00:00I'm Grant McCauley alongside the former Falcon Mike Johnson following a 20-13 loss at the hands of the Pittsburgh
00:06Steelers up in Pittsburgh on the road.
00:09Just a frustrating game to say the very least for the Atlanta Falcons and we'll continue kind of getting inside
00:14the numbers and inside the trends and the stories that made up this opening day loss for Atlanta.
00:19One of the things that we kind of keyed in on here early is you knew that the quarterback situation
00:23was going to be, let's just call it, unsettled.
00:26Maybe on not the best of footing here, but O-line play in this kind of game, it kind of
00:32magnifies what that group is able to do to find ways to help out with the consistency that Cooper Rush
00:39is trying to find to have the time to make the plays.
00:42We can get into the Cooper Rush of it all, but there were a lot of penalties to go around
00:46for the Atlanta offensive line here in this game, weren't there?
00:48Yeah, no doubt about it. It was as disruptive as you can possibly be. You want to give credit to
00:53YA Black and Cam Hayward and Derek Harmon. Those are really, really good players.
00:58Sebastian Joseph Day had a couple of nice plays today for the Steelers' defensive front, but when you look at
01:03the Falcons' offensive line, this was one unit that you felt decent about.
01:07I mean, you know, with some of the recent contracts, you gave Matthew Bergeron a big-time extension, made him
01:12one of the top paid guards in the NFL.
01:14Chris Lindstrom's contract just got reworked a few days ago, and he's making a really, really good amount of money
01:19over the next couple of years.
01:21He did leave the game with concussion-like symptoms, I believe, so hopefully he's okay, but this is a group
01:28up front that did not play well today.
01:30Jake Matthews did not have his best day today. Obviously, Jawan Taylor did not have his best day today.
01:34Ryan Nuzel, as well, you had a number of holding calls. You had false starts, whatever else it may be
01:39along the way.
01:40And when you have penalties, when you have turnovers, you are not going to win very many football games, especially
01:46when you talk about week one on the road.
01:48And so while we are going to spend a lot of time keying in on the quarterback spot, that group
01:53up front, point blank, has got to play better under Bill Callahan and be able to do some different things.
01:59They've got to stay on schedule, too. I think that's what Bear's mentioning more than anything.
02:03I spent a lot of time this week, Grant, breaking down, moving the pocket, running the bootlegs, running the waggles,
02:09the rollouts, things like that.
02:11But if you're getting penalties on early downs and you're backing yourself into second 20, first and 15, whatever else
02:18it may be, it's hard to go under center and run those style of football plays.
02:23The defense doesn't buy it, right? They know that you're going to be throwing the ball.
02:26They know that they don't have to really respect the play action.
02:29And so it all kind of gets wrapped up into a nice little bow.
02:32And the point being is that you just have to play better up front, no doubt about it.
02:35Yeah. And obviously, this is a league and well, with most leagues and most sports, you don't want to telegraph
02:39what exactly it is you're doing.
02:41But how creative can you be? How much deception is there that you can build in when you're starting quarterback
02:46has what amounts to just a couple of days to get himself ready?
02:49And coming in to this game and with all of the, I don't know what you want to call it,
02:55the comings and goings at the quarterback spot where you think it's going to be one thing, then all of
02:59a sudden it's not.
03:00You know, Cooper Rush said that he had spent very little time working with the first team.
03:04So there is no substitute for time and reps and the opportunity to get to know the group you're going
03:10to be playing with.
03:10So that's something that kind of had him working with, I dare say, kind of one foot in the grave
03:15in a lot of different ways.
03:16Yeah. And I look, I think we spent a lot of time kind of wondering what this Kevin Spansky, Tommy
03:21Reese offense would look like.
03:23And one of the, one of the biggest things that stuck out at me over the last couple of years
03:27with Zach Robinson is really the inability to change up any of the pass protection.
03:31And I used to give this offensive line a little bit of pass over the last couple of years because
03:34your quarterback position has been so statuesque with Kirk Cousins and with Michael Penix over the last couple of years
03:40that it's like, how can, you know, that's really, really hard to do.
03:43If you're going to throw the ball 40 times a game to block for one spot on the turf.
03:47But then you, Kevin Spansky comes in here with Tommy Reese and you say to yourself, okay, they can move
03:50the pocket a little bit.
03:51They can do some different things.
03:52Well, with that, along with a lot of those comes play action pass.
03:55And like I said, if you're always in obvious passing downs, you're not going to be able to do a
04:00lot of those things and actually move the spot.
04:02You had to stay ahead of the chains.
04:03And really when it comes down to it, not being able to stay ahead of the chains today was really
04:07the breaking point for the Atlanta Falcons.
04:09Yeah, certainly was.
04:10Let's see if we can get any insight on that from Coach Kevin Stefanski.
04:14Our visit with him is brought to you by Mercedes-Benz, the official luxury vehicle of your Atlanta Falcons.
04:19And our own Dave Archer caught up with the Falcons head coach.
04:22Kevin, I know you've got a chance to take a chance to look at the tape.
04:24I know you'll do that probably on the plane going home.
04:26But just your initial fail assessments, how the team played.
04:28Yeah, obviously frustrated because I thought we did a lot of good things, particularly defensively, really battled throughout the game.
04:37But you can't turn it over twice, one for a touchdown.
04:41We got one takeaway, but we ended up being, you know, they were plus one in the tournament, marking a
04:46hard way to win on the road.
04:48The penalty is very frustrating.
04:49Obviously, we know it's a good front, but the holding, including a holding that negates a touchdown by Zacharias.
04:55So, all things that, you know, we've got to pride ourselves on being better.
04:59And those are week one lessons that you have to learn in this league.
05:02And then turn right around, and you've got a big division game at home this week.
05:06I know you anticipated pretty much of a slugfest, and that's what you got.
05:10Two teams that pride themselves on the line of scrimmage.
05:13Talk about those two, both your defensive side and your offensive side along the line of scrimmage.
05:16Yeah, I thought defensively really did a nice job.
05:19Of course, there's always ways we can be better.
05:21But I thought defensively the effort to set the edge and to tackle and run was there.
05:27And on the other side, it's a difficult front.
05:29We know that to run and pass against.
05:30But I thought we had some opportunities there.
05:33Got into a little bit of a rhythm there in the second half.
05:35But just got to look at ways that we can be better.
05:38And we have to be better, and that's our job as coaches to identify those things.
05:41You were presented a very odd week when it comes to one of the top positions on your team, your
05:46quarterback.
05:47Cooper got in there.
05:48I thought he operated well, but there were some things he struggled with.
05:50How did you feel like he played?
05:52I think I have to look at it, obviously.
05:54But, you know, things to learn from.
05:55And, you know, it's hard because this is a tough front, obviously, to drop backwards.
05:59We know that going into it.
06:01But if there's ways for us to be more efficient in the pass game, we've got to find them.
06:05Number of batted balls.
06:07And is that something you anticipate with this crew?
06:10They don't rush.
06:10That interior group doesn't rush as good as the outside.
06:13Yeah, that's what they've been doing for years, and Hayward does an excellent job at that.
06:17And, again, you want to find ways to throw around it, if you will, and we'll see if there's opportunities
06:23for us to be better.
06:24Kevin, thanks for your time.
06:24Thanks, Archer.
06:25That is Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski with our own Dave Archer right there.
06:29And Hayward has been at it for quite a while.
06:31Well, and even on plays where you're not having to bring the pressure and you're not scrambling running for your
06:36life,
06:36there's still ways to disrupt passes and disrupt plays.
06:39And Pittsburgh certainly showed that.
06:41And it is worth saying that this was a difficult front for him to line up against,
06:44especially on what I would say is less than even what you would call a short week to prepare.
06:49This was just kind of getting thrown into the fire, a baptism by fire a little bit for Cooper Rush,
06:54though he does have, obviously, some NFL experience under his belt.
06:57It doesn't make it any easier to get in there at the 11th hour.
07:00Yeah, and it all kind of plays back into one another, right?
07:03I mean, I'm not trying to take anything away from Cameron Hayward, but, you know,
07:06what is he, an eight-time pro bowler?
07:08Yeah, pretty good.
07:08But if I got T.J. Watt lined up next to me that I know is rushing the passer down
07:11in, down out,
07:12I'm probably going to get my hands up, too, right?
07:14Like, you know, I don't have to do much pass rushing if I have T.J. Watt next to me.
07:17I know the ball is going to be coming out really, really quick.
07:20And so it just kind of all feeds back into one another.
07:22And it's all situational football.
07:24And you hear Kevin Stefanski talking there.
07:26It sticks out to me.
07:27And he's like, if we can find ways to be more efficient in the passing game,
07:31to me that means we've got to get the ball out quick, sure.
07:34But it can't just be to Bajon Robinson.
07:36No.
07:37It's got to be something over the middle.
07:39It's got to be a drag route here and there, a tunnel screen.
07:42There's got to be more efficiency in what you're really asking this team to do
07:45rather than just saying, hey, we're going to throw the screen or the swing route
07:50to Bajon Robinson and just let him go to work.
07:51That's a great game plan, but it has its limitations as well.
07:55So that's going to be the task, really.
07:57Find out what you have over the next few weeks at the quarterback position
08:00and find ways to get the ball out efficiently to different players other than Bajon.
08:06And you kind of move forward from there.
08:07Yeah.
08:07And I don't know where the bad passes were going.
08:09Maybe one of them would have headed toward Kyle Pitts or Drake London.
08:12But the fact that those guys combined for just the five targets
08:15and the Kyle Pitts was held catchless in this game,
08:18and that's another thing that when you look at this and Kevin Stefanski says
08:20had to find ways to be better, had to find ways to help Cooper Rush,
08:23and some of that's operational.
08:24Some of that just comes with being able to familiarize yourself with an offense,
08:28with a playbook, and all of those things.
08:30But, yeah, it's going to be very interesting to see how the Falcons tune up for Week 2,
08:34and there have been, to this point, no updates on the status of the two quarterbacks,
08:39of which you expected to have at least one available to you to start the season.
08:43Yeah, and listen, there's a lot of communication that comes in with that,
08:46and you look at, I think it was Drake London,
08:48who I believe Cooper Rush thought he was going to sit down in a zone,
08:51and he actually ran this kind of whip route back to the inside.
08:55The ball gets thrown behind Drake London.
08:57He tries to reach back and catch it but can't make the grab.
08:59There's so many small, minute details that come into communication
09:02with quarterbacks and wide receivers throughout the week of game plan
09:05or really throughout the entire season of saying,
09:07hey, if we get this look, I want you to do that.
09:09I want you to settle down.
09:10I want you to do these kind of things.
09:11They just haven't had time to have those conversations.
09:14And so a lot of teams, a lot of times small things like that
09:17absolutely make the difference in football games such as these,
09:21and you're not able to make those plays when you're put up to bat.
09:24Well, today's game brought to you in part by Chick-fil-A,
09:26the official chicken sandwich of the Atlanta Falcons,
09:28a 20-13 loss up in Pittsburgh.
09:31The Falcons will come home and try to even up their record
09:34at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against the Panthers next week.
09:37Of course, we'll be talking about that a lot more later on in the show.
09:41We'll also be heading back to Pittsburgh and back to the Falcons locker room
09:44to get more reaction from the players
09:45as we continue on the Mercedes-Benz Post Game Show.
09:48He's Mike Johnson.
09:48I'm Grant McCauley.
09:49This is the Atlanta Falcons Radio Network.
Comments