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Za'Darius Smith wants to "party in the backfield."

Should the Falcons be worried about what Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers offense did in Week 1? Mike Johnson, Beau Morgan, and Ali Mac analyze the Panthers' performance against the Chicago Bears and discuss what Atlanta's defense needs to do.

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Transcript
00:00and we are covering the Panthers offense today because 37 points is 37 points how much should
00:05that performance against Chicago actually concern the Falcons here is Darius Smith giving his early
00:11thoughts on the Falcons week two matchup uh it's big they're in our division um it's gonna be my
00:16first time I think playing them since 2020 2020 uh COVID year against the Packers man so um to be
00:24able to come play them again is big but obviously just gotta continue to do the little things like
00:28we was talking about man just stopping the run and uh on first second down and getting ready to
00:33have a good time on third down to what we could party in the backfield after getting a sack
00:38this guy has quickly become one of my favorite people because I listen to it and I've said this
00:43before about some people like I don't know Zedarius Smith but I I feel like I know Zedarius Smith
00:48you know what I mean I've been around teammates like this I love when guys go to the podium and
00:53are just matter of fact uncomfortable you can tell he's just comfortable having these conversations
00:58kind of knows where to steer it knows what we want to hear party in the backfield like you know
01:02what I mean like it just I love listening to him talking he's spot on you're gonna have to get
01:08home
01:08on you know on third down if you're gonna get off the field against Bryce Young and company
01:13and he and he and he said it too is it's all about winning those early downs
01:17right and getting those and those long and distances and um they actually ran the ball pretty well
01:22last week for I mean I think everybody's gonna look at what uh you know kind of what Bryce Young
01:28did and what how you know he was pretty good uh for the most part I mean he's been pretty
01:33good
01:34against us but they ran the ball for a hundred and something yards and it was look I don't know
01:41really what Chicago is defensively I don't know what Carolina is defensively like based on that but I
01:47don't think either of those defenses are as bad as they looked and I'm not sure that either of
01:53these offenses for Chicago and Carolina are as good as they look I you have to like take it with
01:58a
01:58grain of salt in week one yeah yeah let me put it this way everything that you've heard this week
02:06about Cooper Rush and how there has to be a change I think Panthers fans and that fan base are
02:15going
02:15through that with a gyro evero the defense coordinator because remember he's been there
02:19since before Dave Canales got there and if you take the last couple of years and their rankings
02:26they have been downright awful defensively now it comes with the caveat that there has been a massive
02:32amount of injuries they've dealt with a lot of turnover they've put a lot of money in draft picks
02:37into that offense but I saw the stat yesterday that last two years plus today just evero as the
02:45defensive coordinator while Dave Canales is there 32nd in total defense and that's over the last
02:50two years in one game and it's just I think so everything that you're saying about Cooper Rush
02:55in this offense right now they're hearing about Evro in the defense and it's just a simple fact of
03:00after one week when you give up that many points and you look as bad as you did there you're
03:07going to
03:07start to panic just a little bit and they did not put their best foot forward there's no two ways
03:12about it watching this tape is brutal at times give Chicago a lot of credit but they didn't make
03:19themselves a moving target in Carolina let's just put it that way I know we're supposed to be talking
03:23about the offense their offense versus our defense but real quick to finish kind of put a bow pun
03:29intended on on this they're on the Carolina defense they had some moments though where Caleb Williams
03:35Travis Gibson comes on unabated and and and Caleb Williams gets out of there goes a blitz right
03:42he's able to get out of there there was the Mononghi uh I believe so you pronounce his name
03:46the touchdown run when he gets to the second level the linebackers have him bottled and he's able to
03:51make a move and and break it so there were some really good plays by Chicago offensively just like
03:57there was some really good plays by Carolina offensively against that Bears defense um Bryce Young made
04:03Grady uh made Grady Jarrett miss uh a couple of times where Grady got in the backfield and just
04:08just made him look bad well obviously defense was lacking 59 points is huge uh but the offense did
04:16get 37 what stands out about the offense to you guys I don't know I'm gonna be careful when I
04:21say
04:22I don't know that you'll see two quarterbacks with more like God-given arm talent than you saw
04:28from watching Bryce Young against Caleb Williams and for every issue I have with Bryce Young really
04:34and a lot of it has to do with his stature mobility things like that um man when you watch
04:40him throw
04:40the football it it's it's a thing of beauty there's a reason he would there's a reason both these guys
04:45were number one overall picks so it the D the offense to me was a mixed bag they were doing
04:52some
04:52things very very well and a lot of things started to hit and this game starts getting out of hand
04:56you
04:56can just see Bryce Young just delivering seed after seed after seed I love the structure of the
05:01offense and I think this offensive line which they've invested money in and they've drafted in
05:08they're in a pretty good place right now and Bryce Young did a really good job of kind of navigating
05:12the pocket allowing himself to step up keeping his eyes down the field um and these wide receivers
05:17man Jalen Cook like they've got some good players on this offense there's no doubt about it
05:21yeah uh you go back and you look at um basically the the completions that he had right he was
05:3023
05:30or 37 for 361 but he had it it we're used to the NFL version of Bryce Young completing like
05:39what
05:3920 passes for like 201 yards you know what I mean like not not really airing it out and there
05:46was a
05:46couple of you know aired out moments um he pushed the ball a little bit more downfield than I think
05:51we're used to they've got Jonathan Brooks finally in there with um and then obviously they have AJ
05:57Dillon that they got this year but then Chuba Hubbard like they got a you remember Rico Dottle they kind
06:02of let walk and we played him last week and they've got some some weapons in other words Tedro McMillan
06:09has really came in his own everybody goes to Bryce Young has kind of owned the Falcons
06:16I I don't fall into he's owned them as much now he's had two of his last three games have
06:23been
06:23really good but I go back to the game in Carolina last year the the week three game when we
06:29lost it
06:30was Pennix's worst game of his NFL career as far as performance but he put out there but uh Bryce
06:38he wasn't good in that game either but every time he comes to Mercedes-Benz other than the first time
06:44he's been pretty good he's thrown two interceptions against the Falcons they were both to Jesse Bates
06:48and they were both in the first time he ever stepped foot in an NFL field in a regular season
06:53game
06:54and it was really you know it was uh the last time he had a bad game at Mercedes-Benz
06:59yeah what are the matchups you're going to be watching between the offensive defense well I'm
07:04going to be watching an injury report to see if Chris Lindstrom's back uh he's in concussion
07:08protocol so we've highlighted a number of times in the last couple years the Derek Brown against
07:13Chris Lindstrom now Derek Brown moves around a little bit and um they did add drawing a blank
07:18on his name the kid they drafted in the first round Lee Hunter Tech Lee Hunter uh second round I'm
07:22sorry
07:22at a Texas Tech member we we thought maybe he would be a guy that would come here because he's
07:26a very
07:26talented defensive tackle but Kyle Hinton is a veteran backup and actually I think has started at least
07:32one game against Carolina over the last couple years at Carolina um but that's going to be a
07:39matchup I'm going to be watching it's simply can our front uh you know can our guys hold up against
07:46them um up front and force you know force bad decisions from the quarterback spot yeah when I'm
07:52thinking about um their offense and in the matchup I'm definitely thinking of Ted Oroa McMillan versus
07:59AJ and Hughes um you know he has in two games he's got 11 catches for 178 yards and a
08:07lot of that was
08:07the the game at Mercedes Benz um because I thought they pretty and and AJ was out last year in
08:14the
08:15game against in Carolina and I thought Robert Alford for the most part did a really good job him and
08:20Mike Hughes did a really good job against Ted Oroa huh D Alford what did I say Robert which is
08:26that's
08:26an interesting one throwback yeah I was going to say you dug that one out of the depths of that
08:30brain right there I'm also interested well and and I'm also interested Mike and how our our front
08:35like our our can our defensive line for the second straight week go and play a much bigger offensive
08:41line and and win because they did against Pittsburgh yeah so how can they turn around and this is it
08:48right now going into this Allie we got the top Russian defense in the in the league now it's only
08:52one
08:52game but we do have the top Russian defense in the league after one game against a much bigger
08:57offensive line can they repeat that performance
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