00:00QB1 is settled. We got the news yesterday. Michael Penix gets the start Thursday night.
00:04We did not find that out until after Kevin Stefanski spoke yesterday,
00:08even though he said he had a pretty good idea who was going to be playing.
00:11But here's what he had to say on where the Falcons need to improve the most.
00:15Yeah, clearly, you know, Daniel, you look at this two games into it,
00:18not good enough in any area when you talk about the scoring points.
00:23And obviously there's things that we want to do better.
00:27There's things that we can do better.
00:28And there's things that I can do better. Our coaches can do better.
00:31But I don't know that it's fair to say it's one thing.
00:33I don't think it's fair to say that it's across the board.
00:39There are things that we feel like we can do, feel good about our players,
00:42feel good about the scheme, but we have to go do it.
00:45And we're two games into this and not pleased with the offensive production
00:49in these first two games, but excited about what we can do moving forward
00:54because that's our job as coaches. We've got to get this fixed.
00:59These are two bad football teams, if you look at where they rank statistically
01:03in a lot of things. And offensively, I mean, the offensive ranking numbers
01:11for the Falcons are brutal.
01:14There's only like a couple that are not in the 20s and back.
01:20Eight points a game is what you're scoring right now. It is just rough.
01:24And so you hope Michael Pence can come back in here and help move forward.
01:27And you've got – this defense is not – I'm not going to sit here and crush them,
01:34but the best player on this defense is not even there.
01:37And you've got to take advantage of that and help – and this offensive line
01:41has to step up and not only create space for the run game,
01:45but also allow Michael Pence to stand back in there and sling it around a little bit.
01:50The offensive line has got to find a way to get movement north and south.
01:55And say it's on blue in the face, this has been an offensive line that has always
01:58relied heavily on moving east and west, and they have been designed for that.
02:02But when you – and I think that's one of the reasons why I think there is
02:06some upsides still left on the bone.
02:07Sometimes I think that if you're Tommy Reese, you look at Chris Lindstrom
02:11and go, oh, let's run right behind this guy.
02:14You know, he's explosive, this, that, and the other.
02:16But if he's left in one-on-one run-blocking situations against a guy
02:20that weighs 30 pounds more than him, it hasn't turned out well.
02:24Like, there's been a lot of stalemates.
02:25Same with Jake.
02:26Same with Matthew Bergeron.
02:27Same with Ryan Neusel.
02:28And so I think that you have to kind of learn some of the ins and the outs
02:31of what guys are capable of.
02:33And that's one of the beauties of it.
02:34It's not just developing the quarterback and the quarterback being able to get
02:37out there.
02:37I think that everybody involved, Bill Callahan, Kevin Stefanski,
02:40you're starting to learn who these guys are, what they're capable of with pads
02:43on.
02:44And we've talked about it so much about training camp.
02:47It really doesn't matter what you do until the pads come on.
02:50And you don't get to see it a lot.
02:52That's why we made such a fuss about the live tackling drills.
02:54You just don't get to see it.
02:56And so you get to learn this kind of along the way.
02:58And I'm hoping that Tommy Reese is learning more and more about what guys are capable
03:02of inside of this offense.
03:04And I'm going to keep it real.
03:06I'm good if Charlie Warner doesn't line up in the backfield ever again and have to pick
03:10up a blitz.
03:10It didn't work much last year.
03:12It didn't work the other night.
03:15It's ugly.
03:16And it's like, I don't know.
03:17But again, he's being put in that situation for what?
03:20For what?
03:21Put Brian Robinson in there.
03:22Like he plays running back and I just, I hate it, but it, there's a lot of different
03:26things that Tommy Reese needs to learn about how this offense needs to operate, that it
03:30feels like we ain't quite there yet.
03:34So you guys said earlier, you don't know what the offense will be with Michael Penix now
03:39playing, but given we're so unsure about what it's going to look like now with him in
03:44there, how much grace are you going to give Michael Penix Jr. for this first start?
03:47Not much, not much.
03:49Don't, don't, you're going to, you're going to cause me to time.
03:53I'm going to get hot for a second.
03:56Don't take, don't take first team reps for three weeks.
03:58Tell us three days is enough.
04:00Then tell us a week and a half is not enough.
04:02Then tell us two and a half, three weeks is not enough.
04:04We've given you all the grace, dude, at least on this show, the way we talk about it.
04:08Hey, you got to make the best decision for you.
04:10Do I hate it?
04:10Yeah.
04:11But you know, I, I understand you're the CEO of your own corporation and that is your body
04:16right now.
04:16Okay.
04:17But there, that doesn't mean that I'm going to give you grace.
04:20If you come back and you, you're not on the same page as the offense and can't make some
04:24of the throws and can't make some of the reads.
04:25My God, you've had more buildup to this game than anybody in the NFL, right?
04:29For a short Thursday night game.
04:31So it better, better be pretty crisp when we roll it out there in prime time.
04:34Yeah.
04:34I would, I would lend to tell you, this is just like any other season where you just didn't
04:37play in, in, in, uh, in preseason, Mike.
04:40Like, I mean, he's got, Ali, he's gotten, um, his own version of training camp, right?
04:47This is just like a year where he just didn't play a preseason game.
04:50That's the way it needs to be looked at.
04:52In my mind, I understand he's coming off of a big injury, but Mike is right.
04:56And we've got to, we've got to go.
04:57We've, we've, we've, we've waited.
05:00We've wasted, um, a couple of games now.
05:03We've waited on you.
05:04You got to hit the ground running.
05:06And, and I would say this real quick, I, I don't care that it's Penix.
05:10I don't care that it's Cooper.
05:11I don't care that it's two.
05:12I don't care if it's Jack Strand.
05:13Move the pocket.
05:14Mike's been yelling up, yelling it.
05:16And I think some of your, your best plays to this point in the season have came when you
05:20did move the pocket.
05:20Now, did they all end up perfect?
05:22No, but you got, you saw some good things happening, even though some bad things followed
05:28it.
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