastically affecting the result of the game.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
And what's the part that we're told by coaches all
the time. You and I all said in the meeting,
we don't know what play that's gonna be right, And
we just said, that's one hundred and twenty five plays
running a game.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Better be balling out on.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Every one of them. So these three guys up here.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Could probably sit here and break down this game for
another forty five minutes, But we're gonna ahead and transition
to a prime time matchup for the Atlanta Falcons Sunday
Night Football. They're going to be facing a team that
just came off of a primetime matchup. The Minnesota Vikings
just ended up beating the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.
So Atlanta's going to go up to Minnesota. First thing
I want to talk to you about, Arch is that
(35:22):
you travel with the team, you have been to Minnesota
that one of the major differences they're going to have
this week is one of the most difficult places in
the league to go play as a visiting team.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
It is an unbelievable home field advantage. Rack I think
that it's probably top five in the National Football League.
Speaker 7 (35:40):
They'll blow the horn and then all of a sudden
they start clapping, and all of a sudden, it feels
like they call it the big Viking Ship up there.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
It almost starts to feel like it starts to move. Now, No,
they've got it.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
They've had an incredible home field advantage up there. Give
them credit. That fan base that's a long, long time
fan base. That's the seeing their team go to the Super.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Bowl and lose.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Over the years, when Bud Grant was the coach up there,
they used to play outside at Metropolitan Stadium and it'd
be thirty below zero and they're all there watching the game.
So this is a hardy fan base. Now they play inside.
Now it's a beautiful stadium, but it is a definite
home field advantage. Atlanta has struggled since we've gone up there.
Went up there last year. It was a game that
was twenty one to twenty one in the fourth quarter
(36:28):
and all of a sudden, they started throwing the ball
deep and beat us over the top. And so I
know that it's going to rub the crawl or getting
the craw of the DBS when they watched the tape
from last year.
Speaker 5 (36:38):
As we get ready for.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
This one, now, Shock Atlanta is going to be facing,
especially on the defensive side of the ball, a new
quarterback and JJ McCarthy off of injury. And JJ McCarthy
had a little bit of a slow start in that game,
but he came on in the fourth quarter and having
three touchdowns total in the fourth quarter. So you got
to think he's coming into this game with a lot
of confidence. The way that that game on Monday night
finished up.
Speaker 6 (36:58):
Yeah, I was watching the game last night and I'm like, oh, oh, okay,
first half gonna be all right. It's no taking them
probably about two or three games to get going. And
by the time he get past us, that's when he
started kicking. And then the second half happened, and you
saw him in there lighting it up. You saw him,
you know, stepping in their throwing. You saw him ripping throws.
Big touchdown to Justin Jefferson, big throw to Aaron Jones,
(37:18):
who we know is a big factor. He's similar to
what we got in Bijon, a guy who can catch
out the backfield, can make things happen. Mason was running
hard of the backfield and I mentioned Justin Jefferson got
the old Wilely Vett and Adam thieling TJ Hawks. I mean,
they got some dudes on that officerve side of the ball.
And you know, their head coach has been known to
kind of, you know, rejuvenate quarterbacks. I mean he helped
(37:41):
Kirk Cousins when he went to Minnesota, obviously a big deal.
Sam Darnell was there last year, helped him get a
big lucrative deal to go. You know now who's in Seattle,
and now he's tasked with getting JJ McCarthy, a guy
who we saw last night make some plays with his
legs as well also throwing over the y'all. But you're right,
I thought in the second half he found some compnfidence.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
He found the.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
Swagger of a guy who won a national championship at Michigan.
That tells you this guy is a winner. So it's
gonna be an interesting matchup because he's a guy that's
coming in and just played on Monday night football. Another
primetime game won't phase him at all, and he'll be
excited to get it going because I actually played really
well in the second half. And as a quarterback, that's
(38:20):
the best thing you can have, is Oh, I just
live it up. I can't wait to get back on
the field and do it again. So you got some
guys that believes in him, got a coach that believes
in him, and he stepped up and played some really
good football in the second half to give his team
a chance to win, and ultimately they did.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
All right, let me throw this question at you, is
this game more about the adjustments that Atlanta makes because
everybody says in the National Football League, some of the
big best growth you see in the season is between
week one and week two. Okay, is this game against
Minnesota more about the adjustments and the things that Atlanta
cleans up or some issues that gets presented by Minnesota
(38:57):
that they're going to have to come back? Which one
is it?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Well, it's got to be both, Rack.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
I think you got to combine the both, and I
know you were leading me that way, so very kind
of you to do that. I think that that this
is about obviously getting better and making your adjustment some
of the things you didn't do well, and then getting
ready for what Minnesota is going to present to you.
This is a defense that is not nearly as highly rated,
yet is probably as athletic, maybe not quite as physical.
(39:23):
Up front, they went in and address their interior defensive line.
Javon Hargrave comes over, a guy you probably remember was
on those Philly teams had a double digit sacks and
Philly then got a big deal to go to San
Francisco's now in Minnesota. Jonathan Allen, a guy that'd been
in Washington, comes over to try to solidify their interier
I think they felt like they were being run on
(39:43):
a little bit in the interior, so they went and
got two big time interior guys. But make no mistake,
you'll be hard pressed to find two edge guys that
make more of a difference than Jonathan Gernard and Andrew
van Ginkel. Those two guys combined for twenty three and
a half sacks last year, and they can flat come
off the edge.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
By the way, their secondary had twenty four interceptions last
year and they got a couple from us last year,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
So this is a solid defense.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
They've got a veteran guy at the safety spot in
Harrison Smith who kind of directs traffic and gets everybody
lined up. I think that you're going to have to
adjust to the style they bring. We talked about Todd
Bowles and what Bulls does well get read. Bryan Flores
is pretty good from the defensive coordinator standpoint too. He
likes to heat up and give young quarterbacks a problem.
(40:32):
Atlanta's going to need to run the football they did
last year in this game. I remember they went for
almost one hundred and sixty yards rushing. Both Tyler al
Year and Jean Robinson got going in this game, and
we ran the ball with some success, and then Kirk
actually had a pretty good game other than the interceptions,
through for almost three hundred and fifty yards.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
In the game.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
So we moved the football. It was mistakes Rack, remember
it was a mistake on special teams. It was a
mistake throwing. We threw the football to him a couple
of times. So this was a twenty one to twenty
win game going into the fourth quarter. So I think
it's a combination of what you're talking to. I'd probably
overtalked it there, but I think that I think that
this is a it's a solid group, but it's not
(41:10):
It's not this formidable. It's not the eighty five Bear defense,
which unfortunately I had played against. But you know, everybody
compares them against again, he compares defenses against it.
Speaker 5 (41:20):
It's a good group, but it's a group you can
move the football.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Which they got honored on the Monday Night Football. Yeah,
I will say this you you mentioned it, Arch. This
is what I love about the National Football League. As
you go from Todd Bowles, extremely respected defensive coach and
head coach for the Buccaneers, to Brian Flores, who's also
probably I mean you can throw him in probably a
top five conversation as far as scheme and play caller
(41:43):
and the way that he likes to attack you. So
this is Hey, Michael Pennox Junior, Welcome to the NFL.
This is how it's going to be. You're going to
play against really physical teams that have just dudes everywhere,
or you're going to play against defensive coordinators that just
know how to make it difficult for you, and I
think that's the case this week. So this is how
you grow as an NFL quarterback is how do you
(42:05):
navigate the things that you learned in one week and
then apply it to next week.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
And we'll see if he's up to the challenge this.
Speaker 6 (42:11):
Week, which is great because you're gonna have opportunity to
do it again. And I think one thing if you
can lean your hat on, is you saw a quarterback
that was not phased by everything that was thrown at
him by Todd Bowles. You thought he thought he stood
in there and made the right decisions and got rid
of the football when he needed to. It's gonna be
another situation in this ball game, but on the road
in the hostile environment that has to be amplified even
(42:32):
more because of what you can do if you turn
the football over in this ball game. But I think
you're gonna be fine. You got a quarterback that can
make the right decisions. We know he's, you know, a
guy that elects to study the game and for all
the reasons you mentioned earlier, Archier about all the guys
he has around him that's gonna help him, you know,
mentally be prepared for this ball game. I think you
feel good about going into this situation in Flores and
what all he.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
Brings nothing an offensive line wants to hear less. Then
they got out physical, and.
Speaker 5 (42:59):
Yeah, yeah, I would gre toe you.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Dwayne Ledford's crew is chomping at the bit to get
back out on the field and run the football with
the prowess that Atlanta ran it with last year. Right,
they got two running backs that can go get it.
I guarantee you that offensive line as a group, and
there's no more cohesive group on a football team, if
you guys know, than an offensive line. Those guys want
to eat, and they didn't feel like they fed.
Speaker 5 (43:23):
Well enough last year. Last week. Now, this is a
good defensive front. They want to go. They're going to
want to come out. And I would think if.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
You're going to look at any group that would like
to take an exponential step and you talked about you're
better from week one to week two, would be the
offensive line to come off the ball and want to
run the football and give their young quarterback an opportunity
to have a two way go.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Which kind of leads me to the question that I
want to ask you guys, and this is not a key.
I'm trying to differentiate this from a being a key
to the game to a this will this game will
be one where orill be one if. And I'm going
to start because give you guys a little bit of
time to think, you know how, trying to help you
guys success, And for me, I'm gonna go a little
off script because I'm usually like a trenches guy, a
(44:06):
run the football type guy. But it still has something
to do with that. And it's gonna be who wins
in explosive plays in this game, because art you talked
about it against the Buccaneers, would they have two explosive plays?
And I think about the fourth quarter that JJ McCarthy's
coming about coming from I think about justin Jefferson and
(44:28):
what he likes to do playing at home, and you
don't want him gritty and all the way across the end,
getting all them people excited.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
But which team can win this?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
And this is not necessarily a battle that's usually talked
about inside buildings is which team's gonna have more explosive plays.
It's more about which team runs the ball better, which
team has better in the turnover margin. To me, explosive plays.
If you end up letting Minnesota have explosive run plays,
explosive pass plays, you get the ball in Jefferson's hands
and you let that crowd feast like boy, it's gonna
(45:00):
be hard. But if you can minimize those and if
it's four and they're not scoring plays, okay, and if
on the offensive side of the ball, you can get
some of those explosive plays. Offensive line rises to the challenge.
They block everybody up. Matt Shaub you told me one time,
he said, dude, I love it when they bring pressure
(45:21):
because I know I got so, I know I got
manna man and I got a shot. So when the
quarterbacks see they line up and you got two guys
in the gap and them safeties come down. If you're
not licking your lips, you're missing an opportunity because that's
your chance for an explosive place. So can Michael Pennix Junior.
And this offense gets more explosive plays than Minnesota can.
(45:45):
Who wins that matchup I think helps decide the winner
of this game. I'm gonna let you go next.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
Okay, minus is I don't say similar, but it kind
of goes hand in hand what you're talking about. For me,
I think it is who affects the QB most. And
this is a game where if you affect the QB,
guess what that affects the explosive plays. It affects how
your offense is running, It affects what you're trying to
(46:09):
do situationally, And I think if you can get to
either quarterback not to a huge factor in his bulkain.
We saw how successful Michael Penny Junior was when he
has time. We saw how successful he was when he
can throw the football down the field and see everything
he needs to and sometimes he don't need to see it.
All he needs to know is where his guys are going.
For sure, he's gonna lay it in a spot where
they can go get it. And then we saw lass
(46:31):
just you know on Monday night football, JJ McCarthy with
an opportunity to throw the football down the field, giving
him time. He made the right reason, he made the
right decisions, gave his guys a chance. So if you
can affect those quarterbacks in a positive, I mean we
affected Baker Mayfield, but.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
We still didn't get him on the ground.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
He still made play, So I think to further that
you affect him, but you also got to find a
way to get him to the ground so that way
he doesn't continue to hurt you like Baker Mayfield did
at times during the ballgame versus Tempa.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
Man great points guy four sacks a year ago against Darnold,
So this was kind of about the time. Remember you
went into that sack thing where you started to wrap
up the sacks. Maybe the young guys get off four
sacks against this offensive line and they're a little banged
up on the old line. So a great point to
get after your point. Explosive plays ten explosive plays last
year from Minnesota. Nine were passing plays Jefferson and Addison,
(47:22):
who won't play in this game. Fifteen grabs two hundred
and sixty five yards and five touchdowns. I mean that
tells you you cannot let it have it. But Rack
just said, we cannot let that happen. Okay, I'm gonna
I'm gonna take a minuscule look at it.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Need to.
Speaker 4 (47:39):
When I watched the Chicago game last night, I thought,
when you looked at Caleb Williams, get he got off
to great start. He was ten for ten in the game,
got the run for the touchdown, He's like, wow, Ben
Johnson's offenses operating. Then all of a sudden, they started
getting some different looks from Flores and you could see
some indecisiveness out of Caleb Woinds. He completed ten for
(47:59):
ten start off with he went eleven of twenty five
from that point forward. And how many times did you
seem just like, throw the ball into ground, So make
the play that's available to me. We talked about what
play is going to be the difference turner. We talked
about our difference maker. We saw Bejeon catch one in
the flat and take it fifty. Get him the ball,
(48:21):
don't miss that. Throw catch the football. You had an opportunity.
I thought Drake had a couple opportunities that slipped through
his hands. We had a deep over route. There was
going to be potentially a monster play, and Kyle stops running,
you know, against man coverage. He's got him on the overette.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
Don't do that.
Speaker 4 (48:36):
You got to you got to improve from those things.
You gotta watch the tape improve from those moments. We
talked about how much better RAC just talked about exponentially
better in week two from week one because you got
that game time, you got to some of the experience.
Now you've got to change those things. And the thing
that RAC talked about, you can't have the administrative stuff
getting lined up, jumping off sides, because that puts you
(48:57):
in second in fifteen. Now, Brian Flores says, Okay, hey,
I'm gonna heat you up with some stuff that I
wasn't necessarily going to go to until I got you
in this down and distant situation. So it's just the
little stuff. Make the play that's available there, and and
that's going to give you an opportunity to be in
position to win the football.
Speaker 5 (49:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
I always say take what the defense gives you, and
that doesn't just mean it's a checkdown. The defense might
be giving you the shot down the field man, and
you got to see it, and you got to go well.
Speaker 4 (49:22):
And to your point, if you go back and look,
there's an in zone shot. And I don't mean to
keep throwing Caleb Williams under the bus here, but he
gets an opportunity where he's got Roma Donday on an inside,
he's got a post route down through the middle, lights up.
He doesn't throw it, take the shot, taking that shot
because he wants to throw the ball down the field.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I always heard the three words cut it loose, cut
it loose, can't be afraid to cut it loose. All right,
Remember to follow us on all of your podcast apps
and on YouTube or where follow us you get your
podcast material, and don't forget there's more.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
Than just the Falcons bottom. We want to make sure you.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Watch us every week on Wednesdays, by the way, but
we've also got the Final Whistle and Friday five. So
wherever you get your podcast material, you got all.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Kinds of stuff here for the Falcons. Okay, so thanks
for joining us.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Let's send the Falcons Audible presented by AT and T.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
That's CJ Shockey, Dave Archer. I'm Derek Rackley. We'll see
you next week.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Hopefully after a Falcon's victory on Sunday Night football against
the Vikings
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
We've been told that we are the big boys in town.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
He's into it. I'm telling me. He is like to
start great.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Yeah, I can get chills a little bit thinking about
what these two guys can do.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
This is the Falcon's audible, presented by AT and T.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
And look who we got back in the house.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Appreciate you guys, say you guys, miss call me. I
love the present.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
You're welcome, welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Thanks?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Did we call you off?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Sometimes I kind of turn the page.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
You got that going on? You know you different?
Speaker 5 (00:55):
Yes? Yeah, he said we lost you.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
I said, I think I tried to come back and
say we didn't really got some stuff.
Speaker 5 (01:02):
So that's sixty on the anniversary right there. Yeah, sixtieth
anniversary right there. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Uh, of course, Dave Archers here, I'm here Derek ractly,
we're here, We're gonna here, and.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
We're gonna get right into it.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
We're gonna talk about, unfortunately, a Falcons loss to Tampa Bay.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
As we all know, these games against Tampa Bay at
least recently have been barnburners. Falcons won both of them
last year, but they both came down to the wire.
This one came down to the wire again. Guys, there's
so many things that we can take away from this.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
But let's DJ.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Since you were gone last week, I'm gonna start with
you and let's get kind of your overarching thought.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, hey, you don't.
Speaker 6 (01:39):
You don't get to eat right, I'll expect to say,
all right, here we go back.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Let's go take a minute.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Hey, that's why I looked at Hey. You said it's
go take a minute. I do you have a time
around here? So ready?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
All right, DJ, your overarching thoughts on the game and go.
Speaker 6 (01:56):
Like you mentioned, there were a lot of things that
you could point to in his ball and good or bad.
She could say, okay, but I was excited one to
see the group of guys who we all been wanting
to see go out and play.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
And that's on both sides. Of the ball. Obviously, it starts.
Speaker 6 (02:13):
With Mike and Michael Pennick Junior and the way he played.
I mean, we're gonna get into all the good things
he did. Some of the things that I know he
was a couple of throws he wanted back. But I
think when you look back at the totality of the game,
a lot of things that well, not a lot of things.
A couple of things that stuck out was didn'ibillity bey
to run the football was a big deal.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (02:31):
You thought coming in that wouldn't be an issue. You
thought you be abele run the football. And now we did,
you know, maybe have a little extra runs to the
left as opposed to the right at times considering what
we had going on.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
But I also thought in this ball game, the thing
that stuck out to me was a bunch of the
hidden yards in this game that hurt us. And on offense,
you look at some of the penalties early down situations
that put you behind the change. Now you're fighting trying
to get back into manageable situations. Defensively, I thought, uh,
Baker's ability to be able to get outside the pocket.
I thought you did a good job of you know,
(03:04):
pushing the pocket, getting around and putting pressure on him
and then he finds ways to escape and extend and
that kind of hurts you at times too. And then, uh,
the third phase of it was just you know, I
thought that the punt returns, you know, those were the
hidding yards you think about on there that that hurts you.
That gave them great fields just to give them opportunity
to go score points. But there's so many other things
(03:26):
that you can think about. But when you talk about
just things that popped my brain right away, those are
some of the things that's kind of stuck out right
away from.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Me that actually wasn't bad. It was only a minute
a half.
Speaker 5 (03:34):
Then you yeah, very concise.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Away.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Two things I'll point out and then are trying to
get your over arching thoughts is number one I will
say as a former uh Special teams player, it was
it was not a good Special teams performance. I think
it's it's sometimes you got to call spade a spade.
Uh Raheem Morris was asked about it yesterday, not only
the kicking game, but the Special teams overall, and he
was he was up for honest about it, and it's
not an area that Atlanta usually struggles is on special teams,
(04:04):
and it's got to be better. And that's some of
that hidden yardage that you talked about. But Arch, one
of my three keys to the game last weekend was
a clean, fundamental performance. And what I meant by that
is week one of the season, especially when you don't
play a lot of starters in the preseason, are basically
any is you can expect or you try to avoid
the sloppy play, the false starts, the holding penalties, all
(04:28):
of the things that back you up behind the chains.
And I know Elijah Wilkinson had a couple of false starts,
and those penalties sometimes are hard to overcome, especially when
you have a younger quarterback and you have a running
game that was uncharacteristically not on What was your kind
of overarching thoughts about this. I know I'm using that
word and it's part.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Of your last nice and I thought that was a
really tough ask of you last year or last week.
I thought one of your keys was clean football. Can
we play clean football? Eight penalties fifty five yards? That
makes you kind of herky jerky on the offensive side
of the football. So I thought it was a tough
ask another one of your ass was to win the
(05:06):
line of scrimmage and didn't really do that either. Obviously
weren't able to run the football, so you had two
areas that we needed to excel in and didn't get
it done. So I thought that was a really good
point on your Partrack just the the overall feel to it.
First game of the year. You're looking for, as you mentioned,
(05:27):
some clean play, but you're also looking for some of
those guys to kind of step forward that you're gonna
be able to hang your hat on. Jon Robinson was
one of those guys that we knew that we're going
to need to hang our hat on, not that you
hoped you're going to be able to do that. And
I thought it didn't take long and guys, you guys
were in the building the third play of the game,
when Pennix looks to take a shot, play, reads it
(05:50):
out properly, dumps it into the right flat to be
Jon Robinson, and he goes fifty for a touchdown and
the roof blows off the building. I'm staying I don't
normally get up and I'm staying beat on the window
and stuff. It was an incredible play. Those are some
of the things that you'd hope to see. We had
talked about home run plays and things like that. That
was something that stuck out to me Pennix's play, and
(06:12):
I know we'll dive in deeper into Pennock's play. I
thought he was extremely poised and did some really good stuff,
especially late in the football game, to be a chance
to win. And I thought that there's some undue criticism
from my perspective that's falling on the defense.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
This was a.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Defense that gave up eighteen plays of fifteen yards or
more in the last two games against Tampa.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
They gave up four on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Okay, unfortunately two of them were touchdowns, and one of
them is probably a play that if you go back,
Xavier Watts just takes the wrong angle. He's in the
proper position to make a play on the ball goes
over his head, and of course they took advantage of
Jesse Bates's aggressiveness and threw over the top for a touchdown.
But this is a defense that gave up two hundred
(06:56):
and sixty yards of total offense. Tampa was number three
in the league offense last year, and they were held
under three hundred yards three times all last season. You
held them to two hundred and sixty yards. That's to
my my, my impression in the explosives. You add that in,
that's winning football.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, you know, And I.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Think that some of that gets gets brushed in he
because we end up losing the football game and there
was some dysfunction potentially on the offensive side. But those
are kind of some of the over eyeing things that
kind of stuck in my mind.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, and I think the couple things from the defensive
side that I want to throw into it and then
we'll get to some other things. Is we talked about
the storyline of Godwin not playing for Tampa and that
was going to be a quote unquote loss for them.
But on the pregame show, I was telling Taylor Viismore,
I said, a Mecca Buka is the real deal. Okay,
so don't think that without Godwin playing that they're going
(07:48):
to take a huge step back because a Mecca Buka
has played in the most pressure environments that you could
kind of draw up in college football and he had
some of the best success of any Ohio state wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Okay, guy, come off a national championship. I kind of knew.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
I had a feeling in my head that he was
going to slide in and fill that role of god
Win pretty easily. But the other thing that I thought
was impressive is, Guys, Mike Evans is eleven straight seasons
over one thousand yards and he had four excuse me,
five catches for fifty one yards in this game. You'd
think that, Okay, maybe Godwin is out, that Evans is
going to go off right, Well, they kept him under
wraps number one, number two in the first half. I'm
(08:26):
on my headset with the guys down in the control
room and I'm just kind of talking about what I see.
And the one thing that I noticed about the defense, guys,
is it looked faster. The defense looked like they had
a little bit extra juice to him this year. And
I'm going to point out Devine Diablo. I liked what
I saw out of him, the way that he filled holes,
the way that.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
He ran side to side.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
I think I think he's only going to make cayd
and Ellis better this year because now they've got another
inside linebacker that can can control in between the tackles
and let Caden Ellis kind of Bekiden nellis, play.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Behind the line of scrimmage, play on the line of GrimAge.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
So those were some positives before we kind of dive
into what went bad. DJ, I think we should talk
about some of the positives. And you guys talked about
Michael Pennox Junior. Again, I'm on the set here with
two quarterbacks. I feel like were his first performance in
twenty twenty five, when all the expectations were on his shoulders,
was pretty darn good. What did you make of his performance.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
When you look at you know, I go back to
when Raye Morris first got here and when we were
all talking about looking for a quarterback. We knew that
was one of the top priorities for this organization. And
the first thing that ray Moore said was we want
a guy who is an elite processor. And I think
in this game we saw a guy who processed information
(09:42):
at the highest level and did it in that amount
of time. I thought he was accurate. I thought he
did a good job of taking what the defense gave
him when he took take checkdowns. I thought he showed toughness.
I thought that he showed the athleticism, showed a little juice,
showed a little you know, Moxie about him inside the pocket.
I thought they were plays that we're out there and.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
He made him.
Speaker 6 (10:02):
I remember one particular throw a guy's barreling down on
him and he lets it go, throws his corner out
the casey washing it on the fire sideline, and gets
right back up and goals. But I thought he did
a good job of handling the biggest moments of the
game the best. And you're talking about situationally, third down,
you're talking about at the end of the ball game,
when time is you know of the essence, and you
(10:24):
know certain situations where all right, I remember it's eleven
seconds on the clock, and you know, you're like, all right, role,
you're gonna you're gonna really go for this right now.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
You know what I'm saying. We were in range, you
know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
And but the wheldfall for him to know, all right,
this ball's got to go either to the sideline or
it's got to go in the end zone. And obviously
we know. So one he throws at Candeill Hodge and
obviously we don't come up with it, but it gives
you an opportunity. I thought he did a good job
of one getting the football out of his hands, which
was you know, in this game, we talked about the front,
talking about how good they were defensively, all the things
(10:56):
that Todd Bowles does to you, and he let the
football go get his guy is a chance to make
plays with it down the field. But you're talking about
decision making. Was number one. Didn't turn the ball over.
You throw a forty some times, you don't turn it over.
That's a big deal. Wasn't in harm ways did a
really good job of running this offense, and it didn't
look like, oh yeah, he didn't play in preseason.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I thought he did really what.
Speaker 6 (11:18):
I thought he looked really good without having those quote
unquote preseason game set to play in. So he was
a guy that you say, you know what, you got
some And I heard Baker Mayfield tell him out of
the game, you're gonna be a dude in his league
for a long time. And the way you played shows
you know, diviidens and you know, I think that's why
a lot of people were excited about this team coming in.
(11:40):
And if you're out here, you've ever seen him in practice,
you knew there was a little something different about that dude.
Number nine, and you know he gave you a chance
in that ball, and that's all you can ask for.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Yeah, let's throw a share in on top of it
or rack and great points about what Pennix was in
this game, and you kind of knew what you had
and mature guy that had played a lot of ball
prior to getting here got the three games a year ago.
Speaker 5 (12:03):
But let's give some credit to TJ.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yates.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
Let's give some credit to Zach Robinson in talking him
through some of this stuff and practicing some of it
out on the field, because you're exactly right. Shock I said, Okay,
there's eleven seconds left in the clock, and I'm trying
to explain to the to the audience that I'm talking
to on radio, you don't have enough time for the
ball to be completed in bounds and rush up and
kill it. That's going to take somewhere between twelve and
(12:27):
fifteen seconds. You don't have enough time to kill it.
This is a real gamble. He's got to understand that
he can't throw it, and what's he do comes back
and his only look is to keep the safety in
the middle field. He's going to take a shot to
Cadarill hodge down the left sideline and he makes.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
A really good thrust.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
If Kadarrel didn't get bumped a little bit at the
top of the route, he may have a chance to
catch at in the back corner of the end zone.
But he understood the situation. And I think a lot
of it is Pinnis, but a good bit of it
is also the coaching in the preparation they gave the
young quarterback to say, hey, we trust you in these situations.
Let's keep this in mind. And Raheem he told me
(13:05):
yesterday on his radio show. He said, Hey, they kicked
me off the field because I was yelling out, hey,
remember the clock, remember what's going on. So they were
reminders right up the tea and you knew Zach Robinson
was in his ear as well. So I think that
a lot of teamwork went into that with Pennicks operating
the way he did. But give Michael his due man,
the dude played his played as were end off.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
One thing we knew going into the game, going into
his career, if you will, is he was going to
be different when it comes from a athleticism standpoint. And guys,
the two scrambles that we saw was enough to show
me that he's got it like here, like he wants
to win.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
The one that was initially ruled short, they over They
went back and they reviewed it and the effort from
him laying out legs, stay off the ground, reaching the
ball across they thought it got knocked out, he still
had possession of it clearly over the line.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
And then the rushing touchdown. Same thing.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
It's just like understanding the moment, right, we talk about
situationally smart quarterbacks and.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
He's like, I don't like it. I don't like it.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
I got you right.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
It's a little bit of that Josh Allen right, like, hey,
if it's not there, I trust my athleticism to make
a play.
Speaker 6 (14:17):
And I don't think people understand how real that is
that you're talking about, because there are times where you're
in that pocket and it's it's crunch time.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
This is third, fourth down, and things are.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Happening so fast. It's so easy to just panic in
that moment and throw it up to a guy or
or throw it away or you know, just get ad
you in the pocket. There are times where you can
feel that way and to see him as cool as ever, Oh,
here comes pressure. Let's get out of here. And that's
what it looked like he did. It was like, all right,
guy comes off the edge. I gotta get outside. And
(14:48):
I don't know if you if people saw it, but
there was an extra gear on that fourth down to
get around that corner and go lunch for that first down.
The effort to keep both knees up on that fourth
down and standing that football to get in his zone.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Come on, man, that's different.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, the ironic for me, guys, and I know you
guys will remember these plays. If you go back to
Michael Pennix, as I believe a freshman in Indiana.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
He gets out of the pocket early in.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
The season against Penn State, penn State, highly ranked, goes
to the corner. He actually gets hurt on the play,
but dives of the pylon very similar. It immediately hit
me as he got out of the pocket that I
knew he was going to go for the pylon, and
I thought, oh no, no, no, don't get banged up it,
don't get hurt. But he makes this play no hesitation
on his part at all to go get that and
then well and then go and then the other piece
(15:38):
of the irony is when he gets through the pocket
on fourth down and lays out.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
I immediately go back to three.
Speaker 4 (15:44):
Michael Vick laying out against Carolina and elevates. It was
like Superman diving through the air to get in the end.
So Wes even talked about it on the raid we
have we haven't seen anything like that since Michael Vick.
And for his presence of mind to get that hand down,
not let the touch and break the plane, there's a
there's an unawareness and that's what you were talking about, Shaq,
(16:06):
an awareness of him that belies how much playtime he
has in this league. And I think, Wow, You're You're
in a really good place, Atlanta with your quarterback. There's
no question about that. This kid is he's a kid,
but he's a.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Man, a guy, very mature, younger quarterback.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
The last thing I wanted to say about Michael Pennix
is I was listening to the press conference yesterday and
one of the reporters asked the question to Raheem Morris
about do you go into a game with an idea
in mind? How many times you want to throw it
right with a young quarterback? And I love this question
because and this is there's no disrespect, but like to me,
it's like you haven't been in a locker room before,
you'd ever game planned before, You've never been in the
(16:45):
fire before. Because what happens is sometimes you got to
get completely off script to win a game.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Okay, yeah, you may not dial up forty two passes
initially coming into it, but sometimes the game dictates what
you have to do that. And guess what you remember
is that he was a first round pick. Yeah, there's
a reason why he was a first round pick because
everybody in this organization had that much confidence in his
(17:10):
ability as a passer, as a quarterback, as a decision maker,
as an elite process.
Speaker 6 (17:16):
I think the number one example that sticks out to
me right now as we sit here and you say
that is he's talking to Arch after the game. I mean,
Art's asking him that exact same question. Oh, you know,
you guys had to throw up more. He probably wanted to,
you know, the run game wasn't there? You know, was
that a kind of a goal objective as you guys
go in And the one thing he said was we
(17:37):
just want to win the game. So that tells you
whatever it takes run pass, we didn't come to the
game thinking I had to throw it forty some times.
We didn't think we had to come to the game
and run it forty five times. Whatever it is, we're
gonna do it to win the ball game. And I
think that speaks volumes for how his mind is. And
it doesn't matter what it takes to get the job done,
you're gonna do it.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Every coaching staff in the NFL is gonna tell you
that if you throw it forty to forty five to
fifty times a game, something is going to happen, right
like you're putting the ball in harm's way. I don't
care if you're Michael Pennock junior year Tom Brady, you
throw it fifty times a lot of times, mistakes are
going to happen sometimes.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Did we hear that from coaches?
Speaker 4 (18:13):
Kate, you put the ball in the earth, three things
are going to happen to them are bad.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
But the fact that you have a quarterback in this
organization that you feel like, hey, we can throw it
forty two times. We have the confidence this early in
the season to do it. Now, they came up short.
But sometimes you have to extrapolate the good, even out
of a losing performance. One thing I did want to
mention before we kind of turn gears a little bit.
John Robinson in the passing game was lights out once again.
(18:40):
He actually did have the one drop, and his numbers
would have been even better it coming out of the backfield.
He's electric in open space. He makes catching look easy
and I would hate to be a defender trying to
tackle him. You and I were talking about this but
before halftime.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
His ability to break people's ankles unbelievable.
Speaker 6 (18:55):
And you know, the big stat that comes up is
how many mistackles he had last season and all this
kind of stuff and continues. We were talking about that
at halftime. And then the other guy that I think
deserves a little credit in this Filly in for Darnell
movie was Casey Washington.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
How many big third down catches he had?
Speaker 6 (19:12):
There was one, Well, he runs a hit right outside
and the balls a little bit off and he snags
that thing come across. I mean, just an unbelievable job
of Casey stepping into those spots. Even banged up a
couple times in the game. But you know, not having
Mooney out there was you know, obviously not ideal, but
it's a reason why they feel good about Casey Washington.
We saw a couple of instances in the ball game
where he stepped up and made catches for you too.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I know we're gonna talk about some things that didn't
go well and they're gonna have to they're gonna have
to fix to get ready for Minnesota. But let's give
credit where credits To've been a lot of conversation about
Kyle Pitts and what Kyle Pitts is going to bring
to the table. I thought, you know, Drake gets banged
up a little bit late in the game, Casey was
a little wounded it. I thought Kyle stepped up big
time late in the game. He made some really good plays,
(19:54):
made a nice stiff arm on a guy, got went
and got a first down. Seven catches I think fifty
eight yards for Kyle Pitts. He saves his best for
Tampa for whatever reason. I think he had some twelve
catches a year ago for almost two hundred yards and
two touchdowns against the two in the two games against Tampa,
but I thought Kyle understood the situation and stepped up
(20:14):
for his quarterback to make some play, So that bodes
well moving forward.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
I don't know how you stiff dude who's squared up
on you, right at you.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
That was unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Get off me, like shockly.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
I think I also saw Derek Henry do that on
Sunday Night Football, but he's just a different animal altogether,
so we won't go there.
Speaker 5 (20:31):
Well, I also I saw him lay the ball on
the ground too, so.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Those those were some of the positives. But gentlemen, we
we gotta be honest and we gotta we gotta discuss
why the Falcons ended up losing this game because of
areas of concern, areas that need to be cleaned up
in quite frankly, areas that were not good enough. And
I'm going to start this conversation because this is where
I made my career and I talked about it is
that special teams was not good enough, from the return
yardage to giving away yards on kicks and and also
(21:01):
the kicking game. And it's I mentioned it earlier. Raheem
Morris had to answer questions for about the first six
minutes of his press conference about the kicker situation. Guys,
this is a what have you done for me lately?
Speaker 5 (21:16):
League?
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Okay, I lived it, you guys lived it even more
so in the specialist position. And I feel like I'm
somewhat qualified to answer this or talk about it because
a lot of coaching staffs will have players like Jeff
Ulbrick okay, that played the game, played it at a
high level, and coached positions that he played, so they
(21:40):
know the good, the bad, the mental struggles, the physical struggles,
so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Very rarely, very rarely.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Does any coaching staff have a former kicker, former punter,
or former long snapper. Okay, those guys are human too,
They have their mental struggles. Many other physicians have coaches
that can help players work through mental struggles. Most coaches
have no idea of any of the mechanics, technique, and
(22:09):
fundamentals of being a specialist. And I'm not making any excuses,
and young Waiku is not going to make any excuses because.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
He knows what his job is.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I knew what my job was was to snap the
ball and needed to be near perfect every single time.
Or guess what, they go find somebody else.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
I think that's a good point, and I would love
to throw it back at you because Archie and I
play quarterback. We have a bad throw. We throw it
in the ground on first time. I guess what we
can come back on second. Now we can try to
get You know, we had an all game to try
to get it right. You guys have one opportunity to
do that in that particular sequence. How do you mentally
(22:46):
get yourself locked in on that one opportunity, because if
you messed that one opportunity up is magnified more than
the sixty plays that we have in a ball game.
Speaker 5 (22:55):
How do you flush it out of your mind?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
This is one of those guys that, to me, it
just goes back to how much confidence do you have
in yourself right, Because once you start doubting yourself, then
all those negative things start coming into your mind right,
and you get to a pressure moment and you instead
of thinking about I'm gonna drill this and I'm gonna
tie the game, I'm gonna win the game, I'm gonna
(23:17):
knock doun what I s We saw a fifty nine
yarder from Minnesota last night, Jeu. There's no way that
Reker makes that if he doesn't have the utmost confidence
in his ability, his kicking stroke, and everybody else around
him to do that. The moment you have some doubts
about oh gosh, this is to tie the game, or
I missed one against this team last year, or for
(23:38):
some reason, I'm always pulling it left or I'm pushing
it right. Whatever it is, whatever that thought is that
comes into your mind. As a long snapper, I don't
know if this one's gonna be at his knees or
at his shoulders. If you're a punter, am I gonna
kick this ball out of bounds? Or am I gonna
kicked this fifty with a five second.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Hang time the moment you start going thinking about all that,
it's over. It's over this.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
So it's so interesting Rack that I know what you're
talking about, the mental piece of it, And people say, well,
you just flushed that out of your mind.
Speaker 5 (24:04):
You move on to the next one.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
Yeah, but like what Shock's talking about, if I throw
onto the sideline, it's almost picked off or is picked
off the next time. I might not be as willing
to tell you, but I've got a guy in a
flat I can dump it. Or I got to look
at a crossing and kind of get myself restarted again.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
You don't get that opportunity to get.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
The crossing route.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Yeah, you don't get to restart that, So flushing that
out of your mind and just to go into the game.
If you go into the game, for young way, remember
the extra point prior to the kick, kisses the right
upright and kicks in. So okay, I'm thinking, okay, I
got that one a little bit right, I flushed. Can
I flush that out of my mind and get back
(24:42):
to the rhythm that he hit the first two with right?
And so there is that. Okay, I don't get a
chance to kind of feel my way back to it
like we would, you know. And I'm not trying to
make excuses for the kicker. They had a tough time
last year. Some of that was injury related, but it
is so what have you done for me lately?
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Business? And certainly Atlanta's looking at that.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
So what I'll add to it is, I'm sure there's
a lot of viewers and listeners that are watching and
hearing us, and they're saying, that's all fine and dandy, guys.
I enjoy what you're saying, and I appreciate everything that
you're talking about the mental side of it. But guess what,
we as fans, we as an organization, we as a
team want to see balls going through the uprights. So
Rahee Morris was very honest about it, and he said,
we're going to create competition there. We're going to bring
(25:25):
some guys in, whether it's young, whether it's old, and
they're going to continue to create competition. And that's just
one of those areas that I think a lot of
fans don't truly understand unless you are in that moment
right is, and a lot of people don't have any sympathy,
Like I don't care. This guy makes two million dollars
a year. His job is to make kicks. But now
that job and that livelihood is on the line because
(25:47):
this organization needs a kicker that they can count on
to make a field goal, to tie the game, to
win the game, whatever the case may be. You've got
to do as an organization, which you've got to do
to win.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Rec Let me double down real quickly. Twelve of the
sixteen games this weekend were one score game.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Okay, okay, well, and then if.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
You go if extrapolate that out a little bit further.
For he Morris has been the head football coach here
for eighteen games. Thirteen of the games are one score games.
Come on and Atlanta's only won six of the thirteen games.
So you can see how that magnifies this situation as
we've got to get this right and that's what that's
(26:28):
what they're trying to do.
Speaker 6 (26:29):
And even to a lesser degree than what Archer is
talking about. And those numbers were amazing. I mean, it
tells you exactly the margin, how small the question there
is in this league. In this ballgame, the Falcons had
ten drives. How many drives Minnesota had ten? So that
tells you every I mean, as players we talk at
(26:51):
all time, you never know which drive it is because
it may come down to that particular player sequeens to
drive when you come to a ball game. You got
in this ball game, you had the exact amount of
opportunities to win the ball game, Zach montitut's to lose
the ball game. And it just shows you how small
that marginer erea is and how much every single play
matters in a ball game. And the numbers you just
(27:12):
mentioned are amazing. And you think about how each and
every week, how each and every game, how really good
players are in this league, and how good coaches are
in this league that it comes down to one score
game you think about to a ball game and how
many plays you go through it and you get to
it and it comes down to the last two or
three plays of a ball game. I mean, that's it's
(27:33):
an unbelievable thing. You think about that, you know, it
goes a long way. We think about the margin.
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Era and that's how important that third down catch in
the first quarter is as much as kicking the kick
that wins it. And everybody wants to go, well, yeah, yeah, yeah,
but it came down to the kick. There was one
hundred and twenty six plays running this game, and that's
why players talk about I've got to play every play
like it's my last play. And I know it's rhetoric
(27:59):
and it's maybe cliched type stuff, but truly, what Shock's
talking about, what the numbers I gave. These games come
down to just one or two plays, and it might
be that sideline catch on third down or a drop
on a slant on first down that puts you in
third medium to extend to drive and you go back
and look, dang, if we'd made that play, we still
(28:19):
have the football. Maybe that's ends up in being a score.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
And it played double ask a little bit.
Speaker 6 (28:23):
Look on the other side of Tampa, they're looking at
this ball game like, if we make our extra point,
if we make our field goal, we're at by seven
going into that last jund we got we got to
force them to do if they make that last extra point,
up by four, and now the foulons think we got
to go score a touchdown. So now the mindset changes
a little bit just because of one score here, one
kick here, one play there. So there are a lot
(28:44):
of things that go into every play in the ball
game that could obviously end up in what happens at
the end.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Up We all know, guys, there's a fifty three man
active roster, and three of those players are a long snapper,
a punter, and a kicker, and they are just as
important as all the other fifty players the team for
situations just like we're talking about right now. So we
have not acknowledged here the head coach, the front office
has acknowledged it. They're going to create competitions. So don't
(29:10):
be surprised if there's a new face in here this
week to compete with young Waykub. That's just the nature
of the beast in the National Football League. You produce,
you win, games, everybody loves you, you end up struggling.
That's when they go try to find a way to
get better, and sometimes getting better as finding new personnel.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Guys. Let's talk a little.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Bit more about the run game, which was an area.
I don't think that we came into this game thinking
was going to struggle. However, we all know Tampa's got
a really good front. They're very well coordinated on the
defensive side of the ball. It wasn't going to be easy.
But even with a new right tackle, you still had
four other guys that have been there for a couple
of years. You had two solid, maybe the best running
(29:49):
back tandem in the National Football League, and still weren't
able to muster anything. Arch when you were watching this
game unfold, where was the struggles in the run game happening?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
I thought it was happening the board rack. Everybody wants
to point d Vida Veya. You know, the guy that's
got his own solar system at six to five, three
hundred and sixty pounds, and he was a problem.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
There ain't no question about it. Okay, this is a dude.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
You got a block with like five guys, and we
really have five guys up front. But I thought that
their defensive front came in and played a physical brand
of football. And I'm talking about the front seven. I
thought Servasier Dennis, their linebacker, who's very similar to Vine Diablo,
a guy can run blitz. We know how much you'd
(30:33):
mentioned how much how much Bulls likes to bring his guys.
I thought they played really well in the front seven,
and you might even call it the front eight because
they crowded the line of scrimmage, much like we thought
about Rack. We talked about it last week. Okay, is
Todd Bowles gonna come up and say, hey, you're not
running the ball against us. We're gonna make the young
QB throw at forty plus times to beat us. Because
(30:55):
there was eight man fronts across the board. You go
back and look at the tape. Tyke Smith is in
the box. They've got a dime. They've got a dime.
Say safety in there as well. They're crowd in the box.
They're shooting guys through the gaps, trying to blow up
run schemes.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
I thought they, for the most.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Part, maybe played a little bit more physical than we
did upfront. Now, the guy, the main guy there is
going to be videvea and trying to get him blocked
in the interior. Most people don't have them. This was
the number four run defense of the National Football League
a year ago. They only gave up ninety four yards rushing.
We didn't light them up last year running the football.
If you remember in Week five last year, in a
(31:31):
game we won an overtime with Cadarro Hodges play, we
ran for sixty yards in that game. Well, we ran
for sixty two yards in this game. We just didn't
could not get either guy going. And I think that
I would think that Zach Robinson came in and I
know there as much as we don't. We didn't go
in the plan with a plan that we're going to
throw at forty two times. But I think they had
an idea that the run game was going to kind
of be a change up to try to keep them
(31:53):
somewhat disciplined upfront, and we're going to take shots down
the field. I think that was kind of the plan
coming in. It kind of unfolded that way. I want
to flip it over to the other side. This is
a team at one hundred and sixty yards rushing against
US in Week five. Here a year ago ran for
like two hundred and sixty yards, and the two games combined.
If you take away and you can't, you take away
Baker mayfield scrambles which aren't scheduled runs, they ran for
(32:16):
sixty three yards. This was a team that had Bucky
Irving and Rashad White and guys a run. I know
I'm flipping it away from the offense five, but I
thought either team, and you talked about trench warfare and
the play in there, I thought Atlanta held up really
good against their run game and forced Baker into some
things that he didn't want to have, actually forced him
into some bad throws as well. So I thought both
(32:38):
teams played well against the run. Atlanta had a tough
time from a physicality standpoint, handling their front seven and
maybe got out numbered a number of tens.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
I think what people or fans have to realize or
understand is when you're playing teams that are really good
running the football, you got a group of guys back
in the backfield are really good. The things you want
to do is like muddy to water, and I think
both teams did a good job of muddy in the
water and plugging gaps some of divand Yabolot running through
with a reckless abandon and just clogging things up. And
(33:08):
that gives you fits because now it.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Throws off people. It throws things off.
Speaker 6 (33:13):
Just to give people a little just an example, everybody
remembers the big third down play. They try to throw
a screen and Xavier Watch comes back and makes a plug. Unbelievable,
unbelievable play. You look, if you go back and look
at it. Our Edvacatie comes in and he gives just
enough of a nudge on the guard who's going to
(33:35):
go out and block Exavier Wats and throws them off
just a little bit. That little bit of throwing him
off of Muddy in the water a little bit does
allow him to get up on Exavier Wats. And now
Watch recognizes because he hasn't been man coveraged, and he
falls off and makes a play. If he don't make
that play, they got another linement already out in front
of him.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
And it's third and eight already it might be a
house call.
Speaker 6 (33:54):
So you're just talking about small little players here Muddy
in the Water to make yourself, you know, have some
positive plays in it. Now's an unbelievable play by young
rookie recognize understanding. Then other guys find out. But you
never hear about you know what Aby Katie did on
that play In the statu sheet, all you see is,
you know, hey, we got out the field.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
We talked about some of the good plays, We talked
about some of the missed opportunities. I think I've mentioned
this before on our podcast, but one of my college
coaches back in the day, Glenn Mason, used to always
say in every game, there's three to five plays that
generally make the difference in the game. And I think
we've kind of outlined three to five plays that head
the Falcons made there might have been.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
A different result. And that to me is so true.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
You go watch any football game and usually three to
five plays either one team makes or one team doesn't make,
and that ends up drastically affecting the result of the game.
Speaker 4 (34:47):
And what's the part that we're told by coaches all
the time. You and I all said in the meeting,
we don't know what play that's gonna be right, And
we just said, that's one hundred and twenty five plays
running a game.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Better be balling out on.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Every one of them. So these three guys up here.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Could probably sit here and break down this game for
another forty five minutes, But we're gonna ahead and transition
to a prime time matchup for the Atlanta Falcons Sunday
Night Football. They're going to be facing a team that
just came off of a primetime matchup. The Minnesota Vikings
just ended up beating the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.
So Atlanta's going to go up to Minnesota. First thing
I want to talk to you about, Arch is that
(35:22):
you travel with the team, you have been to Minnesota
that one of the major differences they're going to have
this week is one of the most difficult places in
the league to go play as a visiting team.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
It is an unbelievable home field advantage. Rack I think
that it's probably top five in the National Football League.
Speaker 7 (35:40):
They'll blow the horn and then all of a sudden
they start clapping, and all of a sudden, it feels
like they call it the big Viking Ship up there.
Speaker 5 (35:51):
It almost starts to feel like it starts to move. Now, No,
they've got it.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
They've had an incredible home field advantage up there. Give
them credit. That fan base that's a long, long time
fan base. That's the seeing their team go to the Super.
Speaker 5 (36:04):
Bowl and lose.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Over the years, when Bud Grant was the coach up there,
they used to play outside at Metropolitan Stadium and it'd
be thirty below zero and they're all there watching the game.
So this is a hardy fan base. Now they play inside.
Now it's a beautiful stadium, but it is a definite
home field advantage. Atlanta has struggled since we've gone up there.
Went up there last year. It was a game that
was twenty one to twenty one in the fourth quarter
(36:28):
and all of a sudden, they started throwing the ball
deep and beat us over the top. And so I
know that it's going to rub the crawl or getting
the craw of the DBS when they watched the tape
from last year.
Speaker 5 (36:38):
As we get ready for.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
This one, now, Shock Atlanta is going to be facing,
especially on the defensive side of the ball, a new
quarterback and JJ McCarthy off of injury. And JJ McCarthy
had a little bit of a slow start in that game,
but he came on in the fourth quarter and having
three touchdowns total in the fourth quarter. So you got
to think he's coming into this game with a lot
of confidence. The way that that game on Monday night
finished up.
Speaker 6 (36:58):
Yeah, I was watching the game last night and I'm like, oh, oh, okay,
first half gonna be all right. It's no taking them
probably about two or three games to get going. And
by the time he get past us, that's when he
started kicking. And then the second half happened, and you
saw him in there lighting it up. You saw him,
you know, stepping in their throwing. You saw him ripping throws.
Big touchdown to Justin Jefferson, big throw to Aaron Jones,
(37:18):
who we know is a big factor. He's similar to
what we got in Bijon, a guy who can catch
out the backfield, can make things happen. Mason was running
hard of the backfield and I mentioned Justin Jefferson got
the old Wilely Vett and Adam thieling TJ Hawks. I mean,
they got some dudes on that officerve side of the ball.
And you know, their head coach has been known to
kind of, you know, rejuvenate quarterbacks. I mean he helped
(37:41):
Kirk Cousins when he went to Minnesota, obviously a big deal.
Sam Darnell was there last year, helped him get a
big lucrative deal to go. You know now who's in Seattle,
and now he's tasked with getting JJ McCarthy, a guy
who we saw last night make some plays with his
legs as well also throwing over the y'all. But you're right,
I thought in the second half he found some compnfidence.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
He found the.
Speaker 6 (38:00):
Swagger of a guy who won a national championship at Michigan.
That tells you this guy is a winner. So it's
gonna be an interesting matchup because he's a guy that's
coming in and just played on Monday night football. Another
primetime game won't phase him at all, and he'll be
excited to get it going because I actually played really
well in the second half. And as a quarterback, that's
(38:20):
the best thing you can have, is Oh, I just
live it up. I can't wait to get back on
the field and do it again. So you got some
guys that believes in him, got a coach that believes
in him, and he stepped up and played some really
good football in the second half to give his team
a chance to win, and ultimately they did.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
All right, let me throw this question at you, is
this game more about the adjustments that Atlanta makes because
everybody says in the National Football League, some of the
big best growth you see in the season is between
week one and week two. Okay, is this game against
Minnesota more about the adjustments and the things that Atlanta
cleans up or some issues that gets presented by Minnesota
(38:57):
that they're going to have to come back? Which one
is it?
Speaker 5 (39:00):
Well, it's got to be both, Rack.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
I think you got to combine the both, and I
know you were leading me that way, so very kind
of you to do that. I think that that this
is about obviously getting better and making your adjustment some
of the things you didn't do well, and then getting
ready for what Minnesota is going to present to you.
This is a defense that is not nearly as highly rated,
yet is probably as athletic, maybe not quite as physical.
(39:23):
Up front, they went in and address their interior defensive line.
Javon Hargrave comes over, a guy you probably remember was
on those Philly teams had a double digit sacks and
Philly then got a big deal to go to San
Francisco's now in Minnesota. Jonathan Allen, a guy that'd been
in Washington, comes over to try to solidify their interier
I think they felt like they were being run on
(39:43):
a little bit in the interior, so they went and
got two big time interior guys. But make no mistake,
you'll be hard pressed to find two edge guys that
make more of a difference than Jonathan Gernard and Andrew
van Ginkel. Those two guys combined for twenty three and
a half sacks last year, and they can flat come
off the edge.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Oh.
Speaker 4 (40:02):
By the way, their secondary had twenty four interceptions last
year and they got a couple from us last year,
if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5 (40:08):
So this is a solid defense.
Speaker 4 (40:10):
They've got a veteran guy at the safety spot in
Harrison Smith who kind of directs traffic and gets everybody
lined up. I think that you're going to have to
adjust to the style they bring. We talked about Todd
Bowles and what Bulls does well get read. Bryan Flores
is pretty good from the defensive coordinator standpoint too. He
likes to heat up and give young quarterbacks a problem.
(40:32):
Atlanta's going to need to run the football they did
last year in this game. I remember they went for
almost one hundred and sixty yards rushing. Both Tyler al
Year and Jean Robinson got going in this game, and
we ran the ball with some success, and then Kirk
actually had a pretty good game other than the interceptions,
through for almost three hundred and fifty yards.
Speaker 5 (40:49):
In the game.
Speaker 4 (40:50):
So we moved the football. It was mistakes Rack, remember
it was a mistake on special teams. It was a
mistake throwing. We threw the football to him a couple
of times. So this was a twenty one to twenty
win game going into the fourth quarter. So I think
it's a combination of what you're talking to. I'd probably
overtalked it there, but I think that I think that
this is a it's a solid group, but it's not
(41:10):
It's not this formidable. It's not the eighty five Bear defense,
which unfortunately I had played against. But you know, everybody
compares them against again, he compares defenses against it.
Speaker 5 (41:20):
It's a good group, but it's a group you can
move the football.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Which they got honored on the Monday Night Football. Yeah,
I will say this you you mentioned it, Arch. This
is what I love about the National Football League. As
you go from Todd Bowles, extremely respected defensive coach and
head coach for the Buccaneers, to Brian Flores, who's also
probably I mean you can throw him in probably a
top five conversation as far as scheme and play caller
(41:43):
and the way that he likes to attack you. So
this is Hey, Michael Pennox Junior, Welcome to the NFL.
This is how it's going to be. You're going to
play against really physical teams that have just dudes everywhere,
or you're going to play against defensive coordinators that just
know how to make it difficult for you, and I
think that's the case this week. So this is how
you grow as an NFL quarterback is how do you
(42:05):
navigate the things that you learned in one week and
then apply it to next week.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
And we'll see if he's up to the challenge this.
Speaker 6 (42:11):
Week, which is great because you're gonna have opportunity to
do it again. And I think one thing if you
can lean your hat on, is you saw a quarterback
that was not phased by everything that was thrown at
him by Todd Bowles. You thought he thought he stood
in there and made the right decisions and got rid
of the football when he needed to. It's gonna be
another situation in this ball game, but on the road
in the hostile environment that has to be amplified even
(42:32):
more because of what you can do if you turn
the football over in this ball game. But I think
you're gonna be fine. You got a quarterback that can
make the right decisions. We know he's, you know, a
guy that elects to study the game and for all
the reasons you mentioned earlier, Archier about all the guys
he has around him that's gonna help him, you know,
mentally be prepared for this ball game. I think you
feel good about going into this situation in Flores and
what all he.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
Brings nothing an offensive line wants to hear less. Then
they got out physical, and.
Speaker 5 (42:59):
Yeah, yeah, I would gre toe you.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
Dwayne Ledford's crew is chomping at the bit to get
back out on the field and run the football with
the prowess that Atlanta ran it with last year. Right,
they got two running backs that can go get it.
I guarantee you that offensive line as a group, and
there's no more cohesive group on a football team, if
you guys know, than an offensive line. Those guys want
to eat, and they didn't feel like they fed.
Speaker 5 (43:23):
Well enough last year. Last week. Now, this is a
good defensive front. They want to go. They're going to
want to come out. And I would think if.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
You're going to look at any group that would like
to take an exponential step and you talked about you're
better from week one to week two, would be the
offensive line to come off the ball and want to
run the football and give their young quarterback an opportunity
to have a two way go.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
Which kind of leads me to the question that I
want to ask you guys, and this is not a key.
I'm trying to differentiate this from a being a key
to the game to a this will this game will
be one where orill be one if. And I'm going
to start because give you guys a little bit of
time to think, you know how, trying to help you
guys success, And for me, I'm gonna go a little
off script because I'm usually like a trenches guy, a
(44:06):
run the football type guy. But it still has something
to do with that. And it's gonna be who wins
in explosive plays in this game, because art you talked
about it against the Buccaneers, would they have two explosive plays?
And I think about the fourth quarter that JJ McCarthy's
coming about coming from I think about justin Jefferson and
(44:28):
what he likes to do playing at home, and you
don't want him gritty and all the way across the end,
getting all them people excited.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
But which team can win this?
Speaker 1 (44:37):
And this is not necessarily a battle that's usually talked
about inside buildings is which team's gonna have more explosive plays.
It's more about which team runs the ball better, which
team has better in the turnover margin. To me, explosive plays.
If you end up letting Minnesota have explosive run plays,
explosive pass plays, you get the ball in Jefferson's hands
and you let that crowd feast like boy, it's gonna
(45:00):
be hard. But if you can minimize those and if
it's four and they're not scoring plays, okay, and if
on the offensive side of the ball, you can get
some of those explosive plays. Offensive line rises to the challenge.
They block everybody up. Matt Shaub you told me one time,
he said, dude, I love it when they bring pressure
(45:21):
because I know I got so, I know I got
manna man and I got a shot. So when the
quarterbacks see they line up and you got two guys
in the gap and them safeties come down. If you're
not licking your lips, you're missing an opportunity because that's
your chance for an explosive place. So can Michael Pennix Junior.
And this offense gets more explosive plays than Minnesota can.
(45:45):
Who wins that matchup I think helps decide the winner
of this game. I'm gonna let you go next.
Speaker 6 (45:49):
Okay, minus is I don't say similar, but it kind
of goes hand in hand what you're talking about. For me,
I think it is who affects the QB most. And
this is a game where if you affect the QB,
guess what that affects the explosive plays. It affects how
your offense is running, It affects what you're trying to
(46:09):
do situationally, And I think if you can get to
either quarterback not to a huge factor in his bulkain.
We saw how successful Michael Penny Junior was when he
has time. We saw how successful he was when he
can throw the football down the field and see everything
he needs to and sometimes he don't need to see it.
All he needs to know is where his guys are going.
For sure, he's gonna lay it in a spot where
they can go get it. And then we saw lass
(46:31):
just you know on Monday night football, JJ McCarthy with
an opportunity to throw the football down the field, giving
him time. He made the right reason, he made the
right decisions, gave his guys a chance. So if you
can affect those quarterbacks in a positive, I mean we
affected Baker Mayfield, but.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
We still didn't get him on the ground.
Speaker 6 (46:46):
He still made play, So I think to further that
you affect him, but you also got to find a
way to get him to the ground so that way
he doesn't continue to hurt you like Baker Mayfield did
at times during the ballgame versus Tempa.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
Man great points guy four sacks a year ago against Darnold,
So this was kind of about the time. Remember you
went into that sack thing where you started to wrap
up the sacks. Maybe the young guys get off four
sacks against this offensive line and they're a little banged
up on the old line. So a great point to
get after your point. Explosive plays ten explosive plays last
year from Minnesota. Nine were passing plays Jefferson and Addison,
(47:22):
who won't play in this game. Fifteen grabs two hundred
and sixty five yards and five touchdowns. I mean that
tells you you cannot let it have it. But Rack
just said, we cannot let that happen. Okay, I'm gonna
I'm gonna take a minuscule look at it.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Need to.
Speaker 4 (47:39):
When I watched the Chicago game last night, I thought,
when you looked at Caleb Williams, get he got off
to great start. He was ten for ten in the game,
got the run for the touchdown, He's like, wow, Ben
Johnson's offenses operating. Then all of a sudden, they started
getting some different looks from Flores and you could see
some indecisiveness out of Caleb Woinds. He completed ten for
(47:59):
ten start off with he went eleven of twenty five
from that point forward. And how many times did you
seem just like, throw the ball into ground, So make
the play that's available to me. We talked about what
play is going to be the difference turner. We talked
about our difference maker. We saw Bejeon catch one in
the flat and take it fifty. Get him the ball,
(48:21):
don't miss that. Throw catch the football. You had an opportunity.
I thought Drake had a couple opportunities that slipped through
his hands. We had a deep over route. There was
going to be potentially a monster play, and Kyle stops running,
you know, against man coverage. He's got him on the overette.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
Don't do that.
Speaker 4 (48:36):
You got to you got to improve from those things.
You gotta watch the tape improve from those moments. We
talked about how much better RAC just talked about exponentially
better in week two from week one because you got
that game time, you got to some of the experience.
Now you've got to change those things. And the thing
that RAC talked about, you can't have the administrative stuff
getting lined up, jumping off sides, because that puts you
(48:57):
in second in fifteen. Now, Brian Flores says, Okay, hey,
I'm gonna heat you up with some stuff that I
wasn't necessarily going to go to until I got you
in this down and distant situation. So it's just the
little stuff. Make the play that's available there, and and
that's going to give you an opportunity to be in
position to win the football.
Speaker 5 (49:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
I always say take what the defense gives you, and
that doesn't just mean it's a checkdown. The defense might
be giving you the shot down the field man, and
you got to see it, and you got to go well.
Speaker 4 (49:22):
And to your point, if you go back and look,
there's an in zone shot. And I don't mean to
keep throwing Caleb Williams under the bus here, but he
gets an opportunity where he's got Roma Donday on an inside,
he's got a post route down through the middle, lights up.
He doesn't throw it, take the shot, taking that shot
because he wants to throw the ball down the field.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
I always heard the three words cut it loose, cut
it loose, can't be afraid to cut it loose. All right,
Remember to follow us on all of your podcast apps
and on YouTube or where follow us you get your
podcast material, and don't forget there's more.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
Than just the Falcons bottom. We want to make sure you.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Watch us every week on Wednesdays, by the way, but
we've also got the Final Whistle and Friday five. So
wherever you get your podcast material, you got all.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
Kinds of stuff here for the Falcons. Okay, so thanks
for joining us.
Speaker 1 (50:07):
Let's send the Falcons Audible presented by AT and T.
Speaker 2 (50:09):
That's CJ Shockey, Dave Archer. I'm Derek Rackley. We'll see
you next week.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Hopefully after a Falcon's victory on Sunday Night football against
the Vikings
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