The Ups and Downs from Atlanta's trip to Washington | Falcons Audible Podcast

Published Dec 31, 2024, 4:40 PM

Derek Rackley and Dave Archer break down the Atlanta Falcons 30-24 overtime loss to the Washington Commanders from every angle, including both sides of the ball, Michael Penix Jr.'s performance, clock management, and more. Now, with one more week in the regular season and a playoff spot on the line, they explain why Falcons fans might need to root for their rival this Sunday.

00:31 - Intro

00:54 - Initial Reactions & First Half of Falcons vs Commanders

05:10 - Reflecting on Second Half

09:59 - Evolving Offense

16:25 - Defensive Performance

19:31 - Challenges & Clock Management

25:05 - Playoff Picture

26:17 - Atlanta Falcons vs Carolina Panthers

33:46 - Tackling

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We are back on the Falcons all presented by AT and T and yes we are light one chair up on our set.

Today.

DJ Shockley is traveling with the Georgia Bulldogs for college football playoff semi final matchup or quarterfinal matchup. Actually, isn't it. Ye're still try to figure out how Yes, well, but we won't have shock today, so it's.

Just going to be me and Arch.

Good news is is I actually got two guys this week that we're on the call, Arch with the Falcons call I was on for the national radio call, so we were both there.

We were able to.

Take in all of the plays of the Falcons thirty to twenty four loss in overtime to the Washington commander. So artists, go ahead and break this down, because, as you and I talked at halftime briefly, in this game kind of ended up being like a tale of two halves. Right, Like the first half, Atlanta was doing pretty much whatever they wanted, especially in the running game. A lot of credit to the offensive line. I think Bijon Robinson continued to show the commanders why he's one of the better backs in the league. How many people he made miss. So let's just talk about what you saw in the first half and why Atlanta was able to develop that lead in the first thirty minutes.

Yeah, I thought that the control of the line of scrimmage is certainly worth talking about. Rack. I think that, you know, whenever Bijon gets things going and he has the ability We've talked about it multiple times to make people miss in the backfield or make people miss at that initial point of contact and then get additional yards, and he did some of that in the game. But I thought the offensive line, the tight ends, even the wide receivers did a really pretty good job of getting Washington block to provide opportunities. Because when Tyler Algier came in, Algier was busting them with run games as well. So the run game was outstanding. I think you ran for ride at one hundred yards in the first half, but Jean had like eighty two yards rushing in the first half, and so you were doing the kind of things that you need to do. Plus you were being given the opportunity. Your defense was doing a pretty good job of himing in one of the better players young players in the league and jayde Daniels in the first half. So I thought the complimentary football piece of playing really good defense, you know, playing situational defense. They were one for four on third down in the first half. Now Atlanta was zero for four on third down. But fortunately you were able to get enough footing and move the football enough to be able to put points on the board. Michael gets a little bit, you know, one of his receivers runs an improper route or route he didn't expect. That's what led to the first interception that gives them a short field they going cash. I thought the key moment in the first half for me was Pennis in the offense coming back on the field after giving up that short field touchdown and the interception to answer. They go seven plays seventy yards and they punch it in the end zone with John Robinson, I thought that was a really cool statement on the road. Now, you and I have both been in that building. We've played in the you know you played in that building. I played in the old RFK. But those fans can really get pretty rabid. I thought it was a playoff atmosphere, and I thought them scoring early kind of put you behind the eight ball of it. To be able to answer that touchdown with a seven play seventy yard drive and punch it in it kind of cooled things down a little bit in the building, and they still stayed pretty high, but it's still it gave you a lot of confidence, and I think it was a you got punched in the face, you came back and punched them in the face, and I just thought there was an equalizer and at that point we settled into a pretty good game.

Yeah, it showed a lot of poise from the young quarterback and the confidence to come right back from that because you just never know. Right primetime matchup, like all the stakes that were on the line. Moving the ball a little bit, then boom interception, the crowd goes nuts, right, You and I where we were sitting into our radio location, were right behind like the lower level of the fans, Like, and they're going nuts. It's probably going through our headsets and everything, right. But I mean that's what happens when you play on a road, first road start for Michael Pennock. So I think it's a great point how he responded after the interception. But I think it's also, as you mentioned, Arch good to note how the defense they were getting after Jaden Daniels in the first half as far as sacks goes, and they were able to hem him up in the running game. It was like Washington was trying to throw the football I keep him in the pocket early. He only ended up breaking one run out. But they really did a good job at one of the more mobile, athletic, dynamic young quarterbacks in this league.

Yeah, they really did a good job with the concept of and I think you're right. Cliff Kingsbury, their offensive coordinator, he had watched a ton of tape. You could tell that they came out with that short passing attack. They were gonna attack and take what Atlanta was giving him. Atlanta's done a better job over the last several weeks, even since I guess maybe since the bye week of taking away those quick short throws. But I thought Ertz did a really good job. They did a good job checking down to the backs, and I thought Jayden Daniels stayed pretty disciplined in how he wanted to attack. They ran one You talked about the one get. They ran zone read one time, and we didn't play it properly and he bounced out and got about twenty five yards. That was right at the end of the first half. And you and I both kind of you and your situation and me and mine. I told Wes, I said, at halftime, we talked about it as the here comes quarterback run. They're going to run the football, and I know you were thinking the exact same thing, and that's what we got in the second half.

Yeah, So so we'll kind of switch gears and talk about the second half, because as Atlanta kind of had after the initial interception that gave up seven points, Atlanta pretty much had the pulse of the first half, and then the second half came, and there were definitely an adjustment at halftime for Washington, where I'm sure Cliff Kingsbury, the offensive coordinator probably went up to Jaydon Daniels and said, all right, young fella, we're gonna put this on your shoulders and we're gonna have to have you do what you do because he's already showed throughout the course of this season that he can run the football. But he had been hemmed up in the first half, and that was a completely different story. You go to the third quarter, I believe, if on my numbers are right, arch the Falcons had the ball for two minutes and seven seconds in the third quarter, I believe, so the offense didn't even really have a chance. It was three plays for minus a yard, and the Commanders had the football for the entire rest of the third quarter.

Yeah.

Yeah, And you could even add the back or the beginning of the fourth quarter. There was a sixteen minute span there where they had the ball for fourteen of the sixteen minutes essentially, so Atlanta just didn't have the football. Now there's no you know, you might want to point the finger at the defense and sure, you need to get off the field.

You need to find away.

This was a team you had limited them I think to one for four on third down. I think they were five for nine on third down in the second half, so they found a way. And it was a lot of Jaden Daniels and some of it was design run game, some of it was him getting out imprompted with some of it was Cliff Kingsbery moving him out of the pocket to give him some run pass options. So give them credit for making making some adjustments to get the quarterback and arch.

It seemed like to your point, it seemed like there were a few passing plays like it was. It was a true passing play, but Daniels got the ball, he looked one direction and then he was like, I gotta see him. I'm taking it right. It was almost like predetermined in his head that if he didn't have somebody wide open right away that he was like, I'm just gonna go ahead and take care. It was very reminiscent for me of watching Michael Vick right, because when I was playing with him, Michael got to this that those times in the game where he knew we needed a play and a pass play was called and he'd look and then he'd find a seem and he was gone right. And that's where like I was watching Jaden Daniels, and it was very eerie to see Mike Lamar Jackson because that's the type of ability that he shows. Not only is it the speed, but it's slippery, like he rarely gets hit, arts like he finds a way to make people miss.

He's he's a dynamic player, and he's one of the bright stars that we're gonna get a chance to watch over the next several years. Hopefully, hopefully he can stay healthy and stay out of injury for Washington's sake, and we'll be able to watch him as fans of football, to be able to watch his kid play.

But he certainly understood the moment.

I think that give give Washington credit for teeing him up and saying, hey, listen, you need to as you said, go do what you do. I thought Atlanta got caught in a couple of situations. We like to use a lot of five man pressures. We'll bring Jaden and Daniels up. In fact, you know, Jaden makes a play because of the look. You confuse the young quarterback, and that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to mix looks up. And we talked about it last week on the podcast what do you do with this kid? Well, you got to mix the looks up, and as it turns out, you had a mush rush. You had a hug situation with your linebacker in the left B gap. Then he drops out into.

Coverage and he gets the interception.

So you did some of the things you needed to do to help confuse him a little bit, but ultimately it got down to his raw athleticism.

He went and got things done.

So tough to win sometimes in the National Football League when you give up two hundred and sixteen yards rushing, as the Falcons did, and of course jayde and Daniels sixteen carries one hundred and twenty seven yards and if my math was right, about one hundred and three in the second half.

Yeah, it was his first hundred yard game.

Is his career rush in the football If you go back and you look the week before, he did the same thing to Philly, and then Philly's defense had no answer for him. Our answer had to be offensively, and as it turned out, that's what we did. We came back offensively to answer what Jaden Daniels was doing.

So just second half time of possession, by the way, I went and looked at it, Washington, essentially I rounded my numbers here twenty one minutes, Atlanta nine minutes in the second half. Commanders had seventeen more offensive plays in the second half than Atlanta did. But all that being said, Arch, let's kind of go back to the final drive where Atlanta gets the ball and they drive the length of the field and I'm gonna kind of fast forward all the way down and if you need to rewind a little bit, go ahead. But they get first and goal at the five and an errant wildcat snap goes over the top of Bejon Robinson's head, and I'm sure I don't know what your reaction was in the booth, but it was just like, oh my gosh, like you're thinking first and goal at the five, Bijon is in the wildcat like this could be one run play and he's in the end zone. And then it was disaster or shall we say near disaster, because they end up losing. Was it twenty six yards on the player or it was on the twenty six yard line?

Think they lost? I think they lost twenty one yard.

Yeah, so it ended up being on the twenty six yard line. And then I want you to kind of take us through the young quarterback in a pivotal game, his.

First road start.

How he overcomes that to not only get them back in scoring terry to territory, to actually punch the ball into the end zone.

Well, he's got to have a resolve in his mind where Okay I can I'm probably not going to get a twenty five.

Yard throw here for a touchdown.

It's still goal to go. Remember, so you're at the twenty six yard line of wherever it was, and it's second in goal now. So now my mindset, and I'm sure Zach's talking to zero, say let's chip away at this. And I actually said it on the broadcast. Okay, Mike can't if he sees a shot, take it. But I've got to think about chipping away. Get myself back to a reasonable chance to throw the ball in the end zone on potentially fourth down, which is good what it's going to be, because you got to go. He finds London along the sidelines, and I like to rewind back. You mentioned rewind back.

Go back.

Remember he converted fourth down twice in this game. In this drive, he hits London on a play on a bench route on fourth down. I think I want to say fourth and nine fourth and ten somewhere in the neighborhood on the left sideline, and if you go back and look at it, he's got early pressure in his face. London is running the deep outcut, bench route, comeback, whatever you want to call it, and Pennix lets the ball go way before London comes out of the break.

He threw it a little bit early with he put a little bit of.

Touch and air on it, and when London came out, the ball hit him right in a face. He stepped out of bounds for the first down, or actually London made a guy miss, got back up the field and got the ball down to somewhere around the fifteen yard line. Then Rey Ray ran the Jets sweep to get it inside the five. Now we fast Now we fast forward back up to where you're talking about, so that just remember those plays that he made prior to getting in position. But then he hits London along the sidelines. Now your third and goal. You miss a shot, and now all of a sudden, it's fourth down and games on the line. This is it and you you you dial up.

They play Tampa two and Kyle Pitts Of.

All people, Kyle, we have a lot of got of fans I know are out there questioning, where's Kyle Pitts. Why has he not been more involved? Well, Kyle came up big at one of the biggest moments. You know, he wins against Tampa two. He's got an underneath the fender coming from the inside that's going to try to wall him from getting into the middle of the field. Got two deep safeties, and so me as a quarterback, I gotta be pinpoint with the throw. I thought he did a really good job of trusting the fact that the defender had his back to him, so he shot the ball to the inside, pulled him away from the safety, you know, kind of gambling a little bit that the defender wouldn't get his head around and put the ball down around the knee level, and pot, Kyle went and got it. Now, it's a laser beam throw. It's a big time throw. You can go back to the greats of the game, and it's as good as any throw you're gonna make in his career.

You go back, well, hopefully.

We're going to look at a fifteen year career of Michael Pennix and this throw right here might be a defining throw of his career, that's gonna lead us to some great stuff, but he won't make a better throw than he made.

In this one arch.

It's almost it's almost a travesty that they came up short in this game because you look back at that throw and number one for him to have the guts to throw that ball, and number two the location the zip and like where he put the ball. Like when I went when they showed the replay, because you and I where we are at in that stadium right the radio booth locations, Washington Art is gonna be a little.

Bit more honest than me.

So that action was all the way on the other end of the field of us, so we don't have necessarily have the greatest vantage point on it. But when they showed the replay and I saw the location at that throw, I was like, oh my goodness, that is a special throw location in the moment too, like people don't understand the moment, like if he gets nervous and that ball ends up hitting the ground before it even gets to Kyle Pitts, you see that he's not ready for the moment. But it was almost just like Michael Pennix was like, dude, this is a CFP National Title Game. I got this right, and he just throws a laser into the hands of Kyle Pitts and they end up tying up the game.

And give and give Kyle credit to Kyle had to win. He's got a defender running from inside out that's trying to wall him. Tampa too is it is most most t I think fans know too. Deep coverage is two safeties playing halves of the field and then you're playing five hunderd zone or five under man in Tampa two a lot of times his zone. But you'll man up the vertical route that's from coming from the slot, and so he's got a guy trying to wall him from getting inside. Kyle wins over the top enough to give Pinnis the angle to throw the ball in there. Pinnis pulls him away from the safety. Now think about all the things that are happening here. Then he locates the football's racks, talking about down and away from the defender and the defenders on his back. Now Kyle makes the grab and there's a fender draped all over him. So as good a throw as it was, and give Pennis all the tremendous amount of credit you're rightly, so give Kyle a ton of credit because.

He didn't caught a lot of balls.

He caught three balls prior to I think he had one that was nullified because of a penalty. But Kyle makes a huge play in a huge moment, So give give the big tight end some credit as well.

You mentioned Tampa two cover two just for our listeners and our viewers, just so you understand. Like and to cover two, you have those two safeties. Generally for an offense, the biggest opportunity you have is down the middle of the field. But the Tampa two adjustment drops a linebacker, whether it's an outside or traditionally a middle linebacker, deep in the middle of the field.

But he's to take that.

He's gonna run. He's gonna run. They're gonna pick a vertical. He's gonna run with a vertical. He's not gonna drop in a zone. He's gonna find the vertical and run with him to try to wall him from getting in there. And that all happened, there's no question about it.

So then we go to the overtime period. Atlanta loses the coin toss, so Washington takes the football and much like it was in the second half. I mean it was just Jad and Daniels kind of taking over in overtime. And again you can rewind if you want, all the way to the point to where late in that drive, dan Quin ended up calling a time out, let the play clock go all the way down, call a time out because his quarterback was absolutely exhausted because he had run so much on that drive. He was kind of bent over down on the ground trying to catch his breath. Thought it was a really smart coaching move, not only to call the time out, but let the play clock go all the way down, So give him call it thirty nine seconds thirty eight seconds plus the time out to kind of catch his breath. But it was more or less Atlanta just didn't have the answer for what he was able to do. And then he ends up finding zach Ertz, the trusty veteran tight end for the touchdown.

Yeah. I thought they did a good job of not letting him beat them on the ground. Now he got him down there, There's no question they ran quarterback. They ran quarterback sweep, they ran quarterback counter. They have a zone read in there where you actually snuffed out the zone read and tackling him for I think a yard loss or maybe maybe a no gain. You did a really good job there, and so ultimately you make it. He scrambles gets to about the three and then Justin Simmons comes up and drops the hammer on him and knocks him to the ground. So now on third down you got a chance to potentially force him to either make a decision if they're going to kick a field goal or go for it. And they do a really.

Good job with their look.

They had a stack look to the left side and Atlanta's trying to match.

And Ertz releases to the flat offered.

You know, obviously jumps him because you can't give away that quick flat throw or it's going to be a touchdown, and the NRTS bust it back to the inside and it's just a quick throw to Ertz on that little angle route.

It was a good design.

It was a really good play in that situation. And so give them credit. Now if we can, we should go back probably and revisit right at the end of the regulation and give the defense a This is a defense that had been on the field the entire second half. Rax talk about he documented the time twenty one minutes. Practically they were on the field for the second half of thirty minutes. Okay, you come back out after Pennix just drove your team the link to the field to tie the game. They've got the ball with it, but I think it.

Was a minute nineteen left more than enough time.

They've got a big kicker, big legged kicker. And you go in and you get three and out. You go in and you put pressure on the quarterback. Now you had to throw to a Zikias over the middle. I got Hughes in a pretty good spot, maybe got in his vision a little bit. Takias doesn't pull in the catch on third down. But you go three and out. Defensively, you had just been you know, steamrolled in the second half, or been on the field the entire time. You come in and get a three and out. What an outstanding job by Jimmy Lake's crew to go out there and get the ball back for their young quarterback. And then obviously, you know, Pennix makes a great throw to Mooney along the sideline. Mooney doesn't get out of bounds, and so then it becomes a lot of what people are talking about. Okay, you to burn a time out there, there's a lot of different thought process. Okay, Quinn and Joe Witt are well known for exotic blitzes and looks. There was an opportunity to rush the line of scrimmage and go for it in that situation, not take the time out, and Michael actually has Mooney open on the sideline and just missed him. And that happens in games. You know you're gonna you're gonna miss some shots. So then there comes the conversation should you have burn a time out and all that kind of stuff. There's a lot of different things going on. You got to remember he coached with Joe Witt and with Dan Quinn. He knows what those guys are gonna do. In fact, the very next play or two plays later, they come with a zero blitz on him. Now you get the penalty that gives you an opportunity maybe potentially try a long field goal. But there's a lot going into it. So it's not just hey take a time out there, that's not there's a thought process. What's easier for the young quarterback to see a conventional four man pass rush in a hurry up situation or do you call time out and allow them to maybe put together something exotic that gets you, gets him a sack, or confuses the young quarterback where he throws it to the other team. So there's a lot going on there as far as conversation, and you can argue both sides, and I'm not trying to defend one or the other, but there's a lot going on. So don't think that it's just naturally you call a time out there, that there's a lot more thought process going.

On to Yeah, I mean that was one of the biggest conversations that came out of the game. And I know you got a chance to talk to coach Morris and everything, and was there any other explanation behind what his process it was there because he was kind of taking a lot of flak for not only the first half of the second half not calling to the time out.

Yeah, and I thought the first half played out. You bled the clock in the first half and it's third down. Remember we get a ball thrown over the middle, it almost gets picked off, and then you get to a third down and he's got it, potentially got a shot to London in the left corner and just you know, maybe rushed a little bit, didn't put enough air on it, whatever missed him, and you kicked the field goal in the second half. In the situation, he's talking about, Okay, what would be best? And remember this is happening in real time. Now, we're not talking about I've got ten minutes to figure this out. I've got a few seconds to figure out. Okay, we're gonna go. Should we rush the line of scrimage? Should we burn a time out? And so the conversation was. And remember they practiced their two minute out here. Now was the two minute a little bit slower than they would have liked? Yes, I think that their operation to get to the line of scrimmage, get the play called, and get it out maybe a little bit slower than they had hoped.

I think that thirty.

One seconds was on the clock when when Mooney caught the football, they got the ball snapped some more in that seventeen second range somewhere in that neighborhood. But he's got the shot, he's got the shot. He's got Mooney there just maybe rushed a little bit and missed the throw. But his thought process was, okay, do I give him a conventional fore man pass rush and them kind of reeling defensively after we just completed a pass and get a vanilla look, or do I call time out and now give Joe Witt and Dan Quinn the opportunity to come with something that we haven't seen yet, or come with something that the court young quarterback hasn't seen. And so he decided to go with a conventional four man look and give him a chance to make a play. And in all all actuality to play.

Is there, and it just didn't. It didn't come out.

But remember you got to go back and remember this.

This team has been really good late in the games.

Okay, do you want a game against Philly late in the game, went the length of the field to win the game. You went the link the field to beat to get young Way coup in position to beat what New Orleans you had late unbelievable late success against Tampa. There's been a lot of successes late in football games. You're gonna fail sometimes late in games, decision making or where a throw goes, or what happens in a game. That's gonna happen in games throughout your your year. We've played an eleven one score games. Okay, so you're gonna have a lot of these opportunities, and you've been You've had a lot more successes than you have failures. I know this one hurts for the fans because this had the playoffs on the line, But I hope that gives a little bit of perspective as to what was going on there. And the coach is gonna say, hey, it was on me. You know, I made the decision. I'll take the blame or whatever, but there was a lot more thought processing going into it than just taking the timeout or whatever.

Yeah, and Arch, you and I have been in many of those meetings after the fact where you actually dive into what was the play call and what was the situation, what was the thought process of the coaching staff, And sometimes for a fan it's easy to just point the finger and say why didn't that happen, But until you actually get inside the nuts and bolts of it, you don't actually know what the thought process was going on between the coaching staff, in the headsets and everything. So unfortunately Atlanta ends up coming up short. You mentioned Michael Pennix. I think there's a lot of really really good things from him. He did end up missing in my opinion arts probably five to six throws in the game that I thought could have been really big. And I think those are plays that maybe next year, after he gets seven twelve fifteen games under his belt, that he feels a lot more confident and he just hits those right and stride. But there was a couple of big plays. I felt like we're missed, just maybe because he's not quite up to speed, chemistry, timing and all those things.

Yeah, and he might rush the must rushed himself a little bit, you know, you're settling back into game mode, those kind of things. But he may hit them next week against Carolina.

I mean, this guy's a quick study.

I thought he was very calm. I had a chance to talk to him postgame, very calm and collected. He was disappointed, as you can imagine, that he wasn't able to get the W. But I think that the sky as a limit. Guys, we've got a young quarterback that you should be excited about. I think he's got young talent around him you should be excited about. And we'll probably see it on display this next week and against Carolina.

Yeah.

So, speaking of which, unfortunately, with the loss, Atlanta loses control of their own destiny to get into the postseason with the win of Tampa this past Sunday lopsided win over Carolina. Mind you, they ended up beating the forty eight to fourteen. So now the Atlanta Falcons obviously have to win this week, and then they got to hope that Tampa loses.

That means pulling for the Saints, which I like. In pulling the Saints, it would be like, Okay, your mom comes in and so you say, Mom, what do we have.

For dinner tonight? We're having liver tonight, and then you have to look forward to it. Yeah, you going liver. I don't now. Maybe some of you out there love liver. I personally did not win.

My my mom would do that once a month for us and do the liver thing, and I had to dowse it and ketchup. I know, maybe we can dowse the Saints in ketchup and maybe they can get a win for us. But pulling for the Saints is like mom serving liver for dinner.

One of the very few times this organization is pulling for the New Orleans Saints to pull out a big time win. But you know, sometimes those things happen. I don't think a lot of people expected Dallas was gonna beat Tampa a couple of weeks ago, so you just never know. But arch to your point, they can't really worry about that. All they got to worry about is is Carolina. Carolina definitely struggling this year, four and twelve on the season, one and four in the NFC South. However, maybe maybe feeling a little bit more confident. They do have Bryce Young back at quarterback. He's been playing better than he did the first few games of the year, so let's kind of dive into this matchup. Of course, Atlanta's already played him one time. What's gonna have to happen in this game? Kind of flushing last week out, not thinking about what's gonna happen with Tampa and just going out as professionals and trying to win the game, win the task at hand that's in front of you.

Yeah, it's a it's a great point rack. And the probably the biggest, the most difficult thing will be coming in over the last couple of days, coming in on Wednesday. Whenever you see this podcast, we're recording on a Tuesday here. But you you mentioned the keyword professional, and there's a lot of conversation when when a team los in college, Oh, can they be up and ready for the next game. Well, that's part of the process. You're being paid to play, there's no question about that. But there's a passion that you're going to play as a pro the next week. And and so Atlanta's got a rally a little bit here. They're gonna have to pick themselves up. There was a lot of disappointed people coming out of that building uh on in Washington on Sunday night.

I can tell you that because I got a chance to talk to a number of them.

Obviously I came back on the plane with them. A lot of disappointment went, a lot of chatter. Wasn't a lot they they realized an opportunity loss there. But they're gonna have to regroup pick themselves up. Raheem and his staff are very good about that. But it'll be a lot on the players, uh to get ready for Carolina, because Carolina's going to want to come in. You know, they want their season end right, which you do want to do if you don't get a.

Play in the postseason.

You and I both were in situations where you want to go out with a good taste in your mouth. You want to go win a football game, and that's what you take into the offseason. So both teams are going to want to do that. But if Atlantic plays their kind of game, this is a game they should win.

Yeah, you made a great point, And it's like a lot of again fans out there they want to talk about, well, well, what does X, Y and Z team have to play for? And I think the argument is still there for Atlanta. They've got plenty to play for because they don't know what's going to happen.

In the other game.

But never in my career arch did I get to, like the final two games of the season and think like, oh, like the off season's coming, Like what's my off season.

Plans look like?

Because every opportunity you get on a Sunday or a Monday or whatever it ends up being, is an opportunity where you're on tape and somebody's evaluates you, whether it's your team or one of the other thirty one teams around the league. And if you want to have a long standing career in this league, what you got to remember is, like, you know, I'm a special teams player, right There is a group of players that are at the top level that if they have crappy games, they're going to be fine. Yeah, okay, but there's a lot of players, not just a little bit like there's a lot of players that when you get it, when you play a crappy game and the coaching staff in a front office puts on that tape and they watch, they start thinking, can we get somebody else that can do that same thing, that can do better than what that guy does, because that's what their job is every single offseason to try to find a way to get their team better. And how does that happen, generally by replacing somebody that was on the team. So professional, your job is to go out this weekend for the Atlanta Falcons and play your face off against Carolina Panthers to come away with a win, and then you just never know what's gonna happen. So what do you think coming off of the loss, are going to be a couple of the keys for Atlanta to get that victory?

This just dista reiterate what you're saying. Think about this. Derek Rackley was one of the better deep snappers in the game. Okay, rack would go down a lot of times. You get tackles in games on punt coverage and things. But to win a game, the operation between snapper, holder and kicker or paramount, those things happen one point three to one point four seconds is what happens there that operation to make that happen. Okay, So there's there's thirty two jobs this guy. Think about how specialized that is when you think around the National Football League. They're thirty two jobs that rackad thirty two. What other profession out there has just thirty two spots? And so if he snaps one over the punter's head or snaps one in the ground with the holder, can't get it done and we lose it, Yeah, they're gonna go try to find somebody else again. I mean, think about how fine a line that is. So the pride factor of showing up and being a professional, but also survival. You want to be in the league, You're gonna do your job at the highest level. Forget about it being the last game of the year. Now getting to Carolina real quickly, Carolina lost Chewba Hubbard. Chewba Hubbard's really had a great year for him. He's over a thousand yards rushing. In fact, in their game two weeks ago, they're being win over. Arizona rushed for one hundred and fifty yards in the game, got banged up and is out. So that's a big hole for them to try to fill. Now they're going to try to do it by a running back guy Committee black Sheers, a guy who's been carrying the football for him some. They've leaned a little bit more on their young quarterback in Bryce Young and Bryce played better this year since he's come back after Andy Dalton kind of took over for him after the first game of the year. Bryce has gotten back on the field. He's played better in games. In fact, like I said, two weeks ago, Arizona was in the hunt to be in the playoffs and they knocked him out. He did a really good job playing that game. Now they got thumped last weekend by Tampa, and I don't know if there's a hotter team in the league than the Tampa Bay Bucks. In fact, get ready, Tampa may make a run. You know, if they win this game against the Saints, they may make a run in the playoffs and you may see them dancing on Super Bowl Sunday the way they're playing. But for carolineup This is a team that is gonna remember, they're gonna be able to roll the dice. They can do kind of anything. This is where you get that wounded animal scenario where you don't know what you're gonna get.

Out of them.

There will be gadget plays, there'll be blitzers you haven't seen on tape. They're gonna do anything they can to get after the young quarterback. But I think if Atlanta just goes, the key is go do what you do. Come off the ball, run it, mash them in the run game, make them play physical upfront, and then Pinnix is gonna be able touch them down the field.

That makes them plays.

Defensively, you're not gonna have to worry about so much about the quarterback running around. You're gonna be able to get This is a defense that has three plus sacks in five consecutive games. No one else in the National Football League has done that. You went from having nine, you went from having nine sacks in what week ten rack you got thirty one sacks down. That's still near the bottom of the league because you got off to such a slow start, but you're at the top of the league in the last five games. You had five sacks this weekend against a really good quarterback in Jaden Daniels. Come come get yours, go eat if you will on off on defense?

Shock? What do you what do you think?

By the way, dogs had to give him a little bit of love.

Of course d is not here.

He is with the Georgia Bulldogs as they get ready for their college with.

You, what do you have to say about the Carolina game.

Yeah, my thing is just going to be get off the field on third down, and again it's it's it's sometimes it's a continuation of the week before. But you're right, we're not going to face nowhere near the animal running the football at the quarterback position in Bryce Young as they did last week in Jaden Daniels. But to me, it's just the idea of the defense getting off the field because I felt like that second half they were winded, like they were on the field a long time and they had to have been exhausted. There was a couple of plays arch where you saw Atlanta like trying to substitute an entire defensive line right and they had to because the guys were on the field for so long.

Tell me your thoughts on we didn't tackle well in the game. Yeah, okay, and you would you contribute that's something you had to do on special teams to run down tackle guys in space and stuff. We contribute that to potentially the fatigue you're talking about.

I think that's one thing definitely, you know, again not to necessarily single out. There was a couple of mistackles by AJ Terrell where he just kind of threw his shoulder and didn't wrap up. Like it just goes back to fundamentals and basics, right like with with with ball carriers in the National Football League, rarely like sometimes a defensive back or a safety can go down with his shoulder on a tight end and get him at the thigh and you're gonna knock him down. Sometimes sometimes they're gonna run through that. But if it's a running back or really slippy or slippery quarterback that if you don't wrap up, you don't bring your arms like, they're gonna find a way to run through that. I mean, you could ask the guy from Washington when he ran into Jon Robinson's thigh in that game in the first half, right, like, it doesn't feel too good, right, So form mechanics, fundamentals, like it's all.

The simple stuff. It goes.

It goes away when you get face, when you get tired, right Like when you get tired, you're just thinking, oh my gosh, how do I survive On this play?

I got to get him down on the ground.

And you don't end up driving your legs, you don't end up wrapping up with your arms, your hat placement is not at the right place of the ball carrier, you don't bring your shoulder like all those little things that you talk about in OTAs, in mini camps, in training camp. But when you get into week seventeen of the season, you've been on the field for thirteen plays, sometimes it's hard to go back to all those basics and fundamentals such it has to be there.

By the way, real quickly.

You mentioned AJ Terrell, and there were there were a number of mistackles I thought in the game, and some of it had to do certainly with fatigue. Some of it had to do with what Rack's talking about in your fundamentals, And hopefully they'll get back to that. AJ Terrell was on Terry McLaurin, I think thirty two snaps in this game. Terry McLaurin, if you go back, you look at the numbers, you don't know who he is. He's won the elite receivers in the league. He's over a thousand yards, has been for the last several seasons. He has had a monster year with Jayden Daniels. This year, in fact, gotten back to being the guy who he is. He was on him for thirty two snaps. Terry McLaurin had one reception for seven yards in the game.

Shut him down.

So if you want to talk about what is AJ Terrell and is he a shutdown corner, go look at that tape, because AJ Terrell completely locked down one of the best receivers in the league.

Good job, Aj.

There was a couple of times when my play by play guy Tom McCarthy was saying, what is Washington need to do? And I said, they got to find a way to get the ball in the hands with Terry before.

The crowd was chanting Terry, Terry.

They couldn't get in HEJ said no, no, no, no, it's not happening. So credit to him. He has been one of the better lockdown corners in the league. And I'm happy for him. You know, listen, I owned up kind of picked on him a little bit when it comes to the tackling. I'm sure Aj will look at the same plays on tape and he'll be as critical as himself because that's what pros do. But he did an outstanding job slowing down McLaurin, who was off to a great start in his career, as you mentioned, another thousand yard season, but not in that game against the Falcons. So Atlanta's going to be back at home this weekend in Week eighteen, seventeenth game of the season, to face the Carolina Panthers with the hope of getting into the postseason, but it's not all in their hands. Fall short to the Commanders thirty to twenty four on Sunday Night Football and overtime on behalf of Dave Archer and kind of DJ Shockley.

We're here, You're with us in spirit.

Shock We hope the Bulldogs do great in their playoff matchup and we will see you back here next week. This has been the Falcon's Audible, presented by AT and T. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. We'll be back to wrap up Week eighteen in the NFL next week.

Ghost Saints.

Oh man, I just kind of threw up in my mouth, a little bit liver, liver,