- 4 days ago
The Falcons completely flipped the script with a 34-6 beatdown of the Colts. Dave Archer breaks down how Atlanta bounced back, why the offensive line was absolutely dominant, and whether Michael Penix is taking the field on Friday night.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Dave, welcome in. We appreciate the time as always. It's a much different conversation we've been having this morning around
00:06the Falcons than if you rewind to last week.
00:09I know we're supposed to say it's only the preseason, but 34-6 is 34-6. What should we be
00:14taking from this game?
00:16I think it should take that they stepped it up. Obviously, they were embarrassed last Friday against Denver.
00:23Now, the starters were on the field for a couple series, but it doesn't matter. You're representing the team.
00:29All the guys that were on the field on last Friday against Denver, that was not the effort they wanted.
00:35That was not the show they wanted to put out there, and you've got to give them credit for going
00:39back to work.
00:40I think that you hear coaches talk about it, players talk about it all the time, about going back to
00:44work and being better the next time they come out, and they certainly were.
00:49I thought that they played with a tremendous amount of energy. I think the thing that Kevin Stefanski talked about
00:54post-game, after Denver's game, was the energy and the tension to detail.
01:00I think you saw that. You didn't see the mental errors. You didn't see the penalties. You look at what
01:06Indianapolis put on the table.
01:07Indianapolis looked a little bit like Atlanta looked last Friday night against Denver.
01:12They were making mistakes, and some of that's forced by the opposition.
01:15Certainly, Atlanta playing at a high level forced some of that stuff, but it was just fun to see them
01:20kick it in and play together, play fast.
01:25Tommy Reese did an amazing job from a play-call standpoint.
01:28Now, you've got to execute for him to allow him to do his job, but the execution was at the
01:33highest level, which allowed Tommy to do a lot of different things with the quarterback,
01:36a lot of different things with where the ball was distributed, help the offensive line, get the run game going,
01:42protect them in pass protection, all those kind of things.
01:44It was a lot of fun to watch. Certainly, my eyes were on the defensive side, too, and we were
01:49flying around on that side of the ball, too.
01:50It was just a really good effort, maybe a really team effort that you like to hang your hat on
01:56that you could use as the billboard where you say,
01:58hey, this is what we're supposed to look like.
02:00Arch, one of the battles that we haven't really talked about that much, I know we'll get to the quarterback
02:04stuff here in a minute,
02:05but one of the battles that kind of played out on Saturday afternoon is that backup running back spot,
02:11and it feels like Tyler Goodson, who you spoke to after the game, has started to kind of separate himself
02:18as that third running back,
02:20but Cash Jones is also showing some stuff, and he's also a guy that you know could play on special
02:28teams.
02:28How does that room kind of, how do you think that room might play out?
02:32Because we know the Robinsons are going to be there come September 13th in Pittsburgh.
02:38Yeah, it's not specifically dictated by how good you feel about the running back room, Bo.
02:43It's going to be dictated by the rest of the roster.
02:46You're going to have to find numbers, you know, obviously injuries and guys,
02:51are they going to be ready opening day?
02:53Is your 53-man roster settled with everybody that you want on it,
02:57or is there a guy winged or dinged up that you've got to keep another guy at that position to
03:02solidify that
03:04and have some depth at certain positions?
03:05So I think if you could keep as many running backs as you wanted to,
03:09you'd keep all five of those guys you just talked about.
03:12But obviously it's going to settle into, are you going to be a two-running back group,
03:15are you going to be a three-running back group on roster day?
03:18I think Cass Jones has certainly shown his ability and a guy that you want to keep around and develop.
03:25Now, when you have a day where you have over 100 yards total offense
03:28and you have to expose him potentially to cut down,
03:31which I think that that might be the scenario here,
03:34does he get scooped up by somebody else?
03:37Because somebody said, hey, wait a minute, that guy could fill a role for us in some capacity.
03:44So hopefully that's not the case,
03:46and you can keep Cass Jones and Tyler Goodson and Nathan Carter.
03:50But ultimately it's going to come down to probably a three-back set
03:52that Tyler Goodson showed.
03:56Some of the things that you want to see out of that third running back,
03:59Cass Jones certainly showed you that if you needed to have a guy come off your practice squad,
04:04he could get that done.
04:05All right, Arch, let's go ahead and talk about the thing that everybody's going to be talking about this week.
04:08And obviously Michael Penick's cleared for 11-on-11.
04:11We expect to see him in action in the preseason game in week three, I would assume.
04:14What do you think the game plan will be for him in terms of the reps that he will get
04:18this week?
04:19And what do you think the game plan will be for all these quarterbacks for this final preseason game?
04:24Yeah, I think it's full go, Mike.
04:25I think that this is the date they've been waiting for.
04:29They've been waiting for the doctor clearing.
04:32They've been waiting for Michael to feel good enough to probably step on the field.
04:36So there was probably a combination of where Michael was mentally
04:39and obviously the doctor matching up with one another, mirroring one another, so they get that.
04:45I think Michael will be obviously full go today in practice, in afternoon practice today,
04:50and then again tomorrow.
04:51And how he negotiates these next three days.
04:54Mike, you know as well as I do, guys coming off injury,
04:58how they, when they ramp, you know, we've already gone through the ramp-up period,
05:02but when you put it a little bit more on him from an 11-on-11 standpoint,
05:06how did you respond to that physically?
05:09How did he respond, you know, obviously with the mental piece of it,
05:13which I think is going to be perfect, which is going to be fine,
05:16then I would expect to see him on Friday night when we play Miami.
05:21I would expect to see him play.
05:23So that's just me saying that.
05:25I don't have any insight.
05:26I didn't sit down with Matt Ryan or Kevin Stefanski and say,
05:29hey, are you going to play him?
05:30But I would think that they're leaning towards if he gets through these three days
05:35the way they think he's going to because they've done such a good job of protecting it
05:40and ramping it up the right way, that he would be ready to go to play Friday night.
05:44And then you'd have the two weeks to get ready for Pittsburgh.
05:47So that's the way I would see it go out.
05:49I would expect Tua to play some too.
05:52And then I think he'll sprinkle in some reps for those other two guys.
05:56We saw the other two guys, both the young quarterback and certainly Cooper Rush.
06:03He's been around for a while, so he's not a young guy.
06:05But I thought both those guys played extremely well.
06:07They executed extremely well.
06:09I think you're comfortable with both those players.
06:12And so that's going to be a tough decision.
06:14And, Mike, you know as well as I do, too, on this,
06:16that the player's job in training camp is to make the decision as hard as they can make it
06:21on the guys that are making the decisions,
06:23those guys that sit down in the meeting rooms and have to go through
06:26and try to find a 53-man roster.
06:29My job is to make it as hard as I can on you to make you not feel like you
06:34can cut me.
06:35And I think those guys did that.
06:37So we'll see how that plays out.
06:39A little surprised that you didn't open up, Mike,
06:41with just drooling over the Goodson run.
06:46I mean, you talk about execution now.
06:48I was getting ready to hear you talk about how Darrell turned the outside guy wide
06:52and the double team on the 2-I technique,
06:55and they slid off to the backer who crashed,
06:57and then the backside double team climbed from the three technique.
07:01Come on, man.
07:02Hey, Arch, I'm smart enough to read the room,
07:04and you and I both know that the quarterback diva's always got to be talked about
07:07at the top of the rotation here, so we had to get that out of the way.
07:10But you know the deal, my friend.
07:11I can tell you, I played quarterback, and I was drooling over that play.
07:14Are you talking about execution?
07:15Oneon was locked on his guy, 11-yard field blocking.
07:20It was phenomenal, man.
07:22Well, I'll lay into it more, Dave.
07:23As a former quarterback, how do you think the protection looked
07:26from last week to this week?
07:28Yeah, it was really good.
07:30And again, Allie, it helps when you can get off the ball and run the football.
07:35We were playing on the Colts side of the line of scrimmage the whole day,
07:40save maybe late in the game a little bit when they knew you were going to run it
07:42and you were trying to maybe kill the clock.
07:44I mean, Atlanta dictated up front, and that was the offensive line
07:48and the tight ends just coming off the ball and saying this is our day.
07:52And they did a phenomenal job of that.
07:55With that, then protection becomes much easier for the offensive line
08:00because they're saying, wait a minute, we can't let these guys run the ball at us.
08:04So now they're not coming off the ball to go to the passer
08:07or running through the run game to get to the passer.
08:10They're trying to get their pads square and trying to get stalemates
08:14at the line of scrimmage to stop the run game, which stunts their rush.
08:17And now my quarterback's got time to throw it.
08:20I thought Tommy did a really good job of changing the launch point for the quarterback.
08:23We saw bootleg.
08:24We saw frontside and backside bootleg.
08:27We saw play action.
08:28We saw dropback from both under center and in the shotgun.
08:32And that's all a credit to the offensive line as well as the other guys executing.
08:36You've got to run routes.
08:37Protection is such a – and I think you can go back to Kevin Stefanski's comment after the game.
08:43Protection is an entire – an 11-man deal.
08:46So when we look at the offensive line, we blame them whether the protection was good or not.
08:51Maybe a running back that gets beaten by a linebacker or something.
08:53There's so much more that goes into it.
08:55But, you know, the play action fake or where the wide receiver is,
09:00what the timing is on the depth of the routes, all those kind of things.
09:04The execution was the highest possible level, but the credit goes to the offensive line
09:08and the attitude that they showed up at the game with.
09:11It was a lot of fun to watch.
09:12That's what you're looking for.
09:13I mean, I think I could have got in there and thrown a couple.
09:17Yeah, well, Arch, the special teams so far in the preseason has been –
09:24I don't want to, like, get over my skis here, but they've been on a different level,
09:28it feels like.
09:29What has Aukerman done?
09:30I know you got to speak to him last week that has gotten the special teams seemingly
09:35in midseason form or a form that we haven't seen in a few seasons.
09:40I'll put it that way.
09:42Yeah, I just think part of it has to do with what Ian Cunningham talked about, Bo,
09:47was I want to raise the floor of our talent on the team.
09:51So I think people equate that to offensive and defensive players, you know,
09:55that second and third level of linebackers and, you know,
09:59the second and third level of DBs, wide receivers.
10:02And we think of it more of an offensive and defensive concept.
10:05All those guys are playing on special teams, so it changes the dynamic of the athlete,
10:10how good an athlete and how good a players you have on that side of the football.
10:15They're all wanting to show themselves on special teams so they can get some snaps
10:19on offense and defense.
10:21So I think that's where it begins.
10:23It's fun to watch Coach Auk out there when they break things down to the nth degree.
10:30And you'd have to see it.
10:31It's tough to describe.
10:32But you're talking about they had a scenario where they're just the gunners.
10:37We're working on running, and it's almost halfway through a release of a gunner running
10:44down the field and somebody trying to block the gunner.
10:46The gunner is the wide side guy on either side, the wide people that are running down
10:51covering punts.
10:52And he would start it where they're even and running with one another.
10:56They didn't work on the release.
10:58Now they do that, but that wasn't the piece they were working on.
11:01It's just an idea of how they break it down to the nth degree.
11:05So they're already halfway down the field, and now he's running.
11:08Now he's got to get in position to make that block after the initial contact at the line
11:12of scrimmage.
11:13I think he's doing such a great job of breaking down the individual, four individual special
11:19teams to the nth degree.
11:22The guys are embracing it.
11:23He's got all the coaches.
11:24A lot of the coaches are involved.
11:26It's not just him and his assistant.
11:27A lot of the position coaches, they'll go into the middle of practice, and they'll stop
11:32practice, or not stop practice, they'll transition to a special teams in the middle of practice.
11:37And those guys got to immediately, just like in a game where you're on offense or defense,
11:42and all of a sudden offense or defense isn't on the field, now it's special teams.
11:44They immediately transition to a special teams in the middle of practice like it would be
11:49in a game.
11:50I just think the coaching is really good in that regard.
11:53The guys are embracing it.
11:54The other coaches are involved.
11:55And there's an energy attached to it, which we saw that energy kind of translate to the
12:01rest of the offense and defense on Saturday afternoon.
12:05It's fun to watch.
12:06He's doing a really good job.
12:07Hey, before we let you go, did it feel good to get back on the road with Bo?
12:12Yeah, it can be sketchy from time to time with him, because you don't know what the topics
12:16are going to be.
12:17You know, you don't know if, you know, there's a lot of times we can't get him on the plane
12:21because, you know, there's certain heights.
12:24It's like riding a ride at Disney.
12:26You've got to be a certain height to get on.
12:28You know, we didn't know if we were going to be able to get him on the plane, so there's
12:30an anxiety attached to that.
12:31So there's a lot of things that go on with that.
12:33Allie, you did this, Allie.
12:34I just want you to know, Bo, just for the record to state, you always come at me, Allie
12:38did this.
12:38I just asked the question.
12:40I'm aware of who put the bait out there and who took it, hook, line, and sinker.
12:46And I'll see both of them the rest of this week, believe it or not.
12:50Well, he did a great job in pregame with Mike.
12:53Mike and, you know, Mike and Bo do a great job on our pregame show.
12:56Of course, Grant does our great halftime and postgame with Mike.
12:59But, you know, we found a box for him to stand on so Mike could see him when we did
13:04the pregame
13:04show.
13:04It was fun.
13:05It was really good.
13:06I have nothing to do with this.
13:07I thought the trip went well.
13:09I have nothing to do with this, man.
13:10Well, we appreciate that.
13:12We look forward to more of this throughout the entire season.
13:14Dave, we'll check in with you on Friday.
Comments