For the Falcons it has been an offseason complete with high expectations and extensive changes, and with two encouraging preseason performances behind them, all that remains for Smith and his staff in this always-critical preparation phase are matchups in Miami and Jacksonville. Four preseason games can seem excessive, especially when there is a big kickoff in Arrowhead Stadium to look forward to next month, but coach Mike Smith believes there is still polishing needing to be done.
One thing Smith wants to clean up before the season starts are the penalties. Matt Ryan has managed a near spotless first unit and despite a new coordinator in Dirk Koetter, there have been few if any false starts, formation issues or holding calls with this group. The reserves and the defense on the other hand have committed costly penalties, and personal fouls by Peria Jerry and Jonathan Babineaux during last week’s game kept drives alive for Andy Dalton and the Bengals.
“We’ve got to fix the amount of penalties we are committing,” said Smith. “Twenty-one penalties in two ball games. You can’t win with double-digit penalties.”
Cleaning up the penalties may have to take the backseat to a more pressing issue that arose during Monday’s practice when key backup offensive lineman Will Svitek suffered a season-ending upper right arm injury. The long preseason checklist involved with the unveiling of two new coordinators just grew and these final two preseason games suddenly turned into decisive moments for the offensive unit. The Falcons are without the toughness and, even more importantly, the depth that Svitek provides. In the first two preseason games Svitek was getting quality reps behind starting left tackle Sam Baker and starting right tackle Tyson Clabo. The depth was an issue before the injury and now two inexperienced backups will be needed to restock the tackle position. Rookie Lamar Holmes who is a third-round pick from Southern Mississippi, and Mike Johnson, a 2010 third-round pick from Alabama have moved up in their ranks.
Injuries happen, and whether it has been evaluating the major position battles or making sure the offense and defense will divvy up the load this season, there is an agenda that is followed in the preseason. Smith and his staff set a pace for these four games with the hopes to get through them and come out as harmonized as possible and more importantly healthy.
“We want to win, but our No. 1 goal in the preseason is to get to the first game as healthy as possible,” said Smith.
Matt Ryan is clearly the nucleus of the offense, and after two flawless quarterbacking performances has made it clear that he and Koetter are and have been on the same page this offseason. In addition to Matt Ryan’s incredible performances, his protection has brought a sigh of relief. In almost three quarters of play, Ryan has gotten rid of the ball quickly and is yet to get sacked or even hit by the defense. Even more impressive is how effective the offense has been against two contrasting defensive looks.
In the first preseason game, the Ravens left Jones in single coverage and Ryan opened up with six straight completions including a Julio Jones touchdown. Jones received four of the six Ryan passes with Roddy White receiving the other two.
Smith stated that game planning does not begin until the third preseason game, and that the goal for the second preseason game was to work on specific aspects of the offense.
“Tonight we really wanted to focus on our passing game coming in,” Smith said following the Bengals game.
The Bengals were a top 10 team against the pass and run last season. The pass rush is their specialty, and their secondary is one of the better corps in the league. Their strategy was to concentrate on stopping Julio, and the result was a spreading of wealth on offense that gave us a deeper look into Koetter’s toolbox this season.
Unlike the first game where Jones was making explosive plays to start the game, he remained quiet for much of the first-team offense’s snaps. Cincinnati had Jones doubled and Ryan found a way to benefit from the coverage. Ryan completed his first 11 passes and eventually found nine different targets during his 18-of-21 outing including the touchdown to Lousaka Polite.
Coordinators Mike Nolan and Koetter will get an opportunity to handle these next two games as game weeks.
“This will be the first time our new staff will go thru the process of putting in a game plan,” said Smith.
With game plans in place we can finally see how the coordinators will attack and exploit their opponents. The Falcons were 4-4 on the road last season so it will also be a good opportunity for this team to get some experience outside of the dome.
These first two preseason games have been promising for both sides of the football and positions like safety have shown improvements in just one week. The secondary as a whole has done extremely well under Nolan and besides a big 50-yard touchdown reception by A.J. Green, it was a solid night for the secondary. Green for example was a target five times and only connected on the big score and an early nine-yard catch. The depth at safety is a criticized area of this team, but the top guys were making big plays against a good West Coast Bengals offense. Backup safety Chris Hope had two tackles including a big tackle for a loss. Starters Thomas DeCoud and William Moore tackled extremely well, were solid in the pass game and made some key plays by forcing two Bengals fumbles on what would have been big gains.
There are still a lot of questions to be answered and the team depth will be the most important one as the Falcons develop their first gameplan to take on the road to Miami.
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