Falcons Offense Strong in Debut, But Turnover Leaves More to Be Desired

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder nearly led a touchdown drive in his 2023 debut, but an interception left a sour taste in the team's mouth.

The Atlanta Falcons' first-team offense looked real strong in its debut drive in Friday's tie against the Cincinnati Bengals. The team was chipping away, getting first down after first down and killing a lot of clock.

Even with a few pre-snap penalties, the Falcons found the first down marker six times en route to the red zone, getting all the way inside the Bengals' five-yard line.

All of the hard work on a drive that nearly lasted 10 minutes ended in disaster after Desmond Ridder threw an interception to Joseph Ossai.

“In this game, it's all about controlling what you can control," Ridder said. "There I thought it was man coverage. That was the route we wanted to work, a little whip route on it. Once I let the ball go, it was out of my hands. The ref didn't make the call, that's something we've got to live with." 

After over 30 yards in penalties, shaving at least half of those would have resulted in points on the opening drive.

"The penalties in that drive, we probably shouldn't have got to that situation," Ridder said. "Probably already should have had the points on the board, sitting on the bench. For us, there's a lot of things we can go back and clean up on that first drive where that result doesn't happen.” 

At the end of the day, it's still preseason and the Falcons have some kinks to iron out. If they can fix their mistakes between now and the start of the regular season, Atlanta will be in a good spot.

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You can follow Jeremy Brener on Twitter @JeremyBrener.

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