00:00That was certainly not how Tua wanted his first game in a Falcons uniform to go.
00:05Atlanta got blown out by Denver 27-7 in the preseason opener.
00:09Tua only played two series. He was 3-5 in passing for 22 yards.
00:14All four targets went to Kyle Pitts, and he also fumbled the ball in his second snap.
00:19Tua, though, is the first to tell you he wasn't good enough.
00:22Definitely not up to standard, not even up to par.
00:26We'll start with the first drive. It was the second play.
00:30Just being able to catch the snap, little things like that.
00:33Just thinking about it. What we put out there is not a reflection of the hard work that we've put
00:40in the first two weeks into training camp.
00:43It does no justice for the work that our coaches as well have implemented.
00:49It starts with me. I've got to be better with that.
00:52I thought off of that play, we kind of got out of the rhythm.
00:54You know, I think we could have had a pretty decent play off of the screen going to B-Rob
01:01and kind of getting everything going from there.
01:04So it starts with me, and I've got to be better. That's it.
01:08Yeah, I thought it was – it's interesting to hear his comments, man, because you can tell how let down
01:14he probably is for about what that moment was,
01:17and you're going to shoulder a lot of the blame, especially – like we had a chance to talk to
01:21Arch before the game on the countdown to kickoff
01:23and made the comment to Arch, like, this is more about the operation.
01:28Like, Tua being on the field is more about making sure the operation is smooth, and he obviously needs those
01:32reps too,
01:33but everybody else needs to have that center of focus with Tua out there and being able to just –
01:39hey, the handoffs need to go well.
01:40We saw a bad handoff at Lanier High School last week, you know, just the cadence, everything, no false starts,
01:46things of that nature,
01:47and then, of course, play number two, fumbles a snap. It was a good snap, and it was unfortunate,
01:52and it seemed like the team couldn't really get on track and find their footing, and it was a short
01:57outing.
01:57It was always going to be a short outing, so you're just kind of left with that bad taste in
02:00your mouth.
02:02Yeah, I mean, that snap was fine too, if you go back and look at it.
02:06I didn't see anything wrong with the snap from any angle I saw.
02:09I don't know, it was not ideal, and there just seems to be a lot of things going on up
02:20top for these quarterbacks.
02:22You know, with Tua, he looked like his internal clock was rushed from the get-go,
02:31and, you know, I didn't think the offensive line play was overly good Friday night,
02:37but I also didn't – you know, like, there was one throw that he rushes.
02:42He's got Brian Robinson in the middle wide open, and everybody had left,
02:45and he decides to go to pits on the sideline, which I don't know if he would have got a
02:49first down there or not.
02:50It just didn't look like he was very comfortable mentally out there.
02:53You have what's going on with Michael Penix, and it's – after what he said to Cam Newton,
02:59it sounds like that's a mental issue as far as getting over the hump of the injury,
03:04which is not uncommon, so it's not – I'm not trying to be overly critical,
03:09but, like, so you have two guys that are coming from the starting job,
03:13and they both seem to have mental humps they need to get over right now.
03:18And so it's kind of worrisome.
03:22I'm not going to lie.
03:23Like, your quarterback spot, you had two guys competing,
03:26and neither one of them really seems to want to grab that spot and run with it,
03:30and it seems less physical and more mental right now.
03:34Were you guys surprised in how Tua translated from training camp into Friday night's game?
03:39Because there had been – and you guys were out there at training camp –
03:42that he was starting to look really sharp, was having his best days out at training camp.
03:46Well, I think that there's a lot to be said about the fact that you can get hit,
03:51and I think that that's his – the mental hurdle that Bo's talking about.
03:56You know, he did seem jittery at times.
03:57His feet were popping very quickly, and, you know, part of the offensive lineman in me
04:03is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, get that pill out of there.
04:04You know what I mean?
04:05Like, throw the ball.
04:05I want you to have that kind of sense of urgency, but at the same time,
04:09if it's paired up with bad decisions and bad footwork or, you know, mistakes
04:14and what exactly he's trying to get accomplished, then, you know,
04:16we're kind of moving backwards.
04:17So, yeah, I think that I – I don't know.
04:22There were some highs.
04:23There were some lows.
04:24I tried to focus more on what the actual structure of the offense was
04:27than how it looked at the time.
04:29But, you know, there's a long way to go.
04:32But – and I think this is the important thing to kind of keep our eyes on here, guys.
04:36That's a team that has Super Bowl aspirations with a returning staff
04:39and a lot of returning players, right?
04:41We are in the complete opposite realm of thinking right now
04:44where we have a lot of new players and a completely new staff
04:47and a completely new quarterback and everything else.
04:50We're just not to the level that Denver is right now is, you know,
04:54the truth of the entire matter.
04:56I also thought – I'm glad you brought the Denver part.
04:59You also had a staff on the other side that wanted to come in here.
05:04And believe it or not, I feel like embarrass you in the preseason.
05:08You know, based on comments that Sean Payton made in their broadcast
05:13about the fan attendance, it was very clear that –
05:16and they were sending blitz packages that I don't –
05:21Mike, do you recall seeing that many blitz packages in a preseason game?
05:25You know, maybe there was at one point in time kind of they understood,
05:31like, don't get too exotic with things.
05:33But they definitely were trying to get home.
05:39And I don't know what to make of Cooper Rush out there.
05:43He couldn't – I don't think he threw a ball that didn't get tipped.
05:46So that was odd.
05:48But they definitely were trying to heat you up.
05:51So it did not look very good.
05:54You couldn't run the ball overly effective either,
05:56which did lead to some of the issues you had in the passing game.
06:00So –
06:00–
06:00–
06:00–
06:00–
Comments