- 16 minutes ago
The Atlanta Falcons earned their first home victory of the season with a thrilling 29-20 upset over the previously undefeated San Francisco 49ers. Grant McAuley and Mike Johnson break down the action. Discover how offensive coordinator Tommy Rees dialed up trick plays and balanced drives to outduel Kyle Shanahan, Michael Penix Jr. spread the ball around to command time of possession, and defensive standouts Jessie Bates and rookie linebacker Kendal Daniels forced critical fourth-quarter turnovers to seal the win. Plus, analysis on Bijan Robinson’s role and Christian McCaffrey’s limited second-half impact.
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00:01Welcome in to the Mercedes-Benz Post Game Show, Atlanta Falcons Radio Network.
00:05I'm Grant McCauley, alongside former Falcon Mike Johnson in our network studios in Midtown Atlanta.
00:10And Mike, what a Sunday of football. We just saw a Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
00:14We have got tons to get into from what was a bit of a rollercoaster ride, emotionally speaking.
00:19But the only thing that matters is a scoreboard. 29-20.
00:23Undefeated no more are the San Francisco 49ers because the Atlanta Falcons have their first home win of the season.
00:29Again, 29-20 the final, as this is the Mercedes-Benz Post Game Show.
00:33Mercedes-Benz official luxury vehicle of your Atlanta Falcons.
00:36And what a ride it was, all pun intended, on this beautiful Sunday here in Atlanta.
00:41I don't want to say, you know, the most unlikely victory in 10 years, but we're in the ballpark.
00:47Yeah, we're there. We have a seat.
00:49And look, all the questions coming off last week's performance, all the questions about what this, you know, coaching staff
00:55is,
00:55these players, these quarterbacks, whatever it may be.
00:57But really an incredible rollercoaster ride of a victory today.
01:01And I thought multiple people had, you know, great days coaching, playing, whatever else it might be.
01:07But they dealt with injuries.
01:08We dealt with injuries.
01:09And I thought it was just fun to watch, man.
01:13Honestly, it's just been a while since I've had that much fun.
01:15It's been a few weeks since I've had that much fun watching the Falcons battle it out.
01:18And it was, you know, game plan and close calls and turnovers and everything else
01:24and everything you could have wished for in a Falcons victory today.
01:26Yeah, everything was just kind of thrown into the mix there.
01:28And it felt like this was a game that was basically a three-act play because you came in and
01:33it was,
01:33hey, the San Francisco 49ers.
01:35This is act one.
01:35They look just as advertised.
01:37Then all of a sudden act two was the Falcons, surprisingly, are going to march out to this lead
01:41against one of the three unbeaten teams in the NFL and arguably perhaps the best of the teams in the
01:46NFL,
01:47regardless of record.
01:48This 49ers team is a club to be reckoned with.
01:50And then act three was who's going to make the plays when it matters most.
01:54And that, Mike, I think, too, really speaks to the dramatics of all of this was it wasn't just a
01:59play on offense here or there.
02:00It was plays on defense.
02:01It was turnovers.
02:03It was all of the things that the Falcons needed pretty much at the exact time that they needed it.
02:07Yeah, there's no doubt about it.
02:08I thought Tommy Reese did, had probably his best drive maybe of his play-calling career right there in the
02:15first quarter
02:16or maybe it was the second quarter, it's 14-3.
02:19Yeah.
02:19And it looks as if this thing could get sideways.
02:22We had not stopped him.
02:25And yet the ways in which you utilize Charlie Warner, the reverse, I mean, we saw it all from this
02:32offense today.
02:32Honestly, it makes you a little bit more frustrated thinking back on how simple and vanilla you were just a
02:37week ago
02:37against the Chicago Bears.
02:38But we saw a little bit of everything.
02:40We saw a hook and ladder.
02:41I mean, the ability of Michael Penix to spread the ball around to different receivers and sustain drives
02:47and turn time of possession on its head, I thought it was incredible.
02:51That was a turning point, not just of the game, for them to climb back in it.
02:54And we missed the extra point, so it's 14-9.
02:56Right.
02:57It might have been a turning point for the entire season.
02:59Honestly, that drive, being able to put that together and really lean against a number of different playmakers
03:04to be able to come out on top.
03:05Yeah, it certainly felt like the game was hinging on different plays at different times,
03:09but there was a bunch down the stretch that you just had to have them, and you got them
03:13if you're the Falcons.
03:14And we need to talk a little bit about what you brought up, which was a tale of two game
03:17plans, which was what we saw the Falcons run against the Bears, which quite simply didn't
03:21cut it, wasn't going to cut it.
03:23And it's night and day different from what Tommy Reese and company dialed up today.
03:27There was balance.
03:28There was variety.
03:29And more B. John Robinson, among other things, I think also helped things out.
03:32And Michael Penix executed on this day.
03:34And clearly, Mike, they went back to the drawing board this week and found the right recipe
03:38for success, the right tweaks that they needed to make.
03:40And it all ultimately comes down to execution, and the Falcons did that as well at a very
03:44high level for much of this game offensively once they got this thing rolling.
03:48Yeah, look, Kyle Shanahan, to me, apologies to Andy Reid probably, but probably the best
03:54play caller in the NFL.
03:56And I thought through much of the game, you matched wits with Kyle Shanahan, if you're Tommy
04:01Reese and Kevin Sabansky.
04:03And Charlie Warner, who ironically comes over from San Francisco a couple of years ago with
04:08Raheem Morris, and Raheem Morris literally brought him over to play the Kyle Juszczyk role
04:15in the backfield, in motion.
04:17I thought they did a nice couple of things to kind of take eyes away from the play with
04:21Charlie Warner today.
04:22He also makes a catch and makes a man miss and gets up the sideline.
04:26I thought their utilization of him kind of hit a new level today as well.
04:29But Tommy Reese, like I said, man, if you're going to tell me we're going to run hook and
04:32ladder, we're going to run a reverse, we're going to, I mean, I don't understand where
04:36the imagination was last week, but I'm glad it showed up today in, you know, in a game
04:41that really nobody was giving you a chance of winning.
04:44And for good measure, I mean, they've got incredible players over there and a really
04:48good football team, and they were undefeated coming into this game today.
04:51And it just goes to show you what the NFL can be any given week.
04:54You can look a lot different than you did just six, seven days ago, sometimes more.
04:57But for the purpose of this exercise, just a week ago, Falcons did make those plays down
05:02the stretch.
05:02Kendall Daniels, how about Atlanta's second turnover in the fourth quarter with his pick
05:06of Brock Purdy?
05:0749ers were only down by six.
05:08Like they had a chance late to steal a victory from the Falcons, which sounds like a crazy
05:13thing to say, because as you just pointed out and on paper, the tale of the tape here
05:16was the 49ers have been executing at a high level all season long.
05:20Meanwhile, with the Falcons, it's been bad.
05:22It's been good.
05:23It's been a mixed bag.
05:24We weren't really sure what version of the Falcons you're going to get from week to week, but
05:27you got the good version for the most part today, but it gave the Falcons that chance
05:30to Daniels turnover to get Nick Folk in a field goal range.
05:34He hits the, uh, those three points, that field goal to make it a two score game.
05:38And that ultimately, in addition to chewing the time off of the clock was what you needed
05:43at that time.
05:43And how about the rookie Kendall Daniels playing a huge role in helping to ice this game?
05:47Just exceptional.
05:47And you really think at what the alternative storyline is, like if you don't get that
05:51play, right?
05:53Um, the snap that goes kind of wide left and Michael Penix fumbles, and it's a loss of
05:5712 on first down.
05:58Um, then you get the shanked punt because you can't pick up the first down.
06:01Yeah.
06:02You get the shanked punt and, uh, you know, they've got basically midfield starting
06:05position on that drive and you can just hear the groans from downtown Atlanta of here
06:11we go.
06:11You know, the Falcons are going to find a way, uh, to give this in a way and, and looming
06:15large, obviously the extra point that you miss, they miss one as well.
06:19And, you know, that kind of volleyed back and forth on that one.
06:21But, um, the reviews, the touchdown reviews, the, the toe drags, things of that nature all
06:27the way down the stretch.
06:27But Kendall Daniels, um, ironically, Grant, when he was, you know, when he was drafted,
06:32we sat in here and talked about, oh man, that's a big, tall linebacker.
06:35Like he is a rangy, tall linebacker.
06:37Well, he needed all of it, uh, you know, to go up there and tip that ball up to himself.
06:40And on a day in which he had to be the green dot guy with divine Diablo, not in the
06:45lineup.
06:46And you knew that Harold Perkins would be next to him and might struggle.
06:50Kendall Daniels had his most complete game.
06:52I believe as a football player in the NFL, uh, you know, going back seven games now.
06:56And it picked a great day to do it.
06:58You also have to talk about the performance of Jesse Bates, because how many times do
07:01we hear his name in this one coming up and making big play after big play sealed the
07:06deal with yet another turnover late there in the fourth quarter.
07:09But again, for Jesse Bates, it's been, I'd say, relatively quiet this year.
07:14His presence is felt certainly, but today was one of those days where he was all over
07:18the place and seemed to be at the right place at the right time, multiple times for the
07:21Falcons in this one.
07:22And his ability to knock the ball out.
07:24And, you know, I think Archer was right on the broadcast.
07:26He was like, I don't even want to call it the peanut punch anymore.
07:28Peanut Tillman, all apologies.
07:30Jesse Bates has done it at such a high level.
07:32And we saw it last week at the end of the game.
07:35Saw it today.
07:36I mean, Kendall Daniels and Jesse Bates both with, um, you know, the punch out and Kendall
07:40Daniels falls on it, but they both have, you know, interceptions on the day.
07:44Jesse Bates, the one along the sideline, it just really, it was exceptional.
07:47And that's what you look for for Jesse Bates.
07:49It's, you know, obviously good in coverage, shirt tackler, all pro level safety and has
07:53been, but his ability to flip these games on their head in the fourth quarter is something
07:57you just cannot replicate, um, if you're Jeff Ulbrich and company.
08:00So credit to both those guys, man.
08:02Um, just, uh, just a great job kind of being right time, right place and understanding what
08:07exactly your team needs.
08:09Even with all those guys out defensively that you felt like you were missing back in the
08:13secondary with Avion and Billy Bowman, um, a number of guys really defensively stepping
08:17up in those roles and you'll have to see it against an offense like that.
08:20Yeah.
08:20And you need every single bit of it.
08:21You needed everybody to do the things that they did today, because it was always going to
08:24add up to the sum of the parts in this one.
08:26You've got some feature players who can do a lot offensively speaking, especially for
08:29the Falcons.
08:30You got some special players on defense as well, but execution was always going to be
08:34the thing.
08:34If you look at the overall of this game and time of possession is owned by the Falcons
08:38in this one, despite the fact that if you look at total yardage in this one, 400 for
08:43the 49ers, 295 for the Falcons, but those turnovers played a large part in flipping the field for
08:48the Falcons in this one, just 82 yards on the ground for the Falcons.
08:52Offensively speaking, Bijan Robinson was a lot more involved.
08:54He did also catch some passes, do some stuff in the receiving game, 123 yards on the ground.
08:58We thought it might be, you know, the Christian McCaffrey show, but what we saw in that opening
09:01drive, he touched it six times, a couple of catches got into the end zone.
09:05And then all of a sudden, Christian McCaffrey wasn't quite as available for the 49ers in
09:09this one.
09:09We can't omit that because that's a pretty big playmaker who wasn't out there.
09:13And when he was out there, I think clearly had been affected by whatever was going on with
09:17the quad or the thigh or the injury that the 49ers said at one point, at least made him
09:20questionable to return.
09:22Yeah, we talked about in the pregame show about the target share for Mike Evans and
09:25without him in the lineup, who does that go to?
09:28And you knew that Kyle Juszczyk and George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey were going to
09:32get a ton of those targets.
09:33And without Christian McCaffrey as part of that right there in the meat of the game, I just,
09:38it's just crazy that we can talk about how Caleb Williams played a week ago and we talk
09:43about what their offense did or what their defense did.
09:45And I just love to see the Falcons offense right there in the first quarter, the second
09:49quarter, just take over and say, no, time of possession is going to be a thing.
09:52And the John Robinson's numbers were not great on the ground, but I thought the timing of
09:58the runs and what Tommy Reese was trying to do, he was simply saying, we are going to attempt
10:03to run the ball.
10:04I don't care if it's working or not.
10:06We are going to force Fred Warner and Greenlaw and all these guys to respect Bajon's ability.
10:11So was it, you know, the best version of Bajon Robinson, the running game we see?
10:17No.
10:18But again, they had to respect it.
10:20They had to lean into it.
10:21They had to load the box at times.
10:22And that's what opens up some of that downfield passing that Michael Pennix took advantage
10:25of today.
10:25It definitely did.
10:26And we've got a lot to talk about here on the Mercedes-Benz postgame show.
10:29One other number I'm going to throw out there and we will get into is when you look at the
10:32turnover battle, that's always one of the key lines when we're just sizing up the two teams
10:36on this box score.
10:37Four times the ball was turned over by the San Francisco 49ers, zero times the ball was
10:42turned over by the Atlanta Falcons in a game one, 29 to 20 by the Atlanta Falcons over the
10:48previously unbeaten, now six and one, San Francisco 49ers, Falcons three and four, and now finally
10:54have that elusive win at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, their first of the season on their home field.
10:59We've got lots to get into, no shortage of heroes to talk about in this one, a crazy game,
11:03a ride for us that we will be on for the next couple of hours with you.
11:06We'll also head back out to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
11:08Dave Archer working the Falcons locker room.
11:10We'll hear from head coach Kevin Stefanski.
11:11We will hear from Michael Penix and more as the Mercedes-Benz postgame show continues right
11:16here on the Atlanta Falcons radio network.
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