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A home heartbreaker for the Dirty Birds. Grant McAuley and Mike Johnson react to the Falcons’ 30-23 OT loss to Baltimore. From Jessie Bates' big defensive TD to Penix’s injury scare and Tua’s late interception, we cover every angle of a massive missed opportunity in Atlanta.
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00:00Welcome in to the Mercedes-Benz post-game show.
00:03Grant McCauley alongside former Falcon Mike Johnson from our network studios in Midtown.
00:08Mercedes-Benz, the official luxury vehicle of your Atlanta Falcons.
00:11And Mike, no matter what kind of vehicle you're jumping into after this game,
00:14it is going to be a long and very quiet drive home for the Falcons,
00:17who really had an opportunity to win what felt like a very winnable game
00:22with the way everything was aligned.
00:24There was no Lamar Jackson for starters.
00:26They were able to take a lead and hold on to a lead for much of this night.
00:29But there were a lot of missed opportunities for more points.
00:32It left the door cracked, and eventually Baltimore came in and just kicked the door down.
00:36Yeah, there's no doubt about it.
00:38And in a couple, obviously, bright moments in the first half,
00:41but for the most part, it kind of felt like the Ravens,
00:44through at least the first quarter and a half, were really in control of the game,
00:47although they were losing because of the fumble return from Jesse Bates for the touchdown.
00:51And you just kind of knew that the defense was kind of holding the rope a little bit,
00:55doing what they needed to do little by little.
00:57And yet, you know, the Ravens were able to pick up chunk yardage,
01:01even without Lamar Jackson in the lineup,
01:02even with the struggles on the offensive line that they were having.
01:04They were able to pick up chunk yardage in the run game and do some different things.
01:08So it just felt like it was just a slow build to eventually the end of this game
01:13and the overtime drive that just was gut punch after gut punch.
01:18And I know we'll break it all down,
01:19but it just felt like a series of missed opportunities for this game
01:23when it comes to the Atlanta Falcons and, you know, just let one slip away.
01:27Yeah, it definitely slipped right through their fingers.
01:29It feels like that old, like, movie trope where you can see the fingernails
01:32just kind of scratching down the side before falling over the edge.
01:36And unfortunately, that's kind of what ended up happening to the Falcons.
01:39And really, the Ravens, credit to them for they made the plays down the stretch.
01:43The Falcons obviously were not able to.
01:44And I did think, to your point,
01:45there was a lot of great defensive effort for the Falcons early on
01:48because Michael Penix came out, was not able to complete a pass in the first quarter.
01:52Falcons still were able to exit the first quarter of play with the lead
01:56thanks to the big play that was made by Jesse Bates,
01:58the fumble recovery for the touchdown.
02:00I felt like the defense, it was also asked to do an awful lot
02:02because time of possession was skewed heavily in favor of the Ravens.
02:06So, as you said, it felt like the Ravens kind of had control
02:08because they had the ball so much,
02:09but the Falcons' defense was able to keep them at bay there in the first half.
02:14And Atlanta was finally able to take advantage of some mistakes
02:16and some opportunities to head to the locker room with the lead.
02:19But the second half was a different story
02:21because Atlanta's drives ended in field goals when they did their scoring.
02:25And that's an awful lot of points left out there on the field.
02:27Yeah, and look, I mean, the Falcons made some incredible plays as well.
02:30It was a well-played football game on both sides.
02:35I'm going to try not to lose sight of that
02:37as we kind of catch our breath after an overtime loss
02:40that feels like you had the game in hand multiple times.
02:43But we'll go through this and we'll talk about the third downs
02:46that Atlanta had offensively.
02:48It felt like Michael Penix, for the most part, couldn't miss until he did.
02:51Until he was trying to throw it to Bajon in a flat with Calais Campbell in coverage
02:56or some of the other problems that did occur on third down.
02:58But you did a lot of the things that felt like you needed to do to win the game.
03:02Bajon Robinson was very efficient on the ground.
03:04Drake Lundin with the crazy good day.
03:08You protected the quarterback for the most part with the offensive line.
03:12It just didn't seem like you could get things pointed in the right direction overall
03:15to make yourself successful.
03:17And then the defense, you know, really a nice job out of Baltimore's offensive line
03:22and everybody kind of involved in that.
03:23Some of the throws that Snoop Huntley made towards the end of the game were just incredible.
03:27But, yeah, it just got out of hand.
03:29And, you know, it's hard to even fathom that you lost this
03:34if you look to where you were about just an hour ago.
03:36But here we are.
03:37Yeah, and, again, I think it was the opportunities that were left out there on the field
03:41to have scored some more points, number one.
03:43Number two, a credit to Baltimore.
03:44As you mentioned, this was a well-played game on both sides.
03:47Both teams made some plays that you felt like had an opportunity
03:50to put the Falcons in the position to win this game.
03:52And, clearly, the Ravens had their opportunity to win it.
03:55And they, as a saying go, did not miss when it came to that.
03:58And over time, we do have to talk about what went on with Michael Penix down the stretch
04:02because that is going to be something that we're going to be monitoring
04:04not only here on the Mercedes-Benz postgame show but in the days moving forward
04:08because Penix, one of the more unfun discussions we're going to have on this show
04:12was leveled late in the game, seemed like a hit to the ribcage.
04:15Maybe the sternum came out for a play.
04:17Tuatunga-Vailoa came in.
04:18Then Penix came back in, but he was out in overtime with Penix.
04:21And, honestly, the ball belonged to Baltimore for much of overtime.
04:25But what we saw on the broadcast of Michael Penix talking to trainers
04:29and then eventually putting the towel over his head
04:31as Tuatunga-Vailoa came in for that final series,
04:33you could just tell that whatever the decision, the conversation,
04:36and the feeling was for Michael Penix, that it was a whole lot of not good.
04:40Yeah, I mean, you hate to kind of read anything into what is being done
04:44on the sideline until you absolutely know.
04:46But Penix is obviously emotional.
04:48And you mentioned it, towel over the head.
04:50And you see Tuatunga start warming up.
04:52And that doesn't lend itself to feel like you're going to be looking at a quarterback
04:57that is going to pop up after the game and be like, yeah, fine.
05:00You know what I mean?
05:00So we'll deal with that moving forward.
05:03I had high hopes for Tuatunga when he was put in the game.
05:06But then the same interceptions that kind of plagued him just a year ago
05:08pop up right back there on what was that?
05:10Probably his third throw of the game.
05:12Third throw, yep.
05:13You know, look, it is what it is.
05:15We've seen just about everything we can see at the quarterback position,
05:18and it's only the fifth game of the year.
05:20And, you know, we'll just have to deal with that as it comes.
05:22But you just played a team that's backup quarterback,
05:25just won them a game pretty handily.
05:27And so it's just the nature of the beast in the NFL.
05:29Yeah, it does happen.
05:30And then, obviously, we will get updates.
05:31We will hear from Kevin Stefanski.
05:33We could possibly hear from Michael Penix.
05:35I don't know what this injury scare will do to his availability following the game.
05:38He may be getting treatment.
05:39That could be something that throws a wrench in that.
05:42Either way, I'm sure this will be a topic that Dave Archer will dive into
05:45when he heads down to the Falcon locker room.
05:47So we will bring you that here on the Mercedes-Benz postgame show
05:49as we continue along.
05:50Before we go any further, though, I do want to step aside 10 seconds
05:53so stations can identify themselves on the Atlanta Falcons radio network.
05:57Falcons games on the game.
06:00This is WZGC Atlanta and WZGC HD1.
06:03Sports Radio 92.9, the game.
06:07Well, Mike, let's talk a little bit about overtime
06:08because, obviously, Michael Penix not being out there is a big story
06:11and one we'll continue to talk about.
06:13But the Ravens absolutely ate up the clock on their touchdown drive,
06:16taking the first seven minutes to engineer that drive.
06:19And they took their first lead since a field goal
06:22on their first possession of this game.
06:24It was a slow and methodical drive and an agonizing drive for the Falcons
06:29as their opportunity to win a third straight game
06:31and beat a team down at start.
06:33Quarterback, again, slipped to their fingers.
06:35So not only does this feel like a missed opportunity just in a vacuum,
06:38but overall for the Falcons, it does seem to put a halt to the momentum
06:42they had been building, some quite nice momentum
06:44with what they had done the last couple of weeks.
06:46Yeah, there's no doubt about it.
06:47And the interesting thing about the overtime drive of the Ravens
06:51is usually sometimes when you see something that methodical,
06:53it feels like the offense comes out and is just kind of picking at one.
06:56Maybe you find a weak spot in the defense.
06:58Maybe is there something you can expose?
07:00Baltimore, what's crazy about it is they did a little bit of everything
07:03on that drive.
07:03I mean, it was, you know, a slant, a check down, you know,
07:07just a crazy play with somebody, you know, after the catch,
07:10being able to get the first down.
07:11Derrick Henry obviously eating up yard after yard after yard.
07:15And just little by little, seven yards, ten yards, eight yards, three yards,
07:19five yards, I mean, just all the way down the field.
07:21And it just felt like there was nothing Atlanta could do about it.
07:24And we've talked plenty of times on here about the run defense
07:27and the ability to step up this year that you didn't really have at times
07:31last year at all.
07:32And some of the different pieces, I mean, Jervon Dexter, a heck of a day.
07:36Mason Smith has been good this year.
07:38But in the end, it did feel like Baltimore was able to find ways
07:42to just kind of get you off balance.
07:45And look, no matter what you want to say about his run game,
07:47Dwayne Ledford knows Jeff Ulbrich, knows the system,
07:50knows how to kind of attack certain things.
07:52And he was on that sideline for Baltimore tonight.
07:53Yeah.
07:54And as you looked kind of down the stretch for the Falcons,
07:57they held that 23-15 lead as they headed into, what,
08:02down almost to the two-minute warning before settling for a field goal there.
08:07And then it was a touchdown with less than a minute to go for the Ravens.
08:12Then they had to convert the two-point conversion.
08:13They were able to do that.
08:15And that sent us into overtime.
08:17You look at this overall for the Falcons in terms of the time of possession
08:21in this game, 35 minutes of it belonged to,
08:2535 minutes, 10 seconds belonged to the Ravens,
08:2632 minutes and 45 seconds for the Falcons.
08:29That felt very much one-sided in the first half.
08:33And honestly, that was when the Falcons were able to score their two touchdowns,
08:36one defensive fumble recovery,
08:38and then the touchdown in the second quarter.
08:41Then it was, what, four field goals in the second half
08:44was all the Falcons were able to muster.
08:46So it was just a very frustrating and, I think,
08:49just kind of out-of-balance effort for the Falcons.
08:51But there were those flashes as they were putting together those drives.
08:54And particularly, we have to point out what Drake London did in this game.
08:57It was catch after catch for first down after first down after first down.
09:00But they could not figure out a way to get into the end zone.
09:03And probably the one that's going to haunt, I'm sure,
09:05Jake Matthews and the Falcons in this one was the play that was designed to go to him.
09:09And that one went over the top.
09:11And he wasn't able to drag that thing in.
09:13And I know that's, you know, it takes a lot of plays to lose a game.
09:15But that one felt like it was right there for Matthews and for the Falcons.
09:19Yeah, look, you're going to talk about that one.
09:21And I mentioned earlier the Bajon Robinson,
09:23the pass at his feet in the flat when Calais Campbell was out there.
09:26Yeah.
09:27That's just not a matchup that you would ever think that you would want
09:31if you're Jesse Minter and the Baltimore Ravens defense.
09:33And yet, you know, the pass is not complete.
09:35There was a number of those, man.
09:36There was a pass earlier to Charlie Warner, I believe it was.
09:41On a third or a fourth down play that was kind of at his feet.
09:44Penix really did struggle with some of those passes into the flat on the checkdowns.
09:47So I don't know.
09:48You know, I have to go back and look at the tape and, you know,
09:50see kind of the footwork and things like that.
09:51But, yeah, I mean, and you know what's crazy about it is
09:54you didn't have near the downfield passing game for Snoop Huntley,
09:57but those are the passes that he was able to make tonight.
10:00The ones out in the flat and the small kind of checkdowns.
10:02I mean, he just nickel and dimed you all the way down the field.
10:05And what a massive amount of credit he deserves
10:07for the way he was able to lead this team tonight.
10:09He is a veteran-proven backup quarterback,
10:12and he stepped in there and got them that win.
10:14Yeah, and it's helpful to have one of those guys that can step in,
10:17especially when you're missing the guy that is really the figurehead of your offense.
10:20With all respect to Derrick Henry, he's one of the great running backs in this league.
10:23Lamar Jackson, obviously, is one of the most dynamic players in the NFL,
10:26and he's not available.
10:27And all Tyler Huntley did was come in and go 24 of 32 for 201 yards,
10:32two touchdowns, no interceptions for him.
10:34The Falcons were able to sack him three times,
10:36but really not able to disrupt him enough for what he was doing.
10:39And I guess those nickels and dimes, they all add up at the end,
10:42and it added up to a 30-23 win for the Baltimore Ravens in overtime over the Atlanta Falcons.
10:47Atlanta drops to 2-3.
10:49They are winless in two tries at home,
10:50and the Ravens now 4-1 and a perfect 3-0 away
10:54as they were able to pick up this one in overtime.
10:56Lots to get to here on the Mercedes-Benz Postgame Show.
10:59We'll send it back over to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to hear from the Falcons locker room,
11:02head coach Kevin Stefanski and others.
11:04I'm Grant McCauley.
11:05He's Mike Johnson.
11:06This is the Atlanta Falcons Radio Network.