Falcons Starters in Preseason: 'Pretty Damn Good' But 'Lots to Coach'
The Atlanta Falcons received their first glimpse of what's to come this season during last Friday night's 13-13 preseason tie against the Cincinnati Bengals, as the starters - from quarterback Desmond Ridder to defensive tackle Grady Jarrett and beyond - all saw live snaps for the first time since Week 18 of last year.
And really, the early returns were as expected - lots of good, some bad ... or for Falcons coach Arthur Smith, a "pretty damn good" takeaway, other "frustrating" mistakes and "lot(s) of stuff we can coach off of" moving forward.
Atlanta's starting offense put together a 15-play, 78-yard drive that lasted nearly 10 minutes but ultimately ended without points after Ridder's pass was deflected off receiver Scotty Miller's chest and intercepted by Bengals outside linebacker Joseph Ossai.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is the Falcons had little trouble moving the ball, gaining 106 yards from scrimmage - but also lost 28 yards due to a barrage of penalties.
Nonetheless, Atlanta showed plenty of promise and delivered on the belief that it could involve all of its premier playmakers, with running backs Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier, receivers Drake London and Mack Hollins and tight end Kyle Pitts all being involved during their lone possession.
Ridder completed seven of nine passes for 80 yards, finding London and Hollins twice apiece for 33 and 20 yards, respectively, while hitting Pitts for a gain of nine and Robinson for six more. Veteran wideout KhaDarel Hodge hauled in one pass for seven yards.
On the ground, Robinson picked up 20 yards across four attempts, with his first professional carry going for 12 yards and a first down.
And so, the notion of several positives mirrored by the negative fact of no points and consequential penalties created mixed emotions ... which Smith echoed in the aftermath.
“Obviously you have a long drive like that, having to overcome a couple penalties isn't going to please you as a coach," Smith said. "Those are things that we have to clean up and we will. Overall, some of the stuff we needed to see, playing in the pocket, operating in some of those situations, that's why we need to play. But I thought Des spread the ball around.
"Again, you don't want to see a ball tip up and get picked off in the red zone off a really long drive, but that's what happened.”
Smith remains quite confident in his belief that the Falcons will clean up their penalties, a problem that spread beyond the starters, as the team was flagged 13 times for 102 yards.
Better yet, there's legitimate reason to believe in Smith when it comes to fixing this issue - just look at last season, when the Falcons were the least-penalized team in the league with only four per game.
Ridder said he believes the unit simply needs to "lock in," while right guard Chris Lindstrom, who was called for multiple penalties, added that he needs to be better ... and his track record of three penalties in two years suggests he will be when the lights come on.
That said, Smith continues to stress the unacceptable nature of such penalties and has identified it as a clear area of focus entering the final week of the preseason.
“You can’t have pre-snap penalties," Smith said. "Any penalty, especially pre-snap, is obviously going to irritate you. There are some critical errors when you’re down in the red zone, short yardage, and critical down situations where we have to eliminate those. Those things are frustrating but luckily that game didn’t count. We have time to work on it. But those are things we have to improve.”
The penalties were largely uncharacteristic of the Smith-led Falcons, but many of his usual offensive staples were present, including the play action game and high volume of intermediate concepts.
There were also glimpses of the headaches Atlanta hopes to cause opponents this fall with considerable pre-snap motion, which created what Bengals coach Zac Taylor described as "a good test" for his starting defense.
"They shifted in motion about every single play and they changed personnel groups, so I thought it was a good opportunity for our guys to have to communicate and stress our communication a little bit,” Taylor said.
As for the Falcons' defense, several new faces made their debuts, including defensive linemen David Onyemata and Calais Campbell, linebacker Kaden Elliss and safety Jessie Bates III, among others.
Cincinnati, which played its second-team offense, put together a 10-play, 57-yard drive that came to an end after good coverage from Falcons cornerback Dee Alford forced quarterback Trevor Siemian's pass to the endzone to fall incomplete.
Atlanta was led by Elliss, who posted four tackles, and Campbell, who was disruptive up front in his limited action. Bates pitched in a key tackle on a 3rd and 6 that preceded the turnover on downs to close the drive.
Siemian finished the drive with four completions on six attempts while gaining 41 yards through the air, a more efficient showing than Smith would prefer ... but the run defense allowed only 11 yards on five carries, leaving Smith satisfied with that aspect of the unit's performance.
"I like their run fits," Smith said. "I thought we did a decent job of the run fits. A couple of things we have to clean up in some of our pass rush lanes - things here or there in the pass defense. But I thought our run fits, especially early, for that veteran group was pretty damn good."
Atlanta's defense also conceded five yards for a holding penalty on defensive tackle Albert Huggins, which added to some of Smith's earlier frustration, but similarly to how the offense steadily moved the ball down the field, the defense's ability to hold up against the run was a large positive.
The next topic at hand for Smith and staff is determining whether that was the last time the starters will play before Week 1.
The Falcons host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night to cap off the preseason, but now have to decide if those 60 minutes should go towards evaluating the bottom half of the roster before cuts on Aug. 29 or giving the starters more reps to finetune some of the other issues.
Smith shared that the determining factor in he and the staff's decision will be how the team performs in practice on Monday and Tuesday, but as things stand, he has a "decent idea" on what he'll do ... but didn't opt to elaborate on which way he's leaning.
“We’ll finalize that Tuesday night," Smith said. "A lot of what we feel like we need to work on for certain guys that we know will be here to get ready to go Week 1. You also have the opportunity to make some tough decisions so you’re kind of weighing all that. I’ve got a pretty good idea, but we need to see how these next two days go too.”
The answer will be in soon enough, with the Falcons and Steelers set to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Thursday night.
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