The second week of the NFL preseason kicked off with the Falcons facing the Cincinnati Bengals at the Georgia Dome which was nationally televised on FOX. Like last week, the first team for the Falcons looked strong while the second and third team had issues making plays, which resulted in a 24-19 loss.
The first team offense and defense saw more action in this week’s contest, playing well into the second quarter. They did not score on the opening drive like they did last week, but they were able to move the ball and Matt Ryan looked as sharp as he could in preseason play. Ryan finished the game 18-of-21, 174 yards and one touchdown. In fact, Ryan has looked sharp this entire preseason. He has gone 27-of-34 for 329 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.
“I think we’ve improved since we got here two and a half weeks ago, three weeks ago, whatever it is now,” said Ryan on the team’s play. “We’ve improved day to day and I think that’s the key. You want to keep getting better and start playing good football when you get to the regular season.”
The touchdown pass was a 2-yard pass to Lousaka Polite to tie the game at 10. The Bengals got their first touchdown earlier in the quarter when Andy Dalton threw a 50-yard bomb to A.J. Green. Asante Samuel was covering Green and got beat with a double move.
“He made a double move and receiver separated on the double move and it was a nice throw and a nice catch,” said Falcons head coach Mike Smith.
Cincinnati got the scoring started late in the first quarter when Mike Nugent kicked a 54-yard field goal. The Falcons answered early in the second quarter when Matt Bryant kicked a 20-yarder to tie the game at 10.
The second half marked the beginning of the second and third-string players to make their mark. The Bengals reserves took advantage of the time on the field as backup quarterback Bruce Gradkowski threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Mohamed Sanu to give them the 17-13 lead. They would add on to their lead late in the fourth quarter when Jourdan Brooks scored on a 1-yard touchdown run.
After the Bengals final scoring drive, the Falcons brought in Dominique Davis after having Chris Redman and John Parker Wilson play the last part of the second quarter through the beginning of the fourth. Davis looked sharp in his short time on the field, completing 11-of-18 passes for 124 yards and a touchdown pass which he threw to Lemark Brown.
After a three-and-out by the Bengals, the Falcons go the ball back with 1:33 left in the game and Davis was able to the Bengals 35-yard line. But due to dropped passes by the backup receivers, the Falcons turned the ball over on downs.
Even though this is the preseason and they were working a lot of new players in to evaluate, the Falcons did some things that are uncharacteristic. The most glaring stat is the penalties, which they committed 11 of them. The other is red zone efficiency which was at 40 percent. And then there was the third down efficiency on defense which has been an ongoing trend.
“Defensively we were not good on third down, they converted way too many third downs and they were 3rd down and long and that has to be something that favors the defense,” said Smith.
“We didn’t get the win and we can’t have 11 penalties for 122 yards and 3 personal foul calls. That’s something we definitely we have to improve on. It’s a trend right now in these first two ballgames.”
The Falcons will look to improve on these things when the take on the Miami Dolphins next Friday. This will be an important game for the Falcons because the starters will play into the third quarter. The game will be at Sun Life Stadium and kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m.
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