Chris Long: The Falcons Are A Good F****** Football Team

Chris Long: The Falcons Are A Good F****** Football Team

Jeff Albrich won the night. No doubt. I agree. Jeff Albrich won the night. A lot of people were going to talk about, you know, the quarterback duel. That really wasn’t a duel cuz I didn’t think either guy played like fantastic. And, you know, it ended up being the other game cuz as soon as you turned on Atlanta Buffalo was like, man, this is going to be a fist fight. And made it that way. He did. Well, the injuries made it that way, too. I mean, like, every team’s got injuries. Yeah. I I look at Dion at left tackle, Chris. He struggled against New England, and he still doesn’t look right. And if he’s not going to be able to pass, I mean, look at what an Atlanta brings to the table, you know, as far as edge. I just I just thought you could see Josh was really it it he forces uh people to make him look uncomfortable a lot, but you could tell he was skittish in like he just he wasn’t comfortable at all. And this is five straight opponents for Atlanta they’ve held under 300 yards. Like this is like they’re real. They’re they’re absolutely real. They’re they’re they’re super real. I think Terrell back in the back end’s a huge asset to have. Um, you know, we’ve talked about the youth that they got in the draft and and have gotten plays from guys early in the season that you saw show out like when they went to Minnesota and dominated that Sunday night game. So, as awesome as Tampa has been, like Atlanta’s here, like the what they what they bring to the table. Like I was going through the touches too on the offensive side like like uh Bejian is he’s at over seven yards a touch now. His average was like around 4.9 or five and he’s averaging over 20 and a half. And then him and Algier last night combined for 36 touches along with Drake London having 10 catches. Like that’s that’s an onslaught you got to deal with, you know, when you start looking at them in an offensive side. So, uh, they I mean completeness of a team and knowing that a defense like in a monster situation now. Now you got all the eyeballs on you. Now you go out to San Francisco who is as hard a watch team as there is in the league. You have to feel good about going out there and getting a win. But it’s a lot easier said than done. You know this league and you know how different teams are week to week. But Atlanta’s got to feel great going out west for this monster game. They got to feel great about it. I mean, we said coming into last night, we were talking about on the live show two things. Number one, we’ll know a lot more about who Atlanta is after tonight. And it turns out that they’re a [ __ ] I mean, they, you know, they the 30 nothing game to Carolina is the blemish, but other than that, you know, they’ve done a fantastic job um generally. And you talk about some of the the great teams that we think are great teams in this league year like the Bucks. They start the season out and they fight the Bucks tooth and nail and uh you know what they did last night was really impressive. It just wasn’t a good matchup for Josh and for for the Bills. But you talk about like people’s reaction to the game. We should be making a lot more about Atlanta than we are Buffalo. And you know what? Atlanta’s missing guys too. Bowman’s down I think in that game. D Alford to me was one of the studs on defense for that for that group. I mean like a guy who had to step in and kind of got his job taken, but then he’s ready when it’s time to go. I just think Jeff Albrich did a great job. And I thought uh Joe Brady got a little bit out coached. I think Joe Brady got his butt kicked a little bit last night and that happens. Um especially when you don’t have a full deck. Yeah. And just to just to add to that, Chris, the has a really good history against Josh looking back to it’s the solitary. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. When you look back to 2021 with when Brook took over as a DC for the Jets, when you compare Josh’s matchups from 21 to 24 versus the Jets compared to just across all opponents, you see a drop in completion rate, you see a drop in pass rating, you see an uptick in turnover worthy plays. So, you know, like look, I Josh is the best football player in the world, but historically just hasn’t performed to his standard against. So, you know, there’s something he’s figured out. And I think he just there that that pressure plan he had was awesome in terms of using the athleticism of the linebackers. Ellis and Diablo were all over the place. Edge guys, too, like Walker, Ebeti, you saw these guys dropping out like taking away hot reads. Any played really well last night, man. Yeah, absolutely. It it felt like to me like almost um like you think about like the Steelers the best their best performances when you don’t know whether Watt’s coming or he’s dropping out. High is he coming? Is he dropping out? That’s what it felt like. They had a great plan uh for third downs in this game. Well, one of the nice things about it is they don’t have any any single guy up front that’s like, “Okay, he’s the guy.” So So Scheme is not going to be dicted. You know how when you got a great wide receiver, you force the ball to him. Like it doesn’t [ __ ] matter. We’re going to call the best call. It doesn’t matter if Walker’s going to drop in coverage, if it’s going to be Pierce, if it’s going to be, you know, any of these guys. Like, we’re just going to make the best call. We’re going to make the most aggressive call. And and, you know, to put a bow on the thing with Atlanta, like we haven’t said Bejian Robinson’s name so far in this breakdown. It’s almost self-evident like at this point how much of a problem he is. um in the passing game as well. The way he pulls coverage out of the hook zones and and and opens up, you know, uh space in the middle of the field, it it just and Pennix is ripping the ball. Pennix is ripping the ball. The throw he made to London, he ripped that ball in the red zone. So, you know, like first takes going to lead this morning and probably led with what’s wrong with the Bills. What’s wrong with the Bills is everybody’s [ __ ] hurt and their defense wasn’t that good to begin with. Mhm. Okay. So, like if if they’re going to do it, they’re going to have to outscore some people unless they make a big move at the deadline and get a lot better safety play or and I think they need more than one move if if we’re being honest defensively. Um it just is what it is. But I’m not going to first take you guys and I want Falcons fans who are in here to know this. You’re a [ __ ] you got a good [ __ ] football team and and that that to me is the lead last night. You know, I I hate the fact that everybody leads with what’s wrong with the Bills, and we did it, too. But the Fal the Falcons were predictably a tough matchup for that group. And it does remind you of last year when like Josh goes down to Houston. Demo Ryan’s another cover three dominant team in down in Houston. And I think that was on the heels of the Baltimore game and he has these hangovers. Like this team just they take a minute to get out of the funk. The good thing for them is they got the byee coming up. They can get some guys healthy and they need guys to hurry up and get back. Yeah. I I I I thought one thing that stuck out, Chris, just the difference in Baltimore while we touch on them in the New England game and I’m not a you know, you got to have this or you know immediate response. It it does show they they needed a number one. That’s the first time I said it in two years. Yeah. That they haven’t had one. And then even last night, you know, it just gets so uh, you know, in the in the moment it gets so blown out of proportion because you’re down two scores on the road. That place hasn’t had a Monday night game in forever. The place is rocking and things, you know, in in in a microscope, everything’s bigger and that and it just stuck out again. So, to your point, I think they’ll be a lot better uh, you know, when everybody does get healthy. They know what the goal is. I thought, you know, going into the New England game, I thought a loss was a good thing. You don’t want any more of this extra pressure that you already have on you as far as people’s talking about undefeated and all that nonsense. So, it’s it’s it’s good. You you’re humbled going into a buy. You have guys that you’ve done it before. They really need to get the O line going because the balance of Cook uh I believe doesn’t get talked about enough because of how much everybody likes Josh. But when you can run the ball and he’s as elusive as anybody and you can throw him the ball too, that’s it’s an extension of the run game and that’s helps any offense. But uh yeah, I I don’t want to take any more credit away from Atlanta and the defensive plan. It was awesome.

The Atlanta Falcons showed up on Monday Night Football and punched the Buffalo Bills in the mouth, proving their a solid football team and a contender, not just in the NFC South but in the NFC as a whole. Chris and Stanford Steve break down the Falcons defense, the connection between Michael Penix Jr and Drake London, Bijan Robinson’s impact and where the Falcons can go from here after a dominant display.

HELLO, Locals! Green Light is hosted by Chris Long and is joined weekly by Beau Allen, Nate ‘Dr. Fax’ Collins, Macon Gunter, Stanford Steve + many more athletes and celebrity guests. Subscribe to get in-depth analysis, instant reactions and team highlights | Presented by BetMGM

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