November 21, 2025 • 36 mins
Terrin Waack and Tori McElhaney join Will McFadden to discuss the 5 biggest things about the Atlanta Falcons this week. They start with the obvious--injuries to starting QB Michael Penix Jr. and WR1 Drake London--and then hit on some other news on the team that could help the Falcons in a big way. After hitting on the importance of the Falcons-Saints rivalry, they play Need, Nice, or Nope to finish things off.
0:00 - Intro & Question of the Day
3:30 - Michael Penix Jr. injury
14:00 - Missing Drake London
20:30 - Deablo designated to return
24:00 - Falcons-Saints Rivalry
28:15 - Need, Nice, Nope
35:35 - Outro
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
That means that you are showing submission to everybody's at
home by us back the laptops back. You're on our side.
Now you can stop us. Happy Friday Falcons fans, Welcome
back to the Friday five. I'm your host, Will mcfatt
and I'm joined as always by Tory mclaney and Tarren Walk.
(00:20):
We've got a lot to get to today, you know,
some of it good, some of it not so good.
We're going to talk about the upcoming game against the
Saints as always, We're going to start with with kind
of our social question of the week, but also want
to remind everybody, however they watch us, however they listening
to us, please just spread the word like subscribe where
you can. You know the deal at this point, but
(00:41):
it just helps grow the channel and we appreciate every
little bit of of outreach we can get. So onto
our social question of the day, Tory, do you want
to do the honors and read it out?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I can let me know it. I don't know it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Though, Doc, and you can check out the social question
on TikTok any day go to the Falcons TikTok feed.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Okay, So, question of the day when you eat in taco.
Do you turn the taco to fit your head or
do you turn your head to fit the taco. I
turned my head to fit the taco.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I turned my head to fit the taco.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Y'all just get are dominated by tacos over here. You
gotta control the taco.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I how do you control the taco? Because you turn
the taco, everything comes out of the taco.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
See this is how I know that that's our team.
Eat hard tacos because the real answer is go grab
yourself a tortilla and wrap that thing up and it
doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I like both.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I am a case of dia girly. If I were
to say, if I were to have my choice, I'm
more of a burrito girly. Yeah, so tacos, but I
do love tacos. I'm having tacos tonight with a margarita
because it's been that week.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I will say I saw this. I was in the
Like staff locker room one day just after working out
and saw the segment where cam'skataboo was like having this
actual conversation.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Dominate you.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
It was the funny thing, just out of context to
watch that.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I have not seen that at all.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
His answer is so simple.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I know it was like you turn your head to
fit the taco.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, but apparently in according to camp Scatter, but that
that means that you are showing submission to the taco
and we can't have that. Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I mean, if there ever was words to live by,
it's probably coming from scamp camp Scatter.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Did you guys see too that he was like involved
in a fake fighter at like a wrestling match, but.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Of course he was. Of course he was. Also I
did see his like shoulder can pop out of place,
like he's an interesting cat that.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Cam Scatty dominates the taco.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
He okay, good?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
First, you would never let food dominate him?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Of course not. I've seen him run through people.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
He is an absolute animal. It was so much fun
to watch.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I will you have to answer the question, Oh why again?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I pretty much only eat soft tacos. But I agree,
is I think I do?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I would turn my one. Yeah, I would turn my
head because it is kind of right. You can just
turn it sideways and everything falls out.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah. I think the talk was still dominant, although I.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Will say the second and like last bites then when
you're kind of like holding it a little bit like this.
That's when you can turn on it right exactly. Then
that's what you say. All right, Well again, go check
out the Falcons TikTok account for all of our questions
of the day. They are really entertaining. Uh and getting
a glimpse of the personality personality of the players is
(03:27):
always fun. But now we're going to pivot to a
little bit more serious news. Unfortunately, you know, starting quarterback
for the Atlanta Falcons, Michael Pennock Junr. Got hurt in
the last game, left late in the third quarter against
the Carolina Panthers after throwing Did you.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Say left left left left, left, left left knee?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Am I right about that?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Don't right into it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Don't confuse him.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
To be clear, it's his left knee. He left the
game with a left knee injury.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
There you go, And then I just triggered No, I
love that because that has been kind of the a
lot of conversation throughout the week at Flowers Branch, right left.
Whenever a knee injury is involved, right, it is. It
is serious, and especially with Michael Pennock Junior, who in
college had a couple and so there were rightfully a
(04:17):
lot of questions posed to head coach Rahim Morris this week,
what does this mean? What is the status of Michael
Penick junior? Taren, you want to kind of like fill
us in on how everything evolved after Sunday afternoon when
it was clear, okay, he's questionable, and then he never
made it back into the game.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Right but woh, I didn't realize how common that word
is until like now I have to focus on left,
right and left. But Michael has a partially torn ACL
in his left me. It happened in the third quarter
of the game. He didn't come back. And the reason,
as Will said, this is kind of I mean, it
(04:54):
is a big deal.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Is it's season ending.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
He will not play another game in the twenty twenty
five season and only his second season with the Falcons overall.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Hasn't gotten a chance to play a full season. Yeah,
which is really unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And injuries.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
He has a huge history with injuries, and that's why
people are kind of like, Wichney is it, whitchey is it?
Because let's go through his injury timeline real quick. From
college twenty eighteen, he tours right ACL and he missed
the rest of the season. Twenty nineteen, he had a
right shoulder injury, out for the rest of the season.
Twenty twenty, his right acl is torn again, misses the
(05:29):
rest of the season. Twenty twenty one, his left shoulder
is injured, misses the rest of the season. He was
clean in twenty twenty two and twenty three while at Washington.
But now if you add in this injury to his
left knee, probably just getting annoying now.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But everybody's at homes like, we get it, we get it.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
But that puts Pennis at five season ending injuries between
college and the NFL.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
It's that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That It is a lot. H It is a lot,
and I mean again, on the one hand, and it's
important to note that this is the left knee and
is not the same as the one that he injured
in call. But again, you never want to see this,
especially when you're talking about your starting quarterback. And once again, Tory,
we're talking about the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons,
(06:16):
and this is not where anybody wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I know.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I let's take a big picture look at this thirty
thousand foot view. The Falcons are back in a quarterback purgatory,
despite the fact that they wanted to put a plan
and did put a plan in place two years ago
that they hoped would keep them out of this purgatory. Like,
the fact of the matter is is that dominoes have
(06:40):
been falling at the quarterback position for many years now.
The first domino that got the organization here was the
pursuit of Deshaun Watson and the ultimate trading of Matt
Ryan back in March of twenty twenty one. And from
there you go on this not so merry go round
of quarterbacks. Marcus mariot A, Desmond Ritter, Taylor Heineke, Logan
(07:05):
wood Side. You remember how igot about him.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I'm so sorry, Logan.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I know I didn't mean to like disparage Logan Woodside
catching strays here. But like, you go through this quarterback carousel,
which is what Arthur Smith called it at the time,
and then you hire Raheem Morris and you go into
the twenty twenty four off season being like, the goal
is to fix the quarterback position and it's been too
long since that has not been fixed, addressed, whatever the
(07:32):
case may be. So you go and you signed Kirk
Cousins to a pretty lucrative deal month and a half later,
two months later, you draft Michael Pennix with the number
eight overall draft pick. It was the pick heard round
the world of that draft cycle. That decision stemmed from
wanting to solidify the present and future of the quarterback position.
(07:52):
That is, they did not want to get into another
situation that they were in in the post Matt Ryan years,
where you did not have a secession plan in place
for Matt Ryan in the event he was no longer
your quarterback here in Atlanta, which came to fruition when
you traded him to the Indianapolis Colts. So there's that
Plan A. We know what Plan A was. Plan A
(08:12):
was to have Kirk Cousins play and be the starter
for two to three seasons. It was to have Michael
Penix developed behind him to learn the ropes, and it
was it was then to get to the point where
Michael Pennis can easily take over the starting quarterback role.
Kirk Cousins can right off into the sunset chains a
blaze as he enters into potential retirement. You would have said, Shack,
(08:36):
I could have and now that's a missed opportunity. Now
I'm beating myself up that I didn't say that that
didn't happen. You had to go to Plan B because
we all saw what happened last year Kirk Cousins had
a significant decline in play towards the end, middle to
end of the season. Michael Penox has to come in. Well,
now your Plan B is out the window too, because
Michael Pennox is hurt and we do not know what
(08:57):
the timeline is for his at this point, and this
is just speculation. External reports are that he has to
have a full reconstructive ACL surgery. At best, that's usually
a nine month timeline, nine months if he were to
(09:18):
have the surgery this week, which we don't even know
if he's had the surgery yet. Raheem Morris was asked
point blank about that on Wednesday, said not yet soon,
sooner rather than later is what he said. So now
you're getting further and further to the end of November,
which puts you further and further into August into September.
There is a world in which the Falcons go into
(09:39):
twenty twenty six and Michael Pennox is not at one
hundred percent. Because it's one thing to be like we
saw it with Kirk cousins. We've seen it time and
time again. It's one thing to have had the surgery
and to be cleared medically to be on the field.
Another thing entirely to have missed all that time and
be ready to go into an NFL season as a
guy who has not even played a full season of
(10:00):
professional football yet.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, it's not just the time too, Like the developmental
time on the field is crucial for a young player,
but just getting back out on the field in some ways,
that is step one, yeah, right, like working your way
back to another starting point, and then it's building that
confidence back up, like Michael Penis is somebody who likes
to move around in the POCKETA isn't a scrambler, but
(10:22):
he steps up and evades pressure and does all of
those things. So you have to have those reps, I think,
and build that confidence back up in kind of that niche.
So again, yeah, it's it is not just a this
year injury. There are ripple effects as kind of even
Raheem Morris said.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, he said that he was as point blank like
does Michael Pennocks's injury changed the way that you approach
the off season at the quarterback position, and he said, yes,
it has to, and it does because you're now looking
at not having Michael Pinnocks for a potentially all of
training camp, potentially the first few weeks, if not months
of the season. We don't know yet. There's too much
(10:58):
out there about like his recovery and how long it's
actually going to take for us to even be able
to speculate one way or the other. Regardless, is that
you should be concerned about the quarterback position in a
time where two years ago you were told, we were told,
everybody was told that the future and the present are
fixed or fixed or you're good to go. And that's
(11:21):
no longer that plan. It's you know, it's TVD whether
or not Michael Pennix is going to come back from
this injury and be the franchise quarterback that the Falcons
drafted him to be. I get that, Like that plan
is still out there. Yeah, but now you have to
put a pause in that plan and you have to
come up with a different You have to evolve the
plan because now you have this window of time or
(11:42):
who the heck knows who's going to be quarterbacking this
team at the beginning of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Which is so difficult when last season and this season
it's been a win now mindset.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, it's why you don't have a first round draft pick.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It absolutely because you you can see that they continue
to kind of keep pressing and pressing because you do
feel like right there and especially when maybe you feel
like the missing piece is the most important one down
there on the field, you get the kind of urgency
to say, if we get that fixed, we like what
is around it. Unfortunately, though, that part still just hasn't
(12:15):
locked in the way you wanted to so really quickly.
Because the day that they played Miami and Kirk made
his only start of the season, I was a little
preoccupied was the day was born. So what should I
expect from a Kirk Cousins led offense out there really quickly?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Toy, I think it's gonna be less pushing the ball
down the field, obviously. I just don't think that that's
Kirk's game. It's it's Michael's game. It's not Kirk's. I
do think that you saw him go under center a
lot when he went in. It went in for relief
for Michael Pennix against Carolina last week, So potentially there's
more of a wrinkle. So I get the first play,
(12:52):
I know I immediately all of the fans I could
just feel the like the fan base being like they
went under center and so in any who, But I
do think there's going to be the honestly, what I
need to see from Kirk Cousins in this performance, like
find the easy solutions, like yeah, don't turn the ball over,
Like just don't mess up, just make sure the chains
(13:16):
are moving, like rely on your run game. The Saints
have the twenty first run defense in the league, Like,
you should be able to run the ball in theory,
you weren't able to run the ball against Miami, So
who knows. I don't know. Like so, but that's the
thing is, like, don't get in the way of the game.
If I'm Kirk Cousins, I'm a part of the game plan.
Yes you have to be, you're the starting quarterback, but
(13:37):
I'm not. I want to make sure that I'm not
the reason why the team is losing the game. Does
that make sense? No?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Absolutely? Yeah, Like give him an easier game plan, allowed
to manage it. Things like that, which he should be
able to do at a high level. Again, he is
a veteran quarterback who has played a lot and started
a lot of football in the NFL. But Drake Lonnon
has been an easy button for whoever is been in
or Atlanta's quarterback this year. Do we expect to see
(14:04):
him out there this weekend? Tarin?
Speaker 4 (14:07):
It's a big TVD just because it's Drake London. But
if Raheem Morris has his way, no, it's verhee Morris
has said multiple times Drake London is week to week.
He said, I don't want to give you guys an
exact timeline for Drake. You know who he is, you
know how.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Tough he is.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
So if it's up to Drake, he'll play. But it's
not up to Drake. I mean even Raheema said like,
you've got to protect Drake from Drake sometimes, and he
has a PCL injury in his say it with me now.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Left d left me. I should never be a teacher.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
And so he's week to week. He did in practice
Wednesday or Thursday. Who knows what will happen on Friday.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
But I would work under the expectation that he's not
playing on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And you know why that's such a kicker is because
London is their star receiver. He alone ranks fifth in
the NFL overall and receiving yards. He has sixty receptions
for eight hundred and ten yards and six touchdowns. The
next closest is forty seven receptions for John Robinson and
Kyle pitts apiece, and they have five hundred six and
four hundred thirty four yards respectively. But the big deal
(15:12):
of it all like that's great, But the next best
receiver is Darnell Mooney with sixteen receptions for two hundred
and twenty four yards, And that's.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Not a lot compared to what Drake's doing.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
And if you take all the receivers, you take Darnell Mooney,
you take Casey Washington, you take Cadaryl Hodge, you take
the former Ray Ray Rick McLeod. They combined for thirty
five receptions for four hundred and forty seven yards and
zero touchdowns. That's about half of drake individual man production.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean, we kind of knew if you look at
what the Rams have been over like the Sean McVay era,
it is usually a two man show. Even last year,
when you look at what the Falcons were in their
first year with it, it was a two man show. So
this is not an offense that spreads the ball around
a ton, at least to the wide receiver position. But
it feels like this is a year that was set
(16:02):
up for them to do that if you were gonna
look at some of these season long numbers, because they've
been dealing with some injuries to Darnell to Drake at
various points, and they've played through them and stuff, but
they just hasn't been the supporting cast that I think
you would have expected given some of those injuries. So, Tory,
what do you make of all of this? Because like
they the Falcons have done. I think they have at
(16:24):
least like looked into the areas that were perceived to
be maybe weaknesses on the roster or and done what
they believe are steps to like address those wide receiver
this offseason, I kind of kept wondering if they were
gonna add another body or not. They never did, So
if Drake is out, like where does that leave them?
And what's your confidence level kind of in it?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, So to your first point, like my main question
is did the Falcons make a mistake by not retooling
the wide receiver room at different points in twenty twenty
five like, I think there is a case to be
made that, yeah, they didn't really help themselves out, Like
I don't blame them for not going after a wide
receiver in the draft or like early days of free
(17:05):
agency at the beginning year, because they essentially brought everyone back,
like three individuals who had career years last year with
Drake London, Darnell Mooney and Rays Point. So I understood.
I know, we even had a conversation around the draft
where it's like, do you use one of your later.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I want to give it Toy Horton in my so badly.
I just kept trying to.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Do it, I know, and I kept kind of being
like I'm not super worried about the wide receiver position
at that point. Well, then you go into training camp
and Darnell Mooney breaks his collarbone on the first day
of training camp, like which we found out a couple
of weeks ago when Rahe Morris went on the it
went on radio and announced that like we had only
just ever heard that it was the shoulder, and so
(17:44):
you know, based on like it's a broken collarbone, it's
not casual, that's not casual, and it's gonna be difficult
for him to one even push to get to the
point of playing at the beginning of the season based
on how bad the break is, how bad the fracture is.
But then that's after weeks of in time off and
(18:04):
months potentially of not catching passes from Michael pennockx Junior,
very rarely having even any opportunity in a live game
scenario to work on that camaraderie, work on that connection,
all those things. And then after that also kind of
well not even after that, simultaneously almost of Darnell working back,
he suffers a hamstring injury kind of sets him back.
(18:27):
Then there's all the Ray Ray McLeod stuff, which I
don't even really know what happened there. But at the
time of that release, like Darnell Mooney was not at
one hundred percent, he had the hamstring, and it wasn't
like Casey Washington, David Sills, Cadaryl Hodge were really giving
you much in relief outside of that. Now, there were
other issues in the past game in the offense as
a whole at the time, but you do have to
(18:49):
think that if they really wanted to, they could have
made something work to help out this receiver corps that
kept taking punch after punch and to Terrence point like,
now you don't have Drake London, the player who had
more production than the rest of the room combined. Yeah,
Like that's where I'm at is, I'm like, you need
someone to step up. Yeah, But like also at this
(19:10):
point in time, the riding had kind of been on
the wall at different points in time, and I give
them a pass for not doing anything, I think in
the Drafter free agency or the offseason, but when you
start figuring out that, like, may you need more from
guys like Casey Washington and Darrel Hide David Steeles that
you're not getting when Darnal Mooney is hurting you no
longer have Ravery McLoud on the roster and oh yeah
(19:32):
now Drake Lennon and it is hurt. Like I'm sorry,
but like there needed to have been more.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I think it's fair. I mean, right now, it really
does feel like a lot of the hopes, at least
for the passing game rest on the connection that Darnell,
Mooney and Kirk established last year. Right, But even in
Kirk's one start against Miami, Darnell had one catch on
four targets for like eleven yards. It was Kyle Pitts,
who was kind of his main go to guys, so
(19:59):
I a heavy dose of the jan in the passing game,
Kyle in the passing game, and Darnell and as their
downfield guy, and then maybe David Sills because it looked
like they had a connection going in training camp. But offensively, Yeah,
it's going to be really interesting to see what they
come up with and what their main plan of attack is,
because you would have to assume New Orleans is going
(20:21):
to be pretty ready to sell out to stop the
run and make them have to beat them through the air.
On the other side of the ball, though, Falcons stand
to get somebody back, which is a nice little change
of pace. If Divine Diablo is cleared to return to
action this Sunday, would what's kind of the latest on
that on Divine's injury and status n SO.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
On Monday, Raheem Morris announced that insidelinebacker Divine Diabolo it
will be designated to return. That became official on Wednesday
and a transaction went through. Diablo practiced Wednesday, was he full.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
He was limited, and then full on Thursday. Full Thursday.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
The Falcons now have until Wednesday of week fifteen to
either activate Diablo or revert him to season ending injury.
It's not impossible that the latter happens. It did to
offensive lineman Storm Norton after he had a parent suck
back in his recovery. He fully practiced, then did not
at all in his window closed. So he's on, he's
done and right now though, there's more optimism when it
(21:19):
comes to Diablo where he Morris went as far as
to say, assuming everything goes well, he should be back playing.
And that's as in this Sunday in New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
And you know, we saw the impact that Divine was
having for this defense early in the year. I think
he may still be kind of the newcomer of the
year for a lot of guys, if we're not counting
the rookie class of course, which again we love them. Yeah,
but how impactful do you expect Devine Diablo to be
kind of coming back? And is this a matchup where
you will need him?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, I think it's not a coincidence that Divine Diablo
is coming back in a situation where you have a
tight end on the other side, like Juwan Johnson, who
is coming off of his best performance today, which is
four catches for ninety two yards against Carolina two weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
That's explosive.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And I do think that you miss not having Divine
Diablo in coverage against some of these type of players.
And so I also will say, let's call a spade
a spade, like the defense was not operating the way
it was after it lost Divine Diablo comparatively speaking to
what it was when they had him before the end.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I think you couple that, of course with like not
having my cues at corner for the last couple of games,
you end up being on your third corner in relief
trying to make up for some of the injuries in
the secondary. So yes, coverage production I think drops in
the last couple of weeks, But overall, I think inserting
Divine Diablo back into this roster should, if we're going
(22:48):
off of what we saw in the first six weeks
of the season, should make a difference to what they're doing,
both from a coverage standpoint, also getting after the quarterback
as well.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah, Jesse, today, Jesse Bates pointed out something today that
I hadn't thought of and I don't know the exact
like timeline off the top of my head. But he said, yeah,
I mean as soon as Divine went out, we started losing.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, I mean he left in the game.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So Divine Diablo in my laptop.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That's what it was.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That was the combination of this got.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
To vine back and we got my laptop.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
That's what we needed until everybody needed.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I'm so upset though, that we never got to see
Tyler Warren and Divine Diablo. I know that would have
been a heck of a matchup. And again you're like,
you're looking at these two overtime games, a close loss,
like he could have been a difference maker in some of.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
These Divine intervention.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Perhaps I was so ready for that to be a headline.
I keep perhaps it's still could be.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
It was somewhere else. I didn't come up with that
on my own.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Okay, okay, Well, no thought is an original podcast.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Every movie is a sequel.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
The Falcons are are three and seven. They're very much
in a one game at a time mentality. So let's
look at this one game ahead of them, tarn how
did the Falcons in the Saints match going into their
Week twelve matchup?
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Speaking of one game, only one game, determines the series
right now, between the Saints and the Falcons, it is
fifty five fifty six. Who do you think has the lead?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Well, thank, you know what is it? The Falcons? It's
the Saints.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
The Saints have the.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Lead, but we're want to know in the playoffs against them,
that is true.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Yep, we're putting overall in the regular season it's fifty
five to fifty six Saints.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I feel like it's been like the last oh six years,
goes back and forth.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
That's a good y.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
It is the best rivalry in NFL. I said with
that question.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
What will be interesting and is interesting is if the
Falcons win Sunday, it would mark the first road game
either team has won in the series since Week one
of the twenty twenty two season. That was when the
Saints won in Atlanta twenty seven to twenty six. And
you know what, I realized, that was my first NFL
regular season game as a reporter. Nice I covered the
(25:00):
winning team in that regard. But here we are a
few years later, and now maybe the tides will change
in Atlanta going down to New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I didn't know where I was going with that.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
You got there, but the laptops back. You're on our side.
Now you can stop us.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I mean, this is a big rivalry. It has been
fun to see on both sides. Like I wasn't internal
for the Saints. I worked for a newspaper, so I
didn't get like as much of the oomph. I didn't
really care lunch right, yeah, But now being internal, you
can feel the rivalry throughout the building. It's kind of
like the Alabama, Auburn, the Michigan Ohio State, the Army, Navy,
(25:37):
the Texas Oklahoma, but in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
And what's interesting is, and I've I've said this before
and I think a lot of people would would agree
with me, is like this is a game where it
kind of doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
What the records are, throw them out.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Anything can happen in this game. And I mean especially
there for me personally looking at this matchup, this game
has turned into a much more even game than I
think I even imagined it being three four weeks ago,
which is bad for the Falcons because it shouldn't have
been that way. When you're on a five game losing
streak and the Saints are coming off a win over
(26:09):
Carolina and their bye week, like that's what happens. It
ends up leveling the playing field of a playing field
that was already level considering the rivalry. In my opinion,
this game actually goes back to something that we talked
about last week with the Carolina Panthers, is that it
matters more the Falcons do, not necessarily what the Saints do,
and so in theory, it goes back to what I
was talking about before, Like, if Kirk Cousins doesn't turn
(26:30):
the ball over, the Falcons can run the ball, if
the defense can make getting in the end zone difficult
for New Orleans, if the Falcons offense can friggin score
like it should be fine. But I will say this
because like I want to be clear in saying this
as well, it's like there's a very real possibility that
the Falcons lose this game, even though there is nothing
(26:53):
to play here beyond bragging rights, as both teams are
essentially out of the playoffs, but nothing would make the
other happier than just ruining their day. So again it
goes back to the main point of this is a
game that it doesn't matter what is happening beyond the
game itself, Like it's it's almost kind of like the
(27:15):
game in and of itself is its own being within
the rivalry. And I think nothing would make the Saints
happier than to thump Atlanta, And nothing would make the
Falcons happier than the thump the Saints.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Kick them while they're down that No, Yeah, I want
to do that. Yeah, push you down and kick you.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
There's a ton of shod and fraud in this rivalry,
which uh which yeah, for those who don't know, that
means taking pleasure in the pain of others.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Take us to school much better teacher than I.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
And I didn't even go to Germany.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Is that a German word?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
It is?
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Is?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
So I do? Yeah. I mean at this point when
you when you look at kind of the matchup, it
really does you're closer than you would have expected that
certainly after like the Bills game, right, so the Falcons
have to be locked in. They gotta kind of really
be just like you need to see I think fast starts,
you need to see better performances on third downs, all
(28:14):
of that stuff. So with that in mind, it's a
it's a really good time to wrap us up with
a nice little game we're gonna play called need Nice Nope,
which we have in front of us here, the green,
the yellow, and the red paddles. I guess they kind
of look like lollipops or balloons, but it's lovely arts
(28:34):
and crafts projects. I assume it took you hours to
do this, Jared, because these look phenomenal. So what I'm
gonna do is I'm gonna throw out a few topics here,
and Tory and Tarn are going to raise whichever paddle.
The green correlates to something we need to see from
the Falcons on Sunday. The yellow correlates to something that
would be nice, in our opinion, to see from Atlanta,
(28:56):
but not necessarily something we have to see to feel
like the team is on the right track. Red is
we don't need to see it in order to again
kind of change our opinion of what the Falcons are doing.
So everybody understand the rules?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Ready?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
All right, let's start with the first one. Do we
need to see over forty percent on third down from
this offense?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I forgot we weren't just going in order.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Of the entire list, raghein, No, we're jumping on spontaneous yellow.
All right, So this is a nice to see, Tori?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Why is it a nice to see because you know,
if they're running the ball well on first and second
down and not even getting to third down and you
don't have that many third down opportunities, like, I'm okay
if you're not converting them at a necessary clip. But also,
because I've watched all one hundred and seven previously before
last week, every single third down appearance, anything better than
twenty percent is good right now, so that's rare.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Feel the same way.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Yeah, And just I think the red zone streak of
where they've scored ten in a row is kind of
my priority more so than third down. Ok. I feel
like Raheem Morris in this moment saying that I will
add advertising the red zone.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
The Falcons are three and two when they are over
forty percent on third down, and of course they are
winless when they are below forty on third down, So
that is maybe an important uh marker there, all right?
Next one at least four sacks from the Falcons defense.
Oh we don't need to see that, all right, Tom?
Why don't we need to see that?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
They've had eighteen in the past three games?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
There you go say it again one more time.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
They have eighteen in the past three games. I feel
so uncomfortable. So I mean, we got it. Put it.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I put on this stat like in the Super Bowl era,
no team, no team had ever had that many sacks
over a three game span and lost those three games.
I'm not saying sacks don't matter like they do. It's
great seeing this defense get after quarterbacks and everything like that,
but at the end of the day, they've lost their
last three and sacked the quarterback a lot. So I
(30:53):
don't necessarily need to see it. If it means you're
not going to win the game.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
There you go appreciate right. Next one, we talked about
how kind of important Drake London has been to this offense.
If if he's not able to go maybe spread the
ball around a little bit more so, how important is
it for us to see receptions? You know, four receptions,
four from four different receivers. It was a lot of fours,
you know, three two one, Okay, our first difference we
(31:17):
got difference to We'll start with you.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I think that in order for the Falcons to be
at their most successful offensively, like, you're gonna have to
see that because you're not gonna be able to just
key in on like Kyle Pitts. You're gonna need to
be able to use Jehon Robinson, Kyle Pitts, Darnell Mooney,
David Sales, like any like four of them, right, Yeah,
you're I think you're gonna need to use all of
(31:40):
them because I do worry about the run being taken away,
like and because we've seen it happen before, so like
you need to have an answer. And if the answer
is just dropping it down to Jon Robinson every time
in a checkdown, I don't necessarily think that's gonna work.
I think you're gonna have to spread the ball out
to guys.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
It's to Charlie Warner fifteen times.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I would love.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, Charlie, you have it as a nice to see why.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Because I don't really care what you do as long
as it works.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay, I like that. Yeah, I mean there's there's probably
a very big portion of the fan base that feels
the exact says true, Hey, I don't care how it's done,
just get it done, really all right? Next one, No
Big Kickoff returns three to one. We got another nice
to see from Taran and the need to see from Tori.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
At this point in time, I my expectation is you
have to be better in that way, and until you do,
like I I'm gonna say, you need to see it
because there have been too many instances where field position,
you've put your defense in really horrible situations over the
last three weeks particularly, I need to see it because
(32:47):
I do think that even though the Saints have been
kind of been the butt of the quarterback joke, I
think what they have right now in their young quarterback
who they just drafted, is a guy who's feeling a
bit more confident. He's coming off of a like two
and eighty two passing day against Carolina. Like, so don't
give them, don't give them opportunities, don't to feel good
(33:08):
about themselves. Lad's in kickoff.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Returns, Yeah, and I should say no big kickoff returns allowed, right,
and the Falcons are averaging more than twenty five yards
allowed in in the last five weeks. So this was
a nice to see for you.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
It's a nice to see.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
It's like the same reason, which is so silly, but like,
I don't care, just tearing it out.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
On my list.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Would you like to see them win? That's when you
get a green from you.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Tory Tory had a really good argument.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
So like, I'm fading toward greens, like it's a I'm
fading a stop like doesn't go yellow to green. But
in my world right now, we might all right.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Our final and fifth one here, you know, we like
a we like a theme on the Friday, five win
the time of possession. The word win is in it
though no three to one? All right, same, we got
a trend here, need to see nice to see Teraran
will start with you the same.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I'm so sorry, but like, just do anything anything that
will make you win the game.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Hey, you if not consistent, I have in here.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
The only green I have life two greens was winning
regulation beautiful and then make every kick?
Speaker 2 (34:23):
All right, So mine's screen because I feel like if
you win the time of possession, it means that you're
running the ball well. And I think that the Falcons
have in I don't know what their I don't know
what the stats are behind this, but I imagine when they
win the time of possession, they are oftentimes in the
position at least to win the game.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
It's yeah, you're you're right on. It's they're three and
one when they're over thirty minutes oh and six when
they're under against the Colts, they gave up forty minutes
of time of possession. And again what you're seeing is
when we talk about run defense, things like that late
in the games, having a lead in the fourth quarter,
giving it up, not being able to you know, like
all of those things. Time of possession is a big
(35:05):
factor in that. Because guys get tired. Everybody's a human
being out there as much as they are world class athletes.
Fatigue is real. So time of possession matters.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
So I must work in like absolutes, like a sith lord.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
I'm only we're going to Charlie Warner eighty times.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Do it?
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Don't care? Do it?
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Do it?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
You only have fifteen minutes a time of possession?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Cool line.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
As long as there's a W at the end of
the day, all.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Right, that's all that matters. Well, we we've got it.
We've got a fund. Sorry dubs for days. That's what
we That's our motto here on the Friday five that
I just made up. But good news for everybody, our
pregame show is out now. Given you know some of
the logistics travel all of that stuff, you guys can
(35:54):
can check it out. There's gonna be another one on
Sunday as well, so a double dip try to get
a how about that? So please please go check that
out on the Atlanta Falcons YouTube channel with with Derek
Rackley and Taylor Vismore. They do amazing stuff. We will
be back on the podcast feed Monday morning with Final
Whistle you can hear from Tory and I breaking down
(36:14):
all of the action and then Pro Bowl voting starts
next week on Thanksgiving. So even though the team's performance
may not be where everybody wants it to be, I
do think there are some players who are worthy yes
of some singular recognition, and Tarn agrees with me, so
thank you very much. There we go. Love it. Yeah,
and maybe soon we can have a little bit more
(36:35):
of an in depth like Pro Bowl discussion rest individual
players things like that. But that will do it for
us today on the Friday five. Thank you guys so
much for listening and watching. Checks out on YouTube and
we will see you all next time.
That means that you are showing submission to everybody's at
home by us back the laptops back. You're on our side.
Now you can stop us. Happy Friday Falcons fans, Welcome
back to the Friday five. I'm your host, Will mcfatt
and I'm joined as always by Tory mclaney and Tarren Walk.
(00:20):
We've got a lot to get to today, you know,
some of it good, some of it not so good.
We're going to talk about the upcoming game against the
Saints as always, We're going to start with with kind
of our social question of the week, but also want
to remind everybody, however they watch us, however they listening
to us, please just spread the word like subscribe where
you can. You know the deal at this point, but
(00:41):
it just helps grow the channel and we appreciate every
little bit of of outreach we can get. So onto
our social question of the day, Tory, do you want
to do the honors and read it out?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I can let me know it. I don't know it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Though, Doc, and you can check out the social question
on TikTok any day go to the Falcons TikTok feed.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Okay, So, question of the day when you eat in taco.
Do you turn the taco to fit your head or
do you turn your head to fit the taco. I
turned my head to fit the taco.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
I turned my head to fit the taco.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Y'all just get are dominated by tacos over here. You
gotta control the taco.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
I how do you control the taco? Because you turn
the taco, everything comes out of the taco.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
See this is how I know that that's our team.
Eat hard tacos because the real answer is go grab
yourself a tortilla and wrap that thing up and it
doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I like both.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I am a case of dia girly. If I were
to say, if I were to have my choice, I'm
more of a burrito girly. Yeah, so tacos, but I
do love tacos. I'm having tacos tonight with a margarita
because it's been that week.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I will say I saw this. I was in the
Like staff locker room one day just after working out
and saw the segment where cam'skataboo was like having this
actual conversation.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Dominate you.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
It was the funny thing, just out of context to
watch that.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
I have not seen that at all.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
His answer is so simple.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I know it was like you turn your head to
fit the taco.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, but apparently in according to camp Scatter, but that
that means that you are showing submission to the taco
and we can't have that. Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I mean, if there ever was words to live by,
it's probably coming from scamp camp Scatter.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Did you guys see too that he was like involved
in a fake fighter at like a wrestling match, but.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Of course he was. Of course he was. Also I
did see his like shoulder can pop out of place,
like he's an interesting cat that.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Cam Scatty dominates the taco.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
He okay, good?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
First, you would never let food dominate him?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Of course not. I've seen him run through people.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
He is an absolute animal. It was so much fun
to watch.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I will you have to answer the question, Oh why again?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I pretty much only eat soft tacos. But I agree,
is I think I do?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:57):
I would turn my one. Yeah, I would turn my
head because it is kind of right. You can just
turn it sideways and everything falls out.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah. I think the talk was still dominant, although I.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Will say the second and like last bites then when
you're kind of like holding it a little bit like this.
That's when you can turn on it right exactly. Then
that's what you say. All right, Well again, go check
out the Falcons TikTok account for all of our questions
of the day. They are really entertaining. Uh and getting
a glimpse of the personality personality of the players is
(03:27):
always fun. But now we're going to pivot to a
little bit more serious news. Unfortunately, you know, starting quarterback
for the Atlanta Falcons, Michael Pennock Junr. Got hurt in
the last game, left late in the third quarter against
the Carolina Panthers after throwing Did you.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Say left left left left, left, left left knee?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Am I right about that?
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Don't right into it.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Don't confuse him.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
To be clear, it's his left knee. He left the
game with a left knee injury.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
There you go, And then I just triggered No, I
love that because that has been kind of the a
lot of conversation throughout the week at Flowers Branch, right left.
Whenever a knee injury is involved, right, it is. It
is serious, and especially with Michael Pennock Junior, who in
college had a couple and so there were rightfully a
(04:17):
lot of questions posed to head coach Rahim Morris this week,
what does this mean? What is the status of Michael
Penick junior? Taren, you want to kind of like fill
us in on how everything evolved after Sunday afternoon when
it was clear, okay, he's questionable, and then he never
made it back into the game.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Right but woh, I didn't realize how common that word
is until like now I have to focus on left,
right and left. But Michael has a partially torn ACL
in his left me. It happened in the third quarter
of the game. He didn't come back. And the reason,
as Will said, this is kind of I mean, it
(04:54):
is a big deal.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Is it's season ending.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
He will not play another game in the twenty twenty
five season and only his second season with the Falcons overall.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Hasn't gotten a chance to play a full season. Yeah,
which is really unfortunate.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And injuries.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
He has a huge history with injuries, and that's why
people are kind of like, Wichney is it, whitchey is it?
Because let's go through his injury timeline real quick. From
college twenty eighteen, he tours right ACL and he missed
the rest of the season. Twenty nineteen, he had a
right shoulder injury, out for the rest of the season.
Twenty twenty, his right acl is torn again, misses the
(05:29):
rest of the season. Twenty twenty one, his left shoulder
is injured, misses the rest of the season. He was
clean in twenty twenty two and twenty three while at Washington.
But now if you add in this injury to his
left knee, probably just getting annoying now.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
But everybody's at homes like, we get it, we get it.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
But that puts Pennis at five season ending injuries between
college and the NFL.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
It's that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
That It is a lot. H It is a lot,
and I mean again, on the one hand, and it's
important to note that this is the left knee and
is not the same as the one that he injured
in call. But again, you never want to see this,
especially when you're talking about your starting quarterback. And once again, Tory,
we're talking about the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons,
(06:16):
and this is not where anybody wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I know.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
I let's take a big picture look at this thirty
thousand foot view. The Falcons are back in a quarterback purgatory,
despite the fact that they wanted to put a plan
and did put a plan in place two years ago
that they hoped would keep them out of this purgatory. Like,
the fact of the matter is is that dominoes have
(06:40):
been falling at the quarterback position for many years now.
The first domino that got the organization here was the
pursuit of Deshaun Watson and the ultimate trading of Matt
Ryan back in March of twenty twenty one. And from
there you go on this not so merry go round
of quarterbacks. Marcus mariot A, Desmond Ritter, Taylor Heineke, Logan
(07:05):
wood Side. You remember how igot about him.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I'm so sorry, Logan.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I know I didn't mean to like disparage Logan Woodside
catching strays here. But like, you go through this quarterback carousel,
which is what Arthur Smith called it at the time,
and then you hire Raheem Morris and you go into
the twenty twenty four off season being like, the goal
is to fix the quarterback position and it's been too
long since that has not been fixed, addressed, whatever the
(07:32):
case may be. So you go and you signed Kirk
Cousins to a pretty lucrative deal month and a half later,
two months later, you draft Michael Pennix with the number
eight overall draft pick. It was the pick heard round
the world of that draft cycle. That decision stemmed from
wanting to solidify the present and future of the quarterback position.
(07:52):
That is, they did not want to get into another
situation that they were in in the post Matt Ryan years,
where you did not have a secession plan in place
for Matt Ryan in the event he was no longer
your quarterback here in Atlanta, which came to fruition when
you traded him to the Indianapolis Colts. So there's that
Plan A. We know what Plan A was. Plan A
(08:12):
was to have Kirk Cousins play and be the starter
for two to three seasons. It was to have Michael
Penix developed behind him to learn the ropes, and it
was it was then to get to the point where
Michael Pennis can easily take over the starting quarterback role.
Kirk Cousins can right off into the sunset chains a
blaze as he enters into potential retirement. You would have said, Shack,
(08:36):
I could have and now that's a missed opportunity. Now
I'm beating myself up that I didn't say that that
didn't happen. You had to go to Plan B because
we all saw what happened last year Kirk Cousins had
a significant decline in play towards the end, middle to
end of the season. Michael Penox has to come in. Well,
now your Plan B is out the window too, because
Michael Pennox is hurt and we do not know what
(08:57):
the timeline is for his at this point, and this
is just speculation. External reports are that he has to
have a full reconstructive ACL surgery. At best, that's usually
a nine month timeline, nine months if he were to
(09:18):
have the surgery this week, which we don't even know
if he's had the surgery yet. Raheem Morris was asked
point blank about that on Wednesday, said not yet soon,
sooner rather than later is what he said. So now
you're getting further and further to the end of November,
which puts you further and further into August into September.
There is a world in which the Falcons go into
(09:39):
twenty twenty six and Michael Pennox is not at one
hundred percent. Because it's one thing to be like we
saw it with Kirk cousins. We've seen it time and
time again. It's one thing to have had the surgery
and to be cleared medically to be on the field.
Another thing entirely to have missed all that time and
be ready to go into an NFL season as a
guy who has not even played a full season of
(10:00):
professional football yet.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, it's not just the time too, Like the developmental
time on the field is crucial for a young player,
but just getting back out on the field in some ways,
that is step one, yeah, right, like working your way
back to another starting point, and then it's building that
confidence back up, like Michael Penis is somebody who likes
to move around in the POCKETA isn't a scrambler, but
(10:22):
he steps up and evades pressure and does all of
those things. So you have to have those reps, I think,
and build that confidence back up in kind of that niche.
So again, yeah, it's it is not just a this
year injury. There are ripple effects as kind of even
Raheem Morris said.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, he said that he was as point blank like
does Michael Pennocks's injury changed the way that you approach
the off season at the quarterback position, and he said, yes,
it has to, and it does because you're now looking
at not having Michael Pinnocks for a potentially all of
training camp, potentially the first few weeks, if not months
of the season. We don't know yet. There's too much
(10:58):
out there about like his recovery and how long it's
actually going to take for us to even be able
to speculate one way or the other. Regardless, is that
you should be concerned about the quarterback position in a
time where two years ago you were told, we were told,
everybody was told that the future and the present are
fixed or fixed or you're good to go. And that's
(11:21):
no longer that plan. It's you know, it's TVD whether
or not Michael Pennix is going to come back from
this injury and be the franchise quarterback that the Falcons
drafted him to be. I get that, Like that plan
is still out there. Yeah, but now you have to
put a pause in that plan and you have to
come up with a different You have to evolve the
plan because now you have this window of time or
(11:42):
who the heck knows who's going to be quarterbacking this
team at the beginning of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (11:46):
Which is so difficult when last season and this season
it's been a win now mindset.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Yeah, it's why you don't have a first round draft pick.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
It absolutely because you you can see that they continue
to kind of keep pressing and pressing because you do
feel like right there and especially when maybe you feel
like the missing piece is the most important one down
there on the field, you get the kind of urgency
to say, if we get that fixed, we like what
is around it. Unfortunately, though, that part still just hasn't
(12:15):
locked in the way you wanted to so really quickly.
Because the day that they played Miami and Kirk made
his only start of the season, I was a little
preoccupied was the day was born. So what should I
expect from a Kirk Cousins led offense out there really quickly?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Toy, I think it's gonna be less pushing the ball
down the field, obviously. I just don't think that that's
Kirk's game. It's it's Michael's game. It's not Kirk's. I
do think that you saw him go under center a
lot when he went in. It went in for relief
for Michael Pennix against Carolina last week, So potentially there's
more of a wrinkle. So I get the first play,
(12:52):
I know I immediately all of the fans I could
just feel the like the fan base being like they
went under center and so in any who, But I
do think there's going to be the honestly, what I
need to see from Kirk Cousins in this performance, like
find the easy solutions, like yeah, don't turn the ball over,
Like just don't mess up, just make sure the chains
(13:16):
are moving, like rely on your run game. The Saints
have the twenty first run defense in the league, Like,
you should be able to run the ball in theory,
you weren't able to run the ball against Miami, So
who knows. I don't know. Like so, but that's the
thing is, like, don't get in the way of the game.
If I'm Kirk Cousins, I'm a part of the game plan.
Yes you have to be, you're the starting quarterback, but
(13:37):
I'm not. I want to make sure that I'm not
the reason why the team is losing the game. Does
that make sense? No?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Absolutely? Yeah, Like give him an easier game plan, allowed
to manage it. Things like that, which he should be
able to do at a high level. Again, he is
a veteran quarterback who has played a lot and started
a lot of football in the NFL. But Drake Lonnon
has been an easy button for whoever is been in
or Atlanta's quarterback this year. Do we expect to see
(14:04):
him out there this weekend? Tarin?
Speaker 4 (14:07):
It's a big TVD just because it's Drake London. But
if Raheem Morris has his way, no, it's verhee Morris
has said multiple times Drake London is week to week.
He said, I don't want to give you guys an
exact timeline for Drake. You know who he is, you
know how.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Tough he is.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
So if it's up to Drake, he'll play. But it's
not up to Drake. I mean even Raheema said like,
you've got to protect Drake from Drake sometimes, and he
has a PCL injury in his say it with me now.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Left d left me. I should never be a teacher.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
And so he's week to week. He did in practice
Wednesday or Thursday. Who knows what will happen on Friday.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
But I would work under the expectation that he's not
playing on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And you know why that's such a kicker is because
London is their star receiver. He alone ranks fifth in
the NFL overall and receiving yards. He has sixty receptions
for eight hundred and ten yards and six touchdowns. The
next closest is forty seven receptions for John Robinson and
Kyle pitts apiece, and they have five hundred six and
four hundred thirty four yards respectively. But the big deal
(15:12):
of it all like that's great, But the next best
receiver is Darnell Mooney with sixteen receptions for two hundred
and twenty four yards, And that's.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Not a lot compared to what Drake's doing.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
And if you take all the receivers, you take Darnell Mooney,
you take Casey Washington, you take Cadaryl Hodge, you take
the former Ray Ray Rick McLeod. They combined for thirty
five receptions for four hundred and forty seven yards and
zero touchdowns. That's about half of drake individual man production.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
I mean, we kind of knew if you look at
what the Rams have been over like the Sean McVay era,
it is usually a two man show. Even last year,
when you look at what the Falcons were in their
first year with it, it was a two man show. So
this is not an offense that spreads the ball around
a ton, at least to the wide receiver position. But
it feels like this is a year that was set
(16:02):
up for them to do that if you were gonna
look at some of these season long numbers, because they've
been dealing with some injuries to Darnell to Drake at
various points, and they've played through them and stuff, but
they just hasn't been the supporting cast that I think
you would have expected given some of those injuries. So, Tory,
what do you make of all of this? Because like
they the Falcons have done. I think they have at
(16:24):
least like looked into the areas that were perceived to
be maybe weaknesses on the roster or and done what
they believe are steps to like address those wide receiver
this offseason, I kind of kept wondering if they were
gonna add another body or not. They never did, So
if Drake is out, like where does that leave them?
And what's your confidence level kind of in it?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Yeah, So to your first point, like my main question
is did the Falcons make a mistake by not retooling
the wide receiver room at different points in twenty twenty
five like, I think there is a case to be
made that, yeah, they didn't really help themselves out, Like
I don't blame them for not going after a wide
receiver in the draft or like early days of free
(17:05):
agency at the beginning year, because they essentially brought everyone back,
like three individuals who had career years last year with
Drake London, Darnell Mooney and Rays Point. So I understood.
I know, we even had a conversation around the draft
where it's like, do you use one of your later.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
I want to give it Toy Horton in my so badly.
I just kept trying to.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Do it, I know, and I kept kind of being
like I'm not super worried about the wide receiver position
at that point. Well, then you go into training camp
and Darnell Mooney breaks his collarbone on the first day
of training camp, like which we found out a couple
of weeks ago when Rahe Morris went on the it
went on radio and announced that like we had only
just ever heard that it was the shoulder, and so
(17:44):
you know, based on like it's a broken collarbone, it's
not casual, that's not casual, and it's gonna be difficult
for him to one even push to get to the
point of playing at the beginning of the season based
on how bad the break is, how bad the fracture is.
But then that's after weeks of in time off and
(18:04):
months potentially of not catching passes from Michael pennockx Junior,
very rarely having even any opportunity in a live game
scenario to work on that camaraderie, work on that connection,
all those things. And then after that also kind of
well not even after that, simultaneously almost of Darnell working back,
he suffers a hamstring injury kind of sets him back.
(18:27):
Then there's all the Ray Ray McLeod stuff, which I
don't even really know what happened there. But at the
time of that release, like Darnell Mooney was not at
one hundred percent, he had the hamstring, and it wasn't
like Casey Washington, David Sills, Cadaryl Hodge were really giving
you much in relief outside of that. Now, there were
other issues in the past game in the offense as
a whole at the time, but you do have to
(18:49):
think that if they really wanted to, they could have
made something work to help out this receiver corps that
kept taking punch after punch and to Terrence point like,
now you don't have Drake London, the player who had
more production than the rest of the room combined. Yeah,
Like that's where I'm at is, I'm like, you need
someone to step up. Yeah, But like also at this
(19:10):
point in time, the riding had kind of been on
the wall at different points in time, and I give
them a pass for not doing anything, I think in
the Drafter free agency or the offseason, but when you
start figuring out that, like, may you need more from
guys like Casey Washington and Darrel Hide David Steeles that
you're not getting when Darnal Mooney is hurting you no
longer have Ravery McLoud on the roster and oh yeah
(19:32):
now Drake Lennon and it is hurt. Like I'm sorry,
but like there needed to have been more.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I think it's fair. I mean, right now, it really
does feel like a lot of the hopes, at least
for the passing game rest on the connection that Darnell,
Mooney and Kirk established last year. Right, But even in
Kirk's one start against Miami, Darnell had one catch on
four targets for like eleven yards. It was Kyle Pitts,
who was kind of his main go to guys, so
(19:59):
I a heavy dose of the jan in the passing game,
Kyle in the passing game, and Darnell and as their
downfield guy, and then maybe David Sills because it looked
like they had a connection going in training camp. But offensively, Yeah,
it's going to be really interesting to see what they
come up with and what their main plan of attack is,
because you would have to assume New Orleans is going
(20:21):
to be pretty ready to sell out to stop the
run and make them have to beat them through the air.
On the other side of the ball, though, Falcons stand
to get somebody back, which is a nice little change
of pace. If Divine Diablo is cleared to return to
action this Sunday, would what's kind of the latest on
that on Divine's injury and status n SO.
Speaker 4 (20:41):
On Monday, Raheem Morris announced that insidelinebacker Divine Diabolo it
will be designated to return. That became official on Wednesday
and a transaction went through. Diablo practiced Wednesday, was he full.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
He was limited, and then full on Thursday. Full Thursday.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
The Falcons now have until Wednesday of week fifteen to
either activate Diablo or revert him to season ending injury.
It's not impossible that the latter happens. It did to
offensive lineman Storm Norton after he had a parent suck
back in his recovery. He fully practiced, then did not
at all in his window closed. So he's on, he's
done and right now though, there's more optimism when it
(21:19):
comes to Diablo where he Morris went as far as
to say, assuming everything goes well, he should be back playing.
And that's as in this Sunday in New Orleans.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
And you know, we saw the impact that Divine was
having for this defense early in the year. I think
he may still be kind of the newcomer of the
year for a lot of guys, if we're not counting
the rookie class of course, which again we love them. Yeah,
but how impactful do you expect Devine Diablo to be
kind of coming back? And is this a matchup where
you will need him?
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, I think it's not a coincidence that Divine Diablo
is coming back in a situation where you have a
tight end on the other side, like Juwan Johnson, who
is coming off of his best performance today, which is
four catches for ninety two yards against Carolina two weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
That's explosive.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
And I do think that you miss not having Divine
Diablo in coverage against some of these type of players.
And so I also will say, let's call a spade
a spade, like the defense was not operating the way
it was after it lost Divine Diablo comparatively speaking to
what it was when they had him before the end.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
I think you couple that, of course with like not
having my cues at corner for the last couple of games,
you end up being on your third corner in relief
trying to make up for some of the injuries in
the secondary. So yes, coverage production I think drops in
the last couple of weeks, But overall, I think inserting
Divine Diablo back into this roster should, if we're going
(22:48):
off of what we saw in the first six weeks
of the season, should make a difference to what they're doing,
both from a coverage standpoint, also getting after the quarterback
as well.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Yeah, Jesse, today, Jesse Bates pointed out something today that
I hadn't thought of and I don't know the exact
like timeline off the top of my head. But he said, yeah,
I mean as soon as Divine went out, we started losing.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, I mean he left in the game.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So Divine Diablo in my laptop.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
That's what it was.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
That was the combination of this got.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
To vine back and we got my laptop.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
That's what we needed until everybody needed.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
I'm so upset though, that we never got to see
Tyler Warren and Divine Diablo. I know that would have
been a heck of a matchup. And again you're like,
you're looking at these two overtime games, a close loss,
like he could have been a difference maker in some of.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
These Divine intervention.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Perhaps I was so ready for that to be a headline.
I keep perhaps it's still could be.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
It was somewhere else. I didn't come up with that
on my own.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Okay, okay, Well, no thought is an original podcast.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Every movie is a sequel.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
The Falcons are are three and seven. They're very much
in a one game at a time mentality. So let's
look at this one game ahead of them, tarn how
did the Falcons in the Saints match going into their
Week twelve matchup?
Speaker 4 (24:02):
Speaking of one game, only one game, determines the series
right now, between the Saints and the Falcons, it is
fifty five fifty six. Who do you think has the lead?
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Well, thank, you know what is it? The Falcons? It's
the Saints.
Speaker 3 (24:20):
The Saints have the.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Lead, but we're want to know in the playoffs against them,
that is true.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Yep, we're putting overall in the regular season it's fifty
five to fifty six Saints.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I feel like it's been like the last oh six years,
goes back and forth.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
That's a good y.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
It is the best rivalry in NFL. I said with
that question.
Speaker 4 (24:38):
What will be interesting and is interesting is if the
Falcons win Sunday, it would mark the first road game
either team has won in the series since Week one
of the twenty twenty two season. That was when the
Saints won in Atlanta twenty seven to twenty six. And
you know what, I realized, that was my first NFL
regular season game as a reporter. Nice I covered the
(25:00):
winning team in that regard. But here we are a
few years later, and now maybe the tides will change
in Atlanta going down to New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I didn't know where I was going with that.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
You got there, but the laptops back. You're on our side.
Now you can stop us.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I mean, this is a big rivalry. It has been
fun to see on both sides. Like I wasn't internal
for the Saints. I worked for a newspaper, so I
didn't get like as much of the oomph. I didn't
really care lunch right, yeah, But now being internal, you
can feel the rivalry throughout the building. It's kind of
like the Alabama, Auburn, the Michigan Ohio State, the Army, Navy,
(25:37):
the Texas Oklahoma, but in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
And what's interesting is, and I've I've said this before
and I think a lot of people would would agree
with me, is like this is a game where it
kind of doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
What the records are, throw them out.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Anything can happen in this game. And I mean especially
there for me personally looking at this matchup, this game
has turned into a much more even game than I
think I even imagined it being three four weeks ago,
which is bad for the Falcons because it shouldn't have
been that way. When you're on a five game losing
streak and the Saints are coming off a win over
(26:09):
Carolina and their bye week, like that's what happens. It
ends up leveling the playing field of a playing field
that was already level considering the rivalry. In my opinion,
this game actually goes back to something that we talked
about last week with the Carolina Panthers, is that it
matters more the Falcons do, not necessarily what the Saints do,
and so in theory, it goes back to what I
was talking about before, Like, if Kirk Cousins doesn't turn
(26:30):
the ball over, the Falcons can run the ball, if
the defense can make getting in the end zone difficult
for New Orleans, if the Falcons offense can friggin score
like it should be fine. But I will say this
because like I want to be clear in saying this
as well, it's like there's a very real possibility that
the Falcons lose this game, even though there is nothing
(26:53):
to play here beyond bragging rights, as both teams are
essentially out of the playoffs, but nothing would make the
other happier than just ruining their day. So again it
goes back to the main point of this is a
game that it doesn't matter what is happening beyond the
game itself, Like it's it's almost kind of like the
(27:15):
game in and of itself is its own being within
the rivalry. And I think nothing would make the Saints
happier than to thump Atlanta, And nothing would make the
Falcons happier than the thump the Saints.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Kick them while they're down that No, Yeah, I want
to do that. Yeah, push you down and kick you.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
There's a ton of shod and fraud in this rivalry,
which uh which yeah, for those who don't know, that
means taking pleasure in the pain of others.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Take us to school much better teacher than I.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
And I didn't even go to Germany.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Is that a German word?
Speaker 2 (27:50):
It is?
Speaker 4 (27:50):
Is?
Speaker 1 (27:52):
So I do? Yeah. I mean at this point when
you when you look at kind of the matchup, it
really does you're closer than you would have expected that
certainly after like the Bills game, right, so the Falcons
have to be locked in. They gotta kind of really
be just like you need to see I think fast starts,
you need to see better performances on third downs, all
(28:14):
of that stuff. So with that in mind, it's a
it's a really good time to wrap us up with
a nice little game we're gonna play called need Nice Nope,
which we have in front of us here, the green,
the yellow, and the red paddles. I guess they kind
of look like lollipops or balloons, but it's lovely arts
(28:34):
and crafts projects. I assume it took you hours to
do this, Jared, because these look phenomenal. So what I'm
gonna do is I'm gonna throw out a few topics here,
and Tory and Tarn are going to raise whichever paddle.
The green correlates to something we need to see from
the Falcons on Sunday. The yellow correlates to something that
would be nice, in our opinion, to see from Atlanta,
(28:56):
but not necessarily something we have to see to feel
like the team is on the right track. Red is
we don't need to see it in order to again
kind of change our opinion of what the Falcons are doing.
So everybody understand the rules?
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Ready?
Speaker 1 (29:10):
All right, let's start with the first one. Do we
need to see over forty percent on third down from
this offense?
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I forgot we weren't just going in order.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Of the entire list, raghein, No, we're jumping on spontaneous yellow.
All right, So this is a nice to see, Tori?
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Why is it a nice to see because you know,
if they're running the ball well on first and second
down and not even getting to third down and you
don't have that many third down opportunities, like, I'm okay
if you're not converting them at a necessary clip. But also,
because I've watched all one hundred and seven previously before
last week, every single third down appearance, anything better than
twenty percent is good right now, so that's rare.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Feel the same way.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Yeah, And just I think the red zone streak of
where they've scored ten in a row is kind of
my priority more so than third down. Ok. I feel
like Raheem Morris in this moment saying that I will
add advertising the red zone.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
The Falcons are three and two when they are over
forty percent on third down, and of course they are
winless when they are below forty on third down, So
that is maybe an important uh marker there, all right?
Next one at least four sacks from the Falcons defense.
Oh we don't need to see that, all right, Tom?
Why don't we need to see that?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
They've had eighteen in the past three games?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
There you go say it again one more time.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
They have eighteen in the past three games. I feel
so uncomfortable. So I mean, we got it. Put it.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I put on this stat like in the Super Bowl era,
no team, no team had ever had that many sacks
over a three game span and lost those three games.
I'm not saying sacks don't matter like they do. It's
great seeing this defense get after quarterbacks and everything like that,
but at the end of the day, they've lost their
last three and sacked the quarterback a lot. So I
(30:53):
don't necessarily need to see it. If it means you're
not going to win the game.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
There you go appreciate right. Next one, we talked about
how kind of important Drake London has been to this offense.
If if he's not able to go maybe spread the
ball around a little bit more so, how important is
it for us to see receptions? You know, four receptions,
four from four different receivers. It was a lot of fours,
you know, three two one, Okay, our first difference we
(31:17):
got difference to We'll start with you.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I think that in order for the Falcons to be
at their most successful offensively, like, you're gonna have to
see that because you're not gonna be able to just
key in on like Kyle Pitts. You're gonna need to
be able to use Jehon Robinson, Kyle Pitts, Darnell Mooney,
David Sales, like any like four of them, right, Yeah,
you're I think you're gonna need to use all of
(31:40):
them because I do worry about the run being taken away,
like and because we've seen it happen before, so like
you need to have an answer. And if the answer
is just dropping it down to Jon Robinson every time
in a checkdown, I don't necessarily think that's gonna work.
I think you're gonna have to spread the ball out
to guys.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
It's to Charlie Warner fifteen times.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I would love.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah, Charlie, you have it as a nice to see why.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Because I don't really care what you do as long
as it works.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Okay, I like that. Yeah, I mean there's there's probably
a very big portion of the fan base that feels
the exact says true, Hey, I don't care how it's done,
just get it done, really all right? Next one, No
Big Kickoff returns three to one. We got another nice
to see from Taran and the need to see from Tori.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
At this point in time, I my expectation is you
have to be better in that way, and until you do,
like I I'm gonna say, you need to see it
because there have been too many instances where field position,
you've put your defense in really horrible situations over the
last three weeks particularly, I need to see it because
(32:47):
I do think that even though the Saints have been
kind of been the butt of the quarterback joke, I
think what they have right now in their young quarterback
who they just drafted, is a guy who's feeling a
bit more confident. He's coming off of a like two
and eighty two passing day against Carolina. Like, so don't
give them, don't give them opportunities, don't to feel good
(33:08):
about themselves. Lad's in kickoff.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Returns, Yeah, and I should say no big kickoff returns allowed, right,
and the Falcons are averaging more than twenty five yards
allowed in in the last five weeks. So this was
a nice to see for you.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
It's a nice to see.
Speaker 4 (33:25):
It's like the same reason, which is so silly, but like,
I don't care, just tearing it out.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
On my list.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Would you like to see them win? That's when you
get a green from you.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Tory Tory had a really good argument.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
So like, I'm fading toward greens, like it's a I'm
fading a stop like doesn't go yellow to green. But
in my world right now, we might all right.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Our final and fifth one here, you know, we like
a we like a theme on the Friday, five win
the time of possession. The word win is in it
though no three to one? All right, same, we got
a trend here, need to see nice to see Teraran
will start with you the same.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
I'm so sorry, but like, just do anything anything that
will make you win the game.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Hey, you if not consistent, I have in here.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
The only green I have life two greens was winning
regulation beautiful and then make every kick?
Speaker 2 (34:23):
All right, So mine's screen because I feel like if
you win the time of possession, it means that you're
running the ball well. And I think that the Falcons
have in I don't know what their I don't know
what the stats are behind this, but I imagine when they
win the time of possession, they are oftentimes in the
position at least to win the game.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
It's yeah, you're you're right on. It's they're three and
one when they're over thirty minutes oh and six when
they're under against the Colts, they gave up forty minutes
of time of possession. And again what you're seeing is
when we talk about run defense, things like that late
in the games, having a lead in the fourth quarter,
giving it up, not being able to you know, like
all of those things. Time of possession is a big
(35:05):
factor in that. Because guys get tired. Everybody's a human
being out there as much as they are world class athletes.
Fatigue is real. So time of possession matters.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
So I must work in like absolutes, like a sith lord.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
I'm only we're going to Charlie Warner eighty times.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Do it?
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Don't care? Do it?
Speaker 4 (35:24):
Do it?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
You only have fifteen minutes a time of possession?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Cool line.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
As long as there's a W at the end of
the day, all.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Right, that's all that matters. Well, we we've got it.
We've got a fund. Sorry dubs for days. That's what
we That's our motto here on the Friday five that
I just made up. But good news for everybody, our
pregame show is out now. Given you know some of
the logistics travel all of that stuff, you guys can
(35:54):
can check it out. There's gonna be another one on
Sunday as well, so a double dip try to get
a how about that? So please please go check that
out on the Atlanta Falcons YouTube channel with with Derek
Rackley and Taylor Vismore. They do amazing stuff. We will
be back on the podcast feed Monday morning with Final
Whistle you can hear from Tory and I breaking down
(36:14):
all of the action and then Pro Bowl voting starts
next week on Thanksgiving. So even though the team's performance
may not be where everybody wants it to be, I
do think there are some players who are worthy yes
of some singular recognition, and Tarn agrees with me, so
thank you very much. There we go. Love it. Yeah,
and maybe soon we can have a little bit more
(36:35):
of an in depth like Pro Bowl discussion rest individual
players things like that. But that will do it for
us today on the Friday five. Thank you guys so
much for listening and watching. Checks out on YouTube and
we will see you all next time.
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