Bills-Falcons First Look: The Bijan Robinson challenge & why Bills are built to defend PENIX

Bills-Falcons First Look: The Bijan Robinson challenge & why Bills are built to defend PENIX

What is up everybody? Welcome into Shout a Buffalo football podcast. It is that time of the week. Our first look at this week’s Bills opponent and we’re going to Atlanta. Josh Kendall covers the Falcons for the Athletic. Josh, thank you so much for taking some time with me today. Thanks for having me. Um, this is this is a fun game to get into. I always like the ones where, you know, you’re going up against a team from another conference. You have to really dive in to the program a little bit, learn a lot about them. And I think the interesting thing from afar about the Falcons is there’s been some highs and lows this season. I mean, wins over the Vikings, uh, Commanders, and then that loss against the Carolina Panthers, it uh, was was very puzzling. What’s your overarching take on this year’s version of the Falcons? Well, sort of that that we just we don’t know. uh that that week three Carolina game was as unexplainable a loss as I’ve been around in professional football and I they can’t explain it either. Um and even though they bounced back against the Commanders, it was bad enough that you know something about it leaves me not skeptical of this team but wondering if if they could throw one of those out just anytime and may maybe we see another dud of that variety. But they you know they beat the Vikings up. They moved the ball well, couldn’t score in the red zone. They moved the ball really well against a pretty good Commander defense. Did get the ball in the end zone. Um, their defense has been better than I expected. I didn’t expect it to be. You know, I expected average to be the ceiling for this group. You know, the numbers right now on a small sample size are pretty misleading, but this is, you know, this team has given up the fewest yards per game in the league. All of their analytical numbers are pretty good. I will be fascinated to see them up against sort of a an especially motivated Josh Allen on Monday night for sure. And I think this defense is really interesting because from a Bill’s perspective, fans a little bit frustrated over the last couple of years with some of the defensive investments in the draft that maybe haven’t been paying off. And you know, you wrote about it uh last week about how much the Falcons are getting from their rookies in year one through four games. Can you give us a little bit of a a picture into that? why Xavier Watt has been so impressive, James Pierce and the bunch. Again, this is it’s a small sample size and I really don’t want to get ahead of myself. Um, but you you see teams hit, you know, really hit on draft classes. And when you really hit on a draft class, it can be transformative. I think right now through five weeks, the Browns, Giants, and Falcons look like they have hit on a on not just one or two guys, but enough guys that it can change the complexion of who you are. All four of those rookies have been good. The two pass rushers, the first round guys, have been less impactful than the two secondary guys because they’re not playing as many snaps. Maybe it takes a little more time to develop at that pass rushing position into a really elite type guy. But Jay Jaylen Walker has been really good against the run, pretty good against the pass. James Pierce Jr. despite only playing probably 25 snaps a game is um one of the you know leads the at least through week four led the league in pressure rate among rookies. And then Watts is a guy and Bowman both were guys that coming out of the draft they said we can’t believe we got these guys in the third and fourth round. you know that everybody says that every year, you know, I can’t we got every one of our guys. So, you take it all with a grain of salt, but those two guys do look like they should have been picked higher. Um, just mature uh for Watts. Very mature, very smart, not overwhelmed by the game, is in the right place almost all the time. and Bowman has been a very physical presence in that nickel spot which they needed um up front against the commanders obviously um with uh Marx Mariota in a quarterback. What did you see from that group in the way that they were able to affect the quarterback? I guess you could kind of talk about that’s the most recent example, but all season long, you know, how are consistently are they winning outside of of Pierce? I think everybody has won pretty consistently. Leonard Floyd, who they signed as a free agent, who’s just kind of a mercenary who goes town to town and gets eight sacks every year. I mean, that’s been his deal for about the last five or six years. He’s uh starting and playing pretty well. Aron Leveti, who’s a guy who, you know, is in the last year of his rookie deal. He’s starting on the other side and doing okay. and and as a group they are putting they they have improved the pass rush tremendously around here and it needed to be improved tremendously. The the floor was low so anything they did was going to really stand out. They have had a problem and this comes up for Monday night with quarterbacks getting outside of the pocket. Baker killed them. Baker kills a lot of people. They were better against Marcus but Marcus is not Baker and Baker is not Josh. So, I think that that will be the emphasis for Atlanta this week is improving rush discipline, making sure they don’t make it easy on Josh Allen to to get a 12- yard first down anytime he wants it. If I’m the Falcons, that’s what worries me. I want to get into this offense, uh, too. It’s a fun one to talk about. Before we get there, though, uh, shouts brought to you by Topps friendly Markets. Looking to elevate your food game during this football season? TOPS has teamed up with Kings Hawaiian to bring you delicious ideas for terrific sliders from around the country. Every Sunday, an opportunity to enjoy tasty sliders made your way. Head over to topsmarkets.com/slider Sunday. All right, Michael Pennix. The Bills are actually one of the few teams in the league that are really comfortable going up against left-handed quarterbacks. They play Tua Tong Biola twice a year the last couple of years. Uh they’ve had a lot of success against him. What is your, you know, early report card on PennX and what he’s been able to do early this season? The Falcons are very, very internally very, very high on what he can be and who he is. And I agree with 80 to 85% of what they see. You know, he can make any throw. When he’s accurate, he is pinpoint accurate. He’s a smart guy. Think he’s everything you want. I, you know, I’m going to keep harping on completion percentage. Some of that is consistent accuracy. Some of that is being on the same page as the wide receivers, which they told us would be much better this year and really hasn’t, particularly in the Carolina game. They fired wide receivers. Coach Ike Hillyard. It was much better in week four. You know, we’ll see if that can stay consistent. Um, but if you Mike Pennix has started seven games, they have won three of the four. If you go down the list, you rank them by completion percentage. They’ve won three of his top four and lost all three of the bottom completion percentage games. When he completes passes, this team moves the ball and is dangerous. But there are still too many game, you know, coming into week four, he was a career 58% passer. um 58% three week in his three weeks last year, 58% in the first three weeks this year. That’s just not good enough to get it done. He doesn’t take a lot of sacks generally and he doesn’t throw a lot of interceptions generally. Again, we have to discount week three in Carolina. So, when you don’t take a lot of sacks and you don’t throw a lot of interceptions, something’s got to give. So, your completion percentage is never going to be 70. You’re never going to be one of those guys. But, he’s got to get it to around 65. If he can live at 65 and stay aggressive, then this offense is very dangerous. Uh, this offense features, I think, one of the most fun players in football in Bejian Robinson. And this is a Bills defense that has struggled against good running games all year long. They’re one of the worst run defenses in the league. They’re one of the worst third down defenses in the league. You know, how much do you think in this matchup it’s it’s kind of poised at home for Bon Robinson to be featured heavily in this game? would have a lot of success. Yeah, I mean, you would think that every matchup features that. I mean, I think that certainly um Josh Allen, you know, the best defense against Josh Allen is is him sitting on on the bench. So, you you would try to control the ball. Be has been dynamic since he entered the league. He has been even more dynamic this year, as you would expect as he gets older. He is truly one of the best offensive players in the league. you know, his six-y runs are the third most exciting play in the in the league you week week week to week. He’s just really fun to watch and I think that, you know, he you know, the Falcons have a lot of prime time games. This is the first of two Monday night slots for them. I think Bejian Robinson is a big reason for that. Um he’s just a dynamic player. Uh, I’m sure the Bills will spend a lot of time focused on Bejian Robinson, but so much of the stuff he does, I mean, there are no secrets to to what he does, but it’s he’s just a difficult guy to get on the ground. And in the in the run or in the pass game, too, is going to be interesting because I think like the Bills traditionally under with Shawn McDermott as the head coach have struggled in the screen game getting the ball in running back’s hands. I mean, you look at Bejian Robinson leading the the team in receiving yards also. It seems like he’d do a little bit of everything. And then you peek down there and you see Kyle Pittz is, you know, 24 targets, 20 catches, highly involved through the first four four games. Is this the best start to his season for Pitts since he’s been there? Well, his rookie year, his his last three years have been so bad that his rookie year gets obscured a little bit. He did have a thousand yards as a rookie on the second tight end ever to do that. He was really good, but his last three years, he just hasn’t been that. I and I’ve been skeptical um of him just because he stacked so many mediocre years in a row, but he has been really good. He is not a transformational player. He’s not a generational talent. He’s not going to change the way we see tight end in the NFL, but he’s been a really good tight end for them and that’s all they need him to be this year. Um he leads tight ends in first down reception. So, you know, percentage of his passes that result in a first down or a touchdown, he leads all tight ends in the league. That’s exactly what they need Kyle Pence to be. um consistency has been a bugaboo for him. They’ve only played four games. Again, I I kind of keep harping on that. We’ll see. But so far, he’s been great for them. And then finally, you know, Drake London is such an interesting player. Um he he reminds me a lot of Keon Coleman, although the the difference is that the Bills drafted Coleman to be kind of this exceiver where the Falcons seem very comfortable putting Drake London in that big slot role. Something that maybe the Bills will consider later on with Coleman. um what what’s the season been like with him and what are the challenges from a defensive perspective if you’re Bobby Babage this week preparing to defend against Drake London again he’s like he’s like Bejan in that there are not a ton of secrets the challenge is just he’s a big guy who’s a great contested catch guy and when they line him up in the slot he’s a tough defend because he can do a lot of things they also like lining him up in the slot because he’s one of the best run blocking wide receivers in the league. So, he’s very involved throughout their game. I think that they’ll move him around a lot. They’ll put him in motion. It felt like they entered the year trying to say, “Oh, no, he’s not just a slot guy. You know, we’re going to we are going to move him outside. We’re going to trick you. We’re going to surprise you.” And it didn’t didn’t work very well. And now he’s, you know, last couple of weeks he’s been heavy in the slot. And I do think that’s where he’s the best for a lot of reasons. But he’s just a tough defend manto man. Um, this has been awesome. Uh, a great first look at the Falcons this week. Let everybody know where they can find your work this week so you can get back in the facility and get to practice. Well, thank you. We’re at The Athletic. We’ll have stuff all week. Um, you can find me on Twitter at Josh the Athletic if you, you know, dare to dip your toe into that into all of that. Um, but I’m at the Athletic and I appreciate you having me. Thanks, Josh. Take care.

Josh Kendall from The Athletic joins Matt Parrino to preview Bills vs. Falcons. The guys discuss the exciting defensive rookies who are showing out for Atlanta and the array of weapons that QB Michael Penix has at his disposal.

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