9-9-26 Full Show

0:00the countdown to game day is on and if you want your Falcon flag, well today's your lucky day. Atlanta, what's going on? It's Duke Simbell on sports radio, 92 9-2-game. We start off every day and every hour by saying, hey man, we are live at Napa Auto Parts guys right here and tomorrow and we'll be here until around 630 today, the Falcons, the cheerleaders are gonna be here, Falcon Legends, Freddie the Falcons are gonna be here and again, Mike, it's 5280 Jonesboro Road and we're down here because they are gonna be handing out Carflax and for everybody, every year it feels like this is a big deal and every year, Mike and I are surprised at how many people stop by and get their car flags, getting ready for the season, it kicks off on Sunday, Falcons, on the practice field guys, we'll tell you what B-Jahn had to say, what Coach Daphanski had to say as well and of course, Tua is gonna speak a little bit later on but man, another beautiful day in the A to be down here. Hey man, as we like to say Carl Clayton is popping and every time we come down here man, it's literally lined up around the corner.

1:04So we will do the flag giveaway Falcon promo team as Carl mentioned will be here cheerleaders, Freddie the Falcons, not sure who the former Falcon legend will be here but they'll be signing autographs, taking pictures. But yeah, the flag giveaway begins at 5 but you're more than welcome to come down now, say hello, holler at your boys, hello! And again Carl, look at the growth, we've got new buildings going out across C-Day Day, the Duke's Abel bounces real, here in Marlick City. Yeah, it is coming up down here, no doubt. So if you're driving by man, blow your horn, alright, if you're on the road as you pass this Napa Auto Parts and we'll certainly give you guys a big wave. Here's what's interesting Mike, B-Jahn said today and here's the quote, we have the product, we've been doing it, it's been looking good in practice, now it's time to show it. And of course he's talking about the offense, right? He's not talking about the defense, right? The offensive guys are working with the offensive guys and the defense is working on what they're working on trying to slow down A and Rogers on Sunday. But what is showing it look like? And is this offense going to be able to punch it in and have a real efficient red zone offense this upcoming season?

2:09I'm not going to judge the entire year by one game, but it does set the tone. When we get into these games, Mike, early on, and we always talk about biggest game of the season, important game. It is an important game because this is the first time we're going to see a Kevin Stofansky, Tommy Riesoff and it's on Sunday. And it's the first time we're going to see all the starters on the field together. We really haven't seen that in preseason, it was a mixed bag of things, you know, guys got a couple of series, some guys played, some guys didn't. So I am curious, but B-Jahn's feeling pretty good about it saying we've got the product, it's been looking good, and now it's time to show it. But will they show it? Yeah, man, how's Tua going to handle it with the Steelers? We're going to throw at him. I heard Mark Schlabeau on great conversation with Andy Randy on the way driving here to Napa. And basically saying, like the last couple of times you've seen Tua in the NFL, it hasn't been great. And he didn't see that Denver tape, and of course that was a moment that everyone went, oh geez, that was just ugly. But then of course he did better in practice, did better on 11 on 11, but there was a lot of, you know, let's be honest, Carl. Effort is uneven, best way to describe what we've heard anecdotally from some of the reporters and what we saw with our own eyes about Tua's preseason.

3:12Can he handle the pressure? Can he reinvent himself? Can he win this job? Keep it, or is he just simply a placeholder until Pennick's junior was ready? Well, let me, let me say this too, for all the Tua haters out there. Who brought him here, Mike? Matt Ryan and Ian Cuttingham. Correct. Did they have other options? Well, it was Kyla Murray or him, both guys were cheap. One guy's more of a long term real threat to win this job. One guy's a placeholder. I thought into it. They could have made a move for Cooper Rush and been done with it. He's on the roster. The point I'm making is this current regime is the one that made this decision. They did not make the decision on Michael Pennicks, but they made the decision on Tua. Did they just say, all right, well, he's only a million dollars, we don't give a damn if we win? Or did they feel like he could be a player and really help this team win? My point is, guys, if you want to point the finger, point in at Matt Ryan and point in at Ian Cuttingham. Because they brought him in here and they feel like he can help us win. I do not know what we're going to get to Mike's point. If he is hot garbage, as we like to say, then we'll see Cooper Rush sooner than we want to.

4:14And I don't think that boards well for the Falcons, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I hope he comes out and plays well in week one. But this whole idea like, well, I don't know why we have Tua. Matt Ryan and Ian Cuttingham are why we have Tua. And they had other options this off season. But that's where they decided to go. And I think they went there again because of the experience and the possibility of the rehabilitation under this offense and this coaching staff that he could maybe have success. So this conversation kind of starts and finishes there. We blame the past regime for drafting Michael Pinnix. Have no problems with that because many people including Mike said we shouldn't have drafted him. And I think a lot of people say that now knowing where the situation is. But let's also talk about the new regime and their decision to bring into us. That's why he's here. Right. And guys, without getting the definitive word because no one's going to commit to anything whether it's the president or the general manager of the coach. Tua, can you win this job? I don't know. I mean, it is a good fit this offense for what his skill set is. As Carl just pointed out, he had the most experience of all the guys that were available. A better, slightly better track record than Kyle Murray who flamed out in Arizona.

5:16I mean, if we were talking about Cooper Rush starting this season, I think there will be a lot of people going up. There's an L. I mean, despite the fact he has started the games in this league, I just want to win. Okay, I don't care. I'm sick and tired of arguing about this. Hey, what's up brother? Sick and tired of arguing about this with listers. I just want to see Pinnix out there so I can see what he is. Right. And we've gone and we talked about this and we're blue in the face. Is Tua going to do enough where he doesn't give up the job? I mean, what if you go three and two? I mean, if you go three and two are four and one with two, you tell me you're going to bench him. I mean, that's hard to wrap your head around. That's why I mean, this is not supposed to be a gap year. And guys, I'll argue with this with people. Well, Pinnix, you can go ahead and read it. I go, I want to see him start this season because I think he gives us a better chance to win than Tua. That's my gut. Now, only time we'll tell, the thing Carl is, I got these guys I'm arguing with going, well, it's too early. He's not ready. So what's this Steelers game on Sunday? I almost said it. Exhibition. Yeah. I mean, what have we been in the last three years? One game away from winning this division. So you're just going to throw a game away.

6:18That's not how it works in the NFL, guys. Yes, teams come out looking sloppy and they regroup in the second week of the season. We've seen it in college already. Happens in the pros. But I just, I just want to win period. But I just hope Tua is up for the challenge because Pinnix is going to throw some meat at him. 404-726-0929. I hope B. John's right. I hope as good as he feels about what he sees and practice, which again, nobody's been privy to. These are closed practices now, guys. I mean, it's not as if everybody's watching. I hope this offense comes out and does some work because for me, that's where it starts and finishes. Yes, the defense is going to have to step up. I still don't know where the pressure is coming from to get to Aaron Rodgers, which we'll discuss in detail. West Durham is going to join us coming up the voice of the Atlanta Falcons and we're going to head to Pittsburgh and just a little bit next hour to talk with a guy that covers the Steelers. And, you know, look, I don't know what the expectation is. Stealer nations, Steelers fans always think they're going to Super Bowl because there is a rich tradition of winning. Right. Right. And that is an organization that's been ran right. Guys, three head coaches and it's an existence.

7:20I mean, there's nobody around the NFL that can state that. So there is a level and a standard. We talk about that word standard around the NFL and people throw it around. It's not our standard. Dude, you don't have a standard. The Steelers do. And so the fan base expects high things to happen, high expectations for them to get to where they need to be. For us, Mike, this offense has got to click if we're going to look like anything this season. If we're struggling again, offensively, man, it's going to be another long. Yeah, but you think, man, look, you put your money where you're mouth is. You you boat up, you signed up Drake, a beach on you knew that contract was extended. It was going to be extended. And of course, Kyle Pitz, we thought for a minute was going to be strictly playing on the tag and then they give him an extension. So they believe in our skill position players. The delivery system is going to be the question. Can these guys step up? Can two of us step up and will he hold on to this job or will Michael Pentax Jr. come in and win this job? Establish himself as the franchise quarterback. The the option is then picked up in May. But first things first, to your point, let's not mail it in against Pittsburgh. Steelers offense, I don't think is anything special, but what is our password going to look like?

8:22I mean, we don't really have that designated password right now that we lost James Pierce for this suspension. We were expecting Jalen Walker to take a big leap. I'm excited about guys like Kendall Daniels and some of the new looks, A.B. on Tarell on our defense. But where is that password coming from, Carl? I don't know. I mean, I'd love to tell you, but I honestly, I have no idea. And this goes beyond Jalen Walker's injury guys. James Pierce Jr. we know he's out. I'm just simply telling you that the benefit of having two guys like that was you could just call your base defense and they could make place. Now you're going to be more reliant on scheme. And I made the reference yesterday of patting the ball. We're going to hear a lot of it if we're not getting after the quarterback. And if I'm patting the ball three or four times, that means I got five or six seconds. Guys, the quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers will eat you up. I don't care how old he is. He can still deliver the football. So Mike, the rookies A.B. on A.V. and certainly Kendall Daniels. Another question for me is what kind of impact are they going to have? See, this could go both ways.

9:23You're starting two rookies on your defense and you're hoping to get major production out of them, which I think is possible. But the other side of that is they may play like rookies. And if that happens, then are they difference makers? I don't quite yet know, but they've earned the opportunity to be starters. And that's something again, insert some new blood in their man. And A.V. on is going to be our nickel guy coach today. Talked about Billy Bowman being on his way back. He's very close and they're excited about where he is. We know that Bowman from last year's a ball hawk. But I'm curious to what these two rookies are. Are we going to get above rookie performance from Kendall Daniels and A.V. on to real? Like 2016 Falcon Draft class. Correct. It's a super bowl where D.O. you know, D.B.O. did his thing, Keanu Neal. Everybody contributed. Devon, I mean, we had guys, Devon, a Campbell, all everybody. Brian Poole's undrafted. Hooper was great on the offensive side. So yeah, that's what you're shooting for. Aaron Rodgers said 29 times last year, 24 touchdowns, seven picks. The last couple of weeks of the season really took it in the key. And then we got a picture with Seattle, the Jetson, that of course had Houston playoff game. But can we generate that kind of heat with the down alignment or in this case,

10:24the outside linebacker that walks up with your three lineman, or is it going to have to scheme the pressure, which is high risk. Yes. Even like Rodgers at this stage of his career. No doubt. Your phone calls are welcome, guys, as we are live down here tomorrow. At Napa Hottle Park, by the way. And again, flag give away won't actually start until five. We just had a gentleman stop by. Get a photo with this hanging out. Had a couple folks drive by and blow their horn. If you're in the area, man, we love to get a chance to see you and meet you. We appreciate your support and certainly listening to Duke's and Bell and sports radio 92 9th game. All right, we're coming back. Braves losing ugly one last night. I think he's kind of worked his way out of the rotation, by the way. We'll get to that and Mike just told me something new about this LSU SEC battle that's going on. We'll give you the latest one we return on sports radio 92 9th game. Braves lose seven one to the raise. Philly's a loss to the Astro. So division lead stays at four guys, but it was not pretty. And the offense continues to struggle. You're talking about two runs and in the last 18 innings.

11:24But AJ Smith, Sharver, Mike, I just feel like his last four starches. So I think it goes back to like August 18th. He's just I don't think he's going to be a part of this playoff rotation when you start talking about what this may look like. Right, we've talked about today a lot of discussion this week about rushing back from an injury. Are you rushing back? In this case, he's had the minor league starts. So you had to feel like he's ready to go and you need him. I mean, you need him to eat anything, especially with Bryce Elder now not pitching the rest of the regular season. So yeah, it's a guy you feel a little shaky about right now. The other thing we're talking off the air, bad time for Matt Olson to get cold. He and I as he are really struggling right now. And hopefully they can find a way and hopefully they carl it's baseball. They just snap out of it because this is not in the dog days of September now with a postseason about to start that you really want Matt Olson to be in the kind of rut that he is in right now. Ozzy is for his last 28. Matt Olson is three for his last 27 with a hit last night. So do you just take this and stride and go, all right, I'm not not really worried about this or how much how worried are you about this with the Olson situation?

12:30How worried are you? Pretty worried because we saw it. We've seen this happen in the past. Remember guys, 2023 everything was going right until it didn't. Yeah. And Matt we do know, I mean, look, all baseball players were talking with Tony Gwynn Jr. yesterday about it. Everybody goes to a cold patch. But with Matt, when he gets cold, it's ice cold. You know, and we saw it before. This is not a knock. This is not revisiting the Freddie versus Matt. Okay, Matt's our guy and he's put this team on his back and they wouldn't be where they were without Matt Olson. He was the only guy that was hitting for much of the season. But it's a little frightening because you got to depend on him. Yeah. This series continues. And by the way, we told you raise pretty good. Okay, this is a good club and Grant mentioned it yesterday. This stretch where the fillies come back down here and then you know, you got the cubs. It's going to be an interesting stretch. This September is not going to be a cake walk. So we need our guys to, you know, continue to hit and score runs. But last night, AJ Smith shot four earn runs and five hits. The two home runs killed you. I mean, it was just that, that's just not going to get it done. So braves though at the plate.

13:31And this is what Mike's talking about. Five for 32 at the plate. That's, that's the problem. No, the thing is you also saw some really good filly pitching last week. And, and that's also a problem. They've got some guys. And Tony Gwynn said because of our bullpen, he'd say it's a push. Yeah, but I mean, as far as starting pitching, you know, you get away from Chris sale. I mean, they've got four guys you can count on right now. And Aaron Nolas having an off your by his standards. And even he's, you know, dealing. So that's, that's a concern. Right now, I think we're still playing the diamond backs. If I memory serves as a three six. But it's the best out of three. You know, so you'd have Chris sale, Mally, and then you'd probably have to go to a bullpen start. Think about that. Just to survive. It went to three games. Yeah. And the price elder thing, by the way, yesterday after the report of, you know, scoping his knee and getting, you know, clean up or whatever. Guys, it could be four, four to six weeks. They're saying three to four weeks. I hope he's back. But I don't Mike right now. It's sort of like stride. I can't count on it, right? I just can't count on it. Let me hear Walt Wise talking about AJ Smith's sharpness outing. You see flashes and glimpses of the talented arm that he is.

14:31It's just a matter of executing pitches, you know, like we talked about before the game. He got to mean good counts. He got to execute pitches. He had to work hard, you know, that pitch count got up there quickly. You know, he was having to grind through it, but just making pitches. Yeah, Walt, he doesn't have it. You know it. We see it. And look, doesn't mean he can't, you know, pitch in this rotation to the end of the season. But Mike's right, if you start talking about the playoff rotation and what this might look like, I've just not been impressed enough. Grant Holmes has impressed me. Bryce Elder, even though he was up and down, had impressed me. I was feeling a lot better about those two guys and I still feel good about Grant Holmes. Here's what Walt Wise said about being a free swinging team. Yeah, look, we're a free swinging club. I mean, it's, for the most part, tough to change the stripes. At times we've been able to do it. I mean, I thought we did a nice job against Sanchezio. We, you know, we, we ended up forcing him in his own and making him earn every out. But we've been living and dying by that. There's been extremes to our offense, eyes and lows, but yeah, Paul has been tough on us. He has. Yeah. And as we know guys, you mentioned Ronaldo Lopez activated from the IL.

15:31Yeah. But Bryce Elder going down. So Lopez gets to start against Tampa Bay. All right. More on the Braves coming up. Mike, tell me the latest with LSU in the SEC. All right, cooler heads have prevailed. A lot of passion, passionate people down there in Louisiana. The SEC LSU federal court hearing that was scheduled for today has been continued. In other words, timeout. And now they're going to table it for at least the time being will be heard at a later date. So according to Pete Thammel, who's breaking it down, the situation has generally deescalated. And LSU remember guys deciding not to roster the two guys who have been NFL camps to quen right and Xavier on Harris. So they're not part of the roster. So the, I guess the nuclear option. Remember how president pushed that nuclear nuclear option that the SEC used against LSU got some traction. I know Bo Johnson who's working the board, big LSU Tiger fans at Lane Kipp and got what he want. But it was a big, big, you know, spotlight on Lane for like two weeks about this orange now back at the ranch. But we're talking to Bo with the handoff. And yeah, so if that's what Lane wants, Lane the agent of chaos that is described.

16:32Okay. But the governor's involved. You got senators popping off. Sanky went and said, look, we'll vote you guys out of the conference. And I think now it's reality check. So good. Good. Let this is comments. Now can we please talk about football and stop talking about temporary restraining orders? Yeah. And look, I think the other night you probably saw this. They're good enough probably to win it or at least be in the playoff without these guys. Okay. So adding these guys were, was not going to change the, the, the, the, the direction of where this season was going to go for LSU. In my, in my opinion, Mike, I just feel like they're good. They were going to be good. Again, they spent all this money in the portal and, and this is why you have Lane Kiffin. So hopefully this goes away. That's what, that's what I'm kind of hoping. Meanwhile, the NCAA sets a standard timing protocol. You know what I'm going to do. What the hell is a standard timing protocol? Well, first of all, you didn't know this. I didn't know this. I don't know if anybody knew this. Didn't we feel like the clock that we're seeing on television was the clock that was supposed to be the one that was used?

17:36Apparently, it isn't because that's not what Terry McColley said on the broadcast ahead of the, you know, the NBC former NFL official after this said that's all synced up and then NBC can make it. Oh, no, no, no, there is that camera here about to talk about on another clock. So, so, did you know about the standard timing protocol? Because I did not know that nobody ever heard of this. That car out of their butts. Correct. Come on now. This is in response to the Michigan Western Michigan game, guys. The controversy of putting a second back on the clock. So the memo goes out and the official time for all college football games is the time displayed on the in stadium game clock. Okay. Well, if you went and looked at that clock and it still showed zero, right? It's the game still should have been over. But regardless, they're putting this out there now and writing so everybody can say, hey, we've got a standard rule here. This won't happen again. Not this season, but, but ever. And it should have never happened, but the idea that there's a standard timing protocol, it blew me away, Mike, because I was like, who knew? I mean, the official decisionally based on embedded game clock contained with the program feed.

18:39Was that what we were watching? That's what I was. I mean, again, guys, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I just, I just felt Michigan was too big to fail. And again, remember that video. You didn't see that in real time. That video, some guys even say that video they recorded the whole thing. Everybody's so calm and like, all right, there he is. He's touching the football. I'm like, yeah, he's touching the football. The game's at 0, 0, 0, 0. The game's over. I don't know what the hell you're looking at. I mean, it just seemed absolutely preposterous. And again, you know, said, what's Michigan, the Mac conference saying, they feel they've gotten jobs here. And it just seems like you can't trust anything in sports these days, Carl. You know, to me, it all started with, go back to the Cowboys when the catch wasn't a catch. Who was it? Who was the, the wide receiver back then? Des Bryant. Des. Right? That's for me, the NFL went sideways. Now that's not a catch. Now we don't know what a catch is. Then you get into the tuck rule. Then that proceeded that. And now we literally know there's a secret clock that only they see. This timing, the super secret clock that they have access to.

19:39This timing protocol is going to be followed consistently and at all institutions and game sites moving forward. Yeah. All right. Let's hope so. That was a debacle. So now you can't even trust when the clock ticks down is there. This isn't the NBA. So the fifth of a second back in college ball. Well, here's the bigger thing, Mike, for me is, you know, again, this isn't the 80s where if you got some home cooking, right? And the game wasn't on television. And they said, oh, there's still a second left on the clock and everybody in the home crowd's like, well, hey, we get a second. You didn't see it live as millions of people did. It's right there in front of you. Many of you watching an HD, right? 4K, 8K. And you're telling me that wasn't real. So I just, that's my, that's my bigger issue is you've got all these cameras in these stadiums now to, to tour this. And you didn't do that. This isn't 1978 where you went. Hey, we had two cameras in the stadium and I think there's a second left on the clock. Nobody saw it. I mean, I just didn't think the Michigan, Western Michigan game would turn into the US versus Russia in Munich, right?

20:40In 72. They're putting time back on the clock. I mean, for those who don't know, I know it. Carl, I hate to say this. I guarantee you have our audience doesn't know this. There was a thing called the Soviet block. There was a Cold War and the Russians basically leaned into those officials that were from the Warsaw Pact nations. They called it the Olympic gold medal that we never accepted. That's right. Cost us a goal. Manipulating the rules. Manipulating the game. Ah, so look, this is again all the sidebar. What we care about is what's going to happen on Saturday, Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, in some Friday nights, not high school football. I'm talking about college. But this stuff is ridiculous. And the NCAA, the goal, Mike, we are setting a new, you guys haven't done a damn thing. There's a clock. The game clock is, oh, if there are time immemorial, as we said, now we're just making, you know what? I'll say it. Now we're just making blank up. We're just making stuff up. And Western Michigan got screwed. Everybody in the planet knows it. Other than Big Blue. All right, coming up. More on the Falcons, guys, on the practice field, as we mentioned, two is going to speak. We'll have that for you coming up.

21:40He has received some criticism in regards to not stretching the field. Okay. However, he is proven that he can be efficient. And today, Kevin Stofanski said something very interesting about heading into Pittsburgh. We'll tell you what that is. And we come back on Sports Radio, 1929 again. A 20 Jonesboro road outside of Napa Auto Parts, literally. And we've had multiple people drive by, blow their horns. A couple guys stop by just to say hello. We appreciate that. Shout out to Shelton, who's an Uber driver and a big listener. He's like, man, it's kind of cool to see you guys with those on behind the scenes. How the sausage gets made. And said, yeah, we chop it up, but we're not on there. It's not like, Karla, just we turn off the head says we just sit in silence silence. Silence. But yeah, man, we're going to be out here again all the way up to around 630 today. And the Falcons, Falcons cheerleaders, Freddie to Falcons, a couple of Falcons legends. I don't want to tell you who because we're not sure, but I will tell you they will be here. Taking pictures, signing autographs and it's going to be a lot of fun. And then of course, get your Falcons flag. That's why we're down here. So we'll be here. Falcons, the Falcons flags won't be handed out.

22:41Started handing out until around 5 o'clock. Right. All right, let's talk about a couple of things with the Falcons. Coming up next hour, by the way, we'll go to Pittsburgh. Oh, it's going to join a Steelers beat rider for the athletic. We'll get the latest on the Steelers and their preparation for us on Sunday. Remember, we are on the road and we are the underdogs, right? On this in this game, at least going in. And I don't think that number changes. It hasn't pretty much all summer. But with two of starting at quarterback and get off that you like him, you don't like him, you think he's bad. Let's just talk about what is right now. What is is play to his strengths. What are his strengths? Well, this is what Kim is the fanski and Tommy Reesim and trying to figure out since they got him in the building, Mike. And I think he's got a grasp of the offense. We would hope that that's where it needs to be again. He got an early head start on this. I think him and Michael Pinnix, you know, they had to play book months ago, guys. So that shouldn't be an issue. Executing the offense is going to be key. But what about the run game?

23:41And Mike, right now, it's Wednesday. How many carries do you think B. Jean has? Are we talking 30 carries on Sunday? It's funny. I heard Mark Schlabeau again talking to Andy Randy about that. He's like, give him 20 and get him five to 10 in the air. B. Jean early, B. Jean a lot. Brian Robinson spelling him obviously as the duo there and the backup. But yeah, B. Jean has got to be a huge part of this game plan. I think the Steelers will try to take him away. I think they'll try to make two of beach. But that's where the quick release and the underneath stuff should have success. I mean, if everybody does their job, yes, I'm talking about you, Joanne Taylor. Oh, everybody on this offensive line does their work. Then you have things that should work against Pittsburgh, even though they are known for their tremendous pass rush. All right. This is Kevin St. Francis. He's talking about the run game today. I think any quarterback maybe your first or your... 100s start like say, good run game. I think it's our job as coaches to put together a balanced game plan. Because you never know what the game is going to call for.

24:41It's easy to say, hey, we're going to do X, Y and Z. But then the game changes. And then the game can change for a bunch of different reasons. So putting together a well-balanced attack and then Tommy on game day being ready to adjust. But obviously excited about B. Jean excited about the run game. Totally agree. And I'll give you an example of this. We go up there. We're up 14-10 in the fourth quarter. They're not letting two of throw the ball 15 times. Okay? Go run the ball, run clock. Make the Steelers work for it. Try to get the ball back, own field position. That's how the game changes. If you're down in the fourth quarter, 10-14 with seven minutes to play. Okay? You might have to open this thing up a little bit and let them try to get you back in it. There are different scenarios and different points in the game. And that's why it's called situational football. There's no such thing as you go into a game and go, we're giving B. Jean on the ball 30 times regardless of what they do. Well, you know what? We hardly ran the ball against the Patriots.

25:41We went up there last year and got our butts kicked. Because we were just not committed to it. We weren't earning or getting any yards, positive yards, Mike. And all of a sudden, you know, the game is now different, the game plan. So I agree with the fans. Got to go in balance and then say, where's this thing at? I think that the Falcons wide receivers, you know, we talked about last year, how bad it was. Yes. We talked about like, I didn't like Zach Robinson's play calls. They fired one of the assistants. We had injuries up the yin yang. You know, Darnell Mooney was even healthy really the whole season. Drake got hurt late. You know, what? Well, Ray Ray got cut. You're fired. Think about that. Now, is for it, are we going to come back to work on Monday and talk about, hey, how about that amazing? You know why Ray Ray got cut? You know what? Because he said something. I'll tell you in the five o'clock hour. Okay, I'm all ears. I think I'll stick around for that. I'll tell you in the five o'clock hour. No, but I'm, are you and I going to be talking about Zachariah branch and some crazy yards after the catch? And how about that? How about that 45 yard, whatever for Zachariah branch, things like that? I hope so, man. Like the, see, that's, those are game changing deals, right? When you start talking about a game and the game being close, sometimes you get a couple of those kinds of plays, Mike,

26:48that change the direction of the game and all of a sudden now, you can stray away from your game plan because you got a big play from Zachariah branch. Or someone else, right? Jahan Dotson. I'm not going to count him out. Guys, we ain't talked about, about Jahan Dotson a lot. You got a good camp. Jahan Dotson could be a real benefactor of having Drake and pits on one side and him may be getting single coverage, Mike, and taking advantage of that. Like if I'm a team looking at the Falcons right now, especially the Steelers, I'm not going to let five beat us. I'm not going to let seven beat us, okay? So Drake, I'm running guys over there and we're going to have you covered up and certainly we're going to have safeties. But Jahan Dotson, Mike, could easily see a lot of one-on-one coverage. Are you doing that for pits? Because that's the other side of this. So that's where the two experience hopefully comes into playing goes, you know what? Oh, I see him covering up pits. I'm going to go to Jahan. Let's not be silly and be so locked in on Drake that now you're throwing picks. But isn't this the same conversation we've had going back to Arthur Smith?

27:48Yes. We got this guy. We got that guy. They got to cover this guy. We got a mismatch here. Day-day, we've been having this conversation for six years. And that's why execution comes into play. And that's why the little details, the little details we didn't cover the last couple of years. Arthur Smith making it too complicated before that. You know what I mean? Sometimes just get the best player of the ball. It's not that complicated. But now my biggest concern, I think if two of you can do some of those things that make good decisions, ball comes out quickly, boom. We can do those things you're talking about. I'm just curious, how does Jervon Dexter along with Dorolas? Is that a pressure going to come from the middle? And Orioles, remember, it's a 3-4. Is Kendall Daniels going to be used in a blitz? You know, the way that Kate Nellis was from time to time. He's going to be starting next to a divine, I said divine Diablo. Can you expect anything from a guy like Samson Epochum? I mean, Zadaria Smith was brought back out of his self-imposed retirement. He's just excited to be back. Can he get after it? Because that's the question, because you said it earlier in the show. If you give even a Aaron Rogers and as bad as they looked at times last year.

28:48You give him four seconds back there. We're going to be in trouble. Look, is Aaron Corkey, yes? Is he indecisive about life sometimes and the things and the decisions he's made? Yes. Is he weird even? Yes. What he isn't, is he isn't a guy that doesn't have superior arm talent in this league. It's why he's a future Hall of Famer. It's why he won back-to-back MVP's. Guys, I don't give a damn if he's 48. He can still throw the ball. If you go and play an old NBA player right now, I bet you money you lose in a shooting drill. Because you always can shoot the ball if you were a shooter in the league. Quarterbacks, Troy Inkman could come out of the booth today with no pressure. And if you said just throw it around the field, he beats you. This is what these guys have done. So Aaron Rogers, even if he looks old and he's slow-mic and he's slow afoot and he doesn't have the escape ability he once had, he can still beat you with the arm talent and the touch down the field. And by the way, they got a big, big ass receiver out there called Metcalf.

29:48Yes. Metcalf is a man among boys out there. Right. Now I'm not saying Metcalf hung out with Aaron Rogers and they spent some extended time together. But now Metcalf, in addition to becoming the number one wide receiver, along with Pittman, feels that there's a civilization living underneath Antarctica. And there's a whole world down there. And that's why we never mess with the penguins and why we've signed all these treaties. And that's why Antarctica is off limits to everyone. And Aaron Rogers gets together now. It's like a lantern splot. I love these guys. They think they're splatter earth guys. But again, apparently there's a whole civilization underneath Antarctica. We got to get on that, man. Let's hear from Kevin St. Fansky talking about working with the quarterback. And in the two of situations, here's what he said today. I think we're, you know, any coach on care what you're coaching, you're only worth, you know, your worth your salt if you're doing what your players do best. And if you're leaning into what your players do best. And I could tell you with working with all the quarterbacks over my career, whether it started or not, the guys are comfortable with certain things.

30:51And they're not comfortable with everything. There was a bunch of concepts that Archen like. But what our job as coaches is to find out, or what in this broad scheme fits your eye, if you will. What are your strengths? What can we lean into in your strength? So sometimes that happens in a given season. If you play multiple guys, you have to have those small pivots in a season. We've had to do it via injury at times. And you do, you can't change an offense. You can't go to the Delaware Wing T. But you can lean into certain concepts that guys see better than others. It really is a great explanation. I'll tell you guys this just from folks in Cleveland who covered Kevin Stofansky and how he likes to operate. And I'm saying Stofansky, but he will always defer and say it's Tommy Riesu's the OC. Guys, they're going to come out and let two of you get into rhythm. They're not going to come out and drop him back and shout going to happen. Throw 30 yards down the field of first three plays and we're three and out. Secret Sunday, 1 o'clock. Trust me on this. We're going to run the ball.

31:51We're going to get to a ender rhythm because it's what I need to do to get him going and getting some confidence. So I move my arms around like this. I look like a clown right now if you can see me because I'm going left. I'm going middle and I'm going right. That's what he's going to do. And if that happens and it's to it gets established here in Mike is seven for ten and his first, you know, ten attempts. Right. Now, okay, I got a little rhythm going. I'm okay. Now we can open up this thing a little bit more, but that's just part of how Kevin's defense operates. Whether it was the Sean Watson or anybody else. And so I think that's part of what we'll see on Sunday. And again, that's whether it's five, 10, 15 yards. But this idea like we're just going to be in the pistol man and he's going to throw 30 yards down the field. That's not happening in that first series. No, I just again, be shot. I mean, what do you think the first play the game? Be shot up the middle. Be shot off tackle. You let two drop back and throw. I mean, these are we're learning about the fanski unless you follow the fanski, you know, with this time as you know, see manyapolis. And of course, then later on becoming a head coach. Now we're going to get to know how we because you can't take anything as far as the game plan from the preseason.

32:52That's showing you winning the shack. You know, I mean, it's all base stuff. It's all basic stuff. But now the question is how creative do they get? You know, and first off, there's two of come out with some confidence. You know, for all the things that Michael Pettics trying to find confidence in his own body to finally say, Hey coach, I'm ready to go. How is to his head? You know, it to us heard all the noise. You know, he's heard everything has been said about him here in Atlanta. Where is it? Where is that at? It's a good question. I would think, you know what? And again, I'm not him. But Mike, I'd be loose. Right. Everybody thinks I suck anyway. Play with house money. Well, you're playing with the dolphins money. Actually, well, the money, the money's in the bank, bro. Okay. I'm saying, but if you want to reinvent yourself, if you want to reinvent yourself and all starts up there in Pittsburgh. And when I say that, I don't mean he comes out and plays loose to go see, but this whole confidence thing, sometimes it can be overrated. Like, I'm actually better than what you think I am. I just, you know, it was a bad situation down there. Blank went to blank. And so now here I am and I got another opportunity.

33:53Like, I hope that's the attitude, but I can't answer that, Mike. I really can't. I don't know if anybody can accept to a 404726092929. You guys can text us. Let us know what you're thinking. Relive at Napa Auto Parts today hanging out as the flag. Give away from the Falcons about happening around five o'clock. One other thing from Kevin Stofansky as he spoke and we'll let you hear two of later in the show as well. So stick around for that. And we're going to head to Pittsburgh to talk to Mike DeFabo. Steelers beat right in front of the athletic at around 320 today. Here's what Kevin Stofansky said about the goal for week one. Yeah, I think all of our players, you know, in week one, you want to make sure that you execute at a high level and certainly whether it's a quarterback position or otherwise in week one, what we have to do as coaches is make sure that our guys have a really good understanding of game plans. I think there's a desire by a lot of coaches to do everything in week one and show everything you've been working on. And it's just there's not enough plays. That's not just not the reality. So for two and all of our players understanding what the game plan entails, understanding what we're trying to attack on each play.

34:55So much of that, you know, while you guys will hear me harp on Wednesday and why it's so important to work is that we put a lot on our guys plates on Wednesday. And here's a brand new game plan, you know, fortunately the quarterbacks got a sneak peak of it yesterday and can can digest a lot of information. But then it's also okay now you got to take this to the walker here and then you got to take it to practice and then you got to put some finishing touches on it today. And then oh, by the way, we got third down coming tomorrow. So there's a lot in the process that any player, particularly the quarterback that we put on their plate. So it's their ability in the week to trust in the routine and really own the game plan if you will. I like his process Mike. I don't know how successful Kevin's going to be here. But I like his process. I like I like what he's saying. Right. In regards to like this is an experienced guy and he get why people around the league like what he has to say or at least like him as a coach. And I do too, but I don't know how much success he's going to have again. This comes down to winning and all those things. But man, he's so on point with what he's saying right there about laying out this process and like, you know, oh, we want to show everything.

36:01You can't do you can't do that man. Where do we feel like we can attack these dudes on top of the Steelers and have success. Okay. And a lot of times we've said this. You think teams have great past rushes? You run right at him. We got a great running back. Right. We don't have a slouch. And we're better going forward than backwards historically. Now we're going to see again just how good our right tackle is going to be. Can you want Taylor speaking to reinvent yourself? Good point. He's working as kind of a discount for what he was making in Kansas City this year. So that's another guy that if it's not with us, it's maybe with somebody else. So certainly we know up the middle. But you and I were talking about Ryan Newsle. Is he going to be big enough for what they want to do in Calhans offense? They didn't even bark at that. They apparently like what they've got. We know we know how would Bergeron. He got the extension list. They're pretty confident in this in this crew. But you're right. It's a great point. Go right at him. All right, man. We got a lot more to dive into. Apparently, Dade has went to our social media has extracted some of the comments of people coming at us. Not liking what we had to say. Talking about us being in our fields.

37:01We're going to address all of that coming up. Also, we're going to head to Pittsburgh. But when we come back guys, we get real NFL football tonight. Patriots, Seahawks. We'll talk a little bit about that. 49ers and Rams tomorrow night in Australia. More NFL news coming up. Stay there. It's Duke Simebele live in that bottle parts. By the way, I love how people try to justify number one. It's pretty interesting, Micah. You know, we use that phrase. That's Ricky Rosé. Rick Ross. Right. Those of you who know. And when he said that, you know, he was loving on us and we appreciate him. Yes, he listens. But when we talk about us being number one, it's like, yeah, you number one. But, but what? There is no but. You're either number one or you're not. You're either first or you're last. Okay. Thank you, Ricky Bobby. I'm just saying it's interesting to me how people try to justify that. And this radio station, by the way, is crushing it guys. 92 9-The Game, Your Home for not only the Falcons and the Hawks in Atlanta. You're not it. But all you're in a fill action, all of your college action. As we get into the fall here and look, we can be more excited about football.

38:01Football being back and where we're at. But I just I laugh at that. It's like, yeah, you're number one. There is no, no but. All right. Want to state that can I tell you guys something real quick? So I was down in Lithonia today hanging out with our friends from Lashley, Kubota. By the way, shout out to Bobby the barber. Thank you, Bobby. Now come see you, man. Two locations, no sites outside. Yeah. But I was hanging out with our friends at Lashley, Kubota today, Mike. And if you're a small business, a contractor, maybe you own land. I'm talking about large pieces of land. You service land. Maybe you have large construction projects, you're a construction company. They can help you with everything. They're right there off of Kubota and highway guys. For mowers, utility vehicles. So they let me get in one of these big excavators. I got to see some pictures. Oh, I'll trust me. I put one out there. All right, man. And he's like, go ahead, start it up. Can I tell you guys something? I felt like a man in one of those days. Okay. I started this thing up because go ahead, move the arm. And I was like, eee, eee. And he's telling me how to operate this thing because I've never done any of that guys. I'm not, you know, I'm not into construction or any of that.

39:02I certainly respect all the guys we see out in the hot sun building all these wonderful places here in the ATL. But I was like, man, this is crazy. And he's like, go ahead, shut the door. Mike, because of the nature of the work, obviously the front plexiglass is like bulletproof. So, yeah, okay, something comes back. That's correct. So he closes the door. He's talking to Mike in here. He's like, it's soundproof. Because when you're in there working, right? Right. You need all that noise is going on and you don't get distracted. So I learned so much today, man, but big shout out to Lashley Kubota. And by the way, if you stop by, go see the guys over there, Grant, and certainly Nick. Those guys can have to grants a GM there, terrific dudes. But they were awesome today. And if you need that kind of equipment, or you're in the construction business, or whatever you might need, guys, they also run equipment. I just want to tell you, that's the spot. And then, as you knew, looking like, what's that character actor's name? Steven Lang in the, oh, there it is. Yes. But there's some actions. Yes. I haven't put out there. Remember when he gives us the briefing about Pandora, the Pandora rules.

40:04Oh, yes. Basically, the big walking mechanism robot thing that they had. Yes. Yeah, man. And that's what I felt like. Honestly, I got in there. And they got the levers. And he's like, move your right foot. And I moved my right foot and that thing went in. It turned. It was awesome. I felt like a man. All right. And then, what that said, we're live in Napa Auto Park. What was that was the first avatar? That's right. Yeah. The first avatar. Right. Right. So good. Yeah, he had the big scar on his face, right? You will obey the rules. That's right. It's the Pandora rules. Yeah. Or you will die. Great character actor, by the way. Also played, uh, Nick Clinton in the, uh, in Tombstone. He plays one of the bad boys, right? I, I, I totally forgot about that. Also, last trivia question on the career Steven Lang. Also, the Texas Ranger who shoots John Dillinger. And, uh, is he in the Michael Mann movie? Now I got to go back and look at enemies. I didn't realize that he's the one. He's, he's, he plays, he's got a lot of range, man. Yeah. Play's a good heavy. No, he does. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. Hey, man, we're down here in Napa Auto Park again. Falcon flag giveaway today. We've had a bunch of people stop by.

41:04And it's just cool, man. To embrace our listeners and see you guys face to face and get a chance to meet you, your kids, whatever the circumstances may be. But again, the actual flag giveaway won't start until five o'clock, um, here at Napa Auto Park in moral. All right. We got to talk some NFL because Mike, we get a game tonight. And this is the start of the season. Let's get to fourth and one. So see Hawks are three and a half point favor. They're at home. They already got their rings. They're going to drop the big banner and do all that stuff tonight. And look, it'll be electric up there in Seattle. And the NFL does a great job. I know this with the kickoff of the game, the first game of the season. This is a rematch of the Super Bowl, guys. But the Patriots, Mike, in my opinion, are improved. I think they're better than they were when we last saw them in the Super Bowl because they got a guy named AJ Brown now, especially on the offensive side with Drake May. That's a hell of a secondary. That's a great defense. It is.

42:04It is. And look, for me tonight, not betting this game. I'm not, you know, it's not one of that I'm going to put down on the books day day. But I just expect a hard fought low, low scoring game. I don't expect neither one of these teams to put up like 35 points tonight. Either one of these deep. But here's the thing. Wil Campbell is still the starting left tackle. Patriots. And I left out. I mentioned it earlier. I was listening to Andy Randy and I was driving here. And we're on Jonesboro Road in Maro just by Lake City. And I'm laughing because we love Stink. And I left out loud because he sits here. He goes, Wil Campbell, man. I mean, he absolutely got destroyed in the Super Bowl, man. He goes, I mean, that was, he's got to be living with that and slave host. Of course, you know, I can't relate to that because I was never destroyed in the Super Bowl. Mark Slay. And he's not lying because he's one of the great linemen of all time. But Wil Campbell, that's one of the worst. I mean, he got absolutely destroyed, roughed up in the playoffs. Is that gotten any better? And Schlabeau was saying he sees the technique has not really changed. And curious, we had a coach he's getting from the staff in New England. But that's a major problem for Drake, man.

43:04Well, protection is an issue. Is it Schlabeau? Mark Slayer. Yeah. Schlabeau is AJC now ESPN. Mark Slayer is stinked two times Super Bowl, three times Super Bowl winner with red skins and the Broncos. I think that is going to be one of the things that they will test tonight. But Patriots running back, Trevon Henderson is out with an ankle injury. That could certainly be an issue. But remember, Seahawks are bringing in a new coordinator. No Clint Kubiak. And they're breaking in a new running back. Now, reports are this kid they drafted might could be electric. But we got to see it. And so I'm just curious to see what this looks like. But the news is guys, we get the NFL back Thursday, the 49ers and Rams. That's tomorrow night. Rams are three point favorite going into that one. That's going to happen in Australia. And if you don't have Netflix, you're not going to get a chance to see it. Yeah, more coming up in Guytalk on how the Rams basically took over customized their airplane for the trip. And maybe they've got a better handle. There's two ways of looking at it, the 49ers. By the way, decimated now on the defensive line. Two major injuries. Kyle Shan, I'm just talking about it, saying, look, we just lost two starters after the cut deadline.

44:08You know, after guys were cut cuts from a the NFL. And that's about as bad as it gets. Alfred Collins suffered a torn patella tendon. He was a guy last year. I think he played 12, 14 games for him. Had a couple of big impact moments. But you're talking about detacles. It's like us. If we lose one of these starting detacles, Mike, that we've gone out and acquired. You're talking about the depth of that position. So again, remember who's running the 49ers defense? It's a guy your name named Rahim Morris. Right. That you guys are very familiar with. So we'll see in the I need to know that game tomorrow night is where he was. The Rams defensive coordinator when they won the Super Bowl. So he's worked with Sean McVay knows them well. But tonight we get Patriots and Seahawks. Meanwhile, let's talk about what's going on with Sean McVay and saying all the players are going to go. But we now know that one guy did not make the trip. And that's Aaron Donald. Here's McVay. Hey, Sean. Have you made a decision about who's going to travel to Australia? What do you mean? Well, all of your players go. Yeah, that's the plan. And of course, we now know Aaron Donald is like, I'll be here when you get back.

45:11Mike, you said it. Different travel plans. You'll talk about it later. I find it fascinating. I don't know. And you've traveled abroad. If you guys have been overseas, this time-changed thing will get you, man. Yeah. So two ways of looking at it. You get there. You get acclimated. Spend the week the way the 49ers have done it. Which if we're honest, the folks that are promoting the game on Australia, they're kind of happy to have the actual teams in country. The obligatory shot of, hey, look, there's the quarterback hanging out with a kangaroo. All the stuff that they're going to do before they play the game in Melbourne, which by the way, one of the great cities in the world, absolutely a blast of a place to be there performing the one. But the Rams are coming in and out. And they looked it up. We're going to talk about it in Guitalk. And they talked to doctors. And they talked to folks who deal with this sort of stuff. And there's basically two diametrically opposed ways of looking at how you handle this trip. No doubt. All right, Andy Reed on Patrick Mahomes. What is his week one status, Andy? As far as our roster goes, a pretty good chance of Patrick. We'll go ahead and start less something where to come up here in the next couple days. But most likely he'll be the guy that's out there.

46:14All right, Andy Reed is a pass happy coach. Despite the fact they draft, they picked up Kenneth Walker for the title. You just mentioned they did. How rusty is my home's going to look like Kirk Cuzz who did against the Steelers two years ago? Is he going to be that limited physically? See, that's my question. Mahomes is going to be great guys. He's going to continue to do Mahomes things. The problem is a lot of the plays that have been made in Kansas City have been made because Mahomes is extended place. All of a sudden, five seconds turns into eight or ten. And he throws the ball down the field. And there's Kelsey or back in the day. It was the cheetah. And you went, wow, what a play. That's not what they called. Mahomes made that happen. Yeah, that's why you wonder, I mean, despite Andy Reed having the rep and everything else and all the assistance that have come through Kansas City, how much comes down improvisation and receivers always coming back to the ball at your taught and coached. But Patrick making things happen, extending those plays and then either, you know, tip towing down the sideline or hitting Kelsey on a comeback. I don't know how limited he's going to be. It's going to be interesting. Here's my reason. You agree with me real quick?

47:14I mean, even though, and they've had sort of running backs like Pitchekko and other dudes, but this is a guy that can really tote the mail with Kenneth. But are they going to lean into Walker? That's the question. Well, look, if I'm Andy Reed, I do, especially these first few weeks to allow Mahomes to get back to feeling like himself. We're talking about, and here's the other thing too. I mean, like the whole pinnocks thing is interesting and look, two different injuries, two different injury histories. Mahomes hasn't had the history that Pinnix has had. But this whole thing, like Mike, there is a little bit of time that it takes for you to get back into the feel of it. We saw the crazy thing. Kirk Couss has looked absolutely horrible. Remember the pistol he looked like my grandfather trying to hand the ball off the beach on. You know, it was like, I'll get there. Hold on. Kirk would remember he'd be stretching and look painful. And then the following week, he didn't look good at times against Eagles. And then he goes down and does the freaking two-minute drill. After St. Quon drops that shirt pass for a first down or touchdown, we go down the field and win on a two-minute drill. It's crazy. I mean, there's the 24 season in a nutshell, right?

48:15He really is. But those are the things that we'll be watching for, certainly when the Chiefs played this weekend. And it's a big deal because again, Mahomes is must see. And when he's on his game, you know, you want to see what he's going to be able to do. But a full slate of NFL games will be giving you our picks on Friday, guys. We're going to be live between Peaks, by the way, on Friday to date. Bucket. Bucket. Yep, on Friday. And today we're down here in Morrow at Napa Auto Parts. But full slate of games. And I can't wait. I mean, Falcons at one o'clock. You know, all these games now, Front and Center. And we're going to get a chance to see. Week one is weird, though, in the NFL. Well, again, just like in college, I mean, especially going to look that bad against Oklahoma, right? I mean, some teams just sleepwalked through the first week. The year we went to the Super Bowl, we had a really sloppy game with a lot of big explosive plays. We allowed to the Bucket Heirs back in the day. Yeah. It's a good point. And then we went on to the... That was Jamest and the Boxback then. Didn't he come in and throw for a bunch of... Yeah, a bunch of touchdowns. Yeah. All right, we're coming back. What are we going to get from Pittsburgh? Mike DeFabo. Well, the players beat Ryder for the athletic is set to join us next.

49:15What type of Steelers team are the Falcons going to get on Sunday? Stay there. Stukes and Bell. Let's stop to Mike DeFabo. Mike DeFabo, this is what we're dealing with in Atlanta. Because we're trying to figure out what kind of quarterback play we're going to get. Hopefully we get quality quarterback play from Tua. Steelers beat Ryder for the athletic. I want to ask you about the Steelers quarterback. What's the latest on Aaron Rodgers? What does he look like? What are they saying about him up there in Pittsburgh? Well, you know, it's funny that you guys are going through this right now because... Zero sympathy for you because I went and I sat out Aaron Rodgers for months and months and played the... What will he do when will he decide games? And I did that twice. So, zero sympathy for me here in Pittsburgh, but he is the quarterback in Pittsburgh. And I think what you're going to see is a similar quarterback to what you saw last year. The positives are this guy absolutely can swing the football. There is no question about that. He doesn't just throw it well for a 40-year-old. He throws it like some of the best in the league. That part of his game is still there. He still is one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the league and uses his mind to work his way around the field.

50:19Processes things at a high level. Those are the positives. The thing he doesn't have is his mobility. That was once such a great asset of his game and his ability to extend place, create outside of structure. That allowed him to attack down the field. That part of it's not there. So, what you have is a quarterback who's going to want to get the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible. Get it in the hands of his playmakers as quickly as possible and try to create yards after the catch. That was the formula last year. Works sometimes. Sometimes it didn't. But that's kind of the air in Rogers you get and now 42 years old. From the athletic Mike DeFable up there in Pittsburgh. So, what's McCarthy's philosophy? I mean, he's going to lean into the run a little bit more and take some of the pressure off Aaron? I think he is going to do that. They do have a young offensive line that they've invested in heavily. I mean, they've got first round picks and second round picks that practically every single position. Not all of them are going to play this week, but I mean, they've got a left tackle, Troy Fautona, who's a first round pick, left guard, who's a third round pick, a center and Zach Frazier, who's a second round pick.

51:20And you won't see him this week, but Maxi Onits who are eventually a first round pick at right tackle. So, they've got the guys up front to move people and they've got a pretty good tandem with Jalen Warren and Rico Davil. So, yeah, I think that they're going to look to run the ball, try to create their explosives off of play action. But, you know, when it comes to the passing game, a lot of what Aaron Rogers does well at the stage of his career also marries well with what a West Coast offense is. West Coast offense is a lot of the things that I just talked about getting it out of your hand, getting it to the playmaker. So, a lot of what the quarterback is able to do also kind of meshes schematically and philosophically with what the head coach wants to do. Mike, what are the concerns for Sunday? If our listeners and Atlanta Falcon fans don't know anything about Pittsburgh going into this game, what are some of the things that stealer fans or people are talking about from the standpoint of, hey, going into the season, this is a concern. Outside of Aaron Rogers age, we're just simply talking about the team and maybe some of the weaknesses.

52:21Well, one thing, one way that I think that the Falcon's can win this game is if Bijon Robinson really has a career day or really has a great day. And when you're looking at the stealers defense, they made a somewhat controversial decision on cut down day. They moved on from a land in Roberts, who was a very physical rundown type of thumper and in the base defense are going to have Peyton Wilson. And he is a very good linebacker. They think a lot of them. They think he might be their green dot one day. But I'll just tell you honestly, he's a leaner body type. He is very good in coverage, very good in sub packages. So it's going to be a big test and a big, you know, measuring stick to figure out whether the stealers made the right decision there in terms of their inside linebackers. The other thing they're going to be missing to Sean Elliott. He is there starting strong safety. They have some guys who could fill in in that role.

53:48If the stealers can slow down or shut down Bijon Robinson, I don't think they're going to shut them down. He's just too good to do that. But if you could slow him down and at least to some degree make the Falcons one dimensional, I think that's going to be a long day for the Falcons. I really do. I mean, when you look at the stealers defense on paper, they should be one of the best defenses in the league. This is going to be the fifth consecutive year that the stealers employed the NFL's highest paid defense. Now, part of the reason why Mike Tomlin and defense accordion or chair loss are no longer here is that group has not played up to its collective paycheck enough. But with new defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham, you know, you're going to see a different type of philosophy. He is big into all out pressures and simulated pressures. And so on rundowns, what that means is sending seven guys gapping out the offense where there's nowhere for the running back to go. You're also going to see him changing the picture on the back end a lot for two rolling his safety, disguising coverages and messing with him with the simulated pressures where you've got six and seven guys with a line of scrimmage and trying to figure out which guys are rushing and when they're going to be rushing is really a challenge and a guessing game that could leave one on one situations for some of their linebackers like TJ Walton company.

54:59Yeah, it's a great point. We're talking with Mike DeFabo guy Steelers beat rider for the athletic. What's up with Joey Porter Jr. And do you see him matching up with Drake London? How do you attempt to slow down Drake London? Man, this Joey Porter Jr. question has lingered through training camp and it's the biggest talking point right now in Pittsburgh. And we're still looking for answers. And there's basically two questions. Question number one is he going to get his contract that still remains to be seen. You know, Omar Khan, the general manager has a bad history of letting negotiations linger till the last minute. We just talked to Kim Heyward a minute ago. He signed a deal on the eve of the opener last year. So still some uncertainty about the contract. The second question is honestly if he going to play. There's currently an or on the depth chart from Joey Porter Jr. or a sauteus Samuel Jr. And you know, Joey claimed that it was a back injury that kept him out. I mean, we'll call it what it is. It was a hold in. But he really he really only started practicing about a week and a half ago at this point. So back injury or contract strain, whatever it might have been to kept him out.

56:04He has been off the field and you wonder what kind of plane shape you'll be in. You also wonder, you know, would he push that button? Would he go the nuclear route of actually sitting out a game as his contract doesn't get done advantage Falcons. So talking with Mike DeFaboy guys, he's the stealer beat writer for the athletic. What is the expectation up there? I mean, you know, Carl was saying that it's obviously it's an organization that had three coaches since 1969. You think about stability. I thought McCarthy was just kind of a retread. I didn't see this in inspiring higher. I was kind of curious after how things played out with him allegedly changing the plays Aaron Rogers McCarthy sent in back in the day. So what is Steelers fans expect this year for Aaron Rogers last go round? Well, you know, I think that when McCarthy was hired, people weren't super excited because as you mentioned, I think that a lot of fans wanted something new and a 62 year old coach didn't feel new. Now, what I'll say is starting from his first press conference, he's very emotional. He's a Pittsburgh guy. He grew up in one of the most blue collar neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

57:06And you could tell I'm just the way he described it, the privilege and the weight of responsibility that comes with coaching this football team. And so I think that he's one people over in Pittsburgh, but ultimately this is a city where, you know, winning season is not good enough. They boot and chanted fire Tomlin when he never had a losing season. You know, they would point out the fact, you know, nationally, people would say he never had a losing season. Locally, people would say, well, they haven't want to play off game in a decade. And so really, I think that that's the bar right now. I think that anything above winning a playoff game would be considered a successful year. Anything below that, I think is going to be considered a disappointment. What about these wide receivers? We know about DK Medcalf, Michael Pittman, what, what, what do you think about this receiving core and the threat they pose? Yeah, I think this is a volatile group. You asked me earlier about concerns, and I don't know whether to categorize this wide receiver group as a concern or a strength. You know, on paper, you look at it and last year it was basically DK Medcalf, a huge gap in everybody else.

58:11They went about trying to change that this off season. They went and they traded for Michael Pittman Jr. At points in his career, he's been a number one. Now he's going to be a number two to DK. They went out and they drafted Jeremy Bernard, out of Alabama and experienced pro ready type of wide receiver, physical, rugged creatures after the catch. And then Roman Wilson, a guy who's in his third year and really hasn't put it together yet, he had a great camp. And at every single turn, Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy have been talking him up. So that's the optimistic glass half full point of view when you look at this receiving core. On the flip side, I'll start with Roman Wilson. I mean, it was just a week ago that Aaron Rodgers was talking about how his route due to tell us what they were supposed to be. And he had to correct him because he threw an interception. So that's been an issue for Aaron Rodgers, building trust with Roman Wilson. You look at Michael Pittman Jr. He missed weeks of training camp due to an injury. Is he going to be on the same page with Aaron Rodgers in week one? And then even Jeremy Bernard, no, I think he's going to be a good receiver, but Rodgers doesn't have a great history of getting off on the right foot with rookies.

59:16It takes some time for him to build that trust and build that relationship. So as much as I think Steelers fans are optimistic that this is a much improved water receiver group, there's also plenty of question marks. It's going to be interesting. Close game in your opinion, or you are really undecided with what you know about the Steelers and what we know about the Falcons. Over under is what 40 and a half, 41. Yeah. Yeah, I think that, you know, if you're looking for a prediction, I think it's going to be, you know, something like a 24, 17 game in favor of the Steelers. I think that they can win this one. I just think they have a significant advantage if they can slow down B's on Robinson. You know, I don't think two is going to beat this defense. And I think that, you know, Mike McCarty, Aaron Rodgers, there's enough magic left in there to put up some points. They've got a pretty well rounded roster. You know, one thing when you look at Pittsburgh, if you're trying to find what's the weakness of this team, because they're not paying the quarterback a whole lot, there's really no like glaring weakness.

1:00:19And I think that that's kind of what's going to keep them afloat and give them a high floor. But when it comes to their ceiling, I don't know that they're one of those teams that we're going to be talking about at the end of the year. I think they're going to be kind of always in the conversation, but never truly in contention. Mike DeFabo, great job. We appreciate you stopping by, man. Enjoy Sunday Steelers Beat ride it for the athletic. We'll talk soon. All right. Thank you guys. I appreciate you having me. You got it. Can I tell you guys something? What he just said at the end is going to be the challenge for any quarterback that we run out there this year. Can he beat us? Whether this was Michael Pinnick starting, you don't think the Steelers would be saying the same thing? Pinnick's is not consistently proven. This is not me banging on him, guys. I'm telling you just from a football perspective. I've talked to too many people around the league. He's not proven in the 12 games that he's played that he can go out and just command the offense and beat people. Okay. So toa, he just said, I don't think toa can do it. If this was Jack's train, you'd be losing your mind. And Cooper Rush has had his moments. This is part of the discussion throughout the season.

1:01:22We're going to be having. If Bijon is limited, can our quarterback go out and just handle business and do what he needs to do? We're coming back. What's on day days? Mine is next. It is Duke. So bail out on these streets in the heat here at Napa guys Jonesboro Road. Marrow Lake City. We've done this now five years in a row. We do these Falcon flag giveaways and the flags are awesome. Whether you want to have mine, you ride at the tailgate, which is having in your garage, you put it in your man cave. Everybody wants a piece of this. That's why it's always a big event. The flag giveaways start at five, five PM for the military that's 1700. But we'll be here guys two to six 30. We're going to six 30 tonight because it's the United United data. Is that right? Yeah. And so come on down. We've already run into a ton of folks. Thanks to Chris. He's the boss here from Napa and we got a great time. And we'll be here to six 30 looking forward to seeing you. Yesterday it got hot and heavy. It's continuing on the text line. People have strong opinions about Michael Penn, Xt Jr. He is their quarterback. They will accept only Michael Penn, Xt Jr.

1:02:23As they're starting quarterback for the Falcons. Despite the injury history, despite where we are right now in limbaugh. And with that, I turn it over to date to find out Carl what's inside his knocking. What's going on? Well, not the much. Man, first off, big shots out to coach Jason Rousseau of the Riverwood Raiders softball team. Got a chance to stop by and see them. Hello. Hold on, sexy lady. Sexy lady in a car here. He's got a Falcons red on. But I just got a chance to stop by and check them out. It's their first year with him as head coach and they're sitting at 10-3 and 1 in the midst of winning six of their last seven. So I want to show them some love. All right, guys. And then there was 24. 24 what? Well, it's looking like it's going to be stronger, a stronger case for 24 teams in the college football playoffs. The CFP agreed to open a 30-day negotiating window with ESPN in regards to a 2014 playoff format. The CFP has decided to move forward in its evaluation of potential playoff expansion to 2014 by beginning a media rights discussion with ESPN.

1:03:31This does not represent a decision or commitment to expand, but rather an opportunity to engage with ESPN and gather additional information to help determine a path forward. The CFP will provide additional updates when appropriate. We're going to get 2014, guys. That's all this means. Yeah, now remember, Sanky promised his member teams 16. Yes. And that thing just got left on the side of the road pretty quickly. Coach is back there, a destined this earlier this summer. We're like, hey, what's up with that? Well, remember last week the reports came out that Sanky said he would agree to 24 if the other conferences were being agreements with playing 10 power four opponents, which the SEC teams pretty much I think all of them are pretty much at that market. Cross conference rival, but will the big 10 play ball? Well, yes, Petiti said if that's what it takes to get it done in the team. In the end, are you listening? The big 10 would consider doing such a thing. Indiana has just scheduled Barbizon Beauty School. Now, in 2031, home and home.

1:04:32Yeah, Signeti. Signeti is like, yeah, we'll play when we have two. Yeah, look, we're going to head there. This is greed, but it is what it is. And they want to expand because thank you. They want to expand because they want to get more more eyeballs on this thing, right? More more interest. Mike has always made the point. I think, you know, in this situation, more could be better. But Mike makes a point about those first round games, man. Are they going to be high garbage? That's that's, you know, I'm not talking about them. When we get to the final six or eight or like those first round games and then, you know, we'll see how this looks, but you're right. It does open up the door for what we assume is going to have. Oklahoma Michigan game. Obviously, we just covered Michigan and all those fiasco last week. That's what I want to see in week one. I want to see Oklahoma play Michigan. I want to see Georgia play in Oregon. Remember how much fun that game was we fretting that one thing went through Oregon like, well, pooped through a duck. But there was a lot of build up to it. And I guess that would mean that we would probably eventually eliminate week zero because you've got to have these types of games. Is that going away anyway? I think it pretty much is.

1:05:32Yeah, so all right. Did you guys see what happened this morning that started last night? Oh, man, you know what now? Obviously, I'm not going to tell you I watched, but I did see the highlight. And the only thing I heard was at three a.m. And I'll tell you where I was at three a.m. Right off. Going well, I tried to bug it out as they say. And watch. I've been trying to use that in a sense this week. And watch Ben Shelton defeat Carlos Alcaraz. Five sets. He advances to the semi-finals. He'll face a. What's our guy from New York? Toppio to say it for me. Oh, to F.O. To yeah, TFO. Yeah, some sorry. In the semi-finals. TFO was talking about. TFO. No, no. Roxanne Roxanne. And I want to be your man. But yeah, the match started just after 11. Okay. And ended at 3.30.

1:06:32I was locked in because it was a promise. If you didn't know watch, if you haven't seen highlights, pull it up. It was a phenomenal match. Some of the points these both of these guys were scoring on. It was just amazing stuff to watch. But at like one 15, one 30, I was like, this is some bull. I'm not going to be honest, man. You're a better man than I am. I mean, I know we finally have some US born players, Carl in the top 10. And now these guys moving into the semis. But yeah, they're story. And I talked to a buddy of mine because I got some Wall Street dudes. I got the coin for this nonsense. It's because the Arthur Ash Center is the only center that has all the VIP seating. The Louis Armstrong arena, just like Wimbledon Carl. They've got multiple arenas. They do multiple bigger arenas. You could do this. But because of all the VIPs and all the coin they lay out, they're only going to put those marquee matchups in that one. So they probably should have pivoted and put the other match and overlapped it in Armstrong. But they never going to do that because you don't get all the juice. Well, yeah. So all about the amenities. Yeah, well, you're on your celebrities because like, I think they show Kevin Hart was in attendance.

1:07:34Shelton is dating Trinity Rodman. She was in attendance. So you had all your celebrity. But what was funny was. Shelton ATL, right? Yeah, his dad George Attek. I want to say. I don't know if he still coaches there or buddy. He did coach at George Attek. But what was funny is when they would do some of the panning of the crowd, you would see people literally like leaning down like, what in the world? How much longer am I going to be here? So it was like, you didn't take an app. Oh, you took an app. You didn't take an app. So and then it got to the point where people were leaving. But ironically, people started coming in around the third and fourth sets. It was crazy. But yeah, I tapped out. I tried, man. I was like, this is 130. I got to get up. I can't. Great stuff. Gotta watch the highlights. We'll see what happens. But it was a phenomenal match. All right, guys. The speeding gods are on my side. What happened? So Mike, Carl was out. Remember the family and I. We took our last run down to Orlando. Right. Disney trip.

1:08:34On the way down. Got a speeding ticket. I even asked the guys, I hate man. Last family trip. Can you cut us a break? It was like, not this week. I was like, well, damn it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me know. So I'll be down here then. Right. So anyway, I'm, you know, frustrated. My wife teased me the rest of the trip because I literally drove the speed limit. The rest of the trip. 55. Yes. She's like, so this is the big six. Right. No, she's like, is this is all you're going to do? It's like, if I'm driving, yes. But anyway, so the court date's coming up. Yeah. So I was like, I need to try to push this guy. Is it a super speeder? Bingo. So it is a super speeder because I was 15 miles over. How ever. How ever. I was like, do you guys offer a virtual court anything like that? And she was like, no, unfortunately, we don't. However, how ever our, our, our, our, our, our prosecutor, prosecutor does allow us to offer you a, uh, driver defensive driving court. Not even that. What a plea bargain. Wait a minute. You didn't have to go to that idiot school. Did I do every six months?

1:09:34No, that's just a mic belt thing. Okay. Six months, every six months. Well, I have a, I average one point, I average one point two speeding tickets a year. All right. Honestly. So I will still have to pay the amount, which is two, 15 or 250. I can't remember. So I was 90 or what? I was 90 or 70. Okay. But you were keeping up with traffic. Basically. Okay. Go ahead. So I like to see you drop the hammer. Way to go. Way to show leadership. I get down. I really don't have the same patience when it comes to, you know, driving curly is with a quarterback. You know what? Anyway. So I still have to pay the, the amount, but I won't get the, uh, the points. Points won't get the point. And I avoid the super speeder extra to 50. Yes. Good job. That is a good deal. So thank you. Speeding gods for shining on me. I was going to say I was stressing what you told me about. I wasn't stressing the initial ticket. It was the money on top of it for the super speeder.

1:10:36I got a guy next time because Mark can work out of state too. And I would shout them out, you know, that county, but then I don't want nobody to hate and be like, no, no, no, no, no. I hate you to pay off. I hate you. I hate you. Somebody's mad because the old days we used to have, like, I work, I swear to God, told the story. Being a Pollock and driving up to the ACC media days. Getting nailed. Some were just out of the, you buy the lake by the heart well on the Georgia side. State trooper comes up. Everybody's a Georgia fan. I got Pollock in the car. And I literally have many helmets for him to sign me or take it up. I go, hey, man, he goes, yeah, what's the hurry? He said we're going to ACC. I go, you wouldn't happen to be a Georgia fan. He goes, no, sir, rambling wreck from Georgia Tech. I'm like, damn it. John, no juice, no break, no nothing. I go, I got a three time all Americans sit next to me. Nothing. Yeah. And he probably looked at Pollock with, yeah, absolutely nothing. I got a double year fine. That's all the kids in the car. Yeah, everybody. Okay. Well, I mean, it was funny because the oldest were, why in America, all of them were up. And then they were all just like, wow, dad.

1:11:36Looking at you. Way to go. Yeah. I was going to say next time you roll the window down, right? You know, he walks up, you go, sir, I just picked up these kids from an orphanage. And my wife and I, we guide little children and we make up something. Okay. I mean, you got it. At least try to pull it. They're heartstrings. Yeah, they did. Yeah. One of the hottest girls, my wife's listening. This will never, you know what I can't tell. Oh, okay, I've said, I'm going down this road. I'll get you it quickly. Becky, go watch a lifetime movie. If you said, home listening, I'm dating the hottest girls every day to crawl. Yeah. Miami. Okay. And I'm blasting it with dolphins, game running late. Get pulled over by a state trooper. So I was working to Fort Myers. And, and I got my grandmother, I was taking care of my nanosystems living. She left her diabetic wrist bracelet. You know, like the medical hurt. It was in the cup holder. You used it. I go to the girl. I go bear with me on this. Drop state trooper. What's the hurry, sir? I go, sir, I'm sorry. I'm diabetic. I've got low blood sugar.

1:12:36I really need to get to some orange juice or a stickers bar. I didn't have time for dinner. And he goes, hold on. I've got a glucose tab in my medicine. It's here. He runs back. It's been the glucose beat the, beat the ticket. And she looks at me. She goes, you realize I'm never ever going out with you. Oh, yeah. Hey, hey. And honestly, look, I've had my fair share of getting out of tickets. But it's that reason right there, Mike Bill. Yes. I've heard everything. Right. And they don't give any leeway. That's just on my mind, guys. I remember kids when we lie, the Saints cry. Good stuff. Glad you got out of the ticket, sort of. All right, coming up. Wes Drew Ham. The voice of our Lena Falcons, Wes Terms, going to join us. You didn't even say Drew Ham on the show promo. I heard that. I did. I teased it because I wanted everyone else to think that I was going to say it. And I know you did. He's going to join us. We'll talk Falcons. We got some culture ball to talk with him about as well. We'll find out what ACC gave me's calling this week. We are live at NEPA Auto Parts, guys. And tomorrow, come on down. Flag will be handed out at five o'clock. That's when it starts, all right. Yeah. Falcon true leader is fretting the Falcon legends.

1:13:37All that stuff's going down, man. It's Duke's and Bill. The expectation that I put on myself is to go out there and score one more point than the other team. Who said it? T-U-A. He said that today after practice, guys. We're going to let you hear more as we continue to move along. That is the object of the exercise. That's the object, man. And he talked about his relationship with Michael Pinnix and everybody in the quarterback room. But he also talked about, you know, the pressure of going in the week one, being the starter again. And a guy that's going to be their first hand in stealer land is a guy that will be calling the game right here on sports radio 92 night. The game it's Duke's and Bill sports radio 92 night. The game we are live at Napa Auto Parts. Guys, 58 20 Jonesboro Road down here for the Falcon flag giveaway, which starts at around five o'clock. Stay tuned. All of that is on the way. But right now we need to talk to the voice of our Atlanta Falcons West Durham.

1:14:37West Drew Ham. What's going on? What are you all down here in the land of Andre Hastings doing today? Oh, nice pool. Man, it's the Falcon South Side. Yeah, we do it every year. Yeah, the Freddy to Falcon is going to be down here. Falcon cheerleaders, a couple of Falcon legends and people line up, man, they get their Falcon flags. And they got Bell's car up on the rack down here somewhere. No, they took the truck today. They do not. Hey, man. I want to talk some comments from ball with you. But first, obviously with the NFL front in center, West and the first game of the season. By the way, you still get jitters. You still get nervous after all these years, the colonies and NFL games? Not when the plane lands on Sunday morning. I don't, Carl. Once it hits the ground, Sunday, I'm your man. But yeah, no, it's it's fun. Yeah, I'm excited. I'll be I'll be pretty the journal will be pumping on Sunday. Yeah, I mean, I'm always excited to start the year and.

1:15:38You know, I told you guys how much I enjoyed just the experience of broadcasting these games with Dave. And that's that that hasn't changed. And so yeah, I think we're we're both interested to get going and kind of see how this unfolds and. Uh, kind of who emerges from it because the names you're familiar with will certainly be part of it, but they're also going to be some new players that emerge from this for the Atlanta team. And I one of those guys, I think, has a chance to be Kendall Daniels based on what we saw in the preseason. And I'm really interested to see he and the upload together to be honest. And I'm looking forward to kind of watching this team grow as the season goes on. I do not have an expectation level on Sunday. Do I want them to win? Absolutely. Uh, do I think Bajan Robinson has to be a big part of it? Absolutely. Uh, but I also think too that they're playing a team that knows Cincinnati is. Capable of walking away with this division and Baltimore might be right behind them. And so Pittsburgh wants to get off to a good start too.

1:16:39And it's a homecoming game from Mike McCarthy grew up there. He's I think based on some of the articles I've read this week. I think he's had a secret desire to coach the series for a long time. Didn't want to intrude in the ending of Mike Collins zero. So I think the emotions for him will be fairly significant on Monday too. Boys, the Falcons West term with us here guys on Duke Sibel. And that's you mentioned Kendall Daniels. I mean, I thought he's one of the guys you really popped it camp. And the preseason opportunities, you know, in the games, West. And I mean, he's got energy. The question is does he walk up to the line to us? Did we send him? How are we going to generate pass rush? Can you get it from the old geez as it were that we have added this year? Yeah, I think that's a, I think that's a lot of the stuff, Mike, that you're never going to see in the preseason that we have to find out Sunday, right? I just think that's the way this is going to go. And I'm kind of expecting some of that to play along that route. You know, it's one of those things to you want to keep it out on the end. You're a report this week and Atlanta didn't have anybody listed out. I don't think today, but it's going to be interesting to see kind of how the defense comes together.

1:17:43And I think Daniels will be a big part of it. You know, I'd be crazy to think Jervon Dexter is not going to be a part of it, right? A guy they just acquired who's got some, got some production to him. Brandon Dorulus played pretty well at the end of last year. Can he, can he start the year playing well? Remember, he started the first five games last year and then came off the bench the rest of the way. So how's that going to work this year? We'll find out, but I think the defense certainly will also have to make a statement. They're probably have to do it in the past game too. And, you know, for that reason, I'm, I'm interested to see how Avion Terrell will play if he gets, he gets posted in this nickel spot on a regular basis. Sure. Wes, how do you think Coach Daphansky and Tommy Reese, our offensive coordinator, set up two or four success? You talked about the running game and I think, you know, it's pretty evident, right? But part of my, at least observation to house Daphansky has worked in the past with all the quarterbacks that he's dealt with is getting, getting timing and some rhythm down for two early in this game,

1:18:46I think is going to be very important. Yeah, I think you, Paul, and it's interesting you bring this up because this week I've started to go back to some of the analytics for, for, to a, and, you know, he's, last year's numbers quite frankly were the worst of his five years with Mike McDaniel. Okay. I mean, he only averaged 190 yards passing a game, touched down and a half a game and over an interception a game. And I think the one thing that you go back and look at is when he's at his very best, the ball comes out quick, right? And his release time, 22 to 24 seasons was some of the fastest in the NFL. Last year, he only threw 30% of his passes within two seconds. And that's, these are some of the analytics and Archie, Archie, he's driving and listening to this season

1:19:46or wreck his car because he hates when I do this stuff. But I think this is part of the story with him. Here's the other thing too. This is where the, and again, you guys, we talked about this at Camp when I told you, I thought that this is two of his best offensive skillset that he's played with right now, understand, Jalen, Waddle and all those other guys. But we're talking about potentially three top five position players around him in London, Robinson and Pitz. This is where you turn and hand the ball to seven and tell him to make the magic happen because, you know, we know kind of where the offensive line is, especially on the left side when it goes. It's really good. But to eliminate the TJ watch situation to eliminate some of the other pressures that McCarthy, no doubt, is going to dial up. If two is going to throw the ball, we can't be standing around waiting. It's got to get out. It's got to get out quick. And I think that actually plays to what Kevin and Tommy want to do. Because then again, I'll go back to this. Kevin said early on when discussing the quarterback situation, the most important characteristic was what?

1:20:51I think there was going to be a quiz. Go ahead. Accuracy. Accuracy. Accuracy. Yes. So for me, you get the ball out. You know where you're going. You're going to put it on the guy and you're going to move. So that's, I think that is the path to success, at least on Sunday, for sure. West, we also took college football with you throughout the year because you call it every weekend, man, as well. It was a strange week. I know you can make go ahead, make some jokes about Florida State, not paying the power bill. I've heard them all. I didn't pull the plug like Johnny in the movie Airplane. But yeah, it's, I know you follow the ACC. And I'll start with FSU. A lot of questions about a quarterback, Ashton Daniels, processing in real time. Defensive miscues. Closer, maybe than it should have been because of some mistakes by SMU with turnovers. So that's, that's about all you need to know. And they've given up like 900 yards in offense the first two weeks. So not good and tally. What do you make a dabbo, though? And where does this go at Clemson? Because that, that was just so tough to watch the other night. Yeah, not good.

1:21:51Not good at all for Clemson on a evening night. And fortunately, unfortunately, I'm going to be there Saturday night for George's other. So I'm, I'm as interested as anybody to see how Clemson plays. I don't know. I don't know where Chad Morris thought the offense was going to be, but that certainly couldn't have been it. I think LSU and this kind of goes without saying LSU's got a lot of players because they've been resource completely. So you know, they spent a lot of money to get the right players there. And he got good Sam Levitt the other night did lane. And I thought the, the Dylan Jones kid from Wisconsin ran hard, right? And when that happens and then Clemson helped them with some mistakes. Clemson's inability to run the ball the other night. I thought in a 3-3 game on a third and two at midfield. When you couldn't run, when you couldn't convert that third downplay, I thought that was. Thought that was pretty revealing. I said in the spring, I thought Clemson was either going to be eight and four or four and eight might to be honest with you.

1:22:54I just don't know where we're going to get enough plays to be made. I West going more terrific on the perimeter. The Zina threw the ball pretty well the other night except the one time he threw it to the guy in the white shirt who ran it back the other way. You know, I think they are they're going to play both quarterback Saturday night. But the reality for Clemson is this they've got to get this squared away and probably got to get it squared away sooner than later because they have Carolina at home next week. Then they go to California and home by the way after that they have Miami October 3rd at Clemson. I'll tell you this about Miami. I saw a lot of things last weekend. I don't know that I saw many play better than Miami played. West, I totally agree with you and look Malachi Tony may be the best player in Cos football. This kid looks unstoppable. The men's a kid. I know you called his games at Duke last year and you've seen him up closer. He looks like the real deal. I agree with you. There were glimpses last week where I went, okay, everybody's going to say it was Stanford.

1:23:54It's more than that. They they look offensively like they had a miss the beat at Miami. Yeah. And the other thing too is all the defensive concerns kind of got wiped out too. Right. So I think Miami's one of those things that's going to be in the mix until further notice. And look, I think there are four or five that are there in the mix. There's two playing Saturday in Austin, Texas. Should be in the mix. So further notice, even whoever loses that game Saturday night should still be regained as in the mix. Right. I mean, you know, we can get a conference conversation as the year evolves here. But if I'm the big 10 right now, Ohio State is a stand alone at this point. Right. I mean, Ohio State looks like if everybody wants to tell me there's nobody else in the ACC beside Miami. And that may be true. But right now, I don't see anybody else in the big 10 except Oregon and Oregon struggle with boys. He who's a good team. But outside of Oregon, I didn't see anybody really challenging Ohio State either. So it's going to be really interesting. The college game has got a lot more moving variables now that we started playing players.

1:24:56And it's, you know, it's kind of drawn some NFL analogies in that life, right? Right where you've got you got players on their teams and guys that moved on to play. And, you know, I can't explain the Michigan Western Michigan fiasco with timing. That's beyond my pay grade. Yep. I don't know that league as well, but I would say this. That's the kind of stuff that's easy to clean up if you have a unified football project rather than individual conferences operating at their own volition at times. Well, while we're talking about the ACC before we let you go real quick, it's Western, the voice of our Atlanta Falcons. From what we know about Virginia, I may be jumping the gun. Yeah. Could they be a team at the end here that could challenge because they're older. Yeah, they're not playing Miami in the regular season either correct, correct. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Virginia definitely, they're definitely capable. No, yeah. Yeah, I just, you know, again, talent wise, I think Miami has more talent, but I do think Virginia with their schedule and the way they play.

1:25:58They could end up in that position. Westman, I know you guys are going to have fun up there. Hopefully we're talking about a win next Monday. West is going to be joining us guys on a weekly basis, by the way, to talk football and certainly college and falcon football. So we're looking forward to it. Football's back, my friend. Yeah, we're looking forward to it. Mike, what did you do during the power outage the other night? Well, obviously, West, as a journalist, I committed to reporting the information. For some reason, the Wi-Fi worked flawlessly. Well, no power existed on my side of the stadium. So the good news was, West, the, the pay systems at the bar was functional and the liquor bar was fully functioned as well. I'm going to call Carl. Carl, good to know that the approach and the mission has not changed for your partner. West, we've never lost the party. You know, it says unconscioned on that license plate. We mean it. Oh, my goodness. West, enjoy. Take care, man. We'll talk to you. I want to remind you guys opening week on sports radio, 92 9, the games presented by hands free sketchers. We're going to be in the games just step in and go.

1:27:00We're down here, down south. Yeah, man. By the way, just you mentioned Virginia schedule. Miami only plays Notre Dame. Arguably the only ranked opponent that will be on Miami schedule is the Irish at South Bend, which will be unbelievable that night. It will be. But that's it. And even with that one loss, they are punched their ticket. They're in. They're going to be in. I agree. If you told me right now, one weekend of the season, right, they're going to get in. Hey, man, we're coming back. People not talking about Georgia. I mean, we're talking about a lot of teams, but a lot of people around the country are not talking about Georgia. Is that good for Kirby and company? We'll discuss when we come back on sports radio, 92 9, the game. It is Duke's in battle with live in NEPA auto parts hanging out getting ready for the Falcon flag. Give away. Look at this car right here. They already ready. Look at the flags on this car right here. Hey, man. They're not playing around. They are ready to go. A couple of things Falcon related. We'll talk some dogs. Mike's got some guy talk on the way. We've got two of sound bites we want to play for you because he did speak to the media today.

1:28:01But this is interesting. Or is it? Kevin's the fansky. Called to it to tell him he was going to be the starter week one. Before he met with the rest of the team and the quarterback room on Monday. Okay. Now, I only say that's interesting just because some of you are like, he's the starter by default. Kevin's the fansky's job is to instill confidence into it and to make sure that he's ready to go on Sunday. And I also think this is the way a real head coach handles business. Mike could have easily done this and been like, well, you know, guys, Mike's not ready. So we're going to go with this guy over here. That doesn't instill a lot of confidence. He called to it to tell him first because this decision had been up in the air. And then he says, look, I'll let the rest of the team in the quarterback room know tomorrow. That's why two was asked today about the quarterback room. I'll let you hear that sound by it. But his whole deal is like, look, guys, I got a great relationship with MJ. He's talking about MP, he's talking about Michael Pinnix. Obviously, you know, the undrafted free agent in strand.

1:29:03And he's talking about Cooper Rush. But he's been saying that Mike since we talked to him in, you know, three days in the camp about his relationship with Michael Pinnix. Right. Whether they are besties, which I don't think they are, but getting along and understanding that this is about the team and we all are together and we're trying to win games. That's understandable, but I did think that was interesting because I think a lot of people just feel like it was secondary. Like he got this call from from coaching. It was like, yeah, by the way, to do we really want to play, can't play. That's not how this went down. And I think Stofansky handled it the right way. Hey, man, the thing about, you know, two, and he says he's going day to day, by the way. That's how he's approaching it as the Falcons quarterback. So, you know, one of our guys who follows us on our text line, I'm always arguing with you. Is it creative vision over here? This dude right here? You're going to go back and forth. We go back and forth all the time. You know, we're going to have a nice discourse. Come on, say, how man, we can have fun, right? And he goes, I'm not some keyboard warriors. That's what I like to see, man. I like that. Come out and be real. Be in a real world. But no, we're just talking about it and, you know, it can pinnix establish himself. Well, what happens if two actually hits the ground running? You know, I mean, you're telling me if I don't personally believe this is going to happen,

1:30:06but if two gets off to a great start, why would you jerk him out of that role? You know, I mean, that's, and then the other aspect of this is, is the organization truly committed to pinnix? Or was it just lip serves to the fan base? Because they didn't draft him and they're concerned about the injury history? You know, or, you know, they look as to as a truly long term viable option or just a stopgap. Doesn't matter. As he, as a man here, said, it's just want to win. It's want to win this week. Trans get off to a start. One thing that surprises, we'll talk more about this at five o'clock in the Falcon report. But the injury report, this is the first one, Coral. It's not the defining one. But the ones they want to let you know what's going down. Michael Panics, full participation. Remember, knee he is clear, but he's not going to play. He'll be on the pup. But Billy Bowman, Achilles, he's limited. We knew that. But one that struck me was interesting. Brandon Dorolas, arguably our best pass rusher on the roster with a Geroin, as you say in Texas. Yeah. And then Zachariah Branch dealing with a hammy, which is, you know, takes just time to heal up. And that's the thing, man. Five o'clock, baby, we'll be giving over slags away right here at Napa over on Jonesboro Road where we are today.

1:31:07Like the hat, though, bro. Like the head, man. Like the head. But a little nervous about Dorolas, man, because that's our number one pass rusher right now. Well, Mike, he is the one guy that we know for sure that can just beat his guy and go get it done. Right. We got a bunch of guys on this team that we're wondering about on the defensive side, especially without JPJ, James Pierce Jr. Guys. And, you know, Jalen, being out. Sometimes in the NFL guys, this is why I'm worried about TJ White. Sometimes it's just me and you. I'm better than you right now. I'm going to go ahead and get to the quarterback. There's nothing you can do about it. It's just man on man. Dorolas is one of the guys that I can at least say he shown us one on one. I can get there and I don't have to, you know, you don't have to scheme things up for me. That's why I think it was such such a big surprise last year with eight and a half sacks. So, yeah, I'm a little bit concerned because that was something that was unexpected. But it also could mean this is something he's been dealing with. They put it on the list because they have to.

1:32:07The NFL requires this from every team. And maybe he's just going to be fine. But if this is something that's lingering, it doesn't help our past rush. I'll tell you right now because it's a big concern for me as we continue to move forward here. And the season is yet to start. But it's one of the things I've been asked. I'm not sure where this pressure is going to come from. And by the way, this is not an indictment of Jeff Olbrick. You can only call so many things in a game to get pressures. It gets back to sometimes you just got to have dogs out there. And guys, it just go get it done. And that's why Pierce was so impressive last year. A lot of that stuff, guys, was not skimmed up. It was just James go make a play. And he beat his guy and got to the quarterback. So, if you've got those guys, you know, this is why everybody's looking at the ramp. Cusp attempt sacks this year. I mean, I know that's pying the sky. That's what we wanted though. But we just assumed that Jalen Walker was going to be hand in the dirt. He was going to be getting after it the way that Olbrick was going to use him. I'm excited though about, again, Kendall Daniels. We talked about that with Wes. He's maybe one of those guys. And he's one of those guys. Remember, Kate and Ellis, they would use him. They would walk him up to the line or slowly, sometimes the skies.

1:33:08And then he could get after it. I think Kendall Daniels, a guy who's literally gone from the size of a safety to the size of an ed rusher who's athletic enough to play linebacker in like three years. And he's a stud. He's got that mindset. He does. While we're talking about the Falcon skies, we'll let you hear again from Kevin's fanskant to a both- but just immediate today. This is Game Week. So Monday with the holiday, they were all they practiced early. Tuesday is a regular day off in the NFL, which they were off. Today it is game plan. Let's go. This is what they're doing today. So they were on the field. Real quick though, let's talk about Georgia. We just had Wes Durham on. I don't feel like there are a lot of people talking about Georgia nationally. And so much so Mike, Pat McAfee even said that the lack of Georgia talk is eerily quiet. Good or bad for Kirby? Hey, man, Art of the Radar. I mean, you're not going to see them in a high profile matchup. First Arkansas on the road, then Oklahoma comes calling. And then the Alabama game in Tuscaloosa will be another one of those Kirby can't win an Alabama.

1:34:09You know, that's all that stuff will come up. But to not have Georgia in the mix, and we talked about, you know, what people thought of Gunner Stockton nationally. None of this matters. Again, all this crap is clickbait. There's nothing going on until now. Tomi's leather. And here we are. So you've got all these lists in these top 100s and top 50s. Look, Kirby knows what he's got to do. He's been there. He's went back to back. Natties, the only question is, will this culmination of upperclassmen augmented with the transfer portal equal a national championship? Because remember, we'll talk to Mike Griffith tomorrow. Barbara Dually joins us on Thursday. But one of the things we've talked about is Kirby's kind of doing a little more old school. Not as reliant on the portal. So this is upperclassmen. This has got to be a better defense than not as good as the back to back. Natties. That defense has got to be better. Is he able to run the football? Is Bobo not going to do stupid stuff? You know, but I still think George is going to be in that. They'll certainly get as far as they did last year. I think so too. I do. And again, by not talking about Georgia, look, there's a lot of conversation.

1:35:09And this week, you know, when you're in the marquee games, you get the conversation. It's Texas Ohio State this weekend, right? They're going to get a lot of conversation. Last week, everybody wanted to see, you know, these teams get underway. And some of those matchups didn't turn out to be like the LSU game. It didn't turn out to be what we thought it was going to be. I'm fine with it, but I agree with you. I don't think that is going to hamper them. Or it means that they're less talented. Or, oh, people don't think Georgia's going to be in the mix. I just think they played a inferior opponent last week. They handled business. And everybody's like, oh, we expect them to do that. Okay, great. We're going to get a chance to see them tested here shortly. Reminder football coverage on 92-9 in the games presented by Exfinity guys. School of the most reliable Wi-Fi. One price. Five years guaranteed. Exfinity, imagine that. Mike, what are we have coming up in Guy Talk? All right, who's got the plan for playing down under? Do you spend a week down there? Or do you zip in and zip out? Come out to the coast. We'll have a few laughs. Who's got the plan? Also, if a waiter stops someone from shooting you, is that worth 20% tip?

1:36:09I would hope. I'll tell you about it coming up in Guy Talk. Flag giveaway, guys, starts at five o'clock. We're at Napa on Jonesboro Road. It's a moral lake city. And it will be here till 630, by the way. Falcons are here with their promotion staff. They're going to have a falcon legs inside of autographs. And the flag giveaway again drops at five. But Guy Talk is next. We're on Wi-Fi. So they got that going for him. But they do feel that apparently the kind of sleep and the way they're going to handle this, the everything from the temperature control and the air pressure they're going to set inside the cabin. That these guys, and some folks who study this for a living, feel that this is maybe the way to do it, or arriving 1713 minutes before kickoff against the 49ers. I don't say it's cutting it close. If this strategy works, Mike, you're going to see, I think, other teams approach it this way. Because these international games aren't going away. Sean McVeigh is basically saying, we're coming in, we're handling business. We're getting up out of here. We're not going to see the kangaroos. Right. Some guys say that they can actually get a good night's sleep with this,

1:37:09due to low cabin altitude, high humidity, dead quiet, wake up, warm up, and play the game in specific time. Niners have adjusted to a completely different time zone, where the game is played at 10 a.m. Not the time their body is trained to perform. Doctors are saying this is an article from the LA Times. Yes. And then other guys are saying, not to mention the effects of going back, and then your next time you play football, and how do you have any lingering effects from spending all that time in Australia? Which of course, you Australians want to see the NFL teams are disappointed. The Rams are coming in because they're the bigger, a little more star profile on the ramp. Yeah, I would agree. And you know what? The coming back thing is real. Like we talked about it. If you've been overseas and you come back, take some in it. I mean, some people's bodies are just, but it's weird, because you look at your watch, you're like, oh, you know it's this 2 a.m. over there. Right. And you start thinking about, you know, the time difference, and you sleep patterns. But man, I think once you get that adrenaline going, the game will be the game. I do think the next week will be interesting for both teams as they come back, whether the Rams are more prepared, or you're going to see the 49ers,

1:38:10have a little of that jet lag and all the things that go with it. All right, we're on the radio. It's not exactly a visual medium, but I'll show this to Carl so he can comment on this. Here, look at the video. Couples having dinner. This is in Ohio over a year ago back in April of 2025. Matthew Xden walks into a restaurant called Sabira in Toledo, Ohio, and allegedly sent a drink to his ex-wife's table. And then apparently runs forward and produces a gun. Wow. And he's going to get the name right at his ex-wife to murder her. But he has the safety on. Gun misfires, right? Or doesn't fire at all. And yes, look who runs in. The waiter. The waiter tackles the guy. They immediately get this guy on the ground. And by the way, and if were we living now, a lot of folks just be running for the door. Or pulling out their phones. Correct. Exactly. Well, in this case, the waiter and then two other patrons got on this guy, held them down, get the gun out of his hand. The reason the video's finally been released, he's going to get sentenced in about two weeks. He just got tried in Ohio and he's going to jail for the rest of his life.

1:39:10Which is good news. Yeah. But a lot of folks immediately, I put it on social media, I said, I think that's where 20%. He's getting anything he wants. Okay. You want the keys to my car? Well, he is the car, man. The waiter immediately tackles him. The Lucas County prosecutor says, a describe to see as an attempted public execution says he walked in. That was the goal in mind. Scary. And again, he's a former lawyer. And he was suspended, lost his law license and apparently his life went off the rails. So what? So why was he still, yeah, but why was he still mad at it? Is that because she left him? Oh, because probably lost half his ish. If I had to, I don't want to live here. I mean, guys, you crazy stuff. You know, wife takes half your stuff. You know, some guys playing B is to just go, that's it. Boy, I just go off the deep end. And I guess that's what Mr. X is playing. He sent her a drink. Those are how he said it. Said her drink. And I guess try to figure it out where exactly where she was. Either way, didn't know. Oh my god, you're right. Not familiar with how the weapon works. That was it. Scary, man. Hey, man. Again, we're around the radio. So I apologize. Can only kind of describe this.

1:40:10And there's a few kids here. I'll try to dance around the subject matter of person of gingerly. There's a new ad campaign involving Sydney Swini. Dayday. Have you seen this? No, dayday is not that dayday is the only guy on the show who's very fond of Sydney Swini. The very Bucksome young aspiring actress. Or actually, now she's not our aspiring. She's an actor. She was great in Euphoria. And she's been in a number of movies. We were talking about the house made. It was a big hit this last year. Sydney Swini, new ad campaign for another one of these prediction markets called Novik. Okay. And it's basically her in various states of undress. Again, I'm not going to show this for the kids. I'll just show this to Carl. Please do. There she is sitting on top of the basket. Hey girl. I'm holding basketballs in the appropriate places. And some would say Carl giving new meaning to the term take it to the hole. Wow. That's their phrase? No, no, I'm saying. Oh, oh, oh, oh, okay. Okay. Got it. Basically a naked woman on top of the basket.

1:41:10Okay. There's other photos of her where she's holding a tennis rack. Yeah. She's strategically placed. Football strategically placed. Wow. Basketballs. You saw the strategically placed. Okay. Are you suffering now from Sydney Swini overload? Is it getting to be too much like Summer is saying it is with Pat McAfee? Okay. So look, sex still sells, man. Sexuality still sells. I know we're all, you know, in our fields about some of the things that are being done in society. But Mike, this is something as kids we saw and parents are parents. They try to keep us away from this stuff, right? That's a graphic, you know, commercial or whatever. This still sells. And now a digital and social media. How do you get away from it? So she realizes this is part of her sex appeal. Yes. And why people are interested in her. Damien. You know who I blame for my, why you gonna blame somebody? Ken and ball run. Ken and ball run. Yeah. The scene where the two ladies got pulled over and they, she was like, I got this one. Yeah. Adrian Barbon.

1:42:10Oh, yes. She buttoned down. Yes. Was it Diane Cannon? Diane Cannon. And then you know, if it's been a female officer. They're in the Lamborghini. That's right. They show it. She had like the, it was like a spandex with a zipper. And the first couple of times she gets out of it. And then it's the lady cop in the Lamborghini. That's right. Yeah. Ken and ball run. No, man, I don't have a problem with her. You know, this is, this is part of her appeal. And here's the reality too. One, at one point it won't be. At some point it won't be. So she's young. She's attractive. She's making this dough. And you know what? This is part of who she is. And I don't think it hurts her, her career. And all this stuff hasn't hurt her. No, I mean, like anytime you have that kind of, just amazing bombshell, Raquel Welch was that same phenomenon. That's right. Late 60s early, and then beyond and still beautiful. Either way, I'm a fan. But anyway, you can just go to the link. Because of the adult content, it's blacked out at my, at ATL, what the hell is my call? ATL Bell, I do not. I do not get this call. That's right. Hey, man, Day Day touched on this earlier guys. As we're live from Napa Auto Parts here guys. In Marijuana, Jonesboro Road, Falcon fans are lining up,

1:43:11getting ready for the flag. Give away, which is going to drop in less than 10 minutes. So stay tuned. Day Day brought this up earlier. A lot of folks very upset. If you love tennis, I like tennis, but I can't lie to you. I'm not going to watch tennis once football season starts. Now last night, I would have watched tennis, but it was the only thing on. Braves were on last night. We'll talk to Grant McCauley coming up in the five. But everyone agrees the USDA is getting tons of heat and deservedly so to have a premier matchup, airing at 11.30 at night and not finishing until 3.30 in the morning. So nobody, unless you're a hardcore tennis fan, even on the West Coast, that's midnight. Yeah. You know, to watch that. And as I said to Day Day earlier, U.S. Open the Word on this is, you have the Arthur Ashe. Have you ever seen it? The tennis center sits right next to City Field, right down the old Shay Stadium, which isn't there anymore? Yes. And they've got multiple stadiums to play these matches in. And you could have started one and the other, but the other one, the original Louis Armstrong arena, doesn't have all the bells and whistles, all the club level amenities, all those luxury boxes and suites. And so when you got people that spend six figures to sit in those

1:44:11for the U.S. Open, you're going to play your match at 11.30 at night, which is a drag. And they're getting killed for it. Yeah. And the match was amazing. Day Day alluded to this. It was absolutely amazing. I didn't stay up either mic. I did not see it. And it's shouting. How would you describe shouting, by the way, Rising Star, superstar status? Yeah. He's on the rise. I'd say on the rise. He's been right there kind of on the cup. So I want to say this was his first win over a top ranked opponent last night. So he's been there. He's kind of been that up next kid. And I think, and I say we, I'm talking about Americans. We need an American star, Mike, to rise up again. At one point guys, you know, we talk about Mike and I, we reminisce about the old days of tennis. It was great Americans at the top tier of the table. I mean, just think about it. It was the anniversary of was, remember when Jimmy Connors had that great comeback. It was like what, 38, 39. I have her oldie was. And he went through the road. It went through everybody. I think he got to the quarters. His semi's got beat by courier. Yeah, so we did courier was a guy.

1:45:11And San Frisk was a guy. So if these guys can step it up, I'll start watching more of it. I got to be honest with Venus and Serena stopped competing on a regular basis. I don't watch as much of it. And it came out, they came out this day. And day day as much of a sexist pig as you think I am when it comes to the WNBA. What? What? I do love women's tennis because it's actually more fun, more ballies. Men's tennis sometimes, boom, boom, boom. You know, it's like when my monster serve and it's not as much juice. Well, that's what was entertaining last night was you had the power serves. But then in regards to the volume, like some of the acrobatics and just the speed that these guys were using to get to the ball to make the returns in the shot. It was just this was phenomenal tennis. And again, you know, it's sad that it was on so late slash early because again, I tried to hang as long as I could. And I had to tap out 130 because it was only the end of the second set. Right. And this guy, he got a lot of patience. He does especially when it comes to our quarter. But real quick, final note, we're playing the Steelers on Sunday, DK Medcalfe apparently what happens when you spend six weeks with Aaron Rogers in practice?

1:46:11You go to the dark room, you develop some interesting theories. DK Medcalfe says that Antarctica has a civilization inside of the earth. Apparently there is a civilization underneath Antarctica and that's why it's hands off. Oh, the aliens are down there. Yeah, apparently that's why we don't do anything in Antarctica because there's a whole world underneath it. Okay, well, I mean Captain America could speak to that. I'm just saying, hey man, we're getting ready to give away some stuff. The Falcons are here later on. Big play, Ray Buchan is going to be inside some autographs taking some photos. It's our, I think we now called this car our annual flag giveaway with that and the Falcons fans are hanging out. People are lined up and we ready to get it on here in just a minute. I am excited about Sunday. I hope you guys are. Tua is the starter. He spoke today in practice. We're going to let you hear what he had to say. Also, Kevin Stofansky laying out a few things as we get ready for the Steelers. We're live in Napa Auto Parts. Come on down, man. Get your Falcon flag as they'll be started to hand out his mic set around five o'clock.

1:47:11We'll be here until 630 and if you missed our interview earlier in the show as we went to Pittsburgh and we talk with Mike DeFaibo beat rider for the athletic. Interesting things he had to say about some of the weaknesses and concerns for the Steelers. You'll hear that coming up as well. We're down here live in Napa Auto Parts. Falcon fans make some noise. Make some noise, y'all. There we go. We're down here to get in their flags. Rape you can in his here. Falcon legend signing autographs guys as Duke's and Bell. We start off every day and every hour by saying, hey, man. It's good to have you listening. There is a lot going on today and we're going to talk Falcons because today they were back on the practice field. Two of did speak so did Kevin Stephansky our head football coach. Mike, everybody's wondering what this offense is going to look like. We talk a little bit about the rookies who are starting a V that's a beyond to rail and of course, Kendall Daniels. Two rookies that have had a really good camp man and hopefully they'll have some impact not just Sunday but throughout the course of the season. But this conversation is ongoing about the starting quarterback situation.

1:48:15And today, Kevin Stephansky said, look, we're trying to prepare to and give them a chance to win. And give him the best possible situation to be successful. And that's all they can do, right? I mean, if you're going into this game and you're not setting him up for success, then you're probably not going to have a good Sunday. What does that look like? We have an idea. We have thoughts about it, but we've got to see what they think. And I want you to hear a couple of things from two of Mike here as we get going here in the five o'clock hour. Grant's going to join us to talk some braves here in about 15-20 minutes. Also, we hope to grab Rae after he gets done signing and talk some Falcons football with him. But first things first, two of says that he was not told by Kevin Stephansky, but this is a week to week thing. And I want Falcons fans to understand. I think a lot of you feel that way, but when you tell the guy that you're starting this week, hey, this is your week. But next week might not be your week. Your chance to shine, son. Get out there. Two of said he's going day to day as the Falcons. And we didn't say that as QB1. He said that.

1:49:15Two of said that. Here's what he said about what Kevin Stephansky told him. Yeah, Kevin didn't say any of that. How I how I'm taking it is I got to go with this day to day. And you know, that's out of my control. What I can control is how I prepare how I go out there, how I play, how I perform. And that's that's that's all I could do. And look, I wouldn't expect him to say anything else. I just think it's interesting that if he was told, he probably would say, hey, coach said, by the way, next week, we may be going in a different direction, but I got to go out and play this week. He didn't say that. So we'll see where this goes because I think there are a lot of people, Mike, and we've talked about it. What's this time table for Michael Pinnix? Is it three weeks? Is it two weeks? Does he start next week against Carolina? I don't know what this time table is, but that's what came out of flowery today. Right. Now again, when you look at the injury report, he is, you know, technically he is cleared, but he's not going to be. He'll be inactive because coach is there for those who remember the timeline, said he's not ready yet. You know, said he just didn't feel he's ready.

1:50:16And if we've discussed this at nauseam, talked about a lot of folks here today at NAPA 2, by the way. You know, a lot of folks just kind of look warm on to it because of how it ended in Miami. I know we've talked about, is he going to hit the ground running? I guess the long odds is what if two comes out there and actually handles the pressure against Pittsburgh? Handles what they're going to throw at him, makes quick decisions, processes, doesn't look like the guy who he looked like at the end of last season. It's a fair point and that's the point that or the thing. I don't know if anybody really knows. We got to see him once this game gets underway on Sunday. Now, one of the guys, you know, we're really leaning into and he's going to have to have a great season. He had nine and a half sacks last year as Brandon Doerlis. He's listed as having a groin injury on the first edition of the Falcons injury report, which drops on a Wednesday. Yeah. So he's out there and also a hamstring for Zachariah Branch. So I don't want to, you know, sort of throw cold water on a guy that we've been talking about all camp, but I hope that doesn't hinder what he's going to be actually doing. I wonder what he's going to be asked to do coming up on Sunday. I hope not either, because I think Doerlis is a big part of what we're going to try to do defensively, especially with no James Pierce Jr. and Jalen Walker being out.

1:51:17Here's two of talking about getting a new start with the Falcons. Yeah, it's very refreshing. Again, as I said, it's blessing. That's the best word I can describe the scenario and the situation that I'm in. Do you feel like you have something? And I was just going to say, you know, I don't expect him, Mike, it's just not in his nature to take shots at pinnocks or anybody else. He's going to talk about the positives of the situation, but he knows what it's like to be benched. He knows what it's like when, you know, things are not going well for you. So for him, this is a new start. Will it be a new start that sets his journey in a different direction, meaning, you know, on his way to another team, another bag. Is he here? We don't know. Full season to be played. And there's a lot of football in front of us. What has this journey been like for him? He kind of explained a little bit. Well, I would say it's a blessing once again. It's not something that I take for granted. You know, when something gets taken away from you, you start to process everything and think of all the things that you could have changed.

1:52:23You know, just me sort of looking back with my time in Miami. Things that could have done better and things like that. So it's blessing. Yeah. And Mike, you know, and by the way, if you wonder where is Pinnix, he's inactive. This is your starter this week. That's why he's speaking. So this is not us playing to it. No, no. Pinnix is inactive. This is how this works. Okay. Right. So I just want to be clear because I think there's some people think we have bias. I don't. Oh, and only the only bias. This is something I was going to route car was laughing because he always sees it during the commercial break. But I'm typing away on the computer on social media at ATL Bell 929. And Carl's put him up seducs is the only reason I'm so frustrated with Pinnix is I wanted to see him start this week. Of course, you know, the best thing for the Falcons is to find out whether he can or he can't do the job. One way or the other because this is now year three. Not being drafted by the guys that are calling the shots doesn't help you. You know, because they might not feel as warm and fuzzy as the previous regime does.

1:53:25You know, and the other side of this is, you know, they have a decision to make about his option. The fifth year option, guys, for those that go the decision will be made in the spring. I think it's May. Yeah, because it's the first one. A 27. And you want to see, I mean, what if Michael Pettix plays in just 10 games? So it's 22 games enough of a sample size to know you got your guy. One way or the other or is that going to not stop you from going and drafting a quarterback next year? You know, and the other thing is I really don't want to see multiple quarterbacks. I wanted to see one guy grab the ring and do the job. It's let's be honest. Probably the reason I think I'm, I can't speak for you, but probably the reason I'm frustrated about it is the quarterback battle wasn't a quarterback battle. No, it wasn't. This can't. It never happened. No, it really did. The injury and his inability to compete in 11 on 11 is was was was was hampering that whole competition thing. Yeah, I think for me, Mike, you know, the thing that I'm disappointed in is I said this yesterday and I'll say it again today and day. You know, he said we got a lot of flack from folks on social media.

1:54:25Imagine that because this for me and this is how I feel. And until Michael Pettix tells us differently, this is how I feel. This is a mental him overcoming a mental situation with his body. I said the day when the doctor says, Hey, man, I know you blew your knee out a year ago, but you know, you had the surgery, you're healed. You can go climb that mountain if you want to, but you decide not to go climb the mountain, not because you physically can't do it. But because mentally, you know the challenges that are ahead of you and you go, I don't know if I want to do that, man. I don't know if I'm ready. That's what I'm hearing from Michael Pettix. I could be completely wrong. And by the way, he can take as much time as he wants because I think also part of this is he knows we know Mike. This is dealing with a big bag at the end of the road, whether it's here or somewhere else, but if he performs well, he's going to get a big back from somebody. And I've asked this question, you know, I don't know if I'm the Falcon brass right now. If I'm one of those $200 million in 12 games, I can't.

1:55:25I cannot tell because that's where we're going to be living. I mean, you're going to have a fifth year option. Okay, that's fine. But if you can't decide by if you have enough right evidence, right enough game video to say, okay, he's my guy. He understands the fans, he's out fans. He's processing. He's looking so much more comfortable and play action things that never happen again. Some of that beyond his control this year because I don't think Zach Robinson and the coach has put him in a place to succeed. You know, you don't get the play out in time. That's not really helping your rookie quarterback, you know, but as far as now, okay, but now it's go time. Yeah, that's why when we said yesterday and we had guys going, you said he's soft. No, I never call a guy who's come through as much injuries as he is soft. It's still in the NFL. I think it's you said it's a mental thing. It's where's the confidence? When will he have the self confidence in his body to go out there and win the job? Yeah, because that's why we're here. And yes, I am disappointed. He's not starting this season. I want to know where we stand. I don't want this to be a gap here. I know you got mad at me when I said gap here earlier this summer. Yeah, because I just, I mean, we look at these Falcon fans out here. Look at everybody that's here that wants this team to do well and win and they're vested.

1:56:29They got gear on. We buy the merch. We go to the games. We watch these guys on TV. We stay up late on Monday and Thursday nights. The investment is real. I don't have time for a gap here. Right. Give me a damn product that wins. That's why I got upset because you may be right. And I hate to admit it because I'm like, come on. I don't want to go through another year of that. We lost about now 30 sacks altogether out the door from the second most sacks in the league. Now we're re trying to rebuild this defense. We're trying to be better against the run because a new management team came in and said what those second most sacks in the league get you last year. Nothing. You still didn't win the division. So that's why we're, we knew what we're going to have to have a reckoning with James Pierce Jr. It's come down. Okay, we don't get him to have halfway through the season. So be it. The Jalen Walker was the real gun punch for me. You know, this summer. But hey, it's now you just hope that, you know, let's be honest. Is it Darius Smith and somebody's OG's still got some, some gas in the tank to, to Mike real quick. What's up, didn't want to ask. So because Carl, we know how you stand. You didn't want the gap here.

1:57:29But Mike, I knew to your point, you mentioning that. Doesn't it better serve you to not rush Michael Panics Jr. back if you're in the, if you're in the mindset that this is probably going to be a gap year anyway. If that's your mindset, but you know, if you are the Falcons and you didn't draft him, right? And let's say for whatever reason, he doesn't give you enough sample size or traction. Now, we don't know how the college season is going to play out, but there's a perception. There's at least 10 guys. Yep, they can go in the first round next year. And I, I might want to be in business the one of those guys. And I need to energize my fan base because look, we've got guys, and the other thing with these fans, some of these fans aren't even Falcon fans. They're just a guy, they want Michael Panics as their quarterback. I mean, because that's their image of who the quarterback should be and they don't want me telling a guy to go to work. Yeah, they don't want to hear it from me. You can say it, I can't say it, but I mean, it is what it is. And there's a lot of dynamics at play. And unfortunately, it's the kind of typical Atlanta, I had a stuff that creeps into the conversation. I don't care who the quarterback is. I just want to win. But I do know there is a reality.

1:58:29JJ McCarthy is already yesterday's news in Minnesota. But I've got people hanging out in the Michael Panics as if he's the only guy for the job here. And he was a better quarterback than JJ McCarthy. You don't get it. Twist, no, he was. So I mean, although, you know, they won the championship, they had the better team. He was the better talent coming out of the draft. Yeah. But I got to know what Michael Panics Jr. is. We got to go. Yeah. I mean, you're telling me if I only got 10 games, you know, I just, I wanted a full sample size this year, which gets us back to the initial point. The injury, the injury history is still part of the narrative here. And the other thing real quick, we were talking about this off the air. I love his honesty, but maybe he's been too honest. Maybe he's, you know, said too much. Maybe the Falcons have given him too much freedom there in that department carl. Because we're getting insight. We never get from a quarterback at Atlanta. Well, I know. Look, I don't think so. Because you told me everything I need to know about your mental state. I'd rather know that as a fan than he go out there and we didn't know that. And now we're wondering what's going on on it. I'm all for it. Be a man. Stay it.

1:59:29Be a man. Stand up. Tell me what to do is. I'm cool with that. I'll tell you about it. I like it. I love it. I know where I am as a fan when it comes to his mindset. 404-726-0929. You were talking about the gap here. What did you just ask Mike? What did you just ask him? It's good for the time. No, I said. Yeah, for Michael Pinning's Jr., if that's your mindset, you know what? I feel like this is probably going to be a gap year for us. Then why would you be in a rush for Michael Pinning's Jr. to come back? If you know, he's going to come back at some point. No, I don't want it to be a gap. I'm just having the feeling it's gonna be a cap here because 30 sacks walked out the door and by starting quarterback still hasn't played yet and isn't ready to go. And no disrespect to Tua, I'm just not as excited about Tua on Sunday in Pittsburgh because I would be about Michael Benick's junior. But the other thing is, El, Beno, we gotta go get your break. The thing about this team and another thing is, okay, I wanna at least even if the defense struggles, but does Benick's establish himself as the man? If he throws for, if he in the smaller sample size,

2:00:31if he can be two to one touchdowns to picks, completes the percentages up, and he looks like he gets the fanski's offense. Then you can then Matt Ryan and Ian Cunningham can say, okay, we're gonna pick up the fifth year option and turn the page. And then you're ready to go. But then you're also hoping never gets hurt again. We're a long ways away from that. That's the problem. We're coming back. We're live in Marrow, guys. Napa Auto Parts. Grant's gonna join us, talk about some braves last night was ugly. And we're learning some things about some guys and Matt Olson, we need you. Come to life again, it's Duke Sian Bell. Coming up in the six o'clock hour, guys. Our conversation with Mike DeFabo, athletic writer for the Pittsburgh Steelers, gave us some real insight into what we can expect on Sunday. Also, Ray Buchanan's here, signing autographs. Big play, Ray Joe. Falcon Nation is out here and getting their Falcon flags. Come on down here, we're at Napa Auto Parts on the south side. Jonesboro Road. And by the way, I know we got Grant coming up real quick. Got the best listers. And what do we say? It's a hot zip code for us. It's a great area with a ton of listeners and so cool hook it up with these guys

2:01:32who live and die for the Falcons. Yes, they do. They're out here, man. Come on through, get your Falcon flag. Grant, let's talk about last night. Look, we could start with the pitching. Obviously with Smith Sharver. Tell me your thoughts there. And you know, what Y said, look, he was trying to work himself out of trouble. But the four on runs on five hits, including the two on runs. Certainly put him behind the eight ball last night. Yeah, it did. And with the offense, not really able to do much on the other side. It just made it a difficult and longer night for him. Because every pitch, it just seems like there's just more and more responsibility. And that can obviously add a little bit to a pitcher's workload, if you will, or just at least mentally, what you're trying to manage when you're out there. And I think the big thing for Smith Sharver is nobody's questioning the talent. The fastball, the velocity's back. It's the command and control. It's his second areas I went through and kind of did a deep dive earlier today on his baseball sub-on page. And his split finger has just not been as effective since he came back this year as it was a year ago. That was his premier strikeout pitch.

2:02:33And he's just not getting the same chase. He's not getting the same swing to misses. There's too many walks. There's too many hits. And as we saw last night, there can be too many home runs. And that's just not a good recipe right now. But it's, I think, important to remember, even though the brazer and the midst of a stretch drive, they are trying to figure out, there's AJ Smith Sharver, based on the arm talent and the upside, have a role to play. Once they start to put together that pitching staff for October, the answer could be no. This may have been a bridge too far and just too much too soon for a pitcher coming back after missing over a year of action and dealing with a major elbow surgery. And he health wise, he looks good. It's command, as we've talked about. That's that final box. And it's a difficult one to check for guys coming back from Tommy John. And Grant, just since there was really nothing to talk about last night, offensively for the braves, would you say if it's the worst case scenario and it is a best of three and you're taking on the diamond backs if that's the matchup, is it going to be sale and then Malley and then a bullpen start? I think it could be sale and then Malley and then Holmes, if that's kind of where it goes, it goes all three.

2:03:34I mean, ideally, you'd love to not have to burn your best guys and that three game wild card. I can't stress enough how much you'd like to have the pitching staff rested and ready to go on its own schedule rather than having to snap right into action. And then, of course, when you get to the division series, if you can advance to the wild card, you don't have those guys available to you that you'd want in games one and two. It kind of puts you behind the eight ball, which is basically how Major League Baseball designed it. But being that as a may, I do think that Grant Holmes has pitched his way into consideration to make a postseason start for the braves, because if you start to break down the other candidates, Bryce Alders off the board with a knee surgery, I think that very ambitious to say he could be back in three to four weeks. We'll see how that all plays out. Ronaldo Lopez coming off of injury. A.J. Smith-Schauver has been ineffective. And Martin Perez, I guess, is the other guy that you could look at. But he's more of a soft tossing finesse pitcher. And those are not typically the guys who are getting the postseason start. So you like that swing and miss, but they could stack this a number of different ways to cover those innings to your point

2:04:34about the bullpen start and just having more guys cover what you would expect out of a starter in a normal regular season game. More on the Falcons coming up, guys, as they were on the field today, getting ready for the Steelers on Sunday. As we broadcast live from Napa Auto Parts off at Jonesboro Road. Grant, what about this offense, man? One run in the last 18 innings. How concerned are you? Are you, or is just a little stretch here? Yeah, it's been an extension of a trend that has been kind of troubling the braze for a while now. I would say it definitely tracks back to early August, especially. I know we had the June swoon where the home runs disappeared and the braze really weren't scoring. I don't know that it's reached quite that point, although we recently would tell us that it hasn't been very much fun over these last few games. But I do think there's just so much more talent there. And I asked Walt Weiss before the game today about, this is a team that gets a lot of its damage done early in counts. But where's the balance between trying to work counts? And really take some pitches and get yourself maybe into a different arrangement with a pitcher

2:05:36than just being so ultra aggressive. And he said, look, the guys they are, who they are. And ideally, you'd love to see some of that maybe situational awareness is kind of the big key there. But ultimately, it's easy to say, hey, just walk more. But you can also start working yourself back in a direction where, all right, well, you missed all the best pitches you could have swung at in this at bat. And even if you do walk, which is ultimately, I guess, a good thing, but not the desired outcome from your big sluggers, have you kind of worked yourself out of the opportunity to be who you are and have the maximum effect on the game. And that's a long answer to say, I don't really know other than to tell you, I'm seeing the same things that you are. I'm just not sure what the way is out of it other than for guys to just kind of get their swing back on time and on plane the same way we saw around the CUNY Jr. I noticed some good things from Metals and here lately. I think the Drake Baldwin has been striking the ball pretty well lately too. So you just got to get a few guys going. And if you do that, this is a Braze offense that will look a lot more like an optimal version of itself rather than the one that's really, really fighting

2:06:36to score runs right now. Talk with our man, Grant McCauley about the Braves. By the way, Grant said he has a news flash. Tampa Bay is really good. Yes, and they've got guys that can rake. They've got home run power. They've got pitch in the whole Shurbank. The other thing about the Braves, and you just touched on where they are with the hitting, it is what it is. Are you gonna see Aussie Albies here next year? I know we still got the postseason to get through, but I mean, this is a year where it's a contract year for Aussie. And he was so strong, but he's been so just no other way to put it, Grant, just cold with the plate the last two months. Yeah, you're not wrong. And this is a decision clearly that the Braves are gonna have to make heading into the winter. It's one of many, I think that they're gonna have to figure out that pitching staff obviously is gonna be a whole another work in progress as he try to rebuild that behind Chris Sail. So I would say second base is going to be a very interesting discussion. You know, Aussie is universally loved here. There's no question about that. He said moments with this club and he has been, everything you can ask him to be as a teammate and as a person and in the community and all the different things. He just checks all those boxes.

2:07:38It is a performance driven league, though. So, seeing Aussie get back involved in the middle of everything that's going right for the Braves offensively would certainly make that an easier decision. And I'm fascinated to see like what kind of deal is out there for him because it's been a solid, it may be not spectacular year for him, but he does have a track record of being a second baseman who can hit and those are in short supplies. So they'll be interested there. How exactly does conversations go and when they pick up intensity? I'm fascinated to see how it plays out, especially given that everybody's gonna have to stop and watch what goes on with the labor situation for Major League Baseball. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting. Tonight, let's talk about tonight, Grant, and what you expect again, it starts with pitching, but look, if we don't hit, it doesn't matter, right? I mean, we gotta get some runs. Yeah, I mean, you wanna keep the game closed and give yourself that chance when you're at home, the Braves have shown they can come up with some runs late and have a rally and I don't think that the Tampa bullpen is nearly as good as the Braves is. Their closer is pretty solid, Baker,

2:08:38but outside of that, I think that they've been kind of searching to find the right pieces to get that group put together. So if it becomes the battle of the bullpen, I think that things kinda shift towards the Braves, but being able to score some runs early would certainly take the pressure off and Ronaldo Lopez coming off of what three minor league rehab starts and looking to get back in this rotation and to the conversation we just had earlier about pitching plans for the post season, he's gotta make an impression. So he can figure out where exactly he could factor into that. It's kind of a big start for Ronaldo Lopez. In addition to the Braves wanting to get back in the series and have a chance to win two out of three, it's I think maybe a little bit more than just the average start for Ronaldo at this point in the year. Good stuff, Grant. Appreciate you as always, man. We'll see what happens tonight. We will chat tomorrow. Grant McCauley follow him guys on all the Braves stuff and of course MLB. Thanks again. Thanks, guys. We're down here on the Southside Jonesboro Road guys, Napa Auto Parts, Falcon fans getting their Falcon flags. Break you can't inside in autographs. Mike, Fredy the Falcon is here and the Falcon cheerleaders as well. Yeah, man. So come on by it. Now it's funny.

2:09:39Fredy always stops by our broadcast position and it's like, Fredy, where'd it be funny? Fredy goes, so what do you think guys? We're gonna go 10 and 7 and 7. Mass Cots can't speak. So under Mass Cots, stops by the radio broadcast position. It's really, no, where you can really go with that. No, it's true. He's always up to 26. It's the hands signals. Hey, man, you want to talk to the Falcon fans out there too? Of course we can, man. As we get ready for this Wednesday, I told you earlier in the show and I'm gonna tell you the story. When we come back. And you gotta hear a sound bite from B. John Robinson. It kinda explains what I'm gonna tell you next. It's Duke Sampil. Thank you, sir. Thank you. I'm talking to one of our listeners literally as we come back on live. What's your name? Rudy, thank you, Rudy. Rudy's here hanging out with us. He's a Braves fan from the old days, Carl. He was a little boob below when they were still in Milwaukee. Oh, they moray. I'm doing Atlanta. Yeah. Well, thank you, Rudy. Thanks for coming out, man. Appreciate you. Good to see you. I'm a man from Jamaica, Carl. He met us last time we were out here on the streets. What is he at? Don't you just said to me, he goes,

2:10:40what is he? He goes, your wife must not be a jealous woman. I said, no, you really don't know my wife. Oh, wow. All the things you say in the radio, no. I said, yes, it's true. And no, she does get very upset. Oh, yeah. You have no idea, sir. He comes in, she's got a knife. Yes. I'm on double secret probation as always with her. Hey, man, Shelton's here with another dude who's here earlier. He doubled back to get his Napa flag. We're live. Yes, he did. He's Burrow Road. Ray Buchanan is going to have Carpal Tunnel. He's starting somebody autographs over there. But he's hanging a big play, Ray, Joe. There he is. He's hanging out. And we've got the flags for, again, a great line of folks hanging out here. We just become an annual event. Our Duke's and Mel Falcons Napa flag giveaway. It's fun, man. It really is. And if you're wondering, honestly, like, good, support, it's real. The support is here. Fans care. We want our team to win. Yeah, our team has some issues, but we ain't it, right? And that's the beauty of this. And by the way, when I said gap year and in date, it brought that up the other day, I hope it's not a gap year. No, look, I mean, you're saying I made it.

2:11:40It was a thought that you had literally on I think our podcast. Right. And I was like, I lost it on the podcast that day. And then we came in and I said, you got to share this because it's something that I think a lot of people have thought about. Like, what is this year really going to be? And someday, you know, we'll find out more. And nobody's hoping that. Well, no, we're not hoping this last thing in the world. It's, this would be nine seasons, guys, without the playoffs. And look, one thing for certain, no, whatever this season is going to be, whether we win 10 games and win the division or win seven and that'd be nice. That'd be nice. You know, we got to figure out is Michael Pennich Jr. our franchise quarterback. That's got to happen this year. Yeah. All right. I want to write day day. Yeah. Thank you. Sounded confident, didn't I? I want to play something for you. And by the way, gotta give a big shout out. JT acres, Mike, brought us gifts, man. Dude, fan to appreciate that. JT acres, he knows I'm a Corvette guy. Got me a Corvette lid. I mean, we got the best list news. Some other guys. Corvette lids and I don't even have one yet. You know, join the club, man. I might have to. I told him I said, what's the grand sport guy? He said, I hadn't seen one yet. So that's a good problem.

2:12:41Come on now. We always appreciate meeting some of the best list news in town, man. I want you to hear B. John. He went on with K Adams. Is that right? All right. So this is B. John guy. By the way, Falcons practice today. Family practice was good. Injury report. Real quick, Mike. While we're talking about this. Yeah, Zachariah Branch, guys. So I really want to see an action up against Pittsburgh. He's listed with a hamster. Now we don't know how serious it is. And this is the first day, but it is the day that we finally find out what's going on. He's got a hammy. But the one that's a little more concerning is Brandon Dorolas. How do you say groin in Texas? Oh, groin. That's two syllables. But anyway, Brandon Dorolas is listed with a groin injury. And he's our best pass rusher. OK. I don't want to hear that. Because he's arguably our best front seven guy right now, other than maybe divine Diablo. And we're going to see what Kendall Daniels can do. Did you say define Diablo? Let's hope so. So that's the injury report. Again, it's Wednesday. They're required to do this NFL. So it's out there. I don't know how concerning it might be. But anytime somebody's on there, we do talk about it. Now I would say for fantasy owners, if you picked up rock bowers in the first round, not exactly the start you were looking for.

2:13:41Rock bower is apparently is going to miss this first week, maybe two. All right. Earlier in the show, you were looting to what was and what is. And I said, five o'clock out, I'm going to tell you a story. You said, I can't wait. I'm going to sit back and kick back and hear the story. So I'm going to tell you the story. But to set the story up, I want you to hear B. John Robinson talking to K Adams. Now, B. John has nothing to do with this story. But this story speaks to where we were, not where we're at. But B was asked about what the atmosphere is here now under Kevin's defense. You listen to what he said. What does Kevin bring? What has Kevin changed culturally that makes this one feel built to last? Yeah, I think really his experience is being a head coach. I saw him dead one. Just his intentionality and just his high, intentional level of detail that he brings is pretty special. Just as a coach, but even as a guy that you look up to, you know, it's cool to see that.

2:14:46Everybody else brings that same energy. All the coaches bring that same energy. The players now do it as well. But he's very big and being prepared for every situation. Every situation on the field, whether it's two minute, first down, second down, third, it doesn't matter what it is. He wants a plan for it. He has a plan for it. And he wants to execute it at a very high level. Even what Tommy Reese me in the OC, he's very creative. He's very intentional to his details. And I know all he wants to do is just call plays to score touchdowns. And that's all we want to do. We just put them all in his home. So, you know, having those guys here is definitely been special for all of us. So that's good to hear. Intentionality, attention to detail. We talk about these things. This is what makes good coaches great. And he's talking about he saw it from day one, high level of detail. So that's his description of what they're getting from head coach, Kevin Stofansky. Mike, the story is we didn't get that from our last coach. Now, I think for many of you, you'll be like, oh, that's pretty obvious because he's not here anymore.

2:15:49But you've been asking for months now. What happened to Ray Ray McLeod? Yeah. What happened to Ray Ray McLeod? It's a good question. So, Ray Ray was upset that the ball and the plate calling wasn't what he thought it should be. And when he took that to people, specifically Zach Robinson, there was a problem. The problem became that as a player, you become expendable and as a assistant head coach or the offensive coordinator, you're not. And especially when you help somebody get a job. So when you talk about who goes and who stays, the player had to go. And if you're asking, well, how did that play out? How do you play out? I don't know the specific details. What I do know that is when we talk about Zach Robinson and what he was and what he wasn't as an offensive coordinator, we weren't the only ones talking about it. There were players in the building who were questioning what was going on. And when that was brought forth, there was some fallout.

2:16:50And that fallout led to Ray Ray not being on this team. So when you say, hey, what's the deal and why was Zach seemingly doing whatever the hell he wanted last year, well, Mike, that's part of it. And that led to the dysfunction and the lack of detail, which deep deep, right, B. John's talking about. And the intentionality that he's talking about with Kevin's defense, and I look, Kevin has won a game as a Falcon Head coach. But I will tell you guys, players know Ray Ray McLeod, not Ray Ray, but sitting next to us here, big play, Ray. Big, you can't. You can ask him when he comes over here and he'll tell you, players know who's full of it and who's not. And there are some great head coaches in this league and there are great assistants. And sometimes guys are great assistants. And when you're not the head coach, Mike, sometimes you can do things that the head coach, you know, that assistants get away with and head coaches wouldn't. And I'm only saying that all of this and I hope you're following me because I don't want to get into too much detail. But the fact of the matter is, when things got questioned by people in the organization,

2:17:54somebody's head had to roll and that led to Ray Ray being released. I'm telling you, that's part of this deal last year and it led back to Zach Robinson. And Mike, we know Zach's in Tampa now. We don't know what he's going to do with Baker Mayfield. They signed him yesterday, but you've been asking for months. And part of that is how you deal with the team and players and what goes on behind the scene. Everybody we talked to veteran players, you know, we talked to some of the guys on the offensive line. We talked to Beige on your heard the sound bites. They said detail oriented. That came up in every conversation, more detail oriented, more focus. Like it is what it was. Just talking to a correct. It's old. Yeah. I was talking to a guy here earlier today, Bobby, he was saying, you know, I like you because he loved hearing you and me trying to get stuff out of Raul last year. You know, he said, it's hard. He said, you guys are trying to work every angle. It's hard. And he's, he thought, he said, I thought Raul was going to punch you when you said, I told him I said, if I was the owner, he would be on the team. You'd be fired. The thing with Raul, he had a second chance to be a head coach in the NFL. Not everybody gets that opportunity. And everybody was lobbying for him. Remember Tony Dungee and guys like Mike Tom and all these guys were saying, like this guy deserves another chance.

2:18:57So here's how you just take a chance and you hired the worst assistance possible. You hired Jimmy Lake who you had to fire after one year. You did. And you're going in Zach Robinson who had never been an offensive coordinator. And then when it came time to work with a young quarterback was in over his head. Remember that whole debacle of, oh, I'm up in the press box. Oh, no, I'm on the sideline. Well, you have the entire off season to figure that one out. It just was a comedy of errors. And it's a shame. Now the good news is that won't happen with this. You're not going to get this team's not going to beat itself from a coaching screw. I don't believe so either. The big picture not being organized. The only question is do we have enough talent specifically on the defensive side this year to compete. And who's going to be the man of quarterback? Big questions. Big questions. But at least we will be prepared for these games regardless of those issues. I just found it interesting that Bijon is talking about Kevin Stofanski in the way that he did. He's not disparaging the old guy. He's not going to tell you what they all tell you what's different. He's telling you what's different. And it matters. 404-726-0929. But that dysfunction inside the building started to decay of how the season played out last

2:19:59year. And many of you are going to, I really didn't have any effect. Yes, it did. Inside the building, it did. It had a big effect on how Zach was looked at and what was going on on the offensive side of the football. I don't think we're going to have those issues with this particular group. But that's kind of how this went down. And then you had other issues throughout the course of the season that played out outside of the losing guys. Sometimes it's more than just losing on the field. And when you're behind the scenes, which is why Matt Ryan is there now, you can't have that kind of stuff. No, man, look, it's disappointing to not have the guy that I wanted to see. I'm not the only guy. A lot of folks out there are dating. We don't want to see Michael Pettics Jr. out there. The question is, when does he get out there? And how does Tua play? Does Tua is going to be as bad as some of you guys already imagine he will be? And as you said, that's not fair to Tua because there was a time that Tua was good. Then the injury thing became an issue. Then last year, I mean, the last really great game he played, unfortunately, happened against us. That's true. You know, we had four touchdowns. Economic day, four touchdowns about 200 yards and changed. You know how mad I was that week? I was so mad.

2:21:00He was terrible coming in here. And he looked like he looked like Joe Montana coming in here. He just threw the ball around. Everybody's like, what is going on here? Anyway, sorry. That's the thing. I mean, I just was hoping we get the full sample says then the question is, okay, are we going to be talking next week? Winter loose against Pittsburgh? What if Mike's ready to go? What if Mike says, I'm Michael Pettics Jr. comes to fanskin says, I'm in the right head space. I feel confident with my knee. I'm ready to go. Can I ask you something? And then this is Fanski say, okay, we'll table that idea because Tua did it decent. If we win, if Tua goes out there, it looks like crap. It's not that hard a decision. No. If Michael Pettics is ready to go to the next week. But I want to ask you this question though. He may be ready. But like this week, he's not getting the reps, guys. You're trying to get to a ready to play the Steelers. I'm sorry. It's what it is. That's not a knock again. That's the NFL. How do you say I'm ready, Mike? And yet you're giving the other guy the reps to get ready.

2:22:01How do you do that? Right. And the fanski has said, if you're, we played the sound bites earlier today, unless you already know that that's the direction you're going to go. You know, I know it. Tua is pretty forthcoming. Does that like see some guys feeling, I've seen a social media. Well, you know, Tua knows he's only got this job for two weeks. Are you into the meeting? How the hell do you know that? They don't. I mean, it's like, you know, I just, by the way, he'd really have to wet the bed. I mean, it would have to be serious. No again, we need to get Aaron Rodgers on the ground. I'm worried about the past rush where that heat's going to come from. It's a road game, guys. Winning on the road is one of the hardest things. We know that in the NFL. But this is going to be a tough game. Tua, last time, you know, he played the steel. He wasn't good. And I know that we've got a defense that everyone's kind of looking at like to the, you know, they are, they are, they're big and big and bad. They're offences and all that great. They're going to lean into the run game a little bit. This is Mike McCarthy, guys. Yeah, this is Aaron Rodgers. And this is Aaron Rodgers, and this is Aaron Rodgers from MVP Calibris. And this is Aaron Rodgers, who's about as mobile as a sleeper soul for right now. And he can't move. No, but with no pressure, dude, he'll still pick you apart.

2:23:02But you got to get that. But you've got to get him. Like we will be talking on Monday about I can't believe Aaron through for three 75 and three touchdown because you didn't get him on the ground. Are you going to blitz? Because and what and when does all brick decide he's not getting there with his guys, he's going to have to really start getting aggressive. So here's the deal. You got a six three deer out on that side named DK Medcalf. I love AJ Torell. But you now when you start doing those things, Mike, you're leaving him out there one on one. No safety help. All right. And a guy that can throw it as well as anybody down the field. Like you got to pick your spots. I'm not saying you don't, but those are things that we got to figure out on Sunday. Like this idea that Aaron is washed up. I'm not buying that. I think Aaron Rogers could easily go for 300 yards in this game. If you give him six to eight seconds every day, I'm passing play. I guess I'm prisoner of the moment because the last time we saw the Steelers, Houston was just killing him. And that's one of the best defense in the NFL. We don't have that. That's not what we have. We don't have that. Houston is still the best defense in the NFL. And Ryan's is that dog and he's got those guys on that team. Yeah, that's a different defense man. You saw they went to Buffalo. I mean that that team, they're not in the Super Bowl last year because CJ Stroud.

2:24:05Right. Every time that game, Pittsburgh would turn it over, they'd get the ball right back and then CJ Stroud would give it right back. Yeah. All right, man, we're live in Napa Auto Parts. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back. Ray still signing autographs. You want to come down and get they still have Falcon Flags by the way. Napa Auto Parts Jonesboro Road. You can stop in. Get your Falcon Flag. We're going to hear what Pittsburgh is thinking about us. And what are their deficiencies? Right. We got a chance to talk to their beat guy for the athletic. And he was very interesting, man. I thought he did an interesting breakdown of what they're trying to see up there. Hey guys, again, there's no perfect teams right now in the NFL. It's week one. Nobody is perfect. Everybody has something that everybody's trying to expose. And for us, they kind of know like if they take B-Jone out of this mic, do we have a quarterback that can take the game off? Hey, and one last nugget. I know we're just talking about this. This just popped up on my computer. Daniel Flick from the AJC Carl. Yeah. Talking to Kendall Daniels. The linebacker, we were really excited about in this camp. He says he doesn't know whether he and Harold Perkins remember this is the LSU pick later in the draft. We'll rotate this week like they did in the preseason finale, but he feels are a good

2:25:05compliment. So I think there's there could be a lot of guys rotated and the young guys we talked about earlier. And we love Perkins game. He would have been a first round pick without having that knee injury. LSU. Totally agree. Totally agree. I do think remember how I worried I was going into the as we got to the offseason, I said, what's going on with this linebacker room? And they filled it with a bunch of long, speedy guys, right? And I hope they've got it figured out. All right, Mike DeFa, DeFabo's conversation, Steelers beat writer for the athletics on the way we're live here at NAPO Auto Park to sports radio, 92 9 to game. We all have a good time out here. We are literally in the parking lot of NAPO Auto Park right here up a Jonesboro road. We've been out here all day. We'll be here until 630. Ray Buchanan still signing autographs guys and Falcons are still giving away the flags. Falcons really is here. Freddie, the Falcons here, but Mike, the listeners out here, man, our listeners. We got the best listeners. Now this dude back in the day. Remember with stars in the stripes up in San Xperinx, we have our big bowling tournament. This is the guy, like our old engineer producer Craig, member of CCV.

2:26:08One of those people that shows it was like five bowling balls in a bag. He can bowl. He's that guy. And apparently, in addition to that, he also drills bowling balls for stars, right? Big play Ray apparently in his bro. So he is the bowling ball driller to the stars if that's such a thing. Yeah, he came up because you remember me. I'm the champion. I do. And it's good to see you, man. It's fun. That goes back one by seven, eight, nine years. It's been a while. And then we got another guy who's always worried about us hydrating ourselves. So he came down here and he brought us some gave it a guy some refreshment. So appreciate that big man. He walked up. He said, y'all doing good in the hood. I got y'all. That's awesome. Only thing missing from this is some stole. I mean, that's great. It's perfect. Tito's perfect. Hey, man, we had a chance to talk to Mike DeFaibo. He's the Steelers beat right before the athletic. What you do here when he has to say about the Steelers is we get ready for Sundays matchup. One o'clock, 11 o'clock, by the way, pregame starts. Here on sports radio, 92 9 the game. Make sure you listen to all of the action. We talked to West earlier today.

2:27:08Him and Archer have all of it for you here on the station. But we were talking about our quarterback situation as he joined us today. And then we asked him, what's the latest on air in Rogers? Well, you know, it's funny that you guys are going through this right now because zero sympathy for you because I went. And I sat out, Aaron Rogers, for months and months and played the what will he do when will he decide game. And I did that twice. So zero sympathy from me here in Pittsburgh, but he is the quarterback in Pittsburgh. And I think what you're going to see is a similar quarterback to what you saw last year. The positives are this guy absolutely can swing the football. There is no question about that. He doesn't just throw it well for a 40 year old. He throws it like some of the best in the league. That part of his game is still there. He still is one of the most experienced quarterback in the league and uses his mind to work his way around the field. Processes things at a high level. Those are the positives. The thing he doesn't have is his mobility. That was once such a great asset of his game and his ability to extend place, create outside of structure.

2:28:08That allowed him to attack down the field. That part of it's not there. But so what you have is a quarterback who's going to want to get the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible. Get it in the hands of his playmakers as quickly as possible and try to create yards after the catch. That was the formula last year. Works sometimes. Sometimes it didn't. But that's kind of the air in Rogers you get and now 42 years old. From the athletic Mike DeFable up there in Pittsburgh. So what's McCarthy's philosophy? I mean, he's going to lean into the run a little bit more and take some of the pressure off Aaron? Well, I think he is going to do that. They do have a young offensive line that they've invested in heavily. I mean, they've got first round picks and second round picks that practically every single position. Not all of them are going to play this week, but I mean, they've got a left tackle. Troy Fautonis, who's a first round pick. Left guard, who's a third round pick. A center in Zach Frazier, who's a second round pick. And you won't see him this week, but Maxiana, who are eventually a first round pick at right tackle. So they've got the guys up front to move people. And they've got a pretty good tandem with Jalen Warren and Rico Davil.

2:29:09So yeah, I think that they're going to look to run the ball, try to create their explosives off of play action. But when it comes to the passing game, a lot of what Aaron Rogers does well at the stage of his career also marries well with what a West Coast offense is. West Coast offense is a lot of the things that I just talked about. Getting it out of your hand, getting it to the playmaker. So a lot of what the quarterback is able to do also kind of meshes schematically and philosophically with what the head coach wants to do. Mike, what are the concerns for Sunday? If our listeners and Atlanta Falcon fans don't know anything about Pittsburgh going into this game. What are some of the things that stealer fans or people are talking about from the standpoint of, hey, going into the season, this is a concern outside of Aaron Rogers age. We're just simply talking about the team and maybe some of the weaknesses. Well, one thing, one way that I think that the South Americans can win this game is if Bijon Robinson really has a career day or really has a great day. And when you're looking at the Steelers defense, they made a somewhat controversial decision on cut down day.

2:30:12They moved on from a land in Roberts, who was a very physical rundown type of thumper. And in the base defense, they're going to have Peyton Wilson. And he is a very good linebacker. They think a lot of them. They think he might be their green dot one day. But I'll just tell you honestly, he's a leaner body type. He is very good in coverage, very good in sub packages. So it's going to be a big test and a big, you know, measuring stick to figure out whether the Steelers made the right decision there in terms of their inside linebackers. The other thing they're going to be missing to Sean Elliott. He is their starting strong safety. They have some guys who could fill in in that role. He's actually pretty good in that role, but missing Elliott, you wouldn't normally think that missing a piece of your secondary would hurt you against the run. But because of all the good things he does in the box and you're the line of scrimmage, you know, they're going to definitely be missing his presence. Talking about the Steelers and the Falcons guys with Mike DeFabo. So again, we know about the defense. You just mentioned the philosophy getting after it.

2:31:15From your end, what do you think of two of you look at two is just simply a placeholder and this guy's going to be shook on Sunday up there. Yeah, I really do. I mean, I think one of my keys to the game is make two of you. If the Steelers can slow down or shut down Dijon Robinson, I don't think they're going to shut him down. He's just too good to do that. But if you could slow him down and at least to some degree make the Falcons one dimensional, I think that's going to be a long day for the Falcons. So what do you think they're going to do? I mean, when you look at the Steelers defense on paper, they should be one of the best defenses in the league. This is going to be the fifth consecutive year that the Steelers employed the NFL's highest paid defense. Now, part of the reason why Mike Tomlin and the defense accordion or chairlock are no longer here is that group has not played up to his collective paycheck enough. But with new defensive coordinator, Patrick Graham, you know, you're going to see a different type of philosophy. He is big into all out pressures and simulated pressures. And so on rundowns, what that means is sending seven guys gapping out the offense where there's nowhere for the running back to go. You're also going to see him changing the picture on the back end a lot for two rolling his safety, disguising coverages and messing with him with these simulated pressures where you've got six and seven guys at the line of scrimmage and trying to figure out which guys are rushing and when they're going to be rushing is really a challenge and a guessing game.

2:32:32It could leave one-on-one situations for some of their linebackers like TJ Walton company. Yeah, it's a great point. We're talking with Mike DeFabo guy Steelers beat rider for the athletic. What's up with Joey Porter Jr.? And do you see him matching up with Drake London? How do you attempt to slow down Drake London? Man, this Joey Porter Jr. question has lingered through training camp and it's the biggest talking point right now in Pittsburgh. And we're still looking for answers. And there's basically two questions. Question number one, if you're going to get his contract. That still remains to be seen. You know, Omar Khan, the general manager has a bad history of letting negotiations linger till the last minute. We just talked to Kim Heyward a minute ago. He signed a deal on the eve of the opener last year. So still some uncertainty about the contract. The second question is honestly, is he going to play? There's currently an or on the depth chart from Joey Porter Jr. or a saute Samuel Jr. And Joey claimed that it was a back injury that kept him out. I mean, we'll call it what it is. It was a hold in. But he really he really only started practicing about a week and a half ago at this point.

2:33:38So back injury or contract strain, whatever it might have been to kept him out. He has been off the field and you wonder what kind of plane shape you'll be in. You also wonder, you know, would he push that button? Would he go the nuclear route of actually sitting out a game if his contract doesn't get done advantage Falcons. So talking with Mike DeFabo guys, he's the stealer beatwriter for the athletic. What is the expectation up there? I mean, you know, Carl was saying that it's obviously it's an organization that had three coaches since 1969. You think about stability. I thought McCarthy was just kind of a retread. I didn't see this an inspiring hire. I was kind of curious after how things played out with him allegedly. Changing the plays Aaron Rogers. McCarthy sent in back in the day. So what is still his fans expect this year for Aaron Rogers last go round? Well, you know, I think that when McCarthy was hired, people weren't super excited because as you mentioned, I think that a lot of fans wanted something new and a 62 year old coach didn't feel new. Now, what I'll say is starting from his first press conference, he's very emotional. He's a Pittsburgh guy. He grew up in one of the most blue collar neighborhood in Pittsburgh. And you could tell.

2:34:45I'm just the way he described it, the privilege and the weight of responsibility that comes with coaching this football team. And so I think that he's one people over in Pittsburgh, but ultimately, this is a city where, you know, winning season is not good enough. They booed and chanted fire Tomlin when he never had a losing season. You know, they would point out the fact, you know, nationally, people would say he never had a losing season. Locally, people would say, well, they haven't want to play off game in a decade. And so really, I think that that's the bar right now. I think that anything above winning a playoff game would be considered a successful year. Anything below that, I think is going to be considered a disappointment. Tell me about these wide receivers. We know about DK Medcalf, Michael Pittman. What what what do you think about this receiving core and the threat they pose? Yeah, I think this is a volatile group. You asked me earlier about concerns and I don't know whether to categorize this wider receiver group as a concern or a strength. You know, on paper, you look at it and last year it was basically DK Medcalf, a huge gap in everybody else. They went about trying to change that this off season.

2:35:51They went and they traded for Michael Pittman, Jr. At points in his career, he's been a number one. Now he's going to be a number two to DK. They went out and they drafted Jeremy Bernard, out of Alabama and experienced pro ready type of wide receiver physical rugged creatures after the catch. And then Roman Wilson, a guy who's in his third year and really hasn't put it together yet, he had a great camp and at every single turn Aaron Rogers and Mike McCarthy have been talking him up. So that's the optimistic glass half full point of view when you look at this receiving core. On the flip side, I'll start with Roman Wilson. I mean, it was just a week ago that Aaron Rogers was talking about how his route due tells what they were supposed to be and he had to correct him because he threw an interception. So that's been an issue for Aaron Rogers, building trust with Roman Wilson. You look at Michael Pittman, Jr. He missed weeks of training camp due to an injury. Is he going to be on the same page with Aaron Rogers in week one and then even Jeremy Bernard. No, I think he's going to be a good receiver, but Rogers doesn't have a great history of getting off on the right foot with rookies. It takes some time for him to build that trust and build that relationship.

2:36:58So as much as I think Steelers fans are optimistic that this is a much improved water receiver group, there's also plenty of question marks. It's going to be interesting. Close game in your opinion or you are really undecided with what you know about the Steelers and what we know about the Falcons. Over under is what 40 and a half, 41. Yeah, I think that, you know, if you're looking for a prediction, I think it's going to be, you know, something like a 24, 17 game in favor of the Steelers. I think that they can win this one. I just think they have a significant advantage if they can slow down B's on Robinson. You know, I don't think two is going to beat this defense. And I think that, you know, Mike McCarty, Aaron Rogers, there's enough magic left in there to put up some points. They've got a pretty well-rounded roster. You know, one thing when you look at Pittsburgh, if you're trying to find what's the weakness of this team, because they're not paying the quarterback a whole lot, there's really no like glaring weakness. And I think that that's kind of what's going to keep them afloat and give them a high floor. But when it comes to their ceiling, I don't know that they're one of those teams that we're going to be talking about at the end of the year.

2:38:05I think they're going to be kind of always in the conversation, but never truly in contention. Mike DeFabo, great job. We appreciate you stopping by, man. Enjoy Sunday Steelers beat right before the athletic. We'll talk soon. All right. Thank you guys. I appreciate you having me. As we said, Carl, I mean, you know, it could be the second or third best team in that division. And McCarty's not that inspired and hired. But we'll see. But again, we can't get a hand on Aaron Rogers. It's going to be a long afternoon up there in Pittsburgh. It is. I mean, look, pressure matters. The sacks again. We'd love to be first, second, third in the league. But I just think you know, we say this Mike, Mike Smith used to say this to get him off the spot, right? You just can't allow Aaron to take his five to seven sacks. Sacks don't matter, Carl. Yeah, or be in the shotgun. And all of a sudden, he doesn't move. He just keeps you gets to do whatever he wants. All right. We're going to come back. Oh, he's going to sit down with us. Big play. Ray. Bu can. All right. Now yet, right. He'll be trying to suggest a second. Yeah. But we got to talk to Ray. We got about five minutes, hopefully with Ray here before we get out of here down here at Napa Auto Parts. Stay right there.

2:39:15He was down here signing autographs. We got a few minutes with him before we wrap things up at Laney United coming up after we get done. But Mike, you and Ray were chopping it up. Man, talking about the old times. Ray was going on, bro. I am good as a young kid say I'm Gucci. I was telling. I was telling big play Ray. And for those of our younger audience, right now to put you on the street. Everything. But yeah, two time playoffs with this team. We Dan Reeves. Again, that amazing 98 run. And you were here for the beginning of the Mike Vick era. And it was a wild time. And back at the old days, definitely wild. Don't. It was wild. It was fun. It was very energetic. It was the first time like the fans. I felt like really got involved with the team. It was like the kick and start off. Right of that. Win an atmosphere. And you know, and then we had the players, you know, in the different characters that on the squad that. Yeah. Then everybody liked it. And it was a fun time, man. You guys had personality. And I'm not going to say. Okay, I am going to say.

2:40:15We don't have that anymore. We got a lot of good players. Right. I love beach on I love drink. We don't have personalities. You guys have personality. Yeah. Well, we, we, one you had to be confident in who you were. Right. You know, to have that confidence. Then you know, once that portrays, you got to have a coach that back you up. Then that say, you know, what? It's okay. I want you guys to be yourselves. I want us to have fun when you on the field. Your mind. But I want to do. I want that personality. And I want guys to gel and start hanging together and starting to get to know one another. That's how you start building a lot of continuity. And I think once you start getting the blessing from higher above, I think that that's when you. You can let loose. You can let loose. Yeah. There was a line that was drawn with Dan Rees. Like we can't go too far. But at the same time, he wanted us to be ourselves. That 98 team we always talk about because it was just it came out nowhere. Now you were part of it. Dan got here. They said the nine year before. Did you feel a difference the year before that was leading to something or just how to have that happen? Very good question.

2:41:16When I first got here, we were, we, I think we went one in nine or one in eight or something like that. And started now. And I really wasn't having too much fun. I wasn't playing up to par either. Like I'm supposed to be playing. So I had to look in the mirror myself. And I think Dan had checked everyone and probably called a bunch of the team leaders. And what happened was Chuck Smith had stood up and we had a team on players only meeting. Right. Like no coaches, you know, no staff. No, it was just us. And he kicked it off with, you know, I'm not going to tell you what he was talking about. I can only imagine there was a lot of let's get the finger point not the way type of type of thing. And everybody let's after we leave here. Let's go out here and get. Let's go ball and play like how they're pairing you, you know, because a lot of y'all playing like you worked at chicken for late. Yeah. Yeah. But so when we started to start to do that and start to win that after we were the one run like winning like six games in the row. We started to have that feeling like saying, you know what, man, we actually can really we can do this. You know, we came on late, but this is who we are. And we went into the next off season with that same type of attitudes.

2:42:24And when we started, you know, OTAs and that type of thing and many camps. We had that that flare about ourselves to say, you know what, we might come out the blocks, but you know, we got to go prove it. And that's what ended up happening. Yeah. So we went out. That's how that's how it kicked off. And we got out without the next year when 14 and two and it was amazing. It was amazing. It was unheard of. It was a lot of competitive. Even though we were up against the wall, they tried and say that we didn't have like the best. We didn't have the best players that we were playing against teams right at the time. Sorry, you know, you're playing the teams that we was. So what went up happening was we start to beat the 49ers. You know, we beat New England. We beat, you know, Minnesota. We beat, you know, we started shopping everybody down to say that you the teams that you say that you couldn't beat. You end up beating them. Yeah. Yeah. It player led teams, man. That's what he's talking about. You got to have leaders on the team. So, right, man, we want to get you on the show and come in during the season and chop it up before we let you go. Cause I know you've been out here signing autographs for last power and a half, two hours, whatever it is. It's hot. Fans appreciate you. Any thoughts on what you're seeing and what you think about this team. There's a lot of uncertainty, man. Yeah. I just want to let you know all of it was a big skit. You know, it wasn't real. You know, everything that you saw during the preseason, that was not real. It was a big skit. You know, they was acting.

2:43:46You know, they was acting out something everybody was playing dead. You know, two were following ball. You know, three times. That was all a part of the skit. Okay. What's about to show up is about to show up, you know, just up on Sunday. Yeah. And that's, you know, when I woke up on my dream, that's what I played out. That's how I played out. Let's hope so. It's good to see you glad you and great help, man. Glad the families don't well. We're going to grandpa. I remember that I'd say that. Hey, man. Hey, man. We've got to get in front of the time, brother. But congratulations on all the success. And we'll go grab you, man, and get you on the show to come in and hang out with us. Absolutely. Okay. Have a fun. That's right. Play. Ray Buchanan. Alright. We got to get out of here. Oh, and clear up. Bro. Yeah. Thanks to everybody that came out here to Napa Auto Parts in Mauro, guys, we do this every year. The Falcons do such a great job. Falcon cheerleaders, Fred and the Falcon,

2:44:52Ray Buchanan and to all of our wonderful listeners and Falcon fans. Let's get it on Sunday, man. Let's start off one and oh, let's get behind this thing and see how it works. And what it's going to look like tomorrow. We're back at it tonight. We get NFL football. Mike, who do you like? New England? I'm going to Seattle, baby. Okay. They're feeling deersuspected. They're going to get after it. Alright. We'll see what happens. We'll be talking about that. And we'll raise back in action tonight. And we are back on the moral two o'clock plenty of guests for chasing down big football weekend, guys, and we'll start to break down some of these games as well. Alright. Shout out to Commissioner Gordon, our on-site engineer, back at the studio, big O, our engineer, data executive producer, and thanks to all of you again for coming out and hanging out with us. Mike Bell. Clear throat. Short and sweet. Who knew there was a separate secret clock every time we've been watching college football. I just out the scoreboard was the clock. I heard Terry McColley say on NBC that that is the official clock. And then we found out no, there's another clock and you don't see it. And that's how the game gets decided. We're much a nonsense. It is nonsense. Hey, as far as the Braves go. Look, we're concerned about the pitching. We got to start hitting again, man. We've only scored one run in the last 18 innings. Matt Olson, we need you. Hey, if you love this show.

2:45:59Tell your friends. You're a Minnesota fan. Why bright?