FALCONS SQUAD SHOW: Raheem Morris & The Atlanta Falcons’ losing streak is at FOUR games now

FALCONS SQUAD SHOW: Raheem Morris & The Atlanta Falcons’ losing streak is at FOUR games now

What’s up everybody? I’m Maria Martin. I did not lose my voice from yelling at the Falcons, although you may think that that’s the case after that one. I’m Aaron Freeman. In 999, the Falcons lose again. I’m Jarvis Davis and I’m sick of it. Rise up a town. It’s the Falcon Squad. Everything Atlanta Falcons every week, breaking down all the big hits and gamechanging plays from the ATL, the way only the Locked on Podcast Network can. Straight from the ATL, the Falcon Squad Show starts now. Welcome into the Falcon Squad Show. I’m your host Jarvis Davis and riding with me today I have my main man Aaron Freeman of Locked on Falcons and I also have Maria Martin of 11 of live. She is joining us today. And guess what guys? I wanted to start off by letting you know that this episode of the Falcon Squad show is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So, make sure you guys take advantage of that. Coming up on today’s show, um there will be no peace for Raheem Morris. Uh Maris Williams got some explaining to do. Uh they played Ben, but don’t break, but it broke. And but first, we got to start off guys with this offense. I I I think that there were a couple of times, a few times, excuse me, that you can say that Michael Pennix didn’t make a throw here there. Uh you can say Zack Robinson probably should have run the football a little bit more in a certain situation. And you said, oh, you can also say that, yeah, this offense just put their defense in a bad situation late in the game by punting three consecutive times on on consecutive drives. But Maria, when you think about the inconsistency of this offense, like what do you think that it was today in this game against the Indianapolis Colts that the Falcons just weren’t able to get anything going consistently? Yeah, I mean, well, first and foremost, they stink on third down and nothing was creative on third down whatsoever for the Falcons. They were 0 for8 on third down. They could just not get out of that situation, which was really frustrating to watch. you’re starting to get a little bit concerned with how Michael Penn’s ability or lack thereof of using his legs on certain plays to extend drives and extend the play. That’s really suffocating this offense, I think. And a lot of people wondering where the heck is Bejian Robinson. It’s exciting that Tyler Algier had a big day. He had two touchdowns, his fifth and sixth of the year, which is now a season high for Tyler. That’s great. But Bejon Robinson is what kind of makes this team go. And when you watch Jonathan Taylor on the other side rip apart the Falcons, you’re wondering why the same can’t be said for this offense. And it feels like whenever this offense takes one step forward, they take a couple steps back. And it was similar situations like that today. I think Michael Penn, he struggled a lot. You know, he was under pressure a lot. I’ll give him that. Um, but just continuously being under pressure. He’s never good in those situations and he proved that again in Germany. But you’re right. I think that there were a couple of times where the offense really put the defense in a very sticky situation, especially late and when you were not capitalizing on certain situations. Granted, there were a couple of critical drops. Um, you know, thinking about the Kyle Pitts one early and then Darnell Mooney late in the game, those happened of course, but that third down, it is glaring and it is ugly and you’re just not really going to be able to move the ball like you want to officially when you’re 0 for eight on a down such as that. Yeah, it has to suck. um just to be able to be in those situations and consistently fail like there has to be able to when as a play caller I feel like Zack Robinson just can’t find situations where he can get some type of go-to situ uh matchup that he can to foster in those particular moments like but it’s so weird because in the red zone he’s able to find Drake London he’s able to figure out a way to get the ball in Drake London hand able to get a favorable matchup in the red zone when when it comes to getting the rock to Drake London and he just isn’t able to do that on third on third downs for so for whatever reason and I think that you know going back and watching a little bit tape and we’ll talk about it tomorrow I just it’s has we have to find an answer on that because that’s just that’s just so weird to me and the nonconnection with Darnell Mooney I know that you know he missed training camp I know that he had some injuries he’s been dealing with it’s just when he targets Darnell Mooney, it is an automatic incompletion in my eyes. And I think that for you Aaron, you know, just looking at the offense as a whole and and the inconsistency that has had like you got to question everything at this moment. Well, yeah, you mentioned Darnell Mooney and like to me that’s been the sort of underrated element that has basically kind of tanked the Falcons offense. Like so much of their success last year was just like, hey, Moody’s open down there somewhere and Kirk just floating up, you know, those deep comebacks and all that stuff. And that was a big big percentage of their explosive plays. And a lot of times they were able to get bailed out of that. And you know, there were a couple of moments early in the game, we was like, “Okay, maybe maybe this is going to be a a a good version of Darnell Mooney that we haven’t seen so far this year.” And as the game wore on, that was not the case. And it’s funny because it’s like we’re talking about how the how inconsistent the offense is. This was arguably like the third best game the offense has played this season. And that kind of tells you how, you know, like you can try to spin this as like a positive game, but like at the same time, like there’s still a lot of shortcomings. You guys mentioned it with the third down stuff where it does feel like whenever teams get them in longer down and distance, they’re able to send pressure and the Falcons don’t really have a good answer for that. You saw that a number of times that disrupted these third downs. You know, some of it is owed to Michael Penn not being able to consistently get outside the pocket. You saw a couple of times where he was able to extend plays outside the pocket and and keep things moving, but that was not a con a consistent reliable thing for them on third downs. And then you just saw some of the missed throws, the misconnections, some of the drop balls, all that stuff. And it just feels like when this offense doesn’t have the balance, you know, of being in like a third and two or whatever, where they have the potential to either run the ball or throw the football, you know, like they cannot just be a straight drop back passing attack. And some of that’s owed to basically it’s Drake London or else uh in in terms of the passing game. Um, and you know, not necessarily being able, you know, the run game was fine today. It was certainly significantly better than what we have seen the last couple of weeks. Uh, but late in the game in overtime when it was like, hey, let’s see if we can get this run game going to facilitate a potential game-winning drive here, you know, the Colts were pretty much locking it down. And that’s that’s kind of the challenge for this team where it’s like sometimes they’re successful running the football, but when they need to be able to run the football, they just can’t do it. it consistently and that leads to games and performances like this where a lot of yards and potentially a lot of points are left on the on the field. Yeah, they definitely left some left some points on the field. I feel when you look at the at the totality of the situation, but Aaron, you know what, man? I’ve been thinking about this and Maria kind of brought it up a little bit. We probably going to dive into it a little bit more tomorrow on the squad show, but I kind of want to get your thoughts on it. when you we talk about the inconsistencies and the missed throws with Michael Penn specifically and how there were some moments where he should have been able to make those throws because we seen him make some throws that man he probably shouldn’t have made that particular throw but there are the moments it was a couple moments in this game where he just couldn’t make it. Do you feel like that’s a situation where Michael Pennock should be getting a little bit more of the blame more so than Zack Robinson? Yeah, I mean, look, I think it’s tough, especially because it’s a young quarterback and we’re watching him develop, you know, in front of our eyes as quickly as he possibly can. And Mike does a lot of a lot of good things and I think there were certain things that he did today that showed improvement. Um, one of the biggest criticisms for him last year was the inability to put touch on the football and he did that in a couple of different uh key positions honestly today. However, similar to what Aaron is saying and what I said off the top of the show, just his inability to use his legs in scenarios where he needs to really hurts him and he’s making the same mistakes over and over. That’s my biggest concern is that you’re not really seeing that development piece happen throughout the season. I mean, this is a three and six football team right now and they are supposed to be in a totally different scenario. We thought that this Falcons offense was going to look similar to what the Colts have produced at this point in the season offensively and granted they had obviously their struggles today, but you know, Mike finishes 12 for 28 for 177 yards. You expect a lot more out of him. Um, and it’s starting to get concerning. I don’t want to say I’m absolutely concerned at this point in time because I still think it’s a little bit too early with a young quarterback like this, but when you’re starting to see these things where okay, yes, he have he has to make throws that are like that. Um that’s what gets concerning for me specifically. The drops don’t help either, but when he’s pressured, he really struggles and there was a lot of that in all four quarters today. Yeah. And and that’s the thing like and and I was kind of screaming at the television when uh with Jeff Jeffrey, we’ll talk about the defense in in next segment, but I was screaming at TV when he wasn’t putting pressure on Daniel Jones. I was like, man, when you put pressure on him and force him to make a decision, he makes a bad one most of the time. And I can say the same thing for Michael Pennies today because it was so the like his indecisiveness in those when they send pressure and and when that rush is starting to hit him and and basically throw off his timing. I thought he made a couple plays off script today. I was very that throw he made to Robinson right down the sideline was like okay it didn’t go your way and you were able to figure out how to make a play. So yeah, I I need to see more of that. But it’s but overall, he wasn’t good in those situations when things don’t go how he expected. And I think that for you, Free, what do you feel like that inconsistency has been in those moments when he feels pressure? And do you think that’s something that can be that can linger for the rest of the season? Yeah, I think we’ve seen enough of a body of work to suggest that this is kind of what it’s going to be. Um, you know, there were some opportunities. You know, there were some great moments for Michael Pennix in this game and there were some tough moments where you had some open receivers and Maria talked about, you know, you had to open Kyle Pittz in the end zone. He underthrows him, right? you have uh you know the the one time David Sills is wide open you know he throws it you know three yards behind him and it’s like look you’re not going to get another opportunity for David SS again ever you know like a third down where someone other than Drake London gets open like you have to make that throw because that’s the only time that’s going to happen this season and so like those are the types of plays and again talking about the the lack of creation on a consistent basis when you’re getting you know you saw late in the game with that Zire Franklin sack where stunts and blitzes just this team does not have good answers for when teams are are scheming up doing all the same things. Ryan, this the Falcons defense does and it’s just like it’s almost like they don’t practice against it, you know. Uh and it’s like they don’t know what to do when a team throws a stun at them or throws a blitz at them. Um and so I do think these are issues with Michael Penn. I’m not ready to, you know, be too harsh on it. I think it’s just part of the growing pains of a young quarterback. But it is frustrating when you see situations like we saw at a a couple of critical moments in this game where where the throws are there. The the it’s it’s there for the taking. You got to hit those throws, but at the same time, like we can sit here and and point the fingers at too many drop passes, too many breakdowns and protection, questionable play calls in critical situations, all all those sorts of things. So, it it’s hard to sort of single out Michael Pennix and being like, “Oh, this he’s the problem.” But, you do want to see your young quarterback make progress in some of these areas. And there’s been some, you know, since the beginning of the season, but again, we’re reaching the point where we’re approaching what, you know, almost 16 starts for him coming up soon. Um, and it’s like you’re we got a season’s worth of games coming up over the next month. Um, and you kind of want to see that breakthrough moment. And I thought last week you kind of had a breakthrough for him as far as being on the road. Um he didn’t necessarily build off of that game. Uh but at the same time like I don’t think this was like a huge regression for Michael Penn. So there’s still promising signs for him. But at the same time like the sense of urgency with this Falcons season is pretty much at its end where it’s like if you don’t go on a three-game winning streak, you know, right now like it’s it’s a it’s a wrap. Yeah. you’re in you’re on a four-game losing streak. Um you just lost to the Colts 31 to 25 in overtime over the over in Berlin, Germany. Um and and I think that this is we’ll talk about Raheem Morris, you know, h having that uh that peace that he was talking about finding earlier in the week. We’ll we’ll get into that a little bit later on, but I I think overall this game, this offense, Zack Robinson as a play caller, Michael Pennix as the quarterback of this team, we just didn’t get any type of consistency today. There were moments where I was pumping my fist at the television when they would just turn around and hand it off to Tyler Aer and say, “Hey, stop it. What you going to do about it?” and he just they just ran the ball down the Colts throat and was just like, “Okay, Zack Robinson identified something that is working.” And it don’t matter if they know it’s coming. He just running the ball down down your throat. And that’s what you want to be able to do as an offense, especially an offense that is built around running the football. So, I I think that was a beautiful moment, but you know, it was just too many just kind of like tuck your head, tuck your tail, and run moments for for this offense um today. Um but coming up next, the offense, I mean, the defense, Ben. They played Ben, but don’t break, but shoot, they broke in the second half. Today’s show is brought to you by our friends over there at Pelaton. Look folks, it’s time to break through the busiest time of the year with a brand new Pelaton cross trainining tread plus that’s powered by Pelaton IQ. It’s Pelaton’s most elevated technology and equipment yet that gives you real-time guidance and it gives you endless ways to move. Whether you want to work out by yourself or if you want to work out with your favorite instructor like my personal favorite, Alex Tousant, he always gets me fired up to tackle the day. And the thing I like about Pelaton, it helps me achieve more in less times. 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I promise you it is going down on the locked on Falcons right after this uh Falcon squad show. So make sure you check that out. Now Aaron, you know, when you think about this defense, like coming into this game, everybody and their mama knew that they were going to try to run the football, especially coming off the type of game that uh Daniel Jones had last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers. And they got off to a nice start in the first half, right? But it seems like that second half the Falcons just didn’t have an answer for Mr. Jonathan Taylor. Yeah. I don’t I don’t know. Is 323 yards a record uh for rushing success? You know, I I don’t know. If it if it ain’t, then good god. Like I can’t imagine running for more Robinson’s longest run of the year record. So yeah. Yeah, throw it in the pile, man. I know the 244 is not the record for a single game, but it’s probably in the top 10 now. Uh so, you know, like it this this run defense has been bad all year long. It’s just continues to be terrible. Um there’s really, you know, nothing that they could do to stop it. Um, you know, they they tried to trot out, you know, different linebackers out there, but as we’ve been discussing, Jarvis, it don’t matter when when guys are getting blown off the ball on the on the defensive line. And then you you lose Sam Roberts uh early in this game, so you don’t really have a nose tackle. David Anya is is doing his best, but like he’s not a nose. Can you use L then? Maybe. Yeah. Well, he he was hurt this week, so that you know. Okay, there you go. So, uh, you know, it’s, uh, it’s tough, boy. I I I don’t know what what can you say about this run defense. It’s just it’s just downright terrible. It’s been downright terrible. You you went into this game being like, I just, you know, joking about like, oh, well, Jonathan Taylor won’t run for 200 yards. He’ll just run for like 196. And he was just like, no, man. I’m I’m blowing that completely out the door. Daniel Jones is like, oh, like I haven’t run all season long, but guess what? I’m gonna run this week because the Falcons for the umpt team time. Does he refuse to be able to stop a mobile quarterback when he decides to run that that third and 21 where he got a 19 yard scramble and like nobody came close to touching him to set up a fourth and two. It was just like all right. So, you know, anytime Aaron, can I can I can I can I speak on that for a sec? Go ahead. Man, do you understand how hard it is to get 19 yards on third and 21 as the quarterback? That’s not easy. That’s not an easy. It’s easy. And they made it look easy. They made it look easy. Consistently running past the quarterback and you know good and dog on well the man is going to move. you you know he understands that hey there’s pressure coming from this way. I feel it. So I’m going to move my feet and take off and and run the run exactly where that dude came from or where he’s supposed to be and keeping containment. And you know like I I know we’re kind of not used to that because Michael Penn seemed to have an issue with that as well. You know, I it’s just it’s just so much stuff that I I feel like there was so many moments. Maybe my expectations are too high. You can tell me tell me if I’m wrong. Maybe my expectations a little bit too high for this for this defensive line because they have so many young guys that count on so many young guys to to to rush the passer. But, you know, you got a guy in this contract uneducated. That’s the He was He was a He I was a flag that I was raising. I was throwing my flag. Stop running past quarterback. Stop letting the quarterback get out get out get out of the uh out of the box, man. Keep him in the box, make him make a throw, you know, or push the dog on offensive lineman into him, you know, and then you get then you get off the block or or then you spin back into him and try to make the sack. So, it’s just that was that was one of those things where you talking about that really burnt my brownies. Like, you know what I’m saying? Like, that burned my brownies and you know, I wanted to go to the bathroom after that. But Maria, how do I follow that up? Right. It’s actually ask me what you want to ask me. What’s going on? Yes. I don’t know how to transition out of that. So, I’m just going I’m just going to ask you the question. Just do you feel like Jeff O’R had the right game plan coming into this game? First of all, I I thought Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. Keep going. Knowing what was what Jonathan Taylor was bringing to the table, knowing what you were going up against, knowing that, hey, they’re going to turn around and hand the ball off to him. Do you feel like he came with the right game plan in order to, you know, get a win today? Uh, okay. First of all, I thought Aaron was entirely too calm this whole time, so I was waiting for one of you guys to have like a couple screws loose. And Jarvis, you you started that. So, I’m waiting for Aaron to unravel a bit. Yes. I’m gonna get them worked up at some point. You will. So, yeah. For me, I mean, short answer, yes. Because, as Aaron was talking about, this run defense has not been their bread and butter all year. So, it’s not like it’s magically going to change. And Jonathan Taylor’s a really good football player. You knew he was going to come out and do similar things that he did. Uh, you didn’t really think he was going to go for 244 yards and three touchdowns. That’s, you know, a little bit more exceeding expectations than I think we could have predicted. But similar to how we felt about Bejian Robinson through the first, I don’t know, five games of the year, it’s just a hard player to stop regardless. Saquon Barkley in the same breath. Jonathan Taylor’s playing really good football right now. So, I think the Falcons had a good defensive plan. I mean, you look at them in the first half, they had two sacks, they had a pick, they didn’t allow a third down or fourth down conversion in the first half of the ball game. I know you’re talking about how in the second half they fell off a bit, but give the defense credit for being the side of the ball that’s always kept the Falcons in football games so far this year and you continue to see a little bit more positives. Uh Brandon Doris getting another sack. He’s got what, two in the last three in the last two games, something crazy like that. Yeah. And then you have the first round draft picks being able to get after the quarterback as well. The defense does a lot of things right. So, for me, I think it’s hard to focus on the run defense being as bad as it is because I don’t really think it’s going to be some miraculous change at this point in the year. Um, I just don’t think they have the personnel pound-for-pound to do it to be honest. And I don’t think that’s a Jeff issue. Um, I think that that’s certainly a personnel issue. But what I will say is, you know, the Falcons defense for all intents and purposes, which Jarvis, I know you do have high expectations for the defense, and you should because they’ve shown us that they can be at the top of the statistic boards in multiple different categories. And so, your expectation is obviously high. I still think they’re much improved. I don’t know that there’s much stopping Jonathan Taylor, though, of course, you wanted some of that stuff back. and the the defense was put in some really tough positions today. And what’s immensely frustrating for that side of the ball is, you know, they’re forcing these three and outs turnover on downs consistently and the offense goes three and out and doesn’t help you out and can’t move the football. So, I think it’s tough to put too much blame on that side of the ball. Um especially because I thought for the most part, if you’re going to look at it in totality as a whole, I thought they had a pretty good game. Yeah. Um I I I think I think they had I think they were solid in in in moments, right? And and it’s truly unfortunate that the offense wasn’t able to come alongside with him. I think you make a great point because that is the it was just inevitable that that Shane Stiken was going to say, “Man, we know y’all can’t stop this, so we’re just going to keep on rolling and do what you got to do.” And the Falcons were fortunate fortunate enough to be able to get turned them over on downs twice, you know, in in this game. So when you think about it, yeah, they they they they pointed out their deficiency and the the the coach pounded on that bad boy consistently, but they were able to play make plays in in in those particular moments. Now, speaking of making plays in particular moments, I’m not gonna let this segment go by without allowing my main man Aaron Freeman to kind of give Jesse Bass some love. Okay? Cuz the man was playing his butt off in that first half, man. Like, it got a little little sketchy on that that touchdown run overtime. But we ain’t gonna talk about that. We gonna talk about that right now. I want to kind of give you the floor to say how Jesse Bates has really starting to turn turn his game up in these last couple weeks. Well, we’ll forgive Jesse Bates because he was one of 12 Falcons today that decided not to tackle Jonathan Taylor uh in this game. So, you know, he’s forgiven, but he went with the crowd on that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I never know what you’re going to say, Jarvis, when you set these things up. So, I’m just nervous. I have no idea what player he’s going to use. I got nervous. I’m not gonna ask you for your social security number, bro. Like, you know what I’m saying? We talk about ball, baby. Like your main man. And I’m like, this could be like 18 people that Jarvis is about to drop on this show. So, um, yeah, man. It was it was good to see Jesse Bates, especially early in the game. Uh, you know, as as Maria said, like the defense played a good enough game to give this team a chance to win. It was by no means a perfect game. That’s kind of been the through line these last to say, right? Yeah. you know, enough to keep you in games every single week that we talk about it. There you go, Maria. You know, and and so the the challenge of the defense is they’re not playing as well as they were at the beginning of the season where they were like legitimately helping the team win games. Yeah. But they are giving this team every opportunity with the turnovers, with the sacks, you know, getting those turnovers on downs, forcing some punts and whatnot. Um and unfortunately, the Falcons just refused to take advantage of that. And so, you know, I can’t recall, let me look it up, if uh that Jesse Bates interception resulted in points for the Falcons. Oh, no, that was right before the half. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I guess we’ll talk about that in the next uh upcoming segment when we talk about Raheem Morris. But, um you know, why that didn’t result in points, but yeah, it was it was it’s big for this team, especially in moments like that because I remember watching this team for a long time. Uh, and it always was like, oh, it’s the four-minute drill, it’s the two-minute drill. The Falcons are definitely giving up points in these situations. And it’s a welcome change to see this team being able to create some of these turnovers uh and get these stops in these critical moments and and win that middle eight portion of the game which you felt real good with the team getting us, you know, scoring then getting a stop and then coming out and scoring in the second half with a field goal and then forcing a fumble on a sack strip and you’re like, “Oh, this is going to be good.” and then everything kind of grinds down to a halt after that point and it’s just kind of a back and forth slugfest for the for this team. So, um you know, I’m glad that Jesse Bates is is causing you to question a lot of things, Jarvis. Um you know, after the slander that you unfortunately gave him after that 49ers game. He, you know, he they whoever the Falcons intern is that is uh listening to these shows and and running it up the food chain, you know, they they they did us a solid by letting Jesse know that, you know, Jarvis Davis was coming for him on the podcast. I was not pleased cuz my expectations are very high for him. You helped me do that. It’s your fault, so I blame you for raising my expectations for this player. We’re going Can I just say Can I just say the Falcons defense had seven sacks and they lost this football game. Like what are we talking about? It it it literally it is so sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Last week they had six against the Patriots. It is so frustrating that you consistently talk about good teams find a way to win. Yeah. Bad teams also find a way to lose. And when you have your defense, oh my god, putting you in certain situations, i.e. seven sacks, something that the Falcons were begging for last year. Yes. And losing a game, what are we even talking about anymore? they they consistently keep them in games and it’s frustrating. Yeah, that’s and that’s the thing. That’s the that’s the frustrating part, right? When you think about it, it’s like, you know, we’ve been begging for this team to get some type of pass rush for the past decade and a half, right? You know, I can probably throw two decades, close to two decades, right? You know, just from a team perspective because there’s not one guy that is consistently getting to the quarterback. They have a it’s a whole bunch of young pups and you know a guy that I’m about to give a little love as well. Um just getting there getting home and and I think that when you have I thought this was very a very special moment for me so I have to point this out that happened during this game backtoback weeks where your two first round picks who are edge rushers combined for a strip sack fumble recovery. That is a moment that almost made me feel like a proud papa. You know what I’m saying? Like there are moments where my daughters like just make me smile. You know, that’s the same type of feeling I had when I saw James Pierce Jr. jump on Daniel Jones back, knock that ball out and then Jayen Walker almost scooped that bad boy up and I was like, man, just get the ball. Just get the ball. Get the ball. So, so I have to give those I have to give James Pierce as well. But you know, you know, most of the love that I’m giving is Jayen Walker. Jayen Walker, y’all y’all understand that this dude is a football player and this dude is going to be one of those guys. I think I remember when Free was talking about can’t remember if it was on on the Falcons podcast, lock on Falcons or the Falcons squad. We was talking about how this season is probably going to get to a point where we’re going to be looking for guys who want to be around who’s going to be foundation foundational pieces for this team going forward regardless who’s the coach or who’s the general manager for this team. And I think that you can go ahead and put in permanent market that number 11 is going to be that guy going forward. Yeah. Yeah. Um but so for me this defense like Maria mentioned for you mentioned as well they played well enough to win this game. You know they they got exposed with the run defense but you know hey we know we know we know what this is. There’s nothing you can do about it unless you calling Gibb Brown to come out of retirement to come to come play for you on first and second down. Um, so but like I said, all the other elements of this team were they were definitely right on par with you should win if you get these type of numbers at the end of the game. But coming up next, man, Maris Williams need to be put on notice. This episode of the Falcon Squad Show is brought to you by Ripling. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. SAS promised to make work easier, but now the average company is buried by hundreds of apps that slow down your teams and simply don’t work together. That’s not SAS. That’s sad, folks. Software as a disservice. That’s why you need Ripley. Ripley is the unified platform for global HR, payroll, IT, and finance all in one place. They’ve helped millions of businesses replace a mess of disconnected tools with one system designed to give leaders clarity, speed, and control by uniting your employees, teams, and departments in one system. One system folks, not seven, rippling removes the bottlenecks, busy work, and silos your software has created. Um whether you want to run your entire HR, IT and finance operations as one or just fill in the gaps in your software stack, Ripling can do all of that for you folks. So right now you can get six months free when you go to rippling.com/lockedonfl. Learn more at ripp png.comon. That’s rippling.com/lockedonfl. Go there right now. Terms and conditions apply. We talked about the offense, how they been inconsistently inconsistent. Talked about the defense, how they bend, but they bend but don’t break, but they broke and that’s okay. But they played well to win. Special teams was absolutely awful. Maria, when you look at the moments where they couldn’t be awful, it seems like they just said, “Yeah, we’re going to be bad in the worst possible moment ever.” Yeah. I mean, I don’t know. Where do I start? This was uh clearly the biggest issue for the Falcons today. You know, put aside what a lot of people will say was a really bad performance by Michael Penn. Um the offense just being laxidasical again, defense fine. and whatever special teams is a problem and they are they are a problem I think the last couple weeks consistently you know you’re constantly putting your opposing team so the Colts obviously today in excellent field position after defense puts you in a good position offense goes three and out special teams is just like here go ahead score a touchdown that’s what happened yeah on several different occasions takes the Colts two plays to make a touchdown down after they get into really good field position. Special teams isn’t stopping anybody and for a second straight week they are really setting up opponents to just kind of do whatever they want. Um and it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to watch and that is certainly something that’s not getting better and to me they are my biggest concern I think moving forward and currently for sure. Yeah. When you think about in the just in the kick return game, they had four four kick four returns for 139 yards with an average of 35 yards per return. That is absolutely ridiculous. That is in today’s game with this funky behind kickoff that they have going on right now. That is not supposed to be your average. like because essentially you almost putting yourself at the at the 50 yard line which put which puts your defense who we said played really good today you know but they had their moments in a bad position. So like when even when you think about that just that that type of that type of return, excuse me, is it’s just that the offense Shane Stiken and this this Daniel Jones le offense. It’s easy to say, you know what, we going to turn around and head off the Jonathan Taylor shoot. We’re going to be in the red zone the way we’ve been running the rock. So, I think that the Maris Williams has been a guy in the past that we’ve g given the benefit of the doubt and going into this coming into this season where you’re on your third kicker and I did not like how they handled that Young Way Coup situation. They they claimed that it was a competition and all this crap and with a guy that you didn’t even have to worry about cutting and uh Lenny Craig. Yeah, this is I I know a lot of people want to put that on Raheem Morris, but I think part of it is Maris Williams not being that guy right now or I don’t think he’s going to be that guy anymore because this is this just has been consistent in this return game. And even you talk about Josh DS in the punt return game, he had three three returns for 32 yards with an average of almost 11 yards per per touch. That’s a first down that the offense doesn’t have to get. That’s a def that’s another uh uh first down that the defense essentially has given up and they ain’t got on the field yet. So when you think about all of those things uh free like for you, what has it what has it been for you as far as with this special team unit and what you saw today? Well, you know, the other thing I want to point out is like the the Colts were down their normal kick returner. Anthony Gold is their normal kick returner. These were backups essentially that were gashing the Falcons uh special teams cover. He’s Aaron. So, um you know, it’s I don’t know what to say. Like there he is. Yes. Yes. Let’s go. Say what’s on your heart, my friend. Lay it on the couch, baby. It’s therapy Sundays now. I mean, I’m I’m at a point where it’s just like his special teams is is just like whatever. I don’t care about it anymore because clearly the Falcons don’t don’t care about it anymore in terms of performing in like I know there was an early punt with Bradley Pinion they got they downed it in the two and then it was like okay like this is going to be a good Bradley Pinion day and then in overtime he he he he botches a punt and that helps set up uh you know the the potential game-winning drive there at the end. So, it it’s it’s one of those things where like we’ve been talking about it all season long where you need to be able to win in multiple phases of the game, right? And and consistently the Falcons have been winning on the defensive side of the the phase of the game. And special teams and offense has been very much up and down. um and today’s special teams performance coupled with the inconsistencies you had in the other two phases um you really needed that unit to kind of come through for you and they haven’t consistently been able to do it and so I don’t know I’m I’m just at a point where it’s just like yeah the special teams is bad like you know what else is new um you know like just kind of we’ll just I don’t know we we’ll see how it all turns out but like you know at least the kicker made some kicks. So, I I guess that’s a positive. I don’t know. The third kicker, Zane. Yeah. And um you know, it’s important to mention too that we we haven’t mentioned it yet. The Colts, their special teams missed opportunities. They had that missed extra point and then the missed field goal as well and then obviously the missed two-point conversion on offense. But, you know, when their special teams obviously looked a lot better in totality versus the Falcons, but when they are missing opportunities and the Falcons can’t capitalize on that, that’s also not great. So, um, you know, the Falcons special teams really didn’t put them in any positions to miss many opportunities. But again, I think it’s important to note that the Colts special teams as well had their struggles. It’s just the Falcons could not capitalize on those opportunities that would have helped them win the game. Yeah. And and and I think that, you know, I’m glad that you brought up Zay Gonzalez. You know, I I think that I don’t know about you all, but when he was when he was lining up for for the extra point, I was just like, “Okay, hold your back. Are we going to get a cookie today or not?” He’s like, “You going to give him a little treat, you know?” Oh, he make an extra point. All right. And and I think that just kind of goes back to where we are with this special team. I feel like special teams used to be a respected unit on this squad. And I think that, you know, Aaron makes a great point when you talking about winning different phases of the game because to get a win in the NFL, most Sundays, if not all, if you win two out of three phases, you’re going to get a win. And especially if you couple that special teams unit with with offense that puts up points and that’s what that’s what you have in the co coast with a number one team scor um scoring offense coming into this game and Maria you you brought up those those miscues but that return game came through for them. The hodgepodge of returners that they threw out there those guys actually were able to get it done. So, Fred, I know this might not No, for real. Let me start with you, Maria. So, do you feel like Zayang Gonzalez did enough to at least keep his job for for one more week? Yeah, I mean, one more week. Yeah, because at this point, you’re on your third kicker. You’re on your third kicker. It’s so crazy that we’re even talking about this. Um, and Zay Gonzalez, obviously, he’s a veteran. He’s been around the NFL for a long time. um has a decent pedigree enough to say, “Okay, we trust this guy moving forward.” You could have said the same things about the other two kickers that they had. So, I don’t know if there is some curse out on the kicking situation and the Falcons, but if you have put this curse on that position, please let go of it. It’s time. Literally, third kicker this year so far. Just just let it go. It’s okay. You don’t have to tell us who you are, you know. just get rid of it. Um, but in all seriousness, no. I think yeah, he should be the kicker until he does things that we saw the other two do. Yeah, I I would just say, you know, it was funny because Michael Badgley was the Colts kicker today and he was a mid-season pickup for them and he was another kicker that the Falcons worked out after week one. Poetic, isn’t it? Yeah. And I was like, “Oh, the Falcons chose correctly when he missed those kicks earlier.” I’m like, “Oh, they this is the one win that the Falcons have because Michael Bgley uh had a bad game.” But as you said, Maria, like the Colts left like six points on the board just from their special teams unit and they still managed to win this game. And that kind of tells you how the rest of the game went where like the Falcons could not take advantage of, you know, that opportunity. Yeah, I I think this is going to be one of those scenarios where hope it’s not going to matter whether or not the kicker is going to be be able to stick around because you’re on a four game losing streak and I’m trying to see the light. I feel like the defense has been that and this offense is just we talked about the issues and we’ll dive into it a little bit more tomorrow on the Falcon squad. Make sure you guys go come check that out. But this is one of those games where it’s just kind of like beginning to come a little numb. Yeah. So, uh but yeah, make sure you check out Locked on Falcons because Free is going to blow that bad boy up. I promise you. I promise you. Uh coming up next, uh we talked Rahee Morris talked about having peace when it made that decision for Zay Gonzalez, giving him a little peace, but shoot, I might make a case that he ain’t gonna have no pieces keeping his job. This episode of the Falcon Squad Show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back, folks, and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. You know what, guys? I’m talking about the Atlanta Hawks. Yeah, because hey man, Falcons, they doing what they do. They’re falconying. But the Hawks are figuring out a way to get wins with out Trey Young. So if you want to get a win, go check those guys out, man. You can you can get everything you need to do on FanDuel and when you’re a little change, man, because you know where we are right now with this team, we trying to figure it out. But yeah, go check the Hawks out and you can do what you need to do. It keeps the game exciting, especially when your team is making that late push. So, right now, the FanDuel FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. [Music] Wrapping things up here on the Falcons squad show. The Atlanta Falcons take the L against the Indianapolis Colts 31 to25 with a a huge run by Jonathan Taylor. Just caps off a humongous day that he had and he just ran all over the Falcons defense. Polar Falcons run defense that just can’t figure it out. But I I think that I don’t know about you all, but I think that when you talking about going on a losing streak like this one where you had some good showings, but you just couldn’t get it done, i.e. this game and the last game against the Patriots and you just had some bad ones that you’re just trying to figure out like, okay, is Raheem does Raheem Moore deserve to be the coach? But regardless of how you feel about this particular game, well, let me ask you, let me ask you this, Free. Do you feel any differently about Raheem Morris and his decision making? Let’s start with the clock management. Third and long, you don’t call a timeout after getting a sack. Do you feel like that should have been one of those moments where he said he should have called a timeout and to give his his offense an opportunity to try to put some more points on the board before the half? Should it have been? Sure. Um, but this has been a a consistent theme with Bye Morris. And so when you ask the question, do I feel differently? No. cuz this is just basically what happens seemingly every single week where the Falcons are potentially have an opportunity to get a stop right before halftime and all they had to do is call a timeout and they refuse to call a timeout and th this is just kind of par for the the course for them. So, um, watching it again happen this week, like we’re at the point where like the same issues plague the Falcons over and over again and like I’m not even mad at them because I’m just like, “Oh, this is what happens every week.” Whether we’re talking about Raheem Morris mismanaging clock at the end of the first half, whether we’re talking about the Falcons always having to burn at least one timeout every game to avoid a delay a game penalty um because they can’t get the plays in on time. um you know, all all these things that have been consistent issues throughout the season continue to play this football team. And so, you know, I understand why other people are frustrated by it, but I’m just like, oh well, you know, we’re going to check all these boxes in the game. You know, we’re going to have a bad bad Brad Bradley pinion punt. We’re going to have uh you know, a missed throw on uh you know, a key critical third down. We’re going to have a poor clock management. We’re gonna have a almost a delay a game penalty and lose a timeout. all all these various things that have just been consistent issues. And so it’s just like, all right, well, they checked that box. All right, on to the next one. What? Okay, what what box we going to check next? Okay. Oh, okay. There there’s the whatever the next one is. And so that’s just kind of how I’m at with this stage. Yeah, I don’t understand the the messages after games for for RAW. Um, they’ve always been, “We got to figure out a way to fix it.” And based off of your response, they can’t. He can’t. The clock management can’t fix it. The offense is almost like watching paint dry at times. I always said this, you have to be able to have a tempo package in your back pocket as an offense. I don’t care what style of offense you run, you have to be able to go into a hurry up situation, and your quarterback has to be able to flourish, get the protection right, get identify things um before the snap and be able to snap the ball with 12 seconds left on the clock, you know, on the play clock. It’s just every time they get to the line of scrimmage, I’m just like, man, come on, let’s go. Get some type of sense of urgency. And I think that that nonsense of urgency comes from the head coach. Like you have to say, man, let’s speed this bad boy up. That’s every every game we have to sit here and say, “Yep, at some point they’re gonna have to burn the timeout.” Like you mentioned, free. That shouldn’t be the case. This is football. That’s football 101. That’s day one type of stuff that we’re sitting here talking about and pointing out every game. We’re able to point it out every game that the clock management Zack Robinson moved down from from the box. Okay. Yeah. communication is going to be better. Communication being better should translate to not having to burn a timeout every every week. And that hasn’t and they haven’t been able to fix it. So for me, Raheem Mory Morris can’t fix it because you’re on a four game losing streak, still having clock management issues and with with your timeouts and the offense just so can’t get out of being so methodical. So for you, Maria, where do you sit coming into this game? How you feel about Raheem Morris? Has that changed or or are you a little bit more fired up than what you were before or are you kind of just indifferent? Like free. I’m indifferent. I don’t think it’s changed for me. Um, you know, I I really thought heading into this game this was a game that they couldn’t afford to lose because when you look at the postseason picture, it’s automatically now become very bleak for this team. They’re on a four-ame losing streak. They’re three and six for the first time since 2020. At this point in the year last year under Kirk Cousins, they were six and three. Gross. You flip that script at this point and we thought that this team was going to be in a much different position. I think one thing that when you’re talking about peace and got to find a way to fix it and whatever, you’re through nine games. You have not found ways to fix it. And not just talking about Raw, talking about everybody. And there doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency in the building. I’m sure it’s there, but sometimes it’s important to verbalize these things like, “No, this is not good enough. We have to win and we have to win right now. We’ll do whatever it takes, not we’ll figure it out.” You see what I mean? Like the there is a difference in the messaging and I think some teams do a very good job when their backs are against the wall at illustrating that this is unacceptable for this franchise. And sometimes it feels like the Falcons don’t have that. Um, again, I’m sure they feel that, of course, you know, they’re all professionals and they all want to win football games, but when verbalizing it, sometimes that helps manifest some of that stuff, too. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. And I think when you have people in your building with their hair on fire, it makes a difference. And I haven’t felt that yet. maybe going all the way to Berlin, Germany, and losing a game you absolutely should have won and coming back on a really crappy flight back to the States and turning around and having a division game the following Sunday. Maybe that puts their hair on fire. I don’t know. But the wheels are falling off for this team, a team that we said multiple times in the offseason, without a doubt could make the playoffs. And it’s become very concerning that the consistent message is we will find a way to fix it instead of we’re going to fix this. We’re not going to be on this four game losing skid any longer. And obviously it doesn’t help when you’ve got others in the division who are figuring it out and who have figured it out. So I think a little bit of hair on fire and urgency is needed for this team right now. Yeah, I think the assistant urgency like button should have been been pressed. Like I I don’t it the fact that we’re sitting here having a conversation about not seeing it and especially on the offensive side of football for me and I I want to point out a guy who I feel like I I seen it and he’s been trying to figure out pulling his hair out on try to figure things out and that’s Jeff Ober. I feel like that’s been there that’s been there for me. I don’t know about you guys. I I feel like Jeff is fully equipped to figure this thing out on the defensive side of the football. It’s just unfortunate that it seems like raw can’t. But for you free, I’ll simply ask, man, can Raheem Morris fix this? No. Whatever that this is. No, there’s there’s no reason to think based off of what we’ve seen over the last year and a half, right? We saw this. We were having similar conversations last year after Kirk’s, you know, threw Kirk’s four game skid, uh, where he was turning the ball over and, you know, then we were just like, oh well, you know, Kirk’s the problem. It was easy to basically blame it all on Kirk at that point in time. Um, but like they they couldn’t stop Kirk from turning the ball over, right? um a during that stretch of games and as we sit here and talk about like all the all the issues that have plagued this team throughout the season like they have been consistent issues from the jump. Um and this is what the Falcons are and so rather than for me to be sitting here well you know maybe they’ll figure it out. It’s like, okay, maybe. Yeah, I’m sure the Falcons will figure, you know, you talk about the sense of urgency. Like, I fully expect this team to to at some point in the back half of the season, put a couple wins together and and be like, “Hey, we’re we’re we’re figuring it out.” It’s like, man, that ship sailed after the Dolphins game. Like, the season was wrapped then. Like, y’all needed to figure that out in week like six and seven, uh, as opposed to, you know, in week 13 or whatever it winds up being. So, I just think this is what the team is. You know, all the flaws are laid bare. The strengths, you know, are are exist, but like they’re inconsistent from week to week. And, you know, that’s just kind of what this team is. And, you know, we’re we’re at a stage where if it hasn’t been clear to everybody else up until this point, you know, that this is not a playoff team. They haven’t been a playoff team. Um, you know, basically outside of that Bills win. Uh and and you know, we’re going to look back at this season and be like, “Yeah, that was the one impressive win that they had this year, but that that’s not the real Falcons.” We we wanted to believe at that time this is the real Falcons is going to show up. But we have more than a body to know that, you know, that was their one sort of outlier great performance. We’ll all be sitting here being like, “Hey, that week, you know, those five days after that Bills game, that was the best time of the season.” You know, kind of Kirktober condensed in a fiveday period. But outside of that, they’re just a mid football team that just can’t figure these things out. Yeah. I mean, they haven’t, to Aaron’s point, they haven’t given any indication that they will figure it out, which is concerning. Um, there’s really no signs of getting better and there’s been multiple different personnel changes at this point in the season. You get rid of Illiard, you get rid of Ray Ray Mloud, you’re saying that’ll fix the things on offense. To your point earlier, Jarvis, you bring Zach Robinson from the box down to the field. That’ll fix these communication issues, yet you’re consistently seeing three and out on offense and putting your defense on the field for too much time. Um, the issues continue to rear their ugly head in every single game that they play. And so there is not a light at the end of the tunnel where we sit today. Now, could it change? Of course, it could always change. Sure. But there’s nothing that they’ve done to really indicate that it will be turned around. It’s too little of time. There’s too many issues. There’s so much blame to go around. I don’t think it’s on one person. Um, you know, football is a team sport and there’s a lot of people not doing their job to the best of their ability right now. And I think it’s frustrating when we had such high hopes for a team that to be honest on paper I thought was a playoff team and I thought that this would be the year and Aaron said it you know you blame Kirk and then okay Michael Pennock you draft him for this very reason get ready like this is your this is your show and now it’s okay well I don’t know like you know we knew there’s going to be growing pains but wow it’s it’s really looking a little concerning and they have issues with personnel on offense obviously injuries played a decent role in that as well. But no, I mean I don’t I don’t know I don’t know how you would look at this team and the body of work right now aside from you know what happened in Minnesota and against Buffalo and say this is a playoff team. They’re going to figure it out. They’re going to break the streak. I I just I don’t see that happening. Yeah, I’m with you. This is Braheim can’t get this thing figured out. He is fortunate enough to have enough talent, have a good defensive coordinator that can make some make some adjustments, deal with what he has from a personnel standpoint and and figure out a way to play well enough to win. I don’t think he has that on the offensive side of the of football. And I I I think that he has done something that ultimately got Dan Quinn fired is making bad hires with your with your uh with your uh assistant coaches. Like that what that’s part of what ultimately got Dan Quinn fired. And I think that he made a bad hire with James first time play caller. And unfortunately, it looks like Zack Robinson was was wasn’t a good hire as well because and he was a first-time play caller as well. So, trying to fire him at this point. Wow. Hey, man. Keep trying. And hopefully they’ll try to get have so some consistency as uh going to the second half of this season. Want to thank you for making the Falcon Squad your first listen of the day. Make sure you check out your second listening of the day for Locked on Falcons right after this show. Aaron Freeman is about to go ablaze. He about to Why are you writing checks that I have to cash out? You know that’s what I do, man. You know, he’s only said it like 10 times. I was too, but now now I have to go on fire. If you’re not lighting a box score on fire to open up the show, call it a wrap. And look, there you go. Maria’s helped you out, bro. That’s it. There you go. Right there, you know. So, yeah. Be careful, okay? Just be careful. Look, make sure you all check him out. Also, make sure you check out Maria Martin on Sports Extra from 11 Alive. Man, she’s super dope. Y’all know how how she gets down. Um, as well, and myself, I’m a frequent contributor on Locked on Falcons. Also, I’m the host of Locked on Georgia Tech as well. So, hey, man, we got something in this city to be excited about, you know. Oh, yeah man. All of this, all this, all this what I just said to you is part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Now the number one sports part sports podcast network in America.

The Falcons Squad Show breaks down the Atlanta Falcons’ crushing 31-25 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Germany, extending their losing streak to four games. The crew dissects Michael Penix Jr.’s struggles under pressure, finishing 12-for-28 with 177 yards, and questions whether the rookie quarterback can develop consistency. They examine Zach Robinson’s play-calling decisions and the offense’s abysmal 0-for-8 third-down performance that left points on the board. The defense gets credit for seven sacks and key turnovers, but Jonathan Taylor’s 244-yard, three-touchdown performance exposed glaring run defense issues. Special teams coverage was catastrophic, with opponents averaging 35 yards per kickoff return. The hosts debate whether head coach Raheem Morris can fix persistent clock management problems and whether his offensive coordinator hire was a mistake. With the season slipping away at 3-6, they question if this team has the urgency needed to salvage playoff hopes.

#atlantafalcons #falcons #nfl

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