00:00As far as tonight's game, Arch, big game, obviously a lot of meaning for this one.
00:04The records are both one and two, division rivals, and it's the Katrina anniversary game.
00:08How much does all of that play into tonight's game?
00:12Well, it certainly will play into the atmosphere of the building.
00:16I think the building will be electric.
00:17It usually is, and the Falcons play in New Orleans, vice versa, when they come to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
00:24So you'll have that.
00:25I think the players are aware of the rivalry piece of it, more so that they're aware that this is
00:32a divisional opponent
00:33and that you begin to stack your opportunities to go to the postseason if you beat those people that are
00:40in your division.
00:41It didn't help that Carolina was able to win last night.
00:45We got the win over Detroit, good win for them, another good game for Bryce Young.
00:50So those guys are playing at a better level.
00:54But I don't know how much they know about what happened 20 years ago.
00:58They've been told.
01:00I was in the building that night.
01:02We were trying to count on the plane how many people were on the plane that were in that building
01:0620 years ago,
01:07and we came up with six people.
01:10One of them was a player in Todd McClure who actually played in the game,
01:15and then there were Wes and I and a couple of ancillary people were in the building.
01:19It was an electric place, and I think that I will say this, you know,
01:23and we're not supposed to – we're not Saint fans nor we pull for the Saints or any of that
01:27kind of stuff.
01:27I will say it was a demonstration of human spirit in the building.
01:32It was really a cool moment to be a part of because of what they had gone through
01:37with that incredibly devastating storm and how they responded to being back in their building
01:43to be able to pull for their team.
01:44So it was an incredible night.
01:47Arch, talking about the game tonight, and we were kind of talking about matchups earlier,
01:51I think one guy that I'm definitely going to have my eyes on tonight is Chase Young.
01:54I think that he does a lot of things that give Jake Matthews issues.
01:58I'm curious if going into the game tonight you have a certain matchup,
02:01maybe a certain player of theirs that you're highlighting,
02:03thinking that that could be what makes or breaks the night for the Falcons.
02:06Yeah, it's interesting, Mike.
02:07You and I, our eyes are very similar when it comes to you feel like you're a little vulnerable in
02:13an area.
02:13I think that the one thing that New Orleans has been able to do,
02:16although the numbers wouldn't indicate it, I think that they do a decent job of defending the run game.
02:23The numbers don't necessarily lean into that.
02:27I think they had the one night against the Lions that might skew the numbers against the run game.
02:33You know that they're going to come in, try and defend the run.
02:36The reason I go there is you're talking about the one-on-one matchup with Chase Young
02:40coming off the edge against Jake Matthews.
02:42But you know as well as I do, Mike, the way you hope to get after a guy that's a
02:47good pass rusher
02:48is reduce him physically in the run game.
02:51And I think that's what they'll want to do.
02:54Now, New Orleans knows that.
02:55One thing that does help, they've got two defensive ends out.
02:59You know, Jennings is out.
03:00Carl Granderson was a monster against us last year.
03:03He had 10 tackles as a defensive end in the game week 17 last year in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
03:11Those two guys combined had like 16 tackles and three and a half sacks.
03:15So they did a good job defending the run game.
03:19I'm hoping that that makes them a little bit vulnerable, but I would agree with you.
03:24I think that that's one of those matchups.
03:25I was looking at their two edge guys, but now that Granderson's not going to go,
03:29now they're going to have to fall.
03:30Can Cam Jordan pick up the slack as an aging veteran, a guy that's played in 30 games
03:35against the Falcons?
03:36He's got 26 sacks in 30 games against us.
03:39A lot of those haunt our president of football, Matt Ryan, down the hall here.
03:44But that's where my eyes went to was the front seven and in particular those two edge guys.
03:52You know, I'm curious what you think of Tyler Shuck and how we could stop him.
03:57I understand the front four getting pressure is kind of an obvious thing
04:01and maintaining gap integrity when you're rushing him.
04:06But what do they need to do tonight to really make it a long night for him?
04:11Well, I think that you do what you try to do to any quarterback, like you were talking about,
04:15is try to limit his opportunities, limit what he has at his disposal.
04:21Number one will be what you've been doing the first three weeks of the season,
04:24and that will be take away the run game.
04:25They're a little bit hampered because whatever you want to call Travis HN or ETN
04:31or whatever he's changed his name to is no longer going to play.
04:34So now they're going to lean into 32-year-old Alvin Kamara,
04:37who we've seen have some decent days against the Falcons and other people.
04:43Kendra Miller is a good running back.
04:45So they've got some guys they can lean into, but can you take the run game away from him?
04:49So now you've eliminated that piece of it.
04:52Now, Kellen Moore has really leaned into throwing the football.
04:54I think he threw it 78 times against us last year in the two games we played.
04:59So they want to throw the football.
05:01So now what do we do in the pass game?
05:04Certainly pressure, like you're talking about, change looks up.
05:07This is a guy that hasn't been in the league very long, so you can change some looks against him.
05:12But make him put plays together.
05:15Don't give him explosive plays.
05:17And that's where the Falcons have been vulnerable in the back end is if we give up explosives,
05:22now me as a young quarterback, I don't have to come up with as many plays to get us in
05:26the end zone
05:26or get us in the scoring zone.
05:28So make sure he has to work his way down the field,
05:31and ultimately he'll get a tip ball, you'll get a ball knocked down,
05:35they'll have a penalty, something like that that'll disrupt the drive,
05:38and you can get them off the field.
05:39We are joined by Dave Archer on the morning shift.
05:43Dave, what did you see for Michael Penix in Green Bay that the offense can build off of tonight?
05:48Yeah, just his poise, Allie.
05:49I thought that, you know, you get off to a one-for-five start,
05:52and you throw an interception on the opening drive.
05:54Defense had his back, came in, got a three-and-out near midfield on that opening drive
05:58after the interception.
06:00They had four three-and-outs in the game in the first half defensively,
06:06so they had his back and let him settle in a little bit.
06:09But Mike's play, he played, that was a pretty raucous crowd up there in Green Bay, too.
06:13That was their first home game.
06:14They don't lose at home.
06:16What was it, like 13, 12, 13 times they'd won their opening game?
06:20So that was a pretty good opening act for him.
06:22This will be the first time he's played in this series in this building.
06:26He played a college football game as a, you know,
06:29Washington Husky against the Texas Longhorns in a playoff game
06:33when he was coming out of college his senior year,
06:35but this will be his first time in this environment.
06:37This is a little bit different environment like we've already discussed.
06:41So, but I think his poise he showed there,
06:43the fact that he didn't flinch with the kind of the difficult start,
06:47went 17 to 20 from that point on.
06:49I have no worries that Mike's going to be okay.
06:51Arch, I'm curious to get your perspective as a quarterback
06:54of how important it is to find different weapons in the passing game.
06:58And I say that because I do think that these passing games kind of mirror one another,
07:01or will tonight.
07:02Alvin Kamar and Bajon obviously can catch the ball in the backfield.
07:04Chris Alave and Drake London will have a huge, you know, portion of the targets.
07:09But both of these quarterbacks kind of trying to find other weapons.
07:12How important is that, or do you think that's kind of overblown?
07:16No, I think it's an important piece to it.
07:19I think that obviously you take what's given, Mike.
07:22You know that as well as I do, that, you know,
07:24defenses and circumstances are going to dictate where the ball goes.
07:28And if you get two guys go for almost 400 yards of offense in a game,
07:33you're not going to, you know, hey, we didn't get the ball to the tight end.
07:35I don't think you're going to worry about that.
07:37But if you're not getting that kind of production,
07:41we need to get other guys involved.
07:42And it may be because the defenses now start to slant to Drake.
07:46How are they going to roll up on Drake?
07:47Now, what Tommy's doing a really good job of is he's moving Drake around.
07:51It's very difficult to double a guy that's moving in motion or is in the slot.
07:57And, you know, as well as I do, that's difficult to do that.
07:59But if they do begin to try to clamp him out,
08:03and they're taking Bijan maybe away in the run game,
08:06then you're going to need guys to surface.
08:08And Kyle is the obvious guy.
08:09He's the guy that you'd like to serve.
08:11And that's what they've done.
08:13Fant and Johnson have really surfaced for them,
08:15the two tight ends for New Orleans.
08:17That's an area that a lot of people are looking at, Olave and where else.
08:19Those two tight ends, as you get closer to the goal line,
08:23have been real weapons for them.
08:25That's where Kyle – we do need to get Kyle going.
08:27And then the ancillary piece with O.Z. and Jahan Dotson,
08:30those guys get them – sprinkle them in a catch or two.
08:33But I'm not going to frown if two guys go for 400 yards.
08:37They're not going to – that's going to be a problem for them.
08:40I mean, how do you – how does Bijan Robinson do it where –
08:44I know that we've already had a prime time in Atlanta.
08:49It's a nickname or whatever, you know, with Deion.
08:51But Bijan Robinson goes flat off on these nationally televised night games.
08:57How does – how does he do that?
09:00How does he just turn it on like that, it feels like?
09:02Yeah, he's the Matrix.
09:04You know, I call him the Matrix.
09:05You know, I looked up the definition of Matrix.
09:08Like five – there's like five different definitions.
09:10But one of the definitions is that you get two modes of communication go through –
09:17two or more modes of communication go through one individual.
09:21Wow.
09:21I mean, you've got that many signals coming out of one dude.
09:25It's going to be difficult to hone in on where he's supposed to be.
09:29But his starts – you know, we talked about how special a player he is.
09:33And I think that he just continues to do what he's doing, you know.
09:37And so they've got to try to locate him.
09:39That means the resources they've got to dedicate to coming up
09:43and being around the line of scrimmage.
09:45We saw Green Bay try to stay in the too-high package and roll a safety down in.
09:49I don't think New Orleans will be that stubborn.
09:51I think they'll try to get somebody down in the box to make it crowded down there,
09:56to make the decisions – give yourself a problem,
09:59which is going to give Michael opportunities to potentially get the ball to other guys
10:03and maybe get the ball vertically down the field.
10:05I think that definition perfectly matches.
10:07But John Robinson, you nailed that one, Dave.
10:10I think so.
10:11Whether they talk about, you know, there's like a substance.
10:15It's got these different, you know, jewels in it and all this kind of stuff.
10:19I just thought – and then the last one was an individual with two
10:23or more different modes of communication coming out of it
10:27or messages coming out of it.
10:29I said, wow, that's him to a T.
10:31Yeah, I love that.
10:32Dave, I asked Bo earlier, are you guys going to figure out
10:34where to get some beignets at some point today?
10:36You got to, right?
10:38Beignets?
10:39You know, I don't know.
10:40I don't need to lean into the French piece of this down here.
10:44We've been down here so many times.
10:45I mean, last night we went to a Cajun place last night.
10:48I got my red beans and rice, and we got the gumbo and some stuff like that.
10:52Got that mixed in.
10:53So I think we've done the taste in New Orleans.
10:56Now we need to go kick their rear end and get the hell out of here.
10:58Perfect.
10:59Love to hear it.
10:59Skip the beignets.
11:00Just kick their rear end.
11:01That's all we need.
