Falcons demolished Saints on MNF and are starting to look like the team that we thought they’d be

Name: Falcons demolished Saints on MNF and are starting to look like the team that we thought they’d be
Uploaded: 2026-10-06T14:55:38+00:00
Duration: 18 min 19 s
Channel: WZGC-FM / 92.9 The Game

00:00Good morning. Welcome to A to Z here on Sports Radio, 92.9 The Game, where today I tell you

00:04I

00:04was wrong, but everything is still okay. Welcome in once again here to A to Z, 92.9thegame.com,

00:1192.9 The Game YouTube, and all the social media channels. Appreciate you guys joining me as

00:15always. Do me a favor, hit that subscribe button if you're not already subscribed to the YouTube

00:19page. Smash that like button as well. Drop a comment down below. Let me know your thoughts

00:23on the show. And of course, we're going to dive into the Falcons win on Monday night football

00:27over the Saints. We've got the Braves in a crucial game three against the Dodgers in the

00:32playoff. Shoves of wisdom and a whole lot more. But make sure you guys are subscribed to the

00:36Ys. You're not alerted every single time A to Z pops up here on 92.9 The Game YouTube and

00:4192.9thegame.com. When we get back, we are going to dive right into the Falcons win and why it

00:49was so impressive. My calculations are correct. When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're

00:57going to see some serious shit. It's time for A to Z with Mark Zeno. It's elite sports knowledge.

01:06I am the smartest man alive. It's in your face opinions. In the face. In the face. No. We

01:15got some good times. We hate to have. And some good information. Get f***ed in. When Atlanta

01:23talks sports, there's only one place to turn. You want me on that wall. You need me on that

01:30wall. A to Z starts now.

01:39So the Falcons get the 45-24 win over the Saints last night in really impressive fashion.

01:46This is a team that rushed for 205 yards and had five rushing touchdowns. They held the Saints to

01:53just 50 yards rushing on the game. It was a pretty dominant performance all around. You know, and

01:59when I started, I said, you know, I was wrong. And look, I told people to sort of temper their

02:02expectations and not assume that they're all going to be as easy as it was in Green Bay last Thursday

02:07night. Well, this one was pretty easy. I was wrong. Um, when you run the balls effectively

02:13as the Falcons do, everything else becomes easier. And that's the reality of football in

02:17the NFL. And Kevin Stefanski, if you saw it, he said it after the game in the locker room,

02:22how you run the ball, how you stop the run as a measure of what kind of football team you

02:26are.

02:26If you do those two things, you will always be in football games. You will always, always find a way

02:33to keep yourself competitive. Um, and there was even, even more than that. There was one of those,

02:38um, analytics charts that's out there. I don't know if you guys have seen this, um,

02:43on teams that are winning on first and second down. Okay. Um, and if you look the way the quad

02:49chart works and it says, run it in the top left, run it. It works top, right. Throw it. It

02:54works

02:55bottom, right. Throw it. It goes nowhere. Bottom left, run it. It goes nowhere. Um, and actually this

03:00is somebody who covers the Vikings, a friend of mine who I know because the Vikings are in the

03:04bottom left running and it goes nowhere and somehow they're four and oh, but in the top left corner,

03:09okay, where it says run it, it works. Okay. Here are a list of the teams. Okay. That are there.

03:17Okay. Bears playoff team from last year. Seahawks playoff team from last year. Chiefs playoff team

03:24from last year. Bills playoff team from last year. 49ers playoff team from last year. Ravens

03:30missed the playoffs last year due to injuries. Okay. And Lamar Jackson being hurt. Chiefs

03:35missed the playoffs last year as well. Okay. But those are two perennial Superbowl teams. And of

03:40course the Falcons are there. Look at all that conglomeration of teams. And this, this chart

03:47is on my Twitter. If you go to at Mark Zitto, uh, I made a comment about it, uh, and

03:50just basically

03:51said that the teams in the top left quadrant, the run it and it works on first and second down

03:56are the ones with the highest probability of making the playoffs. And that's true.

03:59And that's where the Falcons are right now. Undeniably it's hard. It's hard to look at the

04:06Falcons and go, they're not going to make the playoffs. I mean, right now there's still plus

04:13money to make the playoffs. To me, that is nuts. That's absolutely crazy. Um, if they continue

04:21on this path, the way that they are able to run the ball and stop the run, they are going

04:27to be a

04:27playoff team. And this is not going to get talked about enough here guys. And I'm going to start to

04:32beat this drum week after week, after week, after week, because here's one thing I know

04:36will happen. The Falcons will eventually stop scoring 30. Somebody is going to slow this offense

04:42down defensively. Somebody is going to figure out a way to bottle up Bajon Robinson in a game,

04:47right? That is a certainty. At some point that will happen. The Falcons will not score 30 every

04:54game the rest of the year. They might not score 27 every game the rest of the year. So they're

04:58going to play a game where they only score 23 or 24 points. Here's the drum to start to beat.

05:04This defense may be actually even better than the offense. And that's something you need to wrap your

05:10head around a bunch of no name guys. A lot of people outside of Atlanta wouldn't know half of

05:16this roster anywhere. That's fine. They don't have to. Right. But when you look at this roster

05:24and this defense, okay, you know, Brandon Dorliss and Zedarius Smith, you know, you're looking at

05:32other names, divine Diablo. I mean, God, the linebacker play from this team has been insane.

05:38Harold Perkins Jr. has been great. He's a backup for crying out loud. But the front seven has become

05:44really good. Dexter, Gervin Dexter Sr. just got a contract this week. Really good. I mean,

05:49there's a lot here to like about this defense. And I would tell you again, I think that the defense

05:55is playing at a higher level than the offenses. And that's saying something. And I think that that's

05:59something that we're going to continue to underscore here with this team. And that's okay. I get it.

06:04The offense gets all the love. And they're supposed to. But there's going to be a game or a couple

06:11of

06:11games this year where the offense just doesn't click. Someone's going to figure out how to stop

06:14Bajon Robinson. That's going to happen. You better get ready for that game when it happens. And the

06:20only thing that helps you win that game is that your defense does it for you. Keeps you in position

06:25where all you have to do is get one late field goal, one late score. And all of a sudden,

06:29you got

06:30a chance to win the game. So that part is super, super important for the Falcons. But look, you know,

06:39it's great to see this offense score 80 points the last two games after scoring just 16, the first

06:46two and looking totally pathetic. Yeah, it turns out that Michael Penix is good enough, but just

06:57better. Like, again, remember the two things I talked about. And I'll say week to week, Michael

07:01Penix has been great. Overarch of the season, we're still waiting. We're still looking. We're still

07:05trying to see 100% if we got the guy. Two weeks feels great. Feels like you got the guy.

07:09100%

07:10sure. And don't let anybody else, any of my colleagues in the media say, I told you you

07:15should have started from the beginning of the year. We'd be 4-0. It's an asinine statement,

07:20and you were wrong. Okay? Neither here nor there. Probably another drum I need to stop beating,

07:25but one more time. What the hell? As the Carolina Panthers say, keep pounding, right? But yeah,

07:30I guess when you, you know, this offense just looks dynamically different. Penix is able to make

07:37some good throws. Look, you know, and here's one thing this I'll say about Michael Penix that's fair.

07:42Okay? And I've seen both criticisms and, you know, applause headed his way on social media.

07:50Michael Penix is still, and still has to, and still will grow as a quarterback. I have some throws that

07:57look bad for him. Some throws that don't look as good as others. He's still allowed to improve on

08:04those folks, and he's going to have time to improve. And the idea is that over the course

08:09of the season, and hopefully over the course of a couple of seasons, all of those throws improve,

08:13and they get better and better and better, and things get easier and easier and easier.

08:16And guess what? You've developed into a really solid all-around quarterback. Like,

08:20he's allowed to improve and give him room to improve. Whatever he's bad at now,

08:24because he's not great at everything, but wherever his inaccuracies are, wherever his flaws are at

08:29this point in time in his game, he's allowed to get better at it. It's okay for him to be

08:35bad at

08:35things. He doesn't have to be the perfect quarterback. All he's got to do right now is not

08:41make mistakes, which he's done, keep his team in the game, and make enough throws in big spots

08:47to get your team first downs, move the chains, put your team in scoring position, things of that nature.

08:52He's allowed to improve. He's allowed to be bad right now. It's okay. He's allowed to have

08:56holes in his game. Still hasn't played a full 17 games yet. Still has yet to play one full season.

09:0314 games. That's where we are. 14. 14 starts. That's it. So, he's allowed to continue to grow

09:12and improve in this whole thing. Ravens, Monday night, will be a big test. I'll tell you what,

09:19I don't like the fact that the Falcons are a favorite. I know, by the way, if there's a team,

09:25and we'll talk about this later in the week, if there's a team that can keep the Falcons from

09:29scoring 30, Ravens defense will. They can. Absolutely, they can. So, it'll be a little bit of a different

09:36challenge on Monday night, and we'll certainly see that when they go on and go ahead and take

09:45on the Ravens. But enjoy this win. It's going to be a good win. We'll talk to Kevin Stefanski today

09:48on Tuesday, get a little feedback from him, and then we will have our eyes focused on a home

09:56Sunday night game, rather, against the Ravens here in Atlanta. So, it's going to be a real good time

10:02to see if the Falcons are going to prove the 3-2. But again, how you stop the run, how

10:06you run the

10:06ball, that's what kind of team you are, and they are growing into a very good team. A very, very,

10:12very good team at this point in time. So, I think it's worth noting the improvement that has been

10:18drastic. And credit to Kevin Stefanski for what he's done. Part of me wants to ask him, like,

10:25I know that difference seems obvious, but why are things so much better with Pennix under center?

10:33Like, I know it's easy to just, you know, not trying to knock Cooper Rush, but like,

10:39it's, there's a wide chasm between what we saw weeks one and two and what we've seen weeks three

10:44and four. And in theory, it shouldn't be that wide. This isn't Patrick Mahomes to a backup.

10:48This isn't Josh Allen to a backup, at least not at this point. So, you know, it stands to reason

10:59that for guys that's as consistent as Stefanski, why you see so much more success goes beyond just

11:07quarterback play. But nonetheless, it's going to be a very, very good week for the Falcons going

11:14into a big Sunday night game. All right. We're going to get to Chris Sale and how everything

11:21bounced the Braves way in Los Angeles. Can they take advantage of it? We'll answer that question

11:25right after this. Brace yourselves because it's time for the Shovel of Wisdom.

11:41Yeah. Time for Shovels of Wisdom. Today, my shovel goes to NFL officials.

11:47You guys had to have seen this over the weekend. Line judge Jeff Seaman and referee Adrian Hill.

11:56Both of them were suspended for unprofessional conduct towards players. Jeff Seaman in the

12:02Cardinals-Giants game and Adrian Hill in the Miami-Minnesota game. I mean, it's beyond to me

12:15that officials would do this. You know, what's crazy here is this. And here's the trade-off for

12:21these officials. You don't ever get to do that. You don't ever get to accost a player. You don't

12:26ever get to start a fight with a player. Players get to yell at you all they want. Players get

12:29to

12:29complain about you. Players get to get in your face. They get to, as long as it is not, you

12:34know,

12:34disrespectful, they don't get to spit on you. They're certainly not allowed to touch you, right?

12:40But you can't provoke anything with a player ever. You can't ever go back at a player. You can't ever

12:44curse back at a player. You can't ever do anything. You as referee get protected status. The trade-off for

12:50that, you don't ever get to get out of line with a player. A player can be losing their mind

12:54and you

12:55have to keep your cool. That's the trade-off of your protected status. And both of those guys

12:59violated it. They both were suspended. Probably should have been longer. Seaman should never be

13:04allowed to work a Cardinals game ever again, period. That's ridiculous for what he did. And

13:11again, who cares that he said bad words? It's not the point that he said bad words. We all say

13:16bad

13:16words, most of us. But the point simply is that you don't get to do that and you should know

13:22better.

13:22And they didn't. And I'm glad the NFL suspended them because they deserve to be suspended.

13:29But the trade-off of your protected status is that you never get to lose your cool. Ever.

13:36If Adrian Hill, who was the official who got knocked over, he was literally blocked into by a

13:42player. Nobody was paying attention. If he wanted to throw a flag, then you just throw the flag and

13:47that's it. But you don't get to get up in a player's face and bark at him and yell at

13:52him

13:52and accost him and put your hands on the player. Never. Ever. Period. So it's been a bad week for

14:00officiating, man. It continues to get worse and worse and worse in football. It's making the sport

14:04completely unwatchable and unenjoyable. But that's a whole different conversation for a different day.

14:08All right. Tonight, it'll be game three between the Braves and Dodgers. And everything bounced

14:15the Braves way. Walt Weiss pushed every right button. You know, losing game one in L.A. was to

14:22be expected. Game two, though, going back to Ray Kerr, a lot of people questioned it. I certainly

14:28understood it. Look, it made sense that you roll the dice with Kerr in game two. You win it. Boom.

14:36You're set up perfectly for Sale at home. If you lose it, Sale is the one guy you want on

14:40the mound

14:40to keep your season alive for one more night. And then you just go to game four. Right? I mean,

14:47that's the reality of the way this thing works out. So I think it was very fortuitous, but it was

14:52smart by Walt Weiss to do the bullpen game. Remember, the bullpen has been one of the brave

14:56strengths the entire year. Why get away from it now? Why try to change it now? There's no reason to.

15:04This is something that is very simply very easy. Um, and, and the idea that you would want to get

15:12away from what your strengths are doesn't make any sense to me. So I am, I am pretty content with

15:21where the Braves have put themselves at this point in time. Chris Sale, ultra dominant, obviously a 1-6-6

15:28ERA

15:28at home against the Dodgers in two starts this year. He's gone 16 innings, uh, and had, has held

15:35them to a 172 batting average. Last time out at home, complete game, five hits shutout. He's got

15:4118 strikeouts and 16 innings against the Dodgers. Everything sets up the way it's supposed to.

15:46Everything sets up the way it's supposed to here. And I think that to me is, uh, is, is

15:55why the Braves are in a great chance, great spot here to go ahead and take this, uh, this series.

16:03I mean, it would be what, what, what, what a coup it would be here. Uh, if they can put,

16:09if they win

16:10this game three, they have two cracks at them with Molly and probably another bullpen game in game five.

16:16I don't hate their chances. I mean, I don't want to make it a fait accompli here that Chris Sale

16:21is automatically going to win tonight. Cause the Dodgers are still a very tough team. I mean,

16:24you can't deny that. Uh, but you feel like everything is set up the way you wanted it to.

16:30Everything is set up, um, for the Dodgers. I mean, for the Braves rather to take game three and put

16:37themselves in a perfect spot to give the ball to Molly in game four, to try to close this thing

16:41out.

16:42I mean, you can't ask for a much better setup than this and the lineup with the Braves has been

16:47good. The hitting has been timely. I don't think anybody can complain, uh, about the, the, the,

16:53the hitting to this point in time. Uh, and every one of these things are all always, um, tight games.

17:01So you just need to get enough hits. You just need to push enough runs across. Uh, and, and if

17:07the

17:07Braves end up taking this game, it did level of excitement for game four. And the idea that you

17:13can close this thing out at home is going to be off the charts. So, and Chris Sale, by the

17:20way,

17:20it was probably the best big game pitcher in major league baseball today. Like this is 2001,

17:25Randy Johnson kind of pitching that you're seeing from sale. He's that good at this point really is.

17:32Like beating him in the post season is the tallest of tall orders that any team has to do. So

17:38trust

17:39the Braves a ton tonight here. Let's hope it comes through. All right. Do me a favor again,

17:45make sure you guys hit that subscribe button and you are locked in right here on the YouTube page.

17:50Don't forget to check it out on 1990 the game.com, all the social media channels, uh, for all the

17:55highlights of A to Z we're here on twice a week. Um, and we continue to go on Tuesday.

18:00And either Thursday or Friday, depending on the Falcons football schedule and what's going on,

18:03looks like we might go back to Thursdays this week, but that's why you got to stay locked in

18:06and subscribe, smash that thumbs up and the like button as well. Drop a comment down below. Look

18:11forward to hearing from you guys back with more later on this week on 80s day right here on

18:14Sports Radio 99 the game. You guys have a great day. Don't take a crap from anybody. See ya.

Falcons demolished Saints on MNF and are starting to look like the team that we thought they’d be

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