 What's up everybody and welcome to the latest edition of the Falcons final whistle podcast. I'm Scott Bayer here with Tori McElaney and Chris rim Checking in with you at two oh seven a.m. Yes, that's right on Friday morning technically a day after The Falcons lost 25 to nothing to the New England Patriots on Thursday night football I am a little astonished guys that they haven't kicked us out yet and and the lights are still on Yeah, here's the thing if anyone wants to send me a Venmo At some point when you listen to this my Venmo is open. I will be looking for any caffeine pick me up. So Yeah, hit a girl up. I'm quite tired. Yeah Tori has now had two servings of ice cream during the game and just downed about half of a bag of M&M's That is yeah That's the thing is I I needed sustenance and Sustenance came in the form of the ice cream and I'm not I have no regrets There is not a part of me that regrets the second thing of ice cream that I got no judgment will be had in this This establishment. Yeah, and I still think that's I still think that's probably better than than than my strategy Which is caffeine on top of Red Bull on top of yeah, Scott does do it does this He does this thing during the week where he has a ton of coffee and then also to Red Bulls And I really don't think it's healthy, but It's not Yeah, we are Over here. We are full on delusional. It is way too late to the viewers who I've Listeners Listeners out there, you know, my body is a temple. This is I do I do eat ice cream from time to time had some tonight was very Unhappy with the lack of rainbow sprinkles tonight, but yeah, they only had chocolate That's a real set but it was it was pretty good nonetheless. Yeah, and That was a fun part of the evening. There weren't very many fun parts of the evening for the Atlanta Falcons against the Patriots, obviously The the score tells you these the historian You all know the drill if you're a faithful final whistle listeners that we're gonna take four quarters We're gonna go over this game now. We're not going to go over every detail of this one starting off the top We are going to discuss what went wrong how much of an impact not having Patterson was on this game. We're also going to talk about something that Tori was very clear about all game long Be no defensive slander here And I think that's a good point now We're also going to talk about what needs to be fixed and in the last part What games that Falcons fans should be attuned to on Sunday and Monday? Because there's no Falcons football over the course of the weekend So we're going to get to all that but before we do a big Thank you to our sponsor Microsoft Windows 11 the official operating system of the NFL and the Atlanta Falcons The all-new Windows 11 is here to bring you closer to what you love like this Falcons final whistle podcast Learn about all the new awesome features of Windows 11 at windows.com And we're gonna start with quarter number one trying to Summarize exactly what went wrong here, which was another Multiple score loss in a five-day span It was very recently that the Falcons were the number seven seed in the NFC playoff picture They were four and four five days later After a tough loss to the Dallas Cowboys and another one here to the New England Patriots they stand at four and six and This wasn't an identical carbon copy of what happened against Dallas So Tori, where do you think that this particular game went awry? Yeah, I think Gosh, it's it's hard to pinpoint like exactly One spot where it didn't go it started kind of to go off the rails I remember when we were talking to Arthur Smith after the loss to Dallas and he was like You know it was that second quarter and he called it an avalanche Right, but I felt like there wasn't like a specific moment in this game where it fell apart I just felt like the deep the offense never got going. There was never a point in time where I thought that Or or I thought there was just never a point in time where I thought things were going in the right direction for this offense I didn't think that they were picking up steam at all I don't know. It's really really tough when you kind of look at the the numbers itself I you know being outscored by opponent 68 to 3 in the last two games That's you can't there's no sugarcoating that and I don't think coaches or players would be sugarcoating that There's also the fact that the run game is it's still struggling to be established the Patriots out gained the Falcons 134 yards to 40 in the run game I and then there's just the third down in efficiencies that we've seen too There were two for 11 tonight there were one for 11 last week or last week five days ago on Sunday It's just all of these things accumulating to to what went wrong. It's not one moment It's just the whole thing. Yeah, and I think I would agree in terms of it's hard to I don't think there's like a specific moment But one moment that does kind of stand out to me was the field goal that young way made Oh, yeah And he made the field goal and there was a penalty and he got pushed back and then they missed the field goal So I don't I don't think that was a point where you look back and say oh man This is where the game really turned or you know even using that avalanche term that Arthur Smith used last week But I was just a moment that stood out to me in terms of you know Hindsight is 2020 or we can do hypotheticals and things like that, but maybe just seeing points on the board You know helps the team. I don't we I don't know obviously But maybe same points on the board can help a team is 10 3 instead of 10 0 You're maybe going to have time down 13 3 instead of 13 0 so later on in the game Maybe you take that field goal instead of going for that that fourth that fourth down and that was like a 14 play 737 minutes and 30 second drive that ended with no points because of a flag So I don't know if that's the point that where the game changed like you said It was I think just the entire game was just the offense kind of struggling to capitalize on the position The defense put them in right, but that was just a play that stood out to me Yeah, something that I think like also deserves to be talking about like deserves to be Broken down is the fact that they didn't have Cordero Patterson Right, and I think when you look at this offense and what this offense has been over the course of the first half of the season Cordero Patterson has been everything for this offense He has been this the spark plug for this offense And I think looking at it and going into it and not having him you saw why he's so important to this offense Yeah, his value was very clear. There was a point during the game where I think we even discussed What would the score be if Patterson was there and the answer could have been the score would have been exactly the same I doubt that though. It's weird. I'm staring at the box score here and it was it was 16 to nothing That's still a two-score game. It was a two-score game up until two minutes left in the game That's why there's no avalanche. That's why there's no unraveling. It was just kind of a slow Methodical, you know kind of approach to this game. It wasn't terribly exciting in in many ways and not having Patterson there I do think had an impact and it speaks to his volume, but especially when they when Bill Belichick can devote every part of his Schematic mind slowing down Kyle Pitts because there isn't that that that other option and it's not like they just lost Patterson, right? They they lost Patterson, which was compounded by the fact that Hayden Hearst was put on IR earlier Thursday that Calvin Ridley missed his fourth consecutive game. It's a personal matter, but nonetheless that that you have three skill players not there and no offense to Parker Hesse and Marvin Hall and And thank you very much. No offense to those guys, but Hearst Ridley Patterson, it just hits different. It does it changes the dynamic of the game I don't think that can be ignored and we're gonna start quarter number two talking about a Defensive effort that was a lot better than what we saw the Falcons against the Cowboys instead of me doing the intros that I normally do Tori, I'm just gonna turn it over to you. You're gonna let me filibuster You made a great point in the second half. Yeah, a very assertive comment that I think the listeners Yeah, so I guess it was probably like halfway through the third quarter. It was still 13 to nothing and I Mentioned on Twitter. I was like, I don't care if the defense from now until the end of the game Goes out and gives up 13 more points I don't care because I will not write a single thing about this defense After this game is over because I don't think that this loss is on the defense and that I'm putting that on myself, too I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that because I Thought this defense played very well, and I thought this defense put this offense in really really good positions to Go down and score put up any points at all. You have the AJ Terrell Interception which was his first interception this year Which is a really exciting moment for somebody who has been playing as well as we've seen AJ Terrell play this year You had a bunch of three and outs by a four spot this defense You had I just you had a lot of red zone efficiency where they were keeping the Patriots out of the end zone so It yes, they were broken down plays and there were moments that I'm sure this defense would want back But when you're an offense and you're looking at a 13 to nothing You know lead that's does that doesn't make you feel good that you can't outscore that And I think that is where I kind of was just like, you know I'm not gonna say anything about the defense because I liked how they played I thought they played well and That's just kind of what I thought and I mean people can disagree with me all they want But at the end of the day, I feel like this offense. I mean they didn't score any points So it's really hard to be like this wasn't a collective Game when for the most part and Matt Ryan even said it after the game this defense Kept this offense in the game. Yeah, there's obviously no Perfect. I was it there's things they probably plays. They probably want back or situations They might want back, but I think I don't I think what you said I would have a I think we would have a hard time finding someone who could disagree and say the defense played bad This might have been their best game today. Yeah, I think so, you know Especially when you consider the fact that the patch scored 45 last week, right? They scored 54 three weeks ago They scored 24 on the Panthers. This was an offense that was humming coming in. Yeah So and and the the Falcons allowed 19 points so the defense allowed 19 points and I think if you allowed 19 points against Any team I think you'll take that at this level 100% around that number you'll take that So yeah, the defense was was a great and the offensive has had their days where defense has had their days We have to give credit where it's due. Yeah tonight It was D&Ps and the defense as much as you know, maybe they've struggled in the past tonight They had a they had a great night and and I think yeah I think the offense definitely need to step up and when you score zero points We don't we don't need to say that right. Yeah already. They already know Matt Matt said that himself Well, I think going back to like that Carolina game. I remember Arthur Smith saying after the game He was like you have to score more than 13 points Yeah, I think he would say you have to score more than if you have to score more than 13 You definitely have to score more than three and zero exactly. Yeah what I was covering the the The Raiders Charles Woodson was on two pretty bad teams and Chuck was phenomenal as a quote and he was I mean, he's a Hall of Famer He can be as honest as he wants and more than one occasion He'd be like if we gave up less than 20, that's a win Yeah And that should be a win that the offense should make stand because there were times where the defense was given up Less than 20 and they still lost and Charles would look at it at his defensive players and be like we did our job and and I do think that that there is a dividing line of Of responsibility here. That's why yeah, it's 25 to nothing. They gave up 19 points. That's too many But this this Falcons team is built to win games by scoring 28 Right, it's built to do those types of things and while nobody's head is being held high after this one There's a lot of anger and frustration and belief that they've have played below their potential over the last two weeks I do think that defensively though that they hope that this could be something to build on because the Patriots do Things that the Falcons aren't good at defending physical downhill in your face running I thought they were pretty good. Oh my god. I know what to go over Think what the running game? Yeah pets to have three guys who've right ran for a hundred yards this season And you know remandry Stevenson golden Williams and you didn't see them dominate in the way that this this defensive dominated on the ground So I don't want to take us to over the time But that's something that we definitely didn't mention as far as the run defense that was stout to yeah And and I think if you're looking at what we're going to talk about in the next quarter about things that needs to be fixed I think that there are things to build on from this defensive performance as we try to dissect it and see how the Falcons can do better as we move forward And we are moving past this game already 25 to nothing. We've identified it. We've dissected it. It's time to Start looking towards the future a little bit Which is exactly what Arthur Smith said that he's going to do over the course of this mini-buy weekend that he and his coaching staff are Going to go back to the office. They're going to self scout. They're going to reflect They're going to identify ways that they can get better, right the obvious Fan point might be well, I can't get much worse right that you're not scoring points You're losing games you're losing games by multiple scores all bad news Right if you go back to the first two games of the year something I asked Jake Matthews about was there anything to be learned from the first Two games when they got beat by multiple scores by superior teams in weeks one and two and then they came back and they had better stretches, right? So I guess the overall question here is what needs to be fixed right away if you're doing a triage and you're trying to figure out how to get the Falcons rolling again Where do you start? How do you get this thing back? At least so they can be more competitive than they have been over the last two weeks. Yeah, I mean for me. I think I Think they need to figure out a way to Give Matt Ryan more time. I think that's really the most important thing whether that and I'm not going to try to Play coach here because I'm not the coach but whatever that whatever Arthur Smith needs to do to make that happen if that's you know Chipping, you know defensive ends if that whatever that is yeah, Matt Ryan Plays his best when he has time. He doesn't need all day. He just needs a couple seconds And he'll find someone or he'll even run. We've seen we have seen Matty wheels yeah, and I think even with the team being depleted at its receivers I think Russell Gage is still it's still a solid target I think Tajid Sharpe has proven to be reliable and obviously Kyle Pitts is there and also the running backs can catch Mike Davis can catch and and I think so I for me that that's one thing that I think needs to be fixed and and this offense will perform better. I Have a lot of things kind of swirling around in my head But I think this has been a point of emphasis over the course of the last like two years of covering this team But establishing a run game and I think Matt Ryan said it best after The game where he was talking about the run game and he just kind of said he was like You know it wears a defense out and when you're not wearing a defense out it makes it harder on You and I know that we've kind of looked at a lot of stats and I know there are a lot of people on Twitter I see you guys in my mentions all the time asking about Mike Davis and Here's what I'll say about that is I went back and I looked at what his numbers are and what his stats are and it's really hard to kind Of look at those stats and be like oh It's only on Mike Davis because he's getting hit at the line of scrimmage over and over and over again Same thing with Cordero Patterson. The only difference is his Cordero Patterson's yards after Initial contact are a little bit more so When I'm kind of thinking about this run game, it's it's in run blocking and it goes back to what I know Mariah has said before where it's like it's all 11 of us doing our job and I Just think that in order for this defense I mean this defense this offense to be moving the way that it wants to it has to be coupled with a run game That is more productive than what we've seen it be in the last couple of weeks So so that to me is kind of what I I look at as being one of the top Things that needs to be fixed and I think it it'll help out with kind of what Matt Ryan was talking about post game We're you know, he was asked What's the most disappointing part of the last couple weeks of this offensive struggle and he said it's the lack of production I mean, it's sim simply it's the lack of production And so I think when you kind of have the movement down the field that you want and you're not And you're getting kind of like four or five yards on first and second down and not zero yards or a loss I think that's a difference. Yeah This stat blows my mind Against the Patriots the Falcons averaged three point two yards per play that won't get you a first down No, at all which which means that you you're just not moving the ball Productively and to that point. I actually came in thinking Third down offense simply has to be better But a point that you have pointed out that that you've made several times I think I said it last week too including in in press conferences are these negative or Gains on first down that's that put you behind the sticks I was sitting next to our To our head of digital content Dan Gad and he was in shout out Dan shout out Dan He was actually pointing out that all these third downs were third and unmanageable Yeah, it's like third and seven third and eight third and nine that we saw a bunch of different times against the defense that like That can really pack it in so I think that that has to be better the whole operation of keeping the Chains moving and being more efficient, especially on early downs And we're coming down to quarter number four Be in with this Falcons a week 11 game already in the rear view and a whole NFL slate before you I know and a whole off weekend for us and a whole off weekend it kind of brings up the Question here if you're gonna sit down and watch NFL game if you're gonna pay attention to some scores Which one are you going to pay attention to which one should Falcons fans pay attention to as they keep an eye on? the rest of the league I'll go first Though I'm sure Falcons fans won't like my answer But I think it means a lot to the Falcons, but I'm gonna say the Saints and the Eagles I think it's gonna be an interesting game to see One what Saints team shows up because I feel like we've seen a lot of different Saints teams over the course of the The first half of the the season so I'm curious to see what what team shows up and then of course with Philly I mean I got a shout-out Chris rims hometown of Philadelphia But but no that's that's a game that I think is gonna be really interesting to watch not just for The Falcons, but the these these two teams are pretty similar in record I mean the Saints are five and four Eagles are four and six pretty similar to the Falcons. So that's that's the game that I'm gonna watch I think it'll be an interesting one. Yeah, and I'll be watching probably that game too and then on my Laptop or my college used to have three televisions. That is such a boy thing See every boy that I've ever been in there like apartment from the age of like 18 to now 25 That is what their apartment looks like. It's a salt. It's always multiple televisions Well, I mean like one has to be madden. Yes, of course, but the other ones you got to have the games Well, not on Sunday. We have the games on all three Steelers fan pass fan like a Vikings fan or something. So we were watching those games But commitment for me digress, but the game that I think Falcons fans should watch outside of that Saints game would be the Panthers First the football team cam Newton will make his first start like Cam Newton vs. River Bowl run that whole reunion a little bit of tension there Who knows we love we love the tension. We love the storylines, you know, it's just cam You don't know what you're gonna get we've seen cam. He took his helmet off He said I'm back, you know a lot of excitement that he's in a division and this Panthers team They have looked so different if yes, that's exactly like I mean, this is this is the thing about this year Everybody's looking different every week. The Panthers. I think and I might be we're staying but out of every five and five Team in the league. They might be the one team who has like the highest ceiling and Even I want to say the lowest floor, but just can can go either either direction Their defense is so good and then now with cam Newton that quarterback. There's a Christian McCaffrey back There's a lot of questions at the end of the vision and the Falcons play them soon. So that's the game I think they should watch. Yeah, I was definitely gonna take that one For sure. I I guess I'll just go to why not scout out the next opponent Jacksonville is playing the 49ers which are all of a sudden four and five and right back in the middle of things and They looked like world beaters Against the Rams which according to how the NFL is going means that they're gonna lay an egg in Jacksonville Nobody can make any sense of it But nonetheless you might as well check out and see what urban Myers team has to offer I guess But nonetheless And the Falcons can't scout another opponent. They travel out to the Bay area. Hey, you're hometown your neck Yeah, so I think that would be a good one to keep an eye on I'm sure that you're catching a theme here Right is to keep an eye on the NFC teams that are around the Falcons ballpark because if they can listen to us and Correct all the mistakes that we point right number three. We know everything. Oh, yeah, we just wave magic once I mean, that's just how it works But nonetheless, you know keep an eye on the other teams enjoy a Frosty cold one some pretzels and have a good weekend and we will check back in with you Now that quarter number four has wrapped up. We will check back in with you after that Jaguars game From Jacksonville, so let's get out a couple of quick things one. Happy Thanksgiving Everybody Because we have some Canadians on our team and they do not celebrate You know fans overseas you might not oh, yeah, shout out to Germany and UK, you know It's your turkey going on really turkey Thanksgiving, but you know, whatever you like to eat. What do you eat on Thanksgiving? Jamaica food. Oh, yeah You know, I think I think maybe that's the way to go. Honestly. Yeah Though I would like to add my memos chicken and dressing or turkey and dressing to that because I will die on the hill That it's the best and I want to beat you there. Yeah, yeah, can't debate with my mom Everybody everybody's heading to ma'am ma's house 100% indeed sign us up before you do that Go to Spotify iTunes. Give us a five star rating and a nice review. Pretty pleased. That would be super nice and We will talk to you again as the Falcons move forward off of this minibuy back in action Against Jacksonville trying to rebound and get off of this two-game losing streak. We'll talk to you then