 We're back on another falcons audible presented by AT&T. I'm Derek Rackley with my fellas Dave Archer and DJ Shockley We're not gonna get into a whole lot of pleasantries to start because I want to dive into everything But before we do that fellas, let's give them a quick quick hitter about what's gonna happen today We're gonna talk about our key fix We're gonna give you guys the keys to the Bentley the Mercedes the Jeep whatever one it is of the Atlanta Falcons And you tell us what's your key fix something that you got one of those right right now. Yeah, you got one. Yeah, maybe used to Some lessons learned from the game There's obviously a lot of lessons that could be learned from that game And then we're gonna might be take a step back and have the guys talk about maybe an experience that they had in a Lopsided game like that, but more or less. How do you transition your mind and move on to the next week? Just like Atlanta has to do we'll talk a little bit about the divisions Obviously Cam Newton back in the division with the Carolina Panthers And then we will look ahead and talk about the Patriots as it comes up in two days If you're listening to this on Tuesday very quick game for a quick turnaround for the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night football So guys, let's go ahead and get into it your key fix And I'm sure everybody out there watching has got their key fix one thing that they would change right now with the Atlanta Falcons I'm sure there's probably a number of things when you come off a performance like that And you're still kind of trying to find your way, but the task here is one key fix Dave Let's start with you. Yeah, and these are kind of fantasy changes because it to a certain extent It's gonna take it's gonna take some personnel. So we won't we won't go a dive into that, but I Would like to be able to run the football. Yeah, if we could run the football with some degree of success I think it changes the dynamic of how you defend Atlanta Falcons. Yeah, like it DJ. What about you? I'm jump on the other side and I think it's been an issue in some way. We've tried to Remedy it's the pressure on the quarterback I think up front both line of scrimmages are something that we have talked about for a while And I think we're still struggling in that category. I think Grady Was the only one who maybe had a pressure on the quarterback this past Sunday I'm no you had a tackle for loss, but we need more guys getting after the quarterback Got to find that guy or two in a four-man rush situation that gets after the quarterback Causes them to get rid of the football early something along those lines. Dave. I'm gonna kind of piggyback on yours I'm old school. I like to run the ball to but past protection. I feel like needs to be better There's just been too many times where you're seeing a guy come off the line of scrimmage And maybe it's a quick swim move It's a grab and pull and they're immediately in the backfield and Matt's having to try to get rid of the football Not even having a chance to get through his progressions. We understand it's gonna happen occasionally Somebody's gonna get beat at the line of scrimmage. It can't happen four five six and seven times throughout a game And you expect to be able to move the ball through the air So those are some of our key fixes. You see where it is at the line of scrimmage Defensively offensively can't really dispute that so Dave. I'm gonna come right back to you What did you learn from the Dallas game because as the players and the coaches go sit down review the tape? This is probably one of those where it's a quick review and let's move forward But you have to review because you got to find out where you made mistakes and how you can get better So what did you learn from that performance? Maybe it's something specific as far as X and O's Maybe it's more big picture as far as the matchup between Atlanta and Dallas, but what did you learn? Well, I think that I've tried to be a cup as half full and in this situation Maybe it's a cup quarter full after that after that game. There's no question It's hard to find something to hang your hat on But what I am gonna hang my hat on is the Atlanta's ability to swell up against the run on the defensive side of the ball We've seen it in back-to-back weeks now Pollard and Zeke the two running backs for Zeke Elliott and Tony Pollard the running backs for Dallas 25 carries 84 yards. Yeah, that's a winning effort. Okay, that's less than four. Yeah, I can do the math there That's less than four yards. Yeah about 3.5 yards a carry That followed up from last weekend remember we talked about Alvin Camara had seven carries 43 yards in the first half The second half he had six carries almost the same six and seven He had eight yards in the second half They limited the run game even though it was the same amount of carries that carried over this weekend now Obviously they were able to have some success throwing the ball But as I begin to look at some of the changes with Anthony Rush and Vaters and some of these guys are a little bit bigger body guys on The line of scrimmage It's showing a little bit of dividend there when it comes to stopping the run Yeah, and no no getting around the fact that Carolina was the one that really kind of put things out there We've got to be able to stop the run if you plan on playing really good defense DJ What did you learn from that game? What stuck out to you that needs to be fixed that needs to be addressed that whatever it ends up coming to you I love Arch talked about some of the nuances inside the ballgame I'm thinking more of the big picture stuff that you talked about coming in and more big picture stuff is It's kind of what we talked about last week We had you know one step forward when we went two steps back in this ballgame I felt like we took a couple more steps backwards and I mean if we took a couple steps backwards It's not stacking performances together like We were usually a team that went on the road and played pretty well I mean obviously you had four four wins on the road You thought you feel good about that and you just didn't have the same kind of energy I thought the same kind of intensity you didn't play with the same kind of vitro That you wanted to go out and get a win and for me It's if you want to be a better football team if you want to show as we're getting to our 9 10 11 12 Game of the season you got to start seeing Repeat performances of good performances put together on both sides of the ball or even you know in all three phases I don't think this past week showed that we were taking the right steps going forward and I thought we were going that way I thought we were you know Obviously finishing games the right way, but this was a performance I thought we took a couple steps backwards because we didn't put together repeat performances Yeah, some things that come to mind We hadn't really talked about the bad special teams plays throughout the course of the entire season and that ends up kind of rearing It's ugly head in this game and yeah, unfortunately that stuff happens You give up a box-plunt, but like it just shows how things can snowball quickly when you start to have the errors on special teams And Dave you talked about building on Successful run stopping defense. I thought we also saw some past defense holes There was quite a few times that the Cowboys were running wide open into some open zones Really not contested like it had been in weeks past So let's let's kind of move this forward a little bit because Dave you made a great point before we started You said if you play in this league long enough You're gonna have some games where you absolutely get wiped out and I'll start with this one This goes back to 2004. We were five and two to start the season So we were a pretty darn good team like we were already looking about playoffs so on and so forth We took a trip to Kansas City and absolutely got blown out of Arrowhead Stadium day 56 to 10 I know what it was. Yeah, I called Dave was calling the game I unfortunately was the milkshakes in the play Dave said the best part was that I didn't even get no milkshakes Yeah, we're just down there getting pounded we give up eight rushing touchdowns in that game for the priest homes for the Derek Playlock and that's like the hardest way to lose a game when somebody just runs all over you Okay, so that happened what happened the next week. We went back on the road played the Denver Broncos We ended up beating them Dave mentioned we got out of there right before a snowstorm I don't remember all this your mind is just like crazy sharp arch. Well, I appreciate that wanted to get home But that was just like how do you how do you take a huge loss like that, right? Do you let it affect the rest of your season and end up losing and losing and losing? Well, that didn't happen for us back in 2004. We wiped it away. We won four straight games We had a bi-week sandwiched in there, but we won four straight games after that So Rack, what do you remember about that? We it's so it's so eerie because when I was listening to you interview Arthur Smith after the game I Remember the things that he said was the same things that Jim Morris said is like this is gonna happen you got to learn from it and how quickly can we forget about it and move on and Sometimes as players you find out what your leadership is because the next day you come back into the building or you go out Into the field. What's the attitude of the team? Yeah, is everybody excited? Is everybody ready to practice? Are they ready to get better? Are they ready to play the next proponent or are they still dwelling on last week? And what if I remember correctly we hit the practice field with a pep in our step And we were ready to go compete like and it was like you don't think about the last game And that's one thing that that I try to tell my daughters and their sports And I'm sure you guys have told this to many other people as football is a game of a short-term memory Yeah, if you don't have one or if you don't learn that skill It's gonna be hard to have success and you guys have been able to do it right before ours jumps in here one thing that I heard and we talked about it the last couple weeks about the leaders on this team and how they go about their business and You talked about having you know a chance to talk to some of these guys after the game And I heard Grady get up after the game and the one one thing he said was This game only counts as one and as tough as it was as You know as as hard as it is to look at the box score as frustrating as it was He understands that this one game will not define us as a team And I know that was the message inside of team I know that was the message that Arthur Smith was given and the fact that he came on to present that to his Even said hey, I'm gonna come back to work and be ready to go. That speaks volume So I hope that the leaders of the team take that same kind of that you guys had after that big time loss in Kansas City and It transfers into this week where you don't allow it to beat you twice I mean we heard it all A bunch of times you got to flush just when you can't let this one beat you twice And it's the truest thing that you've ever had because guys can't go out and have practice on Monday and Tuesday And still be thinking about Sunday Yes When you got a game coming up here on Thursday where things matter and you got a whole new opponent a whole new guy Who's gonna stand in front of you and he's not gonna care that you just got your butt whooped in Dallas He wants to whoop you again, too, right? So the fact that you don't allow that to beat you twice I think it's a huge huge part of just getting through this and we said it early Hey, you gonna watch that film you gonna move on But the next big thing is you do is think about hey that one game that's gone That doesn't matter just like if you go what you're getting when you got to move on from that one Just like you do with a loss arch this ever happened to you and do you remember? What happened to smile look at the smile Those teams that I played on we had a couple of these but certainly one sticks out ironically enough We went to Kansas City in my second year my first year as a starter about midway through the year a little past Midway we played at Kansas City and Kansas City beat us 38 to 10 I think and and really wasn't that close. I threw a pick six. I didn't you know I didn't do anything. I helped contribute to the problem. Yeah in the game But it was a mindset that did you you didn't pull a teddy bridge water on the pick six, right? No, you actually attempted to make the tackle. Oh, yeah, you got to go try to make the play now He ran off and left me guy I mean when you throw that when you throw the stick rat and the guys coming downhill and picks it on the run Not a lot you could do with that So I I gave chase but it was a there was a week chase of effort He kind of waved at me on the way all about the so How do you respond we came back the next week you beat the Vikings Vikings were pretty good team came in here to Atlanta And beat them and change the mindset in fact won the following weekend as well Put back-to-back wins after really kind of an embarrassing loss and the story is the same that we all can relate I know it's hard for the fan to listen to when you hear guys say we got to flush this out the system Because there's another one coming it only counts one, but that's the way you have that's the mindset You have to have if you have any lingering doubts about who you are in lingering ideas about all here We go again, then you will lose the following week It will get you the following weekend and so all of us any if you're in this business long enough This is gonna happen to you and it's probably gonna have it to you more than once. Yeah, how do you respond to it? It's the old adage and I'm sure any fan out there probably had their father or mother say hey You got knocked to the ground. How do you gonna respond and that's what this is you got knocked down You got to respond. Yep, and this it'd be interesting to see like you you'll almost be able to tell in the first quarter The first couple of drives in this game offensively and defensively on Thursday night Like where the focus where the minds that are the players are they focused on the New England Patriots? Or they still have some doubt from the Dallas Cowboys But that just shows a couple of guys that have been through it before like how you could get your butt Whooped and then the very next week you can come out and you may have a surprising Port performance and beat somebody that some folks were thinking that wouldn't happen So let's go ahead and take a step away from the Dallas Cowboys games. I'm sure people that are watching are saying Let's talk about the division a little bit Interesting division. Let's start with the Buccaneers. They played this past weekend and they fall to Washington 29 19 DJ simple question to you bumping the road for Tampa Bay Or is this a bigger issue that we're starting to see you know what it to me I feels like it started to be a bigger issue and when I started to think about why it's a bigger issue I started to do a little research and see what's going on inside the game And obviously their games are going on same time. It's hard to watch all them But I went back and just looked at some of the numbers and when you go back and look at their last two ballgames They're two losses. They got five turnovers They got two versus Washington with two picks from Brady You had three versus Saints two interceptions. You had a fumble in those ballgame They gave up 36 points to the Saints and then they ran for a hundred and fifty two yards Against the Buccaneers. There's issues that's going on that you don't think that it happened Washington had five sacks in the ball game So this is a team that's not only getting pushed around a little bit But they turn the ball over and that's not building confidence for the Bucs now We hope that continues of course, but you look inside the numbers This is something that you have to kind of worry about because these are things that you know When I call it I push arching either the doing thing back. That's a problem Yeah, and right now the Bucs are getting pushed around especially in the run game and that's a huge issue for them. So If you go forward, you can't turn the ball over and you can't you know Get pushed around in the run game Yeah, and we saw with the Falcons game last week about their lack of success on third down I was football guys can generally point to a few stats if you can't convert on third down Yeah, if you turn the football over if you can't protect the quarterback chances of winning games are going to be hard Dave What's your thoughts on Tampa Bay? Do you feel like they get this turned around quickly or are there bigger issues behind it? Well, when you there's so many numbers that you can put your finger on but you just talked about Conversion down to me is a big one that if you combine the three for three that Washington was on fourth down They converted 13 of 21 conversion situations now. I don't I don't have to be a mathematician. That's well That's over 50 percent. That's winning if you get that 45 percentile range, you're winning Yes, over 50 percent against that defense They held the ball for 38 minutes in the game and some of it has to do with what shocks talking about is Tampa's giving opportunities to weigh they're turning the ball over which in turn puts the other offense back on the field I can't do anything without the football even though Devon White tried to do it He had 18 tackles in two sacks in the game for that really good Tampa defense They weren't on the field offensively enough to do any damage and all of a sudden you look up And I don't want to start I don't want to get caught up in the playoff thing unless you guys want to But they're two games ahead of Atlanta. You've got a game with them coming up Now, yes, they beat you once but you got them coming to your building The Saints are only a game ahead. You got a half game with Carolina's a half game ahead This thing is not over by any stretch of the imagination We're in the midpoint and this division is gettable because Tampa just showed their gettable and people didn't think they were absolutely So you think about again try not to bring it up But a poor game for the Atlanta Falcons and then we start looking at the division a little bit And it's not so far stretched that a lot of people think so you mentioned Carolina Dave Let me go right back to you. They end up picking up Cam Newton bring back one of the best players in franchise history They waste no time getting him involved in the game playing rushes for a touchdown throws one How does that impact Atlanta moving forward as they will match up one more time in December? Yeah, you get a go to Carolina I believe December 12. I think we go to Carolina to take him on. I think Cam will be the starter by then I think he'll be the guy Joe Brady having to try to put a package of plays in he did this weekend Cam ran for one through for one. I think he only had four attempts But he ran the ball a couple times resulted in two touchdowns so you can see his effect He's gonna be a red zone threat for them probably this week next week, but when he gets to Atlanta I think he's gonna be the full-time guy What he does is he brings to the table the quarterback run game and Atlanta's struggle that member Sam Darnold ran for like 60 yards in the game Here in Atlanta for Carolina you go all the way back to week one Jalen Hertz destroyed Atlanta with the quarterback run He he's back to be willing to do that He had 12 rushing touchdowns last year and what people would call a down year for Cam Newton in that New England offense So he's still a threat from a an athlete standpoint And then oh by the way Christian McCaffrey's back on the field. He touched the ball 23 times in the game for 150 yards He's a problem as well. Yeah, DJ you look at Cam and it's like you probably he's gonna need a few weeks Not to mention to become the starter but to kind of get his legs and his speed back under him Even though he scored a touchdown it kind of looked like he was laboring a little bit But you guys you guys mentioned quarterback run game. He presents even a different element because in the red zone He's like a fullback. I mean this guy is six five two hundred fifty two hundred and sixty pounds So again, how does that affect that matchup for Atlanta as they'll face off? Which will likely be a pivotal game for the Atlanta Falcons. Well when you get down in the red zone I'm not even just in the red zone when you're out, you know from the 20s and coming in Not many teams really have to account for the quarterback and when you get down in the red zone You got all eyes on the quarterback, but you're still not accounting for him in the run game Now you add a fullback add another back in there You add a Christian McCaffrey who could easily slip out into the flat on you when you think you got run game coming from the quarterback So there are a lot of different matchups in the ballgame with Cam in the game Especially in the red zone where your your senses have to go up everything down there is up for you as a defensive player and They're gonna only add to it. This is you know, Brady's getting his first time getting his hands on cam So you gotta you gotta realize he's gonna have some stuff stored away By the time we think he'll be the starter when the Atlanta season So when you get into the red zone everything's up and ten is up never think that there's something They will not try with cam down there. Like I said, he's 260 some pounds He's looking to kind of revive his career as well. So he's gonna be like our say he's willing to do anything right now To be the guy and become the player that he you know once was I think everybody would agree with me here The one thing cam does not lack is confidence. So you don't have to worry about that He runs rush rushing touchdown takes his helmet off and screams at the camera. I'm back Yeah, so that's one thing that you're never gonna have to worry about with him We're never gonna get a chance to see this I'd love to see Dean P's his game plan from the first time they play Carolina to the next time they play Carolina Because there was no Christian McCaffrey no cam Newton the first time I'd love to see those call sheets and how different they're gonna be between the two meetings 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 All right speaking of looking ahead Let's look to Thursday night because as we talked about Atlanta's gonna flush things out and they're gonna face the New England Patriots I want you guys to tell me how you think this matchup is gonna stack up and what Atlanta needs to do other than Flushing last Sunday's loss against Dallas Dave What needs to happen in this unique matchup against Bill Belichick in the New England Patriots? Well, there's two things for me that have to happen number one You cannot let New England run the football they had 184 yards rushing against Cleveland They blew Cleveland out much like Atlanta got their rear ends handed to him by Dallas They beat Cleveland 45 to 7 ran for 185 yards in the game Remandry Stevenson the big kid out of Oklahoma. He's about a 240 pound back He had a hundred yards rushing and a couple of touchdowns You got to limit the run game and make Mac Jones beat you and he's proven that he can probably do some of those things To a lot of teams in the league the youngsters playing well He's got six wins under his belt has got more wins and I think all the other rookie quarterbacks combined So he's doing a good job and they're getting bad. They're back to playing Bill Belichick type of defense They're one of the top teams in the league and conversions on third down So my other key would be stop the run game from a from a defensive standpoint make Mac Jones make some of those plays Against a fairly non-descript receiver core There's still NFL players. They're gonna make plays But your ability to stay on the field we talked about conversion rack you and I kind on the same page on the You've got to stay on the field. You cannot have you can't play 45 minutes of football You can't play, you know, 35 minutes of football. That's what Atlanta has done in their losses They've even done it some of their wins We saw it last weekend two weekends ago against Carol against New Orleans We you kind of let things slip and then you went ahead and run the game This game it was a 15 minute block against Dallas. You can't have those lows Yes, you can't go three and out three times that can't happen. Yep, DJ. What sticks out for you? The run game is a big part of for me because when you look back at New England and you look at the highlights There's a lot of things of Mac Jones throwing the football, of course, and he's gonna do that He's gonna make some plays, but in their last three ball games. They rushed for a 477 yards arch mentioned 184 versus Browns 151 versus Carolina and 142 versus Chargers. There is a definite I would say that they want to run the football to help this young quarterback Yeah, and here's the other stat that's gonna be interesting in the Falcons have to be, you know, wherever you brought it up There were a lot of guys running free in our secondary against the Cowboys Well, this Patriots team they got 48 plays of 20 plus yards They're gonna stress the field. Yeah, they're gonna stretch you vertically and they're also gonna stretch your horizontally with the run game So this is gonna be a big-time matchup and this is a team coming here with one last four out of five They're gonna be confident coming in they got a young quarterback feeling good about this stuff So if you don't stop the run and you don't give up the explosive You got a chance to be in this ballgame and get yourself a win Well, and you and you look at their situation much like we looked at Atlanta's where you're only two games behind the division leader in Tampa And you get to play them you get to play your other two division opponents as well one more time So you very much have your destiny in your own hands New England's looking at the same thing Buffalo stumbled a couple times a lot of people thought Buffalo was gonna run away You look up and Buffalo's only a game or so ahead of you New England's thinking they can go win the division again And I think they've got a chance to go play Buffalo again too So, uh, it's a big game This is uh, if you want to start talking about playoff implications and things like that for both these teams Well, if you aspire to be in position in mid-december, these are the kind of games you have to you have to win this game Yeah, um, I think a lot of people didn't necessarily give that Atlanta the opportunity to win in Dallas And maybe that was rightfully so based on the way we played This is a game you got to win you got you got to find a way to win this football Keep yourself in in position guys when anytime you play or you have a bill bella check team coming in The first thing that comes to my mind is How bill is going to attack the opposing team and bill's big thing is take away what you do best Right. So if I'm trying to think like bella check My guess would be he's going to come in and try to take away two guys Cordero Patterson and Kyle Pitts He may not have to take away Cordero Patterson because Cordero's banged up and there's a chance he's not going to be able to play so Again, it's can you win those matchups that they're trying to take away Can Kyle Pitts still find a way to get free if Cordero plays can he still find a way to be an impact player Because the the broad tv broadcast showed a great stat of Cordero Patterson His touches this year versus Average touches his previous career in Atlanta and Arthur Smith has found out that he needs to touch the ball more So if he plays does bella check find a way to keep the ball out of his hands and out of Kyle Pitts And he's going to say we need zakias to beat us We need bike davis to beat us muscle gauge. That's how that's what he's going to say Well, and I think the cordero Patterson thing is either said than done if cordero plays in the game He's not going to be able to keep the ball out of his hands now He might be able to shadow him with some guys We're already seeing and you guys probably noticed it Now I hope the fan got a chance to see some wide-angle looks Teams are already responding to Kyle Pitts now We saw it this weekend where they're trying to run with a man, but they've got as much as they can They've got another guy shadowing him from a different level Watching him. He's almost being doubled. He's not completely being bracketed or doubled But they're keeping an eye with two defenders on him. That means what you're saying has to happen Gage zakias Sharp Gullman davis they all have to step up and make plays and oh by the way, we got to block people up front You talked about it the opening part of the show You've got to get people blocked so ryan can make plays. Yeah, so that's that's a number of different things and guys It's just cleaning up all the little things special teams got to be better Pass protections got to be better. We got to be able to convert more on third down When when you're not a team that's humming on all cylinders. We talked about it the margin for air is very small So the guys are just going to have to go out and they're going to have to perform this week on a short week And again flushing everything out of the dallas cowboys game. No excuses guys. Thanks so much for all your insight this week That's going to wrap things up because we got another game to play here in a couple days Yeah, go ahead get your handshakes in by the way. Thank you appreciate it Thanks so much for joining us on atlanta falcons.com youtube spotify or itunes as always wherever you get your podcast material We thank you for joining us We'll be back next week to recap and look ahead and we'll see where atlanta falcons are Thanksgiving edition right coming up. Yes. That's right. See if I still see if you're gonna have all the fixings for us next week Yeah, I love it bring the tech a rack. All right, you guys have a great week. Thanks for joining us Take care falcons audible presented by at&t. We're out