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Drivers you save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. So multitask right now. Get your quote now at progressive.com. With Caswell, the insurance company and affiliates, national average 12 months savings of $744 by new customers surveyed, who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Those savings will vary, discounts not available in all states and situations. We've seen the Falcons three times in prime time already this year. All of the games have been great, and this is a team that sits at three and two. They could be 0 and 5, they could be 5 and 0. They're on the right side of 500 and when you play Sunday and you play Thursday, a lot happens in that four day window. You can win two. You can lose two. They won both against division teams and now all of a sudden Falcons in the driver's seat. It's early, but they're in the driver's seat in the NFC South after last night's incredibly exciting. What happened to no scoring? Holy crap. 36 to 30 and overtime Kirk Cousins, 509 passing yards of franchise record on the night they put Matt Ryan in the ring of honor. Thanks a lot, Matt Ryan says. He broke my franchise single game record with 509 and a walk off. What a game. Good morning, Rodney. He's Rodney Harrison. I'm Mike Florio. It's PFT live and it's a Friday and what a Thursday night it was. I don't hear Rodney. I, Rodney's, Rodney's microphone was working fine just before the show started perfectly fine. We were having a conversation. So something happened in the 10 seconds. Okay. Now he's good. Hello, Rodney. I didn't do that. I didn't do that. I didn't want to shut you up. I want you to talk. Go ahead. Can you hear me? All right. Listen, I was really excited when he first talked about bringing Kirk Cousins into Atlanta because Atlanta needed a veteran presence at the quarterback position, Mike. Last year there were always in position in the fourth quarter to win football games, but they had a young quarterback. They had a lot of in experience there and that's what they were lacking. They were lacking that general, that leader at the quarterback position. And each week we talk about Kirk Cousins. He looks a little better. He looks a little better. I think last night was really his truly his coming out party. I mean, this guy looked fantastic, spreading the ball around, dropping back. He threw the ball 58 times, Mike. That just shows you just a level of arm talent that he has, but also the faith that they have in Kirk Cousins. I thought he was terrific. Tied for Vince Ferragamo with 509 at number 15 on the all-time single game passing list. Only the 12th or 13th quarterback with 500 or more passing yards and four touchdowns. He did have an interception. We'll talk about that coming up. But Rodney, as good as he was, he could still be better because I still see him not planning his back foot and driving the way that he used to. He's still recovering from the torn Achilles tendon that happened last year at Lambo Field, the Sunday after a great Monday night win over the 49ers. But the arm is getting it there and he spread the ball around to a bunch of different guys. I stepped up, Kyle Pitts, who had no catches last Sunday, had a bunch of them last night, Drake London, Darnell Mooney with a couple of touchdowns, and then Cadero Hodge of all people with a walk-off game winner. It really was an incredible performance, career high, career night, and you know, he's two in one in prime time this year. Could have beat the Chiefs on that Sunday night, week three. The narrative that Kirk can't win in prime time is dead. He can't lose in prime time. He delivers in prime time. I thought the offense court entered Zach Robinson. I thought he was really good because at first I was starting to look at him sideways like why will he run the football? But he, I guess he felt like Kirk was in the groove, Kirk was hot, and that's what they needed at that moment in time and it was just the offense was clicking. And when we saw Kirk in that zone and he was just spreading the ball around, and I love the fact that Zach Robinson, he made Kyle Pitt's a priority in the offense. This is a guy that six, six, Mike, you heard me talk about it a week and a half ago when we had Atlanta talked about this guy and his size and all the different things that he could do on the football field and how he put so much pressure on a defense. Now you can spread them out, you can motion them out, and he can do so many different things. And I just love the leadership of Kirk. Kirk comes in there, now they feel like they have a chance in the fourth quarter of Wendy's games last year. They felt like every time they had, they were in a position like last night, they could not win these games and Kirk, the leadership, the humility, just the work ethic. I just, I love everything about what the Falcons are doing. And I love the demeanor of Rahi Morris. He's the right fit to be the head coach for the Falcons. Give me a chance to be the Buccaneers team that he wants coached so long ago. People forget he got that job at 33 coached their 2009 through 2011. So he gets the win over the bucks. They have a rematch coming up later this month in Tampa Bay and that hopefully will be another great game. And Zach Robinson saw something getting ready for that game last night, Rod. And he saw there was a soft spot in the middle of that Buccaneers defense about 15, 20, 10 yards down the field because cousins kept sending it right into that hole and it worked all night. They were never able to plug up that hole and they weren't able to get to him on a regular basis before he could find somebody open down the middle. When they were paying plan, Tampa Bay was dropping back. They were playing a lot of zone and if you're playing zone, you typically have to get the pressure from the front four. You're not getting the pressure from the front four, Kirk is a master at, you know, figuring out the zone. So guys are dropping back in the zone. He's looking one way, drawing a defense and he's coming back and fitting it right into the little tight spots and it was easy for them. It wasn't like it was anything difficult. It was very easy for Kirk cousins. And when you have a veteran quarterback that can go through his reads and knows his progression and he doesn't really have to worry about a pass rush. And I thought Todd Bowles played too conservative at times. I felt like he should have played a lot more man to man. I felt like it was too many openings in the zone and Kirk cousins picked them apart. This is Todd Bowles. Remember, this is, this is a defense we talk about. He's one of the best defensive coordinators in all of football and Kirk cousins through over 500 yards and he made it look easy and he did it without his number one receiver. He came in and trusted a guy that hadn't really even played and he came in and, you know, caught a pass and took it to the house. But that just shows the leadership of Kirk cousins and when you're in Minnesota and you're up and down and, you know, people look at you one way, but I'm so glad Kirk Mike has an opportunity to kind of get a, just kind of restart his, you know, his football season and I just, I thought he was fantastic last night. Yeah, for as badly as it ended for him last year with that injury that happened out of nowhere. It's a great start. I forgot the Vikings wanted, but they didn't want to make a commitment too. They wanted to basically keep doing it year to year. The Falcons, a little more of a commitment at least two years, maybe three, we'll see how that goes. We'll talk about that angle in a second for now. Let's hear from both Kirk cousins and head coach Rahim Morris after the win on cousins' performance last night. I played some crazy games I've been losing in and so to come out with one like this in overtime, walk off at home on a Thursday night against the good football team in the division. It's a great, great performance. It showed a lot of character resilience kind of to claw our way back into the game late and, you know, gratefully won the coin toss and, you know, it was a, it was a big night. I want to remember. Yeah. I think we spread it around. I think that's kind of how we're built is to get a lot of people involved. We have a lot of trust in several skill position players. But it was, it was pretty heavy drop back, spread it around and, and, you know, I was proud of the way guys fought, made plays, got open, caught difficult, you know, catches and took another step tonight. Rahim, you joke about stats and yes, but Kirk did throw for 500 yards, which would seem like a pretty significant statistic. It's okay. We just, we just scratched the surface with him. That's amazing to think he can get him better than he can when he's able to drive that foot, plant that foot, drive the ball. He will be even better than he was last night. It may not have another 500 yard game this year, but we'll see. They've got the weapons. I mean, they finally, you know, I wrote something yesterday, they weren't getting a return on Kyle Pitts. They weren't getting a return on Beechon Robinson. They weren't getting a turn on Drake London. And last night, look, especially London 12 catches 154 yards and a touchdown pit seven for 88 Beechon Robinson, quiet, but you don't need everybody to be loud on a night like last night. Well, I mean, every night is going to be a little different. Ray Ray McCloud. He's been really good. You got the two headed monster where you can, you know, the big physical back Tyler Adjill Algier. Darnell Mooney is a guy that he's made some plays for. I just like what they've done on the offensive side of ball defensively. I thought they did a good job too, Mike, you know, Baker had those early three touchdowns, but I thought in the, you know, in the latter part of the second half, the defense played a lot better and made some keystops. But Raheem Morris is the right guy for this job. I just love his demeanor. I know Bill Bella, it was between him and Bill Bella check, and I always said this from the beginning. I felt like Raheem Morris had the personality. He was the right fit for this job. And you look at Kirk Cousins talking, man, he's at a place where he feels very comfortable. He, he loves the talent around him. He loves the locker room. You can just see how happy and elated he is and I'm happy because this is what they needed. It's tough when you're out there fighting and clawing and you got a chance to win and you have a young kid Desmond Ritter and it's not all his fault, but you have a young quarterback that just can't get you over the hump and now going into the fourth quarter, they feel like they have hope. They have an opportunity to win those games in the fourth quarter and you see guys playing smarter, you see guys fighting and clawing because they feel like they have a chance in the fourth quarter and that's all you want as a football team. They love Desmond Ritter's intangibles. They thought they could coach him up on the tangibles or certain things that you must have, the arm strength, the accuracy, the ability to throw the football well on a consistent basis and Ritter just didn't and it's not something you can will a guy to do. Cousins can do it. And he has the intangibles. He's got the experience. He brings that offense together and it took a while to get there, but between the injury and the fact that all offenses, most offenses were sluggish in September. That's a byproduct of the limited opportunities to get guys ready. The first month of the regular season is kind of like extra preseason to get everyone to where they need to be. And now that the Falcons are where they are, this is an indication they're just going to put they don't play in a pretty easy way. Mike, that's the only problem. They don't play people. They don't play in the preseason. So now you're using the first month of the season to try to get used to things, which I think is incredibly crazy. It's just, I don't, I don't understand. How do you not put guys on the field during the preseason so you can get a feel as a coach. You can actually watch him on tape to see how they're moving, how they're communicating, how things are going. And then you use the first month of the season and you see, you know, your offense and your defense is so sporadic, they're playing inconsistent because they haven't had reps. And that's just been a big issue. I think moving forward, that should be definitely a point of emphasis for teams moving forward. But yeah, it's hurt. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, that was one of the points Chris Simms made as the season started. Keep a close eye on the teams that did play their starters in the preseason like the Chiefs who haven't lost a game yet, watch the teams that haven't because for the teams that haven't, September becomes the preseason and you work out all the kinks that you would have worked out before the season started and you would have been ready to hit the ground running. Now it was different with cousins because he had the injury and he wasn't ready to go. And look how much better he's gotten between week one and week five from the standpoint of trusting that and being stronger with the leg. You know, they ultimately put Michael Pennick's junior on ice after one preseason game. And they said they'd seen enough and we were all confused like, wait a minute. This is the only chance he's going to get to play all year. This is the opportunity to get some reps, but I think at some level, they're concerned if, if Kirk isn't close enough to a hundred percent, what are we going to do? And that brings us back. And I know that's something you want to do address and I'm curious to know what you want to say about it, but they use the eighth overall pick and the draft on Michael Pennick's junior. Kirk throws 509. Maybe Pennics is going to be holding a clipboard for a while. I think that would be fantastic. I thought the decision that they made to go out and get two quarterbacks, I thought it was smart. I really did Mike because one of their main things was they couldn't finish in the fourth quarter. They needed a leader at that position. You go out and you get one of the, I thought one of the most consistent quarterbacks over the last four or five years, Kirk Cousins, and I thought, you know, you invest that money in them. And, you know, when you invest that type of money into Kirk, you know what you're going to get. I just, you know, I like, I like, I like the fact that they went out and they made that a priority. When you get two quarterbacks and it wasn't like they were a cash rusher away from getting to the playoffs or winning games like this, they were a quarterback away. So now you look at Kirk Cousins, he's got the young guy, Pennics behind him. So that's going to make Kirk on his game all the time because he knows he has a young guy pushing them. So I think this is probably the best thing that happened to Atlanta. They have something that they can do now, they have a leader now, but they also, they're also preparing for the future. And if we've learned anything about these quarterbacks is these young quarterbacks, they need time to develop, you look at Bryce Young, he will be better, will let us, these guys need to be on the sideline, learning from a different perspective, watching these other guys play so they can learn and get those mental reps. Right now the game is moving too fast for him. And that's why I say I love the fact that the Falcons went out and got two quarterbacks because they can address the issue now. And if something were to happen to Kirk Cousins, he pops on scar tissue, you got Michael Pennics. When they, when they pulled Michael Pennics, I said, okay, Kirk's not a hundred percent and they don't want anything to happen to Kirk and happen to this young man. So that's why they pulled Michael Pennics and said, you know what, we're not going to allow him to play in the preseason, we've seen enough, we know he's good enough to go in there in case something happens to Kirk. And now you see Kirk just elevating his game. He's getting more confident with that flat lead. He's getting more confident with his teammates, Mike. And now you start and we'll see the ascension. It still was confusing when it happened. And one of the concerns was it's going to make things weird for Kirk Cousins as he's walking through the door. If it is weird for him, he's set it behind him and he went out and again last night had a career night for the Falcons who are now in the driver's seat in the NFC South. Still a long way to go, 12 games left, but five games in, they are three and two. There was another thing that happened last night that I don't want to forget to talk about because look, the Buccaneers played great offensively and Kirk mentioned the coin toss. And any time we see a regular season game go to overtime and get decided by an opening drive touchdown by the team that won the coin toss, there is a little pang of, man, the other team should get an opportunity, but it's only a 10 minute session. And there's a concern about putting too much stress and strain on the bodies of these players. Both of these teams just played on Sunday. You can't play a full extra 10 minutes. That's the thinking. That's the thinking. It, it does kind of suck for the team that loses for it to come down to a coin toss on a game where it's a shootout and nobody's stopping anybody. Whoever does get the opening coin toss in a situation like that, more likely to drive down the field and win. I know the Bucks had a chance to play defense, but they never had a chance to play offense. So I don't think they're ever going to change that rule. I think it is what it is and you just have to deal with it in the regular season. It's unfair at a certain level, they deal with that in the post season. Do you like the idea that you can, that you can win an overtime game on one drive in the regular season? Yeah, when you have to score touchdown, I believe you have, like the way they have it, you have to score touchdown first and not come down and kick a field goal. Yeah, I like that because you talk about all the wear and tear on the player's bodies, plan on Thursday, plan on Sunday, plan Monday night, all the traveling and stuff like that. If the NFL wants good quality football, then they need to allow these players to rest. And I think this is the perfect thing. The first person that scores and touch, the first team that scores and touchdown wins the game. I think that's the smart way to do it. And you still have to score a touchdown and the Falcons took it down against one of the best defenses, one of the best defense coordinators in all of football, and they took it down and they scored in overtime and they won the football game and that's just the bottom line. You know, we all find ourselves in situations where we can feel a little bit nervous sometimes from me standing in a studio. The lights get a little hot. 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You know the win last night by the Falcons, it reminded me of the week to win over the Eagles in that it felt like the Falcons were dead and on the other sideline where the Buccaneers are winning, it's easy to think we've got this. And then all of a sudden, wait a minute, we don't have this. And one of the reasons why the Buccaneers didn't win the game because there was the moment at about the two minute warning, fourth down and long. The Falcons go for it Kirk cousins throws the interception Devin, not the, oh God, the long time. Why am I forgetting? Levante David. Levante David drifts over to make the interception and it felt like that was it. That's it. It's over. Buck's win. Wait a minute. Falcons have three time outs. What are the bucks going to do? They're going to try to get a first down. They're going to be conservative. And there was a play on second and 13 because they ran it on first down lost three yards. 9 and 13 Bucky Irving runs for seven yards and as he's being tackled, he's clearly grabbed and pulled by the face mask. You see the helmet move. This wasn't if they did the five and 15 yard variety. Remember they used to have the difference between five and 15. This is a 15. This is an incidental. This is grab and pull. It is clearly a face mask foul and the flag came out and you could hear from the field microphones, face mask, face mask, how Michael said looks like a face mask and it did. The call that was announced was holding no face mask. So it should have been offsetting fouls should have been offsetting fouls should have been second and 13 again. Instead, it's second and it's it's second and 23 for the Buccaneers, which means they're going to be conservative, force the Falcons to use their time outs, punt the ball and give the Falcons a chance to drive down the field to force overtime with the field goal, which they did, which was impressive. It almost ran out of time before they spiked the ball to set up the game tying field goal. But man, that face mask foul, you got to catch that. And my point is Rodney now that they're using replay assistance and replay review for everything, how have they never realized? This is something that is clear and obvious. There's never an ambiguity. There's never subjectivity. You see it, you know it. And if they miss it on the field, which is fine, mistakes happen, but if the NFL is going to clean up all this other stuff, how in the world do they not allow a flag to be dropped through replay assistance or replay review when you have a blatant face mask violation that the officials missed? That's something they need to fix. It's not going to help Tampa Bay last night, but I think it's something needs to be fixed in the future. One of these happen all the time, holding, grabbing that the officials can't see, it's all part of it. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had so many opportunities to win that game. The Falcons had penalties. They blocked the, it was about field goal, a huge drop by Darnell Mooney. They had opportunities to win the football game, but I do understand if you're going to use replay Mike, yeah, why would you use replay in a situation like that to get it right? What's going to happen is then people are going to start arguing, well, it was a holding by number 79. Why can't you use replay for that? So now we open up this big bag of can of worms, but I get and I understand what you said. You know, you make that call. It's a first down, the clock keeps ticking now, it's a totally different game, but Bucky Irvin had an opportunity, and I know the kid from a mutual friend, he had an opportunity to seal the game and he fumbled. And in that moment, I mean, he's a really good young player, but then you start the question, was he the right player in that moment, handling the ball, because that's a big moment. That's a huge fumble by him. I mean, Jesse Bates did a great job of punching the ball out, but you could see how he was holding it. You know, guys will change the way they hold a ball when they know it's even more important to hold on to the football. Yeah, we'd like to keep the clock moving. Yeah, we'd like to get a first down, but I, the last thing I need here is a fumble. And that happened to drive before that final drive by the Buccaneers in regulation. But yeah, you know, the, I think of the old Tiki barber high and tight, he used to have the fumbling issues and Tom Coughlin taught him how to hold the ball. So it wouldn't, it wouldn't get knocked out. There's still things you can do by way of securing the ball. So a punch doesn't knock it out, but when it's down there in that, that portion of your arm between the elbow and the wrist, and that's all that's gripping it and it's not tight to your body. It's a lot easier for a guy to punch it out. We saw that last night. So look, I, you can go back to any loss and you can say you had a chance here. You had a chance here. You had a chance here. My point is this with blatant obvious fouls that are safety rules, the face mask foul, which has been around forever, is arguably the original safety rule for pro football. Cause back in the 70s when safety wasn't even on the radar screen, you got a flag if you grab the guy's face mask because yeah, you don't want to, that, that you don't want, it's effective, but you don't want defensive players tackling guys by grabbing their face mask and throwing them to the ground because you get neck injuries that way. So for safety rules, it's all the more reason it's easy to justify saying everyone saw it, everyone saw it except the officials. And I've been saying this for years and they finally, they probably didn't listen to me, but they finally listened to reason. You have to close the gap between what the officials see on the field and what the rest of us see at home. Cause we see it better than ever before and holding, you're right, holding happens all the time and you can run a, oh look, there's holding, there's holding, there's holding away from the point of attack, yada, yada, yada. But for something this clear, for something this obvious, I just think they need to get to the point because it leaves a sense of dissatisfaction for neutral observers and fans of the team that got screwed because you just want the game to be resolved by the players, not by a screw up by the officials. That's my point and it can help the Falcons in the future. Falcons fans may say, oh, the help with that, don't change that. We'll wait a minute. That may help you in the future. That, that, that could help every team at some point in the future. You want face mask files, safety violations to be flagged. So we'll see if they do anything about it. They have a conversation. Why don't you call New York and have a conversation? You're ranting and raving to me, but at the end of the day, you got to call and pick up the phone. You got everybody's number at the NFL. They got my number blocked. Hey, you know, I have the conversation. Hey Rodney. I have a conversation. I write about it on PFT because they all read everything I write, especially when it deals with issues like this, because what happens is there will be owners who see what I wrote late last night after the game about making face mask files, violate our subject to replay review and they'll call the league office and they'll say, hey, why aren't you doing that? And that's why the league office doesn't like me because they get all these calls from owners saying, hey, look at what that dumbass wrote. We should do something about this. So I've already in a roundabout way communicated my thoughts to the league office because it's one of the stories at PFT that that owners will see today. And I suspect that the Glazer family that owns the Buccaneers will be sending that link to someone at 345 Park Avenue. If no one else does, the Glazer family will say, see, see, see, this always should have been subject to replay review and we wouldn't have got screwed last night. Okay. Um, back to the Falcons. Back to the Falcons. Look, we do tend to, we see something and we're like, oh, this is going to be the way that they are forever. Do we really think though that they're going to be able to throw the ball the way they did last night against every defense they face? You know, they found that soft spot. Well, they don't have to, listen, they don't have to when you have, they already know they can run the football on the majority of teams. So they already have an established running back from a running game. They have two running backs that they trust that they know what these guys can do. But now you add a different dimension. You add this dimension where cur cousins can come in and you're not going to come out and pass the ball 30, 40, 50 times a game. But now you know that you have the ability, you have the quarterback, you have the guy on the center. Back in, if it comes to a shootout, you can go to Detroit and it could be a shootout. If you have to, you can go and have a shootout with the San Francisco 49ers because you have a quarterback that you could depend on. So to me, that's what it's more so about, it's the Falcons expanding their offense, not just being a runner team, but being able to use the play action pass, the bootlegs and all those different things. You look at Drake London, Drake London, he and cur cousins, they have this connection and this trust and this faith in one another. And now you start to add Darnell Mooney and these other guys to really make a difference on their offense. I just think that they're going to continue to grow, they're going to continue to get better. And I tell you, man, I still think they're going to win this division. You know, Tampa Bay, you talk about as well as they played on offense, they talk about Baker Mayfield for MVP, Todd Bowes and how great his defense and Beetavada is the best nose tackle on all the football, Atlanta beat them boys. They went into Philly, they beat Philly at the end and they had a chance in the fourth quarter. They last drive to even beat Kansas City. So Atlanta's right there, but yeah, they could have easily lost all three of those games that we would have been like, Oh, sitting here saying that their season is over. But I'm telling you, it's something special brewing in Atlanta because of cur cousins and what he brings to that locker room. It's nothing like might walking into a locker room, feeling like you have no hope at the quarterback position. And that's what the Falcons went through every single week. They knew they had a young kid. He wasn't a bad kid or anything like that. He just didn't have the mental capacity to play quarterback. But now you get a guy that's experienced, that's a great leader, a guy that can stand in front of the podium and talk about the team and, and hold the team accountable, hold himself accountable and really be the messenger, be the leader from the, from the coaches. I mean, you couldn't ask for that a situation for cur cousins. You know, you explain this as if you're a player who once played for a team that had no hope at the quarterback position and ended up with a team that had hope at the quarterback position. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe I'm misreading the situation, but I'm trying to make back to the early years of Rodney Harrison's career in San Diego in the later years in New England. And I'd say that there was quite a difference at the quarterback position. Absolutely. You know, I was, you know, I, Ryan Leif, when I was there, Ryan Leif got drafted number two overall. And it was, and I was hoping that the coach picked Ryan Leif and we could have got Peyton Manning. But yeah, Ryan Leif, he was, I mean, he was young. He was immature and he turned out to be a bust. And then to go for Matt, and we had the number one defense, the worst offense in the league and the number one defense. So every time they went out, it was a strip sack, it was an interception, it was a fumble. And then we would go out there, fight in the claw, we'd get the ball back to the offense and the same thing. But then being able to walk in a locker room and experience Tom Brady, I had Drew Brees as a teammate, his professionalism, his work ethic, just like Tom was completely different. So that's what I'm saying is when you have a quarterback that you know can get the job done. It makes coming to work so much better. It makes coming to work easier. It makes, you know, watching film easier because you know that you're going to have a chance. Unless these guys are so frustrating, they're fighting a claw doing everything they can and time and time again, they're starting quarterback who's not even in the league right now. Mike, if my memory serves you, right, he's not even in NFL, um, he's back up on the Cardinals, definitely on the Cardinals, right? I thought he got released or let go and they might have brought him back. I did too. I did too. And I checked earlier, like where is Desmond Ritter now? If you have to really stop and think about it, he's not in a great spot right now. He's not, he's not on the football field playing. That's, that's the main point. And now they have a guy that they can depend on, they can count on. And now you see Kurt Cousins and Zack Robinson. Not only thing I would say this, Zack Robinson, because you had so much success, you know how these offensive coordinators are and how they think, continue to run the football. Don't get away from your bread and butter running the football. Don't make this all about Kurt Cousins dropping back, swinging at 30, 40 times a game. And they did have success running last night with Bijon Robinson, 12 carries for 61 yards. That's a 5.1 average per carry. But hey, if the passing game is working, if that soft spot's going to be there in the zone and they're going to hit it all night long, why not do it, especially because it was that kind of a game. The Buccaneers are moving up and down the field. We got to move up and down the field. And you have to adjust to the circumstances sometimes of the kind of game that you find yourself in and they were able to do it and they did it. The schedule gets very interesting for the Falcons. They've got the Panthers on the road next. They've only played one road game, that Philly game. They've had four home games out of five. That's a weird quirk in the early season schedule. Then comes, I think, a challenging stretch. Seahawks roll into town week seven at Tampa Bay, week eight, Cowboys, week nine at the Saints, week 10. So they're never going to have, I mean, other than the two times they played the Panthers, they're never going to have a game that's just going to be check the box with an easy win. They're going to have to fight and fight and fight every week. And most teams have to do that, but they got to prove themselves over and over again. And I mentioned that because all these games are close and you want to get to the point where you're winning by two scores. You want to get to the point where you're not relying upon some screwy turn of events late in the game to give you the winner. Almost reminds me of what Kirk Cousins did in Minnesota two years ago where they kept flipping the coin late in the game and it came up heads for them. You want to, you want to be a little more dominant at some point. And you want to win by two scores, you want to do all this stuff. No, you just want to win the football game. That's what you want to do. The goal is to win the football game. It's not about how it looks when you win the football game. It's not about winning by three points, two touchdowns or anything like that, Mike. It's about simply winning the football game and especially when you're trying to build a team. This is a new team. They added a new quarterback. They added some defensive pieces. Now everyone's trying to trust each other, everyone's trying to get to know, okay, let me get to know if I'm Justin Simmons, Jesse Bates and some of his, you know, tendencies and some of the things that he does, so it takes time. But that's the fun part about the journey going through it every single day, coming to work, getting to know guys, spending time with them, going out to lunch, what I'm watching Monday night football with them, doing all those different things. So when we talk about it takes time to build, yeah, it's not just what they're doing on the field, but building those friendships and building those relationships off the field. And that's what we're starting to see from the Falcons. Guys starting to trust their coaches staff and starting to trust one another. And I will say this, if you keep winning games late, that does become something in which you have confidence and something in which the opponent starts to get a little tight because they know the Falcons are a team that finds a way to pull out these wins late and it puts pressure on you at different points in the game. It puts pressure on you clearly at the end when the Falcons are doing Falcons things. But I think it also gets into your head earlier in the game and the coaching staff's head and the play callers head, Hey, we got to try to deliver the knockout blow because this is close in the end. The Falcons keep finding a way to win. So I'm with you. I still, I still would like to see, you know, I mean, if I was a Falcons fan, it's like damn, you know, I'm going to have a heart attack during one of these games. You'd like to see a more separation who cares to be the Philadelphia Eagles who beat green band. Everybody's looking Philadelphia. They're one of the top teams and then you beat them. You take, you take Kansas City now to the last drive and then just even last night, the Buccaneers, you beat them a team that oh, Baker, Baker should be MVP and Todd Bowes and his great defense and you win a football game, but now it has to look a certain way for Florio. Come on, Mike. It doesn't look like it. Well, here's why Rodney, here's why, here's why I'm scarred by the six years Kirk cousins was in Minnesota because on the rare occasions they made it to the playoffs. You know, you get there by pulling a rabbit out of the hat. This game, that game, that game, hey, we got to the playoffs and then you come up against a juggernaut and the divisional round of the wild card round and you just can't compete. Now, maybe the Falcons are going to be the juggernaut. Maybe what we saw last night is a sign that they can be, but whoever that team is, that's the one seed. When the Falcons have to go in there, I don't know that that formula works against a truly great team. That's my point. Cause I've seen it happen. I've seen the Vikings smack right into the wall. I I know it's it's week five, but my point is maybe the Falcons can become the juggernaut. That's, that's kind of what I'm trying to say. Maybe the NFC is going to become the juggernaut and maybe it'll be the Falcons. I want to see them win like a juggernaut wins. That's all I'm saying. I don't know what the hell a juggernaut is. I don't know what the term that is, but all I know is the one, the Falcons are three and two after signing the Kirk cousins to a hundred million, a hundred and something million dollar contract. It was, let me tell you, this is what I envision for the Falcons. I envision Kirk cousins coming in and being the type of leader that he's been. And I'm going to tell you Mike, the defense will continue to improve. It's kind of that soft defense been, but don't break, but they're going to continue to improve. Matthew Judon and those guys are going to continue to get used to one another. And I'll tell you the offense, I don't worry about the offense because when you can run the football, you know, you got Kirk cousins back there slinging it. Now there were two opportunities for the foul, for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to come up with interceptions that could have ruined the entire drive. It could have, it could have happened, absolutely. But they didn't capitalize on the plays and Kirk cousins did his thing. But the thing that really stood out to me was Raheem Morris, his aggressiveness on the offensive side of the ball was huge. Going forward, I think they were at like the 40 some yard line and forth down in three or four or five and he went forward a couple of times and just aggressive nature of the offense because he trusts his guys and he's trying to send a message to his offense. And to his team, hey guys, we're going to be aggressive and we're not just going to show up. We're trying to win football games and he has a coach Mike. He has the support of the organization. So it's not like he has to walk around on eggshells. This is something that they're trying to build, they're trying to build a team. They got a veteran quarterback and I just think it's going to continue to get better. You think about how to wake Kirk cousins look last night. You don't think he's going to draw even more confidence from that and continue to grow and bond with his teammates. I trust Kirk cousins. I thought Minnesota was a solid place for him, but I really love Atlanta because they can run the football, they can pass the football and I think he's really on the same page as Zach Robinson, offense coordinator. And they can become the juggernaut in the NFC. And if there's any doubt as to what a juggernaut you played, you played for a few teams that were juggernauts in their day. Okay. What does that mean? That means really good kick ass football team that just blows people away and can't be stopped. I'm sure there's a more specific definition of the term juggernaut will work on that, but it just means someone who cannot be stopped. We're only stopped by commercial breaks and we need to take one. When we return, Brightie's got some thoughts on the story of the week, the future of Devontae Adams. Where will he end up? Where should he end up? That's next on PFT Live. Last night's Thursday in a football game marked the first of 55 straight days of at least one college or pro football game. There will be a college or pro game every single day until the night before Thanksgiving as we rest up for three NFL games on Thanksgiving day. So plenty of football. If you like football, you're going to be happy. And by the way, Rodney, you'll be happy to know juggernaut is defined by our friends at Webster's dictionary as a huge, powerful and overwhelming force or institution. Basically the 2007 Patriots, except for the Super Bowl. All right, so we've been talking a lot this week about Devontae Adams, where he's going to go, where he should go, where he wants to go. He apparently wants to get to the Jets. They're still going to have to do something with one of the receivers they have if they would, because then they'd have four that can get it done. You got some thoughts though, on where you think Devontae Adams would make a lot of sense. I'll give you the floor. And I just think that he has to, he has to determine what's important to him. Is he trying to win a Super Bowl or is he trying to link up with his, you know, with Aaron Rodgers and some of his buddies and play there? For me, I'm going to the Baltimore Raiders. I don't care if I have to adjust my salary, whatever I have to do. If you put Devontae Adams with Zae Flowers, those two really good tight ends, that run game, I just think that they become instantly the best football team in the national football league, both in the AFC and the NFC, Devontae Adams, veteran guy. And really my message to him would be like, look, we're running football team, you're not going to catch 70, 80, 90 passes, but if you come in and these critical moments when we have to pass, because really you get a guy like him to beat Kansas City, everything that you're doing, it's not to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars or even the Houston, Texas, it is to beat the Kansas City Chiefs. So you add a guy with his experience and his level of ability and what he can do in those clutch moments, I think it automatically makes the Ravens the best team in the national football league. And for the life of me, I don't know why, I know, understand why he wants to go to Jets because he's familiar with Aaron Rodgers, but Aaron Rodgers, he doesn't look right. You see, you know, he looks like he's getting older, he's getting slower. It just, I wouldn't waste my time in New York. I don't think the New York Jets are going very far. If they make the playoffs, I will go into Baltimore Ravens. And that's really his best chance of winning the Super Bowl. And that's where you have to be somewhat unselfish if you're Devontae Adams and understand you're stepping into a team that is very balanced, that will run the ball when it can, that needs to have a passing game to pivot to when it can't run. And it could be as soon as Sunday where the Bengals say we're just going to clog up the middle of the field here and take away Derek Henry and force Lamar Jackson to throw in games like that. That's when Devontae Adams could flourish, but it's not going to be like that all the time. That's been one of the issues with Lamar Jackson as quarterback of the Ravens. The offenses that they've had, whether it's Greg Roman or Todd Monken, you run when you can. It's easier to run. You can go wrong when you run the ball and they've been running so well, 151 from Derek Henry, week three, 199, week four against the Bills. That's where I think it becomes a hard sell for a receiver who has choices because they still want, you know how they are, you dealt with them, you hit them, you saw them run by from time to time, they, they want the ball. They don't want to block and they don't want to be decoys, they want to get the ball in their hands. Do you want to win a Super Bowl? That's the thing and Devontae Adams, he's done a lot of different things in his career. He's going to be a Hall of Famer, but it's nothing like being able to say, hey, you know, win a championship with the Baltimore Ravens and think about this too, with all that attention the run game gets, Devontae Adams will have one-on-one matchups. Think about that. He will have a bunch of one-on-one matchups to a guy that be willing to get him the ball and they have so many weapons like at Todd Monke and the offense coordinator's disposal, you should be pumped up. I mean, this is an opportunity to really take the Baltimore Ravens to the next level. And if he goes to the Jets, they still to me, they're still too old on the offensive line. Aaron Rodgers is still hobbling around. Yes, they need another number one receiver. One question I want to ask you is this. You said something about Devontae Adams, his presence. How will that affect Wilson? You think it would affect Wilson in a certain way, in a negative way? Well, I look at the Jets who have Garrett Wilson, Alan Lazard, one of Aaron Rodgers' BFFs that he's been feeding the ball to a lot this year. They got Mike Williams who they added in free agency. I just feel like if you bring in Devontae Adams, one of those other three guys is going to be gone because you get down to the fourth spot on the receiver depth chart. That's a guy that plays special teams usually. You have four guys that are or have been or want to be the guy and you've had Garrett Wilson popping off a little bit this week about the offense. I had the idea yesterday that, I don't know, maybe if they bring in Devontae Adams, Garrett Wilson's part of the trade package or he goes somewhere else. I don't know, but something's off there. You don't take Garrett Wilson, a young star, and you move into Devontae Adams. You don't do that. I know. I agree. And this is part of coaching. You bring a guy like Devontae Adams in and Aaron Rodgers has to be part of the process and say, "Hey, look guys, we just need more talent. We can't limit ourselves. If we can add a better football player, it doesn't matter if you're number one. You might be the number one receiver in this game. He might be the number one receiver in this game. It doesn't matter. So, to me, it's not about a piece in Garrett Wilson and his ego or his confidence. It's about getting the best players in to give you a chance. And even with Devontae coming to the Jets, I still think I would rather spend that money on the offensive line. And Aaron Rodgers, I just don't trust the way he's moving, the way he looks at times. He just looks like he looks like an older man. That's what he looks like. Yeah. Yes, I go down this path, Rodney, to show that maybe they shouldn't be the destination for Devontae Adams. Maybe they shouldn't want him. And this is the push and pull where when you've sold your soul to Aaron Rodgers and he thinks he's in charge and everybody tiptoes around him and they let him run and he wants his buddy to be there, that's where they need to game this out. It can't just be, "Hey, let's go get Devontae Adams because Aaron wants him." It's like, "Okay, what's his team going to look like with Devontae Adams? We have Garrett Wilson, who's the future? We have Howl and Lazard, who doesn't do anything without Aaron Rodgers out there on the field. Last year, he was MIA without Aaron Rodgers. And then we got Mike Wilson that were paying $8 million to this year who would be the Devontae Adams in this offense. So why-- Mike Williams, Alan Lazard, these guys have been so up and down at times they show flashes. Mike Williams can't stay healthy, Alan Lazard, he's up and down. And if you can add a guy like a Devontae Adams, I'm telling Garrett Wilson, "Dude, you're young. You can learn so much from this guy. Do you know this guy's one of the best route runners to ever run around in the National Football League? And all the things that you can learn from this guy, he becomes an extra weapon for us. So to me, it's not about peas and Garrett Wilson. I just don't think it's a great place for him to go because they're not going to the Super Bowl. They're not going to go very far in the playoffs. The Baltimore Ravens is the ideal spot. If he can just put his pride down and say, "Hey, look, I might catch 40 or 50 passes this season or 60 passes, but we're going to be an AFC Championship game playing against the Kansas City Chiefs." I would say the ideal spot is the Chiefs who need a number one receiver right now because I don't expect Rushy Rice to play again this year. I don't know why they're slow playing it. I have a couple of ideas, but there's no way the Raiders can trade him. If you hand the guy who delivers the Chiefs their third straight Super Bowl, Raiders fans would rightfully revolt. You can't trade him to the Kansas City Chiefs. No, that's why I was sitting here looking at you crazy when you said, "Well, the Chiefs will be a great fit." Oh, you never trade a guy like that within the vision. If anything, you kick him to the NFC or you send him somewhere else, but you don't trade him within the vision. You can't do that. Maybe you should trade him to the Falcons, the new juggernauts of the... That would definitely make them juggernauts if they had to volunteer Adams. That would definitely help the Falcons. All right, let's take a break. Rodney's going to be up the road for me in Pittsburgh on Sunday night for a fairly significant game and a fairly significant rivalry that has had three Super Bowl match-ups in their past. Cowboys and Steelers, we'll get you ready for that one next here on PFT Live. Draft King Sportsbook is the number one place to bet touchdowns. The new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly download the app and use promo code PFT Live when you sign up. Draft King Sportsbook, the crown is yours. As always, please bet responsibly only with money that you can afford to lose because if you listen to idiots like me with my picks, you will lose. You lose a lot. We gain a lot with Rodney Harrison on Fridays. You like that. You like that. Don't listen to me. Do the opposite of what I suggest. So I like talking to you about Sunday Night Football because you're there. You get to feel the energy of the stadium. It's going to be crazy in Pittsburgh on Sunday night. Cowboys, Steelers, probably the best rivalry in football that has two teams from different conferences and they don't play very often, but they've met in three Super Bowls and there's just something special about the uniforms, those classic uniforms that rarely have ever changed. You're going to be in for even with the injuries for Dallas, with Michael Parsons and a Mark and Florence Hurt. I just feel like you're going to be in for a good one on Sunday night. I agree with you, Mike, and it starts up front on the line of scrimmage in Dallas. Obviously, they've had some trouble stopping to run and what I'm looking for is in the interior of that defensive line, Mazzi Smith, Linvall, Joseph, those guys, Mazzi Smith got pushed around against the Baltimore Ravens a couple of weeks ago. He played a lot better against the Giants and that's kind of where it starts. I think what he is learning along with the Dallas Cowboys is when you're a Dallas Cowboys, you have to show up every single week. You can't just show up and think that, "Hey, I played for the Cowboys. That's good enough." When you're trying to dominate the line of scrimmage, you've got to show up and this is a kid that I'm going to be watching because I mean, that's going to be a big story in a game being able to stop that run if you're Dallas. For the first time this season, since the Russell Wilson calf injury re-aggravation a few days before week one, and it opened the door for Justin Fields, Mike Tomlin, the Steelers coach has kind of leaned into the idea that maybe Fields can keep the job even beyond the point at which Russell Wilson is fully healthy. Now they lost their first game of the season. Offense still scored 24 points. Usually when the Steelers offense scores 24 points, that's enough given what the defense can do. But this is a spotlight game. Three of the next four Steelers games are in prime time. Stand alone. You can't hide. Everybody gets to study Justin Fields and come to their conclusions as to whether or not he should be the guy even when Russell Wilson is healthy. It just cranks up the pressure a little bit on Fields. I think he can deliver, but we see him this week on Sunday Night Football. You're going to be back in Pittsburgh in two weeks for the Jets, and we see him on Monday night against the Giants. We're all going to get a good look at Justin Fields, and he's got a chance now to keep Russell Wilson on the sidelines all year long. Absolutely. I think he's got the best situation dealing with the coaching staff and the head coach and Mike Tomlin the way he runs things. I don't worry. I'm not necessarily worried about Justin Fields. I think he should be the starter, they should continue to see what they have in this young guy. Russell Wilson, you know what you're getting from Russell Wilson. He's not the future. He's not going to be there next year. You only bring him in an emergency situation, but if it's me and I might, Tomlin, I'm pressing. I'm trying to grow. I'm trying to expand my offense a little bit more where Arthur Smith and Justin Fields, and you see Justin Fields staying in the pocket at times, making some little nice throws, but you also seeing, you know, moving around and getting outside the pocket, making plays. I think they stay with Justin Fields. I've been really proud of what he's done, and he puts a lot of pressure on the defensive side of ball, right? To go back to something we were discussing earlier, I hadn't really planned to do this, and I hadn't thought about it until just now, but when we were doing the show last Friday, one of the critiques of the Cowboys offense is who's your number two to CD lamb? Brandon Cooks with one catch, and he's got an injury now. He's probably going to miss this game on Sunday. He's not the number two that you need. In Pittsburgh, there is no number two to George Pickens. Why aren't these two teams taking a closer look at the Vontay Adams? And I know there's some reporting that the Steelers have, the Cowboys aren't interested. I don't know why they wouldn't be. Don't you think that both of these teams should be thinking about the Vontay Adams? I would say I wouldn't if I'm the Cowboys, I'm looking more so at a running back as opposed to the Vontay Adams. You need the run game. That's a problem with the Cowboys. They get in a lot of close playoff type games, and they want to just sling the ball around. You have to be able to run the football and play good defense. If I'm the Steelers, the Vontay would be somebody I definitely pay attention to, but I don't know how that's going to end up working out. Yeah, boy, the Cowboys really could use a running back like Derek Henry, but they couldn't afford Derek Henry. Sixteen, and nobody believes him. He can say it all he wants, and nobody believes that they just got it wrong. They got it wrong. They misevaluated the amount of gas that Derek Henry had left in the tank. All right. Our tank is empty because what we do on Fridays, Rodney and I talk for an hour, and then we will share with you Sasquatch sighting of Chris Simms, PFT, Chris Simms Unbuttoned Joint Pics Podcast. That's next. Rodney, safe travels, enjoy Pittsburgh. I'd come see if I wasn't going to the studio in Connecticut. Have a great weekend, enjoy the game. With the $5 meal deal at McDonald's, you pick a McDouble or a McChicken, then get a small fry, a small drink, and a four-piece McNuggets. That's a lot of McDonald's for not a lot of money. Price and participation may vary for a limited time only. Now, two pigeons and coach Prime bemoaning the fact you can stream DirectTV satellite-free. He's human to get the biggest college football games on DirectTV, and we don't even get a satellite dish. Now squawk it. It's coach Prime. Bring it in. Sure, they can get all that college football without a dish, but you still got your passion. You're dry, you resolve, your incredible career as a football icon. No, that's me. Stream the biggest college football games, no satellite dish. Visit DirectTV.com [BLANK_AUDIO]
