 Well, it is week nine in the NFL, and we are back in Mercedes-Benz Stadium as the Atlanta Falcons host the Minnesota Vikings. And I am so happy to give you back. Thank you guys for joining us. The Atlanta Falcons pre-game show presented by Ticketmaster. Of course, I'm Taylor Bismore. And next to me, of course, is Derek Rackley. Thank you guys for joining us. I'm happy the roof's open. I mean, I can't complain. It's a beautiful Sunday again in Atlanta. You may not be able to see it, but maybe you can see some of the sunlight coming through, or maybe the blue skies that are coming right behind our shoulders here. But, yes, it's a beautiful day here in Atlanta. Another opportunity for the Falcons to get a victory against the Minnesota Vikings, acting as hosts this weekend. Exactly. Not the way that the Falcons wanted it in last week at all after that loss in Tennessee, but hopefully they can turn things around here against the Vikings. Lots have changed for both teams, especially under center. We'll talk about that in a second, but today is the call-to-service game. Just want to shout that out a little bit. It's no longer the salute-to-service game for the Falcons, and it's called a service. And we're going to have a couple special guests on with us a little bit later to talk about what that means for the Falcons organization moving forward. But let's just get into the meat of it today. What are we talking about with this Vikings team? Yeah, I mean, this is a different Vikings team that's coming into Atlanta today. Obviously, the big news throughout the week, actually, for both teams has been injuries in the quarterback position. Obviously, we know with the Minnesota Vikings that Kirk Cousins was placed on injured reserve. What we may not know if you are a Atlanta Falcons fan or if you are a non-Minnesota Vikings fan is who is going to be taking snaps for the Minnesota Vikings? Well, that's going to be Jaren Hall. So, Taylor, let's discuss who Jaren Hall is because there might be a lot of people that don't even know who he is. Playing his college football at BYU was actually in a quarterback competition with Zach Wilson. I think a lot of people know who Zach Wilson is. They were supposedly neck and neck coaching staff decided to go with Zach Wilson. You know what happened with Zach Wilson. He ended up being the number two overall pick in the National Football League. So then after Zach Wilson departed, that's when Jaren Hall took over. Interesting nugget about Jaren Hall. They also played baseball at BYU, so a really good athlete. And his coaches in college said that he is a fierce competitor. Got into the game last week after the injury to Kirk Cousins. And so there's kind of some uncharted territory here with the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. You also don't have a Justin Jefferson in a lineup. He is on IR, at least for now, right, with the Mostynec wide receiver in the National Football League. And you have the second worst rushing offense in Minnesota in the National Football League. So where does Jaren Hall go from here? Seriously. You don't want to throw everything on the shoulders of a young quarterback. He was a fifth round draft pick this year by Minnesota. But he doesn't necessarily have all of the weapons, all of the strengths at his discretion, because he doesn't have a great running game. He doesn't have the best wide receiver in the National Football League. So that's kind of a little bit of a scenario of the quarterback position for the Vikings. That's right. And not to mention they did sign or they traded for Josh Dobbs from the Cardinals. He came out of Tennessee from a couple years back. But I think a lot of people were honestly expecting Dobbs to play, which was surprising, because Dobbs got into the facility in Minnesota on, like, a Wednesday. There is no way that he can memorize and know all of those plays, all of those play calls, and what the trajectory of this team could possibly be in two to three days of practice. There is just no way. We could see him a couple of times, but I wouldn't be surprised if all those plays that he is in for are running plays. That would be crazy. This is probably a situation for Minnesota where it's kind of a one week at a time with Jaren Hall, because they're going to see how he does against Atlanta today. He's going up against a really good Atlanta Falcons defense. But as you mentioned, they also have Josh Dobbs. So every week he's with the organization. He'll learn the offense and get more comfortable with the personnel. But Nick Mullins, who was the backup, is eligible to come off injured reserve as early as next week, not necessarily saying that he is. So they have some other options for the weeks up ahead, but they got to see how this young kid plays against Atlanta today. Yeah, it's going to be a big game for him. And you said week to week. It's going to be a week to week evaluation. Same thing with the Falcons quarterbacks. Earlier this week, the head coach, Arthur Smith, announced that Taylor Heineke will be the starting quarterback under center today after Dezenwerter went out last week after halftime. Can you talk to me about what Taylor Heineke can prove to this team under center today? Well, this is the reason why the Atlanta Falcons, the front office, the coaching staff, brought him to this organization. Because they saw enough tape on him in the backup role when he has been thrusted into a starting position that they felt confident that he was the guy to back up Desmond Ritter. That was the plan the entire off season. Well, I think we've kind of seen the roller coaster that has been Desmond Ritter throughout the course of the season. There's been high points. There's been low points. I think the biggest concern has been the turnovers. And I think as a head coach, your Arthur Smith, at some point you got to say, we've got to try something else to see if we can possess the football. We'll talk about turnovers a little bit more later in the pregame show. But Taylor Heineke, I thought he came in in the second half last week and he provided a spark. Was he perfect? But he showed you why he's been successful at his previous stops. Because he gets the football, he cuts it loose. He's not afraid to throw the ball into tight windows. And he's got that just true competitiveness. That's the reason why he was come to this organization. So now we'll get a chance to see him as a starting quarterback. You could say that there's pressure on his shoulders because of the turnovers. But guess what? There's pressure on every quarterback in the National Football League. Whether you believe it or not, every single week, you don't necessarily see it on the face of Patrick Mahomes, Tuatonga Valoa. But you do see it with all the guys. Taylor Heineke's gonna be that guy today. That's right. Head coach Arthur Smith did make the distinction that this is going to be a week by week decision moving forward. Obviously the Falcons are going to go down to Arizona next week and then they're gonna hit thereby and then have a bunch of division games after that by week. This is a big decision that's going to take a lot of time and a lot of numbers, a lot of statistics to look at and figure out who can get this team to a wild card, to a playoff moving down the road. Well, you could say that every single week in the National Football League is an important week, but I feel like truly the Atlanta Falcons are at a pivotal point in their season right now because of where they sit, where the division is currently and what the rest of their schedule looks like. They get Minnesota at home, that's kind of banged up. They don't have Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousins was the number two passer in the National Football League before he went down, tied for first in touchdown passes. That's a big loss for a Minnesota Vikings team where he was able to probably cover up a lot of their deficiencies. So you look at the opponent, you're back at home, you have a new quarterback, a young quarterback, albeit a lot of people that watched the game last week are gonna say, yeah, but Tennessee had a rookie quarterback too and he had a great game against Atlanta, but it's another opportunity where you'd like to think they've got the upper hand. Even though that they're going in with a backup quarterback and Taylor Heinecke, they've probably gotten more weapons at their disposal and a better defense statistically to go up and get a victory. And every single week is pivotal for them as they make a push for the postseason. Yeah, and I think when you put Taylor Heinecke under center, you know what you're getting out of him. You know what his ceiling is. He's been to the playoffs. He's been in huge games. He's been, you know, multiple, multiple starts for different organizations throughout the NFL. I think you know what you get out of him, but when you get a rookie like Jaren Hall under center, you're not super sure. And I actually spoke to David Onyamata earlier this week about what it's like to scout and to kind of, you know, go against a rookie quarterback. And he said, you kind of know they're just going to run the ball a lot. You want to get him calm down to find his focus again, to stay poised. And that's a really hard job to do in the NFL with that NFL pocket like I talked about last week. And so when you have a Jaren Hall, you can normally expect the run game to be a little bit heavier. Well, and that's, that should play into the hands of Atlanta because as I mentioned, Minnesota is averaging 73 yards a game on the ground. It's not a stout running offense, right? And so they're going to do it kind of by committee Alexander Madison is going to be one of those guys, but if they can stop the run and force them into passing situations for a quarterback that's a little nervous may not understand the timing. You have the opportunity at some turnovers. And the other thing you look at turnovers is Minnesota actually leads the NFL in giveaways via fumble. Okay, they've got 10 fumbles this year. So whether it's a new quarterback or it's stripping the football away, there'll be opportunities on the defense as long as they can stop the run. With a team that's struggling running the football, the worst thing that you can do is underestimate it. And then all of a sudden that 73 yards per game turns into 140 yard performance. That's the worst thing that could happen. So still, no matter who's under center, you stop the run first and then you defend the pass and hopefully they'll have some opportunities when Minnesota goes to the passing game. Exactly, lots of new people and new teammates on the field today and starting positions because of the inactives and the IR list. So let's go ahead and look at the Atlanta Falcons inactives for today's game. Drake London will not be playing. He went out earlier last week against Tennessee with a groin injury. He was questionable to return. Today, he will not be on that field. Drake London is out along with DeMarco Helms, Keith Smith as well. Big names that will not be on the field today. Yeah, this is interesting because Taylor, as we know it, Atlanta's been actually really healthy over the last three or four weeks and it was just that last game. They started to get banged up a little bit. So no Drake today. So you'll have some other guys that need to step up. Your Matt Collins, your Kaderrill Hodges, even a Demir Bird who was elevated from the practice squad as a standard elevation for the game today's got familiarity with the Atlanta Falcons offense. He's the guy that can step up. Tucker Fisk is another one of those guys that was elevated from the practice squad. Maybe he feels a little bit of that role of Keith Smith on offense acting as a fullback but also chipping in on special teams as well. And obviously we know about it. Somebody that went to IR this week, Grady Jarrett is gonna be a difficult spot for them to replace as far as the production. Everything that he gives to this organization, we've talked about it all week. But that's the reason why they've made a trade and getting Contavia Street over here. So we'll see what he can end up giving this defense as well. Exactly. And you used to talk about Drakelin and that's obviously the biggest miss on this inactive list outside of Grady Jarrett who was placed on IR earlier in the week. But when you look at the rest of the wide receiver core, you have Scotty Miller, Matt Collins, Van Jefferson and Kaderrill Hodges. Let me make something clear. When Taylor came in last week, every single one of those receivers got passes to them. They had receptions, they got their hands on the ball. So I think with Taylor Heineke and this wide receiver core, you're gonna see the ball spread a lot of different ways and a lot, too, a lot of different people. Yeah, and I think that's one of the advantages Atlanta has is they've got a lot of skill position players at their discretion that can really go out there and do some things. We haven't even talked about the running back position yet and Cordero Patterson. So he's got plenty of options. It doesn't feel like he has to do everything today. And I feel like Atlanta's probably got more weapons offensively than Minnesota brings in today. That's right. So let's go ahead and take a look at the Minnesota Vikings inactive list, obviously. Just a couple of names that come off the, I mean, I'm a Georgia Bulldog. So I obviously lean towards that Louis C name right there. But who kind of sticks out to you of anyone at all? I know the IR list is the one that is the big topic. Yeah, obviously with Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson, those would be the two biggest names. But since they're on IR, you're not seeing them. The Louis scene, you know, he is a really good player, very physical defensive back for Minnesota, not gonna be in the game today as well. I think a lot of these guys are also rotational players in the Brian Asamo as the Jalen Nailers of the world. So not really a huge surprise on the inactive list. The more or less is the guys that are injured reserve for Minnesota is the bigger story. Yeah, so I think with those guys that are on the injured reserve list, it becomes more probable for the Falcons to win this one. Am I right? I just feel like this is one where Atlanta has to come into this game with a lot of confidence, thinking that they've got a great shot to get this victory. As you know, in the National Football League, Taylor, anything can happen. It doesn't matter what your record is, because any given Sunday, as they say, the team that is 0-6, 1-7, whatever it may be, they can have a great game because they have professionals on their roster. They have some of the best coaches on their roster. So those are the things that you never want to take any opponent for granted. But if it was a Cousins under center, the way that he'd been throwing the ball all over the yard this year, maybe you'd be a little bit more worried as a pass defense. But still, you've got to go out and you've got to execute. You've got to play with great mechanics. You can't have penalties. Those are all the things that can get you off schedule of doing what you anticipate to do in the game plan. Right, so let's go ahead and get to the keys of the game to figure out how the Atlanta Falcons can overcome the Minnesota Vikings today. These are presented by Wells Fargo. So let's go ahead. What is the first key to the game today? Been harping on this for weeks and that's going to continue is you've got to win the turnover margin. It's got to continue to be a focus. I know they've worked out and on practice still sitting at minus seven in the turnover margin. I guess if there is a sugar coat to all of this, Minnesota's minus five in the turnover department. I talked about the fact they've lost 10 fumbles this year, which is the most in the National Football League Atlanta not far behind in that category as well. Got to win the turnover margin. Last week was a wash, one fumble lost, one fumble gained on the defensive side of the ball. This has got to be one of those performances where Atlanta comes away to 0 in the turnover margin. Maybe even 3-0, a dominating performance in a turnover margin. It's one of those statistics, Taylor, as you've heard me talk about week after week that is almost most correlated to wins and losses. You give NFL teams an extra chance and you come off the field because you're not putting points on the board. Those are the things that are going to get you beat. They've got to find a way to win the turnover margin again. Exactly, and I think that's a big, that was a big point for Arthur Smith and the rest of the coaching staff for the Falcons is there were lots of turnovers with Desmond Rudder, Anderson, not all of them, of course, not all of them are his fault. Some things just happen and they're a freak accident, so maybe that things will turn around today with Taylor, Hanuki, Anderson. Yeah, sometimes you just got to make a change and maybe things start snowballing in the right direction. Yeah, so what's your second key to the game today? Second play defense. Second key is going to be no explosive plays on the defensive side of the ball. Something again that kind of stuck out last week and there was a couple of double moves that ended up getting the defense, especially the safeties. The Andre Hopkins got them one time, so no explosive plays. The focus on keeping everything in front of you, right? If you're a defensive back, if you're a corner, making sure that nobody gets behind you because one of the easiest ways to give up points in the NFL is one explosive play. 140 to 50 yard pass that's completed, it flips the field, now they're already in field goal range, two more plays and likely you've got a chance to punch it in to the end zone for a touchdown. So keep everything in front, make sure these wide receivers don't get deep on you. They've got a couple of good playmakers like Jordan Addison, he's got seven touchdowns this year and obviously one of the better tight ends in the National Football League and TJ Hawkins, he's got 53 catches this year. Let's try not to let those two guys get behind the defense. Yeah, last week against the Titans, it was the most points Falcons had allowed all season long and I think this is just my opinion, let's just be clear about this. I think the defense might have underestimated the rugby of- Will Leviss, yeah. I think they might have underestimated them. They, like David Onimata said, you expect rookies to run the ball more and they might have underestimated him so I'll be interested to see if they underestimate Joe Hawkins. Yeah, Will Leviss made some great passes for a rookie last week in that game. Exactly, all right, last key to the game. All right, let's win the third phase on special teams and Atlanta's been pretty good on special teams all season long but I think we saw the difference in decision making last week. Couple of bad decisions in the kicking game led to some bad field position. That's a lot of what special teams is guys, it's field position. Can you win the field position battle? Are you starting with good field position? Are you putting the opposition in bad field position? But not only that, can you make a couple of plays? Can the protection be great on punts, right? Let's not allow any blocked kicks. Can you make a big play on special teams? You knock the football loose. As I said, you tackle them inside the five yard line or maybe we get a chance to see this guy, Young Wai Koo, drill a couple of field goals that prove to be the difference in the game. We talk so much about offense and defense but every player and every coach in the NFL will tell you that third phase special teams is just as important as both of those. Gotta find a way to win that third phase on special teams. I would love to win the first phase, second phase, third phase. I'd like to win it all. Fourth and fifth would be good too. All of them, every single phase, every single time would love it. But I actually sat down earlier this week, we're talking about explosive plays on defense, trying to eliminate those. I spoke earlier this week with two of the guys that make sure those explosive plays do not happen. Jeff Okuda and AJ Terrell had a great time with them. Go ahead and take a look at that future. When we got into camp this year, we just wanna have some energy, some boost or whatever. All the DBs, we just got a handshake in. And it kinda all start the same way, just let it start the same way, just have a different ending. Eventually once we mastered the back end, then now let's go with the linebackers. Let's make some of the D-lines. So once you just keep doing it in practice, it just carried over to the game. It was just like muscle memory. Handshake I like that I have with somebody is Jesse's. Me and Jesse's hard within the pool of the mask down. E-mas, with the DBs, just trying to get picks and stuff like that. You can see it on game day, you can see it on the field and at practice too, that y'all are feeding off of each other. What is it like to have someone next to you that you get to feed off of the entire game? I haven't been fortunate to have that other corner across from me year after year after year. Just trying to build, you know, just building that chemistry. Like I said, we both young and we both just got a lot of juice left in the tank. Just trying to maximize it. So me and him just competing with each other in practice is like, it's a good thing. Cause, you know, we just want the best for each other and we both celebrate each other's accomplishments and stuff like that. You know, to keep things going and keeping each other here, right? As the season moves forward, what's the goal for you two in this quarterback group? I really just take it one game at a time. Things that we say about Charlie, that we feel that we can have the potential to be especially tandem in this league. Of course, you know, to be the best in the league, you know, we doing that weekend, week out, just got to keep doing, you know, we supposed to be doing and just to keep taking the preparation and everything serious. Do you think that you two are underrated for a cornerback duo in this league? Yeah, I think actually our focus right now, focus really just taking it one day at a time. I think when we get our respect, it'll be, what is it? Okay, they totally shut me down when I asked them if they were the underrated cornerback duo. So we'll see what they're able to do today. But I have a couple of guests with us now. I'm so excited to have them here. Thank you guys for joining us. Of course, this is the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army General Randy George and AMBSE Vice President Steve Cairn, our Vice Chairman, excuse me, it's Steve Cairn. Thank you guys for joining us today. It's a pleasure to have you here. We made the distinction earlier in the show that this is not the solo to service game, this is a call to service game. Can you kind of briefly explain what that is today? Well, I think the big difference is, is that we want to let people know just how much the military can accelerate their lives. Just the opportunities that are available in the military for anybody that decides to join. That's my personal story coming right out of high school and staying in. So whether you're in for just a couple of years or you stay longer, there's so many possibilities in the military. I do want to thank Steve and the entire Falcons organization. Really, it was their idea that got all of this going for us. So, privilege and honor, General. Steve, this is a special one for you as well. You have a background with the U.S. military as well, but talk about how your background has personally and professionally helped out your career. I am so grateful that I got an opportunity to serve my country and to start my career in service to country. I went to West Point and then I was stationed on the East German, Czechoslovakian border for my time in the military. I got to be there as the wall came down. It was a pretty neat moment in history. But what we're doing today is we're highlighting the men and women who I consider heroes that are differentiating themselves from all their peers by their willingness to raise their hand and say, I'm gonna support and defend the Constitution and I'm gonna serve in the military. That is a moment that should be celebrated and heroized, if that's even a word. It is now, by the way. It is, thank you. And we're gonna do that today. There's gonna be more than 800 men and women that will either enlist or re-enlist and the Chief of Staff has taken his time to make this a priority for him to be here is kind of a big deal because there's a little bit of stuff going on in the world right now, you might've heard. So the fact that he's there demonstrates what kind of a priority this is and the fact that we get to show in front of all of these folks, these heroes, as they start their lives in service to country. We think that's pretty special. I wanna ask you this question really fast. How did this partnership with the Falcons begin and maybe why is it so important to partner with an NFL team and get that word out there? Well, I think that the Falcons have done a lot for our military and they're very close down at Fort Moore. And I think that was kind of the birth of this. From talking to Steve is getting down and seeing what our troops are doing down there. So I think it's a wonderful idea. Obviously, I agree 100% with Steve as far as the military is the opportunities that we have to accelerate your life. And we just wanna get the word out. So we really appreciate the Falcons organization helping us to do that. General George, I wanted to come back. If there's some people that are watching this and they're listening and you've piqued their interest, what kind of opportunities are available for people in the military? Well, we have any job almost that you can think of, you can do it inside the military. We have more than 150 that's out there. And so I tell people if you wanna have a real sense of purpose, you wanna join a world-class team and teammates and everybody understands that around here. You like adventure, you like travel. And then all the things that you can do, as Steve said, whether you get a skill and you stay in just for a couple of years or you stay in so much longer, it is something that I think is, that I know is gonna impact them for the rest of their lives. So we would ask them to go on to goarmy.com and check out all those opportunities and come join our team. Everything that you learn in the army is transportable into life, whether that's values, leadership, leadership, life skills, travel, understanding the world a little bit better. So what I'm out there trying to preach all the time is, like these folks are great resources. So if you're in the business world, it's a privilege to be able to take those assets and turn them to good use in whatever endeavor. So military folks are amazing and the fact that they serve and then when they come out, we need to catch them and we need to provide them meaningful engagement employment. Cause the more we do that, the more it's gonna induce kind of a virtuous cycle of people saying, hey, this is the best way to start my life. So I'm gonna sign up and do this and then I'm gonna have a successful life and career afterward. That's the cycle that we're trying in whatever small way to push along. You mentioned sign up to do this. Can you kind of explain and you mentioned it a little bit earlier, what's going on at halftime today and why that is such a big deal. So we're trying to, so one of the biggest enlistment re-enlistment ceremonies right with the chief of staff, we're gonna kind of make that a heroic moment. We're gonna showcase that. There's a big show where that number of people are gonna do that heroic thing and we're using the power of the NFL platform and the Falcons platform to showcase that. And if that inspires one young man or woman in the stands or anywhere to say, hey, that's not a bad option for me, then I feel like we've made an impact. General George, he mentioned putting his hand up. If you're not here in the stadium, people that are listening, that didn't have a chance to come here today and you've piqued their interest, why should men and women enlist that are not here today? Well, again, I think that they're gonna join a world-class team. Most of the people that I talked to, even if they've spent just a couple of years, have very much the same experience that Steve has had in the military. They know what it's done for them, for their life and to help them out. So I would tell them to get online and check it out. We've got recruiters all over the place that can talk to them about the opportunities that they will have in the military, whether it's in the Army or any service. Obviously, I'm here from the Army. And this is the biggest, I've never taken part in this big of an enlistment today. So we're very excited for that. We also have several, a couple of hundred here that are gonna re-enlist and decided that they're gonna stay with our team and we're excited about that as well. Just a quick follow-up. You mentioned that you're excited. Does this amount of people, does it make you nervous at all or is this just everyday job for you? Well, it's been great actually here. We have got a chance to meet a bunch of our troopers outside that are here and people were crawling around tanks and Bradley's and seeing all that stuff right outside of it. So I think everybody's gonna be energized at halftime when they see some Rangers in action and the 82nd Choir who's here and motivate everybody and then see all those great Americans raise their right hand. Steve, I have one more question for you. Obviously, you went on the USO tour earlier in the year which was such a cool experience for so many people that work for this organization. Why is it so important to give back to the men and women of the service for you? So I don't think people fully understand what these men and women do on our behalf. They're scattered across 140 countries. That's where our folks are deployed. They're away from home. They're away from family. They've taken their lives and they've put them full in service to country. So I've gotten to go to Romania, Bulgaria, Iraq and with Falcons and coaches on these USO tours to visit them and you don't really appreciate what they do until you walk a mile in their boots and what I'm committed to trying to do is to take those experiences and bottle them up. And if we could serve them back to the American public and give them a more visceral understanding of what's done on their behalf every single day, then the levels of support for our military in our society will only grow. General George, I know you're excited for halftime but are you excited to see a little bit of football today as well? I'm a sports junkie so I'm super, super excited. I'll be rooting for the Falcons today. That's great. That's great. I was giving my next question if you were a Vikings or a Falcons fan. There was a right answer. I actually have to be, I'm a Chicago Bears fan. Okay. So I'm definitely hoping the Falcons. Taylor, just so you know if you would have said Vikings, there's nothing we could do about it. There was literally nothing I would have done. I would have just- It's pretty powerful guy. It really is. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. We're going to get right into this game today but something I want to point out before we get off of the air is next week we will not be on at 12, we will be on at 305 because the Falcons are heading down to Arizona and that game will take place at 405. So again, we'll be back in the studio at 305 next week but until then, enjoy the game and thank you guys for watching.