September 3, 2025 • 43 mins
Derek Rackley and Dave Archer are PUMPED for the first week of the NFL regular season and the Atlanta Falcons' season opener vs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They breakdown all the expectations on Atlanta this year as well as give their thoughts on the matchup with Tampa Bay. To finish it off, they share their keys to pulling out the win on Sunday.
0:39 - Intro & Captains
4:15 - 2025 Expectations
16:09 - Week 1 vs Tampa Bay
27:12 - Matchups to watch & keys to the game
42:45 - Outro
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:28):
He got that.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
He's into I'm talking. He is like to start freak.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah. I can get chills a little bit thinking about
what these two guys do.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
And welcome back to the Falcon Dooald presented by AT
and T. And we are so pumped because we are
finally here for week one of the regular season. You
know what, We are so pumped that we lost a
member of our crew. Jay Shockley, it's not going to
be joining us this week. We did We didn't lose it.
We didn't lose he just he's tied up with Georgia
Bulldog's responsibilities and apps not able to make it with
(01:01):
us today. But that's all right. You got us too.
Here Departer, Derek Ractley here, and we are so excited
to actually kick off Week one twenty twenty five regular season.
And guess what, everybody no more discussion about watching backups
or anybody else not playing in games, because we get
bring him out.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Bring him out, Bring him out.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's right, Tell him about it, herds. Bring it is
officially week one. We're so happy about that. Before we
get rolling, make sure that you tune into the pregame
show this Sunday at noon Atlanta Falcons YouTube channel. Myself,
Taylor Vismore will be breaking every saint got me? Yep,
that's right, getting you all ready for the game. Will
(01:41):
be live from Mercedes Benz Stadium for home games. And
then if you can't watch the game for whatever reason,
make sure you listen to this guy point over here, Okay,
Dave Archer on Atlanta Falcons Radio Network. All right, actually
listening to him as he ends up calling the game
for our Atlanta Falcons. Before we get into it, we
(02:01):
just had an announcement over the weekend. Atlanta Falcons announced
their twenty twenty five captains for this year. So the
captains for this season will be six of them, by
the way, Jesse Bates, Cayden Ellis, Chris Lenz, Troum, Jake Matthews,
Michael Pennix, and Bradley pinion Arch. When you heard the
list of names, what was the first thing that stuck
out to you?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, not surprised at the names that were on the list.
You and I have both had the pleasure of being captains.
You're a special team's captain, obviously captain on the offensive side.
For me, it's an honor. There's no question about a
lot of times, it's voted on by your teammates. Sometimes
the coaches make selections. Sometimes it's a combination too. I
think that's the way the Falcons do it, in a
combination of the coaches saying, hey, we'd like to have
(02:43):
this guy as our captain, and our teammates say, hey,
this guy deserves to be a captain. So I think
that the names that were on the list, the names
you just read off, are guys that are all going
to have to play prominent roles this year for this
team to be a pretty good team, and certainly are
guys that have stepped step forward in this offseason. I
think we probably have talked about all six of these
(03:06):
guys at some point during our podcast as we've led
to the twenty twenty five season of how they've kind
of inserted themselves as leaders in some capacity, talking to
younger players, talking to the media, whatever it is. So
I think the six guys are definitely good, good picks.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah. Three of the players have been named as a
captain for the first time for the Atlanta Falcons. Two
of them first time captains overall. Cayden Ellis his first
election as a captain, as well as Michael Pennock Junior
his first election in the NFL, is a captain. Bradley
Pinion his first year captain in the Atlanta Falcons, but
his third overall. He had a couple of years where
he was a captain for the Buccaneers. Jake Matthews leading
(03:42):
the charge at his fifth overall year being elected as
a captain. So those are your twenty twenty five captains
for the Atlanta Falcons. You'll see them out there for
the coin toss. You may see some other guys every
once in a while, if a guy did something great
in the previous week, he'll get to go out and
do the coin toss. Maybe somebody on special teams offense
or defense. But these are the guys that were elected
for the season long captains for the twenty twenty five season.
(04:05):
So arch is we get into week one here, let's
start a little bit more thirty thousand foot view. Here.
We're on the Falcons team chart. Well, actually you're on
the Falcons team charter. I'm not. But we're looking out
the window, okay, at the Atlanta Falcons, And what is
the expectation for this team? I mean, every team in
the NFL goes into the season saying our goal is
to win the Super Bowl, but sometimes it's like you
got to take a step or two before that before
(04:27):
you think about Super Bowl. What is the expectation for
this team?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, I think that the expectation is exactly that, Rack.
I think that when you get ready to kick off
your season, there's an expectation that the quarterback is going
to play a certain way. There's an expectation that these
new guys you've blended in on your defense are going
to create some of that havoc you've been looking for
on that side of the ball. You've got a coordinator
that's new on that side of the ball that, oh,
by the way, has just coordinated the number four, number three,
(04:53):
number three defenses over the last three seasons in New
York that he's going to bring some of that juice here,
So that expectation ramps up. What maybe some of those
players that you've added to your team. So in those
veteran guys coming back, the Caiden Nellis's of the world
and Jesse Bates of the world, can they keep their
play at that premium high level where they can continue
but you expect them to do that? I think that
(05:14):
probably expectation. The most expectation for fans. I would think
rac is probably centered around the quarterback and his ability
to throw the ball everywhere on the field, which we're
going to see Bejean Robinson coming back after a monster
year last year. Do you get a duplicate or do
you have something that steps up even higher than that?
(05:34):
And then the expectation of what can you be from
a defensive standpoint, So when you start talking about where
do I gauze, I think expectation level is really high,
and I think the floor for this team is much
higher than it was in previous years because of the talent.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
What do you think? Yeah, no, I would agree with you.
I think from a personnel standpoint, we talk about this
all the time, like you can. You can coach your
face off and everything, but if you don't have the joes, Like,
if you don't have the dudes, it's just hard to
win a National Football League because everybody is so good,
and certain teams have certain players that are just that
much better than everybody else. The Josh Allen's, Lamar Jackson's,
(06:12):
the Patrick Mahomes of the world. Those guys, they're not
only so so individually talented, but they rise the level
of play of everybody up around them. They make them better.
I always go back arching I think about Tom Brady
when he was in New England outside of Randy Moss
for a couple of years. Think about the wide receivers
that he had. Okay, he didn't have a Jefferson, he
(06:32):
didn't have a Chase, he didn't have an Adams, right,
but he made those guys all that level of player
because he was so demanding in what he did that
Tom Brady got the best out of every single person
and he made them even better. Right. So there's those
kind of transcendent players in the National Football League. So
I would agree the talent level has increased. That's why
(06:53):
you said the floor has increased for this team. I
would say expectations in my opinion, because if you ask
a coach of if you ask a player, a lot
of times you're gonna say, want to know, like, all
we're worried about is winning the game this week. But
guess what, when you're in the media, you could talk
about it however you want. And I'm going to say
it's going to be get to the postseason by winning
the division. And the reason why I say that is
(07:14):
I'm going to go back to something Raheem Moore said
all the time is we want to outrun the South. Well,
you outrun the South, you make it into the postseason.
And in fact, Arch mentioned the New York Jets talking
about Jeff Olbert coming from the Jets. Oddly enough, the
Jets are the team and an NFL that have the
longest active playoff drought at fourteen seasons. You know who's
(07:34):
number two, Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers. They're tied at seven. Okay,
So to me, it's let's take steps. That's kind of
why I said, does it take steps sometimes? Let's take steps? Yes,
I want to win a Super Bowl. Everybody in Atlanta
wants to win a Super Bowl. But you can't win
a Super Bowl until you get into the postseason dance, right.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, and I agree with that. The thing that fans
will point to is, wait a minute, we started the
fifteen season, what we four and O, five and oh,
and then kind of stumbled down to stretch and didn't
make the playoffs. The next year you were in the
Super Bowl. And so it can happen pretty quickly. Not
not guaranteeing anything here, but it can happen pretty quickly
(08:14):
with the right blend of coaching and the right blend
of the players. And I think that there's an expectation that, yes,
step by step you get things done. Early on, it's
going to be difficult. You've got a really interesting schedule
to start off with, got a couple of division games.
Can you get off to a good start, get you
to get the ball roll and get that momentum going.
Can you make the bends that home field advantage like
(08:36):
the Dome was back in sixteen where that man you
didn't want to come in there. It was really difficult
to play. But I wrote the same thing at the top,
must make the playoffs, win division, And so you're right,
you can't put the cart before the horse. You got
to go ahead and take care of things each week.
But there is an expectation level I think from this community.
I think there's an expectation level from this organization. Absolutely,
(09:00):
they're gonna they're a playoff caliber football team. And once
you get there, I mean you can throw the dice
in the air. I mean, how many times have we
seen teams whether they win the division or the number
one seed. We were a number one seed, didn't make it.
Green Bay was a sixth seed, came in here, went
to the super Bowl. When you know, went to the
Super Bowl, we saw a giant team. Remember Giants go
(09:20):
on the road to the ELI Manning beat Green Bay
in Green Bay, go to the Super Bowl and find
a way to get it done against New England. So
getting to the playoffs is the number one thing, and
I guarantee you this fan base that's what they're starved for.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And to your point, it's at that point, it's just
who gets hot at the right time. Right, Maybe you
get hot in Week seventeen and that carries into the
postseason and then you end up making a run. Who
knows what's gonna happen, But you've got to get there. First,
arch I wanted to ask you this question, one more
kind of high level conversation. Is this team? What is
it going to take for this team? Not just I
don't want you to say just beat Tampa or win
(09:56):
the division? Maybe it is it a stat category? Is
it a position that has to improve, something that you've
analyzed over the years that the Atlanta has to excel
at this year if they want to just get into
the postseason dance.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I think it's something that you and I talk a
great deal about. Is what do you do with the football?
Do you take care of the football? We were minus
six in the giveaway takeaway last year twenty four turnovers,
eighteen takeaways. Now, the eighteen takeaways is kind of middle
of the pack. Twenty four turnovers is shoving towards the
bottom end of the league as far as turning the
(10:29):
football over. Got to take better care of the football
and you don't need to play number one in the
league on defense to get there. I mean, this team
was twenty sixth in the league in twenty sixteen on
defense and went to the Super Bowl. But they were opportunistic,
took the ball away, got after the quarterback Vic Beasley
had sixteen and a half sacks. Can you sprinkle some
of those kind of performances is performances in Obviously it's
(10:54):
an offensive it's an offensive league, so offensively you have
to be able to go out, put points on the
board and score. But if you can keep your offense
in that top ten range of doing those kind of things,
and our defense can go from thirty first in the
league down to somewhere in the eighteen nineteen range, you've
got a chance. So to me, that's where you've got
(11:15):
to point to. Is you got you point to some
of the little particulars like taking care of the football
or turning the or taking the ball away, and then
being able to play situational football, third down and red
zone defensively, maybe even more so than offensively. I think
offensively you're going to get it done. Defensively you can
change some of those numbers and bring it more towards
the mid line. I think Atlanta's got a chance to
(11:37):
be a pretty good A.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Rich I would agree. If you I kind of looked
at three categories, if you will, and I'm gonna say
it's two stats and one that's kind of a little
bit of an intangible If you will. The two stats
are you mentioned already. Turnover margin, Just go look at
you could just if you're curious, go look at twenty
twenty four stats. Look at the turnover margin, look at
the teams that are at the top, and then go
(11:59):
and compare that to the teams in the playoff bracket,
the teams that made it to the NFL playoffs. Just
look at who's the top of the turnover margin and
who made the playoffs. Generally, that's going to end up
telling the story. Every once in a while, you're gonna
get somebody arts that's around zero or one on the
turnover margin, and they'll find their way in because they
did something else that was spectacular to get them there.
(12:21):
But by and large, you want to get in the postseason,
you need to be at the top of the NFL
in that category. It gives you the best chance to
get in the postseason. Number two is another stat that
Atlanta has to improve is third down defense. And you
kind of alluded to this. Atlanta was second to last
in the league in third down defense last year. What
does that translate into opposing offenses staying on the field,
(12:41):
drives continue to get put together, ultimately working their way
down the field and putting points on the board. So
third down defense has to improve. Well, guess what happened.
We got two new draft picks in the secondary. We
got two new draft picks at the edge position. They're
addressing it, they understand it. It has to get better.
That's by rushing the passer. That's taking the football way back.
In my last category, arch is is we've talked about
(13:03):
this is a quarterback driven league. Remember I sit across
from two quarterbacks on this podcast. Okay, it's a quarterback
driven league. You can say what you want, but your
quarterback has to be special if you want to win games.
There are not too many teams these days. Arch like
the Ravens in the two thousands, where they ran the
football and played defense and they ended up winning a
Super Bowl. It's just the game has changed, so there's
(13:26):
a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of Michael Pennix.
Guess what it comes with the territory. That's what happens
when you get drafted in the NFL. That's what happens
when you get paid a lot of money in the
NFL and quarterbacks are expected to perform. You think about
the two games last year. We're leading up to Tampa Bay.
The two games last year against the Buccaneers, Kirk Cousins
had one of his career best games ever, scored thirty
(13:47):
six points. The second one we scored thirty. Quarterback played well.
We had turnover we won the turnover margin in the
second game, but just scored points. Right, Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Question about it. It's an offensive league, as I said previously,
and the quarterbacks to be one of those upper echelon
teams that quarterbacks got to play at a high level.
You talked about the turnover ratio. Tampa is the only
outlier this last season. I believe they were minus two
in the giveaway takeaway last year and still made the playoffs,
(14:17):
and we kind of let them back door into the
playoffs because of what we did down the stretch. We
should have been that team in there, and we might
have been one of those teams as an outlier as
minus in the giveaway takeaway to get in. But the
quarterback concept that the quarterback conversation is certainly one of
those and that's why there's so much expectation around what
Michael Pennix can do. Baker Mayfield played great in the
(14:38):
two games that the Falcons played against now turned the
ball over twice in Tampa and Atlanta ended up winning
thirty one to twenty six. That was a game where
you jumped out thirty one to seventeen and they kind
of stormed back and you kind of had to hang
on at the end, but you had enough plays. Baker
Mayfield played really well in both football games and you
still won. They were fifteen of twenty five on third
(14:59):
down in the two games combined. That's losing football. You
can't do this. So what Rack's talking about, we can't
allow him to do that again this year because that
was kind of an aberration as to what's going on.
So this is this is one of those weird games, Rack,
and I know we're gonna start getting into the game
a little bit. This is one of those weird games
where the numbers of these two games and you throw it. Hey,
(15:19):
you can't let that happen. Wait a minute, We did
let that happen when we won. You got to do this.
We didn't do that, and we still won. So it's
really a strange game between Tampa and Atlanta coming up.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, I mean you look at the back the offensive
backfield for Atlanta versus and I'm not taking anything away
from Tampa. It's still really electric. But like Tampa won
the rushing game the first game and we ended up
coming away with a victory. Right, you think that's one
area in Atlanta's probably going to dominate, right with John Robinson,
Tyler Algier. But Atlanta or excuse me, Tampa actually ran
the football much better in the first game. But the
(15:50):
interesting point that you talked about is Tampa not are
having a bad turnover margin getting into the postseason. You
know what they did really well last year number one
in the league and third downs offensively, right, so that
helps guess what you're doing staying on the field scoring points.
So that leads us into Tampa again. Just kind of
a general question. What are your thoughts about Falcons opening
(16:11):
up against Tampa in Week one of the season. You
get a divisional opponent that has been the team that's
been representing the division in the playoffs, first game to
start twenty twenty five. I like it.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I think I like it. We started the season. I
remember my third year in the league, we opened up
in New Orleans against the Saints, and obviously that's the
rivalry when it comes to Atlanta, Atlanta now Tampa. So
obviously this is starting to grow the Tampa the Tampa
rivalry because of these two teams buying from maybe the
top spot. But New Orleans is just that team you
(16:43):
know that you played in the games, and so to
go to New Orleans and beat New Orleans on opening
weekend really set the table. Now, believe me, it can.
It can make the table kind of barren if you
don't get things done Atlanta, if I remember correctly, if
I'm not mistaken, you're gonna have to help me out
with this. I believe Atlanta opened up with Tampa in
sixteen and lost here in the building against Tampa, so
(17:06):
that may be correct. So it's happened before where you've
opened up with Tampa Bay. But I like the juice
around the game, Rack. I like what the league is doing.
From a fan base standpoint. We're seeing a lot of
divisional early divisional games, big matchups the first couple of weekends,
and then they save the rest of them for the
back end of the schedule. Maybe sprinkle a few in
the middle, but for the most part, it's front and back.
(17:28):
I like the juice.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
You like the juice that we get with I mean,
I agree with you. It's it's there is no such
thing like in college, not so much of this year.
In college, a lot of time you get warm up games, right,
you get what they call the guarantee games, where where
one big school is paying us a much smaller school
a whole lot of money, like a million, million and
a half dollars and they're basically playing them to come
in and get their butts whooped right to so the
(17:51):
bigger school can make some mistakes, get on track, get
a little confidence, score fifty points and maybe give up
three points, and you kind of got a good, feel
good story going into the rest of the season, right,
a chance to kind of get things polished up a
little bit. Wow, that's not the case anytime in the NFL,
and specifically when you start with a divisional game, because
you always kind of talk about these as being two
(18:12):
for one, right, like, not only is it a win,
but it's a divisional win and gets you one step
closer to having the best record in your division and
getting to the postseason. So I like it. It probably
puts And again I'll be honest with you, I didn't
follow Tampa's preseason. I don't know how much their starters
played or they didn't, but I know that Atlanta's did
not very much, and so that's even more important for
(18:33):
them to come out sharp in the very first game.
I'm sure they got plenty of good work in the
scrimmages that they held here at the facility, but you
don't really get an opportunity to get back holding penalties
and personal files that end up backing yourselves up on
the chains or giving them first downs on the defensive
side of the ball. So that stuff has to be
sharp to start game one if you want to come
(18:55):
away with a win against a divisional team. So let's
talk a little bit more about if you looked at
Tampa's roster versus Atlanta's roster, which team is so is
much more different than they were last year from either
personnel and or a coaching perspective.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, I think that. Obviously both of them have different coordinators.
You got different coordinators on the offensive side of the well,
ironically enough, they'll be going head to head. New coordinator
Grizzard takes over as the coordinator down in Tampa. He
had been their pass game coordinator, so he'd been with
the organization before. And as it turns out, Jeff Oldbrick,
who comes in here as a defensive coordinator, he's been
with the organization before, it just was a few years ago.
(19:33):
So there are some similarities when it comes to that,
and those two coordinators will be facing each other a
little bit. When you start talking about the rosters, I
think Atlanta's roster to me, from an impactful standpoint or
a standpoint where they're going to step in and play
right away, I think Atlanta. I would lean towards Atlanta's
rosters different And obviously you've talked about it the defensive
(19:56):
side of the football more than anything else. Going to
have a different quarterback obviously playing against Tampa than you
did in the first two games Cousins played in those
first two games. Pennis takes over as the quarterback. But
when you look at Tampa, you're probably talking about the
young receiver at Ohio State of Buka will step in Godwin.
It doesn't, we don't know, but right right now while
we're recording this, it looks like Godwin's going to be
(20:17):
probably held out for the first couple of games. The
other season, we may see Tristan Wurf's their outstanding tackle
may miss. Well, we've got to tackle missing as well,
So there's some mirroring there a little bit. But if
I had to point to different rosters, I would say
the Falcon roster feels much more different than maybe Tampa's roster,
I would agree.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I mean, I just I look at the two first
round picks on the defensive side of the ball and
the fact that they can make a difference. I look
at the other draft picks and the defensive backfield that
we've recently found out are likely going to be starting
and playing a lot of football in the backfield along
with Jesse Bates. And yes, you could probably say it's
a wash when it comes to the coaching with two
new coordinators, and then of course you got a new
(21:00):
quarterback with Atlanta, so there's there is a lot of
differences there enough that Tampa can take a look at.
And again, to your point, as we record, we won't
find out until officially later on this afternoon, the first
injury report that comes out. But I'm hearing to your point,
Tampa maybe a little bit more banged up coming into
this game, but as we know in the NFL, that
generally doesn't matter. You still got to go out there
(21:21):
and play the game, and just wanted to let you know,
clean it up. But you were right. Twenty sixteen thirty
one to twenty four, Tampa over Atlanta at home to
open the twenty sixte months seasons.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
We're not trying to mirror the sixties season, not trying
to cloud you guys's minds. I just wanted to make
sure everybody do he was correct well and to your
point in that not to spend too much time on sixteen.
If you go back, Atlanta loses the Kansas City I
think the second weekend of December to go to seven
and five that year, and like you said, it's when
you catch fire do you catch a run at the end.
(21:52):
Obviously Atlanta did that and ran to the super Bowl.
So again just throwing it out there. I know that
the fans going where about that, Hey, this is a
new year, new team, but we got to hang on
some of those memories.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Speaking of memories, Arch you are your uniquely that was difficult,
for whatever reason, uniquely qualified answer this question because you've
covered a ton of Falcons Buccaneers games in the past,
so I want to ask you from all your experience
covering this matchup. What does it generally come down to?
Is there one or two things that it's generally comes
(22:27):
down to, or is it something different every year as
far as matchups, one thing one team doesn't do well,
the other one does well. Have you seen a rhythm
if you will, with this matchup? Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I don't know what there is a rhythm rack. And
I think that there's been a lot of different games
that either we've won in their building, or they've come
up here, or you just mentioned the sixteen opening games
game of the season, they came up here in one.
I think that normally it boils down to the football
pieces of it.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
You talked about.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Third down and winning the Winning the moments obviously gives
you your best opportunity to win third down in red
zone moments, what do you get at do you maximize
those moments? Something I'll point out from last year is
this was a series. The two games was a series
of big plays. Tampa had eighteen plays of fifteen yards
(23:18):
of more. Atlanta had sixteen plays of fifteen yards of more.
Those are usually no nos. And that's what I talked
about early on. All the numbers you would throw at
this and say Okay, can't let this in. But can't
let that happen or you're not gonna win. All those
things happened and we still won. You gave up eighteen
plays of twenty fifteen yards of more. You won both
football games. Okay, you only sacked the quarterback one time.
(23:41):
Baker Mayfield hit the ground one time in the two games.
Our quarterback Kirk Cousin was tacked six times in the game.
You would think, okay, that points. Ah, you won both games.
They I mentioned that how they converted on third down
at some seventy five percent or whatever it was or
sixty five percent.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
You can't do that. We won.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So that just goes to show you the rhythm piece
of it. Rax So I don't think there's anything that
you point to. I think it goes back down to
something you and I talk a lot about. Are the
base pieces of football that you would point to that, Okay,
you take care of this, take care of that. You've
got a better chance of winning. You can't nut that
you won't win, because those two games proved to it,
(24:19):
but you have a better chance of winning.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
In the first game, Tampa ran the football better than
Atlanta did.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
One hundred and sixty yards on the ground.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Turnover was a wash. Both teams had a turnover in
that game. And what did it come down to? A
quarterback and Kirk Cousins that played out of his mind right.
Sometimes that happens is you get a player, a lot
of times it's a quarterback. They touch the football every
single play offensively. When they play spectacular, good things happen.
And in the other matchup, the one down in Tampa's
we talked about, Tampa had three turnovers. You win a
(24:49):
turnover margin three to zero. It is extremely difficult to
win in the National Football League. And I don't care
who your quarterback is. That's a stat that you can
look up. I don't have it at my discretion. When
you lose three zero in a turnover margin, how many
teams actually win the game. It's extremely difficult in the NFL.
So you just never really know what it's going to
come down to in this type of game. You mentioned
(25:11):
Baker Mayfield not getting sacked. He's one of those quarterbacks
arts that I don't know. The first word that comes
to my mind is Houdini, like he finds ways to
either keep the play alive, get rid of the football,
or sliding out of some tackle and making something out
of nothing. He's got a little bit of ma Hoomes
to him, right, the little bit of off script talent that
not a lot of people do. And I think that's
(25:33):
part of the reason which makes their third numbers, their
third down numbers so good, and him individually is how
he's playing so well.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
It's incredible rack when you think about his career where
he started out in Cleveland and really actually played well
early on in Cleveland, and then things kind of got sideways,
whether it was the coaching or whether it was the
organization or whatever. He didn't. He obviously is culpable in
there as well, doing a lot of commercials, living at
the State with his wife, all that stuff that goes
(26:02):
on with Baker. And then the bounce. He bounces to
a couple of places, then lands in Tampa and here's
this resurrection of his career, the blend. I give him
credit for keeping his nose to the grindstone and continuing
to work. And that's where to me, he's one of
those grinder type of guys. He's Joey bagg of Donuts, right,
there's nothing that you know just John always. He's great moving. Yeah,
(26:27):
he's okay moving around, but like you said, he has
he lit a step out of that box. You got
him in a box. Nope, there's no handcuffs on me.
I'm out. And he makes that play that just kind
of keeps thing going. And I know one thing that
team down there, if you listen to everybody talk, they
have tremendous belief in what he is as their leader
(26:48):
on the offensive side of the football. You go back,
and he played really well in both games. He had
the couple turnovers in the game in Tampa, but he's
a guy that to me, you're not gonna pick out
is okay, name your five best quarterbacks or maybe even
name your ten best quarterbacks in the league. He might
get left out of that mix, and he shouldn't. He's
(27:09):
playing at that kind of level.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Let's talk about a couple of matchups here, the matchups
that you look at in this game, whether it's player
versus player, it's unit versus unit, maybe it's coach versus coach.
What are a couple of the matchups that you think
that this game may come down.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
To our Yeah, I would think obviously my eyes are
immediately going to gravitate to what are we going to
be defensively in this game? And can you create some
of those uncomfortable situations for Baker off the edge? You
only got to him one time. That's going to have
to change in this game. I believe if Atlanta's going
to have success, you've got to be able to get
him off his spot more than what you did in
(27:45):
the last game. So obviously the front seven, but I'm
gonna go even further than that rack. I'm going to
point to how do you do how do you do
against the running backs and the tight end? Now, Kate Otten,
it sounds like is bang up and not going to
be able to go again when we go to this
recording and some of the guys that aren't going to play,
we don't have some people playing as well. Oughten was
(28:07):
outstanding at Atlanta in the last two games, especially the
game down in Tampa. Had almost one hundred yards, receiving
two touchdowns in that game. And Baker likes to throw
the ball to the to the tight ends and the
running backs. If you go back, he had forty six
completions I believe in the two games, or fifty six
completions in the two games. Thirty of those went to
the running back and the tight end somewhere in that number.
(28:30):
So he likes to distribute the ball. Bucky Irving his
outstanding receiver. John White's an outstanding receiver. And we talked
about Kate Otton a little bit. So I would say
the Falcon seven maybe include a safety there, maybe a
nickel or something trying to defend that easy throws, the
underneath throws, and it equates to I'm almost jumping forward
here as far as keys, But a key for me
(28:53):
defensively will be how well do you tackle? Because you
just talked about a lot of the stuff that was
going to go on in this game. Nobody's really done.
We can do thud tempo out here and practice. None
of these guys played in the game, especially secondary guys
and your main linebackers, Dan but Divine, Voblo and cad
(29:14):
Nellis two good tacklers but haven't had to do it.
So now, how much do you tackle in the open field?
Because you can bet they're going to get the backs
in space and try to get them the football and
make some plays. I mentioned eighteen plays of fifteen yards
or fifteen yards or more. A number of those are
made by the guys I'm talking about. So to me,
that's the matchup. It jumps out my front seven, including
(29:35):
maybe a safety. It drops down the box against the
backs and the tight end in the run game, in
the pass game.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, I love it. I'm gonna take mine a little
step further than that, and my matchup is going to
be winning the line of scrimmage. And I'm going to
say that on both sides of the ball, because obviously
we know Atlanta's going to have a new tackle on
the right side to start this game out. And what
is the biggest asset going into this season that we
know right now is that has two outstanding running backs
(30:02):
that if those guys don't get going, that's going to
disrupt the offense. Well, how do you get those two
guys going as you win at the line of scrimmage?
How do you get Michael pennockx Junior comfortable throwing the
football down the field when you win at the line
of scrimmage and he doesn't feel pressure, he's not having
to eliminate half the field because he's scrambling. That's winning
at the line of scrimmage. How do you end up
(30:24):
slowing down Baker Mayfield and this Buccaneers offense. I know
it's a new year, but in twenty twenty four they
led the league in third down conversions. You win the
line of scrimmage, you get pressure in his face, you
get people off of blocks, and then that sets up
your linebackers and your secondary to make plays on the
football down the field. To me, this comes down to
(30:44):
winning the line of scrimmage. It's not the sexy pick.
It's not what fans are looking for. They want to say,
is Michael Penny's going to throw for three point fifty?
Is Bejean Robbinson going to run for one hundred and
thirty five and two touchdowns? Those, to me, are all
products of what happens on the offense line and the
defensive line. Which team wins the line of scrimmage. Because
Tampa wants to run the football too, don't get it twisted.
(31:06):
They want to throw it with Baker, but they got
two really good running backs that had success last year.
They want to win the line of scrimmage as well.
I think it comes down to winning the line of
scrimmage on both sides.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I think it's a great call, Rack, and I think
that when you start talking about sacking the quarterback that's
winning at the line of scrimmage on the defensive side
of the football to get after Baker, protecting Penix and
giving him an opportunity to get the ball out. So
I think I think you're dead on I think that
even with all of that, even with what DrAk and
I just said, if you look at these two games
last year, a lot of that stuff happened and we
(31:38):
still won both games. A lot of it didn't happen
and we still won both games. So even with all
the numbers and things and the rudimentary pieces of football
that you're supposed to take care of, it can all
go screwy and you can still win the game. So
all that being said, this is kind of this will
be an interesting matchup in interesting and you can bet
how much. Here's a question for you. Okay, think about Okay,
(32:02):
Tampa wins the division and scrambled at the at the
back end to win it and tried to give it
back to us when they lost to Dallas and all
those kind of things, but still won the division but
still stuck in their craw Gotta be a little bit.
How much does it stick in a player's mind. We
won the Vision. We didn't beat these guys either time.
I mean, you got a leg up because you wanted
(32:23):
to be How much is that maybe maybe even even
more magnified because it's the opening day game that you're
being reminded, Hey, you didn't beat these guys either time.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yeah. I think there's there's so many different angles that
you can take as far as how a team, how players,
how coaches, or however they motivate their team, Like what
is the message from Tampa side, Like, y'all, we won
the division last year, we went to the playoffs, but
this team beat us twice, Like are we gonna let
that happen again? Like you just never know what Todd
Bowles is going to say with his team, what Rahe
Morris is going to say with his behind closed doors,
(32:53):
what the message is going to be, how they get
motivated or the flip side is going to be For
the Atlanta Falcons players, the guys that actually have been
here a long time, the Jake Matthews, Chris linstrums of
the world, those guys have said, we haven't been to
the postseason. We just talked about at the beginning of
the shows in twenty seventeen, like we want to get there.
This team has been there. They have been the one
that stood in our way the last few years. Every team,
(33:16):
every player has an individual motivation. It's just how can
you use that and harness it, but stay focused on
the task at hand. And so I'm going to bring
this back to you and you kind of let us
down to one key in the game. Give us one
other key that you think is big for a land.
We always talk about keys as analyst. Right going into
the game, we talked about matchups. Arch led us to
(33:37):
a little bit of a key. Let's get one more
key from you before we close this up, all right.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
So I mentioned tackling to me, tackling on that side
of the football, the defensive side of the football is
going to be key. There's no question about the fact
that you've got to tackle guys in space. And I
talked about the distribution of the football and those kind
of things. All right. So the second one is an
easy one, and it's one that you and I talked
a lot about. We've talked about the turnover ratio. Neither
one of these teams were very good the turnover ratio.
I believe, I want to say Tampa was minus two.
(34:03):
We were minus six. Ball security, Now, I'm not just
going to say turnovers, because anybody can say turnovers, but
ball security is going to be key because remember, the
entire Falcon unit offensively has not been in a game
or played at that speed from and especially the skill guys. Now,
we've tried to do turnover drills out here, and you
(34:24):
got guys raking at the football and I think they've
done a really good job of that. But there's that
odd time where you're a little loose to the football
and the ball gets punched out, which can change a game.
We talked about how close these two games were a
year ago. That changes the football game. You turn it over.
You talked about Tampa turned it over three times. We
didn't turn it over at all in Tampa. You win
the football game by five points, a one score game.
(34:45):
Ball security for me. And then an ancillary piece of
that is the is the matchup. Maybe we can talk
about that in a second. Tell me your keys to
what we get into this game.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, it's what I've kind of thought about. Is is
kind of an extension of what you were just talking
about hasn't been out there. Starting defense, by and large,
has not been out there. So one of my big
keys in this game is which team can Atlanta play
with a clean operation? And what does that mean? Well,
how about false starts backing you up to first and fifteen.
(35:16):
How about holding penalties on second down backing you up
to second and twenty. How about trying to convert on
third down when you've got seventeen yards to pick up
a first down? How about defensively, when you look like
you got a third down stop and you get called
for a defensive holding, that's an automatic first down. What
happens on a shot play down the field that it
looks like aj Terrell's in perfect position, knocks the football away,
(35:38):
gets called for a pass interference because his right hand
is wrapped around the hip of the wide receiver. To me,
that's staying on schedule. But that's playing with a clean operation,
and it's playing with great fundamentals. And everybody hears you
talk about that all the time. Well, guess how you
avoid holding penalties? You play with great fundamentals? Guess how
you avoid false starts? Focused and you're locked in, the
(36:01):
only thing you're paying attention to is your quarterback, not
what's being barked at on the other side of the ball,
the movement from the defense trying to stem and adjust,
or the somebody in the third row screaming your number
that you didn't do anything last year. Okay, it's a
mental life fantasy. I needed you and you let me down.
So those are the things that we always talk about
(36:23):
staying on schedule, but I wanted to expand it so
you guys all understood what we were talking about is
that it's hard at any level of football to convert
on third and seventeen. Well, guess what, stay out of
it at all costs. Stay out of those situations. You
can convert in the NFL in third and four, third
and seventeen is extremely difficult. And we had a guy
(36:45):
when I was playing, a Michael Victim might have been
one of the best ever to do it because he
could run like nobody else could, and I don't think
he sure did right, So a clean operation is what
I'm looking for. Now. You were kind of leading towards
matchups and stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I think that's it's such a good call because of
what we've been kind of the overall feeling of this
is there's a bit of unknown Tampa, you know, Baker
Mayfield didn't get on the field. There's a lot of
things that they don't know potentially about their team or
that they're going to be dusting the rust off, if
you want to put it in those terms, and are
what is one thing that kind of you got to
(37:21):
kind of get up speed on is fundamentals when you
finally get back on the field and you're at game speed.
As much as you try to simulate it here at
Flowery Branch, it's hard to do because you don't want
to hurt each other. So now all of a sudden
you're at game speed. It's ramped up a little bit
more ball security. I want to get off the ball
on that guy, and I'm jumping a little bit. All
the fundamentals you're talking about, was that foot where it
was supposed to be? Is that hand where it's supposed
(37:43):
to be. It's magnified significantly, So rack all over it
with the fundamentals. Okay, So how do you create a
situation where you got a young quarterback? How do you
create an atmosphere where he can flourish? And to me,
one of the keys and I know you feel this
(38:03):
way as well, Zach Robinson and the game plan they're
putting together for the Falcons to give him an opportunity
to not only distribute the ball to London, into Pitts
and to Jon Robinson and everybody. How well do you
kind of get him situated? Because you can bet who's
one of the best defensive coordinators in the National Football
League and a guy that will blitch you when he
(38:24):
gets off of the bus. Okay, he's blitzing you in
the parking lot, let alone waiting to third down or
waiting to second and long. Todd Bowles is going to
have some looks that we've been talking about these two
games from a year ago. We might not see any
of that. Todd Bowles is going to have different things
and different ways to come after Pinnis that he's never
(38:45):
seen before, let alone seen on tape. So to me,
that matchup between we talked about the new defensive coordinator
here in Atlanta and new offensive coordinator in Tampa, and
that's intriguing, and how's that gonna match how about the
venerable one that's the defensive coordinator down they're in Todd
Gowles and Zack Robinson, who guided Atlanta to a top
ten offense here a year ago. How does that meld together?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, and this is no disrespect to the college game,
but this is to me where I think the NFL
has a step up on the college game because of
how important coaching, scheme and game plan is in the NFL.
Because in the college game, even at the biggest of colleges,
you can out talent people at times, right like you
can just have better players. That generally does not happen
(39:31):
in the NFL. The worst team in the NFL still
has Pro Bowl caliber players. So that's where scheme and
game plan is so vitally important to win. So to
answer your question is Zach Robinson has to take all
the information that he had from Michael Pennix's rookie season,
the offseason, training camp, oh to all that stuff and
(39:53):
figure out, Okay, what does he do the best and
what's going to get him the most comfortable within that
first call at ten or fifteen plays that they generally
script if they can stay on script, right, is how
do we get him comfortable? It's pound the football, get
Bijan and Tyler, get them six, seven, eight. So then
now you got defense starting to come down and pay
(40:14):
attention to the run game. But then where is Pennis
most comfortable? Is it a slant, is it a hitch?
Is it a flat route? I don't know the answer
to that question because I don't talk to Michael Pennock
Junior all the time. That's what your offensive coordinator gets
a chance to do is see him all the time
and what is he the best at? And then you
get him going there, and then you let that open
(40:35):
everything else up. And if you can get that part early,
then everybody calms down and then you can start taking
your shots downfield. You can get a little bit more creative.
But if you get stuck coming out the box and
you can't pick up two yards, then that that first
fifteen plays that goes out the wind right. That's great
because it well.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
And it's a good point too because in Rack and
I can pontificate on this forever as far as scheme
and how you approach. Remember, there's a possibility when you
come out of the box that everything Rack just talked
about running the football being at second in second and
four or third and four, third and three, that doesn't
(41:16):
work out. They gang up against the run and said, hey,
we're going to make the new quarterback beat us. We're
going to take the runaway and now he's going to
have to make some plays downfield. You can bet that
Zach Robinson has another plan in his pocket. Okay, what
happens to my quarterback doesn't get off to a fast start,
or what happens if I don't give him the opportunity
to make some plays, which I'm trying not to. But
let's say he misses some. Let's say he's a little nervous,
(41:39):
which doesn't sound like Pennis gets. Let's say he throw
over throws a couple and all of a sudden, I
need to get him in a rhythm. There's going to
be an adjustment. And that's what's beautiful about the National
Football League. All the plans and all the numbers and
all the things Racking I are throwing at, you can
go completely up and smoke he and his throw it
in the air. Now, even more paramount about what Rack's
(42:04):
talking about is the coordinators. Now those adjustments in game,
adjustments where you say, Okay, my quarterback's off to a
slow store, or we're not doing very good in man coverage.
We need to adjust at whatever it might be. That's
where these coordinators take it to another level. That's why
they're coaching at this level. That's why they're coordinators at
this level. And bet that as well. As you know,
(42:26):
Todd Bowles and his staff have have have alternative ideas
of how to do things. So do the Falcons as well.
You have to be able to adjust. This a big
boy league, and you get ready because you're gonna get
thrown a curve ball at some point on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
I could tell you that I warned you when we
started the show that we were excited. We didn't have shock.
We didn't have shock here today, I, me and Arts
are just out here going and we could probably go
for another thirty to an hour or two an hour
and a half to you, guys don't want to hear that,
so we're gonna let you go. Thanks so much for
joining me. Pregame pregame showing, pregame show on Sunday Sunday.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
This guy right here and he's and Taylor visitor.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
On Monday at one o'clock on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
So yeah, on Sunday, I think I'm in the building.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, you're gonna be in the building as well. In
the building is well, all three of us will be
in the building on Sunday. And just so you know,
Falcons Audible will be back every Wednesday throughout the regular season,
so that's when you need to set your alarm or
however it is that you get your YouTube podcast, your
Apple podcasts on Spotify, set your alarm on your phone
to Wednesdays to check out the guys, and generally we
(43:26):
will have the day shopping back with us. Because he
was not able to join us this week. However you
choose to join us, we are happy to have you.
I told you we were excited. Me and O are
getting ready. Let's go baby, one of the Duars one.
It's coming divisional opponent, Tampa Bay Bucks coming here to
the Mercedes Benz Stadium. Rise up, Baby, Thanks so much
for joining the Falcons. Aubel presented by at A T.
We will see you next week.
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Speaker 2 (00:28):
He got that.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
He's into I'm talking. He is like to start freak.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah. I can get chills a little bit thinking about
what these two guys do.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
And welcome back to the Falcon Dooald presented by AT
and T. And we are so pumped because we are
finally here for week one of the regular season. You
know what, We are so pumped that we lost a
member of our crew. Jay Shockley, it's not going to
be joining us this week. We did We didn't lose it.
We didn't lose he just he's tied up with Georgia
Bulldog's responsibilities and apps not able to make it with
(01:01):
us today. But that's all right. You got us too.
Here Departer, Derek Ractley here, and we are so excited
to actually kick off Week one twenty twenty five regular season.
And guess what, everybody no more discussion about watching backups
or anybody else not playing in games, because we get
bring him out.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Bring him out, Bring him out.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's right, Tell him about it, herds. Bring it is
officially week one. We're so happy about that. Before we
get rolling, make sure that you tune into the pregame
show this Sunday at noon Atlanta Falcons YouTube channel. Myself,
Taylor Vismore will be breaking every saint got me? Yep,
that's right, getting you all ready for the game. Will
(01:41):
be live from Mercedes Benz Stadium for home games. And
then if you can't watch the game for whatever reason,
make sure you listen to this guy point over here, Okay,
Dave Archer on Atlanta Falcons Radio Network. All right, actually
listening to him as he ends up calling the game
for our Atlanta Falcons. Before we get into it, we
(02:01):
just had an announcement over the weekend. Atlanta Falcons announced
their twenty twenty five captains for this year. So the
captains for this season will be six of them, by
the way, Jesse Bates, Cayden Ellis, Chris Lenz, Troum, Jake Matthews,
Michael Pennix, and Bradley pinion Arch. When you heard the
list of names, what was the first thing that stuck
out to you?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, not surprised at the names that were on the list.
You and I have both had the pleasure of being captains.
You're a special team's captain, obviously captain on the offensive side.
For me, it's an honor. There's no question about a
lot of times, it's voted on by your teammates. Sometimes
the coaches make selections. Sometimes it's a combination too. I
think that's the way the Falcons do it, in a
combination of the coaches saying, hey, we'd like to have
(02:43):
this guy as our captain, and our teammates say, hey,
this guy deserves to be a captain. So I think
that the names that were on the list, the names
you just read off, are guys that are all going
to have to play prominent roles this year for this
team to be a pretty good team, and certainly are
guys that have stepped step forward in this offseason. I
think we probably have talked about all six of these
(03:06):
guys at some point during our podcast as we've led
to the twenty twenty five season of how they've kind
of inserted themselves as leaders in some capacity, talking to
younger players, talking to the media, whatever it is. So
I think the six guys are definitely good, good picks.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah. Three of the players have been named as a
captain for the first time for the Atlanta Falcons. Two
of them first time captains overall. Cayden Ellis his first
election as a captain, as well as Michael Pennock Junior
his first election in the NFL, is a captain. Bradley
Pinion his first year captain in the Atlanta Falcons, but
his third overall. He had a couple of years where
he was a captain for the Buccaneers. Jake Matthews leading
(03:42):
the charge at his fifth overall year being elected as
a captain. So those are your twenty twenty five captains
for the Atlanta Falcons. You'll see them out there for
the coin toss. You may see some other guys every
once in a while, if a guy did something great
in the previous week, he'll get to go out and
do the coin toss. Maybe somebody on special teams offense
or defense. But these are the guys that were elected
for the season long captains for the twenty twenty five season.
(04:05):
So arch is we get into week one here, let's
start a little bit more thirty thousand foot view. Here.
We're on the Falcons team chart. Well, actually you're on
the Falcons team charter. I'm not. But we're looking out
the window, okay, at the Atlanta Falcons, And what is
the expectation for this team? I mean, every team in
the NFL goes into the season saying our goal is
to win the Super Bowl, but sometimes it's like you
got to take a step or two before that before
(04:27):
you think about Super Bowl. What is the expectation for
this team?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well, I think that the expectation is exactly that, Rack.
I think that when you get ready to kick off
your season, there's an expectation that the quarterback is going
to play a certain way. There's an expectation that these
new guys you've blended in on your defense are going
to create some of that havoc you've been looking for
on that side of the ball. You've got a coordinator
that's new on that side of the ball that, oh,
by the way, has just coordinated the number four, number three,
(04:53):
number three defenses over the last three seasons in New
York that he's going to bring some of that juice here,
So that expectation ramps up. What maybe some of those
players that you've added to your team. So in those
veteran guys coming back, the Caiden Nellis's of the world
and Jesse Bates of the world, can they keep their
play at that premium high level where they can continue
but you expect them to do that? I think that
(05:14):
probably expectation. The most expectation for fans. I would think
rac is probably centered around the quarterback and his ability
to throw the ball everywhere on the field, which we're
going to see Bejean Robinson coming back after a monster
year last year. Do you get a duplicate or do
you have something that steps up even higher than that?
(05:34):
And then the expectation of what can you be from
a defensive standpoint, So when you start talking about where
do I gauze, I think expectation level is really high,
and I think the floor for this team is much
higher than it was in previous years because of the talent.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
What do you think? Yeah, no, I would agree with you.
I think from a personnel standpoint, we talk about this
all the time, like you can. You can coach your
face off and everything, but if you don't have the joes, Like,
if you don't have the dudes, it's just hard to
win a National Football League because everybody is so good,
and certain teams have certain players that are just that
much better than everybody else. The Josh Allen's, Lamar Jackson's,
(06:12):
the Patrick Mahomes of the world. Those guys, they're not
only so so individually talented, but they rise the level
of play of everybody up around them. They make them better.
I always go back arching I think about Tom Brady
when he was in New England outside of Randy Moss
for a couple of years. Think about the wide receivers
that he had. Okay, he didn't have a Jefferson, he
(06:32):
didn't have a Chase, he didn't have an Adams, right,
but he made those guys all that level of player
because he was so demanding in what he did that
Tom Brady got the best out of every single person
and he made them even better. Right. So there's those
kind of transcendent players in the National Football League. So
I would agree the talent level has increased. That's why
(06:53):
you said the floor has increased for this team. I
would say expectations in my opinion, because if you ask
a coach of if you ask a player, a lot
of times you're gonna say, want to know, like, all
we're worried about is winning the game this week. But
guess what, when you're in the media, you could talk
about it however you want. And I'm going to say
it's going to be get to the postseason by winning
the division. And the reason why I say that is
(07:14):
I'm going to go back to something Raheem Moore said
all the time is we want to outrun the South. Well,
you outrun the South, you make it into the postseason.
And in fact, Arch mentioned the New York Jets talking
about Jeff Olbert coming from the Jets. Oddly enough, the
Jets are the team and an NFL that have the
longest active playoff drought at fourteen seasons. You know who's
(07:34):
number two, Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers. They're tied at seven. Okay,
So to me, it's let's take steps. That's kind of
why I said, does it take steps sometimes? Let's take steps? Yes,
I want to win a Super Bowl. Everybody in Atlanta
wants to win a Super Bowl. But you can't win
a Super Bowl until you get into the postseason dance, right.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, and I agree with that. The thing that fans
will point to is, wait a minute, we started the
fifteen season, what we four and O, five and oh,
and then kind of stumbled down to stretch and didn't
make the playoffs. The next year you were in the
Super Bowl. And so it can happen pretty quickly. Not
not guaranteeing anything here, but it can happen pretty quickly
(08:14):
with the right blend of coaching and the right blend
of the players. And I think that there's an expectation that, yes,
step by step you get things done. Early on, it's
going to be difficult. You've got a really interesting schedule
to start off with, got a couple of division games.
Can you get off to a good start, get you
to get the ball roll and get that momentum going.
Can you make the bends that home field advantage like
(08:36):
the Dome was back in sixteen where that man you
didn't want to come in there. It was really difficult
to play. But I wrote the same thing at the top,
must make the playoffs, win division, And so you're right,
you can't put the cart before the horse. You got
to go ahead and take care of things each week.
But there is an expectation level I think from this community.
I think there's an expectation level from this organization. Absolutely,
(09:00):
they're gonna they're a playoff caliber football team. And once
you get there, I mean you can throw the dice
in the air. I mean, how many times have we
seen teams whether they win the division or the number
one seed. We were a number one seed, didn't make it.
Green Bay was a sixth seed, came in here, went
to the super Bowl. When you know, went to the
Super Bowl, we saw a giant team. Remember Giants go
(09:20):
on the road to the ELI Manning beat Green Bay
in Green Bay, go to the Super Bowl and find
a way to get it done against New England. So
getting to the playoffs is the number one thing, and
I guarantee you this fan base that's what they're starved for.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And to your point, it's at that point, it's just
who gets hot at the right time. Right, Maybe you
get hot in Week seventeen and that carries into the
postseason and then you end up making a run. Who
knows what's gonna happen, But you've got to get there. First,
arch I wanted to ask you this question, one more
kind of high level conversation. Is this team? What is
it going to take for this team? Not just I
don't want you to say just beat Tampa or win
(09:56):
the division? Maybe it is it a stat category? Is
it a position that has to improve, something that you've
analyzed over the years that the Atlanta has to excel
at this year if they want to just get into
the postseason dance.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I think it's something that you and I talk a
great deal about. Is what do you do with the football?
Do you take care of the football? We were minus
six in the giveaway takeaway last year twenty four turnovers,
eighteen takeaways. Now, the eighteen takeaways is kind of middle
of the pack. Twenty four turnovers is shoving towards the
bottom end of the league as far as turning the
(10:29):
football over. Got to take better care of the football
and you don't need to play number one in the
league on defense to get there. I mean, this team
was twenty sixth in the league in twenty sixteen on
defense and went to the Super Bowl. But they were opportunistic,
took the ball away, got after the quarterback Vic Beasley
had sixteen and a half sacks. Can you sprinkle some
of those kind of performances is performances in Obviously it's
(10:54):
an offensive it's an offensive league, so offensively you have
to be able to go out, put points on the
board and score. But if you can keep your offense
in that top ten range of doing those kind of things,
and our defense can go from thirty first in the
league down to somewhere in the eighteen nineteen range, you've
got a chance. So to me, that's where you've got
(11:15):
to point to. Is you got you point to some
of the little particulars like taking care of the football
or turning the or taking the ball away, and then
being able to play situational football, third down and red
zone defensively, maybe even more so than offensively. I think
offensively you're going to get it done. Defensively you can
change some of those numbers and bring it more towards
the mid line. I think Atlanta's got a chance to
(11:37):
be a pretty good A.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Rich I would agree. If you I kind of looked
at three categories, if you will, and I'm gonna say
it's two stats and one that's kind of a little
bit of an intangible If you will. The two stats
are you mentioned already. Turnover margin, Just go look at
you could just if you're curious, go look at twenty
twenty four stats. Look at the turnover margin, look at
the teams that are at the top, and then go
(11:59):
and compare that to the teams in the playoff bracket,
the teams that made it to the NFL playoffs. Just
look at who's the top of the turnover margin and
who made the playoffs. Generally, that's going to end up
telling the story. Every once in a while, you're gonna
get somebody arts that's around zero or one on the
turnover margin, and they'll find their way in because they
did something else that was spectacular to get them there.
(12:21):
But by and large, you want to get in the postseason,
you need to be at the top of the NFL
in that category. It gives you the best chance to
get in the postseason. Number two is another stat that
Atlanta has to improve is third down defense. And you
kind of alluded to this. Atlanta was second to last
in the league in third down defense last year. What
does that translate into opposing offenses staying on the field,
(12:41):
drives continue to get put together, ultimately working their way
down the field and putting points on the board. So
third down defense has to improve. Well, guess what happened.
We got two new draft picks in the secondary. We
got two new draft picks at the edge position. They're
addressing it, they understand it. It has to get better.
That's by rushing the passer. That's taking the football way back.
In my last category, arch is is we've talked about
(13:03):
this is a quarterback driven league. Remember I sit across
from two quarterbacks on this podcast. Okay, it's a quarterback
driven league. You can say what you want, but your
quarterback has to be special if you want to win games.
There are not too many teams these days. Arch like
the Ravens in the two thousands, where they ran the
football and played defense and they ended up winning a
Super Bowl. It's just the game has changed, so there's
(13:26):
a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of Michael Pennix.
Guess what it comes with the territory. That's what happens
when you get drafted in the NFL. That's what happens
when you get paid a lot of money in the
NFL and quarterbacks are expected to perform. You think about
the two games last year. We're leading up to Tampa Bay.
The two games last year against the Buccaneers, Kirk Cousins
had one of his career best games ever, scored thirty
(13:47):
six points. The second one we scored thirty. Quarterback played well.
We had turnover we won the turnover margin in the
second game, but just scored points. Right, Yeah, no.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Question about it. It's an offensive league, as I said previously,
and the quarterbacks to be one of those upper echelon
teams that quarterbacks got to play at a high level.
You talked about the turnover ratio. Tampa is the only
outlier this last season. I believe they were minus two
in the giveaway takeaway last year and still made the playoffs,
(14:17):
and we kind of let them back door into the
playoffs because of what we did down the stretch. We
should have been that team in there, and we might
have been one of those teams as an outlier as
minus in the giveaway takeaway to get in. But the
quarterback concept that the quarterback conversation is certainly one of
those and that's why there's so much expectation around what
Michael Pennix can do. Baker Mayfield played great in the
(14:38):
two games that the Falcons played against now turned the
ball over twice in Tampa and Atlanta ended up winning
thirty one to twenty six. That was a game where
you jumped out thirty one to seventeen and they kind
of stormed back and you kind of had to hang
on at the end, but you had enough plays. Baker
Mayfield played really well in both football games and you
still won. They were fifteen of twenty five on third
(14:59):
down in the two games combined. That's losing football. You
can't do this. So what Rack's talking about, we can't
allow him to do that again this year because that
was kind of an aberration as to what's going on.
So this is this is one of those weird games, Rack,
and I know we're gonna start getting into the game
a little bit. This is one of those weird games
where the numbers of these two games and you throw it. Hey,
(15:19):
you can't let that happen. Wait a minute, We did
let that happen when we won. You got to do this.
We didn't do that, and we still won. So it's
really a strange game between Tampa and Atlanta coming up.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Yeah, I mean you look at the back the offensive
backfield for Atlanta versus and I'm not taking anything away
from Tampa. It's still really electric. But like Tampa won
the rushing game the first game and we ended up
coming away with a victory. Right, you think that's one
area in Atlanta's probably going to dominate, right with John Robinson,
Tyler Algier. But Atlanta or excuse me, Tampa actually ran
the football much better in the first game. But the
(15:50):
interesting point that you talked about is Tampa not are
having a bad turnover margin getting into the postseason. You
know what they did really well last year number one
in the league and third downs offensively, right, so that
helps guess what you're doing staying on the field scoring points.
So that leads us into Tampa again. Just kind of
a general question. What are your thoughts about Falcons opening
(16:11):
up against Tampa in Week one of the season. You
get a divisional opponent that has been the team that's
been representing the division in the playoffs, first game to
start twenty twenty five. I like it.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
I think I like it. We started the season. I
remember my third year in the league, we opened up
in New Orleans against the Saints, and obviously that's the
rivalry when it comes to Atlanta, Atlanta now Tampa. So
obviously this is starting to grow the Tampa the Tampa
rivalry because of these two teams buying from maybe the
top spot. But New Orleans is just that team you
(16:43):
know that you played in the games, and so to
go to New Orleans and beat New Orleans on opening
weekend really set the table. Now, believe me, it can.
It can make the table kind of barren if you
don't get things done Atlanta, if I remember correctly, if
I'm not mistaken, you're gonna have to help me out
with this. I believe Atlanta opened up with Tampa in
sixteen and lost here in the building against Tampa, so
(17:06):
that may be correct. So it's happened before where you've
opened up with Tampa Bay. But I like the juice
around the game, Rack. I like what the league is doing.
From a fan base standpoint. We're seeing a lot of
divisional early divisional games, big matchups the first couple of weekends,
and then they save the rest of them for the
back end of the schedule. Maybe sprinkle a few in
the middle, but for the most part, it's front and back.
(17:28):
I like the juice.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
You like the juice that we get with I mean,
I agree with you. It's it's there is no such
thing like in college, not so much of this year.
In college, a lot of time you get warm up games, right,
you get what they call the guarantee games, where where
one big school is paying us a much smaller school
a whole lot of money, like a million, million and
a half dollars and they're basically playing them to come
in and get their butts whooped right to so the
(17:51):
bigger school can make some mistakes, get on track, get
a little confidence, score fifty points and maybe give up
three points, and you kind of got a good, feel
good story going into the rest of the season, right,
a chance to kind of get things polished up a
little bit. Wow, that's not the case anytime in the NFL,
and specifically when you start with a divisional game, because
you always kind of talk about these as being two
(18:12):
for one, right, like, not only is it a win,
but it's a divisional win and gets you one step
closer to having the best record in your division and
getting to the postseason. So I like it. It probably
puts And again I'll be honest with you, I didn't
follow Tampa's preseason. I don't know how much their starters
played or they didn't, but I know that Atlanta's did
not very much, and so that's even more important for
(18:33):
them to come out sharp in the very first game.
I'm sure they got plenty of good work in the
scrimmages that they held here at the facility, but you
don't really get an opportunity to get back holding penalties
and personal files that end up backing yourselves up on
the chains or giving them first downs on the defensive
side of the ball. So that stuff has to be
sharp to start game one if you want to come
(18:55):
away with a win against a divisional team. So let's
talk a little bit more about if you looked at
Tampa's roster versus Atlanta's roster, which team is so is
much more different than they were last year from either
personnel and or a coaching perspective.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeah, I think that. Obviously both of them have different coordinators.
You got different coordinators on the offensive side of the well,
ironically enough, they'll be going head to head. New coordinator
Grizzard takes over as the coordinator down in Tampa. He
had been their pass game coordinator, so he'd been with
the organization before. And as it turns out, Jeff Oldbrick,
who comes in here as a defensive coordinator, he's been
with the organization before, it just was a few years ago.
(19:33):
So there are some similarities when it comes to that,
and those two coordinators will be facing each other a
little bit. When you start talking about the rosters, I
think Atlanta's roster to me, from an impactful standpoint or
a standpoint where they're going to step in and play
right away, I think Atlanta. I would lean towards Atlanta's
rosters different And obviously you've talked about it the defensive
(19:56):
side of the football more than anything else. Going to
have a different quarterback obviously playing against Tampa than you
did in the first two games Cousins played in those
first two games. Pennis takes over as the quarterback. But
when you look at Tampa, you're probably talking about the
young receiver at Ohio State of Buka will step in Godwin.
It doesn't, we don't know, but right right now while
we're recording this, it looks like Godwin's going to be
(20:17):
probably held out for the first couple of games. The
other season, we may see Tristan Wurf's their outstanding tackle
may miss. Well, we've got to tackle missing as well,
So there's some mirroring there a little bit. But if
I had to point to different rosters, I would say
the Falcon roster feels much more different than maybe Tampa's roster,
I would agree.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
I mean, I just I look at the two first
round picks on the defensive side of the ball and
the fact that they can make a difference. I look
at the other draft picks and the defensive backfield that
we've recently found out are likely going to be starting
and playing a lot of football in the backfield along
with Jesse Bates. And yes, you could probably say it's
a wash when it comes to the coaching with two
new coordinators, and then of course you got a new
(21:00):
quarterback with Atlanta, so there's there is a lot of
differences there enough that Tampa can take a look at.
And again, to your point, as we record, we won't
find out until officially later on this afternoon, the first
injury report that comes out. But I'm hearing to your point,
Tampa maybe a little bit more banged up coming into
this game, but as we know in the NFL, that
generally doesn't matter. You still got to go out there
(21:21):
and play the game, and just wanted to let you know,
clean it up. But you were right. Twenty sixteen thirty
one to twenty four, Tampa over Atlanta at home to
open the twenty sixte months seasons.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
We're not trying to mirror the sixties season, not trying
to cloud you guys's minds. I just wanted to make
sure everybody do he was correct well and to your
point in that not to spend too much time on sixteen.
If you go back, Atlanta loses the Kansas City I
think the second weekend of December to go to seven
and five that year, and like you said, it's when
you catch fire do you catch a run at the end.
(21:52):
Obviously Atlanta did that and ran to the super Bowl.
So again just throwing it out there. I know that
the fans going where about that, Hey, this is a
new year, new team, but we got to hang on
some of those memories.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Speaking of memories, Arch you are your uniquely that was difficult,
for whatever reason, uniquely qualified answer this question because you've
covered a ton of Falcons Buccaneers games in the past,
so I want to ask you from all your experience
covering this matchup. What does it generally come down to?
Is there one or two things that it's generally comes
(22:27):
down to, or is it something different every year as
far as matchups, one thing one team doesn't do well,
the other one does well. Have you seen a rhythm
if you will, with this matchup? Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I don't know what there is a rhythm rack. And
I think that there's been a lot of different games
that either we've won in their building, or they've come
up here, or you just mentioned the sixteen opening games
game of the season, they came up here in one.
I think that normally it boils down to the football
pieces of it.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
You talked about.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Third down and winning the Winning the moments obviously gives
you your best opportunity to win third down in red
zone moments, what do you get at do you maximize
those moments? Something I'll point out from last year is
this was a series. The two games was a series
of big plays. Tampa had eighteen plays of fifteen yards
(23:18):
of more. Atlanta had sixteen plays of fifteen yards of more.
Those are usually no nos. And that's what I talked
about early on. All the numbers you would throw at
this and say Okay, can't let this in. But can't
let that happen or you're not gonna win. All those
things happened and we still won. You gave up eighteen
plays of twenty fifteen yards of more. You won both
football games. Okay, you only sacked the quarterback one time.
(23:41):
Baker Mayfield hit the ground one time in the two games.
Our quarterback Kirk Cousin was tacked six times in the game.
You would think, okay, that points. Ah, you won both games.
They I mentioned that how they converted on third down
at some seventy five percent or whatever it was or
sixty five percent.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
You can't do that. We won.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
So that just goes to show you the rhythm piece
of it. Rax So I don't think there's anything that
you point to. I think it goes back down to
something you and I talk a lot about. Are the
base pieces of football that you would point to that, Okay,
you take care of this, take care of that. You've
got a better chance of winning. You can't nut that
you won't win, because those two games proved to it,
(24:19):
but you have a better chance of winning.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
In the first game, Tampa ran the football better than
Atlanta did.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
One hundred and sixty yards on the ground.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Turnover was a wash. Both teams had a turnover in
that game. And what did it come down to? A
quarterback and Kirk Cousins that played out of his mind right.
Sometimes that happens is you get a player, a lot
of times it's a quarterback. They touch the football every
single play offensively. When they play spectacular, good things happen.
And in the other matchup, the one down in Tampa's
we talked about, Tampa had three turnovers. You win a
(24:49):
turnover margin three to zero. It is extremely difficult to
win in the National Football League. And I don't care
who your quarterback is. That's a stat that you can
look up. I don't have it at my discretion. When
you lose three zero in a turnover margin, how many
teams actually win the game. It's extremely difficult in the NFL.
So you just never really know what it's going to
come down to in this type of game. You mentioned
(25:11):
Baker Mayfield not getting sacked. He's one of those quarterbacks
arts that I don't know. The first word that comes
to my mind is Houdini, like he finds ways to
either keep the play alive, get rid of the football,
or sliding out of some tackle and making something out
of nothing. He's got a little bit of ma Hoomes
to him, right, the little bit of off script talent that
not a lot of people do. And I think that's
(25:33):
part of the reason which makes their third numbers, their
third down numbers so good, and him individually is how
he's playing so well.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
It's incredible rack when you think about his career where
he started out in Cleveland and really actually played well
early on in Cleveland, and then things kind of got sideways,
whether it was the coaching or whether it was the
organization or whatever. He didn't. He obviously is culpable in
there as well, doing a lot of commercials, living at
the State with his wife, all that stuff that goes
(26:02):
on with Baker. And then the bounce. He bounces to
a couple of places, then lands in Tampa and here's
this resurrection of his career, the blend. I give him
credit for keeping his nose to the grindstone and continuing
to work. And that's where to me, he's one of
those grinder type of guys. He's Joey bagg of Donuts, right,
there's nothing that you know just John always. He's great moving. Yeah,
(26:27):
he's okay moving around, but like you said, he has
he lit a step out of that box. You got
him in a box. Nope, there's no handcuffs on me.
I'm out. And he makes that play that just kind
of keeps thing going. And I know one thing that
team down there, if you listen to everybody talk, they
have tremendous belief in what he is as their leader
(26:48):
on the offensive side of the football. You go back,
and he played really well in both games. He had
the couple turnovers in the game in Tampa, but he's
a guy that to me, you're not gonna pick out
is okay, name your five best quarterbacks or maybe even
name your ten best quarterbacks in the league. He might
get left out of that mix, and he shouldn't. He's
(27:09):
playing at that kind of level.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Let's talk about a couple of matchups here, the matchups
that you look at in this game, whether it's player
versus player, it's unit versus unit, maybe it's coach versus coach.
What are a couple of the matchups that you think
that this game may come down.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
To our Yeah, I would think obviously my eyes are
immediately going to gravitate to what are we going to
be defensively in this game? And can you create some
of those uncomfortable situations for Baker off the edge? You
only got to him one time. That's going to have
to change in this game. I believe if Atlanta's going
to have success, you've got to be able to get
him off his spot more than what you did in
(27:45):
the last game. So obviously the front seven, but I'm
gonna go even further than that rack. I'm going to
point to how do you do how do you do
against the running backs and the tight end? Now, Kate Otten,
it sounds like is bang up and not going to
be able to go again when we go to this
recording and some of the guys that aren't going to play,
we don't have some people playing as well. Oughten was
(28:07):
outstanding at Atlanta in the last two games, especially the
game down in Tampa. Had almost one hundred yards, receiving
two touchdowns in that game. And Baker likes to throw
the ball to the to the tight ends and the
running backs. If you go back, he had forty six
completions I believe in the two games, or fifty six
completions in the two games. Thirty of those went to
the running back and the tight end somewhere in that number.
(28:30):
So he likes to distribute the ball. Bucky Irving his
outstanding receiver. John White's an outstanding receiver. And we talked
about Kate Otton a little bit. So I would say
the Falcon seven maybe include a safety there, maybe a
nickel or something trying to defend that easy throws, the
underneath throws, and it equates to I'm almost jumping forward
here as far as keys, But a key for me
(28:53):
defensively will be how well do you tackle? Because you
just talked about a lot of the stuff that was
going to go on in this game. Nobody's really done.
We can do thud tempo out here and practice. None
of these guys played in the game, especially secondary guys
and your main linebackers, Dan but Divine, Voblo and cad
(29:14):
Nellis two good tacklers but haven't had to do it.
So now, how much do you tackle in the open field?
Because you can bet they're going to get the backs
in space and try to get them the football and
make some plays. I mentioned eighteen plays of fifteen yards
or fifteen yards or more. A number of those are
made by the guys I'm talking about. So to me,
that's the matchup. It jumps out my front seven, including
(29:35):
maybe a safety. It drops down the box against the
backs and the tight end in the run game, in
the pass game.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, I love it. I'm gonna take mine a little
step further than that, and my matchup is going to
be winning the line of scrimmage. And I'm going to
say that on both sides of the ball, because obviously
we know Atlanta's going to have a new tackle on
the right side to start this game out. And what
is the biggest asset going into this season that we
know right now is that has two outstanding running backs
(30:02):
that if those guys don't get going, that's going to
disrupt the offense. Well, how do you get those two
guys going as you win at the line of scrimmage?
How do you get Michael pennockx Junior comfortable throwing the
football down the field when you win at the line
of scrimmage and he doesn't feel pressure, he's not having
to eliminate half the field because he's scrambling. That's winning
at the line of scrimmage. How do you end up
(30:24):
slowing down Baker Mayfield and this Buccaneers offense. I know
it's a new year, but in twenty twenty four they
led the league in third down conversions. You win the
line of scrimmage, you get pressure in his face, you
get people off of blocks, and then that sets up
your linebackers and your secondary to make plays on the
football down the field. To me, this comes down to
(30:44):
winning the line of scrimmage. It's not the sexy pick.
It's not what fans are looking for. They want to say,
is Michael Penny's going to throw for three point fifty?
Is Bejean Robbinson going to run for one hundred and
thirty five and two touchdowns? Those, to me, are all
products of what happens on the offense line and the
defensive line. Which team wins the line of scrimmage. Because
Tampa wants to run the football too, don't get it twisted.
(31:06):
They want to throw it with Baker, but they got
two really good running backs that had success last year.
They want to win the line of scrimmage as well.
I think it comes down to winning the line of
scrimmage on both sides.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I think it's a great call, Rack, and I think
that when you start talking about sacking the quarterback that's
winning at the line of scrimmage on the defensive side
of the football to get after Baker, protecting Penix and
giving him an opportunity to get the ball out. So
I think I think you're dead on I think that
even with all of that, even with what DrAk and
I just said, if you look at these two games
last year, a lot of that stuff happened and we
(31:38):
still won both games. A lot of it didn't happen
and we still won both games. So even with all
the numbers and things and the rudimentary pieces of football
that you're supposed to take care of, it can all
go screwy and you can still win the game. So
all that being said, this is kind of this will
be an interesting matchup in interesting and you can bet
how much. Here's a question for you. Okay, think about Okay,
(32:02):
Tampa wins the division and scrambled at the at the
back end to win it and tried to give it
back to us when they lost to Dallas and all
those kind of things, but still won the division but
still stuck in their craw Gotta be a little bit.
How much does it stick in a player's mind. We
won the Vision. We didn't beat these guys either time.
I mean, you got a leg up because you wanted
(32:23):
to be How much is that maybe maybe even even
more magnified because it's the opening day game that you're
being reminded, Hey, you didn't beat these guys either time.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yeah. I think there's there's so many different angles that
you can take as far as how a team, how players,
how coaches, or however they motivate their team, Like what
is the message from Tampa side, Like, y'all, we won
the division last year, we went to the playoffs, but
this team beat us twice, Like are we gonna let
that happen again? Like you just never know what Todd
Bowles is going to say with his team, what Rahe
Morris is going to say with his behind closed doors,
(32:53):
what the message is going to be, how they get
motivated or the flip side is going to be For
the Atlanta Falcons players, the guys that actually have been
here a long time, the Jake Matthews, Chris linstrums of
the world, those guys have said, we haven't been to
the postseason. We just talked about at the beginning of
the shows in twenty seventeen, like we want to get there.
This team has been there. They have been the one
that stood in our way the last few years. Every team,
(33:16):
every player has an individual motivation. It's just how can
you use that and harness it, but stay focused on
the task at hand. And so I'm going to bring
this back to you and you kind of let us
down to one key in the game. Give us one
other key that you think is big for a land.
We always talk about keys as analyst. Right going into
the game, we talked about matchups. Arch led us to
(33:37):
a little bit of a key. Let's get one more
key from you before we close this up, all right.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
So I mentioned tackling to me, tackling on that side
of the football, the defensive side of the football is
going to be key. There's no question about the fact
that you've got to tackle guys in space. And I
talked about the distribution of the football and those kind
of things. All right. So the second one is an
easy one, and it's one that you and I talked
a lot about. We've talked about the turnover ratio. Neither
one of these teams were very good the turnover ratio.
I believe, I want to say Tampa was minus two.
(34:03):
We were minus six. Ball security, Now, I'm not just
going to say turnovers, because anybody can say turnovers, but
ball security is going to be key because remember, the
entire Falcon unit offensively has not been in a game
or played at that speed from and especially the skill guys. Now,
we've tried to do turnover drills out here, and you
(34:24):
got guys raking at the football and I think they've
done a really good job of that. But there's that
odd time where you're a little loose to the football
and the ball gets punched out, which can change a game.
We talked about how close these two games were a
year ago. That changes the football game. You turn it over.
You talked about Tampa turned it over three times. We
didn't turn it over at all in Tampa. You win
the football game by five points, a one score game.
(34:45):
Ball security for me. And then an ancillary piece of
that is the is the matchup. Maybe we can talk
about that in a second. Tell me your keys to
what we get into this game.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Yeah, it's what I've kind of thought about. Is is
kind of an extension of what you were just talking
about hasn't been out there. Starting defense, by and large,
has not been out there. So one of my big
keys in this game is which team can Atlanta play
with a clean operation? And what does that mean? Well,
how about false starts backing you up to first and fifteen.
(35:16):
How about holding penalties on second down backing you up
to second and twenty. How about trying to convert on
third down when you've got seventeen yards to pick up
a first down? How about defensively, when you look like
you got a third down stop and you get called
for a defensive holding, that's an automatic first down. What
happens on a shot play down the field that it
looks like aj Terrell's in perfect position, knocks the football away,
(35:38):
gets called for a pass interference because his right hand
is wrapped around the hip of the wide receiver. To me,
that's staying on schedule. But that's playing with a clean operation,
and it's playing with great fundamentals. And everybody hears you
talk about that all the time. Well, guess how you
avoid holding penalties? You play with great fundamentals? Guess how
you avoid false starts? Focused and you're locked in, the
(36:01):
only thing you're paying attention to is your quarterback, not
what's being barked at on the other side of the ball,
the movement from the defense trying to stem and adjust,
or the somebody in the third row screaming your number
that you didn't do anything last year. Okay, it's a
mental life fantasy. I needed you and you let me down.
So those are the things that we always talk about
(36:23):
staying on schedule, but I wanted to expand it so
you guys all understood what we were talking about is
that it's hard at any level of football to convert
on third and seventeen. Well, guess what, stay out of
it at all costs. Stay out of those situations. You
can convert in the NFL in third and four, third
and seventeen is extremely difficult. And we had a guy
(36:45):
when I was playing, a Michael Victim might have been
one of the best ever to do it because he
could run like nobody else could, and I don't think
he sure did right, So a clean operation is what
I'm looking for. Now. You were kind of leading towards
matchups and stuff.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I think that's it's such a good call because of
what we've been kind of the overall feeling of this
is there's a bit of unknown Tampa, you know, Baker
Mayfield didn't get on the field. There's a lot of
things that they don't know potentially about their team or
that they're going to be dusting the rust off, if
you want to put it in those terms, and are
what is one thing that kind of you got to
(37:21):
kind of get up speed on is fundamentals when you
finally get back on the field and you're at game speed.
As much as you try to simulate it here at
Flowery Branch, it's hard to do because you don't want
to hurt each other. So now all of a sudden
you're at game speed. It's ramped up a little bit
more ball security. I want to get off the ball
on that guy, and I'm jumping a little bit. All
the fundamentals you're talking about, was that foot where it
was supposed to be? Is that hand where it's supposed
(37:43):
to be. It's magnified significantly, So rack all over it
with the fundamentals. Okay, So how do you create a
situation where you got a young quarterback? How do you
create an atmosphere where he can flourish? And to me,
one of the keys and I know you feel this
(38:03):
way as well, Zach Robinson and the game plan they're
putting together for the Falcons to give him an opportunity
to not only distribute the ball to London, into Pitts
and to Jon Robinson and everybody. How well do you
kind of get him situated? Because you can bet who's
one of the best defensive coordinators in the National Football
League and a guy that will blitch you when he
(38:24):
gets off of the bus. Okay, he's blitzing you in
the parking lot, let alone waiting to third down or
waiting to second and long. Todd Bowles is going to
have some looks that we've been talking about these two
games from a year ago. We might not see any
of that. Todd Bowles is going to have different things
and different ways to come after Pinnis that he's never
(38:45):
seen before, let alone seen on tape. So to me,
that matchup between we talked about the new defensive coordinator
here in Atlanta and new offensive coordinator in Tampa, and
that's intriguing, and how's that gonna match how about the
venerable one that's the defensive coordinator down they're in Todd
Gowles and Zack Robinson, who guided Atlanta to a top
ten offense here a year ago. How does that meld together?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, and this is no disrespect to the college game,
but this is to me where I think the NFL
has a step up on the college game because of
how important coaching, scheme and game plan is in the NFL.
Because in the college game, even at the biggest of colleges,
you can out talent people at times, right like you
can just have better players. That generally does not happen
(39:31):
in the NFL. The worst team in the NFL still
has Pro Bowl caliber players. So that's where scheme and
game plan is so vitally important to win. So to
answer your question is Zach Robinson has to take all
the information that he had from Michael Pennix's rookie season,
the offseason, training camp, oh to all that stuff and
(39:53):
figure out, Okay, what does he do the best and
what's going to get him the most comfortable within that
first call at ten or fifteen plays that they generally
script if they can stay on script, right, is how
do we get him comfortable? It's pound the football, get
Bijan and Tyler, get them six, seven, eight. So then
now you got defense starting to come down and pay
(40:14):
attention to the run game. But then where is Pennis
most comfortable? Is it a slant, is it a hitch?
Is it a flat route? I don't know the answer
to that question because I don't talk to Michael Pennock
Junior all the time. That's what your offensive coordinator gets
a chance to do is see him all the time
and what is he the best at? And then you
get him going there, and then you let that open
(40:35):
everything else up. And if you can get that part early,
then everybody calms down and then you can start taking
your shots downfield. You can get a little bit more creative.
But if you get stuck coming out the box and
you can't pick up two yards, then that that first
fifteen plays that goes out the wind right. That's great
because it well.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
And it's a good point too because in Rack and
I can pontificate on this forever as far as scheme
and how you approach. Remember, there's a possibility when you
come out of the box that everything Rack just talked
about running the football being at second in second and
four or third and four, third and three, that doesn't
(41:16):
work out. They gang up against the run and said, hey,
we're going to make the new quarterback beat us. We're
going to take the runaway and now he's going to
have to make some plays downfield. You can bet that
Zach Robinson has another plan in his pocket. Okay, what
happens to my quarterback doesn't get off to a fast start,
or what happens if I don't give him the opportunity
to make some plays, which I'm trying not to. But
let's say he misses some. Let's say he's a little nervous,
(41:39):
which doesn't sound like Pennis gets. Let's say he throw
over throws a couple and all of a sudden, I
need to get him in a rhythm. There's going to
be an adjustment. And that's what's beautiful about the National
Football League. All the plans and all the numbers and
all the things Racking I are throwing at, you can
go completely up and smoke he and his throw it
in the air. Now, even more paramount about what Rack's
(42:04):
talking about is the coordinators. Now those adjustments in game,
adjustments where you say, Okay, my quarterback's off to a
slow store, or we're not doing very good in man coverage.
We need to adjust at whatever it might be. That's
where these coordinators take it to another level. That's why
they're coaching at this level. That's why they're coordinators at
this level. And bet that as well. As you know,
(42:26):
Todd Bowles and his staff have have have alternative ideas
of how to do things. So do the Falcons as well.
You have to be able to adjust. This a big
boy league, and you get ready because you're gonna get
thrown a curve ball at some point on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
I could tell you that I warned you when we
started the show that we were excited. We didn't have shock.
We didn't have shock here today, I, me and Arts
are just out here going and we could probably go
for another thirty to an hour or two an hour
and a half to you, guys don't want to hear that,
so we're gonna let you go. Thanks so much for
joining me. Pregame pregame showing, pregame show on Sunday Sunday.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
This guy right here and he's and Taylor visitor.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
On Monday at one o'clock on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
So yeah, on Sunday, I think I'm in the building.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, you're gonna be in the building as well. In
the building is well, all three of us will be
in the building on Sunday. And just so you know,
Falcons Audible will be back every Wednesday throughout the regular season,
so that's when you need to set your alarm or
however it is that you get your YouTube podcast, your
Apple podcasts on Spotify, set your alarm on your phone
to Wednesdays to check out the guys, and generally we
(43:26):
will have the day shopping back with us. Because he
was not able to join us this week. However you
choose to join us, we are happy to have you.
I told you we were excited. Me and O are
getting ready. Let's go baby, one of the Duars one.
It's coming divisional opponent, Tampa Bay Bucks coming here to
the Mercedes Benz Stadium. Rise up, Baby, Thanks so much
for joining the Falcons. Aubel presented by at A T.
We will see you next week.
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