It’s been seven months since the Falcons last stepped on to a field to play a football game, and that day offered a performance they would like to forget. The Falcons fell to the eventual Super Bowl Champion New York Giants when the offense could not score a point.
The Falcons wanted to get that bad taste out of their mouths, and it started on Thursday night when they took on the Baltimore Ravens at the Georgia Dome.
Despite the Ravens taking the 31-17 win over the Falcons, there were more good things to take way from the game than bad. The Falcons first-team offense played all of the first and the beginning of the second quarter and looked sharp. Atlanta opened the game with an 8-play, 80-yard drive which ended with a Matt Ryan 7-yard touchdown pass to Julio Jones.
The offense would not score again until the start of the second quarter when Jacquizz Rodgers scored on a 2-yard run set up by a Ryan 36-yard pass to Jones.
“I though t the first couple of drives, especially the first drive; we got out to a good rhythm,” Ryan said during halftime after going 5-for-5 with 71 yards on the opening drive. “We were in the no huddle in the first series, and it was good for us to work that package.”
The first-team offense did make some mistakes, most notably when Ryan threw an interception to Brendon Ayanbadejo at the Ravens 8-yard line. That mistake was not costly as the defense was able to force the Ravens to go three-and-out.
In fact, the first-team defense for the Falcons was just as strong as the offense, shutting out the Ravens in the first quarter. Joe Flacco and company did score in their first series in the second quarter as Flacco threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Ed Dickson. However, that play was against the second unit as the first team got the rest of the night off.
“We have the opportunity to be a great defense if we continue to come out there and work, stay focused, and buy into what coach Smith has us doing,” Dunta Robinson said. “So we’re just going to keep working on that.”
After a 31-yard field goal by Matt Bryant to end the half, the Falcons would go into halftime with a 17-7 lead.
But that would not last for long because the Ravens would outscore the Falcons 24-0 in the second half. It would start with a Justin Tucker 36-yard field goal on the first series. Six minutes later, third-string quarterback Curtis Painter threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Billy Bajema to tie the game at 17. Painter would throw another touchdown pass with 31 seconds left in the third as he found Deonte Thompson for a 22-yard pass in the back of the end zone.
Painter threw one last touchdown early in the fourth quarter, and this time it would be an 18-yard screen pass to Bobby Rainey to give the Ravens the two touchdown lead.
As good as the Falcons’ first-team offense and defense looked in the first half, it was a whole different story in the second half with the reserves. Backup quarterback Chris Redman was 1-for-6 with only eight yards passing in his short amount of time on the field. Third-stringer John Parker Wilson was 8-of-13 with 69 yards, but he fumbled late in the third quarter, setting up the Bajema score.
Dominique Davis entered the game in the fourth quarter and threw an interception on his first play from scrimmage. That would set up the Ravens’ last score of the night.
“We did a lot of things that will take away from us winning the ball game,” Falcons head coach Mike Smith said after the game. “We can’t turn the ball over four times.”
Smith said he was glad that the starters were able to do some good things when they were on the field, but the reserves have to step it up.
“There are a lot of guys on this football that are not on the first and second unit that have to play well,” Smith added. “That is the main focus for these first preseason games.”
The Falcons will be off tomorrow before the head back to the practice field this weekend. They will be back at the Georgia Dome next Thursday when they host the Cincinnati Bengals which will be televised nationwide on FOX .
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