00:00So it is Michael Penix's first game with the Falcons this season and on the other side injuries have stacked
00:05up for Green Bay.
00:06We'll get to those in a second, but we did hear from Kevin Stefanski yesterday, of course, asked again about
00:11the quarterback situation.
00:13Let's hear what Kevin Stefanski had to say on game planning the plays for Michael Penix's first game with his
00:18offense.
00:20I think there's a lot of conversation that occurs between the play caller and the quarterback in this case.
00:25So you want to make sure that the game plan is a bunch of stuff that Mike's comfortable with.
00:31And then you get to a day like today and you say, OK, what plays do you want early?
00:35What calls do you want? So there's a great rapport between Tommy and Mike.
00:39And they've had those conversations. But like you mentioned, I mean, it's first time for Mike in there with with
00:44us.
00:44And, of course, there's going to be things that come up and you're going to work through it.
00:48But that's that's no different than any quarterback.
00:50Yeah, and nor should it be. And, you know, look, any offense coordinator, any play caller, any game planner is
00:57going to try to navigate the waters with each quarterback that they have.
01:02The interesting part of it is kind of talked about this yesterday, but I don't know what I don't know
01:08what they prefer.
01:09I don't know what Tommy Reese and Kevin Stefanski prefer in a quarterback.
01:12You've seen Stefanski over the course of the last five years in Cleveland have just about every different style of
01:18quarterback you can possibly have.
01:19And it lends itself to the conversation he was just having is like, you know, sometimes you get Dorian Thompson
01:25Robinson and, you know, you're running zone read and sometimes you get Joe Flacco and he's slinging the pill around
01:30from the pocket.
01:31Like there's just different things you have to do.
01:33I think the curiosity for a lot of people tonight will be what is the difference between Cooper Rush and
01:38Michael Penix in a lot of these situations.
01:40And honestly, I'll be curious to see that myself.
01:43I think it's an interesting conversation and you could probably have – it's a conversation you could probably go down
01:50a wormhole in or whatever the saying is,
01:52is because as much flack as he gets about struggling in Stefanski, you know, he's got all these quarterbacks in
02:02Cleveland and everything.
02:04To that point, though, everyone he's had, he has tried to take what he's doing and suit it towards the
02:13player's, you know, traits.
02:16Like you just said, with zone read or with Flacco, you're running more than a conventional.
02:20I think that they truly do try to take an offense and mold it around who's running it.
02:27And so to me, when I hear that, and I talked with Archer about this briefly last night,
02:33and he didn't tell me I was completely an idiot, but, you know, he always tells me I'm a little
02:39bit of an idiot, so it's okay.
02:41But I think that they're going to try to loosen that defense up,
02:47and I think that the defense might have to respect Penix a little bit more, that they will, you know,
02:52throw it downfield more.
02:53Now, were they calling that already?
02:56I don't know.
02:58Maybe they were, and maybe Cooper Rush just didn't feel comfortable doing that, or he hesitated,
03:04and by the time he hesitated, he's either getting hit in the face or, you know, he didn't have,
03:09the opportunity had gone.
03:12Because I will tell you this, like, he, for all the conversation about how good or bad the Falcons' offensive
03:18line has been
03:19in the first couple weeks, they've, teams have loaded up against the run,
03:24and on top of that, with Cooper Rush hesitating, it has allowed defenses to get there, to get to him.
03:31So I don't know really, when I say I don't know what this team is offensively,
03:36it's because they've been so limited, I don't know what they are offensively.
03:40Well, and I know we've been in quarterback limbo for a second, and it's been absolutely maddening,
03:44but on the Green Bay side of this, the injuries have absolutely compounded leading up to tonight's game.
03:50Zach Bacoboile did not participate.
03:52Aaron Banks did not participate.
03:54Warren Brinson did not participate.
03:56It just goes on and on and on with their injuries.
03:58Yeah, I won't get too deep into the minutia of my week, but with it being, you know,
04:03I have a certain thing that I like to do each week, watch the Falcons game tape from last week,
04:07then watch the All-22 from Green Bay, and a lot of times I like to get around to the
04:10TV copy,
04:11and yesterday I finally got around to the TV copy of watching Green Bay's game from last week
04:14and trying to pick up tidbits with that.
04:16I knew they had injuries.
04:17I just didn't realize how they happened.
04:20So Green Bay starts their game last week against the Jets.
04:23First play, busted play.
04:25Jordan Love has to just kind of fall down, take a sack on the first play
04:28because somebody goes the wrong direction.
04:29Second play of the game against the Jets, he throws a screen to Jaden Reed.
04:34Jaden Reed, you know, just terrifyingly, like, goes kind of limp,
04:39has to be put on a backboard and stretchered off.
04:42This play number two has a neck injury, you know,
04:45the whole feeling and the extremities conversation.
04:47So after a stoppage for that and be able to cart him all the way off,
04:50they come back out for the third play, and Zach Bacobwele, their right tackle,
04:55tears his patellar tendon and has to be put in an air cast.
04:57The cart has to come back on the field to get him as he's put in an air cast,
05:02and then he is taken off.
05:04That all happened in the first three plays last week against the Jets.
05:07Brutal.
05:08Allie, what if I told you that Zach Bacobwele was once named Zach Tom?
05:12Oh, I know.
05:12I know.
05:13I got into all of that.
05:14I went down that rabbit hole.
05:17Mike and I did, too, the other day.
05:19And when I heard you say it, I was like, oh, fun fact.
05:26Yeah, they're also – like you said, Aaron Banks will be out, too.
05:29So two-fifth of their starting offensive line is out.
05:31Look, I see these injuries as opportunity for us,
05:36and I hate to talk about someone else's misfortune as something that, you know,
05:42could benefit us, but that's exactly what I'm going to tell you,
05:46is that two-fifth of their starting offensive line is out.
05:49Now, we are going to be without Samson Ebicom.
05:51He's out.
05:52He's the only guy that, to my knowledge, is going to miss at this point.
05:55I think Billy Bowman is questionable going into the game,
05:58but I have a feeling he'll be active.
06:01That's just my feeling.
06:02Nobody's told me that, but that's my feeling, and I'm going to stick with it.
06:06So I tell you that, last week, and I think overall of the season,
06:11we have generated pressure 46% of the time.
06:15And last week, I know against Price Young,
06:17we were generating pressure with just four down linemen going after the quarterback.
06:21So when everyone wants to tell you that our pass rush is not working right now,
06:26they're wrong.
06:28And I'm not going to call them names, but they're wrong.
06:29And they're not watching the film, and they're not doing research,
06:32and they're just sitting there watching one TV copy live
06:37and never going back and revisiting it,
06:38because this Z'Darrius Smith has been abusing right and left tackles.
06:44And, Mike, I don't know if you saw it on film,
06:45but that's what I've seen in person and on film.
06:48And I hope that we can benefit on – I believe Anthony Belton will be the one.
06:54He or John Williams, one, will be the guy that steps into that spot
06:59for the player formerly known as Zach Tom.
07:02Yeah, well, I do want to go back for one minute,
07:05because we are missing A.J. Terrell.
07:06I don't want to gloss over kind of what that – I mean, that's a –
07:09from their angle, they're looking at that as our version of Zach Tom, honestly.
07:13They're sitting there going, yeah, they're missing A.J. Terrell.
07:16So I do think that's worth mentioning and worth mentioning C.J. Henderson.
07:19But you're right.
07:20Look, I saw Anthony Belton for, like I just said, almost the entire game last week.
07:24He's got ability, but he definitely isn't, you know,
07:28extremely refined in some of his pass-blocking abilities.
07:31But Donovan Jennings, who you're talking about taking over at left guard
07:35for the injured Aaron Banks, that's one where I get really pretty juiced up.
07:40They have not, without Josh Jacobs, really been able to run the football.
07:43They're kind of – it's kind of a, you know, three-headed tandem up there
07:46with the backs that they have and Chris Brooks and Marshawn Lloyd
07:50and Caleb Johnson.
07:51This is going to make it ten times harder.
07:53And when I think of the, you know, putting Mason Smith over Donovan Jennings
07:57or LaCale London, I think that they're going to have a pretty good, you know,
08:03clip of success there up front, and hopefully we can force them
08:05into some obvious passing downs.
08:06Let's go.
