Tua Tagovailoa reportedly appeared to have back issue at Falcons practice

0:00It's too a block. And you know what that means. Hey, man! It's time for Duke's a bell. The best sports talk duo, breaking down the hottest topics in the ATL. Wait a minute. That's huge, big. We like our sports, like we like our brood. Fresh and crisp to the last out. No! Curledoos, you're not listening! And Mike Bell. Gimme a freaking break! Are about to take over the airways. Sprawged you by thinly roofing. We've got you covered. Atlanta's most trusted and recommended refer. On sports radio, 92-9, the game. There's Carl Duke's and Mike Bell. I'm sorry. We're just examining the information in front of us. Yes. And the information says that two may have heard himself at practice today. Atlanta, what's going on? It's Duke's and Bell on sports radio, 92-9, the game. We start off every day and every hour by saying, Hey, man, we're not making this up.

1:00We are simply reporting what's being reported. And that is during the media portion. So understand the media only gets a chance to see the first few minutes of practice. And then they go, All right, everybody inside. Because again, it's game week. We're not trying to disclose game plans or what we're doing. And then guys speak afterwards. So during the media portion of practice, which is where guys were witnessing what was going on. And we've seen this. You've been up to camp. They're throwing the ball around. They're getting warmed up. They're ready to go to a touch just back. Set down on the grass mic. And then briefly during individual drills. This is when this is going on. We do not know what happened. A lot of the reporters who are up there are guys that report on the team every day. Joe Patrick, Mark Rammondick. They don't know what happened. They're just witnessing this. And then he didn't seem to throw again. But the media only got a chance to see a small portion of this. So again, don't want to rush to judgment here and say, Oh, please hurt. And he won't be available Sunday. We'll wait for the injury report. But Mike certainly not good news. I mean, this is the definition of being a Falcons fan.

2:00The level of, I mean, the aggravation, the frustration. First of all, we didn't get a quarterback battle. Right? That never happened. Then we got a guy. The doctors have cleared. But he's not ready. And everyone says, you know, that's a profile encourage. You don't go till you're ready. And the good news is, now you have a chance if you wanted to. I mean, if you want, they could read, they could re-figure the designation. Yep. You know, to active. And you could hypothetically rescue the day. Come to the rescue. If you, if you were needed, now again, as you said, we don't know the severity of what's going on with two. It might just be something which, you know, it's not serious. Or maybe it is serious because if it's serious and they stay with the plan, then it's Cooper Rush starting in Pittsburgh, which is nuts. And look, I've been saying all off season, we're play away. Like with the strand thing, frost, right? If in fact, he's your emergency quarterback. And again, if, if two is, is tight. And this goes back to, let's, Mike, let's rewind a bit. Beginning of camp. And this is something a national media really didn't talk about because to have missed, you know, that first week, week and a half because of tightness in his back. And Mike, if this is a lingering thing, which it's very possible it could be,

3:03especially if it's a muscle related or whatever, okay, that's not going to go away. Especially if he's re-aggravated it potentially today. So that's part of this discussion, guys, as we talk about, hey, what happened? You know, he's fragile. No, he was dealing with some back issues as camp got underway. But then they said, you know, Kevin's the fansky. Oh, it's a day to day. He'll be back. He'll be fine. He came back. He went through the rest of camp. We really hadn't talked about it until today. So that is where this is right now. But guys, the Steelers are getting ready for Sunday, one o'clock. And here we are right now, wondering about a guy's back. One guy not playing because he's inactive. An undrafted rookie who's the emergency guy. And a guy that none of you think can go win a football game for us in Cooper Rush. That's the reality, right? Mike, I think people know Cooper's played in the NFL, but you hadn't talked about Cooper Rush at all. Matt Cooper Rush, remember Jack Strang got the extra reps because nobody was really ready to go when camp started. Then Cooper came in last minute on the plane. But he is a guy with experience. He had a couple of, you know, one game to the Cowboys, you know, when he was pressed into service.

4:05So he's serviceable. The question we had is, and it started last night with Mike Floreo. And then if you didn't see it, Mike Thomas said the only interesting thing last night an entire pre and post game show on NBC. You didn't like the way I was broadcasting? No, he was good. It just, it's nothing. I mean, there's no, there's no juice. I brought what I brought. There's nothing going on on that pre game show, man. It was like, that was vanilla with mayonnaise on white bread. But anyway, I might take warm. What are you talking about? But as far as coach, you know, saying, in the last episode, Tua obviously didn't go so well for him. And he was there in the, in the state, he will know. Yeah. But then Floreo goes and says, well, you have to do well. He'll be cut. You know, well, first up, you have to take that with the grain of salt because Floreo has had a mean on for the Falcons for whatever reason. I never quite understood what that was about, but he loves to throw stuff at us. But you and I both agree. I didn't think we were going to have four quarterbacks, you know, a quarter, a half way into the season on the roster. Did you? No, no. But Tua getting cut if he's, if he completely lays in head up in Pittsburgh or the first, I don't know. Whenever Panty skits back, would Tua plays, if he plays poorly, he'd be cut.

5:07Okay. And, and well, however this plays out, what we see Sunday is not going to be what we see week 15. Okay. It's just not it's like the start of the brave season, what the rotation is is not what the rotation is now. It's going to change and look, the football gods have not looked upon us, Mike, in a way, where our quarterback situation has been so so tough that we have not had to worry about it. It's been the thing we've worried about. It's Falcon fans for the last six or seven years. So, if you told me right now, one, we're not going to have four quarterbacks by the end of the season, duh. Two, two, a mayor may not be here. Okay. None of this surprises me because the, the instability at the position, Mike, has caused us to be here. The decision making has caused us to be here. Right. It all goes hand in hand. Everybody wants to point to Tua and I don't like him. Guess what? Matt Ryan and Ian Cuttingham brought him here. It's all hand in hand. So, if it doesn't work out, guys, it doesn't, but we've been saying this. If it doesn't, there will be change next year anyway.

6:07Yeah. I mean, that's why, you know, when we have this argument, people go, you can't tell Patex when he's ready. No, I can't. Okay. And by the way, let Patex take till fricking Halloween. Okay. Because if he stinks, you guys are going to say, he rush back and they'll be that BS excuse pulled in by the guys will only accept Patex as the starting quarterback. Right. Despite his injury history. So, take as long as you want. Because the excuses are built in for Camp Patex. Not he and his family. It's up with the guys that are killing us on Twitter because we're being hard about expecting a guy who's medically clear to go. Yeah. You know, but as far as Tua, as you said, touched his back, sat down on the grass briefly. It's okay. So, it's Thursday. The game is Sunday. You know, if this was the starting to establish quarterback, he'd get treatment and maybe you figure he'd go. But in this weird, nebulous situation, we're in. Who the, no, is what we're going to do in quarterback? And that uncertainty has us one. It's Thursday. Tomorrow, guys should be locked in, game plans in. You feel good, Mike. You can get on the plane Saturday.

7:07Like, like, this is, this should be easy riding right now. And hopefully it will be. But if you're just joining us, that news coming down as the guys are practicing the day. And literally it just happened about 15 minutes ago or so. So, again, we're not going to get any new information because they're on the field. And they're not going to release any medical information right now. Nor will they do that, guys, before the game. Unless it's absolutely necessary. So, my guess is, Mike, they'll ask coach. They'll ask about this. He'll be listed as day today. And even if it's worse than that, they're not going to, now we're not going to play our hand. Because guess what? Thea is making it ready for Tuah. And if he's not going to be available already, now we got to make a decision. So, there's some juggling that may have to go on here. But I do not expect the Falcons to release anything on this. Alright, so you could, now hypothetically, guys, sit us up already on the text line saying, could they react to it? Yeah, they can change the designation for Michael. That's still a window for that, right, Daddy? I believe by the way, you talk about a story.

8:07Oh, you talk about a story, right? Thursday, this guy gets injured in some way and is maybe not able to go for whatever reason. And you talk about a story. Now he's available. He's ready. He can play. I mean, he's right. He's right. Be a hell of a chance to save the day. You know, like it's a long season. I heard Rusty Mansell talk about it. Sure is. It's a long season. But, you know, we've had long seasons that were defined by one freaking game. One game. Costs it. One game. Costs us the division last year. It was two games two years ago. You know, it's just, it's the margins of the NFL. So, yes, well, it is a long season. There's no such thing as throwaway weekends, you know, in a division which has been so nipped talk for the last couple of seasons. 404-726-0929. No. You can't make this stuff up. We're not making it up. We're not making it up. Divine Diablo is going to join us. I said Divine Diablo at 250-ish. Okay. So stay tuned. We'll talk to the big dude. He is the green dot guy calling the defenses. And I'm curious to get his thoughts on what he thinks this defense can do.

9:10And look, yes, we'll ask, but understand the defense is on another field. Okay. They're not on the same field as the quarterbacks in the offense. So he may or may not be aware until after practice, but we'll certainly ask and see if he knows anything, because I know you're already going to ask to, to ask to find, we will. Hey, Mike, as we're talking about pinnocks in this whole quarterback situation, real quick. Do we have the sound by from yesterday, day day from our guests? Because I want to play this for our listeners from Mike DeFabo, because his whole thought was, and again, we still have to go on the assumption that two of us are going to be fine. Okay. And we will until we know differently. But he said, listen, for the Steelers, they are thinking about this in one way. And Mike made the comment about what Mike Tomman said when he was there last year, and they saw him at Miami, we want him to beat us. And this is the one thing right now that I don't know about any of these guys in our quarterback room. As much as we talked about Frost, and you guys are frustrated with talking about an under-affected free agent, Cooper Rush has been up and down in his career as a backup. Can any of these guys put this team on their back and go win football games?

10:14And this is what Mike DeFabo said yesterday about the Steelers, and probably their game plan on Sunday. One of my keys to the game is make to beat 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. I really 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 Defense Accordination or Teriloster no longer here is that group has not played up to its collective paycheck enough. But with new Defense Accordination patch or Graham, you're going to see a different type of philosophy. He is dig 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 Tua,

11:14rolling his safety, disguising coverages, and then messing with him with these 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 Watt and Company. Mike, it's what Drake may saw last night against Seattle where they're shifting around and Chris Collins worth the show on you guys. He's talking about it. They're showing him one safety high and you're going, oh, okay, they're not two. All of a sudden the next player, they're too high. Who's coming? Who's not? That's exactly what Drake made the last night and he threw three picks. The thing about Tua, again, everybody bagging on that last performance, the last game he played as a dolphin. 2018-15 lost to Pittsburgh. He got sacked four times. Literally running for his life. He had to pick him up and put it down 20 times. I mean, I should say, go back and look at it. He ran, he was just running all over the place. He basically can't move. He rushed 20 times for 43 yards last year. So that's not even his repertoire, not that it really was.

12:15And you don't want him taking the hit because of the risk of concussion as well defined. But he did throw 78.6% completion ratio to touchdowns in a pick. But he got sacked four times. He was under arrest. So the Steelers were getting after it. And that's what Tomlin was referring to when he talked about what he thinks is going to happen up in Pittsburgh. And obviously he's going to have a little amount of an edge talking about his own Steelers. But now to a did he tweak his lower back? Is he going to get treatment now? I mean, are we guys, whatever you think about what we've said about Panics and whatever you think about Michael Panics, this is a hell of an opportunity for him. You know, he told people from the start of the season, he'd be ready by the beginning of the season. Right? We played those audio sound bites. But Mike, I just think this is a hell of an opportunity. I don't look and that's worst case scenario unless you know, unless you feel your marching panics is certain doom. If he's got to go up against TJ Watten Company up in Pittsburgh and his present mental state. Well, we said whoever this is going to be under center was going to have a long day, right? It's just that's just what it is. And the idea of strand going up against that is seems a bit far fetched. They see a future with strand potentially. But yeah, and but that doesn't seem plausible today.

13:17I mean, honestly, Cooper, we have to put out the, we put out the game. Right. And we have no other, no other resource. And we got to go to the strand. But I was going to say this Mike, Mike, how could he be ready now? Like today, if this is in fact something that's going to be something that keeps to or from participating. His mental, he's not ready. He said he wasn't ready three days ago. Why is he ready now? I'm just asking you guys. So I am counting Michael pinnocks out of this equation for week one. Week one, just put him aside for right now. We can continue to discuss what his mentality is, which is what I've questioned. And and some of you question his heart because he's ready and prepared and he's ready. And he says he's ready. But then he doesn't play. But Mike, I got to put him aside for this week because I don't know how to hell. His mind changes all of a sudden. And now I'm ready to go. Cooper, Russian has last four appearances in a league zero touchdowns four picks. Bro, don't tell me that. Don't tell me that. Don't tell me that.

14:17I'm just telling you where it's at, man. All right, four, four, seven, two, six, oh nine, two, nine. We're going to talk to divine Diablo. Phone lines are open though. Guys already hit me up. You think Cooper rush, dudes. Guy hits me up. Jack B. Nimbled. I mean, like if you want to run a single wing and have Jack strand, you know, basically just you can do it. I mean, we got the horses for it. Put both Robinson's in the backfield and just let him just. The Chris member with Chris Winky, Venus like that. They literally ran like three plays for Carolina. This is going back, back in the day for old Falcon fans. Very well. Yeah, man, you can't make this stuff up. All right, we're coming back. More discussion with you. You can call and we'd love to hear from you. Want to remind you opening week on sports radio. Ninety to nine. The game is presented by Hands Free Sketcher. Slip in. Just step in and go. It's Duke's and Bell on sports radio. Ninety to nine.