 Welcome back to the Falcons audible presented by AT&T. Happy holidays everybody. Hope you had a merry Christmas and our gearing up for a very, very happy new year. We are back here to talk a little Falcons little all things NFL. I'm Derek Rackley joined by DJ Shockley. We got Dave Archer with a big smile on the big screen here. He's going to be joining us from the comforts of his home office today. But guess what? He's still going to be bringing the thunder when it comes to analysis and opinion. So thank you so much for joining us on atlantafalcons.com, YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, however you get your podcast. This is what we're going to cover in today's episode. We're going to get quick reactions to the game last weekend. We're going to discuss, I'm going to ask this questions and guys are going to give me an answer. Are the Falcons closers now? They've had an issue closing out games in the past, but are they closers now? Are they going to win in Buffalo? Simple question. Maybe it's not so simple of an answer. We'll find out. And then we're going to get into a discussion about Kyle Pitts and how good he is and some of the things that are still right out in front of him that are quite amazing. And then we will just talk about in general terms have the Falcons already surpassed expectations for this season with a new general manager and a new coaching staff. So that's what's on tap. Let's get right into it. Dave, I'm going to start with you. Since you are at home, you are comfortable and you are awfully large today. It's a very big version of Dave Archer. We're going to get your quick hitter, your quick reaction on what the win over the Lions last weekend meant. Yeah, I was extremely impressed with their opportunities. This was a situation where they were going to get limited chances on the football because the way they decided to play defense, their game plan was to bend, bend, bend and not break. They did that for the most part in the game, which meant they weren't going to have a lot of possession. So I thought they maximized those opportunities and turned them into points. So I think that that's the thing that stuck out to me. DJ, what stuck out to you? What's your quick reaction on that victory over Detroit? I think the number one thing that comes to mind for me is this team learning from earlier season mishaps. In situations where you probably would have not won this ballgame or found a way not to win this ballgame, but this team continues to fight at the end of a ballgame. And I think that's the most, I want to say reassuring thing for Falcons fans is that, you know, an Arthur Smith coach team will never give up. They will continue to fight and this game shows exactly what that is. Obviously the big trouble by Gage and then the defense having to bow their neck and come back. I thought it was pretty good. Yeah, shock. This is one of those games where in the NFL, it's not always pretty, but you did what you had to do to get the victory. And especially when you get late in the season. And this is one of those years where it's completely different than all the others because so many teams are playing with guys that they wouldn't normally at this point. And it's not just because of injury. It's because of this reserve COVID list. I mean, it's just been been one of the more bizarre seasons in the NFL. They keep playing, but the Atlanta Falcons found a way to get the victory. So shock, let me come right back to you. There's been this question. There's been this criticism about the Falcons not being able to finish games in the fourth quarter, letting games slip away that they have a chance to win. But the question for you is, are they closers now? Because the Falcons are seven and two this season in one score games. And you think about the wins over giants, Jets, Dolphins, Saints, and then of course this past weekend against Lions. They're securing victories in the fourth quarter. It didn't look so promising in that final drive for Atlanta, but Foyer comes up with that much needed interception. And again, sometimes it's not always scripted, but are they now closers? Can they now put themselves in the conversation that they know how to close out games? Right. I'll say this. I'll say the proof is in the record. And you mentioned it being seven and two in those one score ballgames tells you exactly what this team about. And we know the old adage, the old phrase, we are who we thought we are. We are what our record says we are exactly what it is. I mean, you won these ballgames late in the ballgame and now you're in a position where you have a chance to have a possibility of being in the playoffs late this season. But because you're able to close these ballgames out, that makes you a closer because last year we looked back on it. You were two and eight in these ballgames. You were not a closing football team. So to have what your record tells you exactly who you are tells you that you are a closing ballclub and you've done a good job of finishing ballgames when you needed to, where it looks bad, ugly and different, whatever happens to get up to that point, you find a way to win and ultimately that's who you are. So you could talk about how it looks during the ballgame, but in the day you don't talk about all that. You talk about that record and you talk about the wins and losses that's on your record and the Falcons are what their record says they are. Yeah, DJ, you say sometimes you don't know how you get it done and Arch closing out games can be scheme. A lot of it can just be mindset. The entire team having this mindset that we are not going to lose these games. And Arch, you have a different position because you're in the press box. You're calling all these games and you're there every single play as they're trying to close it out. Have you seen anything different this year that has shown you a different ballclub that shows that they know how to close games now? Well, shock is correct in the fact that all you can do is based on what you've seen, right? And so this was a team that I think was 2-10 or 2-7 in one score games in 2020. And a lot of those games were lost in the fourth quarter. They flipped the script. They're doing it differently now. They're winning these games at the end of the football game. I don't know that I've seen anything necessarily different, just a little bit more confidence when they take the field. I thought that I was very impressed the way the defense took the field in that short field opportunity when Gage fumbled the football. Everybody went, oh, no, you know, you had a plus field situation. This defense history gone by has not been able to respond to that. This is a different group. They responded to that, went out and got the interception and shut it down. I talked to Foyer-Lewick in post-game and Foyer talked about the confidence of stepping on the field. And that's got to be a confidence builder moving forward, not just this year for next year as well when the defense had it closing. We've seen Ryan close games out. We don't normally see the defense close games out and the defense had to rise up and close this game out. I think there's a huge dividends to be paid on that. Guys, it's interesting because, Dave, you mentioned it right after the Gage turnover. And again, it goes back to mindset. It's, oh, here we go again or we got this, right? There's two completely different mindsets there. And if the defense comes out on the field with the mindset that, hey, don't worry about a Gage, we're going to bail you out. Or if the defense comes out in the field and it's like, here we go again, right? Like you tell me which team is going to win, right? And if you get all 11 guys on the same page saying, don't worry about this Gage, we got your back. Because you had our back at some point earlier this season. Just like you guys said, the offensive has done it. The defense has done it. Special teams has done it at some point throughout this season. But they've had the confidence that Arch talked about and the mindset that they're going to get the job done. This episode in part brought to you by the Home Depot. Everything you need for your next home improvement project is just a tap away on the Home Depot app. The Home Depot app digital toolbox gives you access to how-to guides, project calculators and image search. So you'll know exactly what you need to pick up. With the tap of the finger, you can rent and reserve the right tools for the job. Also, browse through millions of items from top brands that you can have delivered right to your door. Whatever your project, find exactly what you need with the Home Depot app. Download the Home Depot app today. Arch, I'm going to come right back to you because we're going to switch gears and we're going to talk about this Buffalo Bills game. We previewed it a couple of weeks ago, basically in the sense that this game is going to happen in January and you have no idea what kind of conditions that you're going to have up in Buffalo when you play them late in the season. So here's a simple question for you. Are the Falcons going to win in Buffalo this weekend? I mean, obviously, I'm not a sous-sair. I don't have Nach, Thomas and Ball. I'm not looking at that, but I think they have the capabilities of winning up there. I don't think there's any question about that. Josh Allen's a problem. The guy can throw it. He's got a big arm. He had a big weekend this last weekend against New England and he can run it. And Atlanta struggled against quarterbacks that can move around some. So that'll be their number one priority is can they control Josh Allen. I think they can move it on this defense. It's going to be one of those type of games where if you let the quarterback do what he normally does, then it's going to be a tough time, a tough chance to win up there. Yeah, DJ, they were on the national spotlight last weekend as Arch mentioned playing the Patriots and it seemed like towards the end of the game like Josh Allen was feeling it. And just like Dave said, like he's one of those quarterbacks where he's got to the ability in his career that when he starts feeling it, look out because of the running ability as well. He might go ahead and get you for three or four passes and then all of a sudden he tucks it down for 14 yards and that might be the difference in the drive. So what are going to be some of the keys for them to slow down Buffalo for Atlanta to stay in this game on the road? The biggest thing for me is something that I know we haven't done in the last couple of weeks, but you have to be able to run the football in an environment like this. Control the clock and then turn them over. This Falcons defense has caused a turnover in 11 consecutive games. And I went back and I looked at some of the numbers. When they lost to the Jaguars nine to six, they had three turnovers in their ballgame. When they lost to the Colts early in the season, they had four total turnovers with three interceptions. Teams that have hurt Buffalo is when they've turned the football over and they've controlled the clock and controlled the line of scrimmage. Now, we haven't done the job that I say is worthy of possibly being good on offense when you run the football. We haven't done the last couple of weeks, but if you can run the football and if you can control the clock, keep Josh Allen off the field. Sometimes we say it all the time. Sometimes your best offense is, you know, sometimes you're defense keeping guys off the field. And if you can keep Josh Allen off the field and not allow him to have those wild splash moments in a ballgame, then you got a chance to be good, especially in Buffalo. Now, I think the weather also is a big part of it. Our man, Sam, was telling me it's supposed to be, you know, a low of, you know, 30-something and maybe a little snow, and maybe that is a reason for you to hate. Let's turn around and let's be the more physical team and try to see if we can control the clock in this game. So I think it ultimately comes down to being able to run the football and then getting a couple breaks here and there, forcing the ball out of the hand of Josh Allen and making him have some bad decisions. Yeah, I think the forecast is showing somewhere around 40 degrees. There's a chance of rain, potentially snow. The wind is going to be somewhere in the 15 to 20-mile-an-hour range. So it's not necessarily that Patriots game that we saw a few weeks ago where New England decided to just run the football because throwing it was going to be such an adventure. I think it's a great point that you mentioned turnovers, DJ. I went back and looked, and I think you guys would both agree here that turnovers and turnover margin is probably the most important statistic in the NFL. You could make the argument for the high school and the college game as well, but because of the talent level in the NFL, they make you pay for it more than often. Just go look at the turnover margin right now in the NFL. If you look at the teams that are at the top, plus 14, plus 12, plus 12, plus 10, all of these teams are either in the playoffs, they're leading their division, or they're the best teams in the NFL. So if the Falcons can get a couple more of those turnovers, Foyer gets another interception, defensive back make a play, somehow knocked the football out. Maybe Josh Allen scrambles and somebody strips the ball out from the back side. Stealing a possession away from this offense. Huge. Like you said, could potentially end up being the best defense. DJ, let me go right back to you on the run game here. I understand that there's been some issues on the offensive line. It's been good some weeks, not so good other weeks outside of just the offensive line for them to run the football effectively. What needs to happen? Is it a certain guy needs to be out there? There's a certain play scheme. This is where you and I can just be offensive coordinators, right? They don't necessarily have to use it, but just have fun with it. What do you think they need to do to get this running game back on track? You know what I love watching the game last week? I thought there were some creative ways that they were trying to get the run game going and trying to create leverage on the outside with some outside zone plays. I mean, we've even had a quarterback come on a little tall sweep kind of action from behind the quarterback. You know, you try to talk to them and get them on the edge. I still believe, though, this is a team that loves to get down here. They want to get outside, wants to stick his foot in the ground and get north and south. And then you got the bruiser and Mike Davis, who continues to still run hard. The holes aren't there like they were when you ran for 120 yards in three consecutive games. But it still just comes down to guys on the edges being more physical at the point of attack. I mean, the touchdown played a quarter of Patterson. You got three guys on the outside. You got Jake Matthews. You got Lee Smith and you got Kyle Pitts. Lee Smith pancakes his guy and then you give Jake Matthews an opportunity to get the double and gets on the outside. And then Kyle Pitts seals his guy on the edge and then Cordell uses his speed to get to the edge. Those are just small nuances that you got to have in the run game. And you got to have a little want to, you got to have a little, I'm going to be better than the guy I have in front of me. And we've seen the last couple of weeks. The Falcons have used Matt Ryan in when we see the third and one situation where you just go quarterback sneak. I know Arch was asking for it a few weeks ago. We got a quarterback at 6-5. Just let him go forward with it. And we've seen that happen. So that's a, I believe what you mentioned earlier is a big part of it, the mindset of an offensive line and mindset of the, the ends, the tight ends, mindset of receivers blocking on the edge. All those things matter in the run game. All right, we've talked about defense. We've talked about the run game here. Let's switch it over and talk about the pass game. And DJ, you mentioned a guy's name in Kyle Pitts. And our producers have put together this fantastic run down and the question here, Arch says, how good is Kyle Pitts? I'm not going to ask you that question because that's not a very good question. No offense. Okay. Hopefully not taken. Okay. Cause we know that this guy is extra special, but it's like DJ mentioned before we came on the air, Arch, it's like you look up and all of a sudden this guy named Kyle Pitts, who was the number four overall pick is on track to potentially break the all-time record for tight ends in a rookie season set by Mike Ditka. And this is being done arch with no Julio Jones, no Calvin Ridley on the outside, that true number one receiver. So I guess not how good is he, but Arch, how important has he been for the success that they have had on offense this year? Well, there's no question Kyle's been a big part of what they've been on offense. You know, let's put perspective in the Mike Ditka, the Mike Ditka record was set 14 games. Kyle's got two more games to play. He's going to play 17 games. So let's be real about that in comparing the two. Kyle's not a tight end. Kyle's a receiver. I think that when you look at it, he's a big dude that can play at the end of the line of scrimmage. So he's a mismatch problem. But how many plays have we seen him line up on the outside with a corner on him and run right by some people? So I don't know that you can't categorize this guy in any particular position. If you categorize him as a tight end, he's got to be arguably the best receiving tight end in the National Football League. If you categorize him as a wide receiver, he would be in a conversation as one of the better wide receivers in the league. So he's truly kind of a unicorn type of guy, but the sky's the limit for the dude. They continue to find ways to mismatch him around the formations. He's been a blessing. No question about it with some of the guys who've been out. And this DJ has been a fantastic statistical season for him. And of course, getting recognized by the NFL as a pro bowler too obviously is a great honor. But again, without even having a guy like Calvin Ridley on the field, he's got 64 catches. It's like this number can only go up for him when you start getting attention being drawn by two defensive players over to a wide receiver. And this now you have another wide receiver as Arch talked about and Kyle Pitts on the other side is how do you match up with him? He's only going to get better. But did you see this type of season from him as a rookie this year? I'll be honest. I didn't see this type of season because I thought it would take him a little time to gain confidence in his league at the position that he's playing and the style in which they're trying to use it. You look around the league, you look at a guy like Travis Kelsey playing in Kansas City and you just mentioned it. The guys he has around him, forward to him the idea where he can make some plays like this because he's going to get some one-on-ones. Kyle doesn't really have that, you know, prototypical start number. He doesn't have a guy like that that constantly has to be looked at. He says, all right, we got to make sure we don't let this guy take the top off. Archie is absolutely right. He is in the mode of a guy that can be classified in a lot of different ways. And whatever way you classify him, he's going to be the tops in that group. And you love the fact that they use him all over. And I think his football IQ is still growing as the season has progressed. And you look at the multiple ways they've used him. And I'm saying this from a sense of there were times throughout the year where you saw sometimes you may say, all right, he gave up on that route. Or maybe he could have came out of that route a little bit faster. He's starting to understand the nuances of what Matt Ryan wants him to do, especially on every single route when he's throwing to him. Or even I heard him talk to Arch after the game. Matt Ryan did talk about the throw he had down the right sideline that he catches obviously on a cornerback, which is a really big play, that he made it look effortless. He made it look like it was easy. And the ability to be able to use his body in that fashion to be able to come down with it, keep his feet in bounds, and then just run back to the huddle like that's normal. Like it's not normal for a guy like that size to be able to do that. But I think this guy is elite, no doubt. And I think he's starting to understand how big of a value he can have in this offense and international football league versus anybody that stands in front of him. And I just mentioned the play he had there on the goal line. He's going to become a better inline blocker, but he's also going to bring more value to this team. I think once he has another guy that's around him, but even without it, you can still see the elite potential he has. Yeah. I mean, Arch makes a great point that he's really a wide receiver. So I'm intrigued in the future to see how Terry Fontano and Arthur Smith end up shaping the roster. Like are they always going to have two other tight ends that are not only going to be on the roster, but going to be active just because they want to flex him out and they don't necessarily want to put him in there when they've got to go short yardage and goal line situations. But the other thing that comes to my mind is guys, just think about how much better he's going to be next year. After he has one season under his belt, he's got a chance to watch some tape in the off season and learn from some of his own mistakes that he's going to be even better and more confident next year. Arch, I'm going to come back to you on this last point that we're going to talk about as far as expectations. And yeah, there's always expectations when you come into an NFL season. Never know what they're going to be when you have a new general manager and a new head coach. But let me ask you this, Arch, at the start of the season, if you would have heard with two games to play, the Atlanta Falcons would be seven and eight and still have an outside chance at a playoff berth with two games to go. Would you take it? Would you have believed it? Yeah, I think I would have taken it, Rack. I think that it's an interesting analogy. I don't think obviously none of us foresaw what was going to happen with Calvin Ridley. So you thought that this was going to be an offense that was going to possess what we just talked about in Kyle Pitts and an emerging Russell Gage. But a guy stepping into that number one role was Calvin Ridley, who had 25 touchdown receptions in his first three seasons. He thought, wow, that has a chance to be a nice little, you know, triumphant of guys that can go make plays. And that's not the way things have gone down. So, you know, in retrospect, at the beginning of the season, I would have said, yeah, I think that we can get there. I'd like to see maybe we could get a game better, but then as things unfolded from an injury standpoint and or a guy's not available standpoint, however you want to categorize it, I think you jump up and down and say, hey, this has been a solid season and you still got a chance to win a couple more games. And so that's going to be, it has a chance to close out to be a great year. I think it has a chance to be a really good year and the expectation. I got asked about can these expectations carry over to next year? Okay, what I'm seeing is coaching guys. This is not necessarily this tremendously talented roster. Okay, but the coaching, that carries over, right? So you're going to be able to get guys coached up. There's going to be some turnover in this roster. They're being massive turnover on this roster, but you like the Kyle Pitts and the Matt Ryan's and people that will come back. But the coaching is what's carried you to this point. Yeah, there's been some plays here and there, but think about how we've schemed to try to win games on defense and offense and special teams. That's what I'm encouraged about. This coaching is coming back next year and they've coached their rear ends off this year. I think it's a great point because again, I don't want to take anything away from any coach in the NFL because it's hard to win no matter what roster you have. But when you're a Bruce Arians, when you're a Matt LaFleur and you have the type of roster that those guys have, the way that their quarterbacks are playing right now, sometimes it's kind of like, get out of the way, right? Like don't mess this thing up. But Arch makes a great point that when you don't have Calvin Ridley, when you have a lot of moving parts and learning going on in your offensive line, but yet you still find a way to score points and your defense still comes to battle every day, there is a lot of coaching that's going on. And Arch mentioned this, DJ, the expectations for next year, I'm going to still ask you about this year, but they're always going to be higher, right? So you finish one game under 500, 500, whatever it ends up being, it's always going to be more next year. But let me ask you the same question. Would you have seen this type of season coming with a new general manager and a new head coach, a playoff burst still there in your hands, some things have to happen in your favor, but with two games to play, you still got a chance for the postseason. Yeah, to be honest, I don't think you saw this coming because we talk about things leading to next season. And we go back to 2020 when you won four games, you're thinking, okay, going into the next season, how do you think that's going to look? Well, then you add in a new staff, you add in a new culture, you add in a new staff that's trying to build upon what happened last season. Now, you got a whole new culture, you got a whole new GM. You got a lot of different things that are happening inside the building that's different from the previous season. So you feel like year one is all about just establishing a culture. You want guys to come in and play the style of football that you want. Now, if you win some games, okay, great. But I think coming into this season, you didn't expect the way this team has finished to play the way they are playing. And to me, I feel like the culture has changed. I feel like when you look at the entirety of this football team and art mission, you don't have the talent that you had the previous season, but you've won three more games in an entirely new system with a new head coach, new GM, all that kind of stuff. And you found ways to do it. And going into the next season, there are so much more to build on than the previous season when you had everything together, when you had the same staff who had been here for two or three years, and you just couldn't find a way to do it. Now you're going to have some continuity going in the second year. We're talking about how players feel better going into that second year, where they understand the NFL. It was rookie's way. You understand what's going into the next year. It's the same thing for coaches. They come in knowing how to use guys or where they want to kind of function their team in certain ways, and it makes it even better. So I think going into next season, you understand where this team lies. I think we all know there's going to be turnover, but in the day, I think this football team is in a better directional than they were when they came in. Yeah, and I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves looking into next season. We'll have plenty of time to do that down the road. We still got two games left, and I don't know about you guys, but I'm super excited to see how they end up closing this out. We talked about them being closers earlier in this podcast. Can they close out a game this weekend? Can they close out the regular season and then just see what happens? Sometimes you need things to go your way just to get in the dance of the postseason. Maybe they end up getting that little gift, that favor, if you will, over the holidays. Arch, we want to thank you for joining us What are they saying? Way to hang tight, Arch. Way to hang tight. Way to hang tight in there. Well, thanks for taking care of me, boys, because I know it can be tough, so I appreciate you guys. All right, that's going to do it here on the Falcons Audible presented by AT&T. You saw Dave Archer up there. That's DJ Shockley. I'm Derek Rackley. Thanks again so much for joining us on AtlantaFalcons.com. Happy New Year. On Spotify, on YouTube, on iTunes, or however you end up getting your podcast. We will be right back here, same time, same place, with the Falcons Audible presented by AT&T next week. Have a great week, everybody.