Can Falcons defense contain Josh Allen? | FOX 5 Early Birds

Can Falcons defense contain Josh Allen? | FOX 5 Early Birds

Ahead on Early Birds, it’s MPJ versus the MVP. Touchdown, Drake London. We’ll get you ready for a huge game on Monday Night Football and sit down one-on-one with QV1. Plus, Georgia heads to the Plains for a tough test tonight. We’ve got a preview. Falcons looking to muffle the Bills mafia. Early birds starts now. Grab a cup of your favorite Joe and let’s talk Falcons football on Early Birds presented by Mercedes Benz. Good morning. Welcome in to Early Birds. He’s CJ. I’m Justin and Shock in honor of the Bills game. We got a ladder in here in the studio. What do you think about setting it up and you dive through this table? What do you think? I think if you do it, I will do it. How about that? All right. So, the desk is safe for now. You’re not doing it. Well, maybe later. Let’s get things started with the opening drive. Shock Falcons and the well- behaved Bills on Monday Night Football. And it all starts with the reigning MVP DJ. Is Josh Allen the best player in the league right now? Best quarterback in the league. That’s number one. And two, the easy one. How do you slow him down? Oo, that’s a good question. I do believe he’s top three. Obviously, Mahomes is up there. Uh, even Danny Dimes is playing good football. Baker Mason is playing good football, but he is a top three quarterback for sure. And I think the question you asked is a relevant one. You’re not going to stop him, but you have to try to slow him down. You can’t give him everything in his ball game. I think the Falcons can slow him down, but they have to keep him in the pocket. That’s for sure. If they let him get outside the pocket, that’s where he’s going to hurt you. Easier said than done. Here’s the scouting report from Kaden Ellis. He’s a super special player. I mean, it is what it is. He’s got an MVP in the tro trophy closet. Um he’s got his team competing for Super Bowl every single year. Um he’s a very special player. So, uh you know, getting to go against his best is fun, brings a challenge. Uh yeah, linebackers got to help corral him and um it’s going to be fun getting to play him. As we continue on the opening drive, the Falcons looking to continue their momentum on offense. Now before the buy, they looked great against Washington. DJ, what do you want to see them take from that game and carry forward? Uh I think it has to be the consistency they played with, especially on the offensive side of the ball, being able to throw the football when they needed to, but also getting the run game going. That was a huge part of their success in that ball game versus Washington. And also the time possession, keeping it away from the opposing team, sustaining drives and being good on third down has obviously been a big part of it. They can do that. They got a great chance to continue what they had versus Washington. They’ll try to do it Monday night. And as we wrap up the opening drive, they’re going to take on Buffalo Monday Night Football. Then they have a Sunday night game at San Francisco who looks very good. I I think this might be the toughest backto-back of the season. Shock, how big are these next two games? They’re huge and they’re both on prime time. So that tells you everybody in the country is watching. It’s going to be a prime time experience for you and you got to go on the road to San Francisco and a team that’s inside the NFC. So, this is a game you got to have. Already being 0 and2 in the division, NFC games are going to matter down the road and like you mentioned, both these games are going to be critical down the stretch. Here’s what Raheem Morris thinks the bins will be like on Monday night. I think it’s awesome for the city to get it just because um the city deserves it. Our fan base deserves it. You guys be able to get out there and be able to get those things. But like um I love it for the young team to be able to go out there and put those guys in those great spotlights to let them know, man, these games are all huge. They’re all big. They’re all unique. And like I love our response and how we’re able to go out. I love how we practice. I love that we play. And I really love it for our organization more than anything. Just to be to get that that game that means a lot for the week and for everybody. Well, we’re looking forward to it for sure. Welcome in to Early Birds alongside DJ Shockley. I’m Justin Felder. The Buffalo Bills coming off their first loss of the season against New England, a future Falcons opponent. Any ideas the Patriots had that the Falcons can maybe borrow? Absolutely. One thing that came to mind me, they turned the Buffalo Bills over three times. That’s a big deal. When you win the turnover battle, you got a great chance to win the ball game. Patriots did that. Something to keep in mind when we come up Monday night. It will be interesting to watch. Should be a great game as the Falcons look to hand the Bills loss number two. And leading the way on Monday night will be Michael Penn Jr. It’ll be his Monday Night Football debut coming off one of his best games as a pro. Pennock sat down with fellow Tampa area native Kelly Price this week as he got ready for the Bills. So, is the by-week being so early a blessing or a curse, do you think? I don’t know. I guess we’ll see. It my first time having an early one, so I can’t really say. But um last year I feel like it was at a perfect time, you know, um having like those 10 games and then it’s like, all right, we just went a long stretch and now we got it by and then, you know, just cruising through the rest of the uh through the rest of the season. But um I guess we’ll see. Well, and for momentum wise, I mean, obviously so much momentum coming out of that last game. Like how do you keep that up? That’s kind of the challenge, right? When you don’t play and even see the guys really for a whole week. Yeah. Um I feel like it’s the way that you attack your by week, too. you know, like I said, you can’t go the whole by week without doing anything, you know, and then and then come back here and and be out of shape or, you know, miss miss a beat. So, now I feel like whenever we’re out there practice, I feel like a lot of guys, you know, all the guys that um were on beat and all the guys seem like they they’re pretty fresh and feeling good coming off the bus. So, that’s that’s good to have. We we had some early early um early season, you know, people getting dinged up and stuff, you know, so it just give them guys time to to heal and get get back ready. Coach Raheem, you know, um, leading us, I feel like he’s the the best person to to have lead you into making sure you’re getting back ready to play. I feel like the the way that he coaches, the energy that he brings, you know, each and every day, the consistency, it helps us be able to stay consistent even whenever we are away for a week. Do you think getting away, you know, for a week, having this by week so early, are you able to kind of look at the first couple weeks cuz obviously like you have the Carolina game and the Commanders game, very two different games, especially offensively. Is it able to give you a little more perspective? Yeah, for sure. For sure. It is some of that. And I I feel like it a lot of that, you know, comes with, you know, different things that that you could do better. I feel like, um, you know, play call standpoint, you know, stuff like that. The rhythm of the game, like why why weren’t we able to get going in that in that um Carolina game and what helped us get going in the Commander game? You know, try to find, you know, that that middle ground to say, okay, this is this is where we’re playing our best and this is what we need to do going on throughout the season. and you know see see how that goes. So obviously Zach came down from the on the sideline um on that last game. Give me an example of how that’s different for you and why that maybe helped you even more. Yeah, I’d say just the communication standpoint, you know, just being able to hear from him right there, you know, live right after a drive and, you know, hear what he’s thinking, hear the things that that he’s saying that he wants to call for the next series based on what the defense has given us, you know, throughout the game so far, you know, and um you know, I feel like that just that just helps us so much. you know, he’s out there. He can see the boards with us and be able to see see what the defense has presented for us so that we can go attack it a certain way to help us be successful the next drive. That was great insight, great interview. We’re looking forward to seeing MPJ Monday night. Also looking forward, shock to a big game on the on the planes tonight. Yeah, my guy Michael Jenkins will be here to break down my dogs against the Alburn Tigers. us. First drill being like, “Hey, one-on-one’s all right, right tackle, JJ, you got you got to love it.” Jake Matthews talked about his welcome to the NFL moment. That’s up next when we go deep. You’re watching Early Birds presented by Mercedes-Benz, official luxury vehicle of your Atlanta Falcons, and sponsored by the Georgia Lottery. Today could be the day. and the Home Depot. How do get more done? More early birds coming back at you. Early Birds, it’s not Saturday down south without talking college football. Get ready to fire up the grill. Here’s Shock. All right, we got my boy Jake in the building talk some college football. Jake, how we doing? How we doing? Good. Good. We ain’t had a chance to talk about your Buckeyes. Yes, I’m going to give you Buckeyes a little love. You still feeling good about your your squad being number one in the country? I feel great. We’re we’re taking strides every week, just getting better week by week. So, we’re in a good spot. All right, J. Let’s jump right on into it. Let’s talk about one of the biggest games I think of today. Dogs on the road tonight in Auburn. 7:30 kicks. Going to be a crazy environment. Auburn tough place to play as we know. Do you think who do you think needs to have a big day in this ball game on either team for Georgia or Auburn to come out this one with a dub? Oh, man. Like you said, tough place to play. Jordan Hair Stadium at night. I think both quarterbacks have to play well and you know, you know. Yeah, Georgia went on the road to AR a couple years ago and they needed a spectacular effort from Brock Bowers himself to help you guys win that game. So, Aubra is going to be ready to play. It’s going to be a tough challenge, but Gunner’s been on the road at Tennessee, fought to come back. So, I think that experience has helped him and hopefully he plays well tonight. You think Jackson Arnold has enough to get it done as the quarterback armor? I don’t know if he has enough. I don’t know if he has enough. He’s done a great job not turning the ball over this year. He’s got some really good receivers that, you know, it seems like they need to get them the ball more. So, we’ll see if that happens, but uh I don’t know if he has enough to quite get it done. Bro got sacked 10 times for Oklahoma. That’s pretty crazy. All right, here’s Coach Smart on the concerns of facing Hugh Freez’s style of offense. Tempo is able to go fast. Um they really believe in back shoulder fades and uh timing routes and throwing it. If they get hot on those, they’re they’re hard to stop and they’ve got some some really talented weapons out wide this year. Speaking of talented players, there are certain style that brings me to our next game, which is I know you can’t see it. We talked about it. I see it. Let me see if you can see it in a minute. Michigan taking on USC and the Wolverines have a dynamic running back. You know this guy in Justice Haynes and Hayes is our made in Georgia playing. Before he was shining at Alabama and now Michigan, he was one of the top backs out of the country playing at Blessed Triny and Buer High School. Justice rushed for nearly 6,000 rush yards and 72 touchdowns. currently third in the country right now with 654 yards and eight touchdowns. Jake, is Justin Haynes the key to Michigan success against USC or do you feel USC has something that could give him a little upset? I don’t know if anybody’s stopping Haynes right now. I mean, I’ve seen this kid since he was at Buford. Um, I mean, he’s spectacular and he’s getting the rock. He’s had over 100 yards in every single game. Crazy stat. He’s the only running back at Michigan ever to start his first five games with 100 yard. Okay, JS. I like that. Yeah, here’s Wolverines head coach Shiron Moore. He says, “I got a good idea where this game will be worn. We got to do a good job of really controlling the line of scrimmage up front first and they’ve got a really good old line. Um, but feel like we got a really good Dline. So, it’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be a a four quarter uh battle in the Coliseum, which we’re really excited about.” No, he look a little confident. He look a little like just like All right, another big game of the day. He cannot leave without talking about it. The Red River rivalry between Oklahoma and Texas. Texas coming off a disappointing loss to Justice Gainers last week and looking to bounce back. But OU and their quarterback situations is up in the air as we know. Jake, is there any way Texans could have any success against this OU defense that ges to get after people? Hey, Brett Venos in this defense. I mean, they’re they’re one of the best in the country right now. And so, everybody’s kind of seen the struggles Arch has had. And so will he step up to the plate and show something different in this rivalry game? We don’t know. Will Batir, who’s still questionable for Oklahoma, will he end up playing today? True. Um, so it’s a lot of lot of question marks going into this game for both teams. Who you walking away in the Red River rivalry? J, who you got? Uh, I think Oklahoma gets it done. Yeah. I mean, I know ours could have a big game and change that. You know, they’re actually favored to win this game, so we’ll see. That’ll be an interesting one. Here’s Texas head coach Steve Sarkeesian on the emotions of this rivalry game. You know, you lean into some of the veteran players who have been through this week before who know what this week is about and and and push your younger players or your new players that maybe have transferred in into this is how we go about our business. Um because it is a great game. Um there’s a lot of emotion that goes into this game and I think that there’s a fine line and as we touched on, you know, playing with emotion but not emotional. Jake, uh, can we get you to say Michigan one time? You liked them in that game. Can we get you to say it? Can you say Michigan go? No. Not going to have who. Okay. We appreciate the time and we’ll see you next week. Justin, big win for your Gators last week. You think they maybe turn the corner a little bit as they take on&M tonight, which is a sneaky good game, I think. I I don’t think that. I hope that. I I don’t think that, but it it was nice to get at least one. Guys, great insight as always. Well, every week on Going Deep, we ask a Falcons player, “What was your welcome to the NFL moment?” O lineman Jake Matthews is in his 12th NFL season. Had to think back a little bit. Turns out his welcome to the NFL came courtesy of NFL films. He explains in this week’s Going Deep. I guess probably being on Hard Knocks. Oh, get him. That’s it. Hey, get your chest down. Yeah. Then like two weeks into camp going down to Houston and first drill being like, “Hey, one-on-one’s all right. Right tackle JJ Watt.” Wow. Good rush, JJ. So, yeah, I was like, “This guy’s really good.” Good rush. Good rush. Here we go again. Yeah, that was a learning experience, but definitely for the better. Got a grave memory there from Jake Matthews. More to come on early birds. We’ve got a matchup to watch involving a Falcon standout and a former Bulldog. DJ and Jen crank it down next on Early Birds. Made in Georgia is presented by Chick-fil-A. We’re getting your Saturday started right. Early Birds is back in a moment. It’s time to get some game intel from Shot. You’re invited into the film room. So, cut the lights and let’s get started. All right, let’s talk about a play that a lot of teams use in the red zone near the goal line that you know the Falcons have to be weary of and this is a copycat league and every time a team scores I guarantee you the Buffalo Bills if they get a chance to get down here this will be a play they use. So this is what happens here. They try to do a lot of things up here to affect this guy right here. This is what we call like kind of a chief concept where here’s what here’s the routes I draw up here. You got a crossing route at the top up here. And then you got another crossing route right by here by Debo Sa coming across. And then you’re going to have this receiver. He’s going to sit right over the middle. And then you got this guy come across the back end line. And then you’re flooding this whole side with this back coming across here. So you got four guys on this side of the field. That’s going to make it really hard to the sky. So what happens is this guy gets just kind of countered by the things that’s coming in front of him. And then you get this guy running on the back end line which is the car on the backside touchdown. Let’s show it from the backside here. I can show you exactly what catches the eye here. Now, here’s the eye. So, this what I’m talking about. He got his eyes here. Or should he back up here? If he backs up, this guy’s probably going to sit in his zone. He’s going to catch it. Or this guy’s going to sit in the zone. So, he do a good job of flooding the zone. Makes it hard on the Falcons and you get one behind him. This guy, Xavier Watts, has to do a better job of watching what’s behind them. And it’s going to be a tough play to to kind of decipher, but the Falcons can do it, but they just got to make sure they’re doing a good job of watching guys around. All right, this game will have tons of really talented players and we have some key matchups to watch. One that stands out to me is Jen is James Cook for the Bills being matched up with divine Diablo at times. Now Jen, Diablo is an athletic linebacker. We know that. How should he play the talented Cook when they put him in space? Well, you know, Cook did just get paid in the preseason, so maybe he’s not as motivated to play as hard. So, but no, he’s a phenomenal player and Diaba is going to have his hands full. So, he’s going to have the sound assignment like you just said with their eyes and knowing exactly what they’re trying to do on defense to keep him contained. I like what you’re talking about. I think knowing where you’re helping is going to be huge in this ball game and it has to happen versus a guy like James Cook. All right, Justin, over to you. We hoping we can contain my old Bulldog there on Monday night. Well, Shock, hopefully James Cook isn’t breaking any ankles on any long runs on Monday night. Actual ankle injuries, of course, are far too common in the NFL. Those injuries can range from pretty mild to the kind of thing that keeps players on the sideline for a large chunk of the season. That’s the focus of this week’s Emory Road to recovery. Ankle injuries are common. Uh we have just the general sprains that can occur like low lateral ankle sprains, which are really, really common. Those luckily can bounce back pretty quickly. They can be fairly mild or even more severe, but they’ll sometimes bounce back bounce back within a week or maybe 3 to 4 weeks at the most. High ankle sprains are also very common which are a little bit more um severe as far as the soft tissue damage that occurs. So the rehab process or maybe the treatments that we do for a high ankle sprain may be a little bit different uh versus a low ankle sprain and the timeline to return to play may take a month or so from that timeline. Luckily, the NFL has done a good job implementing the hip drop tackle rule and as of last year and so we’re trying to see cut down on that because you will see sometime some of the guys break their ankle a little more easily with that specific tackle. Tough stuff there. All right, still to come on early birds Chris Lindstöm was behind the habachi grill for a good cause this week. Figurers show off their cooking skills when we come back after the break. You’re watching Early Birds presented by MercedesBenz on your official home for Falcons football. Fox 5 Atlanta Early Birds has been presented to you by MercedesBenz, official luxury vehicle of your Atlanta Falcons. You know, we we play football and that’s a game. We talk about perseverance in football and toughness in football, but at the end of the day, like like I said, it’s just a game where where these people are dealing with real life and and real things that affect not only them, but their families. This was so cool. Shock, the Falcons traded their helmets and gloves for chef’s hats and spatulas, players, and a few former players cooked habachi. That’s pretty good. Yeah, it is. That was pretty good right there for 10 breast cancer survivors. It’s called Dazzle and Dine. This was Tuesday in Duth. And this is such a great event they do. It is. And it kind of shows the human side of these guys. Obviously, we see it with the helmets on and, you know, they’re making all these big spectacular plays and but this is cool for them to highlight people who are, you know, going through a lot tougher things in life and to take this away to have some smiles and laughters is always good. Love seeing that. The women also treated to a full spa day and shopping at that dazzling dine event. Make sure to join us Monday night special time midnight DJ Jen and Kelly Price Dirty Bird Report wrapping up the Falcons Bills game. And if you’re at the game in person that all the fans will be getting these flags. It says 60 for the anniversary of the Falcons. Here you want to do who are we going to be waving the flag in honor of Monday night against the Bills. Oo, how about Cal Pitts having a big night? I like Cal Pitts having a big night going for 100 in this ball game. Got in the end zone. Now he gets a 100. DJ will be waving the flag. We hope you wave the flag with us next Saturday morning as well. That’s it for us here on Early Birds for DJ Shockley. I’m Justin Felder. Have a good morning. Thank you for joining us and have a great rest of your weekend.

Atlanta FOX 5’s Justin Felder and D.J. Shockley talk Falcons football ahead of the Week 6 primetime Monday Night Football matchup against the Buffalo Bills. Can the Falcons come off the bye week hot? Tune in to this week’s edition of Early Birds for all your Atlanta Falcons coverage. Presented by Mercedes-Benz.

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