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The Falcons dropped to 0-2 on the season after a humiliating 34-3 home loss to the Carolina Panthers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. From five costly turnovers between Cooper Rush and Jack Strand to an offensive line that failed on short-yardage plays, we break down everything that went wrong.
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00:00Welcome in to the Mercedes-Benz postgame show. I'm Grant McCauley alongside former Falcon Mike
00:04Johnson. We are in our network studios in Atlanta. A 34-3 defeat in the books for the Falcons in
00:10their home opener against the division rival Carolina Panthers. And there's a lot for us to
00:15unpack here and unfortunately it got started from the jump and none of it was particularly good
00:19for Atlanta on this day, Mike. So I'll kind of throw it over to you. We knew there were going
00:24to be challenges particularly offensively for this Falcons team. I felt like the defense did
00:28what it could especially in the first half to keep this thing close but eventually it just
00:32came completely off the rails. Yeah, the dam ends up breaking for the defense and really it happened
00:37right there at the end of the first half if you ask me. You know, look, it's hard to kind
00:43of
00:44digest this as quickly as it happens. The good news is you got a lot of answers about numerous
00:48things, right? I think that even coming off of last week's game and Cooper Rush had a really
00:53difficult game you could look at and say, hey, he had the back spasms on Saturday, you know,
00:57only had really two days to prepare to get, you know, get in there as a part of this game
01:01plan. And yet this game plan with a fully healthy Cooper Rush and more days of repair,
01:07it was different. There's no doubt this was a different game plan. And I actually cheered
01:11when you opened the game with Cooper Rush under center and bootlegged, I mean, a begging
01:16for a bootleg and then he fumbles and it just felt like everything was downhill from there.
01:20The Panthers drive it straight down the field and Bryce Young continues to be out of his
01:25mind at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. So not the home opener you want. And it's going to leave a
01:29sour taste in a lot of people's mouths and we'll try to digest it as best we can. But
01:34there's not really a bunch of ways to put a good spin on this one.
01:37No. And it's not going to be very easy to keep this one down. You talk about trying to
01:40digest the results and figure all this out. It's just, there's not a whole lot of, of
01:46answers for the Falcons that they've been looking for in terms of consistency and offensively.
01:50And the biggest question of course has been, how are you going to solve quarterback? And the biggest
01:54question you have to ask in order to find that one out is who's going to be playing quarterback
01:57and the Falcons continue to ask that day after day, week after week. This has been a nonstop
02:02discussion around this team and we will get into that in a moment. Mercedes-Benz postgame
02:06show, of course, brought to you by Mercedes-Benz, the official luxury vehicle of your Atlanta
02:10Falcons. You brought up Bryce Young. We might as well start with him and then get to the quarterback
02:13play of the Falcons in a moment. He was terrific for the Panthers. He's now won five straight
02:18against Atlanta. He's five and one in his career against the Falcons. And he was really set
02:23up to succeed by some costly turnovers on the Atlanta side. There were a couple of short
02:27fields and he was able to take advantage of that. I did think the defense did a decent
02:31job of making him kind of move around and make some plays, but you know, whether you like
02:36it or not, as the term goes, you have to tip your cap when they do make the plays. And
02:40this was not a game that I would lay at the feet of the Atlanta defense and ask them to
02:42explain. There's only so much you can ask from a defense when the offense can't get anything
02:47going and doesn't stay on the field for very long. And you're sending that group back
02:51out there to do things again. So overall, this was a game that was really led by Bryce
02:56Young and the Panthers offense. They set the tone early because Atlanta gave them early
03:01opportunities. It wasn't just the fumble on the opening possession. It was a turnover
03:05immediately and interception on the second possession. So this really felt like the Falcons
03:10were just scrambling to try to figure things out after stuff went wrong right out of the game.
03:16Yeah, there's no doubt about it. And, you know, going through the keys to victory on the
03:19pregame show today, one of the ones was, well, first of all, keep the Carolina defense
03:23guessing. I don't know that we did that in any way. I mean, it was a pretty simple game
03:26plan from right to left, but John Robinson, they really loved what they had on the wide
03:31zone with the, I believe it was 12 personnel. You get the couple of tight ends off the one
03:35side of the formation. They really had a lot of success on that. But outside of that, you
03:39really didn't keep Carolina guessing at all. They knew exactly where you were going with
03:42the ball on most plays in the passing game. And then one of the other keys to victory
03:46was force Bryce Young into bad decisions that you did not do, unfortunately, defensively.
03:51Now, did you rush him a couple of times? Yes. But Bryce Young and that offense understand
03:55that they're good enough and explosive enough at times when they need to be. And he can throw
03:59the ball into the ground, can throw the ball away. That's just not something our offense
04:03at this point is able to do. We don't have, we, we absolutely have to stay on schedule.
04:07You throw a ball away and you miss out on one opportunity to gain yardage. This is station
04:11to station baseball with this offense right now with Cooper Rush or Jack Strand at the helm.
04:15And so very frustrating to see the outcome of the game. I think that with every downturn,
04:20I mean, it was, like I said earlier, it's a fumble on the first play. You come in on
04:23the second drive, throw an interception. It just, it was met with an eye roll and a groan
04:28and eventually, you know, booze inside of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and you hate to hear it.
04:32But nonetheless, I don't blame Falcons fans for feeling upset with the product they saw
04:35on the field today. I know that Kevin Stefanski, Ian Cunningham, Matt Ryan, whoever else
04:39are not going to be happy with what they saw today either.
04:41No, there's, there's no part of this that anybody's going to be happy with. And once again,
04:45you kind of came through this week wondering who is going to start at quarterback for the
04:49Atlanta Falcons. There was at least some thought based on the reps in practice that Michael
04:54Penix was a candidate to start this game. Ultimately, the starting nod went to Cooper
04:57Rush for the second consecutive week. As you mentioned, he did get the call late because
05:01of the Tua Tungvaloa injury before week one. That threw a wrench in the works. That is something
05:06we can get into a little bit later when we get into all the layers of the quarterback issue.
05:10But for Cooper Rush, this was another forgettable game for him, unfortunately. And it started
05:14with those early turnovers and you brought up that name, a name that has been talked about
05:18around these parts an awful lot over the past few weeks out of curiosity, if nothing else.
05:23And that is Jack Strand. What could Jack Strand do? And look, nobody's asking him to walk through
05:27and be Superman and, and, and led a comeback or lead a comeback in this game. And obviously that
05:32is not the way this thing played out, but there was at least some curiosity to see if that
05:35would energize the offense whatsoever. I feel like if anything at that point, you're just trying to
05:41keep things from really getting any worse. If that makes sense. You're not looking for
05:45the playbook with all the bells and whistles and trying to do that with Jack Strand, who
05:48with all due respect is the number four quarterback on the depth chart for this team. If everybody's
05:54available. Yeah. And, and that's, that's really the thing that you have to kind of keep in mind
05:58here is that Cooper rush is your third string quarterback. Um, I think we can all get upset at a
06:02Cooper rush, but if you really boil it down, you can be upset at the first two guys that
06:09aren't on the field, right? I mean, that's kind of how you have to break it down. And you look
06:12at
06:12this and, um, you know, I, I, I, I had this conversation the entire week and you bring up
06:17some of the vibe around Jack Strand. A lot of the conversation was, you know, how, how much worse
06:23can it get? Well, the reminder being that you lost seven points on the road against Pittsburgh last
06:28week. So it can get worse and it did get worse. Cooper rush played worse today than he did last
06:34week. Yep. And Jack Strand didn't really play any better than that. So it's just, um, you know,
06:39look, they're up against the Falcons going into the season. You and I talked about it. They had
06:42to figure out what Michael Penix is. They have not had the opportunity to do that. I know that there's
06:46been talk, um, you know, from some of the insiders around the NFL that Michael Penix will be available
06:50on Thursday night and any other scenario grant, I would have told you that's crazy. You're not going to
06:55start a quarterback for the first time all year on a Thursday night because he's not going to get
06:58enough reps, but yet Michael Penix has been splitting reps with the first thing, first team
07:02this entire time. Yeah. So I don't see how you could rule it out. As a matter of fact, I
07:06don't see how
07:07you don't go out there and play if you mark a Michael Penix on Thursday night. So, um, man, it's
07:12just
07:12frustrating to say the least. There's just, there's no other way to put it. Yeah, no, there's, there's
07:15really not. And with Michael Penix and that obviously is a discussion that will be, you know, pointed
07:20toward the green Bay game, which is on Thursday. It is a quick turnaround this week. The Falcons have lost
07:24their first
07:24two games and we'll have to go back out on the road and play in a place that is historically
07:28not
07:28very hospitable to the opposing team. And I think at some point we can say at least the weather should
07:34be more cooperative. If you show up there in September, then when it gets really cold up there
07:38and you have to play in the snow, but that's going to be a little solace for anybody that's watching
07:42the Falcons play. You just want to start to see some semblance of an offense that includes
07:46Bijan Robinson and Drake London and Kyle Pitts. I mean, it's not like there aren't skilled players
07:51on this offensive side, but you've got to have some competent quarterback play to begin
07:55to move the ball, to distribute the ball and to get those guys involved because for as much
08:00as Bijan Robinson did a week ago, he was bottled up quite nicely by the Carolina Panthers today.
08:05And I'm not saying that in criticism of Bijan Robinson because he can't win these games all
08:09by himself, but it just wasn't a whole lot to look at in terms of hitting all of the options
08:14and really having an offense that's clicking because I guess the question is, how can it be?
08:19Because you don't have the guys that you really envision running this offense out there to do
08:23it. On this day, 18 of 32, Falcons quarterback play. Cooper Rush 10 of 17. He threw two interceptions,
08:30also lost a fumble. Jack Strand came in 8 of 15, had the interception on his first NFL pass
08:35and also lost a ball late as well. 129 passing yards from Falcons quarterbacks with three interceptions
08:41and also the couple of fumbles, Mike. I mean, if you've got quarterback play like that, it is hard
08:46to expect to win a game in the NFL. It's hard to win in this league to begin with, even
08:50harder
08:51if you're turning the ball over at that rate. I think if you're a Falcons fan, the fear almost
08:55now pivots to if things don't go well when Michael Penix returns, then where do you find
09:01yourself? Yeah. And that's a real concern going into a short week. Maybe he plays this week,
09:06maybe he doesn't. You'll have 11 days off between this week's Thursday night football game
09:10and the following Monday night game, an extra extended bonus bye week, if you will, for that
09:16one. And you're right. Didn't turn out to be the day that was, you know, last week for
09:20Bajon Robinson still averaged 4.5 yards of carry as did Brian Robinson. I believe numbers
09:25were very similar on the average and I've been impressed with him throughout the first couple
09:28of weeks. But I think we talked about it last week in the postgame. How many times can
09:32you hand it off to Bajon and throw it to Bajon and think that Bajon's going to make it
09:35through a 17 game slate being the only weapon that this offense utilizes? And I thought they
09:40did a nicer job trying to spread it around, getting the ball into the hands of obviously
09:44Zachariah Branch on his first career catches today. Kyle Pitts got a catch. We saw Dotson
09:48get one, Brian Robinson and a couple of screens, Austin Hooper. So they definitely spread the
09:53ball around a little bit better. We saw more of the offense and what it's supposed to be
09:57today, but that passing game on third down specifically just non-existent. And when you turn
10:03the ball over as much as you did today, you are never going to win the football game.
10:07No, it's going to be incredibly difficult. Bajon Robinson, 72 rushing yards on 16 carries,
10:12so four and a half there. In the passing game, though, he just had three catches for just
10:16nine yards. So 173 all-purpose yards a week ago. That's a very Bajon Robinson-like number.
10:22And then that number basically cut in half this week. You did mention they were able to move
10:26the ball around, target a few more different guys in this game as it was what looks like 10 different
10:32receivers were targeted. 18 receptions, obviously, overall, as far as the completed passes and the
10:38catches. You know, 8.1 yards per reception. Not terrible, but you just weren't able to make the
10:44big plays. You weren't able to do the big things. And there were some passes. I mean, Kyle Pitts had
10:49one that was dropped that looked like every little thing just, it just felt like it was running in
10:54kind of the wrong direction here. And it's not to point out one play that lost this game because
10:58it's 34-3. Trust me, there were plenty of those. And we'll be spending the next hour and 45 minutes
11:02talking about them. But it just seemed like not a lot went right in terms of the execution of this
11:07offense, even if they did get the ball to more players this week. You and I spent a lot of
11:12time,
11:13both baseball fans, talking baseball, and that we have a team full of mostly singles hitters and
11:18sometimes doubles. But there ain't many triples and there ain't many home runs. And you just,
11:22that's exactly what you're getting right now is station-to-station baseball. You can't afford to be off
11:26schedule in the slightest. I thought the offensive line played better today, but it also comes down
11:33to situational football. Can't get a yard on third and one. Don't trust you to try to get a yard
11:37on
11:37fourth and one. You continue to come up short in some of these situations where, again, I'll say it
11:42the same way I did last week. You have two of the highest paid offensive guards in the NFL right
11:46now.
11:46The fact that you can't get a yard on third and one and get movement and Bajon's getting in the
11:50backfield is not a good thing. It's just not the way you want to construct an offense. And so,
11:55you've got to find some way to pick up the meaningful plays. And I know that, you know,
11:59Jack Strand is the hope for a lot of people, Michael Penix, but this offense, this team has
12:04to play better in a lot of other areas as well. If they're going to make any noise in the
12:08NFC South
12:08this year. Well, of course, we'll be discussing all of that, the quarterback play and trying to
12:12unpack the things that went wrong in this game and how exactly the Falcons can correct some of these
12:16in time for a Thursday matchup on the road against the Green Bay Packers. We'll also hear from
12:21Dave Archer in the Falcons locker room with Kevin Stefanski and with others as the Falcons fall to
12:27the Carolina Panthers at home, 34-3. They drop to 0-2 on the year. Much more to come on
12:32the
12:32Mercedes-Benz postgame show. He's Mike Johnson. I'm Grant McCauley. This is the Atlanta Falcons
12:36Radio Network.
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