- 16 minutes ago
Grant McAuley and Mike Johnson react to a dominant team performance fueled by a plus-four turnover margin, four Brock Purdy takeaways, and Jessie Bates' sideline interception. Plus, hear head coach Kevin Stefanski’s postgame interview with Dave Archer discussing Michael Penix Jr.’s surgical 213-yard, three-touchdown outing and linebacker Kendal Daniels’ emotional, game-sealing performance.
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00:00Welcome back in to the Mercedes-Benz postgame show here on the Atlanta Falcons radio network.
00:04Grant McCauley alongside former Falcon Mike Johnson following a big win for the Falcons.
00:08Their first at Mercedes-Benz Stadium this season as they improved to 3-4 by knocking off the undefeated San
00:14Francisco 49ers.
00:15Undefeated no more. 29-20 the final score up the street at Mercedes-Benz today.
00:20We're going to head back up that way as Dave Archer was able to catch up with the Falcons head
00:25coach Kevin Stefanski.
00:26You get his thoughts on I'm sure a myriad of things that went right for his team on this day.
00:30Our visit with Kevin Stefanski is brought to you by Mercedes-Benz, the official luxury vehicle of your Atlanta Falcons.
00:35Here's Dave with the Atlanta head coach.
00:37Kevin, just trying to digest this win, huge win for your club and against a really good football team.
00:43Do you have to learn how to win these kind of games?
00:46Well, when you're going up against a great team who's really, really well coached, great players up and down that
00:50roster,
00:50you're going to have to be at your best. Not perfect, but be at your best.
00:54I thought the guys understood that, what it was going to take today.
00:57But it really starts with the turnover margin.
00:59To take it away four times, not give them anything, that's a great recipe for winning this league.
01:04The efficiency with what you guys played on the offensive side of the football,
01:08it actually mirrored what they've been coming into this game.
01:10The ability for Michael to take what was given, his decisiveness throwing the football,
01:14and then your ability to stay on schedule with the run game.
01:17Yeah, that defense doesn't give up big plays.
01:19They just don't. It's an excellent coach defense.
01:22They've got great players in the back end.
01:23They just keep everything in front of them, and they tackle.
01:25So as a quarterback, you've got to stay disciplined.
01:27And I thought, listen, we called our plays to try to get the ball behind the defense,
01:30and Mike made great decisions.
01:32And when you check the ball down to guys like Drake or whomever it was out there, they made yards.
01:37What do you say about a guy like Jesse Bates who just continues to have an idea of how to
01:41get the ball out?
01:42The interception on the sidelines is phenomenal.
01:44It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable.
01:45What a great play by a great player to keep his feet in.
01:48I mean, they're going to be showing that one for a long time.
01:50All right, the young linebacker gets thrust into the Green Dot situation.
01:54You guys drafted him. You saw something in him.
01:56He's responded for you here early in the year, and he came up monstrous for you.
02:00Kendall Daniels.
02:00Really proud of him. I mean, what a week.
02:02You know, here we are seven days ago, kids in the hospital.
02:06I just think about everything he was through physically and then emotionally.
02:09You know, that's not easy.
02:10So he's just wired the right way.
02:12He's one of us.
02:13Really proud of him to step up, like you mentioned, the Green Dot, running the defense,
02:17and then making a huge play, maybe the deep play in the ballgame.
02:19All right, last thing for you.
02:20What do you want your team to take?
02:22I know you come work right – you come get back right to work tomorrow.
02:25What do you want them to take from this to move on with?
02:27Well, you know, the recipe for winning a turnover margin,
02:31plus where you're going to win a lot of ballgames.
02:32So it's going to start there.
02:33We have to do a great job taking care of it.
02:34Got to do a great job of taking it away.
02:36Congratulations.
02:37Thanks, Arch.
02:37That was Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski.
02:39Mike, a lot of things to dive into right there.
02:42Turnovers number one.
02:43I mentioned that just a couple of minutes ago about just if you were to do,
02:46I think, a blind test of which one of these two teams is likely to turn the ball over four
02:50times,
02:51you probably wouldn't have thought the 6-0 49ers are going to be that team.
02:54Unfortunately, you kind of look at the Falcons and say week to week,
02:57is that going to be their Achilles heel?
02:58Is that going to be the thing that bites them?
03:00It was not this week.
03:00The Falcons got the takeaways.
03:02They generated the turnovers.
03:03It was an incredibly important part of the recipe for success in this game.
03:09And I thought just starting with that, Kevin Stefanski just hit the nail on the head
03:12with that as a thing that can swing a game,
03:14especially one that is as close as this one was and felt closer at times.
03:18You know what's ironic about it too, Grant,
03:20is Brock Purdy is not this quarterback that just puts balls up for grabs.
03:24He's not out there playing like Jameis Winston.
03:27He's playing an unbelievable brand of quarterback.
03:29He's been MVP caliber the entire season up until this point.
03:34And so I want to make sure we hammer that home.
03:36Not only did you cause four turnovers,
03:37but you did it against a team that just doesn't really turn the ball over.
03:40And Kittle right there at the end putting the ball on the ground.
03:43And just these are incredible players.
03:45These are not scrubs brought up from a practice squad.
03:47You know what I mean?
03:48Like these are, you know, this is just such a good job of Jeff Ulbrich.
03:52And we've seen this through different coaching staffs.
03:55For whatever reason, even going back to my time,
03:57I was thinking about this earlier.
03:58Remember when Peyton Manning came to town,
03:59with the Denver Broncos, I want to say 2012,
04:01and throws three interceptions.
04:03And we saw it with Matt Stafford last year.
04:05We saw it with Josh Allen.
04:07For whatever reason, the Atlanta Falcons defense,
04:10more times than not, in these big games against MVP caliber quarterbacks,
04:14can come up with, you know, some really good ones like this.
04:16So I think it's a great point.
04:17And obviously Kevin Stefanski is going to hammer that one home.
04:20But on the flip side,
04:22Michael Pennick's decision-making with the football today was exceptional.
04:25Yeah, it definitely was.
04:26And that's one of the things that clearly Kevin Stefanski wanted to,
04:29I guess, highlight or underscore in this one,
04:31because you needed to execute well against this 49ers team.
04:34If you're going to beat them, you've got to make the most of your opportunities.
04:37You've got to execute.
04:38You've got to make those right decisions.
04:39He brought up those checkdowns and some of the other things that were just
04:42really working for Michael Pennick's today.
04:44I thought this was a really clean game that was played by the Atlanta quarterback.
04:47I thought the checkdowns, and you could see it early,
04:49and obviously they play a different brand of, you know,
04:52things than Chicago was trying to do with Dennis Allen a week ago.
04:55But I thought the checkdowns,
04:56even there was one up the sideline to Khalil Herbert that was a massive checkdown
04:59and getting a good block out there from Charlie Warner.
05:02I just thought their ability, and Charlie Warner had a checkdown as well.
05:05I mean, they checked one down to him, and he gets their ability to do that
05:08and find guys that it's not Drake London and, hey,
05:11let's see if we can get a couple to Kyle Pitts.
05:12It was just, I mean, you were spreading the ball around,
05:15and you were checking down to different people.
05:17And go back to you and I after week one.
05:20It was like Bajon Robinson handoff, Bajon Robinson checkdown from Cooper Rush.
05:24Yeah.
05:24And they had to find different ways to check the ball down.
05:27And I thought there's so many other cool things to talk about for this game,
05:31but I thought that was one of the ones where I looked at what Tommy Reese
05:34and Kevin Svansky got accomplished in that one area of the game this week,
05:37and I thought that that was a huge determining factor in the outcome.
05:40Yeah, and the little things will add up.
05:42And, I mean, that was a game, and there were a couple of those, I guess,
05:44they're early where, I mean, you want to get the ball to Bajon Robinson.
05:47I mean, a week ago we were trying to figure out why is the ball not going to Bajon Robinson,
05:51but it can't be the only thing that you have at your disposal no matter how good he is.
05:55I mean, defenses are going to adjust.
05:57They're going to figure that out, and there are other guys,
05:59and whether that is Drake London or Kyle Pitts or one of the six other guys
06:03who caught a pass in this game, the Falcons were finding their opportunities.
06:06Pennix was finding his outlets, and guys were stepping up, making plays on first down.
06:10I thought the Falcons were really able to convert a couple of those big third down plays,
06:13and it wasn't the usual suspects while they were doing it.
06:16No, it was not, and shout-out to the protection for really getting it done
06:20for a lot of the day today.
06:21I don't want, you know, my offensive line heart can't get through the, you know,
06:24the conversation without talking about those guys protecting up front,
06:27and that goes with Bajon Robinson.
06:28That goes with Charlie Warner or Austin Hooper or Kyle Pitts
06:31or whoever else it may be that's involved in the protection,
06:33and I thought that Michael Pennix did a nice job settling, getting the ball downfield.
06:37This game in all three phases was not without hiccups.
06:40I mean, special teams like, you know, the shanked punt, the missed extra point,
06:45but they all had rebound plays.
06:47Like Zachary Branch, the huge, huge return early in the game.
06:51You had hiccups at the linebacker spot.
06:53I thought you got caught out of position, but guess what?
06:55Kendall Daniels with a massive turnover right there at the end.
06:58I just think that this was a complimentary brand of football,
07:01and he said it, you said it.
07:03When you get that many turnovers and you're smart with the football on your end,
07:06you're going to win a lot of those games.
07:08Yeah, and you mentioned that protection.
07:09I mean, the only two sacks in this game belong to the Atlanta Falcons.
07:12Michael Pennix was pretty much able to move around where he needed to,
07:16but that protection held up for him in order to make a lot of these decisions
07:19and execute on a lot of those decisions.
07:21When you look at it, 25 of 34 was Pennix for 213 yards
07:25and threw three touchdown passes.
07:27I mean, that is the kind of game that you will take each and every Sunday,
07:30Monday, or Thursday from Michael Pennix when you got him out there,
07:33and one of the things I liked about this, and we don't have to spend a lot of time
07:37on it, is that this, I felt like, was just one of those weeks
07:39where you weren't having to discuss what is the physical state of the well-being
07:44for Michael Pennix.
07:44We weren't talking about the ribs.
07:46Obviously, we've moved past all the rehab it took just to get him back out
07:49on the field, but this just felt like one of those games
07:50where he just went out there and played.
07:51No, I completely agree.
07:52As a matter of fact, he ran a bootleg.
07:54Now, I want to blow this out of proportion.
07:56He had a bootleg early in the game where he runs and slides,
07:59and he picks up two yards.
08:01I thought even the slide looked better than Michael Pennix did two or three weeks ago.
08:05It's a plus, right?
08:05You know what I mean?
08:06He got out on the edge a couple weeks ago, and he looked awkward
08:08and kind of fell down.
08:09It was like, man, this is not what you want to see.
08:12We talked about it in the pregame show.
08:13You had to keep Raheem Morris guessing, and I thought that that was my number one
08:17key to victory in the pregame show, and I thought that's what you did
08:19more than anything offensively.
08:21It's not really about the yards.
08:22It was just you didn't know where the ball was going,
08:25and you didn't know where Michael Pennix was going to be,
08:27and you didn't know personnel-wise.
08:28We threw a play-action pass out of jumbo personnel with Corey Levin in the game.
08:33I thought it was exceptional all the way around.
08:35Michael Pennix's decision-making, even when he missed,
08:38he missed in a place that the other team could not get it.
08:40And that's the difference, right?
08:42That's a big, big piece of winning this game today.
08:45It was 29-20, the final score.
08:47Falcons over the 49ers here in Week 7.
08:49Falcons now 3-4 on the year.
08:51First home victory finally in the books after four tries.
08:54And the San Francisco 49ers are going to jump on a plane
08:56and take their first loss home as they head back out to San Fran.
09:01We've got lots more to get to here on the Mercedes-Benz Postgame Show.
09:03We'll be checking back in with the Falcons locker room.
09:05We've got highlights from this game.
09:07Yes, that's right.
09:07We've got highlights, many highlights to get to in this one.
09:10We'll also take a look around the league, the NFC South,
09:12and get you set up for next week as the Falcons and Buccaneers will meet as well.
09:17All of that is ahead on the Mercedes-Benz Postgame Show
09:20right here on the Atlanta Falcons Radio Network.