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The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL

6 Oct 2026 · 29m · 12 chapters

Episode artwork

Falcons stomp Saints behind dominant run game, 45-24

In short

The Athletic Football Show episode breaks down Falcons 45-24 Monday Night Football win over the Saints, arguing the game was decided by Atlanta’s dominant run game and run defense.

Key claims

if you can’t run and can’t stop the run, you lose; the Saints’ rushing success (about 58%) and inability to control the Falcons’ front doomed them. The Falcons’ defense pressured without blitzing heavily (near 50% pressure rate), and their front seven—built largely from lower-cost/younger players—played with physicality and attitude under coach Jeff Ulbricht.

Notable examples

Bijan Robinson’s early cut behind the line; Saints abandoning the run; Tyler Shuck throwing 50+ times (37 shotgun attempts) after being pressured.

Guests

Robert Mays (host) plus Derek and Dave (co-hosts/analysts).

Written by AI. May contain mistakes.

Chapters

0:21

Falcons' Running Game Dominance

Analyzing the Falcons' impressive running game against the Saints' defense.

“When it comes to managing money, forget the hype and look at results.”
1:20

Falcons' Running Game Dominance

Analyzing the Falcons' impressive running game against the Saints' defense.

“Huge night for Bijan Robinson that entire run game.”
2:15

Saints' Struggles and Injuries

Discussion about the Saints' run defense issues and key player injuries.

“And just it's one of those things where like sometimes the hole looks so wide open on some of his runs.”
3:05

Falcons' Defensive Performance

Examining the Falcons' defensive prowess and coaching under Jeff Ulbricht.

“When you're trying to build a case for why the Saints defense was what it was in the back half of last season when they were like a borderline top seven unit, it's because the run defense was very good.”
4:19

Saints' Offensive Inefficiencies

Analyzing the Saints' inability to run the ball and their offensive line struggles.

“And I was like, I do not see the absence that should make this understandable.”
9:46

Saints' Offensive Inefficiencies

Analyzing the Saints' inability to run the ball and their offensive line struggles.

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12:20

Saints' Passing Game Expectations

Discussion on the Saints' passing game and quarterback Tyler Shuck's performance.

“Think, okay, you still have a quarterback that showed some flashes as a rookie.”
14:00

Examining the Saints' Offensive Struggles

Discussion on the challenges faced by the Saints' offense, focusing on quarterback Tyler Shuck and the impact of their game strategy.

“It's just so incredibly hard to play offense this way.”
18:07

Falcons' Strong Start and Michael Penix's Impact

Analysis of the Falcons' performance and the potential MVP candidacy of quarterback Michael Penix.

“I was going to come in here and say my, the Falcons can win the division take from August.”
21:54

The State of the NFC South Division

Exploration of the NFC South division's competitiveness and the strengths of the Falcons amidst their recent success.

“I think it's really cool that obviously I don't think anybody in the NFC South is a juggernaut.”
Show all 12 chapters
28:02

Rivalry Reflections: Saints vs. Falcons

Exploring the intense rivalry between the Saints and Falcons and its implications.

“The moment that the Packers win a game against the Bears in convincing fashion and blow them out.”
29:50

Analyzing Quarterback Performance: Michael Penix

A breakdown of quarterback Michael Penix's performance and limitations in the game.

“Derek, before we get out of here, what did you think of the Panics game tonight?”
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Transcript

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1:13Robert Mays: Welcome to The Athletic Football Show, brought to you by the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. Big win for the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. Huge night for Bijan Robinson that entire run game. A tough night for the Saints run defense and their ability to run the ball on offense. Just a convincing win for the Falcons for the second straight week in primetime. So much stuff to dig into with that performance and some of the stuff that stuck out from it. We did it all with me, Derek, and Dave. Let's get to that conversation right now.

1:53Robert Mays: We like to complicate it on this show because it's fun, right? We appreciate the complexities of football as a sport because there's always a lot going on and it's fun to dive into it. But at its core, this game can be very simple. If you can't run the ball and you can't stop the run, you're going to get your ass kicked. and that is precisely what happened tonight in the game between the atlanta falcons and the new

2:19Dave Helman: orleans saints that's what's happened to the saints for a lot of this season and this was about as bad as it's looked the way i mean it it was what the first or second play of the game but john robinson does the thing again where he just makes third play the game okay it's a little bit of credit i'll give him credit for having two decent plays of defense and then yeah third play of the game he makes a cut behind the line that it only feels like he can always see and make. And just it's one of those things where like sometimes the hole looks so wide open on some of his runs. But him even getting to the hole at all is kind of the magic in the way that he can cut and see things behind the line of scrimmage.

2:55Dave Helman: And then obviously takes off. And then it felt like they did that 10 more times for the rest of this game.

3:01Robert Mays: The Saints run defense was good last year. It was it was it was good last year. It was like the strength. When you're trying to build a case for why the Saints defense was what it was in the back half of last season when they were like a borderline top seven unit, it's because the run defense was very good. And I know they're a little bit banged up right now. Right. Carl Granderson's hurt. Cade Nellis is hurt. Everybody's banged up.

3:23Dave Helman: The Falcons didn't have their left tackle in this game. We're going to get into that.

3:26Robert Mays: We're going to get into the state of the Atlanta Falcons roster and why I not really I don't need the tears from the Saints about who they're who's not playing in this game. that performance and what their run defenses looked like all season Carl Granderson and Caden Ellis are not the difference in you going from what your run defense looked like in the back half of last year to what it looked like tonight and Derek rightfully you pointed this out when they played the Ravens and I expected it to get at least a little bit better over the course of the year because they were a very good run defense unit last year and it just hasn't so I don't really it doesn't really matter if you're out a couple starters it shouldn't look

4:01Derrik Klassen: like that. Thank you for saying that. And I'll even add that Pete Werner was like not guaranteed to play in this game. They were monitoring his health heading in, but I felt like I was taking crazy pills to, you know, three quarters of the way through. It just felt like they kept bringing up how beat up the saints were on defense. And I was like, I do not see the absence that should make this understandable. Like every team is beat up and like Caden Ellis is a phenomenal football player. But there's nothing here from a personnel standpoint that makes me think it's okay to give up a 58 % rushing success rate, let Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson basically do whatever they wanted to you.

4:42Derrik Klassen: Like this is as healthy as you could possibly expect to be in the NFL in a regular week. And it didn't hold water with me. And I thought it was weird that they brought it up as often as they did.

4:54Robert Mays: I want to just go through some of the players on the Atlanta Falcons today. that played more than 20 snaps in their front seven. Okay. LaCale London, Kendall Daniels, who is like a fifth round rookie, Mason Smith, who was traded right before the season in a our trash for your trash for Rooka Rolla Road trade. Zach Harrison. That worked out for both, really, by the way. Yeah. Zach Harrison and a smart trade, right, where it's like, I don't think he fits our system, but he might fit yours, and I think they needed more of a run stuffer, and so they traded for Mason Smith, whatever. So Mason Smith, who was traded in a player-for-player swap where both teams were tired of the guys that they had.

5:31Robert Mays: Cam Thomas, who's making$3 million this year. Yasir Abdullah, who I believe is still on his rookie deal and is making next to nothing this season. Samson Ebukam, who can't be making any money. Brandon Dorlis, who's a mid-round pick. Gervon Dexter, who they traded for a fifth-round pick before the season started. Harold Perkins, who's also a rookie. These are the guys who are making up the Atlanta Falcons front seven right now. And I don't mean to poke fun at them. They put on one hell of a performance. They destroyed the Saints offensive line in this game. They deserve a ton of credit. And you know who else deserves a ton of credit?

6:10Robert Mays: Jeff Ulbricht's one hell of a football coach.

6:12Derrik Klassen: Hell yeah, he is.

6:13Robert Mays: For two years in a row. For two years in a row, the Atlanta Falcons are trotting out all these dudes. And last year, they had better players. Last year, they had – we talk about players being out. So, James Pierce thing is what it is as to why he's not playing. Jalen Walker was the best player in this front seven. He has not played a down. He won't play this entire year. David Onyemata was the one veteran they had last year. He's not on the roster anymore. This was a top 10 defense coming into the year, and they absolutely beat the shit out of the Saints today. They deserve so much credit. Again, getting back to the point at the beginning, at its core, this is a simple game.

6:50Robert Mays: This is about attitude. It's about physicality. And you watch the way that that group played. Oh, yeah. AJ Terrell isn't out there, too, by the way. You watch how that group played. And it's incredible what they're bringing from an attitude mentality mindset whenever that group is on the field. And you think about what Jeff Ulbricht did with the Jets and what this group looks like. And he just deserves a ton of credit. That entire staff deserves so much credit for how those guys are playing right now. It's really impressive.

7:17Derrik Klassen: I know you were focusing on the front seven, but Sidney Brown was all over the damn place in this game. Like they got a, they got like a sack out of Xavier Watts, who's, who continues to look like a really fun player. Like, and the broadcast did a good job. Everybody knows Bijan is amazing in prime time. This Falcons defense kicks in to another level when they play in these sorts of games. I mean, that Bill's game from last year around this time of year is burned into my brain and they flipped a lot of it over. and they're beat to shit. And obviously the Saints are not the Josh Allen Bills, but they still went into New Orleans and beat the hell out of an offense that has looked very, very proficient and very exciting for a lot of the first three weeks of the season.

8:02Derrik Klassen: I think the world of Jeff Ulbrich, man. I love watching his team play.

8:07Dave Helman: I just can't believe that they, and like this offensive line for the Saints is imperfect and they're a little bit banged up. They obviously don't have their left tackle either. it's a quarterback that I've joked is like pretty slow off his spot when he's going to get pressured but the fact that they were still it's not even just them scheming it up stuff like guys like you mentioned Robert Cam Thomas is just like winning clean inside moves on some of these like you see

8:28Robert Mays: Abdullah yeah they were just winning bringing forward the entire game they had almost a 50 % pressure rate without blitzing in this game if you look at the next gen numbers like that there was some fancy stuff like they got home on a couple pressures they're going to do a little bit of that but it's not as if this was we're bringing the house all day and the saints have no answer for it this is we're just winning over the course of the game with these dudes and that's something to be really proud of like that that's something that makes me take notice yeah like they they were

8:58Dave Helman: just really cool and especially too to kick into that gear not just with the pass rush stuff because obviously like schematically they do some of that the saints like you mentioned could not run the ball and they haven't run the ball at all this year but this like if we're just looking at the names on the rosters, you should be able to do it a little bit against this Falcons front. And the fact that they couldn't really do it at all and continue to in these games, kind of abandon it. And I don't really blame them for that. It, that to me is like, again, there are so many exciting parts about the Saints offense and team.

9:26Dave Helman: And we'll talk about that. But like you said, if you can't run the ball and you can't stop the run, you're never going to control a game. It's kind of like what the Dallas Cowboys were last year, where they couldn't stop the run and they couldn't run the ball as well as they wanted once they got a little bit banged up. And this is like, if you took that roster and made them 30 % worse. All right, before we move on, let's take a quick break.

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12:34Robert Mays: saints could do in the nfc south this year part of the enthusiasm was driven by the fact that i really liked what they did in the passing game last year i really liked what i saw from tyler shuck i was excited about what he could do with a lava and jordan tyson even with tyson getting hurt. Think, okay, you still have a quarterback that showed some flashes as a rookie. Chris Olave is a superstar. He's playing incredibly well and continues to play incredibly well. You invested in the run game. You put more on the quarterback in terms of how you played last year. If you look at just run action rate, how often they were running the ball.

13:06Robert Mays: I mean, this was an offense that was putting a burden on the quarterback in the same way that the Bengals do with Joe Burrow with a rookie. Like that just shouldn't be the case. And I expected them to ease some of that this year. You invest in ETN and free agency. You sign David Edwards and free agency. Let's have a little bit more of a cohesive offense where everything fits together. We can lean on the run game a little bit. Losing ETN and Kelvin Banks shouldn't torpedo that entire thing. Like you should, you still should have a plan. Like you said, Derek, Jake Matthews got hurt in the middle of this game.

13:38Robert Mays: I know that Bajon is walking through the door for the Falcons, but this is a team that signed Juwan Taylor off the street before the season started and has their backup left tackle for 50 of the 60 snaps on offense and they're running the ball at will like there's no explanation as to why the Falcons should be able to do that and why you can't do anything on the ground if you're the Saints correct me if I'm wrong but and I understand

13:59Derrik Klassen: it's a big disappointing loss but Kelvin Banks is the only problem right now correct like the rest of that stuff no I mean I just mean the line I just mean the offensive line and even

14:10Dave Helman: they weren't using him as much as you would think given the amount of money they gave him

14:15Robert Mays: absolutely and so this is you can try to explain it away because of who's not playing but one i don't think that's a reasonable argument too it's a hard argument to make when you look

14:24Derrik Klassen: at what's happening on the other side tyler shuck is has currently thrown 180 passes this year that's got it is that leading i like on on pace stats this early in the season are not worth getting excited about but like he would he would be on pace to set like an nfl record like go throwing more than 700 pass attempts is silly shit. And honestly, if I was looking for Copium coming out of this game as a Saints fan, the fact that this is Tyler Shook's life and he doesn't look completely overwhelmed and like it's breaking him is pretty encouraging because nobody is supposed to throw the ball that often, let alone a second-year player.

15:06Robert Mays: It's so hard to play offense this way. It's just so incredibly hard to play offense this way. what you're putting on your quarterback and what you're putting on your offensive line. The offensive line is going to look worse when you're doing this to them. You're laying them out to dry. The Falcons defense deserves a ton of credit, but if you're going to play this way, you're asking so much from that group up front. I'm looking at the stats right now. Tyler Shuck through nine passes or excuse me, Tyler Shuck through 11 passes with, with play action today, 11. That's how many Michael Penix through without play action.

15:42Robert Mays: Tyler Shuck threw 37 passes without play action in this game. I assume a huge portion of those were from the gun. All you're asking when you're doing that is for the other team's front to tee off the entire game. And it allows a group that doesn't have any defined stars and has a lot of guys who are waiver claims and low-price free agent signings to look like they did and control the game the way that they did today. And if you look at the other side, like what the Falcons offense looks like, 43 % play action on throws without play action in this game. Michael Penix averaged 2.7 air yards per attempt, which is hilarious on the game.

16:25Robert Mays: Even with a 50 % play action rate, he averaged 2.57 average time to throw. They had a night. They had four quarterback pressures. The Saints did in this game because of what the Falcons plan looks like and how the quarterback plays. the Saints finished they gave up 25. It's not hard to explain like it's just a very easy way to understand how the game unfolds that way.

16:48Derrik Klassen: How many attempts in this game did it feel like Tyler Shuck heaving a prayer 25 plus yards downfield with just a red streak darting into the picture to smash him? Especially in the second half it was every other snap.

17:03Dave Helman: And you know what this feels like to me? This feels like a lot what happened to the Justin Herbert, Kellen Moore, Los Angeles Chargers where they could not run the ball the way that they wanted and they had a quarterback that like Dave I think you make a great point of like them asking him to throw this much I think there's like an intoxication of like because Shuck can do it like he can live in the drop back world fairly well but when you're asking any quarterback to do it this much it's going to be really really really difficult and then putting this on a second year player when your star left tackle is banged up that's just way too much and again it feels like that 2023 Herbert season where you're going to have some games and moments where it looks fine because Chris Olave is better than most of the corners he's going to face and Shuck sees it wasn't well enough when like you said he's not having a red streak cross his face every single time he drops back but you're going to have these games like this where you get a little bit outgunned you get behind on the scoreboard early because your defense sucks and shit now we're just throwing the ball 50 times and we never have an answer for anything.

17:58Robert Mays: Shuck had 39 pass attempts from the shotgun in this game.

18:02Dave Helman: 39 tough way to live that's double the amount of attempts that Michael Pennix had period in the whole football game the Falcons are I mean the way they look the first couple weeks

18:14Robert Mays: are we ready to make a real earnest argument that Michael Pennix is the MVP of the league no but we're talking about pure value can you really make an argument that Michael Pennix has not been the most valuable player in the NFL this year.

18:29Derrik Klassen: I was going to come in here. I was going to come in here and say my, the Falcons can win the division take from August. Doesn't look so silly with Michael Pinnock's in the lineup. I'm feeling at all. Why would it be silly? I'm feeling pretty good about that. Well, I would guess they had the lowest odds. Did they not?

18:46Robert Mays: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Oh, in the, in the moment, it might've looked silly right now. Why would it look silly? They're

18:52Derrik Klassen: two and two they're tied with everybody else I do want to say I I'm curious to see so it's it's Baltimore Chicago and San Francisco up next all at home by the way so you got a three-game home stand against some pretty some pretty good teams some teams that we feel pretty strongly about I'm curious to see how real it is I'm very impressed by what they've done these last two weeks and we should mea culpa because we had a lot of fun joking about the falcons playing all these primetime games they're just nuking everybody in primetime like this is incredible but yeah they're they're ridiculous blowouts that aren't worth watching just like we expected yeah exactly i i do i want to see it i want to see these next few weeks and see just how real it looks against some teams i respect a little bit more they play the ravens and the bears in

19:41Robert Mays: back-to-back week so those are the two best teams in the league and so that's going to be a really good measuring stick just to see where the Falcons are right now.

19:48Derrik Klassen: Sneaking shit like this into the show for the rest of the year.

19:53Dave Helman: It's good though. I appreciate after having done the show for two years where it was like, I can't believe in the Bears. I can't believe in the Bears. I can't believe. I love just sneaking in like, ah, they're the best team.

20:03Robert Mays: The Falcons, I think mindset with the staff coming into the year when it's a first year staff and it's a weird season, right? In the sense that they didn't do a lot this offseason when it comes to big swings. It was an interstitial year. It was, all right, let's keep our powder dry. Let's figure out who we are. And then maybe we could be a little bit aggressive next year when we got some money to throw around. The last crew pushed all their chips in, used a lot of resources, obviously, spent a lot of money. Let's untangle some of that. Let's figure out where we are and let's move forward. So the fact that that was the mindset heading into the year, understandably.

20:40Robert Mays: I think they still believe that division was winnable based on how much uncertainty there was in all these other places. I think that is proven to be fair, right? The Panthers offense looks good, but the Panthers offense has a bunch of injuries. They're an imperfect team. I think the Falcons absolutely can be competitive in that division. If you think about it just in the multi-year view, you have to feel really good about them looking like this as soon as they get the quarterback back in a year where they were kind of in a holding pattern. My like weird fear now is that Tommy Reese and Jeff Ulbrich aren't here next year based on how the last couple of weeks have gone.

21:14Robert Mays: Like that, that's a fear I didn't think I would have to have coming into the season, but it might be a little bit quick, but I'm starting to get there with what this team has looked like on both sides of the ball over the last couple of weeks.

21:24Derrik Klassen: Reese feels a little premature, although you never know if a guy's got like play calling sauce teams obviously value that tremendously. All brick happens fast. All brick. I'm all the way there with you though. Like what he did last year, his track record with the jets when he was under Sala and now doing this again with a defense that came into the year with zero headliners available. I mean, if, if he, if he keeps this up even relatively consistently over the rest of the year, that's, that's pretty easy for me to believe the other takeaway I wanted to throw in there. I think it's really cool that obviously I don't think anybody in the NFC South is a juggernaut.

22:03Derrik Klassen: I still think this is a team that's or a division where like the winner of this is probably going to be maybe the three, but probably the four seed. But so often this division has felt tragic. I like this is not a tragic division. This is a very exciting division. Like Bryce are tragic. Yes.

22:23Robert Mays: And the team that hasn't been tragic over the last few years is the one that's Everyone else is very watchable.

22:28Derrik Klassen: Ironically, the team that's been the most put together over the last four years is the tragic one. But like all these other teams, even the Saints, even after this shit show, have reason for like optimism and like I'm excited to watch them play. And that's a cool change of pace. Like this is an interesting division to me, even if I know the teams aren't fully, you know, well-rounded.

22:50Dave Helman: The Reese thing I'm interested in, because like I'm probably with Dave, I think usually these guys need like two years. to prove it in some way but like sometimes they don't gotta be a comet for it to be a year you

23:00Robert Mays: gotta do what liam cohen did and i was gonna say you feel really good about it where it's like that guy's a made man after one year no questions asked we'll see what happens with the with the falcons and tommy reese but i'm very encouraged by i think what we've seen so far it's been awesome

23:15Dave Helman: obviously you know we can throw out the cooper rush games whatever since michael pennix has been back they just have a cleared vision for the offense and i like how they layer stuff like Like their screen game and even going back to Cleveland, these two Stefanski and Reese, their screen game has been really, really impressive. And you saw a little bit of that tonight. And I just think that some of the ways that they kind of tying together, like some of their boot stuff, like they had been booting and getting some of that stuff to work all game. And then the Dotson touchdown, they run him on like he looks like he's going to run a corner on top of Drake London running an over route from the other side.

23:47Dave Helman: And he snaps it back off to the post because it's a good like constraint play off of what they'd been doing the whole game. and them just being able to set that stuff up over the course of the game. It was why I was kind of excited about this staff and this offense going in, and I just didn't know what we were going to get out of the quarterback. But if they have enough strengths from him that they feel like they can build this thing on, I trust their ability to get there.

24:09Robert Mays: That play is a Shanahan classic.

24:11Dave Helman: Oh, absolutely.

24:13Robert Mays: That's that hiccup play where we've seen them do that a million different times. But you've got to set it up.

24:17Dave Helman: You've got to make teams earn it.

24:18Robert Mays: He scored that touchdown against the Packers on Sunday Night Football like 15 years ago on that play, like 12 years ago. I guess George Kittle was in the league 15 years ago. George Kittle's only been in the league for like eight or nine years. It was very early in his career. It feels like forever ago. He scored that. I mean, I've seen that play a million different times. They were extremely excited about the staff. Just extremely excited about the makeup of the staff. Because this is, we talked about this. This is Tommy Reese's first time from day one as the play caller. They got Tanner Engstrom to come along as their passing game coordinator from the Jets.

24:52Robert Mays: And I think one of the bits of influence you've seen from that is that the Ben Johnson system and just like what they were doing with the Lions. There's a lot of pre-snap kills and checks and cans, and it gives you the opportunity to get into the best play pretty often. And if you watch how often Michael Penix is getting in and out of stuff at the line of scrimmage, I think that's something they've really been able to lean on. And then Robert Prince came over from Miami, and this team has used a lot more motion than Kevin Stefanski teams have used in previous years. And so I think that there's a lot of stuff that they were able to pull from coming into the year, and they've been able to really build it into a cohesive thing.

25:29Robert Mays: And the vision is very clear because I think they have a really good understanding of how they want to play. And I think Tommy deserves a lot of credit for putting that together in the way that they have over the first month of the season as soon as Michael Penix got back.

25:43Derrik Klassen: anything else from you guys about falcons saints i have a desperate plea it's something that has bugged me for a long time and this feels like a good opportunity to put it on wax enough of the delayed sequels we don't need another act 20 years after the fact and like we didn't need the Happy Gilmore movie. We didn't need the Space Jam sequel. And as cool as it sounded to do Falcon Saints in Monday night to celebrate the anniversary of the dome, how does that feel now? How does that feel 20 years after the fact where you're like, this will be great. We'll beat the Falcons just like we did in 2006.

26:26Derrik Klassen: And it'll be this positive memory and everybody will love it. And 06 is untouchable. That'll be, as a New Orleanian, that'll be a special moment forever. but to give you to be clear about that like i want you to be clear that this is like a very

26:39Robert Mays: important thing to you you are not like an outsider who is looking at this the 2006 saints

26:44Derrik Klassen: are one of the more important things that's ever happened in your sporting life i am i am not being glib i lived it i i wasn't in the building in 06 but like i lived in new orleans at that time it was a very special memory and as cool as it sounds and i would have said this before the game as cool as it sounds to play this game 20 years later, like bring back all those memories. And they did such a cool job. The halftime show was amazing. They really played it up. And now you have this stinky performance sitting there. And like I said, it's not going to like tarnish 2006 that that meant so much to the city and was about so much more that you can't completely touch it.

27:24Derrik Klassen: But Falcons fans are going to point to this from now on. Like when you showed the Gleason photo or the Gleason play there, you're like, they're like, Oh yeah. What about 45, 24? And like, part of me thinks we would have just been better off leaving. Oh six there by itself as a singular night. And we didn't need a part two 20 years later. And I mean, it's too late now, but it's one of those things where it sounds like a good idea in theory, but you do have to play the football game and you just handed your biggest rival a nice bit of ammunition in this ongoing feud and i don't i just don't know if i would

28:01Dave Helman: have done it i don't think you can capture the saints falcons energy better than i think that you just did i mean that was that was perfect it's one of the only true like i hate you rival

28:11Derrik Klassen: reason this is this i like this is one of the top three rivalries in the sport if you want to talk about bears packers or stealers ravens or you know there's a few others if like sure fine but this is this is top three top five and it is pure spite and to to hand the falcons a dub like this on the on a night that is very important to the city of new orleans it just i don't know it's a little bit of an unforced error in my opinion but but what if they had won what if they had

28:43Robert Mays: won in a convincing fashion like doesn't that make it all the sweeter is the fact that you have now a second go-around of beating the team that you hate the most in a night that was supposed to be

28:52Derrik Klassen: special absolutely but i and yeah if you want to tell me no risk it no biscuit fine but like just i don't know protect protect these holy memories that's that that's my cowardly opinion but like i said you're not really ever gonna tarnish what happened in 2006 but like now now this is part of the story and it didn't have to be i'm of two minds about it because i think that there would

29:17Robert Mays: have been a different time in my life where i probably would have agreed with you and then i I think about what Ben Johnson has done over the last two years and how the downside of what he's the downside of what he's doing is extremely real. I think the downside is there. The moment that the Packers win a game against the Bears in convincing fashion and blow them out. And when that when that whenever that happens, they're going to hear about it. But at the same time, even if you're making the stakes a little bit higher, when you win, it does make it a little bit sweeter. and so it cuts both ways.

29:51Robert Mays: I understand what you're saying, but I've, and I think I've kind of danced on that line a lot over the last year or so as I've watched the coach of the team I root for openly antagonize the other fan base and the other staff with absolutely no disregard whatsoever.

30:08Derrik Klassen: There's, there's an argument on both sides of it, but that was like at halftime when Trombone Shorty was putting on the, like this incredible show, I was like, ah, this, This doesn't hit the same when you're getting run out of your own building. This isn't as fun as it was in 2006. Derek, before we get out of here, what did you think of the Panics game tonight?

30:30Robert Mays: He was fine.

30:31Dave Helman: I thought that he was okay. I was a lot more impressed by the way that it was called. And if he's going to have, again, he can throw the ball really well down the field. I think that they schemed enough of that stuff up, but he didn't throw the middle of the field. And I think that that's really going to be what is going to change my mind at some point if we get there.

30:47Robert Mays: I think the other, he just doesn't, he's not a creative thrower when it comes to like doing things on the move. He doesn't have a lot of clubs in the bag. Like that's always going to be something that he struggles with. And even that throw where he's trying to pop the ball over, I think it was Chase Young to Bijan in the flat. It just, he struggles with that stuff. Like he's just, he's kind of a one speed, one trajectory thrower. And it's beautiful when he's able to do that stuff in rhythm. But when he's pushed off of it, you feel the cracks a little bit. And so, I think it was kind of a Michael Penix game.

31:16Robert Mays: It was a well-called Michael Penix game, I think is what we got from the Falcons tonight. And when you have this running game and when you're asking him off play action to push the ball down the field, I think this can be a really cool offense. But I also feel like we saw tonight some of his limitations in a way that we didn't really see against the Packers because we didn't have to.

31:34Dave Helman: Yeah, there's limitations. We can talk about that like as the year goes on. But so long as those two other guys are on the roster and one of these guys and Stefanski and Reese are calling the offense, I think they'll be OK. I do have enough faith in that.

31:46Robert Mays: It's a little different than the skill position players they had in Cleveland over the last couple of years.

31:50Dave Helman: A little bit. A little bit than Jerry Judy. You feel the difference a little bit.

31:56Robert Mays: All right. That is all we've got for tonight. If you're watching this on YouTube, please go check out the Week 4 Hangover. If you're watching this on Tuesday, me and Derek broke down three games from the Sunday slate, chatted a little bit about the Sunday night game, also hit Chargers-Seahawks, regrettably, and then dug into Cardinals-Giants. Got plenty more stuff coming this week for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating.

32:30Robert Mays: We'll see you next time.

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From the publisher

A strong outing from Michael Penix, a suffocating run game from Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr, and a Jeff Ulbrich classic. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman recap the Week 4 Atlanta Falcons MNF win over the New Orleans Saints.


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