00:00:00
Speaker 1: This is Terry Fonto's best draft. We'll stop when we're all like, what what you are?
00:00:05
Speaker 2: They're not getting not getting cuter.
00:00:08
Speaker 3: It's I think we'd be like, I don't want to be a blonde.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Happy Thanksgiving Falcons fans, welcome back to the Friday Five. We hope everybody has grabbed a play the leftovers and they've settled down to listen to a little bit of Falcons talk heading into Sunday's game against the New York Jets. But before we dive into today's show, a reminder that Pro Bowl voting has commenced and the Falcons have a lot of interesting candidates. Tarin and I were trying to talk through some of that this morning about all right, who conceivably could make it? Well, you can make your voice heard on who you think shamik it. You can go to Atlanta Falcons dot com backslash Pro Bowl to vote for your favorite Falcons. You can also vote on social using the hashtag, or you can check out this QR code that we have on screen right now and vote there. I have no idea if that's actually going to fit into the window, So go check YouTube. Yeah, I'm I'm going up here. I'm gonna go over here. Let's see how many QR codes we can get on the screen. Let's put one on front of a.
00:01:05
Speaker 3: Ticket funds like the DVD sign Yes I.
00:01:08
Speaker 2: Love that, Yes Jared, a movable QR screen. Let's go. So, if you want to vote on the Pro Bowl or the players that you think should make it, those are all the ways that you can do so. But we're gonna start now with our question of the Day, which you guys can check out on the Atlanta Falcons TikTok feed anytime you want to, So, Tori, you want to queus hut. Yeah.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: So it's a it's actually not a question, it's more of like a can you do this thing? It's like a it's a reflex game. So from what I've seen, from what and what I've been told is essentially it's one of those things where you have the polls and you try and you don't know when they're going to drop, and once they drop, you have to catch them. It's kind of like what F one and NASCAR drivers use to like hone in and yeah, hone in the reflexes.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: It's like you're catching like icicles. Yeah, same thing is almost what it looks like or like wind chimes.
00:01:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the question, and since we don't have the game with us, we're not gonna play, but like who on the team do we think had the best reflexes or if you were to line them all up, like who who would I think I have a good answer, but I'll let shall go first.
00:02:14
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with Jake Matthews.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: Really, I was wondering where would like offensive line, defensive line fit into this.
00:02:20
Speaker 3: I think about the fact that he has like so much experience. He's also very like the word I want to say is organic when it comes to his recovery. That I feel like this type of game is something he just has at home to like practice on and then having a kid multiple kids too, that he's probably sharp.
00:02:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I feel like it's probably a receiver or a defensive back. I'm gonna go, man, I think I'm making this like just decision in real time because it is I'm gonna say, like Mike cues, you know, it's probably somebody off like the radar a little bit, but has like stuck around in the league for a long time. Veteran worked at a lot of different spots, probably been exposed to a lot of different things, and that, like cross training probably does just help your handy coordination, your reflexes, reaction time, all of that stuff. So, yeah, we got an offensive lineman and then we got a cornerback.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna go with this receiver as well, because I think just like hand eye coordination, the quickness of which they're making decisions in the air. But I didn't feel very convicted in that answer. And so who I did feel conviction on is Xavier Watts. And the reason why I feel Xavier Watts is because something that came up from Jesse Bates to Jerry Gray to people at Notre Dame about Xavier Watts is his instincts and a lot of your reflexes is your instincts taking over. And so I think if there's someone like an Xavier Watts who has this level of instinct about him, I think it makes sense that would translate to the reflex game.
00:03:51
Speaker 2: I wish we could see actually like who.
00:03:55
Speaker 3: Like philibustering on another really good honorable mention Lenny Creek because he's very very good at ping pong in the locker room.
00:04:03
Speaker 1: Okay, I was wondering. I had no idea where you're going with that.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: I think the only like Bradley Pinion has beat him at ping pong. Yeah, so that's that would be reflexive. I mean that's only one hand.
00:04:14
Speaker 2: Leo Jones was also a former ping pong You're in the locker room.
00:04:19
Speaker 1: And Jones played spike ball too all the time, which is very reflex Yeah.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: I love that. I love all those those fun little games. So yeah, go check out the Falcon's TikTok account to find out who won the reflex game. Actually, who do you think among the three of us would win not reflex game?
00:04:35
Speaker 1: I think I would win. I'm pretty confident. Yeah, I'm pretty high black of yeah, dar instantly, yes, yeah. No. Something we were saying before we started recording is my dad used to have that like ball. I played softball and I was a first baseman and my dad had this ball with the little like nodules on it and he would throw it like a pick and I wouldn't know where the ball was going. So I feel I feel pretty confident in my abilities.
00:05:00
Speaker 2: Say, anytime that you guys go to the doctor's office and you get your hearing checked right and They're like, Okay, you're gonna hear a beep. When you hear a beep, click the little mouse to let us know. I try to click that thing so fast, so I'm always checking my reflex. I'm pretty confident too.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: The last time I did that.
00:05:16
Speaker 2: All Right, Well, this podcast has already just taken so many turns. Let's go ahead and look at the injury situation. Right it's week thirteen in the NFL, so player injuries are just a part of life when you kind of get to this part of the calendar of the Falcons, of course, not immune to that. Drake London missed this past game. We'll get into kind of like what it feels like his status for Sunday should be. But before we kind of talk about the guys on the injury report available for Sunday, not available for Sunday, let's just kind of close the chapter on Michael Pennox Junior and you know what he's been dealing with his knee tarying. He got updates for us on that.
00:05:51
Speaker 3: Yes, on Wednesday during his weekly press conference for he Morris did say that Michael PENNOCKX Junior had his surgery. It was on Tuesday, yeah, that's yesterday and he said it went well. Zach Robinson also said he texted him after the surgery and said Pennick seems to be in good spirit. So that's what you want to hear with the quarterback of your future. We didn't get an update on Billy Bowman Junior slipped our mind in the moment, but he did tweet saying for surgery ever made the Lord guide me built for whatever the journey begins. And I don't think you're tweeting if you're if it didn't go well. So that's a good sign, right, Like he seems to have a good mindset about it, especially knowing that it's his first is huge. But those are like the two biggest names when it comes to seeding ending and I are.
00:06:43
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure, So Drake and we should preface this. It is Wednesday afternoon. We don't have the first injury report of the week yet, so a lot of this is just kind of maybe reading the tea leaves of how things will go and based on just a couple of press conferences. But what is the latest on London? Do we expect to see him out there on Sunday?
00:07:02
Speaker 3: Again? On Wednesday morning, That was another update we got from Raheem Morris. He said he's doubtful. He wouldn't like concrete say that that's a no go.
00:07:12
Speaker 2: I feel like you rarely see doubtful any like, even though that's an official designation and it's always questionable.
00:07:17
Speaker 1: So I do the injury reports every single week, and I don't even think I've seen more than two doubtfuls. Yeah, and and I don't even think the Falcons have been one of the two. I think that's been other teams that have listed people as doubtful.
00:07:30
Speaker 3: He did say like or whatever the actual word lay of the land law of whatever was like, I don't know what the exact phrasing, but he admitted he didn't know the exact wording for the injury report. But yeah, so Drake London remains week to week. More said that London is moving well, he looks good. He's happy that the Falcons will get him back soon, but they're just not sure how soon that is, So probably not Sunday in New York aka New Jersey.
00:07:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, he did say that he doesn't think it'll be this weekend. Yeah, he was like, as it stands right now, it probably wouldn't be this weekend.
00:08:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, like, given that, how do we expect We saw what the offense could do without Drake. Obviously, Darnell's connection with Kirk is has been strong. I mean, do the Falcons need Drake in this game? How does that meaningfully impact their offense? Like if he's not out.
00:08:23
Speaker 1: There, I don't think you have to have Drake London in this game. I think if he needs another week, you're in a position where you can give him another week, and I would behoove them to do that. I think they had a good thing going with Darnell Mooney, David Sills. You had some guys stepping up, which was really nice. I believe Kirk Cousins connected with seven different receivers over the course of the win against the Saints, which is one of those things that like is what you expected. And I actually even said as I was prepping for this podcast, it's like, if Drake London even did come back, come back, I actually didn't think that it would look like operationally, very different than what it looked like against the Saints. I still think that the goal would be spreading things out with with Kirk Cousins, like you still would want to run the ball with Bajon and Tyler, you still want to spread the ball out as much as possible. Maybe it with Drake inserted back in, it's not seven different receivers, because you know Drake would get he would have a number of looks as the number one option. But and also like just Drake in the red zone changes things a little bit as well. But overall, I don't necessarily feel that when it comes to Drake London in the sense of going up against this Jets defense, that you have to have his presence, when in reality, it's like, if he's not one hundred percent, I wouldn't want to throw him out there, knowing that you kind of have bigger fish to fry down the road.
00:09:49
Speaker 3: And you have Darnell Mooney now, who's showing that he's kind of back from the injuries he's dealt with, and he and Kirk Cousins have a really strong connection. So maybe they can build on that and Mooney do Mooney things in this last stretch of the season.
00:10:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be nice to if he can kind of continue to pick up his play like he started last weekend in New Orleans. Whenever Drake gets back right, It probably won't meaningfully change the offense outside of maybe that pass distribution chart, but I think it is fair to kind of wonder if Kirk and inserting him at quarterback change the offense. How it didn't change the offense, What is the identity of the Falcons offense? Things like that, y and Zach Robinson was asked a lot about that on Wednesday. Raheem was asked a lot about it on Monday by you Tory with a kind of under center and play action, and it's just been really a topic of discussion, so we should probably discuss it. But for those you know under center, right, I think it's pretty obvious, you're right up under center. Yeah, quarterback is right behind the center. Pistol and shotgun are a little bit different, right, So shotgun the quarterback is a little bit further back. Usually the running back is right next to him, or they don't have a running back at all and he's spread out wide. Pistol is a little bit of a hybrid look. Quarterback is you know, about five yards back. Running back is another three yards or so behind him, So you get some of that downhill look, you get some of the extra play action that has allowed for and more importantly, Zach Robinson feels that it kind of creates that whole menu option for them with motions where you can insert blockers. I think of Charlie Warner how often he has kind of motioned over before the ball is deaf and then like inserted off tackle or something like that. So yeah, it's just like I'm setting up this whole conversation because I want to get into what we think about, like a how the Falcons looked with Kirk Cousins yea under center literally a little bit more than Michael Pennix has. And we saw the highest play action usage rate this past Sunday by the Falcons. I think it was like twenty nine percent. That's the biggest of the season, yeah for them, And it was effective. I thought that shot to Darnel Mooney obviously the highlights.
00:11:52
Speaker 1: So a couple check downs to Bajon that I think worked really well.
00:11:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, or he's been twitching to talk about this one.
00:11:57
Speaker 2: She has, so so let's let's go. Yeah, Tory, like, why why do you think we've seen this discrepancy between the two quarterbacks? Is there a discrepancy between the two quarterbacks?
00:12:05
Speaker 1: There is point blank. I think that you can't look at what happened on Sunday against the Saints and say that there isn't because of how drastic I felt like the operation was. When it comes to this whole discussion about pistol under cent or play action off of either. I think actions speak louder than words in this situation, but I think words can help us prove our point. On Sunday after the game, where he Morris said point blank, when Kirk Cousins came off of his torn achilles injury, quote, he felt a little bit more comfortable and pistol. So now that Kirk Cousins is quote back to what he's been in the past, per Morris, the offensive play style was put in place to quote accommodate Kirk. So we know what Kirk Cousins has been, We know what his history with kind of this under center play action has been for him throughout his entire career. So my thought process in this, and it was the reason why I understood where everybody's questions were coming from in the wake of this Saint's game, was that okay, So by the same logic of Kirk Cousins not being fully confident and comfortable coming off of the injury to be in anything other than pistol shotgun. By that same logic, it brings you to the question of whether or not Michael Michael Pennox felt comfortable and confident enough doing so, because, let's be honest, it's in this playbook, Like you just showed us twenty nine percent of what Kirk Cousins did in New Orleans, so there must be a reason that we're not seeing it. So you confirmed that Kirk was not comfortable doing so last year. Okay, then what is stopping you from doing it with Michael Pennocks. Is it because Michael Pennox is not yet comfortable in his own right to be under center with that play action to the extent it is. I definitely think people need to go listen to Zach Robinson's press conference that just happened literally an hour ago as we're sitting Wednesday, Wednesday. Yeah, Like he was asked all these questions, and I think that a big part of what he said, whether or not you agree with it, is that the Falcons felt that last year when they were up under center, that it was one of their least effective plays like play action under center was one of their least effective plays in twenty twenty four. I think, like my thing with that, in my response to that, and now I'm about to get on a soapbox, is that the modern game you have to have that as a wrinkle. You have to figure out why it's not working. And let's be honest. If you felt like in twenty twenty four that Kirk Cousins was not healthy enough to do some play action under center stuff, and you felt like maybe Michael Pennocks was not as efficient or comfortable doing so, that needed to have been more of a priority in Michael pennockx's development in my opinion, because at a certain point you have to develop Michael Pennocks in this wrinkle of the game to get the full extent of what you need to out of this offense.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: I think that phrase right there, the full extent right is there feels a little bit too much in one direction with pistol right, And the balance is ultimately where I think everything is most effective, because that is where you don't have these tendencies like right now, the Falcons have a very clear tendency with pistol right. So if I'm a defense Okay, well that's what we got to prepare for. And yeah, you feel like you guys can run a lot of what you want to run out of that, but you can also run a lot of what you want to do under center. And to me, it would just be one more element that a defense would have to prepare for, which I'm big on, Like how do you stress a team throughout Wednesday through Friday when they're trying to implement everything like hours, There are only so many hours in a day, So give them as much stuff as they have to prepare for, and it feels like you are leaving a little bit maybe on the table there. That being said, and we talked a little bit about this on Falcons Final Whistle is like you just maybe look at how they came up right when Michael Pennix junior was coming up through high school and probably lower than that, Like it's a first game. They're doing seven on seven, they're doing a lot of the shotgun stuff. So I do truly wonder if just the number of hours he has had Washington, he's in shotgun like all over at the time.
00:16:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I get that too, And my response to that is kind of like, look at what the Rams are doing. Like, look at if we're looking at the Rams and what Matthew Stafford in particularly is doing running their play action operation out from under center more than any other quarterback in the league right now and having the most success than any other quarterback in the league doing so. The Rams lead and play action rate and under center drop backs, Colts and Bears are up there too. All of these teams are winning a lot of games. All of these teams have really good offenses in place. And who was the player comp for Michael Pannings junior coming out of the NFL draft. Matthew Stafford. So, Matthew Stafford is a true pocket passer. Matthew Stafford is somebody who loves to sling it downfield. Matthew Stafford loves a one on one with some of his receivers. Like, so, if Matthew Stafford is the standard of what you need Michael pinnockx to be, then I think this part of the game, the under center play action stuff has to develop absolutely.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you mentioned Matthew Saffer. Like if you look at just the usage of under center for quarterbacks this season, like it is the it's the best offenses. It's it's the Rams, it's Seattle, it's the Lions, it's the Bears, you know, the forty nine Ers, Packers, Patriots, like, yeah, down the list, right, So it is very clear that at least maybe that is not there's not maybe a causality there. Like I'm not saying that the best offenses are the best offenses because they're running the most under center. However, I think it illustrates the effectiveness of what some of that under center usage does for you. And that is just kind of where I think you're right, Like having the player grow in that direction ultimately allows for more things. And one of the most interesting things that I think Zach said on Wednesday was last they didn't necessarily expect them to be an eleven personnel team as much as they were. They kind of thought it would be more twelve personnel, one running back, two tight ends, which makes sense. You've got Kyle Pitts, you got Charlie Warner, right, and I think we did see some of that evolution where maybe Kyle Pitts was out of the lineup or spread out wide as kind of that big wide receiver. And when you look at the Rams specifically, what they have been doing so well this season and Seattle, frankly is throwing the ball out of heavy looks, and we saw the Falcons do that against the Saints, a lot of thirteen personnel with effective play action behind it. So that is where if you're gonna provide kind of like a play action look which is inherently meant to fool a defense in a thinking you're going to run the ball, it is probably best done out of a look where all of the other set dressing screams we're going to run the ball, or under center, we have three tight ends on the field and boom, there's a pass over top right. And I just kind of think that to the eye naturally, when a quarterback is in pistol which looks like shotgun, just kind of think pass a little bit. And the Falcons have been good at running the ball out of pistol this season. Like the efficiency is there and all of that. It's just been the passing game hasn't seemed like there have been many easy completions or easy explosive plays in the way the Frankly there were on Sunday, Yeah.
00:19:16
Speaker 3: Listening to y'all, it's just kind of like The next question that comes to mind is why do you think that development hasn't been there or been done yet.
00:19:26
Speaker 1: I think it's a great question, and I think it's something that Zach Robinson Raheem Morris like kind of have to answer to. And I think that what I ultimately think about it is probably you know, I can't even say it's accurate, you know, like I, what it looks like from the outside looking in is that the Falcons decided early on with Kirk Cousins that he was not comfortable going under center. YEP, so they were say they have and they have verbed them.
00:19:54
Speaker 2: For injury reason yeat injury reasons.
00:19:57
Speaker 1: So the operation, the install all of last year were to account for that. Well, then you get to the point at the end of the season where you bring Mike in. How much of even any type of under center work was Mike getting as the number two behind Kirk Cousins win The operation itself was not going anywhere close to being under center at a significant margin. So then you move into this off season and you're like, Michael Pennix is a young guy. We know what he does well, we know that he wants to stretch the ball, downfield, get it to the outside, all of those things. We know he worked a lot last year in pistol and shotgun. We know at Washington Shotgun that's what he wants to do, that's what he feels comfortable with in his first year as a starter. We're not gonna make it too complicated. I think that, to me is what happened. Do I think that's right or wrong? No one gives a crap what I have to say about it. But I do think moving forward, and that's why this is this conversation that we're having right now. You've got to develop Mike to feel more comfortable in under center play action looks.
00:21:00
Speaker 3: That would make sense that he is that he was kind of learning what they were doing rather than everything that he could be learning. Right, Yeah, he's going with the playbook rather than the whole saga.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there you go.
00:21:13
Speaker 3: Talking about the books earlier?
00:21:15
Speaker 2: Is that four or five? But I and I think it's also fair to point out too that like when you're running a scout team offense, you're usually operating kind of different offensive looks, not always like what the Falcons are going to be running. And we knew that Kirk got all of the first team reps pretty much last year because it was his first year working with Drake Lunnon and Kyle Pitts and Darnel Mooney and all of those guys. And when you look at just the timeline with which everything happened, when they kind of get in here in the off season program in you know, May June, all of that, you gotta start installing your offense, right. You can't just wait for your quarterback to be fully healthy. And he was healthy enough to get out there on the field, so you say, all right, we're going to start you back in shotgun and pistol like where you're not having to put a lot of this strain on your achille. And so I think from there, what do we see in Pittsburgh right, A lot of the pistol. They naturally kind of went back a little bit more under center with Kirk once he started kind of getting healthier. But then those final three games with Mike, it's not like we were going into the offseason really really worried about the offense. Right. They did really well, so you could understand them saying, hey, look what we have here works. What Mike did at Washington obviously got him to be the number eight pick in the draft and the runner up for the Heisman. So like it worked for him there, let's just keep on doing it and now you're seeing maybe where some of the deficiencies are or where you lack some of those other areas that are beneficial.
00:22:39
Speaker 1: My last note on this and this is we can kind of move forward from here, but it really is now that Michael Pennox is coming off of his third AICL reconstructive surgery in five years, right, it's five years now that he is coming off of this. You're kind of right back a little bit to where you were last year. With last year with Kirk coming off of a season ending Achilles injury. Obviously different ligaments, different parts of the body, all those kinds of things.
00:23:04
Speaker 3: But still the injury.
00:23:05
Speaker 1: Very big injuries that have an effect on a quarterback's mobility and comfortability in the pocket. So how much of this conversation is even going to carry over into twenty twenty six? Yeah, I mean this is something that we're going to be talking about, I think for a while.
00:23:24
Speaker 2: Definitely. Yep. So let's put a pin in that and we will, I'm sure return to it many many times.
00:23:28
Speaker 3: With a quarterback.
00:23:29
Speaker 2: But let's flip over and talk about the defense a little bit. A note that we brought up on Falcons final whistle was maybe this was the beginning of kind of a new evolution for Atlanta's defense. The Falcons blitzed at their lowest rate of the season, just over fifteen percent against Tyler Schuck, but he faced a lot of pressure. They got nineteen pressures in five sacks and only sending four or fewer tarren Why is that important for Atlanta's defense moving forward?
00:23:56
Speaker 3: Because you love going back to the receipts. In week six, Jeff Olbrick said, I don't want to be a big pressure team, and we were all like, what, but you are?
00:24:06
Speaker 2: You don't want to get this right?
00:24:08
Speaker 1: This is who you are.
00:24:09
Speaker 3: Aren't they number one in blitzing at the time or something like that. We were like.
00:24:13
Speaker 2: By a large margin, Like the offense was in pistol by like a large margin, and the Falcons were blitzing by like a large margin.
00:24:20
Speaker 3: And I'm like if that took me being like I don't want to be a blonde, but you are. So when Jeff said that, we were like, what do you mean? And it's like I want us to rely on our front four to win and do their thing and play coverage behind it. He didn't. Right now, we're just not quite there yet, are they there? Sunday it looked like it. But I guess it's kind of just scene moving forward. Whether they can repeat that performance and be the defense that Jeff wanted. He wants to dye his hair, Yeah, an interesting.
00:24:50
Speaker 2: Man blonde head out, that'd be something.
00:24:53
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker 2: No.
00:24:54
Speaker 1: I think that a part of this that I've kind of been ruminating on for the last like four or five days, is are we going to see it again? Versus the Jets. I think that there were some deficiencies along the Saints offensive line that maybe made this thought of sending only four easier more execute You can execute it at an easier right because of some of the deficiencies with the Saints. You have a little bit of a better offensive line. Against New York they have some good tackles. Are you going to be able to do it again? And I think to your point of like the development of guys, I think that an interesting thought that I want to put out there to the people is that the Falcons have not been im people gestures broadly to them, we the people. Is there a realm where in the last four weeks without Divine Diablo that it kind of forced guys along the Front seven particularly to develop faster. And what I mean by that is like without Divine Diablo, who you relied upon for a lot of pressures and for a lot of a lot, point blank, full stop, Like without him, did you have to see guys like Rouke, Brandon Dorles, Jalen Walker, JPJ, like all of those guys step up a little bit, to the point of when Divine Diablo came back four weeks later, you felt like, hey, we really don't have to send Divine on a blitz in order to get home, Like we have some guys up front who are winning.
00:26:24
Speaker 3: Maybe that's the Bike Committee approach Jeff Ulrick was talking about all this time.
00:26:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well they rush as a unit like you can see it, like Arnold Abakhetti or Leonard Floyd gets like an inside push and then you have James Spears Junior coming around behind him like that is as much as that sack will go down as like James Spears Junior sack, Like everything along that Front seven is all encompassing amongst the individuals it's an organism, right.
00:26:48
Speaker 3: I was trying to go with like what you were saying, how a lot of people stepped up when Divine was gone because they had to, And I was like, maybe that's the Bike Committee, But I don't think that landed.
00:26:56
Speaker 1: Oh oh, I mean.
00:27:00
Speaker 2: The amalgamation of like, yeah, everything that he brings. I do think if you just like, look, they have way more dudes this year than I can like ever remember them. How Like I remember when it was just tacking Vic Beasley, right, and Adrian Claiborne is like the third man off the bench, right. But they have slowly just been adding pieces so you can rush in waves and instead of one player being out there for forty snaps, instead you're seeing the benefit of somebody who's out there for thirty snaps, twenty two snaps, and they are just bringing it every single So it's not a surprise that you have a game where it's like Brandon Dorles r. Guerroro, Jalen Walker, James Peters, she, like all of these guys are getting involved instead of one player having four sacks.
00:27:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I also think to that point, like all of this is so indicative of acute development among these young defenders.
00:27:49
Speaker 2: And you're saying acute development, not cute development. They're not getting cuter.
00:27:54
Speaker 1: They're not getting cuter, acute like a cute rapid escalation of.
00:28:00
Speaker 2: Development personality moments on the podcast, I don't even.
00:28:04
Speaker 3: Know where to come in.
00:28:05
Speaker 1: No, so right now, this week, Jalen Walker leads all rookies in sacks and force fumbles, James Fearce junior quarterback pressures. Let's even throw in Xavier Watts with interceptions, because what's happening on the back end effects what's happening in the front seven. They're all rookies and the Falcons, the Falcons have players rookies leading across the league in this category. This is Terry font Knowa's best draft, full stop. I have no no qualms, no, And as much as it sucks that Billy Bowman Junior is going to be out for the rest of the year, what you have in Billy Bowman Junior is something really good as well. He was doing some really really good things. It's unfortunate that injuries piled up the way they did with him. But some of these guys, I mean, this has a ripple effect. I think beyond this year, this has a ripple effect. I also think even in game planning, in what you decide to do and what positions you put your defense in, and whether or not you go for for things on third and fourth down, all those things are topics of conversation that starts with what this defense does by way of getting after the quarterback.
00:29:09
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we're going to push here to topic four, but I want to add one more note, as is Just Stevens or Jess Stevens on our comms team was pulling up kind of the pass rushers from the last two years, right, because I think it's fair to say Brandon Dorless and Ruku Row ro like are kind of pseudo rookies last year.
00:29:26
Speaker 1: I mean they were healthy scratches for majority of especially Brandon Dorless majority of last season.
00:29:34
Speaker 2: And now he has He's got six acts this season, which is tied for the most among players taken last year and this year in the draft. So when you're looking at guys like Latu Latsu, Jared Verse, all the players that we were talking about in last year's draft, Yep, Brandon Dorless is right there with him. Jalen Walker is one behind those dudes. James Pierce Junior is one behind it. So it's like this whole class of first and second year defensive lineman has been simply amazing. So the Falcons obviously got a much needed win on Sunday against the Saints. It didn't really meaningfully, i think, change their playoff hopes in any way, but keeps you alive, right, and so then when you have a week in which you're the only team in your division to win a game, okay, maybe those those feelings get get hiding a little bit. So really quickly, just want to run down kind of the schedules for Tampa, Carolina and then Atlanta, because there's one is not like the other. Unfortunately, I think Tampa has kind of the easiest road left. They've got Arizona this weekend, New Orleans, Atlanta, Carolina, Miami and then finishing up again with Carolina. Right that, Atlanta's got at least a chance there to get a game back on Tampa. So that's good. But it seems like a pretty favorable schedule for Tampa Carolina. Different story. They got the Rams, then a merciful bye week right then you got the Saints, the Bucks, Seattle and the Buck again, I mean Bucks, Seattle, Bucks, that's a tough way to end it. Atlanta schedule real quick, Jets, Seahawks, Bucks, Cardinals, Rams, Saints, so a kind of a mix of both there having Seattle and obviously La with the Bucks. Those are going to be your three big games left. But what are kind of like the different permutations of how this could play out? And do we feel looking at all of that toy like, how do we feel about the Falcon chances?
00:31:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it still doesn't look good. You've you've played yourself into this position that you're in now where it doesn't look good and it's going to take a lot for it to look better. What is interesting is that right now as it stands, Tampa Bay is on a slide, and I think they've lost five of their last six if I if I'm doing the math.
00:31:47
Speaker 2: Right, I didn't scream grab that far back, but it's something.
00:31:50
Speaker 1: It's last three in a row for sure, And I think even before then, it was it was a couple right.
00:31:55
Speaker 2: Before, yeah, by couple right before that. Yeah.
00:31:58
Speaker 1: So, but that was all so their toughest stretch of the season. They played the Bills, the Rams, the Patriots like boom boom boom boom, lost all of those, so you figure if you were gonna have some losses by this Tampa Bay team, it was gonna come during that stretch of games. And now you look at the rest of their slate and it's like, well, they should arguably probably beat a lot of these teams. And then you look at Carolina and it's like, yes, they still have the Rams, they still have the Seahawks. I feel like the Falcons and the Carolina Panthers are probably pretty even right now in terms of strength of schedule left. Unfortunately for the Falcons because the Carolina Panthers own the tiebreaker over them. And unless something happens with the Carolina Panthers where they absolutely implode, and something happens with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where they absolutely implode. Like that's kind of what I know, it's not great to talk about, but that's kind of just where the Falcons find themselves right now.
00:32:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, Taron taking it kind of a game at a time approach, like how could Sunday further alter the playoff picture for Atlanta and kind of their chances.
00:33:08
Speaker 3: Right now this time of year, we're hearing the one and O phrase a lot, like you just got to go want to know. You just got to go want to know. And that's all they can do if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. I mean, they're hanging on. It went from less than one percent to two percent, according to the New York Times simulator after the win in New Orleans. You mess around with it, it doesn't never get too high. Regard.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: Don't think it can ever get above seventy six percent. And that's if the Falcons completely went out.
00:33:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, higher than I thought it would be.
00:33:40
Speaker 3: I don't think it's that high anymore.
00:33:42
Speaker 1: That high that was on Sunday where I looked at it, so it may not be.
00:33:45
Speaker 3: But regardless, Like it's crazy to say that, because I feel like with how the Bucks have been going, the Panthers have been going, it's almost closer than it feels when you look at the standings themselves. I mean, yep, the Bucks are six and five, the Panthers are six and six, the Falcons are four and seven, Saints are two and nine.
00:34:07
Speaker 2: Love it, love it, say it again.
00:34:09
Speaker 3: Like Saints are two and nine.
00:34:11
Speaker 1: Yes, the problem is is that the Falcons have only beaten the Saints in NFC South play Like that's what it is like, let's be real again, Like.
00:34:18
Speaker 3: They're three and one in the NFC, No. One in three in NFC South. They wish they were three in the NFC South. So even though the division itself looks like it's kind of getting a tighter picture, it's a little films developing.
00:34:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good. I like that.
00:34:37
Speaker 3: That was a lot better than the hair one.
00:34:38
Speaker 2: The picture is crystallizing. Yeah, so let's let's talk about that one to know, right, what do you got to do on Sunday to get a win against the Jets? And last week we kind of played a fun game about what do we need to see to feel like this team is not just capable of breaking their five game losing streak but actually like building maybe something moving forward for the rest of the season. So kind of keeping that it alive, Like what do we need to see on Sunday against the Jets to feel like, Okay, they took the first step against the Saints. Now they're taking a little bit of a second step. Maybe ultimately it all comes too little too late, but you would like to feel better about this team as the season kind of continues along. So what do they need to do?
00:35:17
Speaker 1: I think you need to come out fast start. I think that you I would ideally like to see this team have a lead, take a lead into halftime. I don't think you have to, but I think it's it's a good idea too, because of the issues that we've seen them have in the third quarter, not being able to score, not really being able to get off the field, all of these things kind of bouncing off of one another and in this bad spiral of third quarter play. Because that's what we saw against the Saints. As you saw, they got out to a good start, they were in a good place going out coming out of halftime, and then you let the Saints hang around and then you get to the fourth quarter and oh look, it's a one scorer game. So for me, it's like, don't allow a team to hang around coming out of halftime, A foot on the gas. If you're the Falcons in that third quarter, let's see something different from you in that third quarter. If I can see that, I would feel more confident in what a win and what would constitute a success for this Falcons team, because then at that point it's you turn from just a win to a convincing win to a decisive win.
00:36:20
Speaker 2: So following along that, like the Falcons have liked to take the ball and start the ball if they win the coin toss and just start on offense, would you maybe want to see them change that strategy and defer and say we'll take the ball in the second half to try to maybe recreate some of that energy that they've had at the start of games.
00:36:36
Speaker 1: This is potentially, but I don't really I'm not one that really thinks that it matters all that. Yeah, I really don't like. I really think that it's up to you in the moment. Like if you go out and your defense is playing well, and your defense has a good stop in that very first drive of the second half, and you come out offensively and you go down and you score, Okay, I don't care when it happens.
00:36:57
Speaker 2: Treke it a happy right, Yeah, all right, Taren, What do you need to see?
00:37:00
Speaker 3: You know what I'm gonna say. They just need to win.
00:37:05
Speaker 2: That's why I like it is you're like just straight cut to the bone. What matters at the end of the day, get.
00:37:10
Speaker 3: That getting that win. I mean Rahee Morris has said good teams pull out ugly wins. I don't like it doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't it is it would it be nice if it was clean, Yes, But at the end of the day, like the players say, we have to go on and Oh what I realized while you were talking though, is the Falcons maybe should erase this issue they have with the number three third quarter third downs. They kind of fixed the field goals with three points. They only ran three plays in that third period in New Orleans. Yeah, and I'm just like, oh, this.
00:37:44
Speaker 2: Is a lot, Jesse Bates noted problem. Jesse Bates the third Maybe that cancels it out.
00:37:51
Speaker 1: I think it does.
00:37:52
Speaker 3: Is that why he's that number?
00:37:53
Speaker 1: I think so. One thing that I'll add to this and this isn't necessarily like they have to do this or like it's gonna be indicative of success or not, is like, I do have some questions that I'm wanting answered in this game. We've alluded to it throughout the podcast. Offensively, it's what is the offensive game plan? And how much are you going under center using play action off of that? Like is that here to stay? Is that something that they're gonna do with Kirk Cousins moving forward? It feels like potentially they are, but we don't know for sure, yet we only have one sample size of that when game was sample size. And then defensively, it's can you continue to win by only sending for yep? That is one of those things that is Was that something that they felt like they could take advantage of with the New Orleans Saints or is this something that is gonna again like play action under center, something that's here to stay. Those are my two questions.
00:38:39
Speaker 3: Basically, can you repeat what you just did?
00:38:42
Speaker 2: H boom? Yeah, it's like it's a one game sample size, so like we're just really evaluating that one game, But can you create a broader trend off of that?
00:38:50
Speaker 3: Stack the wins and stack the trends. Trends there, you go, thank you for the word.
00:38:55
Speaker 2: Of course words, that's what we do here. That's what we do here, the trends, stack the views. Go check us out on YouTube and download and like and subscribe and share it to everybody. Got it? Got the plug in there? What's up? Jared? Love me for that? All right? Pro Bowl voting as a reminder, one more time is open now, So go, whether you do it on social, whether you do it on a landofalcons dot com, or you check out our QR code, which I'll let Jared put anywhere he wants to do right now, Ye, please go do that everybody again. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, have a great Thanksgiving weekend. That's one of my favorite parts about the holidays. It's on a Thursday, but it feels like it just rolls right into the weekend. With all the college football games on Friday, I know you guys are going to be enjoying some of those in clean, old fashion hate.
00:39:43
Speaker 1: I'm super pumped. Will be in Mercedes Been Stadium, all the dogs and the Jackets.
00:39:49
Speaker 3: I'm tailgating, but I don't care who wins.
00:39:52
Speaker 2: All right, well, you know we got two dogs here, so like, let's go.
00:39:57
Speaker 3: Let's not forget the Iron Bowl.
00:39:59
Speaker 2: No, that's you, You're dear.
00:40:01
Speaker 3: Iron is a big deal.
00:40:02
Speaker 2: All right, We're gonna get out of here for Tory McLean and tarn Walk. I'm moman fattan. Thank you guys so much for listening, and we will see you for Falcons Final Whistle on Monday, Falcons Audible middle of the week next week, and of course Friday five next time. So see y all then,
Speaker 1: This is Terry Fonto's best draft. We'll stop when we're all like, what what you are?
00:00:05
Speaker 2: They're not getting not getting cuter.
00:00:08
Speaker 3: It's I think we'd be like, I don't want to be a blonde.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Happy Thanksgiving Falcons fans, welcome back to the Friday Five. We hope everybody has grabbed a play the leftovers and they've settled down to listen to a little bit of Falcons talk heading into Sunday's game against the New York Jets. But before we dive into today's show, a reminder that Pro Bowl voting has commenced and the Falcons have a lot of interesting candidates. Tarin and I were trying to talk through some of that this morning about all right, who conceivably could make it? Well, you can make your voice heard on who you think shamik it. You can go to Atlanta Falcons dot com backslash Pro Bowl to vote for your favorite Falcons. You can also vote on social using the hashtag, or you can check out this QR code that we have on screen right now and vote there. I have no idea if that's actually going to fit into the window, So go check YouTube. Yeah, I'm I'm going up here. I'm gonna go over here. Let's see how many QR codes we can get on the screen. Let's put one on front of a.
00:01:05
Speaker 3: Ticket funds like the DVD sign Yes I.
00:01:08
Speaker 2: Love that, Yes Jared, a movable QR screen. Let's go. So, if you want to vote on the Pro Bowl or the players that you think should make it, those are all the ways that you can do so. But we're gonna start now with our question of the Day, which you guys can check out on the Atlanta Falcons TikTok feed anytime you want to, So, Tori, you want to queus hut. Yeah.
00:01:27
Speaker 1: So it's a it's actually not a question, it's more of like a can you do this thing? It's like a it's a reflex game. So from what I've seen, from what and what I've been told is essentially it's one of those things where you have the polls and you try and you don't know when they're going to drop, and once they drop, you have to catch them. It's kind of like what F one and NASCAR drivers use to like hone in and yeah, hone in the reflexes.
00:01:53
Speaker 2: It's like you're catching like icicles. Yeah, same thing is almost what it looks like or like wind chimes.
00:01:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, so the question, and since we don't have the game with us, we're not gonna play, but like who on the team do we think had the best reflexes or if you were to line them all up, like who who would I think I have a good answer, but I'll let shall go first.
00:02:14
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with Jake Matthews.
00:02:16
Speaker 2: Really, I was wondering where would like offensive line, defensive line fit into this.
00:02:20
Speaker 3: I think about the fact that he has like so much experience. He's also very like the word I want to say is organic when it comes to his recovery. That I feel like this type of game is something he just has at home to like practice on and then having a kid multiple kids too, that he's probably sharp.
00:02:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I feel like it's probably a receiver or a defensive back. I'm gonna go, man, I think I'm making this like just decision in real time because it is I'm gonna say, like Mike cues, you know, it's probably somebody off like the radar a little bit, but has like stuck around in the league for a long time. Veteran worked at a lot of different spots, probably been exposed to a lot of different things, and that, like cross training probably does just help your handy coordination, your reflexes, reaction time, all of that stuff. So, yeah, we got an offensive lineman and then we got a cornerback.
00:03:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna go with this receiver as well, because I think just like hand eye coordination, the quickness of which they're making decisions in the air. But I didn't feel very convicted in that answer. And so who I did feel conviction on is Xavier Watts. And the reason why I feel Xavier Watts is because something that came up from Jesse Bates to Jerry Gray to people at Notre Dame about Xavier Watts is his instincts and a lot of your reflexes is your instincts taking over. And so I think if there's someone like an Xavier Watts who has this level of instinct about him, I think it makes sense that would translate to the reflex game.
00:03:51
Speaker 2: I wish we could see actually like who.
00:03:55
Speaker 3: Like philibustering on another really good honorable mention Lenny Creek because he's very very good at ping pong in the locker room.
00:04:03
Speaker 1: Okay, I was wondering. I had no idea where you're going with that.
00:04:07
Speaker 3: I think the only like Bradley Pinion has beat him at ping pong. Yeah, so that's that would be reflexive. I mean that's only one hand.
00:04:14
Speaker 2: Leo Jones was also a former ping pong You're in the locker room.
00:04:19
Speaker 1: And Jones played spike ball too all the time, which is very reflex Yeah.
00:04:24
Speaker 2: I love that. I love all those those fun little games. So yeah, go check out the Falcon's TikTok account to find out who won the reflex game. Actually, who do you think among the three of us would win not reflex game?
00:04:35
Speaker 1: I think I would win. I'm pretty confident. Yeah, I'm pretty high black of yeah, dar instantly, yes, yeah. No. Something we were saying before we started recording is my dad used to have that like ball. I played softball and I was a first baseman and my dad had this ball with the little like nodules on it and he would throw it like a pick and I wouldn't know where the ball was going. So I feel I feel pretty confident in my abilities.
00:05:00
Speaker 2: Say, anytime that you guys go to the doctor's office and you get your hearing checked right and They're like, Okay, you're gonna hear a beep. When you hear a beep, click the little mouse to let us know. I try to click that thing so fast, so I'm always checking my reflex. I'm pretty confident too.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: The last time I did that.
00:05:16
Speaker 2: All Right, Well, this podcast has already just taken so many turns. Let's go ahead and look at the injury situation. Right it's week thirteen in the NFL, so player injuries are just a part of life when you kind of get to this part of the calendar of the Falcons, of course, not immune to that. Drake London missed this past game. We'll get into kind of like what it feels like his status for Sunday should be. But before we kind of talk about the guys on the injury report available for Sunday, not available for Sunday, let's just kind of close the chapter on Michael Pennox Junior and you know what he's been dealing with his knee tarying. He got updates for us on that.
00:05:51
Speaker 3: Yes, on Wednesday during his weekly press conference for he Morris did say that Michael PENNOCKX Junior had his surgery. It was on Tuesday, yeah, that's yesterday and he said it went well. Zach Robinson also said he texted him after the surgery and said Pennick seems to be in good spirit. So that's what you want to hear with the quarterback of your future. We didn't get an update on Billy Bowman Junior slipped our mind in the moment, but he did tweet saying for surgery ever made the Lord guide me built for whatever the journey begins. And I don't think you're tweeting if you're if it didn't go well. So that's a good sign, right, Like he seems to have a good mindset about it, especially knowing that it's his first is huge. But those are like the two biggest names when it comes to seeding ending and I are.
00:06:43
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure, So Drake and we should preface this. It is Wednesday afternoon. We don't have the first injury report of the week yet, so a lot of this is just kind of maybe reading the tea leaves of how things will go and based on just a couple of press conferences. But what is the latest on London? Do we expect to see him out there on Sunday?
00:07:02
Speaker 3: Again? On Wednesday morning, That was another update we got from Raheem Morris. He said he's doubtful. He wouldn't like concrete say that that's a no go.
00:07:12
Speaker 2: I feel like you rarely see doubtful any like, even though that's an official designation and it's always questionable.
00:07:17
Speaker 1: So I do the injury reports every single week, and I don't even think I've seen more than two doubtfuls. Yeah, and and I don't even think the Falcons have been one of the two. I think that's been other teams that have listed people as doubtful.
00:07:30
Speaker 3: He did say like or whatever the actual word lay of the land law of whatever was like, I don't know what the exact phrasing, but he admitted he didn't know the exact wording for the injury report. But yeah, so Drake London remains week to week. More said that London is moving well, he looks good. He's happy that the Falcons will get him back soon, but they're just not sure how soon that is, So probably not Sunday in New York aka New Jersey.
00:07:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, he did say that he doesn't think it'll be this weekend. Yeah, he was like, as it stands right now, it probably wouldn't be this weekend.
00:08:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you know, like, given that, how do we expect We saw what the offense could do without Drake. Obviously, Darnell's connection with Kirk is has been strong. I mean, do the Falcons need Drake in this game? How does that meaningfully impact their offense? Like if he's not out.
00:08:23
Speaker 1: There, I don't think you have to have Drake London in this game. I think if he needs another week, you're in a position where you can give him another week, and I would behoove them to do that. I think they had a good thing going with Darnell Mooney, David Sills. You had some guys stepping up, which was really nice. I believe Kirk Cousins connected with seven different receivers over the course of the win against the Saints, which is one of those things that like is what you expected. And I actually even said as I was prepping for this podcast, it's like, if Drake London even did come back, come back, I actually didn't think that it would look like operationally, very different than what it looked like against the Saints. I still think that the goal would be spreading things out with with Kirk Cousins, like you still would want to run the ball with Bajon and Tyler, you still want to spread the ball out as much as possible. Maybe it with Drake inserted back in, it's not seven different receivers, because you know Drake would get he would have a number of looks as the number one option. But and also like just Drake in the red zone changes things a little bit as well. But overall, I don't necessarily feel that when it comes to Drake London in the sense of going up against this Jets defense, that you have to have his presence, when in reality, it's like, if he's not one hundred percent, I wouldn't want to throw him out there, knowing that you kind of have bigger fish to fry down the road.
00:09:49
Speaker 3: And you have Darnell Mooney now, who's showing that he's kind of back from the injuries he's dealt with, and he and Kirk Cousins have a really strong connection. So maybe they can build on that and Mooney do Mooney things in this last stretch of the season.
00:10:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be nice to if he can kind of continue to pick up his play like he started last weekend in New Orleans. Whenever Drake gets back right, It probably won't meaningfully change the offense outside of maybe that pass distribution chart, but I think it is fair to kind of wonder if Kirk and inserting him at quarterback change the offense. How it didn't change the offense, What is the identity of the Falcons offense? Things like that, y and Zach Robinson was asked a lot about that on Wednesday. Raheem was asked a lot about it on Monday by you Tory with a kind of under center and play action, and it's just been really a topic of discussion, so we should probably discuss it. But for those you know under center, right, I think it's pretty obvious, you're right up under center. Yeah, quarterback is right behind the center. Pistol and shotgun are a little bit different, right, So shotgun the quarterback is a little bit further back. Usually the running back is right next to him, or they don't have a running back at all and he's spread out wide. Pistol is a little bit of a hybrid look. Quarterback is you know, about five yards back. Running back is another three yards or so behind him, So you get some of that downhill look, you get some of the extra play action that has allowed for and more importantly, Zach Robinson feels that it kind of creates that whole menu option for them with motions where you can insert blockers. I think of Charlie Warner how often he has kind of motioned over before the ball is deaf and then like inserted off tackle or something like that. So yeah, it's just like I'm setting up this whole conversation because I want to get into what we think about, like a how the Falcons looked with Kirk Cousins yea under center literally a little bit more than Michael Pennix has. And we saw the highest play action usage rate this past Sunday by the Falcons. I think it was like twenty nine percent. That's the biggest of the season, yeah for them, And it was effective. I thought that shot to Darnel Mooney obviously the highlights.
00:11:52
Speaker 1: So a couple check downs to Bajon that I think worked really well.
00:11:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, or he's been twitching to talk about this one.
00:11:57
Speaker 2: She has, so so let's let's go. Yeah, Tory, like, why why do you think we've seen this discrepancy between the two quarterbacks? Is there a discrepancy between the two quarterbacks?
00:12:05
Speaker 1: There is point blank. I think that you can't look at what happened on Sunday against the Saints and say that there isn't because of how drastic I felt like the operation was. When it comes to this whole discussion about pistol under cent or play action off of either. I think actions speak louder than words in this situation, but I think words can help us prove our point. On Sunday after the game, where he Morris said point blank, when Kirk Cousins came off of his torn achilles injury, quote, he felt a little bit more comfortable and pistol. So now that Kirk Cousins is quote back to what he's been in the past, per Morris, the offensive play style was put in place to quote accommodate Kirk. So we know what Kirk Cousins has been, We know what his history with kind of this under center play action has been for him throughout his entire career. So my thought process in this, and it was the reason why I understood where everybody's questions were coming from in the wake of this Saint's game, was that okay, So by the same logic of Kirk Cousins not being fully confident and comfortable coming off of the injury to be in anything other than pistol shotgun. By that same logic, it brings you to the question of whether or not Michael Michael Pennox felt comfortable and confident enough doing so, because, let's be honest, it's in this playbook, Like you just showed us twenty nine percent of what Kirk Cousins did in New Orleans, so there must be a reason that we're not seeing it. So you confirmed that Kirk was not comfortable doing so last year. Okay, then what is stopping you from doing it with Michael Pennocks. Is it because Michael Pennox is not yet comfortable in his own right to be under center with that play action to the extent it is. I definitely think people need to go listen to Zach Robinson's press conference that just happened literally an hour ago as we're sitting Wednesday, Wednesday. Yeah, Like he was asked all these questions, and I think that a big part of what he said, whether or not you agree with it, is that the Falcons felt that last year when they were up under center, that it was one of their least effective plays like play action under center was one of their least effective plays in twenty twenty four. I think, like my thing with that, in my response to that, and now I'm about to get on a soapbox, is that the modern game you have to have that as a wrinkle. You have to figure out why it's not working. And let's be honest. If you felt like in twenty twenty four that Kirk Cousins was not healthy enough to do some play action under center stuff, and you felt like maybe Michael Pennocks was not as efficient or comfortable doing so, that needed to have been more of a priority in Michael pennockx's development in my opinion, because at a certain point you have to develop Michael Pennocks in this wrinkle of the game to get the full extent of what you need to out of this offense.
00:15:00
Speaker 2: I think that phrase right there, the full extent right is there feels a little bit too much in one direction with pistol right, And the balance is ultimately where I think everything is most effective, because that is where you don't have these tendencies like right now, the Falcons have a very clear tendency with pistol right. So if I'm a defense Okay, well that's what we got to prepare for. And yeah, you feel like you guys can run a lot of what you want to run out of that, but you can also run a lot of what you want to do under center. And to me, it would just be one more element that a defense would have to prepare for, which I'm big on, Like how do you stress a team throughout Wednesday through Friday when they're trying to implement everything like hours, There are only so many hours in a day, So give them as much stuff as they have to prepare for, and it feels like you are leaving a little bit maybe on the table there. That being said, and we talked a little bit about this on Falcons Final Whistle is like you just maybe look at how they came up right when Michael Pennix junior was coming up through high school and probably lower than that, Like it's a first game. They're doing seven on seven, they're doing a lot of the shotgun stuff. So I do truly wonder if just the number of hours he has had Washington, he's in shotgun like all over at the time.
00:16:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I get that too, And my response to that is kind of like, look at what the Rams are doing. Like, look at if we're looking at the Rams and what Matthew Stafford in particularly is doing running their play action operation out from under center more than any other quarterback in the league right now and having the most success than any other quarterback in the league doing so. The Rams lead and play action rate and under center drop backs, Colts and Bears are up there too. All of these teams are winning a lot of games. All of these teams have really good offenses in place. And who was the player comp for Michael Pannings junior coming out of the NFL draft. Matthew Stafford. So, Matthew Stafford is a true pocket passer. Matthew Stafford is somebody who loves to sling it downfield. Matthew Stafford loves a one on one with some of his receivers. Like, so, if Matthew Stafford is the standard of what you need Michael pinnockx to be, then I think this part of the game, the under center play action stuff has to develop absolutely.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you mentioned Matthew Saffer. Like if you look at just the usage of under center for quarterbacks this season, like it is the it's the best offenses. It's it's the Rams, it's Seattle, it's the Lions, it's the Bears, you know, the forty nine Ers, Packers, Patriots, like, yeah, down the list, right, So it is very clear that at least maybe that is not there's not maybe a causality there. Like I'm not saying that the best offenses are the best offenses because they're running the most under center. However, I think it illustrates the effectiveness of what some of that under center usage does for you. And that is just kind of where I think you're right, Like having the player grow in that direction ultimately allows for more things. And one of the most interesting things that I think Zach said on Wednesday was last they didn't necessarily expect them to be an eleven personnel team as much as they were. They kind of thought it would be more twelve personnel, one running back, two tight ends, which makes sense. You've got Kyle Pitts, you got Charlie Warner, right, and I think we did see some of that evolution where maybe Kyle Pitts was out of the lineup or spread out wide as kind of that big wide receiver. And when you look at the Rams specifically, what they have been doing so well this season and Seattle, frankly is throwing the ball out of heavy looks, and we saw the Falcons do that against the Saints, a lot of thirteen personnel with effective play action behind it. So that is where if you're gonna provide kind of like a play action look which is inherently meant to fool a defense in a thinking you're going to run the ball, it is probably best done out of a look where all of the other set dressing screams we're going to run the ball, or under center, we have three tight ends on the field and boom, there's a pass over top right. And I just kind of think that to the eye naturally, when a quarterback is in pistol which looks like shotgun, just kind of think pass a little bit. And the Falcons have been good at running the ball out of pistol this season. Like the efficiency is there and all of that. It's just been the passing game hasn't seemed like there have been many easy completions or easy explosive plays in the way the Frankly there were on Sunday, Yeah.
00:19:16
Speaker 3: Listening to y'all, it's just kind of like The next question that comes to mind is why do you think that development hasn't been there or been done yet.
00:19:26
Speaker 1: I think it's a great question, and I think it's something that Zach Robinson Raheem Morris like kind of have to answer to. And I think that what I ultimately think about it is probably you know, I can't even say it's accurate, you know, like I, what it looks like from the outside looking in is that the Falcons decided early on with Kirk Cousins that he was not comfortable going under center. YEP, so they were say they have and they have verbed them.
00:19:54
Speaker 2: For injury reason yeat injury reasons.
00:19:57
Speaker 1: So the operation, the install all of last year were to account for that. Well, then you get to the point at the end of the season where you bring Mike in. How much of even any type of under center work was Mike getting as the number two behind Kirk Cousins win The operation itself was not going anywhere close to being under center at a significant margin. So then you move into this off season and you're like, Michael Pennix is a young guy. We know what he does well, we know that he wants to stretch the ball, downfield, get it to the outside, all of those things. We know he worked a lot last year in pistol and shotgun. We know at Washington Shotgun that's what he wants to do, that's what he feels comfortable with in his first year as a starter. We're not gonna make it too complicated. I think that, to me is what happened. Do I think that's right or wrong? No one gives a crap what I have to say about it. But I do think moving forward, and that's why this is this conversation that we're having right now. You've got to develop Mike to feel more comfortable in under center play action looks.
00:21:00
Speaker 3: That would make sense that he is that he was kind of learning what they were doing rather than everything that he could be learning. Right, Yeah, he's going with the playbook rather than the whole saga.
00:21:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, and there you go.
00:21:13
Speaker 3: Talking about the books earlier?
00:21:15
Speaker 2: Is that four or five? But I and I think it's also fair to point out too that like when you're running a scout team offense, you're usually operating kind of different offensive looks, not always like what the Falcons are going to be running. And we knew that Kirk got all of the first team reps pretty much last year because it was his first year working with Drake Lunnon and Kyle Pitts and Darnel Mooney and all of those guys. And when you look at just the timeline with which everything happened, when they kind of get in here in the off season program in you know, May June, all of that, you gotta start installing your offense, right. You can't just wait for your quarterback to be fully healthy. And he was healthy enough to get out there on the field, so you say, all right, we're going to start you back in shotgun and pistol like where you're not having to put a lot of this strain on your achille. And so I think from there, what do we see in Pittsburgh right, A lot of the pistol. They naturally kind of went back a little bit more under center with Kirk once he started kind of getting healthier. But then those final three games with Mike, it's not like we were going into the offseason really really worried about the offense. Right. They did really well, so you could understand them saying, hey, look what we have here works. What Mike did at Washington obviously got him to be the number eight pick in the draft and the runner up for the Heisman. So like it worked for him there, let's just keep on doing it and now you're seeing maybe where some of the deficiencies are or where you lack some of those other areas that are beneficial.
00:22:39
Speaker 1: My last note on this and this is we can kind of move forward from here, but it really is now that Michael Pennox is coming off of his third AICL reconstructive surgery in five years, right, it's five years now that he is coming off of this. You're kind of right back a little bit to where you were last year. With last year with Kirk coming off of a season ending Achilles injury. Obviously different ligaments, different parts of the body, all those kinds of things.
00:23:04
Speaker 3: But still the injury.
00:23:05
Speaker 1: Very big injuries that have an effect on a quarterback's mobility and comfortability in the pocket. So how much of this conversation is even going to carry over into twenty twenty six? Yeah, I mean this is something that we're going to be talking about, I think for a while.
00:23:24
Speaker 2: Definitely. Yep. So let's put a pin in that and we will, I'm sure return to it many many times.
00:23:28
Speaker 3: With a quarterback.
00:23:29
Speaker 2: But let's flip over and talk about the defense a little bit. A note that we brought up on Falcons final whistle was maybe this was the beginning of kind of a new evolution for Atlanta's defense. The Falcons blitzed at their lowest rate of the season, just over fifteen percent against Tyler Schuck, but he faced a lot of pressure. They got nineteen pressures in five sacks and only sending four or fewer tarren Why is that important for Atlanta's defense moving forward?
00:23:56
Speaker 3: Because you love going back to the receipts. In week six, Jeff Olbrick said, I don't want to be a big pressure team, and we were all like, what, but you are?
00:24:06
Speaker 2: You don't want to get this right?
00:24:08
Speaker 1: This is who you are.
00:24:09
Speaker 3: Aren't they number one in blitzing at the time or something like that. We were like.
00:24:13
Speaker 2: By a large margin, Like the offense was in pistol by like a large margin, and the Falcons were blitzing by like a large margin.
00:24:20
Speaker 3: And I'm like if that took me being like I don't want to be a blonde, but you are. So when Jeff said that, we were like, what do you mean? And it's like I want us to rely on our front four to win and do their thing and play coverage behind it. He didn't. Right now, we're just not quite there yet, are they there? Sunday it looked like it. But I guess it's kind of just scene moving forward. Whether they can repeat that performance and be the defense that Jeff wanted. He wants to dye his hair, Yeah, an interesting.
00:24:50
Speaker 2: Man blonde head out, that'd be something.
00:24:53
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:24:54
Speaker 2: No.
00:24:54
Speaker 1: I think that a part of this that I've kind of been ruminating on for the last like four or five days, is are we going to see it again? Versus the Jets. I think that there were some deficiencies along the Saints offensive line that maybe made this thought of sending only four easier more execute You can execute it at an easier right because of some of the deficiencies with the Saints. You have a little bit of a better offensive line. Against New York they have some good tackles. Are you going to be able to do it again? And I think to your point of like the development of guys, I think that an interesting thought that I want to put out there to the people is that the Falcons have not been im people gestures broadly to them, we the people. Is there a realm where in the last four weeks without Divine Diablo that it kind of forced guys along the Front seven particularly to develop faster. And what I mean by that is like without Divine Diablo, who you relied upon for a lot of pressures and for a lot of a lot, point blank, full stop, Like without him, did you have to see guys like Rouke, Brandon Dorles, Jalen Walker, JPJ, like all of those guys step up a little bit, to the point of when Divine Diablo came back four weeks later, you felt like, hey, we really don't have to send Divine on a blitz in order to get home, Like we have some guys up front who are winning.
00:26:24
Speaker 3: Maybe that's the Bike Committee approach Jeff Ulrick was talking about all this time.
00:26:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well they rush as a unit like you can see it, like Arnold Abakhetti or Leonard Floyd gets like an inside push and then you have James Spears Junior coming around behind him like that is as much as that sack will go down as like James Spears Junior sack, Like everything along that Front seven is all encompassing amongst the individuals it's an organism, right.
00:26:48
Speaker 3: I was trying to go with like what you were saying, how a lot of people stepped up when Divine was gone because they had to, And I was like, maybe that's the Bike Committee, But I don't think that landed.
00:26:56
Speaker 1: Oh oh, I mean.
00:27:00
Speaker 2: The amalgamation of like, yeah, everything that he brings. I do think if you just like, look, they have way more dudes this year than I can like ever remember them. How Like I remember when it was just tacking Vic Beasley, right, and Adrian Claiborne is like the third man off the bench, right. But they have slowly just been adding pieces so you can rush in waves and instead of one player being out there for forty snaps, instead you're seeing the benefit of somebody who's out there for thirty snaps, twenty two snaps, and they are just bringing it every single So it's not a surprise that you have a game where it's like Brandon Dorles r. Guerroro, Jalen Walker, James Peters, she, like all of these guys are getting involved instead of one player having four sacks.
00:27:42
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I also think to that point, like all of this is so indicative of acute development among these young defenders.
00:27:49
Speaker 2: And you're saying acute development, not cute development. They're not getting cuter.
00:27:54
Speaker 1: They're not getting cuter, acute like a cute rapid escalation of.
00:28:00
Speaker 2: Development personality moments on the podcast, I don't even.
00:28:04
Speaker 3: Know where to come in.
00:28:05
Speaker 1: No, so right now, this week, Jalen Walker leads all rookies in sacks and force fumbles, James Fearce junior quarterback pressures. Let's even throw in Xavier Watts with interceptions, because what's happening on the back end effects what's happening in the front seven. They're all rookies and the Falcons, the Falcons have players rookies leading across the league in this category. This is Terry font Knowa's best draft, full stop. I have no no qualms, no, And as much as it sucks that Billy Bowman Junior is going to be out for the rest of the year, what you have in Billy Bowman Junior is something really good as well. He was doing some really really good things. It's unfortunate that injuries piled up the way they did with him. But some of these guys, I mean, this has a ripple effect. I think beyond this year, this has a ripple effect. I also think even in game planning, in what you decide to do and what positions you put your defense in, and whether or not you go for for things on third and fourth down, all those things are topics of conversation that starts with what this defense does by way of getting after the quarterback.
00:29:09
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we're going to push here to topic four, but I want to add one more note, as is Just Stevens or Jess Stevens on our comms team was pulling up kind of the pass rushers from the last two years, right, because I think it's fair to say Brandon Dorless and Ruku Row ro like are kind of pseudo rookies last year.
00:29:26
Speaker 1: I mean they were healthy scratches for majority of especially Brandon Dorless majority of last season.
00:29:34
Speaker 2: And now he has He's got six acts this season, which is tied for the most among players taken last year and this year in the draft. So when you're looking at guys like Latu Latsu, Jared Verse, all the players that we were talking about in last year's draft, Yep, Brandon Dorless is right there with him. Jalen Walker is one behind those dudes. James Pierce Junior is one behind it. So it's like this whole class of first and second year defensive lineman has been simply amazing. So the Falcons obviously got a much needed win on Sunday against the Saints. It didn't really meaningfully, i think, change their playoff hopes in any way, but keeps you alive, right, and so then when you have a week in which you're the only team in your division to win a game, okay, maybe those those feelings get get hiding a little bit. So really quickly, just want to run down kind of the schedules for Tampa, Carolina and then Atlanta, because there's one is not like the other. Unfortunately, I think Tampa has kind of the easiest road left. They've got Arizona this weekend, New Orleans, Atlanta, Carolina, Miami and then finishing up again with Carolina. Right that, Atlanta's got at least a chance there to get a game back on Tampa. So that's good. But it seems like a pretty favorable schedule for Tampa Carolina. Different story. They got the Rams, then a merciful bye week right then you got the Saints, the Bucks, Seattle and the Buck again, I mean Bucks, Seattle, Bucks, that's a tough way to end it. Atlanta schedule real quick, Jets, Seahawks, Bucks, Cardinals, Rams, Saints, so a kind of a mix of both there having Seattle and obviously La with the Bucks. Those are going to be your three big games left. But what are kind of like the different permutations of how this could play out? And do we feel looking at all of that toy like, how do we feel about the Falcon chances?
00:31:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, it still doesn't look good. You've you've played yourself into this position that you're in now where it doesn't look good and it's going to take a lot for it to look better. What is interesting is that right now as it stands, Tampa Bay is on a slide, and I think they've lost five of their last six if I if I'm doing the math.
00:31:47
Speaker 2: Right, I didn't scream grab that far back, but it's something.
00:31:50
Speaker 1: It's last three in a row for sure, And I think even before then, it was it was a couple right.
00:31:55
Speaker 2: Before, yeah, by couple right before that. Yeah.
00:31:58
Speaker 1: So, but that was all so their toughest stretch of the season. They played the Bills, the Rams, the Patriots like boom boom boom boom, lost all of those, so you figure if you were gonna have some losses by this Tampa Bay team, it was gonna come during that stretch of games. And now you look at the rest of their slate and it's like, well, they should arguably probably beat a lot of these teams. And then you look at Carolina and it's like, yes, they still have the Rams, they still have the Seahawks. I feel like the Falcons and the Carolina Panthers are probably pretty even right now in terms of strength of schedule left. Unfortunately for the Falcons because the Carolina Panthers own the tiebreaker over them. And unless something happens with the Carolina Panthers where they absolutely implode, and something happens with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where they absolutely implode. Like that's kind of what I know, it's not great to talk about, but that's kind of just where the Falcons find themselves right now.
00:32:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, Taron taking it kind of a game at a time approach, like how could Sunday further alter the playoff picture for Atlanta and kind of their chances.
00:33:08
Speaker 3: Right now this time of year, we're hearing the one and O phrase a lot, like you just got to go want to know. You just got to go want to know. And that's all they can do if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. I mean, they're hanging on. It went from less than one percent to two percent, according to the New York Times simulator after the win in New Orleans. You mess around with it, it doesn't never get too high. Regard.
00:33:32
Speaker 1: Don't think it can ever get above seventy six percent. And that's if the Falcons completely went out.
00:33:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, higher than I thought it would be.
00:33:40
Speaker 3: I don't think it's that high anymore.
00:33:42
Speaker 1: That high that was on Sunday where I looked at it, so it may not be.
00:33:45
Speaker 3: But regardless, Like it's crazy to say that, because I feel like with how the Bucks have been going, the Panthers have been going, it's almost closer than it feels when you look at the standings themselves. I mean, yep, the Bucks are six and five, the Panthers are six and six, the Falcons are four and seven, Saints are two and nine.
00:34:07
Speaker 2: Love it, love it, say it again.
00:34:09
Speaker 3: Like Saints are two and nine.
00:34:11
Speaker 1: Yes, the problem is is that the Falcons have only beaten the Saints in NFC South play Like that's what it is like, let's be real again, Like.
00:34:18
Speaker 3: They're three and one in the NFC, No. One in three in NFC South. They wish they were three in the NFC South. So even though the division itself looks like it's kind of getting a tighter picture, it's a little films developing.
00:34:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good. I like that.
00:34:37
Speaker 3: That was a lot better than the hair one.
00:34:38
Speaker 2: The picture is crystallizing. Yeah, so let's let's talk about that one to know, right, what do you got to do on Sunday to get a win against the Jets? And last week we kind of played a fun game about what do we need to see to feel like this team is not just capable of breaking their five game losing streak but actually like building maybe something moving forward for the rest of the season. So kind of keeping that it alive, Like what do we need to see on Sunday against the Jets to feel like, Okay, they took the first step against the Saints. Now they're taking a little bit of a second step. Maybe ultimately it all comes too little too late, but you would like to feel better about this team as the season kind of continues along. So what do they need to do?
00:35:17
Speaker 1: I think you need to come out fast start. I think that you I would ideally like to see this team have a lead, take a lead into halftime. I don't think you have to, but I think it's it's a good idea too, because of the issues that we've seen them have in the third quarter, not being able to score, not really being able to get off the field, all of these things kind of bouncing off of one another and in this bad spiral of third quarter play. Because that's what we saw against the Saints. As you saw, they got out to a good start, they were in a good place going out coming out of halftime, and then you let the Saints hang around and then you get to the fourth quarter and oh look, it's a one scorer game. So for me, it's like, don't allow a team to hang around coming out of halftime, A foot on the gas. If you're the Falcons in that third quarter, let's see something different from you in that third quarter. If I can see that, I would feel more confident in what a win and what would constitute a success for this Falcons team, because then at that point it's you turn from just a win to a convincing win to a decisive win.
00:36:20
Speaker 2: So following along that, like the Falcons have liked to take the ball and start the ball if they win the coin toss and just start on offense, would you maybe want to see them change that strategy and defer and say we'll take the ball in the second half to try to maybe recreate some of that energy that they've had at the start of games.
00:36:36
Speaker 1: This is potentially, but I don't really I'm not one that really thinks that it matters all that. Yeah, I really don't like. I really think that it's up to you in the moment. Like if you go out and your defense is playing well, and your defense has a good stop in that very first drive of the second half, and you come out offensively and you go down and you score, Okay, I don't care when it happens.
00:36:57
Speaker 2: Treke it a happy right, Yeah, all right, Taren, What do you need to see?
00:37:00
Speaker 3: You know what I'm gonna say. They just need to win.
00:37:05
Speaker 2: That's why I like it is you're like just straight cut to the bone. What matters at the end of the day, get.
00:37:10
Speaker 3: That getting that win. I mean Rahee Morris has said good teams pull out ugly wins. I don't like it doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't it is it would it be nice if it was clean, Yes, But at the end of the day, like the players say, we have to go on and Oh what I realized while you were talking though, is the Falcons maybe should erase this issue they have with the number three third quarter third downs. They kind of fixed the field goals with three points. They only ran three plays in that third period in New Orleans. Yeah, and I'm just like, oh, this.
00:37:44
Speaker 2: Is a lot, Jesse Bates noted problem. Jesse Bates the third Maybe that cancels it out.
00:37:51
Speaker 1: I think it does.
00:37:52
Speaker 3: Is that why he's that number?
00:37:53
Speaker 1: I think so. One thing that I'll add to this and this isn't necessarily like they have to do this or like it's gonna be indicative of success or not, is like, I do have some questions that I'm wanting answered in this game. We've alluded to it throughout the podcast. Offensively, it's what is the offensive game plan? And how much are you going under center using play action off of that? Like is that here to stay? Is that something that they're gonna do with Kirk Cousins moving forward? It feels like potentially they are, but we don't know for sure, yet we only have one sample size of that when game was sample size. And then defensively, it's can you continue to win by only sending for yep? That is one of those things that is Was that something that they felt like they could take advantage of with the New Orleans Saints or is this something that is gonna again like play action under center, something that's here to stay. Those are my two questions.
00:38:39
Speaker 3: Basically, can you repeat what you just did?
00:38:42
Speaker 2: H boom? Yeah, it's like it's a one game sample size, so like we're just really evaluating that one game, But can you create a broader trend off of that?
00:38:50
Speaker 3: Stack the wins and stack the trends. Trends there, you go, thank you for the word.
00:38:55
Speaker 2: Of course words, that's what we do here. That's what we do here, the trends, stack the views. Go check us out on YouTube and download and like and subscribe and share it to everybody. Got it? Got the plug in there? What's up? Jared? Love me for that? All right? Pro Bowl voting as a reminder, one more time is open now, So go, whether you do it on social, whether you do it on a landofalcons dot com, or you check out our QR code, which I'll let Jared put anywhere he wants to do right now, Ye, please go do that everybody again. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, have a great Thanksgiving weekend. That's one of my favorite parts about the holidays. It's on a Thursday, but it feels like it just rolls right into the weekend. With all the college football games on Friday, I know you guys are going to be enjoying some of those in clean, old fashion hate.
00:39:43
Speaker 1: I'm super pumped. Will be in Mercedes Been Stadium, all the dogs and the Jackets.
00:39:49
Speaker 3: I'm tailgating, but I don't care who wins.
00:39:52
Speaker 2: All right, well, you know we got two dogs here, so like, let's go.
00:39:57
Speaker 3: Let's not forget the Iron Bowl.
00:39:59
Speaker 2: No, that's you, You're dear.
00:40:01
Speaker 3: Iron is a big deal.
00:40:02
Speaker 2: All right, We're gonna get out of here for Tory McLean and tarn Walk. I'm moman fattan. Thank you guys so much for listening, and we will see you for Falcons Final Whistle on Monday, Falcons Audible middle of the week next week, and of course Friday five next time. So see y all then,
