 What's up everybody and welcome to another edition of the Falcons final whistle podcast. I'm Scott Bayer And I'm here with Ashton Edmonds and Tori McElaney. I am not at Mercedes-Benz Stadium where Ashton and Tori are I'm on we'll call it short term. I are and we'll save the story for another day But nonetheless after one week hiatus the Falcons final whistle is back and there's no better time to be back considering the home team won a dramatic 23 to 20 results against the Cleveland Browns who came into Mercedes Bay came into Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Left with a loss. So we're going to break down What was kind of a fun game to watch definitely a dramatic game that once again came down to the end So we're gonna break this thing down. We're gonna go over what the heck is going on with every single one of these games Ending in the fourth quarter. We're gonna talk about the the Browns run game and the performance of the Falcons Run a game, especially with their young runners We're gonna talk about the Falcons defense which came through not only in the clutch in the fourth quarter But at several points during this game And of course the Falcons getting their first win at home and going through the first four games at two and two But before we break this thing down in specifics Tori Let's get your overall impressions of this victory here on Sunday against Cleveland. Yeah I thought this win was really needed for not just of course Record wise getting back to 500 but for morale too I mean you think about where this team has been over the course to the first four weeks of the season and we really have seen them Be in Every single game. They are in all of these games and what we have seen over the course of the last two weeks Is them finishing these games out and actually getting the win It's funny when you think about it and I don't want to like look back too far But the Falcons are how many plays away? I would say less than five plays away from being four and oh right now They're playing They're playing very well. They look very different than what we have seen this Falcons team look like in years past I think that's good, especially offensively But just my overall takeaway from this game is it kind of goes back to what Arthur Smith was saying It was like it was no secret that both teams wanted to run the ball and essentially the most physical team Was gonna win on Sunday and the team that ran the ball the best was gonna win on Sunday And that's exactly I think what we saw transpire over the course of these four quarters Ashton what like what were your biggest takeaways after watching this one live? Yeah, man, I thought the defense did a really good job late in the stretch down in the red zone You can see like sorry say you can see the chemistry in my row Amongst the defensive group, I think everybody's on one accord and you see players like Michael Walker stepping up You see players like Richie Grant stepping up and that everybody on defense just buys in and I feel like You know that was kind of hurting them earlier in the season is that they didn't finish at all Like the defense would kind of stumble in the fourth quarter or the offense was stumbling the red zone But I see you know like earlier in the Browns game when the Browns drove it I don't know how many yards but when they drove it all the way down the field We saw that the the Falcons defense closed them out when they they actually forced them to go for an out And I think the Browns were at like the two-yard line So I think you know, we're seeing The defense step up and I kind of talked about that in uh one of my articles this week is that you know They want to carry that momentum moving forward and you know the sentiment that d&p's preached and training camp I think is truly starting to show any games If we go back to what it's what Grady Jarrett said in his press conference after the Falcons beat the Seattle Seahawks He mentioned two words that I think applied to that game and definitely applied to this game as well Number one is outlast number two is overcome because this team is not perfect Right and these these games are coming down to the end and they're making mistakes But they are not critical loss inducing mistakes like we saw from those first two games And I think that's the most important thing outlast overcome They're finding a way to do those two things and I think that's that's the quality and the nature of a good team I also think about when you look at who's better on paper, right? Which matters only from wednesday to friday. Maybe until you actually get down and play these games Um, but I really think about two things that if you're let's say not as good on paper as the other team Two things that keep you in games are being able to control the clock or at least run the ball Well and being opportunistic on defense, right? We're going to talk a lot about the defense late in the fourth quarter How about the first drive the very first drive when they went all the way down to the Falcons The Browns went all the way down to the Falcons four and turn the ball over on downs Yeah That sequence goes different. We're talking about a whole different thing here. And again We're we're going to get to that. Tori has lots of thoughts on this defense We're putting out during this game the end. She also wrote about which I think Was a really good story, but nonetheless Everybody At least the three of us. We're all like a little frazzled after these games, right? Because every single time I write this instant replay The where it needs to get published the second the clock strikes 000 and every time I'm in a full-scale panic I'm going to have my dad's horseshoe hair loss male pattern baldness thing like before the season's over Every single one of these games is intense man. Like why do you think that is guys? Like why do you think it's that it's coming down to the wire every single time? I mean, I think Arthur Smith kind of says it best where he's like this is the nfl and this is kind of what It's kind of par for the course at this point. I mean you look at I'm not just looking at the falcons If you look at the league overall Over the course of the first four weeks of the season We have seen so many games come down to the wire so many games where there is a quote-unquote upset I mean, this is not just a falcons I guess storyline. This is a storyline across the league and I think it makes the league So much more fun to watch when you do have games like this that are coming down to the wire I think that's professional football at its best and for the falcons It really is very interesting and I go back to my first point that I made it's like seeing progress in Finishing out these games and Scott. I know you wrote post game about how every game we have seen come down to final plays in the fourth quarter and for the falcons to actively Go in the last two weeks and be able to pull those games out And it's really important. I think for What this team does moving forward because being at 500 right now is is so I think it's really really good for this team at this point in the season Yeah, definitely and given that I spent time writing that story I have the benefit of having done some research, but I think it What we've seen early on Speaks to the falcons improvement, right because last year so much was made about how they did in one score games They were seven and two Right, they finished seven and ten So the other eight games almost half of the season was not a one score game And they were losses by an average of Dot dot dot 21 points So they were getting blown out a lot, right I think because of all the things that we've mentioned all the things that we're going to talk about Is that the falcons are more competitive? And I think they're going to be in more of these games and it's funny because when you look over the schedule in april And nobody ever should write w's or l's next to each game, but you look at it and you think Oh, that could be a really difficult stretch or that could be an easy stretch And now you go back and you look through and you think okay the falcons are more competitive There's going to be a lot of these fourth quarter finishes. So how are you do? Yeah Yeah, I think like it's really interesting because I remember I I can't remember Scott if if you remember this but you and I both like did like the schedule release analysis And it was like what's the hardest stretch and I'm pretty sure I said the first four games Of this season was the hardest stretch of any stretch over the course of this 2022 season And now you look at it and the falcons are two and two and are playing the in they're in these games They're a few plays away from this being a completely different record And I don't think I would have said that back when the schedules released I know I didn't say that back when the schedule was released. So this team really is I mean Arthur Smith said it all the time in training camp and even as the season got started like We're out to prove something this team has a chip on its shoulder I think we're actively seeing that kind of come to fruition over the course of the first four weeks of the season Yeah, I went go ahead No, I would just say yeah I think I'm just to echo what Tori said a lot of the players are saying like they're coming in with the chip on their shoulder Caleb Huntley he said on the first play he came in with the chip on the shoulder to help the falcons win And um, you know, I think everybody's just buying in, you know, chris lynch them mentioned that Everybody in the huddle just had faith in each other and you know that they just wanted to continue that momentum Of driving the ball downfield and you know, I think We see this team truly coming together. We see this team finishing We see this team now playing complete games and I think, you know, that's going to carry forward, you know later in the season When I look at it this upcoming stretch is at Tampa home against San Francisco at Cincinnati. That's uh two nfc title contenders And one playoff team. I think I'm not gonna write them out of any one of those games Which I think says a lot right there And it's just because of what we've seen out of garoppolo and out of the bangles offensive line and out of the Falcons, I'm sorry out of the buck sometimes sputtering defense or offense Now we could get to that stretch and they could have gone 0 and 3 and they could have lost these games by 15 points But you cannot automatically write them out of these games And I think that because of these things that we're talking about because of the outlast in the overcome Because of what we're going to get into next here ashton is this run game, right? You look at the beginning of the game and the time of possession was Uh lopsided towards the ground But they found a way to run the ball well What did you kind of learn listening to tape of kaleb hauntley and chryslyn strum and some of these other guys talk Um about about how that run game helped kind of reignite that this offensive Efficiency that was lost throughout the middle of this game For sure. Yeah, I like I said chryslyn strum. He mentioned that Everybody in the huddle would just have belief in each other. They have faith in each other And over the last two games, you know, they ran for 381 yards on 66 carries That's been the x-factor in helping the falcons win. I feel like over these last two games and I think once the offense saw that the run game was very effective against the browns You know, they just kept going they just kept calling the plays and um, you know, kaleb hauntley He had that belief in this in himself going into the game. You know, he his name was called He was elevated on saturday and you know, he was just ready for the moment and um, you know, once he got in in the third quarter man, we we saw That impact that he made on the falcons offense it's interesting because After the game arthur smith was talking about the performance of kaleb hauntley and the spark that he provided And I thought it was really interesting how arthur smith was talking about michael petrie Who is the falcons running backs coach and he made the comment. He was like Yeah, we got into the third quarter and michael petrie was like give him a couple carries that couple carries turned into A significant drive that I thought was the drive of the entire game Like I think when I think back to this game and a couple weeks from now I'm going to be looking at that drive because I was Very very impressed by what we saw from kaleb hauntley and in not just kaleb hauntley But you talk about the run game overall and I asked arthur smith after the game You know, it was funny because he said, you know We knew coming into this that this was going to be a big boy fight like talking about it The line of scrimmage and whoever was gonna be the most physical Whoever was gonna run the ball the best was gonna come out and win this game and that that held true But something that he said Which I thought was really I don't know. I really stuck on it where he said you're not creeping up on anybody People know that we want to run the football that's what fires you up. It won't be that way every week We know how competitive it is But when you can run the ball when they know you're gonna run it that speaks volumes about our guys And I think that's something that may go overlooked. It's like the falcons are they don't have any secrets right now There are arthur smith has said we want to run the ball. We want to be the most physical team on the field That's there's that's no there's no secret in that And the fact that they were still able to go out and do that And do it in a win. I think I think it's right I think it does speak volumes to where this team is in terms of playing with a certain type of physicality Yeah, I think that that physicality extends on both sides of the football because you look at What nick chubb is he's one of the best running backs in the league He exerted himself and made his presence felt especially On a key fourth quarter touchdown drive That put the browns ahead I believe but after that falcons defense Generates a punt and then an interception falcons offense goes touchdown field goal field goal to win the game Um Key moments there tory, but I know that defensively there was more that impressed you than than just those final drives Yeah, it wasn't just the final drives and I even tweeted this post game It's like I know everyone's going to be talking about, you know The grady jared sack followed by the richie grant or not richie grant richie grant was last week His interception was last week. This is d. Alfred's interception But it really is that moment. I know everybody's going to be talking about it. I know but to me The reason why this defense is playing to the level of which it is is because of what they're doing in the red zone I know ashton talked about it scott. You talked about it. They're coming up with stops in the red zone and that is to me As important as any fourth quarter single play that you have I was actually crunching the numbers a little bit And over the course of the last two games. So in the falcons last two wins against the browns and the seahawks They held the browns to one for three in the red zone and then they held the seahawks two for five in the red zone Like that's total Three for eight trips that opponents are going into the red zone and not coming away with touchdown It doesn't at the end of the day and I know dean piece has said this before And i'm paraphrasing by saying this but he essentially it's like I don't care how much they run it on this I don't care how many yards they rack up on us I care if we're keeping them out of the end zone and that is exactly what we're seeing Over the course of the last two weeks seattle and cleveland have had over 800 yards of total offense And yet they're not winning the game. So that to me shows so much progress of This defense locking it down inside the 20 in it. I I think that's honestly one of the most impressive Stats is like, you know, we talk about this whole like bend but never break mentality I think that's kind of the marker of what this defense is in 2022 right now That's so many yards. That's so many yards in victories. That's that's that's an insane number to me um one that again speaks to how you perform in the clutch Whether it's on a specific drive or over the course of a game Is gonna put you in a position to fight for a victory. That's what we're seeing time and time again The falcons putting them in position to fight for a victory. Sometimes it's an early surge Right, and then they lost control against the saints They played pretty well in the fourth quarter against the rams except with the interception, right? They played important when it mattered most And you you talk about big moments, right? How about the biggest most recognizable player on this falcons defense? Grady Jarrett gets called for an offsides I know Earlier in that run You don't see that often No, and then comes back with a huge sack It was a penalty then a sack that put jacoby jacoby brisette In position To have to force a ball downfield Exactly what geno smith had to do it the week before big-time players coming up in big-time moments That was so that's what you need from your leader and when your leader does it it inspires everybody else to do it too I think all those things are really strong and we we used to do these Progress reports, right because back when there was a 16 game season like two years ago We we'd be at the quarter pole right now And we're essentially there percentage wise with an extra game But after four games falcons are sitting here at at two and two Look, they could as torrey mentioned there a couple plays away from being four and oh They could be a couple plays away from being all four if we want to know There are both ways to go with it, right? But you're sitting here at two and two and I don't know if you guys agree with me or not But I feel like every game is on the table now Even going to Tampa that's not going to be easy But you never know and we never have that environment Like what have you learned about this falcons team over the course of the first four games and how can it be applied To what comes next Yeah, I'll let you take that Yeah, I would say I think from what I've noticed the falcons team is resilient You know, they don't give up like we saw against the rims I was on the edge of my seat against when they played the rims because They literally I think they were down Like 28 to 3 and they came back, you know scored 27 points and and like a quarter and a half and I think Um, that's been the biggest word for me. Um, you know regarding this falcons team is that they've been resilient Through these first four games and that they don't give up until the clock says zero zero zero They play all the way through and um, you know, michael walker preach on that I'm rashaan evans the alfred um chris like every player on the team Knows that, you know, everybody on this falcons roster does not give up everybody on this falcons roster Kind of plays with the chip on our shoulder and they're out to prove Um, that you know, they're a great team and we see that through the first four games so I Was talking to lorenzo carter in the locker room and it was He gave me the single best quote that I feel like I've gotten out of anybody over the course of the first four games And I I'm gonna read it but I I preface it by saying that I feel like it's a quote That Almost verbatim word for word represents how this atlanta falcons team Feels about itself right now four games into the season. I'm gonna read it. It said We got some dogs First off we're deep. It's a team first of all We don't have big superstars or guys who everybody's looking at but when it comes down to it Everybody is going to fight and that's what I love And that to me if someone wants to like put that on a graphic or whatever like and hang it up somewhere Like that to me is what this 2022 falcons team Is and how they view themselves that it's like even though. Yeah, you have Kyle Pitts and you have drake london who I know a lot of people talk about but and now cordial patterson A lot of people talking about him But you think about some of the big quote-unquote superstars of the league Like that's not something that the falcons currently have right now But it is a team that is pieced together with guys on one year deals and a lot of young talent That's kind of just raw like we see arnold ebuketti go out there and I think he had a great game A game that went overlooked um, but you you think about some of these Players and it's like they're trying to make a name for themselves So I loved that quote from lorenzo carter because it's like this is how this team Feels about itself and I think you have seen that over the course of the first four games sitting at 500 Yeah, and then and I think that they have a chance to continue to climb and get better throughout this season despite all of the Situations that they have they have a ton of I won't get too into detail But they have a ton of dead gaps dead salary cap space that they could be spending on talent But instead they have a roster construction as tori outlined, but they're still finding ways to be competitive I think that speaks a lot to coaching I think that speaks a lot to team culture and I think it speaks a lot to how they're going about their business Again, they're running. Well, they're being opportunistic. They're staying in the fight You know, artha smith said it so many times last year. We keep swinging. That's not a lie They keep swinging and I think that that's a positive and that some that's a trait that I believe will extend To any opponent that they had this season Even if they're overmatched and they're going to be overmatched at times period We'll stop and I also want to get in here that while marcus mario does quarterback play has been quality at times There are still too many mistakes here that are that are at some point This is a quarterback league at some point the quarterback is going to have to win you a game with 90 seconds left And 50 70 yards to go and that's going to have to be a new way that they find a way to win That will have to be an element of what they do if they're going to reach their goals Which are loftier than everybody else's as it should be But I tell you what the season is fun, right? I was having so much fun. It's fun. I was in a press box like I was in a press box Literally on the edge of my seat next to tori Amanda she had like her hands up her head. I was like, are you okay? But it's a very exciting season and I think The fans are loving it. We saw it today fans are loving it. So I will say this too And I mean I've covered this team for this my third season covering the falcons and I'll say this even in The the woes and even in the moments that does that it is kind of nerve wracking This offense is playing in a way that is more balanced more explosive More fun for me to watch then I think I have seen an offense perform Since I've been covering this team and that I feel like that's saying a lot Yeah, I think that there's a lot this team is entertaining It keeps you on the edge of your seat and I hope that the fan base goes along for the ride I was again. I'm not at the stadium. So I was reading youtube comments while arthur smith Press conference was going on and so many people said last year at so many times It felt like a wasted sunday, right every game has people on the edge of their seats I think that's important another thing that's important Is that we have a slight change in where these podcasts are going if you are a faithful falcons finalist or subscriber That's awesome. And thank you But do us all a solid and subscribe right and review to a new channel Called the falcons podcast network that that features the falcons final whistle the falcons infocus podcast which is essentially brand new And the falcons audible with our buddies Derek dj and dave. So anyway rate review subscribe. Thank you guys so much for joining Uh, it was another fun day at the office for the falcons and they have a big one coming up against tampa Should be fun. We'll talk to you after that one next week