 Ahead on Early Birds after last week's drama, the Falcons look for an uplifting tail in Hollywood. We'll break down the matchup with Aaron Donald and The Champs. Plus, Young Wei Koo tells you his target for on-target kicks and the dogs dip into SEC play on a busy college Saturday. That and more ahead on Early Birds. Grab a cup of your favorite Joe and let's talk Falcons football on Early Birds. Presented by Mercedes Benz. Well, good morning and welcome into Early Birds. He's DJ. I'm Justin Falcons looking to bounce back out west and all you gotta do, beat the Super Bowl champs. That ain't it, huh? Just as easy as that. Alright, well let's get things started with the opening drive and shock. Good place to start before the Falcons and Rams tomorrow here on Fox 5. Pressuring Matthew Stafford. Atlanta had four. Yes, four. Four sacks in week one. I know, you tweaked and Stafford, meanwhile, sacked seven times, hit 15 total in their season opener, DJ. Yeah, you gotta get after him. That's the one thing that really gets to a really good passer is affecting him in the pocket. He did that last week for Damage as you can see here, but pressuring him sometimes you don't get to him. Maybe just forcing him outside the pocket, making him move a little bit. That forces a QB out of his comfort zone. Trust me, I've been there. I know what it feels like. You can do that to a guy like Stafford. Maybe he'll throw you one or two and you got a chance to get the ball back to your offense. Atlanta native Sean McVeigh is going to try to keep that from happening. The Rams coach had some praise for the Falcons past rush. You know, they're rotating a bunch of guys, they're playing a bunch of different coverage contours on the back end. And sometimes it was being able to win, you know, without sending guys, but I thought he mixed it really well and that enabled them to be able to get home on James to him full of times. We're definitely excited to, you know, have the opportunity to rest a passer, especially against a team that's so, you know, past heavy, especially against a player like Matthew Stafford, he likes to spin the ball around a lot. So we're definitely going to have some opportunities out there, you know, to get after him. Alright, as we continue the opening drive, same topic. Flip the field around Aaron Donald. Chuck, is he an alien? Is he a Greek God? Or more importantly, how do you deal with this dude? You hope the guy forgets where the stadium is, he just doesn't show up. You're tired? Yeah, I mean, he's one of those rare players that is hard to block 101. Something when you see Gray to get block 101, it's hard to do that. But you got to know where he's at. You got to try to send an extra guy to him and run right at him at times. That helps too. But Aaron Donald is a true, true pro. He continues to do it many years down the road. And here's Chris Lindstrom on how you deal with Aaron Donald. I mean, he's a generational player and they have a great talented defense on top of that. So it presents a really big challenge, but just prepare the best we can this week and then come out with a mindset just to do our best and sustain the success that we did have last week and keep it going. And as we wrap up the opening drive, DJ, I guess we have to talk a little bit about what happened against the Saints. Fifth straight season opening loss, but this one had to hurt particularly and how you get past it for the foul. I think you have to be in the mind frame of this is just one game. Yeah, it's a game versus Saints versus a division rival, but you have to find a way to get over because it's just one game. You got 16 more and you got a chance to move on and make this week even better and forget about last week. So try to go in and forget about last week. So don't let last week beat you. It's always a true statement, but this is a Saints team that, hey, you hate to lose too, but you got to move on to the Super Bowl champs. Yeah, they could change the narrative real quick with a win tomorrow. Welcome in to Early Birds alongside DJ Shockley. I'm Justin Felder. We got the Falcons and Rams tomorrow afternoon here on Fox 5. And remember the Rams, they're coming off the Super Bowl, but they're also coming off a disappointing loss in their season over. Yeah, they're going to be ready to go again just like the Falcons are. So a lot of people say, ah, the Rams, they got this loss. So what? The Falcons have a loss too. So they're going to be mad and angry and getting ready to play again too. Both teams very motivated and shocked. You are about to be going, going back, back to the film room. Oh, I know. Good one. That was a good one. I appreciate it. All right, go warm up the Telestrator. We'll see you in just a few. But first, offensive lineman Caleb McGarry is not looking into the future. The Falcons did not pick up McGarry's fifth year option, meaning he's set to be a free agent next year. Where McGarry will look though is into the past. The history buff made an unusual purchase a few years back after being drafted by the Falcons. An authentic, realistic, and apparently huge sword. For those of you that know swords, it's a 15th century Zwei-hander essentially, which is a German word for a two-handed sword. It's about Jettol, and it's really freaking big. I mean, I've been into this stuff since I was a kid, man. It just always fascinated me. The medieval time period, dark ages, and shows like The Other Rings, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones just made it worse. Switching from medieval into football, easy transition. Yeah, obviously. Coming off a week when you have over 200 rushing yards, zero sacks, one quarterback hit, what is this week like coming off that kind of performance? I mean, we just hope to keep it going. We're very proud, obviously, of the work we put in and our performance despite not getting the outcome we want, which it's the asterisk next to everything, right? It was good, but not good enough because you didn't win. So, you know, we're back at the drawing board trying to figure out how we can improve and keep performing as best we can. It seems like every team in the league has got some dominant, super disruptive defensive lineman. You might be facing one of the best this week. What makes Aaron Donald Aaron Donald? Why is he so good? It's kind of hard to explain. You probably have to ask him that. He's really fast, really strong. He's not super tall, which, you know, ironically, as that being tall works well for old lineman, it doesn't work well very often for D lineman. He's way down here and like I'm way up here, so I got a long ways to go, man. I got a really good motor and he's just a great player. How do you look at your future? What do you think in long term as you're, you know, in the final year of the contract here? I mean, putting my head down and going to work like always and letting God handle the rest, you know, let the chips fall where they may, hopefully I get to stay, but if not, you know what, the Lord has plans and I'm going to end up doing what he wants anyway, so I'm not going to bother making plans of my own. The most of us have never and will never block a defensive lineman, but a lot of us have contracts. Is it tough to put that stuff out of your mind? I mean, to some extent because, you know, that's a contract is everything for a player. You know, that you work your whole life playing this game that you love and you give everything you have to this. There's a godly amount of sacrifice that you go through to get here and then there's even more once you get here to try and stay. It's kind of like validation of your efforts, validation of every ounce of blood sweat and tears that you've poured into it. It's like a physical acknowledgement of here. You finally earn this kind of thing. You know what I can't do, you can't let it consume you. You have to push it aside and just kind of go about your business and do what you need to do. It's time to get some game intel from shop. You're invited into the film room. So cut the lights and let's get started. So all the conversation we've talked about is the patch rush. How much, how good this patch rush is versus in week one where they got four sacks, got a lot of pressure on the quarterback and this is what Dean P. did. I'm going to show you exactly how he kind of confused the offense of the Saints and also the offensive line. All right, let's start up front. Up front, you have been six guys on the line of scrimmage. So where is the blitz coming from? You can't really tell where the blitz is going to come from. The blitz is coming from off this nickel back here. It's going to come, it's going to come off this edge. If you look at the screen, it looks like all the pressure is going to come off this right side. So what the Saints offensive line does is they slide their line this way because they're thinking all these guys are going to blitz on the snap. But because they do a great job of disguising it, oh, it looks good. It's a perfect disguise in what the Falcons do. As the play gets started, you're going to see what I'm talking about. Now, boom, here comes the blitz. Those two linebackers there were just up in here. They dropped off into coverage. So that makes it even more difficult. So now the quarterback has to realize, okay, the blitz is coming off this side. No, it's coming off the top side. And by the time the guard realizes that this is the guy blitzing, it's too late. He's already by. And watch as the play continues. He gets by. Now it's too late for him. Now you look on the back end. James is looking left. He wants to throw this football at the bottom of the screen. But here's Michael Walker, who is now a cover two corner. He was just a linebacker on the line of scrimmage. Now he's a cover two corner. It has eyes on the quarterback and the receiver. So now James says, where do I go to football? I have to get up. Another important thing here is they're only rushing four guys. You think it's more than five, six, seven? No, it's four guys in the rush that get home. Now the play continues. The pressure comes up. James has to climb the pocket and he looks to pump fake. But like I said, Michael Walker has eyes on the quarterback, which is really great because now he knows he can't throw it to him. And now once the guys finish on him, now you're ready to the football. It was 36. You get to the quarterback and get the ball. Now you punt it. This is just great. The sky is on the front end from the Falcons off defense. And now you get to the quarterback. And it's a special thing to watch. Dean Pease and his offense get to the quarterback. We need more pressure, more sacks, especially Virgin Matthew staff. Yeah, we'll see what Dean Pease has up his sleeve tomorrow. Thanks, Shaq. Big college football day ahead. Michael Jenkins here to talk, including about an ACC SCC matchup on the Flats Plus. General rule of thumb is like the mid, middle of the ball and the bottom of the split. The difference. Young Wai Koo goes deep on deep kicks and we get to the bottom of an ace Ventura mystery. Laces out everybody. Falcons fans score a touchdown with low tire prices at Mavis tires and brakes. The official tire retailer of the Atlanta Falcons. Visit MavisTire.com to find a store near you. Tenant by Mercedes Benz. Two by Georgia Lotter. How do is get more done? Two by Truist. BB&T and SunTrust are now Truist. Here we get his Fox Fives, Justin Felton. Welcome back into Early Birds and we welcome in former Falcons wide receiver Michael Jenkins talking a little college football and you got a newly crowned number one team in the Georgia Bulldogs. I know we can hear Shaq from the other studio talking about it, but I doubt, Michael, that this is a team that gets a really big head by a ranking in September. No, and Kirby makes sure that he's not going to let his guys get the big head, so they're going to be prepared to play for South Carolina. So they're taking on South Carolina today. Like you said, SEC opener for the Bulldogs going on the road to Williams-Brice. Georgia has won six of the last seven in this series. South Carolina, well, they're coming off a loss to Arkansas. Still, it's never easy to win on the road in the SEC. No, and South Carolina has players. I mean, you got Spencer Rattler, a transfer comeover of an old five-star guy. So he's going to be ready to play and excited to play against Georgia at home. So they're going to be prepared to play. Yeah, he's certainly Spencer Rattler. They're going to have a chance to make a name for himself in the atmosphere. You also got 2001 of Space Odyssey, Sandstorm. That'll be a test. I played at South Carolina my sophomore year, but it was during COVID, so we really didn't get to experience, you know, the Sandstorm and all that. But just through recruiting, I remember like how the games used to be. So I'm pretty excited to play that. All right. So you got Georgia at South Carolina today. That's from the current SEC to the original SEC. Two of the founding members of the conference, Georgia Tech and Ole Miss. They're playing on the flats today. That's a really big opportunity for the Yellow Jackets. Yeah, big opportunity. We kind of talked about it. Tech hasn't won back-to-back games since 2018. So they're looking to right that wrong. And, you know, obviously Ole Miss coming in and Lane Kiffin. Mississippi, they just want to see a starting quarterback. They're kind of rotating QBs right now between Jackson and Altmire. So both teams with some work to do and trying to get a win. First regular season meeting between these two since 1946. And what is it about Lane Kiffin? Is he just an offensive genius? I mean, you know, he's going to have something up his sleeve. Yeah, he is. I mean, he's always been a really good guy on the offensive side of the ball. And I think his time at Bama, obviously, has propelled him to where he is now. But he's going to be ready. And he has, I think he's going to go with the Jackson dark kid and, you know, and really make things happen. Yeah, got some quarterback options there for Ole Miss and Jeff Collins also real high on the coach that he's going against today. He's established himself as one of the elite play callers in college football. The scheme is, you know, very multiple. It's very fast. They executed a high level. And they get tremendous players all over the field. So we've got a challenge ahead of us. And we're going to use every minute that we're allowed to prepare to get ready to play and match that challenge. All right. So maybe we'll see an upset at Bobby Dodd today. But here's the last thing I want to talk to you about. All the upsets this year, some big programs are going down. I love it. What's going on? It's not my butt guys, but it's, I mean, you talk about all the big programs going down. There's a lot of parody in college football these days with kids transferring coaches in different positions. I mean, and guys are really playing at a high level no matter what team you're on. So they're not afraid of the big schools anymore. Yeah. I mean, you have state winning at Texas A&M. Georgia Southern at Nebraska, Alabama got a scare from Texas. Marshall, you're seeing right here wins in South Bend. So is it the parody? Is it the transfers? Are those what you point to for all that we're seeing? Yeah. I think it's a combination of both. And these kids, they love playing football. And some of these guys are five and four star guys, and they have got a shot where the big programs, so they're going to Marshall and they're going to App State and they're making a difference. I know you're no upset alert for your butt guys today against Toledo Shock. I know you're headed into Columbia. We think the dogs are probably safe. You a little nervous though? Oh, absolutely not. No way I'm going to be nervous, but anything can happen. It's sucking on it for sure. Appreciate it guys. All right. Youngwick Coo has made almost 92% of his field goals with the Falcons, and it all starts with consistency. It's where you actually kick the ball. Here's Youngwick Coo to explain in this week's Going Deep. The general rule of thumb is like the middle of the ball and the bottom of the ball split the difference. That's kind of the sweet spot. Why? Well, we have to get a lift on the ball. If you hit it too high, then you can't really lift on the ball, so you'll be kind of a line drive. But if you hit it too low, then it's going to spin really fast as I kind of go too far. So in between the middle and the bottom, that's kind of the sweet spot. Anybody who's seen Ace Ventura knows that you don't want to kick the laces. Obviously, hopefully, you've seen that. Why is that? And what happens if you get a little bit of laces shown to you? I saw somebody explain this, but where the laces are, it is the softest part of the ball. So when you kick the laces, it wraps on the foot longer so it doesn't bounce off your foot as hard as it does on the opposite side. Needed that explanation in Ace Ventura. All right, coming up, he might be a ram, but he'll always be a dog. We'd take a look back at the former Georgia Bulldog Matthew Stafford and what led him to this point in his career. Whether it's a break, sprain, a fracture, whatever, an accurate injury diagnosis is the first step to recovery. Sometimes the answer for NFL players could be found inside the X-ray room, including at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Dr. Kyle Hammond takes you behind the scenes in this week's Emery Road to Recovery. This is a state-of-the-art digital X-ray system that we have here at the stadium, both for our team but also for the visiting team. We want to make sure that we're safely and appropriately taken into the visiting team as well and that's our responsibility that we help their staff with. But if a player from their team or from our team needs to be evaluated with an X-ray, they'll come off the field, they can come directly in this private door from the hallway so if it's from the other team we don't see them. If it's from our team, obviously we can come through the locker room and come in here and we can obtain an X-ray. Like I said, this is a digital X-ray system so it shoots the image right to that computer behind that wall right there instantly. I'm able to see it, evaluate it, create our diagnosis and then also share that X-ray with the athlete and then hopefully it's a normal X-ray and we can share that good news and then we can kind of proceed with our diagnosis and our treatment plan from there. Alright, coming up, he was the quarterback that succeeded me in Athens and now he's a Super Bowl champ. We look back on Matthew Stafford's career. Coming up next. This has been presented to you by Mercedes-Benz. Falcons fans, score a touchdown with low-tire prices at Mavis Tires and Breaks, the official tire retailer of the Atlanta Falcons. Visit MavisTire.com to find a store near you. Here on Early Birds, we don't want to get too warm and fuzzy about guys on the other team, but we can make a little exception this week, right? Taking snaps opposite the Falcons this week is former Georgia Bulldog Matthew Stafford. Who's the season vet in the league now but our Miles Garrett walks you through what led him to this point. To understand how 13-year veteran Matthew Stafford got to this point, a Super Bowl winning quarterback, we must first wind the clocks back to the beginning of his career. Let's take a look all the way back to 2006. DJ Shockley, STC champion quarterback just finished up. The dogs need a new one. For reference, that's me in Athens the very same year. So in 2006, the dogs get their guy. True freshman Matthew Stafford, top ranked recruit comes to the dogs, and he leads them to a few solid wins in 2006, including a big one over the ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. 2008, he leads the dogs to a pre-season number one ranking after a Sugar Bowl victory the previous year. A good season there leads to the number one overall draft pick in 2009. From the 0-and-16 Detroit Lions, tough task for anybody. Matthew Stafford is up to it. When he's there, he joins former Georgia Tech great and future Hall of Famer, Calvin Johnson. Where in 2011, he becomes just the third quarterback in NFL history to throw for over 5,000 yards. A few good seasons there leads to his first Pro Bowl appearance in 2015. He even throws a touchdown past that same year. The Detroit Lions go to a little bit of a rebuild and he finally gets traded to the Los Angeles Rams in Africa. Dabra, his very first year with the Rams, he wins a Super Bowl just like that. Tough task for any quarterback to do. The Ratthew Stafford might be torn between some Bulldog fans and some Falcons fans this weekend. We'll see what happens. He's certainly bringing a lot to the table this weekend against the Dirty Birds. Nice work, Miles, in shock. What's it been like to watch a guy in Matthew Stafford win a Super Bowl? I know you're hoping the Falcons be tomorrow, but a lot of success. It's cool. Whenever you see somebody from your particular school do something great like that, you always feel a little good about yourself. You brag a little bit. So it's cool to see staff go out and have that success. Hopefully not tomorrow though, but it's success. Real quick, one match up to watch tomorrow, Falcons and Rams. Our rookie Drake London versus Jalen Rams. I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be fun to watch. Yeah, good debut for Drake London. He's going to get a challenge tomorrow. All right, that's it for us here on Early Birds for our quarterback, DJ Shockley. I'm Justin Felder. Have a good morning and a great weekend.