Week 7: Atlanta Falcons at San Fransisco 49ers | Atlanta Falcons Pregame Show

Week 7: Atlanta Falcons at San Fransisco 49ers | Atlanta Falcons Pregame Show

Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, let’s go. Here’s [Music] Pan Robinson. Touchdown Atlanta. There’s nothing they takes around. Touchdown Atlanta. Tight London. Mike gets a foul. Looks Mike Tuck. Oh my goodness. Welcome to the game to Darl. Darnell Mooney inside the 10. It’s intercepted. Kate Ellis the pick. String out Jesse. Touchdown Atlanta. No chance. Oh my gosh. Oh my heavens. Well, the Falcons had a statement win last week over the Bills in week six. Now they travel across the country to take on their oldest rival in the NFC and the San Francisco 49ers. It’s Sunday Night Football and we’re back at Ticketmaster Studios. Thank you guys for joining us for the Falcons pregame show presented by Ticketmaster Taylor Vizmore and Rack is back. He’s back with me across the table from me obviously. Thank you, Will, for filling in for him last week. For the Bills, but you were on the call last week and what a game it was to call, right? It was absolutely it was great. I mean, listen, NFL is such a great product. It’s like any game, specifically prime time games, like you can always find such an intriguing storyline and you just never know in the National Football League. Pull up the scores. Uh who is going to win any given matchup, right? You look at some of the teams that you didn’t expect to have great seasons and all of a sudden they’re turning around. I mean, that’s what’s glorious about this sport, about the National Football League. But, uh, yes, I was on the call, but I’m happy to be back in studio. Well, glad that you’re here with us. you bring up that they every week there’s always really great story lines and it seems like for this Falcons offense the story line that keeps popping up is Bjon Robinson I mean this guy’s having maybe a career year he’s had a career year really every year since he’s become an NFL player obviously now he is on pace to reach 2700 plus scrimmage yards this season which would place him above greats like Chris Johnson and of course Adrien Peterson when you hear those names I mean it’s just incredible what he’s been able to do so far in just three seasons yeah I mean it is, but it’s like every time I watch him, like those names don’t seem out of the reach at all because of what he’s able to do each and every week on the field. Um, it’s just special. Like he is he is a next level player for all the things. I had some conversations over the last week or two with some people and they’re asking me about Bjon Robinson. What does he do good? And I said, honestly, I’ve yet to find something that he doesn’t do well. Yeah. Right. like it’s it’s he is he has turned into the total package, right, for what he can do on the football field. Obviously, he can run it. He’s got the speed. He’s got the cutting ability, which everybody has found out. He’s got the lower body strength to break tackles. He can catch the ball to the back field almost looks seamless like a wide receiver. He can protect and pass protection. I I literally have not found anything that he doesn’t do extremely well. I mean, maybe if you broke it down, you could say, “Yeah, he could be a better pass protector.” Maybe. Is that why you draft a guy in the first round is to be a pass protector? Probably not. You want an electric playmaker on offense and he checks all the boxes. Yeah. Well, he might check all the boxes for you, but Raheem Morris thinks that he is the best player in the NFL. He’s doubled down. He’s tripled down. I mean, he is standing on that um ground of Bjan Robinson is the best player in football. And look, he’s kind of put the NFL on notice since he’s gotten here with his ability to make defenders miss. And people have said it’s really an art. It’s really the art of the juke. I knew that God gave me a gift to like to juke people out and to do all my moves that I do. Like just how I see it is, you know, when when I react, I really play off reaction. So, I’m a big reactive guy. Like, I don’t I don’t set anything up. I don’t wait for defenders to, you know, come in my vision. I I just it just goes all off of reaction. First started playing tackle football at 7 years old. I played flat football for like a year and you know it was it wasn’t really juking. It was more just me like running straight just using my speed going past kids. But then first play they were like all right let’s see like let’s see what he got. There was two defenders that like came just like right across uh the middle and I saw them immediately and they just came in my square and I just like shoot them out both at the same time. Everybody was like going crazy. Everybody was like, “What?” Like all the kids were like, “No way.” Like after practice, he came and uh like me, I never seen that move from a kid before. We’re going to play you at running back. Go fan [Applause] Robinson. The art of the juke is now available on Falcons YouTube and website. Go watch that feature. It’s great. Shout out to Jenny Ross for the edit. And then obviously Tory Mhaney wrote a piece on it kind of going into the sports science of how he makes the juke work and why and how he’s kind of the the build of Bjon and how he’s able to do so. And as we kind of said earlier, he’s becoming a name that could be talked about with those greats. So I thought it would be fun before we kind of recap the bills really fast. Who are the greats? You know, I don’t know if you watch many podcasts like I do, but I watch a lot and it’s become a trend to do a Mount Rushmore of whatever it might be. So, let’s do the Mount Rushmore of running backs. You can start or I can start. Doesn’t matter. You Are you ready? I’m ready. Yeah. Why don’t you start? All right. I’ll start. Fine. Fine. Twist my arm. All right. So, obviously, I’m going to start with LT. Obviously, legend in the game. And then Adrien Peterson. I mentioned him earlier. He’s I mean, Bjan Robinson’s on track to have that 2700 yards from scrimmage to replace Adrien Peterson in that as well. Um Emtt Smith, I don’t think you can talk about running backs without Emit Smith in it, right? You can’t talk about the Cowboys and their franchise without Emtts Smith. You can’t talk about Troy Aman and those other guys on that team. And then I’ll bring someone in that’s in the fold that’s on an active roster, Saquon Barkley. I could kind of talk about him for a while. I think that he should have won the MVP last year. He should have been a bigger name in the MVP race last year. I think you can kind of plug and play him on any team and they’re going to become a Super Bowl contender or a playoff conversation of a team whether it was with the Giants or obviously last year with the Eagles. Obviously, they won a Super Bowl. I think he should have been more in that conversation. Not that Josh Allen doesn’t deserve the MVP, but Saquon should have been That’s what you’re saying. That’s not what you’re saying. I’m not saying that he doesn’t deserve it. I’m just saying that I think I think Saquon deserved it as well. You know, I think he is the most valuable player. He is a fantastic player and we obviously got a chance to hear him quoting Bejian Robinson and saying himself that nobody cuts like him and so it’s like when game respects game. Um so I think it you got great numbers, great um selections, okay, for your Mount Rushmore. There’s so many running backs that you could pick if we’re talking about the history of the game. And I think this is fun to do this Mount Rushmore, but you also have to kind of temper it to say that John Robinson is his third season in the National Football League. So he’s got a ways to go. Okay. But if I’m going to follow up on that, I want to make sure I understand or or I let you all know that I had a couple of call it prerequisites, if you will. And for me, it was guys that I actually had a chance to see. So, I’m not going to go back to like the Jim Browns of the world because I didn’t have a chance to watch him play. But I also wanted to make sure that I put out guys that I felt like were similar in style, right? What makes Bejon so special is how elusive he is and his ability to catch out of the back field. So, those are a couple of the prerequisites into my four Mount Rushmore. And in my opinion, you cannot talk about a Mount Rushmore without talking about Barry Sanders. To me, if you want to talk about the elusive running back, maybe the most elusive running back of all time, it starts and it stops for now. Dejon Robinson, sorry. Uh, with Barry Sanders, his ability to make people miss, his shake ability uh was unheard of, right? And you look at some of these numbers, 10 straight seasons, all of them over,00 yards rushing. Nine over,300 yards rushing and five of them over 1,500 yards rushing. The man was truly special. My next one is Marshall Faulk. I got a chance to play against him. Fortunately, I didn’t play on defense because he would have made me look silly much like Van Robinson does. Five seasons with 80 plus receptions. You want to talk about a guy that had the ability to catch the ball out of the back field. Kind of set the standard on how you a running back turns into a wide receiver, the greatest show on turf, obviously 12 years in the National Football League. He won uh an MVP, two-time offensive player of the year, and of course, he’s in the Hall of Fame. Number three, I’m with you, Leenian Tomlinson. Same type of scenario here. Eight straight seasons to start his career, okay? Over,00 yards rushing. Um he was fantastic when he came into the league. nine straight season of double-digit rushing touchdowns. Think about that. 10 or more, nine straight seasons to start his career was just fantastic. And then I’m going to tie this back into our game right now because I’m going to say that Dejon Robinson is much like Christian McCaffrey. He is in that conversation as well from what he’s been able to do as a running back, but also showing how difference maker he can be catching the ball out of the backfield. Two seasons with over a hundred catches. Okay. and Christian McAffrey already 46 receptions this year through six games. So those to me were guys that were elusive that did it over uh the test of time but also that great receiver out of the backfield which is what we’re seeing from Robinson. Exactly. We’ll talk about Christian McCaffrey a little bit later in this show, but something to note about Robinson and McCaffrey is they actually trained together this off seasonason. I I’ve heard it was for about a month they were together out in California learning from each other, trying to emulate each other in a way. So, it’s going to be interesting to see how the two run from the back um from out of the back field tonight with their respective teams. But before we get to the night, kind of staying with the Bjon Robinson of it all, let’s talk about this Falcons offense last week on Monday Night Football because I thought, you know, everyone kind of felt like this was a solidifying win that now everyone knows that the Falcons are here and they are a playoff team and and they’re a force to be reckoned with. And while I agree on all those things, I also feel like that win on Monday night was more of a building block because of the offense, right? They had a really great first half. They didn’t have the greatest second half. They just kind of stayed afloat throughout the second half. And I can read those stats a little bit later, but throughout the offense, it was really the Michael Penn, Bjan Robinson, and Drake Clinton. Joe, what did you take away from the offense last week? Yeah, I mean, I would agree with you. I think those three players um they had fantastic games and those are the things that you want when you think about this as uh first round draft picks and them producing right and you could throw Kyle Pitts into the conversation as well but these are these are first round draft picks for the Atlanta Falcons that had huge games in a huge moment against the reigning MVP and that’s what you want when you make the investments in these type of players is you want to see them continue to mature in your uniform but then show up in the biggest moments and that’s exactly what they did offensively. Think about the first drive, five plays, 69 yards, 2 minutes and 45 seconds off the clock, boom, they go right down the field in a national spotlight, put a touchdown on the board. Like that’s the fast start that you’re looking for offensively when you take the football. But then outside of that, think about what they did. Five of 12 on third down. So they con they were able to convert. They were able to string drives together, which I actually thought was one of the keys to the game is keep Josh Allen on the sidelines. like limit the amount of times that he can touch the football. They were able to do that. One to turnover margin 2. How about protecting the football? You can win a lot of football games when you don’t turn it over on offense. And when you get takeaways on defense, 210 rushing yards as well. And how about the balance? 32 rushes, 32 passes in the game. They were able to keep this Buffalo Bills defense on their heels. Not sure what they were going to do. and Michael Penn continued to just take advantage of what the defense was giving him, whether it was a checkdown, whether it was taking a shot downfield. Yeah, to kind of bring up those stats I was bringing up earlier. In the first half, they had over 300 total yards, 168 rushing yards, and 167 receiving yards. They had 21 points in the first half, but then in the second half, it was a totally different story. They had 82 rushing yards and 83 receiving yards, and they only had three points on the board. The defense is what really kept them afloat. the defense on Monday, they blitzed Josh Allen 55.9% of his drop backs, which is the highest blitz rate Josh Allen has seen. What did you take away from the defense being able to play all four quarters and really keep this Falcons team in it all game long? Yeah, I mean, it was it was a great game plan, I thought, because you got to put pressure on the quarterback, right? Like make Josh Allen get think about things quicker, right? Get the ball out of his hands quicker, make quicker decisions to get out, which that’s actually what he does the best, right? is his ability to extend plays, keep his eyes downfield, but then when he sees a big gap open up, he’s going to tuck it down and run with it because of his size mismatch against so many of the defensive players. But Jeff Obi stayed true to what he wanted to do. Continued to bring pressure, disguise the look. So sometimes there was pressure with people dropping out. They could be in a zone, right? But to me, that was how you end up attacking the Buffalo Bills. And Atlanta put it out there to say if you’re going to slow down Josh Allen, this might be one of the ways to do it. Now, sometimes it’s a gamble, Taylor, because you’re a lot of times going to put yourself in man coverage behind him, right? Which if you don’t get to the quarterback, then you’re going to end up finding man-to-man coverage, and that’s when guys get open, right? But think about what they were able to do defensively, okay? They gave up a touchdown on the opening drive of the game to Buffalo. They gave a touchdown the first drive of the third quarter. Okay? Outside of that, the other drives Buffalo had offensively was six punts, two interceptions, and one turnover on downs. That is fantastic defense right there. There wasn’t a field goal in there. There wasn’t another touchdown that was in there outside of the first drive in the first half, the first drive in the second half. It was all defense shutting him down. And what else did we see? The frustration from Josh Allen. How many times did he go to the sidelines and he threw his helmet down, he put his hat on almost like he wanted to go fuss somebody out, but he didn’t because he’s a great teammate. But that was the frustration that they caused for him. Yeah. Defense kept Josh Allen under 200 yards last week. And it was his ninth time in his NFL career that he’s had backto-back losses. I mean, frankly stated, Josh Allen does not lose backtoback. And the fact that Jeffrey and this defense was able to continuously pressure him, continuously get him on his heels, continuously put them in third in long situations and get them off the field quickly really helped. I mean, obviously now the defense for this Atlanta Falcons team, they’re number one in the NFL and the Falcons offense is number two in the NFL, respectively. So, kind of going on that, I mean, obviously with the enormous win with the Bills, if that’s what you we want to call it, everyone in the media is like, “Wow, the Falcons, they’re a team. Wow, we kind of forgot about the Falcons. Here they and and people have been saying there’s a vibe in the building. You can tell on the field when they’re playing to all their keys. When you have a number one overall defense and a number two overall offense, there’s got to be a specific vibe that’s happening in the building. And I can attest to it because I am in the building every day. There is a vibe and it’s this vibe of we are here to win. We know that we have playmakers at really every single position on both sides of the ball. Even on special teams, on all three paces of the ball, we’ve got premier players at these positions. And if we can all work together and do our jobs while helping the other person across from us, we can be a major force to be reckoned with in the NFL. Taylor, I don’t know if there’s any statistics out there. I don’t know what the number is as far as how much of this game is mental versus physical. Okay, we all know that the game of NFL, the game of football is specifically in the National Football League because everybody is fantastic. Yes, it is a very physical game. Okay, if you’re not big, if you’re not strong, if you’re not fast, if you’re not quick, if you don’t have elite talent, you will not succeed. However, all 32 teams in the National Football League have that in some way, shape, or form. But it gets back to the mental side. And again, that’s what I’m talking about. Whether it’s 10%, whether it’s well, I should say more like 90% or 93 or 95 or 99, I don’t know what the number is, but it’s mental. And what I mean by that is your belief on whether or not you can win every single game that you play. Yeah. And not only that, it’s the confidence that you have in your teammates. How much trust do you have in your teammates that they’re going to go out and they’re going to be where you want them to be on every single play? That they’re going to make the plays that they’re supposed to. Uh but it’s going into every matchup saying we can compete with this team. We can win against this team. All we got to do is go play our game instead of thinking about what’s going to happen with Josh Allen or what’s going to happen with Baker Mayfield or what’s going to happen with Jaden Daniels. I know he didn’t play that game, but when you start thinking about other players on the team and what they might do to beat you, like you’ve kind of already almost beat, right? You’re thinking about somebody else and not how you’re going to execute. And I think that’s what we’ve seen the past two wins for Atlanta is the belief against the Commanders, the belief against Buffalo that they can go in and beat those teams and they did. Yeah, I got to sit down with Drake London earlier in the week and we kind of recap the game from last week and then then we kind of start to look forward at the at the week ahead of us. So, obviously looking back at Buffalo, looking towards Santa um Santa Clara, San Francisco, excuse me. And um I asked him about how do you kind of let this win go, but and by not riding the high and and just focusing on the win, but how do you turn the page and how do you look forward to an NFC matchup in San Francisco 49ers? And he said, “Well, you look, you look to your left and you look to your right and you say, “That was great. Well, we got to do it all again. We have to continue to prove every single week that we are a team and we are a force to be reckoned with in the NFL. And I it seems like Drake, I mean, he’s becoming a leader in the locker room and and he believes it. And if you have a guy like him or like Kyle Pittz, who I spoke to a couple weeks ago, said this around the same thing. If you have these leaders who have been part of these offenses for a long time here in Atlanta believing in that week in and week out with these major matchups on prime time, I mean, it’s going to be a fun night to watch them play tonight in Santa Clara. Yeah, Drake’s a wide receiver and he doesn’t touch the football every play. He might touch the football, let’s call it six times, maybe 10 times a game if it’s a really good game for him. But I do think that because he is so infectious in the way that he plays, he can be one of those guys that kind of everybody else feeds off of him, right? It could just be a devastating block for Bjan Robinson when he gets outside and gets out on the perimeter, right? It could be that block that springs him. Um, so there are so many different areas that Drake London can be a differencemaker. Bjon Robinson, Michael Penn, I know he’s a little bit more quiet, but what he’s been able to do and the element that he brings, it’s like this team now is showing up to every game and saying, “We got weapons that we can compete.” And it’s like, it’s not so much about everybody else. It’s like, how are they going to stop the guys that we’ve got? Like, how are you going to slow down Drake London, Kyle Pittz, uh, Bejian Robinson, and Michael Penn? How are you going to slow down all four of those guys with the offensive line in front of them that’s been put together and groomed and played together the the amount of games that they have? So that’s what other teams are have to start thinking about. But it is it’s consistency, right? Like how many times can Atlanta stack these positive performances together. I’m not saying that they’ve got to go out and beat every team by 20 or 30 points. This is a National Football League. That’s not reality. But it’s consistent play, meaning pass rush shows up. You win at the line of scrimmage. You don’t turn the football over. You catch the balls that you’re supposed to. Those are the things that you’re looking for week in and week out. Can we control what we can control? And I think that’s what a lot of people just want to see from Atlanta every single week. Yeah, you bring up that some defense, some teams and defenses specifically are now thinking, okay, how do we stop Atlanta? And they’ve got a tall task tonight in San Francisco because they had 19 players on the injury report this week. 19. I think Taran Walk, who’s on our editorial team, she said it’s a third of the 50man roster on the injury report. Obviously, both quarterbacks, A Jones and Brock Party were on the inactives report, but we’re talking about defense. Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, major names, not just in for San Francisco, but in the NFL, major names in the NFL. They will not be active tonight. They will not be playing, but those guys will be out for the season. How does the N or NFL, how does the Atlanta Falcons, how do they capitalize on these players not being able to play tonight on the defensive side of the ball? Yeah, you talked about Nick Bosa. He was hurt earlier in the year, so that’s not really a surprise to this point about not being in a lineup. However, when you don’t have one of the leagues, call it over the last five or six years, more feared pass rushers in the game, it it is a little bit of sigh of relief for an offense, right? It’s one less truly um let’s dynamic pass rusher that you have to worry about slowing down. Okay, but I think Fred Warner is the bigger discussion here because he is hands down the leader of that defense. Not only that, but he was also the leading tackler as well. So, his production matches his leadership as well. So, they’re not going to have him because of the injury that he ended up going down with, had surgery this week. He’s going to be out likely for the rest of the season. Okay. So, what does it look like outside of Fred Warner? Well, they’re going to have a younger player in Tatum Bthoon that’s likely going to step up and take his place. Well, what do we know about Tatum Bthoon? We know that Robert Solo, the defensive coordinator, is extremely excited about what he can bring to the table, that he plays with a ton of confidence, that he knows the defense, that he’s ready for this moment. He even said back in OTAAS, Fred Werner wasn’t even participating. And so Tatum Bthoon got a lot of the reps with the ones at that time. It’s all fine and dandy, but this is now the actual game, right? And so he said one of the things that he’s just going to need is reps, right? Well, the problem is it might be till week 13 to where he truly gets comfortable, right? So why do I bring up a specific linebacker that’s filling in for Fred Warner, right? Well, I think it goes back to Zack Robinson. And now, how do you find ways to scheme to where you can get him lined up with Kyle Pittz, where you can get him man-to-man with Bjan Robinson coming out of the back field? And then you can truly see where his confidence level is at, where he is trying to slow down one of the most dynamic playmakers in the National Football League. That’s how from a coaching staff perspective, from a scheme standpoint, how you take advantage of one really good player not being in the lineup. Yeah, you bring up Kyle Pittz, but also how about the matchup with him and Charlie Warner? I mean, if you if you match him up with Charlie Warner, then you’ve got Kyle Pittson in the field. You got Bajan Robinson. All these guys are able to be pass catchers on those plays that Charlie Warner can kind of lock down that linebacker. But something else to note for this Falcons offense. Darnell Mooney will be active today. He was active last week against the Buffalo Bills. This is a bigger um get back for the Falcons offense because obviously we mentioned it briefly uh for the Bills game is it was really the Michael Penn, Bjon Robinson, and Drake London show. And while that was great for them and their numbers and their statistics, I don’t know that it was it’s very um you can’t really lay on that for 12 more weeks in the National Football League. People will figure it out pretty quickly. So, how does Darnell Mooney coming back? Obviously, as the player that he is, but how does he help the offense as a whole with having more options on this? Well, it’s it’s a guy that you feel comfortable with. You know that he can win man-to-man matchups. He brings some downfield threat to your offense. But I think it’s a great point because as good as we talk about that Bills matchup from Monday night. Think about this. There was 20 pass completions in that game for Atlanta. 19 of them 19 went to London, Robinson, and Pitts. Okay. So then you just think about well what if Robert Salah really savvy defensive coordinator puts together a game plan and he says you know what I don’t really care what else happens but Drake London is not going to beat us or Bjon Robinson coming out of the backfield is not going to beat us right and so he is maybe he does double teams all the time whatever it is whatever his game plan is you’ve got to be able to counter with different personnel if they take away a part of your game so if there was one thing that I would say coming out of the Buffalo game is you got to more people step up, right? And so maybe it is Darnell Mooney. Maybe he’s now back up to speed. Maybe he’s got his little bit more health back and maybe he’s got the confidence back to where we can see Darnell Mooney from 2024 because outside of that, it was going to be a Casey Washington, a David Sills. How are we going to be able to combat if they take away Drake, if they take away Robinson in the passing game coming out of the backfield? Because that very well could happen, right? So maybe this is the perfect time for Moody to get back in the lineup. Yeah, and I know that Drake has become this national name for wide receivers in a way for the Falcons. And obviously, he’s so good at getting those contested catches, the 50-50 balls. He’s going to get out there and he’s going to do it. And watching and knowing Drake, um, he’s a different person on the field. It’s almost like I don’t know who you are and you kind of scare me. Yes. Like you’re a little scary. Um, but something that Mooney can do really well that helps Drake in his game as well is Mooney can stretch the field. He can flip the field quickly um because of his speed. And so being having him back out on the field tonight is going to be really helpful for Michael Penn and the rest of this offense. Obviously, you bring up other guys that are probably going to have to step up in if they decide to go with three wide receivers with Kyle Pittz just being the singular tight end. And if they do, it’s going to be guys like Cadrell Hodge or Casey Washington or even David Sis and Zach Robinson spoke about other wide receivers in this room who are going to have to step up throughout the season. Yeah, I think we we need to continue to get um solid play out of the whole group. um you know, hoping to get, you know, Mooney back um at some point here soon. Um but, you know, the guys have stepped in. I thought David Sills did a great job last week. I know he ended up not getting an opportunity um with the football, but um blocking away from the ball. He did a great job assignment sound. Um you know, Tai’s first touchdown run. He’s blocking in the end zone and and ultimately leads us to score as opposed to the ball being down at the two or three yard line. So, all those little details showed up for Sills last week. And um Casey’s a guy that, you know, continues to progress. know he didn’t get a ton of ops either last week, but um you know looking for those guys to just keep building um knowing that shoot there’s going to be a game where a Drake’s taken away, KP’s taken away, b you know who’s that next guy that can step up and uh we feel good with all those guys and and just look forward to seeing them kind of progress throughout the season. All right, so Zach Robinson’s kind of on the same wavelength with us. If if you only have three players that can catch the ball, they’re going to take away those three three players quickly. So going to need to have some other wide receivers step up in that room. We’ll see what happens tonight with the wide receiver room. But something with the wide receivers and being able to flip the field. You got to give them time and you got to give your quarterback a good pocket. And I mean last week there was a big question mark over this offensive line because Jake Matthews left the game before the half and he did not return. And all throughout the week he was questionable for this game. He is good to go. So he will keep his consecutive starting record. He will hit 185 consecutive starts tonight. Obviously, the Falcons were able to maintain their win against the Bills once Jake left, but having him back, what does that mean for this offensive line and the offense as a whole? Yeah, it’s consistency up front, which is so huge, right? I mean, just knowing how how each of these guys plays off of each other, knowing their communication with each other, and then just knowing that if he gets a one-on-one matchup, he’s got a pretty darn good chance of winning it. Um, it was one of those things where I came out saying from Buffalo into San Francisco to me was actually the biggest question mark and because I understand the importance of the success up front, not only to the running game with these two dynamic backs that Atlanta has, but to the passing game with Michael Penn and being able to pick apart a defense is consistency on the offensive line. But you start to think about it, this dude is such an iron man, right? like he’s got this ankle injury and you hear from Raheem and you kind of kind try to read through some of his comments and and it’s like you know what this guy’s gonna play like he’s gonna go out there and he’s gonna play I don’t know how many rolls of tape he’s going to have on this ankle but that’s what you want because not only is that something that you can count on but like the guys are going to feed off of him like this guy is not going to let an ankle injury um affect how the rest of our season’s going to go, how his play is going to go. um this streak means so much to him and not just because it’s a number, but because it means he’s out there for his teammates and he’s competing for this organization and it means a ton. Uh so to somebody that spent so much time in um offensive meetings and offensive line meetings when I was playing tight end for the Atlanta Falcons, knowing the importance of having just a stud up front and his want to his want to to be on the field with his teammates to me is impressive. Yeah, it’s always fun to watch these guys go to work as an offensive line and this unit specifically because they’ve played so many snaps together. I mean, going into Buffalo, they were the only unit to play 100% of the offensive snaps together. Obviously, that changed when he left the game in this in the second quarter. But something about Dick Matthews, I mean, Will McFaten said it um I said I think earlier in the weekend, he was like, I have watched this Falcons team for as long as I can remember. I’ve watched them growing up. I It’s hard to remember a time when Jake Matthews was not on the team. like he’s been here for a long time. It’s like his 12th or 13th season. I can’t remember which which one it is, but um I think it should be 13th. I think he’s a year behind Kirk. But um he’s from Texas. He’s a rub your the dirt in it kind of guy. So kind of coming into this game, I had the same thought of like I will be really shocked and almost I’ll be more worried if he doesn’t play. That to me that says something more about he’s more injured than they led us on to believe. And for him to be able to play tonight and hopefully play all four quarters is going to be huge for this team, especially still having a green quarterback in Michael Penn. I know that he’s done really well the last couple of games, but when you’ve got someone on as your left tackle and he’s played 185 games, I can pretty much count on that he’s going to be there for me and I can count on Makes the quarterback feel a lot more comfortable and breathe a little bit easier. Yes. And something to remember too, he and Chris Lindstrom both, they’re team captains. So having a captain leave the team as well and not be able to play, it puts a damper on things. Even though Chris is part of that offensive line, too. But let’s kind of transition now and talk about speaking of quarterbacks and having a good offensive line. Let’s talk about the quarterback position for the San Francisco 49ers. Obviously, Brock Perie was coming into the season the bonafide starter for the San Francisco 49ers team. He ended up getting hurt. And now M. Jones, who’s kind of been a journeyman as of recently in the NFL, he has gotten four starts. He’ll make his fifth night with the 49ers. and he’s kind of kind of made a new name for himself in the NFL. He’s played really well um under the San Francisco 49ers offense. Yeah. I mean, I think Kyle Shanahan’s probably really pleased with the way that his backup quarterback has come in and kept them competitive so far. I mean, you look at M Jones, you got to remember that he was a former 15th overall pick, right? So, this is not a guy that was like a sixthrounder that’s just been bouncing around the league. Like, he was a 15th overall pick and he did some pretty fantastic things when he was in college. But I mean the what he’s been able to do and think about what they have done with him. I went back and I looked at the numbers, Taylor. He’s averaged 42 pass attempts a game when he’s been in there. So this has not been Kyle Shanahan saying we’re going to game manage until Brock Party gets back. He Kyle Shanahan doesn’t operate that way. And if that’s the best way that our team has a chance to win is by throwing the football, that’s what they’re going to do. Six touchdowns, three interceptions. Um did have a couple of them last week. Uh of course against Tampa, had six sacks as well. That’s the one thing is even though he’s shown a little bit of ability to keep plays alive, he has been sacked a lot and which is an area where Atlanta has improved this year is getting after the quarterback. So still going to be very important for them to get after M. Jones. We didn’t really talk about it, but George KD does come back. With all the injuries that San Francisco has had, there are going to get their dynamic Pro Bowl tight end back in the lineup, which is going to be huge for them. They’re going to feel a boost there because they haven’t really had any dynamic receiving threats that have been healthy the last couple of weeks, but they will get George KD back. Um, so M. Jones has got another target out there. I think he’s been doing a very admirable job kind of keeping them competitive. Ability to put points on the board, ability to put the ball through the air even with this cast of characters that he’s got throwing to. Yeah, it’s been a really interesting week because he and Brock were both on the injury report coming into this game and it’s like, well, they both can’t be out. I mean, maybe that they have an emergency third quarterback. I don’t know who that would even be, but that was a big question mark coming into this game. Who will start? Will it be Brock? Will it be M. Jones? And honestly, which ones do the Falcons prefer? If you’re the defense, how do you scheme up against two quarterbacks that seem to be different? But, uh, defensive coordinator Jeff Olber seems to think that these two quarterbacks have a lot of similarities. I I think honestly they’re very similar in entities. They’re both good quarterbacks. you know, I fortunately haven’t had experience against Max. Jones um playing against him with the Patriots for I think we saw him two two or three times and um I was always I always left those games very impressed with the quarterback that he is and he doesn’t get enough credit for the athleticism that he has, the mobility that he has. He is uh so in my opinion, him and Pury are very similar, very similar players. You know, you got to prepare in very much the same way. And obviously Kyle’s going to feature them in similar ways as well. So, um, not a whole lot there. And then I and I really believe that the young tight end they have is he’s an ascending player that, you know, he can he can catch the ball. He’s he’s excellent as a receiver. Um, he can provide some matchup problems, especially you put him on a on a linebacker. So, and the McAffrey McAffrey. So, they are banged up a bit, but you know, especially with Bourne coming on, they’re they’re it feels like they’re at full strength right now from an offensive perspective. And I know they’re not completely full strength, but they’re they’re they’re going to be a challenge. All right. So, Jeff Alber giving both of the quarterbacks their flowers and obviously giving um the tight end, the backup tight end, Jake Tong just his flowers as well, but obviously we’re going to see a little bit more of George KD. How much of more of an edge does this offense have now having Christian McCaffrey and George KD um on this offense? I mean, it gives him just another dynamic receiving threat. Like, George KD is not just a tight end. like he’s in that same realm as the Kyle Pitts of the world, the Travis Kelce of the world, the truly like hybrid type tight end, right? Like he’s he’s almost a wide receiver, okay? The way that he can get around the field, but the the size just creates mismatches for different players on the defense. So, he is a challenge that he brings. But we talk about Tomas, he did a really good job kind of keeping things together, keep bringing that tight end production while George KD was out. I mean, 25 catches, 224 yards, and three touchdowns. This is a guy that had played in four NFL games prior to this stretch where he’s had to really step up his level of play. So, they’ve gotten some production out of that position. Again, we talked about so many wide receivers have been out, but I think he’s definitely they get a boost offensively. When you got McAffrey and you got George KD in the game, that’s going to make M. Jones a little bit uh more comfortable in the passing game. Yeah. Something else to know. I know that you we mentioned it earlier, M. Jones has been sacked 11 times in only four games. And something interesting about Jeff Olrich is he’s mentioned, I know that we’ve been blitzing a lot. Last week they blitzed Josh Allen 55.9% of the times on his drop backs. He says, “I don’t actually want to blitz that much. I would actually just prefer to rush four and just do a straight pass rush and get to the quarterback.” So, this could be an opportunity tonight for that defense to kind of work just rushing four and getting to the quarterback because M. Jones has been proven to hold on to the ball a little bit longer and that’s what’s led to his 11 sacks. So maybe we’ll we will see that more tonight in this defensive pass rush. Let’s go ahead and get to the keys to the game presented by Wells Fargo. You’ve got three for me tonight. Go ahead. I got three. I’m going to start with the first one. And uh Christian McAffrey cannot dominate. Okay. This has got to be a game. We know how dynamic this player is, but he cannot dominate. You remember the game that Bjan Robinson had last week against the Buffalo Bills? That cannot be the performance that we see from Christian McCaffrey. Now, what I will tell you is that Christian McCaffrey will get his, okay? He is that good of a player. But to me, if it’s like a let’s call it 95 total yards in a touchdown, you can live with that, right? But he has got the ability to get 200 yards and three touchdowns, and that is not out of his realm at all. So, it’s got to be minimize the damage that you get from Christian McCaffrey, and that’s going to be come from execution. That’s going to come from game plan and scheme. And that’s going to come from all 11 players because Kyle Shanahan’s going to be very creative in how he ends up creating matchups for Christian McCaffrey and how they feel like they can end up attacking this Atlanta defense. So, don’t let him beat you. Number two, turnover differential I think is a huge one, especially when you go on the road in these National Spotlight games. Atlanta’s been doing a great job in that department this year, plus three on the season. That’s ninth in the National Football League. If they can continue that same theme in this game, it’s going to give them a great chance. But if they get off to a couple of turnovers or they’re trying to get back into a game in the second half for whatever reason because it’s tight, you end up throwing an interception that can derail everything, right? So, it’s obviously ball security and offense, but how about some takeaways on defense? Let’s see some more interceptions just like we ended up seeing last week. And finally, win the line of scrimmage. A lot of these keys I could tell you each and every week, but winning the line of scrimmage on offense, which means giving Michael Pennock time to throw the football, opening up holes for Bejian Robinson, Tyler Algier, that’s offensively. And then defense, as you talked about, maybe it’s just rushing four. Maybe that ends up being the game plan more, but can you win with four up front? Can you get in the face of M. Jones, push him off of his mark, force him to get rid of the football quickly, or maybe it’s just you bring pressure, but you win at the line of scrimmage and make things difficult. I think all those were on display last week against Buffalo and something just need to carry over week to week. Yeah, something to mention about that winning the turnover margin. Last week the San Francisco 49ers had two turnovers against Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both of those turnovers turned into points. Tampa um had 10 points on their turnovers. So capitalizing on the turnovers, not just getting them, but getting points on the board from them will be huge for the Falcons tonight. All right, time for my preference. Obviously, he texted me last week about my preference, and he liked my preference last week. waiting for the music, right? And it worked. I I said, “Let it fly for Michael Phoenix,” and he did it. Let it fly. All right. So, I know we talked about it earlier in the show, but my preference tonight will be to prove them wrong. Maybe prove me wrong. I don’t know. The national media, I guess, because here’s the thing. Everyone has been talking about, “Wow, maybe the Falcons are maybe the Falcons are a playoff team.” But there’s always that but with the Falcons, it feels like, but what about week three? What about that 30 to0 loss against the K uh the Carolina Panthers last week and or in week three? And a lot of people have have noticed that this week in week seven is very similar to what it was going into week three. Obviously, you had this big win on his uh prime time stage against the Vikings. Then you go on the road and you play the Carolina Panthers. Same thing here. Had the big win on prime time against the Bills. Now going across the country to play the San Francisco 49ers. I’ve talked to a lot of players and they’ve all said, “We are a playoff team.” team. I know that we are. We all know that we are. And I think obviously the Commanders, it was a game that we had the Falcons had to snap back. They had to they had to win that game. And then for the bye-week, you you had the whole buy to really prepare for the Bills. You had over a week and a half to prepare for the Bills team. Tonight, in my opinion, is the night to prove to the NFL that this team is a force to be reckoned with with. We can work on a short week. We can work on prime time games. We can fly across the country and we’ll still beat you guys. It doesn’t matter. I think that this game is so important for the Falcons and it will be a game similar to the Panthers, but in a positive light to circle of this is when everyone start talking about us in a positive way again. Yeah, I mean, hey, things have fared well for him on prime time so far. Maybe they just got to get out of that 1:00 window. Why would you say that? Knock on wood. If they’re good enough, we shouldn’t be able to broadcast or jinx it. This guy. Although, my partner yesterday did jinx a kicker by saying that. Haven’t missed an extra point all year. Guess what happened? Missed the extra point. What cooker? We were at this was at uh Clemson SMU game this year. Oh yes. Oh that wasn’t me. I was like I didn’t say anything you I didn’t say I did jinx that kid from the Tennessee game Georgia game though. I did jinx them and it was awesome. One of the better days of of the fall. Well listen thank you so much for joining us for the Falcons pregame show. We’ll be with you next week back at Mercedes Ben Stadium. It’s going to be a fun one. We’ll be back on the live at noon next Sunday. We we will see you guys then. Thanks for coming back with me. It’s been Oh, I enjoyed it. Let’s do it again next week, huh? Sounds good. same time. Well, not same time next week. 12:00 next week. We’ll see you guys then. [Music] [Music]

Taylor Vismor and Derek Rackley are back in Ticketmaster Studio, after a big primetime win for the Falcons’ over the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football. The Falcons are back in the spotlight tonight as they take on the San Fransisco 49ers on the road on Sunday Night Football . | NBC | NFL+ | 8:20 p.m. ET.

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