Atlanta Falcons team to ‘watch out for’ after upset over Bills | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC

Atlanta Falcons team to ‘watch out for’ after upset over Bills | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC

The Bills are, we know, I know they’re going to stay in the the conversation of one of the better AFC teams, but the way they’re built and the way they play, again, I’ll say it like I’ve always said it. I don’t know if that’s Super Bowl caliber, and that’s what I worry about. And, you know, we can we can dive into it more, but I think they’re a team that needs to maybe look at doing something at the trade deadline here. We do apologize to the homies. We didn’t have sound for some of the start of that. We’re back now. Damn. Okay, that was such a good rant. It was really good. Well, people people will hear it eventually. Some of the people in the chat were blaming Pete, by the way. Yeah, but Pete’s not here. So, you got to actually give him a little grace. You can blame the older guy named Matt Casey, who didn’t know how to press the sound button yet, so he’s just learning. But we’re back. And listen, I mean, let’s let’s go back to the good with the Falcons and let’s let’s talk about the Bills going into a by-week because they’re going to have some things that they got to work on, right? with the Falcons and you texted this, you’re like, we got to track the play action game. Yeah, right. So, nine drop backs, play action. Pennix was five of six on those drop backs, which you think of that. Okay, but what is it? What does all that mean? He averaged almost 15 yards per attempt. So, when they go play action, he is comfortable throwing howitzers down the field. He also had an 8- yard scramble on one of the drop backs. So, all the space it created, it’s Michael Penn. It’s not Lamar Jackson. He had all that space to run. So, why do you think play action, he’s so comfortable in play action? cuz he looks mechanically even smoother in playoffs. He does. And of course, why wouldn’t you want to do it more? And we’ve been here talking about why don’t you do it more? You know, Zack Robinson, the OC. He came from the Rams or the Masters that play action pass. So, you and I have always been like, why are they not doing that? And you have Bjan Robinson. And you have Bean Robinson. You got one of the best run games in football. It’s the number one thing everybody worries about when they play Atlanta is going, “Oh, no. Their O line’s good.” And Bejian Robinson, what do we do off of that? So, it’s good to see them doing more of this. I would sit here and go, they could have even done more last night. They could have. Now, what’s I mean, one, he’s got a big arm, right? So, he can take advantage of play action passes for the most part are usually more aggressive and down the field. So, he’s going to be able to, you know, make those throws and a guy like him, he can make them with ease. He doesn’t have to give it the old steroid grunt to like throw a 25 yard laser, right? He his hands are gigantic, his arms are long as hell, and he can throw those type of balls without very little effort. The other reason I like this and why I love it for young quarterbacks, and you know, you’ve heard me say this before, it opens up the field for all the reasons you talked about. One, usually there’s a lot of space for the quarterback between the line of scrimmage and where he is after the play action fake. So, you feel protected, you feel good, you can usually now because you’re so far behind everything, you can see lanes if you have to move to the point you brought up, right? So, that’s good. And then within that, think about it. Oh, we fake it to Bejon. The running the linebackers run up. Oh. Oh, no. And then they have to turn around. So there, that space that’s created between them and the third level of safeties is now so open as well. It’s great sightelines for a quarterback. It’s like, oh wow, it doesn’t feel like they have 11 guys out there on the defensive side of the ball. And I think that is what is why I want to see them dial it up more. And hey, they’re still missing a speed element on their passing offense, right? They need Darnell Mooney back. If they get him back and then continue down this path of play action, watch out. They’re going to be scary, right? But nonetheless, I still think these are good ways to do it with Drake London who’s so big and physical and knows how to work routes and now you give him time off the play action. He’s going to almost be impossible to cover in those type of situations. Really good night for the Falcons offense and really good night for their defense as well, which kind of transitions us to the Bills offense in this. I mean, Josh Allen 15 of 26, 180 yards. He throws the two touchdowns. He throws two picks. Jeff Ober has these guys rolling right now. And there’s a lot of young guys on this defense as well. A lot of a lot of young guys. Obrich we know is Seattle scheme, but then with Raheem, it’s a little bit of Raheem concoction. It’s not totally what did the Jets, right? I think there’s a little more to their defense because Raheem, sure, he was in Tampa and Tampa 2 became Seattle 3. That’s what it is. So if everybody just wants to know the base story of it, that’s what it is. Pete Carol, he hired Gus Bradley. He was down there in Tampa with us. Gus was like, “Hey, we stopped running to Tampa 2. We like this cover three. This is what we’re doing.” He brought it to Seattle and that’s where it started. Brick, of course, was a part of that whole process and everything there. But Raheem grew his defense in times where when he was in LA and and there and it became more versatile and more schematically uh advanced. So I think between that and what Albrich does, it’s a great combination. And I think the number one thing that jumps out to me about Atlanta, you know, watching them in a standalone game, first off, it’s arguably the fastest defense in football. That’s the one thing you saw right away. I think Josh Allen very early in the game went, “Whoa, me scrambling, me buying time. Yeah, like I better watch out. I better get down.” Like there was a few times I thought early in the game where he tried to move and he was just like, “Whoa, they got on me so quick. Let me just go limp and go down because I’m going to get caught in a bad spot here.” Right? So that jumps out to me. And of course, they got some young talent and a lot of versatility up front with a I think a underrated secondary when it’s all said and done. And they got it going. And I don’t know, does people realize that Atlanta’s the number one defense in football and the number two offense in football? I mean, to me here, it’s like they’re a team that’s tip of the iceberg could be watch out here as we go forward. And they’re not that healthy like you just said. I mean, they’re clearly missing their speed element in Darnell Mooney. They’ve had injuries on the offensive line. They’re playing a lot of young players on this defense. That can be Jack. And one of their good ones wasn’t out there last night. Bowman, right? Who I think is another guy where I go three rockets up his ass, flies around, kamicazi fits exactly how they want to play in Atlanta. And to your point about the hybrid of Raheem and it seems like what they like to do is they’ll throw in man coverage when it’s a long down and distance. Yes. Like you look, so they ran cover one eight times last night of the 57 defensive snaps, which isn’t a ton, but they like to do it on second and 10, first and 10, or third and 10. They don’t like doing it when there’s a short amount of distance to go. Yeah. So, it almost put them in more aggressive spots and they trusted their guys to get it done. I think they I think you do that maybe for two reason, three reasons, let’s say. One, I think for the second week in a row, we saw teams going passing situations like screw the Bills. They’re not that scary at receiver. We’ll man them up just like the Patriots did. Keon Coleman couldn’t get anything. AJ Terrell is one of the better quarterbacks in football that nobody really knows and doesn’t get put up in that stratosphere. I think there’s that. I think the other element within them doing that, especially against Buffalo, is like if you play zone and you rush four or five and you rush four especially, he’s going to buy time and he’s going to manipulate the zone and find the completion. I think they took the approach last night of like, let’s send five, let’s play manto man, let’s not let him run. We believe our pass rushers and some of the stuff, you know, drop drop one, blitz one, drop one, blitz two, and how we orchestrate that. I thought they did a good job a few times of kind of exposing the protection of the Bills and they had a good like, you know, knock or beat on that as well. And I think they took that approach like we think we could cover them and we’re not going to let Allen sit back there all day and they got after him and I was thoroughly impressed with the game plan on on both sides of the ball. You’re absolutely right, Chris. The numbers passed the eye test. Uh so the Bills had 38 pass plays. The Falcons blitzed on 61% of those pass plays, but it was all really simulated pressures. The fourman rush where you bring somebody, you know, you overload or on 57% of it was just a fiveman rush. So they they never kind of like, you know, went for it really. They weren’t like, “Okay, here comes seven and you got to just get the ball out.” They went with more of what you said, kind of trying to fool him a little bit. He Yeah. He trying to do that. And I think, you know, everybody knows that listens to my pot, I’m always a guy that I don’t love the fiveman pressure. Yeah, but Raheem kind of is known to live in that and Atlanta I don’t think is going to change off of that. Raheem one, they’re a zone team for the most part like you’ve explained that will dabble in man and they’re unbelievable. I know how Raheem teaches it. They teach route read reading. That’s what they do. Hey, if this guy goes in, the number two receivers is going to go out and the number three receivers is going to do this off of it. So, they’re really good and well schooled in that department. They’re not in terribly big up front, right? They’re more created on chaos. And I think that’s why they rush five a lot. One, they don’t want the quarterback to have all day, but two, they know that they’re the type that like, oh, our four big defensive linemen can just hold down the fort in the run game. No, they usually know they got to bring another guy in there to stop some of the run game stuff and all that. And they’re one of the few teams that can pull it off on a regular basis where I don’t complain about it a whole lot. So clearly you agree with Michael Penn who said the Falcons are legit. I think it’s official. you know, the the blemish everybody’s gonna look at to go with the Carolina game. And yes, he played horrible and the game’s a little misleading, too. Yeah, it was 30 to nothing, right? But it wasn’t like Carolina’s offense played good. It was more Michael Pennock’s mistakes on the offensive side of the ball, missed field goal. They did a lot of dumb stuff that day. But yes, I believe we’re going after what I saw last night on a trajectory of watch out for Atlanta. And and you know to the point where I say it and I go, gosh, I thought Tampa might run away with this two weeks ago to now I go, uh oh, no, Atlanta ain’t going anywhere. Like Tampa’s going to have to stay on the gas pedal a little bit because I get the sense that the Falcons are only going to get better. This is a jumpoff spot. This is only going to make Michael Pennock feel better. I think they’re going to look at the film and go, “Why aren’t we calling play action pass more?” And the defense is only going to stick their chest out more, too. So, yeah, I’m pretty pumped about the Atlanta Falcons. uh you know what do I want to say future I guess is what I’m looking for trying to enter the upper echelons the upper echelons they’re trying they’re trying they’re trying their best the Bills on the other hand despite backto-back losses they’re still plus three uh they are plus 300 now to be the number one seed in the AFC that is via DraftKings so crazy yeah they got a they got things to work on in by way but the problem is I like I don’t know work on is the right it’s just kind of their personnel is what it is on defense that’s that’s that’s what you worry about you worry about that and I I sit here again still go. I I gosh, I’d love to see one more receiver that could really just fly and make something happen on the offensive. I still think they’re one weapon short. I really I I can’t believe I’m saying it, but I am. You know, I I I I like the Bills, but as you saw in my text messages last night, I still think it’s all too Josh Allen centric. The whole team and how they play, even on defense, is revolved around Josh Allen. It’s all about can you get the lead for us Josh Allen so we don’t have to play run defense and now we can play Shawn McDermott crazy pass defenses and do that off of it right and that’s just it’s it’s too hard to win like that week in and week out in the NFL and we sit here after 6 weeks and I go has they really played a really awesome game yet? Why are we so pro Bills? Again it’s back to our quarterback thing. It’s like people betting on the Ravens and the Bills still and it’s just like look at the rest of the team. There’s concerns there on both sides of the ball. Um, yeah, weapon on offense. Defensively, I I mean, I I I need Maxwell Harrison back, right? That’s a big thing. Get him back with Benford and Terron Johnson. Maybe you can dabble in manto man more and now stop some of these run game issues. That’s one big thing I can look at. And yeah, do they want to make some type of move maybe for another corner or is there going to be another DTackle or D lineman out there on the market that they feel like they can get coming down the home stretch that can help their football team out right now? Because yeah, I like I said, the Bills, you know, I love Josh Allen. He’s one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. But I don’t sit here going, “Oh yeah, the Bills are are a Super Bowl football team as we sit here right now.” No way. And if you made me pick right now, I’m taking New England to win the AFC East. They have more ways to win, more ways to play, more versatility throughout their full team compared to the Bills in my opinion. I don’t know if you agree with that or not, but I mean, you look at the schedule here. New England’s going to they’re going to go on this little run that they’re already started. They got like five games in a row where they’re clearly the better team, right? Basically, if Drake May, he doesn’t have to play the way he’s been playing. If he’s average, they are going to win their next couple of games. So, it’s it’s going that’s anse divisions right now are fascinating. all of a sudden the AFC and no and admittedly like nobody really thought they’d be this interesting where it’s I know you were high on the Patriots. I was actually high on the Falcons but didn’t think they’d be hanging around the Bucks. I I don’t I don’t know if I did either. I had to see it first. Yeah. Had to actually see it. But right now Carolina’s a little better than we thought. Yeah. They’re punchy like they’re not and I don’t think we’ve seen the best of Tampa Bay yet because they’re not healthy on either side of the ball. So yes, it’s uh it’s an it’s a it’s a crazy year. A lot of new suspects in the playoff conversation. And that’s a lot of fun. And that’s at the start of the show, if you weren’t listening, that’s what or when our our our mics weren’t working. That’s to what was awesome about last night is we saw two underdog teams. It was two good games. It was young budding superstar quarterbacks. There was ton of storylines last night. It just to me made it the most fun day, most fun Monday night of the year so far. Yo yo homies, it’s time to watch some games. That’s right, we’re on to the NFL season here with Chris Sims Unbutton. Hit subscribe to get our weekly pick, Sunday night recaps after every game, and much, much more. Thanks for watching. Peace out, homies. Remember, subscribe. Peace out.

Chris Simms and Connor Rogers recap the Atlanta Falcons’ 24-14 upset over the Buffalo Bills, led by standout efforts from quarterback Michael Penix Jr., running back Bijan Robinson, and wide receiver Drake London. #NBCSports #NFL #ChrisSimmsUnbuttoned
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Atlanta Falcons team to ‘watch out for’ after upset over Bills | Chris Simms Unbuttoned | NFL on NBC
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