Atlanta Falcons home opener vs Carolina Panthers is almost here! | Rise Up Tonight

It's Thursday night in the A. You know what that means. Kelly Price and Tori Mhaney is coming at you on Rise Up tonight, presented by AT&T. >> Well, well, well. How things have changed since the last time we stood in these very same places. The adversity hit the Falcons even before they hit the field. And on Sunday, for the ninth time in 11 years, the Falcons open the season with a loss. Tori, where are you kind of at today with us? standing here before you with arguably more questions than we have answers, which is to say a lot of questions. >> Yeah, that's fair. Let's see if we can come up with some answers then because I cannot stop thinking about the fact that this tough week one loss for the Falcons with 6 minutes and 30 seconds left to play. They had a first and 10 in Steelers territory. A touchdown would have tied the game. >> It may have felt further than that though. But those are the facts. Let's hell up about it, y'all. >> Let's huddle up with Kelly and Tori on the world of Falcons football. So this time last week we talked about Tuot Tonga Aloa being the starting quarterback. No issues there except that his back took issue with that and then Cooper Rush was named the starter. Then his back started spazzing out too and my back is kind of just tightening up thinking about it because yesterday So okay, so yesterday Kevin Sansancy clarified what's going on this week though, right? Well, no he did not. He said yesterday they're quote still working through it unquote. The Falcons aren't ruling any of the four quarterbacks out to a Michael Pennock Jr., Rush, Strand, Jack Strand at this point to start. So, what are we supposed to take from this quarterback quandry? Yeah, that I guess we will find out when all of you at home do as well. But in all seriousness, we don't know right now. Still, as of this recording, there hasn't been a specific quarterback named for the week 2 start. Regardless, though, I think week one showed us one thing is crystal clear. Whoever is the starting quarterback should have one singular goal in mind when they take the field Sunday, which is to get the ball into the hands of your playmakers. As we will soon talk about, Bjon Robinson touched the ball in nearly 70% of all plays from scrimmage for Atlanta last Sunday. Cool. Cool. It's Bjon. But that's not sustainable. And if you cannot threaten defense like Carolina's with even the inkling of getting the ball into Drake Lynn and Kyle pitch Jan Dodson's hands, then it's nothing for them to stack the box and take Bjon out of the game. No matter who the quarterback is, the number one priority this Sunday, lighten the load. You asked Bjon to carry in week one. >> Yeah. So, let's talk about that a little bit more. We all know Bjan Robinson is an allp pro football player, all prohuman, all of the things. He finished Sunday as the Falcons leading rusher, 173 total yards on 29 touches, scoring Atlanta's lone touchdown, that 23-y catch and run screen pass. Number seven was always going to be a focal point of this offense no matter who QB1 was going to be. But Tori, I know I had this conversation with the guys on our Sunday Dirty Bird Report show. He cannot be everything all the time, every week for 17 weeks. I'm a little nervous to ask like where would this offense be without B. So I will say there is a reason a very good one in fact that you paid Bjon the money that you did in August. He's worth that and he continued to show you exactly why last Saturday. That said, what the Falcons asked him to do to be against the Steelers is not sustainable for 16 games hereafter. Bjon may be super human, but he's still human and football, even with Bjon on your team, is still a team game. It goes back to my first point. The Falcons can go a long way with Bjon. Yes, he's that good, but asking him to account for that much production without offering other outlets for other production to materialize. It's difficult to see that being a winning equation. >> Yeah, let's talk about the fact that Atlanta finished with nine penalties for 96 yards on Sunday as well. The offensive line seemed mistake prone in some really critical moments. Five holding penalties were called overall on that unit. But Troy, I feel like they I they really didn't have the pocket all kind of comfy and cozy for Cooper Rush, which exacerbated his struggles, I think, as well, sore back or not. So, three-part question here. Are you concerned about the offensive line struggles, or was it more on the talent of Pittsburgh's front, or or was this just like a sloppy week one that's going to get cleaned up anyways? Okay, I'm glad you broke it all down because this is actually a part of the game that didn't concern me as significantly as other issues last Sunday did. I don't think this performance was indicative of what we know this offensive line to be, nor is it indicative of a Bill Callahan coach front. Do they have things to clean up? Absolutely. Yes. I think every single one of them would agree that that's the case. That said, I do choke a lot of this up to week one. the need to settle into the speed of the game once more, the lack of pass plays that resulted in much, by the way, of positive net yards, which allowed those really, really good Steelers defenders to pin their ears back. To me, week one was a perfect storm for this offensive line, but one I don't think returns to their shores in frequent fashion. So, take away T.J. Watt's pick six. Atlanta's defense allowed just 13 points on Sunday. The Falcons hit Aaron Rogers six times. Zarius Smith alone sacking him twice. They also stopped the Steelers on three of 13 downs, 0 of two on fourth down, which Stfancy said was kind of due to the success they had in coverage and rushing the passer. The run defense, which was a concern for some kind of going into the year, held the Steelers to 58 yards rushing, 2.8 yards per carry. This all figuring out, you know, a lot of new faces, some new roles like with Smith, Javon Dexter, Mason Smith. Tori, were you surprised that this defense had as good a day as it did? I think I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't pleasantly surprised. I think going into week one there was there was a keen difference in how I felt for the offense versus the defense. Offensively, I thought the Falcons would be okay, even with question marks at quarterback. Not stellar by any means, but able to move the ball well enough to make things interesting. That obviously didn't really happen, though. The defense, I thought, would be the unit with some growing pain. So many new faces, like you talked about, new new responsibilities, so much by way of what the rotation could look like. All against the most seasoned quarterback in the league, mind you. I felt the task that they faced was the tallest. And yet, they proved any hesitation wrong and did more than enough to earn that win. Hey, we will take a pleasant surprise any day of the week. Well, this week, the Falcons rookie class spent their off day bonding and giving back for a greater good. Time to rise up for Atlanta, brought to you by Truist. The newest Falcons served up a hot meal and some smiles visiting the Shepherd's Inn Atlanta's mission's shelter for men experiencing homelessness in Atlanta, where up to 450 men each day are served as they look to get back on their feet. Kendall Daniels says an opportunity like this not only builds relationships with the very people who cheer for them on Sundays, but also builds relationships within that rookie class. >> It's great, you know, being able to joke around and, you know, come together to do stuff for for other people. you know, we probably wouldn't have got together as a rookie class on this off day. So, them getting us together and I feel like this is a great time for us to, you know, show what this rookie class is about, you know, giving back. So, that's the biggest thing. >> So, I know we're all hyped up for the home opener on Sunday, but I'm here to help as we look ahead to a big road game next week, Thursday night, in Lambo. Two words, y'all, cheese curds. We're making them later in the show. >> Oo, can't wait. Some pictures are worth a thousand words, and so are memes. We'll hear some of the Falcon's favorite memes next on Rise Up Tonight. >> Rise Up Tonight is presented by AT&T and brought to you by Georgia Lottery. Today could be the day. By MercedesBenz, the best of nothing. And by Home Depot, how do get more done? Do you ever wonder what's really on your favorite player's mind? It's time for the question of the week. >> Uh-oh. a favorite meme. Oo, I'm trying to think. I can't even think right now. I ain't going to lie. >> The Spider-Man one where it's like they're pointing at each other. >> That man's an impostor. That man is the impostor. >> Stop what you're doing and stop Spider-Man. >> You hate me. >> That's my favorite one for sure. >> 6 and 12 hours later. Ah, >> where Nick Young Swaggy P when he goes like >> if that boy ever take us serious he'll be great, >> but he was a clown then. >> That's true. >> He goes like, "What?" >> So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's That's a good one that we used in the group chat. Yeah. >> 3 hours later. >> Can you move it along? I'm all out of time cards. >> Bruh. Bruh. All right, there's our new meme. >> That's it. That's the meme. Zachariah took so long that he ended up becoming his own meme. >> Yeah, you can become a meme if you if you're going to take too long. All right, the guys had all offseason to craft these fits. Just like Zachariah, they had some time here. Time now for walking in. All right, Jawan Taylor wants none of your highs in the '9s with this maroon monochrome moment. He makes a statement. He is an autumn Tori. >> Oh, we love it. He literally said, "It's September. Gosh darn it. And I'm wearing maroon. >> Yes, I I I am here for that. All right, next up, Josh Woods, who's serving equally cozy kind of fall looks here with a casual polo pullover, some olive trousers. Personally, my favorite color, so a big fan of that right there. G even if it's giving a little bit of a Steve from Blues Clues vibe, just a little bit. But Tori, let's also note the accessorizing because there's a scarf tied on his bag so fashionably right there. Didn't he wear that in one of his outfits? Definitely. I definitely think that was a headscarf. >> Yeah, it was either a scarf or it was like an ascot almost. And I have to say, as soon as I saw Josh, I was like, well, Kelly's going to love this because it's olive green. It's her favorite color. I wore my green just for Kelly today. >> Oh, we love that. We love that. I I love the scarf as well. All right, Matthew Berseron lowkey becoming one of our new Falcon Spits faves. Go off, King. This is such a nice tailored set on him. Again, love the brown fall shades we've got going here. What a solid final touch. The Gucci sneakers when you get to that point. >> I was about to say uh the Gucci sneaker sneakers are really what takes this look from, oh yeah, I like this to oh yeah, we got to put them on walking in this week. >> Yes, right there. Those right there. >> There they are. >> All right. Finally, can we finish with should we call him QB3, RB3, wide receiver 2? I'm not sure. Zakius wears a lot of hats. He may normally play wide receiver, but right here he is doing it all. Caesar, a brand with an incredible story by a former football player. But here all I see is Lamade seizing his moment. I guess it is good that they didn't have to get to his number on the depth chart during the game. >> Probably the story of how Alamid Zakius was a couple of unfortunate happenings away from quarterbacking this team is a story I'd like to tell at some point before OZ hangs it up. >> Yeah, that's a 30 for30 we might want to see. All right, still ahead on Rise Up tonight, come hungry to the home opener on the Benz at the Ben on Sunday. Chef Matt Cooper has been cooking as he always does. We'll show you a few of the new items on the stadium's menu for this Falcon season later in the show. And speaking of good eats, I'm going in the nest with Confab Kitchen and Bar in Brook Haven to show you how to make your own cheese curds at home ahead of next Thursday's Falcons game in Green Bay. That's next on Rise Up Tonight, but we still got we still got a nice crispy cheese. >> Welcome back to Rise Up Tonight. Let's head in the nest with Kelly Tori and this week's special guest brought to you by MercedesBenz. >> Really excited about this week's In the Nest guest. With the Falcons going up to Green Bay, we had to get some uh cheese curds kind of in the tailgate this week. And so we have with me Confab Kitchen and Bar and Brook Haven owner Doug Chef Jason. He's going to walk us through how to make some cheese curds maybe for your tail or your watch party at home for this game. and we're going to talk about watching games at your bar as well. So, I want to talk about the name of the restaurant, too, because it's short for confabulation, which is just a wonderful vocabulary word. Talk about kind of where that came from and just kind of the vibe of your restaurant. >> It's uh it's just a word I always like, you know, it's something I I read in a book a long time ago and thought like this is a cool word. It just means like casual conversation and uh yeah, that was sort of the idea. I thought it would be a great name for a restaurant, something simple, something everybody can spell, which is good, pronounced easily. Um, but yeah, you know, the whole idea is it's a place that, you know, we celebrate conversation and getting to know people and and having a drink with friends and hopefully grabbing a good bite of food. >> Um, talk about also you guys have like a game day menu that you roll out on Saturdays and Sundays. What's special about that? >> Um, yeah. So, we started it last year. We've only been open for a year, so luckily we were open in time last year to be there for football. So, um, so we started doing a game day menu every Saturday and Sunday, uh, for college football and for NFL. Um, and yeah, it's just a chance for us to like play around and just kind of do some food that maybe is a little more, you know, um, well, I think our whole menu is approachable, but, you know, sometimes we've got some cool stuff like we have here, you know, we've got steak tartar tacos, but then at the same time, you know, we can do fried cheese curds and stuff that's a little more casual and just, you know, great for sitting around and watching football games. >> Stuff that pairs well with beer and watching football. We love to see it. What's the community response been like in Brook Haven since you guys have been open? Cuz you, like you said, only a year or so. >> It's been great. Yeah, we've been very fortunate. Brook Haven's a great community. People are really great. We've got a uh there's a little green space right out front and um you know, now we're even doing live music out there, which is awesome. And uh yeah, it's been really good. >> That's awesome. All right. So, like I said, the uh the headliner here is going to be the Wisconsin fried cheese curds. Um this is something that you guys have on your menu. This is also something that, you know, if you guys at home are watching this game are like, "Oh, I want to have something that's Wisconsin themed for this Packers and Falcons watch party." This is something we have a deep fryer, but maybe there's some adjustments we can make to do it at home as well. Some people have deep fryers. I know we were talking about how I have one at home. Um, so Chef Jason, uh, walk me through what you guys have here as far as how you guys prepare it. Not giving any away state secrets, of course. Um, so where did you start here? >> No state secrets. So we have some natural, uh, white cheddar cheese curds. Uh, and what we've done was we've placed this in a tempura batter. Essentially a beer batter. We use uh allpurpose flour that we cut with a little bit of rice flour, some baking powder, and then we use beer. So, we've coated that very well in that uh beer batter, and we're going to just kind of free drop it into our fryer. Little splatter. Be careful at home. >> That's how you know it's warm to the right temperature, right? All right. For those of you that make fried turkeys, maybe you have a uh outdoor fryer this will work in for tailgating. >> Perfect. So, okay. I actually I didn't tell you tell you guys this, but I actually worked in Wisconsin. That was my job before here. I worked in Green Bay and there's a big controversy up there on what is a cheese curd and you know the squeakiness and and the the ver verified cheese curd. Where do you guys get your cheese curds? Is that something that people can just go to like a like a specialty kind of deli and go get grocery store? >> You can often times find them. uh fresh frozen uh in some of your specialty stores and a lot of times they'll come like this just naturally shaped. >> Okay. >> Alternatively, if you can't find the curds, it's also possible that you could take something like fresh mozzarella, dice that up. It's >> not exactly the same and your purist will say they're not squeaky. You can't make poutine with that or anything. >> Uh so, you know, I think you can adapt this style of recipe. The bigger thing is just making sure that you get the tempura batter right because tempura batter >> is is more about letting this water evaporate very very quickly. >> Okay. >> Before uh so it gets crispy and brown. >> Okay. >> And when we're done, they'll be nice and crispy. >> Okay. And how long do you kind of put them in there for? >> In a larger fryer, they're very, very quick. This fryer, I think we might have cooled them down a little bit, so it's going to take a little bit longer. Just until they're golden brown. You'll know when they're golden brown and delicious. >> Okay. And how you prep the tempura batter. Walk me through that. I know we did that before we got to this stage, but >> Yes. So, uh, what you want to do is very cold beer. Um, or if you don't want to use beer, if you're, you know, maybe abstaining, you can also use soda water. >> Oh, okay. >> Uh, a classic tempura batter is a little bit of soda water and vodka because same thing, it's going to dissipate very, very quickly, uh, evaporate the moisture away and get you a beautiful golden brown crisp. >> Interesting. >> So, we cut the flour slightly with uh, rice flour or you can just use an allpurpose flour. It's about two cups of flour to one full beer. And then I put one tablespoon of baking powder. That baking powder is going to help it blend. >> Okay. Yeah. Again, beer, pure, cheese curds, all all kind of goes together. >> Well, Wisconsin staples again >> in the in the name of uh having some Falcons uh theme here. >> We're going to toss them in a little hot sauce. So, we'll do we'll do a little Dirty Bird Buffalo style cheese. >> I like it. >> Dirty bird cheese. >> I like that twist on it, too. That's nice. So remind me again what kind of sauce. So it's a sauce. It's like a buffalo sauce. So we we take we use one of our friends hot sauce is called southern singing. >> Okay. >> We add uh some spices in there. I like to get a little garlic powder, a little onion powder, and room temperature butter. Room temperature butter is the trick that's going to make it coat and have a have a nice The buffalo sauce, you've ever noticed, is not very red. It's kind of got a an orange hue to it. That's the butter cutting through. >> Good tip. Good tip for those of us at home. >> So, you want a very very crispy tempura so that that sauce will not uh make it uh it'll say crispy after after. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. These are ruined. I'm so sorry. >> You know, sometimes it happens, but the tailgate the party goes on. >> Yeah. Right. Tailgate has to go on. So, the important thing is when you're at home frying these to go ahead and make sure that your fryer is hot and ready to use before you start. >> That looks awesome. Okay, thanks for walking us through how we can maybe make some cheese curds at home. Hopefully that can help you guys with your watch parties as you watch the Falcons take on the Packers up in Green Bay. Um, go check out Confab uh Kitchen in Brook Haven for all of these wonderful things you can see here. Maybe you guys might be adding some uh some dirty for the game. We're going to we're going to work on the bag those fries, >> but they'll taste amazing. >> They will definitely taste. >> They certainly smell amazing. All right, thanks guys for being here. I really appreciate it. And we'll be right back on Rise Up Tonight. >> Thanks so much. >> Hey Atlanta, this is Head Crack talking and you're watching Rise Up Tonight presented by AT&T. >> Oh god, you're so good. M. So good. M. So good and tasty. M. >> That sound is interesting. But some of the new food options you can get at the Benz are good. They are tasty. You can get them starting Sunday at the home opener at the Benz. A personal favorite always the nachos. And I love how they put it in like the little mini Mercedes-Benz. I know chef calls it uh the food vehicle, which also is just like a great term. I love the little the little Benz box, but how about the Rib Volcano, too? >> That's new. That's new, right? Okay. All these are supposedly new. I think the nachos were old and then they brought them back. >> Gotcha. >> Um, all right. Quickly, I know we haven't really talked a lot about the Panthers, but what's your X- Factor on Sunday? >> Bryce. This is a guy who constantly has been a a thorn in the Falcons side for a couple years now, so got to get after him. All right, thanks for staying up real late with us for Tory Mhaney. I'm Kelly Price. Have a great night.