- 6 weeks ago
Andy and Randy explain why they aren't surprised that Penix isn't starting.
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00:00I'm feeling like a lot of Falcons fans today with the announcement of Tua Tunga-Vailoa as the starting quarterback.
00:05Just me.
00:06Yeah, just anaphylactic shock, I think, is where we're at.
00:09Are we surprised?
00:12No.
00:12Okay.
00:13All right, okay.
00:13Disappointed.
00:14I saw a lot of that, a lot of shock and mad and dis—
00:18Okay, I can understand the disappointment part, but the fact is that, you know, that Tua Tunga-Vailoa—
00:24Because what happened was yesterday, I was like, I kind of knew when it was going to happen.
00:27It was like, okay, because I didn't know he had this precedent.
00:29You see people report—presser today for Kevin Stefanski and all the different things.
00:34I said, okay, they'll make the decision then.
00:35The decision came out before the press conference.
00:37And when I saw the Tua, the first thing I replied to Shefty was, I'll be anxious to see who
00:42the backup is.
00:42Yep.
00:43Because knowing that Cooper Rush is the backup and Mike's going to be in that, that means Mike's not ready.
00:48Yep, that's right.
00:48And for him to say that, and I saw his availability and everything like that, and I mean, if you're
00:53not ready to go play, then don't play.
00:56Because I know this city got shafted a couple years ago by a quarterback who was hurt, who wasn't ready
01:02to play, and damn cost you your damn season.
01:04And people that damn, you know.
01:06And so for him not to be ready, that gives Tua the opportunity to hang on to this job.
01:11Now, this is, in my opinion, Michael Pennington's job.
01:14But when he's right, you heard him say he's close, he's close, he's close, that's fine.
01:19But, yeah, I mean, now you have a situation where you go game plan specific because you're playing the Steelers
01:24and all these different things.
01:25Got a coordinator over from the Raiders last year.
01:27So that part about it, you get yourself ready for that.
01:33Maybe I'll change my mind when you get the picks and stuff on Friday.
01:36But they can win this game.
01:38I mean, it's Pittsburgh's first game, too.
01:40Yeah, Pittsburgh's not great.
01:42They're not great.
01:42It's not like you're playing against the Rams or the Seahawks or one of these favorite teams in the NFC.
01:47Pittsburgh's all right.
01:48They've got some talent, but they've got some weaknesses.
01:51Yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see in like a full game plan situation what Tua's capable of.
01:59Because I think we all have our suspicions of what he's not capable of based on what the preseason looked
02:04like.
02:04But, you know, you also are very vanilla in preseason.
02:07And you're playing a team that doesn't throw the ball down.
02:09Aaron's not Aaron Green Bay.
02:11Oh, yeah.
02:11This game has all the makings of like a 15 to 12.
02:15Yes, yes.
02:16Just absolute meat grinder.
02:18Ragging.
02:19But if you have the 15, who cares?
02:21Just try to get to the end of the game with more points than they have, however you can.
02:27Obviously, give the ball to Bijon a whole bunch of times.
02:29Because that feels like game plan item number one.
02:31Because you have the best player in the game.
02:32You've got the best player in the game.
02:33Yes.
02:33And, you know, maybe Tua can be effective with the dinking and dunking down the field and not turning the
02:39ball over, knocking on wood.
02:40Because he has fumbled on 40% of the drives that he played in the preseason.
02:45And that's not good, Andy.
02:46That's too many.
02:46You know, and I mean, the ultimate thing, you know, when you talk about Pittsburgh, you've got to stop 90
02:50from wrecking the game.
02:51You've got to stop him from not wrecking the game.
02:53I mean, they've got good players.
02:54They've always been a good defensive player.
02:55And I was thinking this on the drive over here.
02:57And do you, because I know Joey Porter Jr. is probably going to get his contract.
03:01We'll talk about Chris Gonzalez getting his last night.
03:03So how much is he going to play?
03:05If I'm Pittsburgh, I'm putting Jalen Ramsey on Drake.
03:09You know what I mean?
03:09And, you know, matching for the physicality with him.
03:11But, I mean, you know, the disappointment, I understand, because of what we saw of Tua.
03:16Maybe even if we didn't see of what we saw of Tua.
03:19Because you thought, and I'm anxious we get the opportunity to talk to Kevin Stefanski on Thursday.
03:24I'm anxious to know, like, because you kind of said the decision was made kind of last week.
03:29But I'm asking, why was Mike splitting reps if the decision was made?
03:33Were you still holding out hope?
03:34What is Michael going to be doing in practice?
03:36That's my next question.
03:37You know, I mean, what is his thing going to be?
03:40Because you've got to give Tua the reps.
03:42You have to.
03:42You've got to give Tua the reps.
03:43Especially Mike's an actor.
03:44He's not in the backup.
03:45Right.
03:45Exactly.
03:46So that means Cooper Rush has to get the backup.
03:48Yeah.
03:48But that's what I'm saying.
03:50The backup reps for a quarterback is usually the scout team.
03:53Right.
03:53Or the practice squad quarterback or whatever.
03:55So is Mike going to take those reps?
03:57I mean, it'll be an interesting conversation unless he gets to it before we get the opportunity to sit down
04:02with him.
04:02Yeah, because I'm sure they'll kind of ask him about that as the week goes on.
04:05But, yeah, we'll try to get some clarification on that on Thursday.
04:08And back to your original point of whence Tua was announced as the starter.
04:13Now, I don't know.
04:14They haven't gone, you know, as far as some teams go with, like, QB1, he's our guy, all that stuff.
04:20It's, Stefanski clearly said yesterday, it's week one blinders.
04:23Yep.
04:23This is, we're focusing on week one.
04:25I don't know anything beyond that.
04:27I mean, I feel like if you did feel confident that he was your quarterback beyond that, you'd probably say
04:31so.
04:32Yeah.
04:32And I'm with you that it's Penix's job when he's ready to go.
04:36When he's ready to go is a huge question mark because who knows?
04:41But the fact that he's inactive does validate that idea that, yeah, this is not that he got beat out
04:47by Tua.
04:48No.
04:49Tua's the quarterback almost by default.
04:51Because he is.
04:52Because Penix isn't ready to go yet.
04:54Right.
04:54But now the question becomes, all right, like, this is all semantics.
04:59He's cleared.
05:00He's cleared for what?
05:01Yeah.
05:01He's readied for okay, but he's not.
05:03But that's the thing about it, Vaughn, is because I think people put too much emphasis on the clear word.
05:09And I understand it, whatever, whatever.
05:11But, like, it just said cleared, cleared to do 11-on-11.
05:14And it didn't say cleared to go physically get tackled or anything like this.
05:17He's cleared to do 11-on-11.
05:19And the one thing I like that what Mike said is, like, I don't want to put this organization and
05:24this team in a bad spot by not being 100%.
05:27And he's just not where he needs to be.
05:29He keeps saying close.
05:30I don't know the determining factor of close.
05:34I don't think anybody knows the determining factor of close other than him.
05:37Only him, right?
05:38I would think so.
05:38He's the only one that's going to know.
05:40And I don't know what it is that he needs to feel or see or whatever.
05:43But he's the only one that's going to know.
05:45Because it sounds like when you hear from Stefanski and these guys, they're like, yeah, I mean, he's close.
05:50Yeah, he's close.
05:51And it seems like Kevin and Mike sat down and had a conversation.
05:54He's like, how you feeling?
05:56He said, coach, I'm almost there.
05:57Almost.
05:57I'm not there yet, but I'm almost there.
05:59All right, that's fine.
06:00That's fine.
06:01We're going to let Tua start this game.
06:03Then we'll revisit this thing again next week.
06:05Now, the one thing about Kevin Stefanski is he's going to get annoyed with every week asking who his quarterback
06:09is.
06:10You know?
06:10Well, he should be used to it.
06:12Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
06:13If anybody's used to it.
06:13There it is right there.
06:14So it's going to be a situation where that's going to come into place because we don't know when Mike
06:19is close.
06:19And how, like, again, I look at it from the big picture of it.
06:26He can keep his job if he plays well.
06:28Yeah, that's true.
06:29You know what I mean?
06:29Tua can keep the job.
06:30He plays well.
06:31Yeah, like, say Mike's, you know, this is all spitballing now.
06:35But say the tentative plan is to have him back for the fourth game after you get that little mini
06:41-bye post-Thursday night.
06:42Right.
06:42You get 11 days between the Thursday night game and when you play that next game.
06:46Maybe that's the plan.
06:47But if they're 3-0, you know, then why change?
06:51Yeah, exactly.
06:53If he's playing well enough for them to win football, if he's not costing them games and playing well enough
06:59for them to win football games, you leave them in there.
07:02I thought the encouraging thing was that Mike's not on PUP.
07:05You know, so that lets me know there's a possibility he can be ready before that period that you said.
07:10Exactly.
07:10If he was on PUP, then you cross out the first four games and you question mark after that.
07:15The fact that he's not on it, because they can't put him on it now.
07:18Like, he's on the active roster.
07:21You cannot designate him physically unable to perform now.
07:23It's too late.
07:24They could put him on the injured reserve or whatever, which then also is four weeks.
07:28But it just, I don't know.
07:29It seems like the timing of that would be unusual.
07:33So their thought is that he'll be able to play at some point in the first four games.
07:38But you're right.
07:39If Tua plays well enough, then he stays as the starter.
07:43And, I mean, that's best case scenario, right?
07:45Like, as much as I want Michael Penix to be the starting quarterback for the Falcons, more than that, I
07:50just want the Falcons to win.
07:51That's the most important thing to me.
07:53I want them to win.
07:54And I want them to look like a professional team.
08:00You know, like you said, this game could be one of these things where it's 15-13.
08:04Because the Packers, I mean, that's the Packers.
08:06The Steelers aren't good.
08:07I mean, I don't want to say they're not good.
08:09They're a little bit above average.
08:11They're a little bit better than the Falcons are.
08:13You know what I mean?
08:13I mean, obviously, you've got Aaron Rodgers, but he ain't that same Aaron Rodgers.
08:17You've got a couple receivers that can make plays.
08:19Very good tight end room.
08:20Solid, but not great offensive line.
08:22You know, I think the Falcons offensive line is better than this line.
08:25And so, you think about defensively, when you're the, you know, Aaron don't want to take hits.
08:30Aaron's going to get the ball out of his hand.
08:32If you saw that last year, if you didn't see that last year, you'll see it again on Sunday if
08:36you're able to pressure them.
08:37But if you can make the one-dimensional, they're not a great running team.
08:40You know, and so, I mean, you've got different things that go into the event.
08:43Now, you're on the road in Pittsburgh, tough place to play, opening day, new coach, all these different things.
08:48But, I mean, this is what you talk about when you're game plan specific.
08:52You are game planning for the Pittsburgh Steelers and their defense and their offense and their special teams.
08:57And early thoughts on, you cannot allow special teams to be a negative factor in this game.
09:03You cannot allow cheap return yards or something like that.
09:07Can't do that.
09:08And then, you know, just give it a seven.
09:11Yeah, I mean, that's the end of the day.
09:13Yeah, give it a seven.
09:14Yeah, just, you know, play fundamental football.
09:17Do the stuff you're supposed to do.
09:18Block tackle, make your field goals.
09:20And give it to Bijan a whole bunch of times.
09:22Give it to him 30 times between rushes and passes and all that.
09:26And, you know, he's dynamic.
09:27He might score two touchdowns.
09:29Maybe.
09:29You scored two touchdowns in this game.
09:30You've got a pretty good chance to win.
09:31You've got a pretty good chance to win, dude.
09:32Like, you score 17 points on Sunday.
09:34I feel like, because look, I mean, you know what it is.
09:37This has been true the whole time we've been doing this show together.
09:40These first couple weeks of the NFL season are sloppy, man.
09:43Teams are not ready to look like, you know, they're not mid-season form yet,
09:48because it's not mid-season form.
09:49Teams don't treat the preseason the same way.
09:52Steelers have a new coaching staff as well, just like the Falcons do.
09:55Like, there's a lot of reasons to believe that this game on Sunday is going to be grimy.
10:02But, Abe, whatever, man.
10:03Yeah.
10:04The grimy win's a win.