00:00If the Falcons win on Sunday, with the Panthers being at 3-4, the Falcons can get to 4-4
00:04and be leading the division, which is nice.
00:08I mean, obviously it's not a bad thing to be leading the division at any point.
00:11There's still an awful lot of football left to be played, so even if they are leading the division after
00:16Sunday, we don't need to be doing too much celebration.
00:21Now, it would be really nice to have the Bucs at 2-6.
00:24I mean, that would be, to me, probably the most important thing beyond the Falcons getting the win and getting
00:30back to .500 and all the things that it would take to get the win.
00:33You know, I mean, again, I know it's the NFC South, so never say never, but it's hard to come
00:38back from 2-6.
00:39And I think the Bucs are the team that's most close to the Falcons in the division in terms of
00:45talent.
00:46That would be real nice, real nice to put them in a 2-6 hole this early in the season.
00:50Yeah, I mean, that's just, you know, that's just a, because that's usually you during the uphill climate, you know.
00:55That's usually you chasing, you know, the South.
00:58And now you're in a position where you can have an opportunity to have a lead in the South.
01:02Like I said, there's still too much ball left, and then you still got to play, you got to play
01:06the Saints one more time, you got to play the Pants one more time,
01:07and you're going to have to play Tampa one more time, you know.
01:09So you're going to have an opportunity to, like I said, just lead the division, but yet you still got
01:14these opponents.
01:15You got Tampa here, you got to go to Carolina, and you got, I'm sorry, you got to go to
01:20Carolina, and you got to go, and New Orleans comes here.
01:22So, I mean, you're in a position where you can have some home games in the season that might determine
01:26if you win the South.
01:27I mean, but it all starts up front with this team.
01:29We talked about, and we'll do our keys later, you know, as far as Michael going home and all his
01:33people, that should be a lot of fun.
01:35But, I mean, on Sunday, you got Baker.
01:38Baker's back.
01:38Baker's healthy another week of practice and using that glove and all those different things.
01:43And we talked about, don't let Baker get them dirty Baker yards, because that's what usually kills the Falcons with
01:47him, is those dirty Baker yards.
01:49Now, he usually has Mike E to throw it up to, and Mike's not here.
01:52Real nice to not have to worry about Mike Evans.
01:54Yeah, Mike E's not here, but they do have Ibuka and those guys.
01:57They're good players.
01:58And he didn't play when the 49ers came, so that was nice, too.
02:01Because, like, we were like, finally, Mike Evans off the schedule twice a year.
02:04And then it's like, ah, they got to play the 49ers this year.
02:07And then luckily you missed him last week and took advantage of it as well.
02:10And, yeah, I mean, they do have Ibuka.
02:12He's been banged up.
02:14Ted Hurst, the young kid from Georgia State.
02:17I think he got out.
02:17Oh, that's right.
02:18Yeah.
02:18That's right.
02:19You know, he's a rookie, so, I mean, he can pop, but he hasn't, you know, he's played like a
02:22rookie for the majority of the season.
02:24And then Chris Godwin's still over there, too.
02:26I mean.
02:26Good player.
02:27Good player.
02:28Good player.
02:28A chain mover.
02:29Yeah, exactly.
02:30He's a chain mover, and Baker trusts him.
02:32But their biggest thing is Bucky Irvin running their football.
02:34They've been running the hell out of the ball.
02:35Now, and I'm, and with Baker still coming back from the injury, I know he threw it 11 times.
02:41I would anticipate he's going to throw a little bit more in this game.
02:44Yeah.
02:44If the Falcons better make him throw.
02:46Yeah, exactly.
02:46Yeah.
02:47Because he throws 11 times.
02:49Either he got hurt, or the Falcons got their brains beat.
02:53One of those two, or you're getting bludgeoned by that Tampa run.
02:57So, I mean, it's going to be a line of scrimmage game.
02:59We understand that.
03:00And we've seen it, you know, the creativity that Tommy's trying to do with Bajon trying to get different runs.
03:07I anticipate a little bit, maybe more outside run this game, because they didn't do a lot of it against
03:11the 49ers.
03:12So, you can see that.
03:13We talked about beat the veil.
03:14Got to get them blocked.
03:16And you got to handle the pressure.
03:17Yeah, that's going to be the biggest thing, because they, like, the old rule should be pressure on third down.
03:23Not tied.
03:24Tied brings them all the time.
03:25And so, and then it's not just serial on the run.
03:27They do, I mean, on pass, they do run blitzes and all those things.
03:30So, you got to get your assignment right.
03:31Yeah, I mean, that's so much of what this game comes down to on Sunday.
03:35Like, obviously, there's a bunch of other stuff that has to happen.
03:40And, you know, hopefully the Falcons can take care of it.
03:42Hopefully, you can continue to see awesome play from the young guys on defense.
03:46And this is the last game without James Pierce Jr., too.
03:49So, you're going to get him back on the defensive line.
03:52But, you know, Michael Penix and the Falcons' offensive ability to handle the pressure that the Bucs' defense is going
03:58to throw at them,
03:59because they didn't a couple weeks ago against Chicago.
04:01And that's a big part of why they lost that game.
04:04They had a really good game plan against San Francisco.
04:06But San Francisco just doesn't quite pressure the quarterback and bring blitzes the same way that some of these other
04:10ones do.
04:12And now, I mean, we've been talking about it all week.
04:14You know Sunday going into this game.
04:15Kevin Stefanski was talking about it with us yesterday.
04:17You know what Todd Bowles is bringing on their defense to try to get to Michael Penix.
04:23Can you handle it?
04:25Can he get it out quick?
04:26Can he stand in there when he needs to?
04:28Can they protect him?
04:29Can they block for him?
04:30All the different ingredients that go into making sure that Michael Penix can perform at his best.
04:35Because if they do, and then we can kind of check that one off the list,
04:38like this offense and Penix specifically are able to deal with that type of defensive pressure,
04:43that's just another step towards really feeling good about him and this offense and what this team could do.
04:50Conversely, if they don't, like if it looks like the Bears game again, then it's like, damn, that's all defenses
04:53have to do.
04:54Yep, that's all they got to do.
04:56And once you put something out there, until you solve that issue, they're just going to continue to do that.
05:03And so, again, obviously Michael's the quarterback, but the pressure was there on him against Chicago.
05:09But if you look at it, I'm told you, I looked at it, it was so many guys that just
05:14got beat one-on-one.
05:15It was so many times that guys just got beat inside, they stepped the wrong way, they gave up the
05:20edge,
05:20and they didn't help them with the route concepts either.
05:25Now, Michael's got to throw the ball quicker and all those different things.
05:27That's why I said everything, that's why Kevin says it, the blitz pickup and pressure packages that you've got to
05:33play against,
05:33it's a team thing.
05:34Now, obviously it's going to be put on the quarterback, but if you go back and watch it in Chicago,
05:38look how many times those sacks came from guys just getting beat.
05:41Right.
05:42The guys just getting beat, they were there, but the guys got beat.
05:44Or the miscommunication because, again, noise factor, timing up the snap count,
05:50or timing up the silent count.
05:52I mean, it's so much against that.
05:54So if all those things are taken care of, the Falcons should win this game by touchdown.
05:57And not to mention that, but also a lot of those routes they're running against Chicago just took forever.
06:04Maybe a second too long.
06:05Yes.
06:05You know, a second and a half too long, which allows the defense to get in there
06:09and either flush Michael out or make him hurry or obviously get to him and hit him and get him
06:13on the ground.
06:15That's something that Tommy Reese and Kevin Stefanski can fix, right?
06:18Yeah.
06:18It's like, we just don't need this many long developing routes.
06:21Maybe as the game goes on, you could say, hey, these are there, and we can start going to that.
06:26I would think you'd start with some pretty quick stuff against Tampa on Sunday.
06:29We would think so.
06:29Get it out of his hands.
06:30Yeah.
06:30Get them in the rhythm early.
06:31Get them in the rhythm early.
06:33And then obviously, you know, they're really good against the run, but you can't abandon the run.
06:38No.
06:38And more importantly, start fast.
06:41They're good against the run, but like, you still have to be able, that's what you're supposed to be, right?
06:47Like identity-wise?
06:48Yeah.
06:48You can, all right, they're good against the run.
06:51Well, make them have a bad day.
06:52Yeah.
06:52You have B. Sean Robinson.
06:54Give them the ball.
06:54Give them the ball.
06:55Give them the ball.
06:56Good run defenses could still look bad against really, really good rushing attacks, and the Falcons are supposed to have
07:02one, so it'd be awesome if we saw it on Sunday.
