Falcons were happy on Saturday night for two reasons.
Reason 1: It was the first time since December ‘08 that the Falcons played a game at the Georgia Dome, preseason or regular season. Reason 2: Those fans were treated to a thrilling ending as Chris Redman threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Eric Weems with nine seconds left to give the Falcons the 27-24 win over the San Diego Chargers.The first-team defense had a rough outing, giving up 21 points in the first half. At the beginning of the second quarter, the Chargers scored via a Philip Rivers 48-yard touchdown screen pass to Michael Bennett.
On that drive, the Chargers converted a third-and-18, a third-and-17, and on the touchdown play they converted a third-and-24.
Needless to say head coach Mike Smith wasn’t happy on how the defense played on third-down.
“On third down, there were not a lot of things going on,” Smith said after the game. “It’s definitely something we have to work on and we will get better.”
After the play he got the first team defense and gave them an earful. He didn’t say what he told the unit, but he did not put the blame on a certain person or defensive position.
“I’m not going to absolve anybody,” Smith added. “Again, when we go out there and play, we play as a unit; offense, defense and special teams.
As much as the defense struggled at times, the offense had another strong outing as it netted 359 total yards with 271 of those yards coming in the air. Matt Ryan had another solid preseason game, going 14-of-20 with 141 yards and one touchdown.
Ryan was happy with the way that he and the rest of the offense played but he said that the group can get better.
“I think we did a pretty good job in the first half,” said Ryan during the game. “We have to get better and keep getting better. I thought it was good for the first team to get out there during the second half and get used to making that transition.”
Usually the third game of the preseason is the game where the starters will play the first half and the beginning of the second half to get them ready for the regular season, which starts in two weeks.
Roddy White, who missed the first week of training camp due to a holdout, knows that there is plenty of work to be done between now and the season opener.
“I just have a lot of catching up to do, especially in our two-minute packages,” White said after the game. “I just need to catch up with the rest of the players.”
The Falcons will have their last preseason game on Thursday when they play the Baltimore Ravens at the Georgia Dome. Then they will have 10 days to get ready for the season opener against the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 13.
Jones can be reached at bjones@scoreatl.com.
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