00:00Score at Mercedes-Benz Stadium today, quite a good one.
00:0229-20 Falcons over the 49ers' first win at home.
00:06Atlanta moves within a game of .500 and bounces back from a really lackluster performance
00:11against the Chicago Bears by knocking off one of the three undefeated teams in the league.
00:15So a very nice outcome that we saw over at Mercedes-Benz Stadium today.
00:20We're going to go back out to the stadium as well because Michael Penix was nice enough
00:25to spend some time with our own Dave Archer to discuss what was a very hard-fought
00:29and a very important win for the Falcons on this day.
00:31Here is Dave with the Atlanta quarterback.
00:33Mike, I ask Kevin this.
00:35Do you have to learn how to win these kind of games?
00:38I mean, it's a really good football team you guys just knocked off.
00:40Yeah, I would say you do.
00:41But at the same time, for us, I feel like with our personnel, the guys that we have on this
00:45team,
00:46the coaching staff and the coaching that we have, I feel like for us,
00:49we just got to go play our brand of football.
00:50And once we do that and we all come together to play complementary football,
00:54I feel like we're a tough team to beat.
00:56You played with, I thought, a great degree of confidence,
00:59which I thought fed your team, fed off of what you were doing.
01:03Your efficiency in distributing the football, kind of playing point guard, if you will.
01:07Tell me about just your mindset going in attacking this 49er defense.
01:11Yeah, we knew they were a team that's not going to give up too many explosives.
01:13So for us, we just had to, you know, not get bored with the short passes and stuff like that,
01:18you know, but just continue to, you know, push forward,
01:20just keep getting the ball downfield and don't make any mistakes.
01:23I saw your facial expression when you missed Drake on that over route late in the football game.
01:28And then it was maybe two plays later, you got a chance to start the fourth quarter, stick the seam.
01:33How good did that feel?
01:34Yeah, it felt great.
01:35I told him I was going to get it back for him.
01:38And, you know, we did.
01:39So it was good that we was able to do that.
01:40All right.
01:41Tell me about where does this take the team?
01:42I mean, obviously it's one win, but it was against a really good football team.
01:46What do you guys use this game for to build on for next week?
01:50Yeah, I mean, we just got to continue with this momentum and just continue to go out there
01:55and we can't get complacent.
01:56We got a divisional game next week, so we got to come out ready to play.
02:00And obviously, divisional games, we got to win.
02:03It's always nice to have that smile on your face.
02:05Yeah, absolutely.
02:05It's great.
02:06Thank you, brother.
02:06Appreciate it.
02:07That was Michael Penix.
02:08And, Mike, a lot to smile about in this game for the Falcons.
02:11And certainly the way he played in this one, I thought Penix was terrific.
02:14He made really great decisions, as we've talked about.
02:16And the Falcons really were the beneficiaries of, I think, one of, if not his best game
02:21of the season, 25 of 34, three touchdowns, no picks.
02:24He wasn't sacked in this game, 213 yards.
02:26You mentioned his mobility.
02:27A lot of different things looked good.
02:29But I guess my question to you would be, aside from the output of Michael Penix, which you
02:34love seeing, you know, in paper and on paper and in this box score, but play our brand
02:41of football.
02:41I know that sounds like a cliche thing, but defining what that brand is seems to be one
02:45of the hardest things that the Falcons have had to wrestle with all year long, is finding
02:49the consistency that allows that brand to show up each and every week.
02:52I love hearing from him right there.
02:55And he said something to me that was very key in this game.
02:57He said, hey, we can't get bored with the short throws.
03:00We can't get.
03:00Yeah.
03:01And you and I just talked about the checkdowns.
03:03I thought that his ability to hit the checkdowns and understand, look, I don't have, every time
03:08we talk about Michael Penix and whether this is, you know, all offseason talking about,
03:12you know, him versus Tua.
03:14It's like, well, Tua is going to understand the offense and be able to hit the short throws
03:17with Penix as a rocket arm and get the ball downfield and stretch the field.
03:21Right.
03:22And I think that that's been very apparent in the way he has played quarterback.
03:25But today was different.
03:26And I don't want to, like, get too far out of my, over my skis because I'm not great
03:31at remembering back over the last couple of years.
03:32But I feel like this was his best played game, just playing within himself.
03:38Anecdotally, if nothing else, felt like his best game.
03:40And that's the thing, like, his numbers have been better.
03:42But just playing the quarterback position and understanding what your team needs at the
03:46given time.
03:46Now, it's like Art said, there's probably some throws he'd like to have back, just
03:50situationally.
03:51But even something as small as the bad snap from Noozle and you just fall on the football
03:55and you understand, hey.
03:57Or there was a check down, a third and, like, 17 play early in the game where you check the
04:02ball down to Austin Hooper and he gains about 12 yards.
04:04And then you punt it.
04:06He didn't have to do anything crazy.
04:07Like, hey, you don't need to throw into traffic here.
04:09It's early in the game.
04:10I just thought he was so good.
04:12And, you know, a lot's going to be made about this football team.
04:15They're now 3-4, but Michael Penix is now 3-2.
04:18And I think there's something to be said about that as you kind of build momentum.
04:21And he continues to understand what he's being asked to do in this offense.
04:24Yeah, he certainly does.
04:25And the execution of this even, I felt like, looked better all the way into the fourth quarter
04:30where the Falcons, when things started to get a little bit wobbly and they had a couple
04:33of touchdowns on the board, then a couple of three and outs that were ill-timed, especially
04:37after one of the turnovers that they got in the fourth quarter, they weren't able to really
04:40turn that into anything.
04:42But ultimately, other guys on the other side of the ball were able to make those plays.
04:46And now it's all about building on this win.
04:48You heard Penix talk about that, a divisional game coming up.
04:51Tampa Bay Buccaneers certainly look like they've figured at least a couple of things out in their
04:55trip up to Carolina.
04:56I'm not ready to tell you that they're a wholly different team than they've started
05:00the year, but certainly that's going to be a challenge for Atlanta.
05:04So being able to bring the momentum in of beating a team like the 49ers, I think that's
05:08something that all of this that added up to this win are things you can build on and take
05:13down to Tampa and hopefully pick up another one.
05:14I completely agree.
05:15And Baker Mayfield back in the fold today throws for 64 yards.
05:21And I don't know what Carolina is, but I can tell you right now, it didn't look like
05:25their defense really showed up to play at all today, especially in the run game.
05:28So you hope that, you know, Bajon Robinson has another big Bajon day, but just in terms
05:32of, and I keep going back to this grant, just in terms of who touched the ball and how many
05:37times they touched the ball, this is what it looks like, right?
05:40This is the blueprint.
05:41Like this is, you know, Drake, 10 targets, seven, seven catches, Bajon, five targets,
05:46five catches, Kyle Pitts, five targets, five catches.
05:49But you also kept everybody guessing.
05:51You also had Bajon Robinson with 20 carries, right?
05:55Charlie Warner gets a catch, Zachariah Branch, Khalil Herbert, Austin Hooper, Dotson,
05:59Mews.
05:59It just, it was perfectly designed.
06:02And Michael Pennix played so far within the realm of what he's being asked to do.
06:07It was, um, it was special and you needed it in a big way because your defense was reeling
06:11and, uh, you were able to really answer with some time of possession and allow them to make
06:15some adjustments.
06:16And you just ran down the lineup of guys, the litany of guys that caught a pass for the
06:19Falcons today.
06:20How about Nick Mews early on?
06:22I mean, if you're thinking, okay, you're down 14 to three, who are you trying to get
06:26the ball in the hands of?
06:27Probably Nick Mews is going to be a little bit down on the depth chart just because of,
06:31uh, some of the other playmakers that you have, but you're talking about pulling the
06:34right strings and being able to at least go blow for blow with the creativity that a
06:38Kyle Shanahan run offense has.
06:40I would say the Tommy Reese and company were able to do that as well.
06:42Yeah.
06:43Apologies to the fantasy footballers out there that, uh, you know, probably have Kyle Pitts
06:46and Bajon and whoever else on their team and Drake London on their team.
06:50And you hit Nick Mews, uh, for the, for the touchdown, you had to be, you had to be really
06:53excited when you got to the red zone and, uh, you know, you hit Nick Mews for the touchdown.
06:57Uh, that probably didn't help many fantasy fantasy footballers, but it just goes to the entire
07:01conversation, right?
07:02You had three tight ends that caught a pass today.
07:04Um, that that's huge.
07:06It just, you started the game in 13 personnel actually.
07:09And not only that, but a couple of plays later, you went jumbo and Corey 11 comes in and then
07:14Ethan Oni Onwa comes in at one point.
07:15So you just, you utilize your players to their specific skill sets.
07:19And I think there's a lot to be said about that for Kevin Stefanski, Tommy Reese, Jeff
07:23Ulbrich, um, Sidney Brown played a ton today.
07:26Um, didn't even see Mike Hughes for much, which is interesting.
07:28We can get into that later, but, um, just, just well-designed all the way, all
07:32the way around and your guys stepped up and made plays when they needed to.
07:35And the Falcons, again, it's worth pointing out at one point we're down 14 to three.
07:39And this game is Mike, as you mentioned a few minutes ago, felt like it could have gone
07:43sideways pretty quick, but that Nick Mews touchdown that was able to quiet things, the missed extra
07:47point.
07:47Then you may have started to feel like, all right, that's some bad mojo.
07:50Hope that doesn't come back to bite them.
07:52Ultimately it didn't.
07:53The 49ers were nice enough to miss one of those as well.
07:55And, uh, we probably have gone as far into the show as we possibly can without pointing out
07:59that the 49ers were an eyelash away from having a touchdown that would have made this a much
08:04different game in the fourth quarter that was reversed with a replay review.
08:07So sometimes it's better to be lucky than good, I guess, if you're the Falcons, but they
08:11were both lucky and good today.
08:13I would say, I don't think there's any doubt about it.
08:14And, and look, let's, let's call it what it is too.
08:16There was, you know, Kevin Stefanski challenging a play and, um, it could have gotten sideways right
08:20before that Cleo Herbert steps out of bounds, maybe by a blade of grass.
08:24Um, this, I thought Kevin Stefanski just from a managerial standpoint, um, was on point today
08:30with a lot of that stuff.
08:31And again, you know, you heard both them guys say it already.
08:34It's just one win, but do you put your best foot forward today?
08:38And I think you really kind of enlightened the Falcons fans as to what is possible for
08:43this football team and get you excited moving forward.
08:45Yeah.
08:45And I don't think that you could, you know, underscore how important it is to finally win
08:50in your own stadium on your own field as well.
08:52You didn't want to be staring at this.
08:54Oh, and four basically heading halfway through the season, wondering when you're finally
08:58going to pick up a win and to beat this team in the way that they did.
09:01I think again, there's a lot to build on.
09:03It may just be one win, but they certainly, um, I don't know if they're all created equal
09:06because this one felt like a, uh, a game that you just didn't expect, but, uh, you certainly
09:10love the outcome of it.
09:11And maybe it takes the edge off of some other games that felt like they were right there for
09:15the Falcons and they weren't able to pull it off.
09:17So you win some that you're not supposed to, you lose some, you're not supposed to, maybe
09:20it all evens out.
09:21I don't know.
09:22We'll do the math on that later.
09:23We will head back out to Mercedes-Benz Stadium, get back inside the Falcons locker room and
09:26continue breaking down the 29 to 20 win Falcons over the 49ers in week seven.
09:31Much more to come on the Mercedes-Benz Post Game Show right here on the Atlanta Falcons
09:34Radio Network.
