Transcript of Bucs-Falcons TNF Classic with Gerald McCoy

So now 9:02 to play in the overtime, London off the field. Here's Mooney in motion with Cousins, and they're going to gun it, and it's caught to Darryl Hodges.35, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5, drive home safely. Oh, my goodness.

Welcome to the game, Kaderil.

Are you serious? A walk-off for Kaderil Hodge and the Falcons.

Welcome to NFL Daily. Yes, we are serious. Kirk Cousins just did that. 36 to 30. The Falcons get it done in overtime. That was West Durham on WZG See, I am here tonight, and Dave Archer, too, by the way, joined by a legend of the game, one of the best players in Bucs history. He's shaking his head right now. Jerold, I wanted to deliver a better ending for your Bucaneers here, but that was one hell of a football game that they lost tonight. Sorry about that.

Man, we, as Bucaneers, just don't have great fortune on Thursday night versus the Falcons, man. I said it before the game, I had us picked, but for some reason on Thursday night versus these freaking Falcons, man. We just don't have great fortune.

There's something about this. Kirk Cousins, Falcons team in overtime, but it's every Kirk Cousins team. It was back when he was with Washington. It's back, obviously, with Minnesota. It's these crazy primetime games he played. The difference is lately, he's been winning them. What a wild ending to this game.

Yeah, you hate to see it as a Bucaneer fan. Player, coach, whatever. You hate to see the way it ended. But as a fan of football, freaking incredible game. What a way to end it, man. Atlanta fought for that one. I give them that. When you lose those type, you just got to let them have it, man.

They earned that Yeah, this is seriously testing your professionalism, having to come on right after.

Yeah, for sure. But I'm a professional, so I got to do what I got to do.

Yeah, of course, Jerold McCoy on Game Day Morning on NFL Network, the great podcast that he has with Kyle Van Nooy. He's popping out on Gil's Arena over at Underdog. So he is doing it all. And yeah, we're going to break down this game bit by bit, but we got to start at the end. I think the end of regulation is what strikes me. For a second, Falcons fans think, Jesse Bates did it once again. He saved our team. This guy who's one of the best defensive players at safety I've ever seen, forces a fumble with the peanut punch while the Bucaneers are driving up three with under three minutes to go or and gives the Falcons another chance. You think, Oh, that's going to be the key play. But what do the Falcons do? They don't go three and out. They go four and out. They go backwards. They go for it on fourth and 15. And your former teammate, the ageless La Levanté David, picks off a pass. At that point, what are you thinking as a Bucks fan? Not a fan. As a Bucks.

Well, one, Levanté is freaking incredible. That's what he does. Very timely plays, and he was due for one. Tate was due for a pick. But in that instance, you're like, Well, all right. We're good to go. Here we go. Way to go, Levante. Yeah, he did it. And then that happens.

Then that happens. You got Kirk Cousins on the screen behind you. Let's actually listen to our friend Jean Deckerhoff's call of that Levante David interception, which I thought was going to be the call we went into this highlight with.

Well, the Falcons are going to go for a fourth down for the third time tonight. They need to reach the 35-yard line. Bucks guilty of a pass interference. The last time was fourth of the law. Dropping back to Tho. Kirk Cousins. Kirk Cousin has to have those of all up there. It's intercepted, picked off by Levante David, and the Bucaneers have the football. First takeaway by the Bucaneers tonight. Levante David answers the bell Yeah, that's WFUS, and that helps remind me there's under a minute and 50 seconds left at that point.

I thought it was a smart decision by Raheem Morris to go for it. His fourth down decisions in this game, I think, were good overall and mostly helped him. He went for a fourth and three. That led to a field goal around midfield in the second half. He knew it was an offensive game. He went for another fourth down in the red zone. I think that led directly to a shutdown when most people probably would have taken the points in a situation where they could have tied it up. And then there he goes for it. I think that makes sense because it gives you two chances to win the game. And I go back to this point because you just can't go backwards at that point. And to me, of all the mistakes you could point out, because this was a great offensive game for the most part from both these teams, both these quarterbacks, they don't go anywhere. They throw a pass that goes a little backwards, and then they have a holding call which actually knocks them out of field goal range. It was tough to see, Jero, because your offense is looking awesome.

Baker Mayfield is playing great. And Liam Cohen, your offensive coordinator, has been on one the last couple of weeks.

I think I'm frozen. Hold on. I might have lost you. Are we back?

You're good. Okay.

I spoke about before the game, I did a couple of interviews before the game, and I said that the good teams find a way to win. And And the Bucaneers have been on the wrong end of these too many times. And what happens is, at the end of the game, it's technique time. It's where you do your job, and you can't have untimely penalties, and everybody has to do their job, and the technique has to be right, man. It's just untimely things can cause you to lose games. And that's why they say the NFL is a game of inches, because one wrong decision, one wrong step to the right, one interception, one holding, and the game changes, and that's what happened.

Yeah, it's really crazy because you train all offseason. You have all these injuries in this game. You train all week, and then it just comes down to a couple little things. That drive I was talking about, Rasheed White loses three yards. Had a big run in this game, but the running game was a little up and down. Bucky Irving had that fumble. He then picks up seven yards, but you have a penalty on your first round pick, Graham Barton. And then they throw another pass to Rasheed White that loses yardage, and they kick it off. At that point, they punt it away. At that point, the Falcons have the ball at the 20 with no timeouts needing three to tie. Kirk Cousins, who, by the way, set an all-time record for Falcon's passing yards with 509 yards. In three.

In three. Yes. In fact, we wouldn't make the proper adjustments. I don't know what the heck we were doing. He was finding those holes in our zone all night. And we watched what he just did a couple of weeks ago to Philly, and same thing.

This one It's a little different, though, because, man, he looked like a different Kirk because, again, it's all out of the pistol. It's all in shotgun. It's not what you used to him with play action and under center, but he was throwing it into some tight windows. A lot of times I was like, That's good coverage. And those are just good throws that he had some great anticipation. Darnell Mooney dropped a huge one in the fourth quarter that looked like a big play, but a lot of great throws into tight windows. Drake London had a monster game. My guy from Tulane, Darnell Mooney, goes nine for 105 and two touch downs. London gets 154. But there's Kirk Cousins with the ball at the 20 when he has it there in about a minute 20 left, no timeouts. What are you thinking? Are you confident your Bucks defense is going to stop him?

If I'm I'm not being honest, no. I mean, freak, he ain't stopped them all game. So at that point, you want to... Sacks, they drive killers. I said before the game, Same in the interview that Kurt is one of those people who are flammable, and that place is extremely electric. So if you let a guy like Kirek Cousins gets comfortable and he gets relaxed in what he's doing, he'll kill you. 509 yards ago, we see, what I said should happen. They got to get Kirk Cousins uncomfortable early. Get him out of his rhythm. Get them uncomfortable. Get them moving. That's when Kirk starts to make bad decisions. That's when Kirst starts to get flustered and be all over the place. He never got uncomfortable tonight. So you go into a final drive where he needs to get a field goal. I'm not overly confident that we're going to get this to stop. Now, I'm wishing and hoping, but overly confident? No, I wasn't.

No. And they had just lost Yaya Diaby. It's worth pointing out Jordan Whitehead, their safety got hurt in this game. They came into it already shorthanded, missing a handful of players. Kalanja Cancy, Antoine Winfield. We're talking about the best Bucks player. So I think if you're a Bucks backer, there's subpositives here that you're going to get healthier on defense, and your offense is looking great, but you're feeling even better if you're a Falcons fan because you've managed the beginning part of the season, which was very challenging well, especially with these late comebacks in primetime. In that drive, Cousins goes to London for 6 yards. Then he goes to London. Sorry, I'm looking at the overtime drive. He eventually has a couple of short passes, one to Mooney, one to Pitz, one to McCloud. Then he gets the ball around midfield, third and one, 21 seconds left. He throws it in completion where Zion Column, who's been great all season, bats the ball down. I'm thinking there's only 12 seconds left. They are in deep trouble. Let's listen to the play call there because most of us watching are thinking they have to go to the sideline here.

Instead, they go over the middle.

Snap to Cousins. He's looking to cut it loose quick. Does in the middle of the field. That's London. 8 seconds, 7, 6. Atlanta runs to the line now. Nuzle up over the football, 3, 2, spike it. They did it with one to go.

Wow.

That, to me, was the play right there. I was expecting the defensive players to just get in the way. I know they didn't want to get a penalty or anything, but that thing happened fast, Jerold.

I get that, but you got to do something. When you tackle him, just hold him for a second because you know... Just hold him for just a second. Just lay on him. On a regular play, If you lay on a guy for too long, nobody pays any attention. So do the same. It's like he still has to get his leg free. And then boom, we got it. But again, Atlanta earned this one. They earned this win. We didn't do what was necessary to win the game, and that was another example of it. One second.

It was absolutely crazy. We've got a comment. If you are We're watching live on YouTube, yes, send us some comments. Andre Cuna says, Dude, this is amazing. Having a former player live react to the game. So proud of you, Greg. I mean, I'm proud to have on Jerold, too. A great buck. Did they put you in the ring of honor yet? They got to get on that. I don't even know.

I would love if they did.

Okay. Three-time All-Pro. One of the best defensive tackles of the last two decades, Jerold McCoy, and someone I really enjoyed watching. But I got to admit, Jerold, the initial kernel of this idea to have you on actually came on a morning. I was on the couch with my son, and I'm thinking, I got to get someone for that Falcons Bucks game. My son is nine years old, and my boy Walker, he goes, You got to get Jerold. I was like, Jerold. I was like, Oh, yeah, that would be great. I'm like, You're on a first-name basis with him? I didn't know that. He's like, Oh, I love Jerold. He's my favorite on game day morning. I I'm at work at that point.

I love it. He's named Walker. That's my guy.

Yeah. And we might hear from Walker a little later. So Youngway Kuh, at that point, I'm circling back to the end of regulation, nails a deep kick. It was an up and down night for Kuh. He missed a short one early, and then he hits the long one to send it to overtime. He also had a field goal blocked in a situation where I I thought maybe Raheem Morris would go for it on fourth and sixth in the second half. There were so many ups and downs in this game. When you're a player in the game and there's so many swings of who's in control, And the Bucks were mostly in control in this game, but it was going back and forth in that fourth quarter. Are you guys riding that roller coaster? Or how does that feel? Because there were so many different moments in this game where I was like, oh, Falcons are going to lose. Oh, Falcons are going to win.

No, you can't, You have to stay even keel because it's a game of momentum shifts. And if you ride the wave, then mentally, one, it will drain you for sure. So by the time the game is when it's crunch time, you need to be at your best. You'd be so mentally drained because you're riding a wave of emotions. You can't do it. You got to stay even kill. Regardless of what happens is next play, next play, interception, next play, sack, next play, incomplete, next play, First down, next play. It's the next play mentality. You have a next man up mentality. So if somebody goes down, next man up. That's how you got to play the game until it's over. So the fans, they can ride the wave of emotions. We as players, we're allowed, but we shouldn't. Technically, we're not allowed to.

Right. And there were just so many ups and downs. You go back to the first half, and to me, the story of the game at the time was like, neither team could They don't get any pressure. The Falcons are just sending tons of blitzes, and they're not getting near Baker Mayfield at all. And that's why it felt like it might have come down to who won that coin toss. I know they put the rule in that you got to score a countdown, but I was like, Man, I like either of these teams to go score a countdown right now. Falcons get the coin toss, they go to overtime, and then, yeah, Kirk Cousins gets it done again. He ends up 42 2 of 58 for 509 yards, four touch downs in that interception to David. The crazy thing, Jerold, is I have some next-gen stats here. He only threw four play-action passes. He only threw one pass outside the pocket. So that's 57 passes. This guy is not moving. He's just sitting back there. That is surprising to me. I thought that was going to be a problem for this team, but he showed, I guess you can make it work.

Can you make it work with a quarterback that immobile?

You shouldn't be able to. And it goes to this testament to what I said this past week on game day morning, the Bucs struggled to rush with four. And when you blitz, you take people out of coverage. And if you do that against the wrong person, this can happen. So when you take people out of coverage and you try to rush with four, but you're not playing great zone in the back-end or great in the back-end, you'll get picked apart. Shouldn't be able to throw that many times from the pocket and be able to pick somebody apart. Sometimes you have to get out the pocket, but they wasn't making Kirek move enough, and we just got to get more coordinated up front. Now, we did get to the quarterback more this week than we have in past weeks. Well, not last week, but weeks prior to. But just sitting in the pocket like that, we got to get him off his spot, man. And that's why I said we had to get Kirek uncomfortable, and he wasn't uncomfortable back there. That's why he was just sitting back just picking us apart.

Yeah, he ends up finding Kaderl Hodge on that play. There was a huge third down to Drake London. Drake London is an absolute boss. I think he's having his moment. Tell me what you think about Drake London.

He's really good, man. You got some guys who just need the right person throwing them the ball, but somebody that's just truly skilled at what he does. Great hands, really good route runner. He's just a baller, and he's consistent. That's what you want. When you're looking for a guy, you need somebody who's consistent regardless of who's throwing them the ball. And that's what Drake London has been. That's why getting a Kirk Cousins, drafting to Michael Penick so early because you know you got pieces. You just got to get the right person to give him the ball. Great thing is, Kirk Cousins has been playing very well, so you don't have to rush Michael Penick into the lineup. He can sit back and he can learn. But as he's learning and getting better, you got Drake London who's improving and getting better. So while Michael do come into the lineup, now you got a dynamic duo that's going to be extremely scary. Add B. John Robinson to it. I hate that Atlanta figured out that throwing Michael Pitz, the ball actually works. I hate they figured it out tonight. I wish they would have figured it out next week.

Not tonight.

That's the thing. Kirk has been getting a little better, mostly each and every week, but this was different. Yeah, you mentioned Kyle Pitz gets a 32-yard nice pass up to see. I mean, a lot of it was just nice throws. Kirk, he's always thrown a pretty football. Taylor Zen watching on YouTube. Kirk Tober is here. That's the word. Kirk Tober is here. He has been an October monster. He gets Hodge involved. Rory McLeod, who's been in the league a minute, goes 6 for 66. I mean, my guy, I've always thought Darnell Mooney is a fantastic player. He knows how to get open. He's a very, very, very poor man, Antonio Brown, in that the quarterback doesn't always know exactly where he's going to be. He's just going to be open somewhere. And so that's been a problem for him, but he was great tonight other than that drop. We should give the Bucks some love, though. So I was mentioning in the first half of that game when the Falcons are sending a ton of blitzes, not getting any pressure on Baker, and Baker is back there cooking. I mean, Baker only wound up with 24 passes in this game, but very efficient, 180 yards, three touch downs.

They're moving the ball down the field. Your old teammate, Mike Evans, he's getting it done. Very physical. A couple of touch downs. Nice routes by Liam Cohen. This offense, I think, has a lot to feel good about. Bucky Irving goes 9 for 44. Rasheed White, Rashaud White, goes 10 for 72. Godwin's looked better this year. This is a better Bucks offense than I expected this season.

Yeah. And what it is, is when everybody was saying Atlanta was the favorites to win this division, it was because of how it looked on paper. And I said, There's no substitution. And that's what the Bucs have had with Baker Mayfield. See, the time put in, all the All the rosters were new. They were trying to develop timing and new guys in, new coordinators, this, this, and this. The Bucks have the same people. And Baker, the chemistry he was able to build with Mike Evans and Chris Galvin last year with Shai White, I knew it was going to carry over because Baker, there's nobody more dangerous than a person who has the belief of his organization or the players around him. And they believe in Baker Mayfield, and that's what he was looking for. He had a great season last year, almost one comeback player of the year. So I knew coming into this year, the offense was going to be even better. And you see in the chemistry he has with Chris Godwin over the first five weeks. You see Mike is just Mike. Mike has been Mike since he got in the league.

But having a quarterback that you have chemistry with, that's why this offense is flowing the way it's flowing. We just couldn't get it done tonight.

Yeah, it was fantastic in the first half. They did have a three and out to start the second half, and then that three and out at the end in the fumble. There just was no margin for error. You can't fault an offense when they have six scoring drives out of nine. I mean, the offense played well, but there was just no margin for error. It really reminded me of that Lion Seahawks game. Suddenly, offense is back in the NFL. The difference this time is, Gino kept scoring and scoring, and the lines kept responding. There was a moment here where the Bucks often stopped responding. The Falcons did a lot good. They made the Falcons, the Bucs defense, struggle with tempo at time. That's something you can do with the veteran quarterback. But look, these two teams are three and two. Jared, I believed in your Bucks. Before the season, I picked them to win the division for many of the same reasons you said. I just think if You just look at their top 10 players. They actually are a very talented team. They have a lot of high-quality players. Then I thought the continuity with Todd Bulls on defense and for the offensive players.

I wanted to see what Liam Cohen looked like, but I think that's worked out well. This is a fun division, the NFC South. They're both three and two. The Saints are pretty frisky. They're going to be in Kansas City on Monday night. Hey, I want to say a message to the schedule makers. I'm sure you agree with this back when you were a player. We don't need to just put the NFC South in primetime at the beginning of the season when we're opposite baseball. We should be putting NFC South in primetime all the time. It's a good time. There's no division quite like the NFC South.

Yeah, and the crazy part is a lot of people thought the NFC South would be one of the worst divisions going into the season. But Atlanta, they're fighters. New Orleans is better than we thought. Carolina is all over the place. But you got the Bucaneers who obviously have been playing great up to this point. Even tonight, the game was not like, need the team played bad. There was just no margin for error, like you said. And I said before the game, we can't go kick field goals. We got to go get points versus Atlanta, especially on Thursday night. Man, I don't know what it is. There's a couple of things. Atlanta on Thursday night and our cream. It's something about those cream, fickle jerseys and Atlanta on Thursday night with the Bucaneers, man. I don't know what it is, man. I don't believe in curses or anything like that, but it ain't been great for us over the last 10 or so years.

Well, you get a chance to maybe put the creamsicles on and beat Atlanta back in Tampa. I don't know. Later in the season, that'll end up being a good kick. No, please don't wear them.

I'm not an advocate for them. We're losing them. Stop wearing them. And the funny thing is the glazers are superstitious. So if we keep losing in these, stop wearing them, please.

I love it. All right. So before we let you go here, I do have a couple of little items. I did want to give some love, again, to your former teammate who, man, he's building a Hall of Fame case like you did during your career. Let's listen to Mike Evans have a big time noteworthy shutdown earlier in this game.

Now, the books line up in a shotgun set with two receivers wide to the left, one to the right. Baker Mayfield, belt high, snap, looks, looks, looks. Throws the ball toward the end zone. He's got Evans. He's got it. Touchdowns have a buy. Evans has two. Welcome to Atlanta, number 13. Doing his thing.

That's a great career, touchdowns, Jerold.

I know. Freaking, man, that was a cold-blooded route. Mike is funny, man. Mike do some stuff where you like, Mike, that didn't mean nothing to you. He was like, Whatever. He just Mike always shrug everything off, but he really loves what he does. He puts the work and time in. He learned from a great mentor, Vincent Jackson. Rest in peace to Vincent Jackson. He taught him how to be what we used to call the ultimate pro, which is what Vincent Jackson was. When Mike first came into the league, he was a chubby kid from Texas. A big body could play the game. He was a little chubby fat face. Then he realized, Okay, let me get my body in shape. Let me take care of myself so I can play longer. I can sustain this level of play for a long period of time. And that's what Mike has done. He's a measure of consistency. If you need consistency, put Mike Evans' pitcher right next to it. And he's just been incredible, man. And he said that he wanted his 100th catch, the ball. He wanted his 100th catch receiving a countdown. I mean, that was his 100th countdown.

He wants his 100th receiving a countdown. That's the ball he's going to keep because he just keep giving the ball away.

Okay, that's a good point. There was, I think, a fumble recovery, a touch down. It's badass. It's one of the cool things about the Bucks that Bay has been there for a while. You were with Godwin for a couple of years, too.

He was Ceege 14, his rookie year, I was there. Yeah.

And he's consistent. And it's really been cool, actually, because I really loved him in his first few years in the league, just what he could do after the catch. And You could tell the injuries for a couple of years affected him, but he looks like he's all the way back. He's in a contract here. He's going to get paid again like that. They are a lot to deal with. They were missing, actually, their number three and number four receivers tonight, and then another receiver went down. Like I said, I think both of these teams get out of the first five games of the season feeling pretty good. I mentioned my buddy Walker. Speaking of Mike Evans, my son Walker is a fan of yours. It It's his bedtime. He's gone. We're not letting him stay up to watch the end of the game or watch this show. But he did want to send a little message to you. So we're going to listen to that now, Jero. Hi, Mr. Mccoy.

I like your show on Sunday mornings, and I have a question for you.

Is Mike Evans going to be in the Hall of Fame?

From Walker.

I love it, man.

I love it. I'm a dad's dad. I'm a family man to my core. I got five kids, man. And I was just at a carnival earlier with my 10-year-old to my five-year-old. So, man, hearing that little voice, Here from Walker. And Walker, to answer your question, yes, I think we question whether Mike Evans should be in the Hall of Fame or not. And the question should be, should he be a first ballot or not?

I like that.

Mike Evans, for sure, is a Hall of Famer. Walker, you are Hall of Famer. From Jerold and his family to you guys, we love you so much, Walker, and I definitely appreciate your question and all your love and your support.

Yeah, he's a big fan, and he's going to have smile ear to ear when we wake up tomorrow, and I'll play him. That is awesome. Tough night for your Bucks. Appreciate the professionalism. The very last The next thing we're going to do here, Jerold, is we actually are going to give a little bit of love to someone you went against. I do on this night where they honored Matt Ryan. We are just going to listen to just one little clip from a guy that you faced off against.

To the Falcons fans. Atlanta has become my home. You have become my extended family. I want you to know it was the thrill of a lifetime to be your quarterback. Every day, I was trying to be the best I could for this organization and for you. I will never have another job that I love as much as the one I had here.

That's cool. It makes me feel to see Matt Ryan up there and Roddy White. I'm back. Sorry. You're good.

Oh, yeah. For some reason, it kicked me out, but whatever. I'm sorry.

I'm back. No worries. So that's a guy, Matt Ryan, that you went against. It's making me feel old a little bit that Matt Ryan is going in the Ring of Honor and Roddy White's up there. And do you have any Matt Ryan facing off against Matt Ryan? What that was like story?

Yeah, I love Matty Ice, man. And calling him Matty Ice is like a cardinal sin for a rival, for an opponent. But I love him to death. Matt Ryan is one of the best competitors I ever faced. And Matt Ryan is actually where I learned the term flammable. I used to use these flammable, man. And he was one of those people. When he gets started, if you don't stop him early, he's flammable, especially in that building. And that's why I knew that building is so electric. Who's ever a quarterback. And I faced off against two guys that were there at the same time. I faced off against him and Roddy White, but also freaking Julio Jones. So I had to deal with all that over my time in Tampa, man. But Matty Ice, Everything he's getting, he deserves. He for sure should put on that gold jacket with Mike Evans, along with Julio Jones and my buddy, Levante David. It was a great run playing against Matty Ice. Actually, when my last game as a Bucaneer was versus the Falcons, and I had a feeling, wasn't too sure if I was coming back or not, but I had a little inkling.

So I told Matty Ice, I said, Hey, listen, this may be my last time in the NFC South. Can I have your jersey? And he signed it for me. I got Matt Ryan's jersey, man. Freaking incredible career as an Atlanta Falcon. Loved competing against Matty Ice.

Yeah. I just think of how he came into the league. I remember his very first game, him having this crazy drive at the end to get it done. And that was his career. Although I got to say, not to annoy both fan bases here, when the Bucks backed up out of field goal range in that spot, it reminded me so much of the Falcon Super Bowl after Julio made that catch that she had done in history as one of the greatest catches of all time, and one of the greatest throws of all time in the Super Bowl. And they're in field goal range, and they're probably going to win it. And then they get a holding penalty to back them up, and they give the Patriots another chance. And that happened to your Bucks tonight. They give the Falcons the other chance. And hey, the new Matty Ice, Kerco Chains. He's swag surfing out there. He's clutch, and it's going to be a fun year in the NFC South. We'll be watching you, Jerold. Listen to your podcast with Kyle Van Noy at Yahoo. Check him out, game day morning.

Yahoo Sports. Check us out every Tuesday. Nfl game day morning, every Sunday morning. Best show on TV. I appreciate it.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

No problem. Thank you. Walker's favorite, Jerold McCoy. And this was an awesome game on Thursday night. We will be back on NFL Daily on Friday. It's the Pick Show with Cynthia Freeland. And then, of course, we will be there on Sunday for all your recap needs. Until then, when Kerco Chains is throwing for 500 yards, you know football is back.

Oh, yeah, for sure, man. Congratulations to them. Oh, don't get used to it, though. Going to get our get back. Trust me.