As we're about to hit the second preseason game (Monday night against the Jets), let's take a quick peek back at the first exhibition game against Detroit. Here are some of my observations that have NOT been covered by the other sports web sites: Defensive coordinator Dean Pees is essentially using a 4-2-5 alignment for the nickel package. One of the interior defensive linemen comes out rather than a linebacker. The edge rushers are up on the line, though they do not put their hands on the ground. (I've seen other coordinators who play 3-4 take out one of the ILBs and go with a 3-3-5 grouping. Wade Philips prefers skipping the nickel completely and going from 3-4 directly to dime, using a 4-1-6 formation.) Taking out an interior lineman fits Atlanta's current roster situation, as the injury to Vincent Taylor and the unexpected retirement of Eddie Goldman left the team shorthanded in that group. Atlanta's first unit defense basically played one series. Detroit carved them up. The most concerning thing is that I believe I saw three miscues in coverage assignments on pass plays. That's already really, really bad, but it's even worse considering there were only four pass plays on that drive. The first one involved a cornerback blitz. With the other defenders rotating assignments, the Lions tight end somehow wound up being completely uncovered. Even the announcers were able to pick up that there was a missed assignment on that one. The next one had good coverage downfield but no one taking the running back coming out of the backfield on the offense's left side. That should have been an easy completion, but he dropped the pass. Nickel corner Mike Ford (presumably filling in for Isaiah Oliver) came up and made a hit, but I'm not sure if Ford actually had the coverage responsibility there. But I do believe that Ford missed the assignment on the other play, which turned out to be a big gain on a pass to St. Brown. Two receivers lined up together with two corners on that side. Ford didn't go to the middle of the field with St. Brown and basically ended up covering nobody. Meanwhile St. Brown ran right past Rashaan Evans. I can't imagine Dean Pees would draw up a defensive play where a linebacker has primary coverage responsibility on a speedy wideout. That had to be on one of the corners, and I believe it was Ford. Side note: one of the writers for the team's web site is pushing the idea that Ford might be a serious challenge to unseat Isaiah Oliver for the "starting" nickel spot. I certainly hope not. I thought his performance was abysmal. He played the nickel role for the entire first half and was a major factor in both of the other two Lions scoring drives as well as the likely missed assignment in this one. He looked like an absolute clown playing the deep man in double coverage on a long pass play, taking a bad angle that would make Thomas meow Decoud wince and leaping for the ball too early and ten yards off target. If that's the best the Falcons can do at nickel, they're already on the clock for the #1 pick in the 2023 draft. I do think the first unit defense is far better than what they showed. Those miscues are mental mistakes that aren't too surprising for the very first pass plays of preseason - particularly when the secondary includes two backups filling in for banged up players. For the first unit offense, Marcus Mariota said he felt like he needed to take a few hits to shake off some rust and get his season going. That partly makes sense for a running quarterback, as the QBs are "hands off" even in full contact practice sessions. Until this game, he hadn't taken any contact throughout the offseason training program. And that might explain why he only threw two passes. Arthur Smith said after the game that there were no designed QB runs among the play calls, so all of Mariota's yards on the ground were his decisions. He had KhaDarel Hodge open for a six or seven yard gain on the sideline on a rollout but opted to keep it and run it instead, ultimately gaining eight. If he wanted contact, he got it on that one. I'm guessing in the regular season he throws the ball. He had another run where he took off immediately. I believe he read the defense before the snap on that one and knew he had a big gain on the ground. His touchdown run looked like an intended QB bootleg, but I'll take Arthur Smith at his word that it was a pass. After repeated viewings, I think it the intended receiver was going to be Olamide Zaccheaus, who either timed the route incorrectly or was picked up late by the Detroit defense. The pass simply wasn't there. Backup tight end Parker Hesse had an interesting game. He rotated in for Kyle Pitts and played a lot of snaps with the first unit offense as well as later in the first half with Desmond Ridder. I consider it noteworthy that he lined up at fullback for two snaps early on - even before the team's actual fullback (Keith Smith) came on the field. He also lined up in line at TE, split out wide, and went in motion on various plays. He made the key block to spring Mariota for his touchdown run and later caught the pass for Ridder's first touchdown. Several of the offensive linemen had one noteworthy miscue each, but nobody had more than one significantly bad play. I can live with that for the first preseason game. I will say that one guy who caught my eye was Leroy Watson, who played left tackle with the third unit - which was on the field for nearly all of the second half. The undrafted rookie wasn't mentioned by the announcers during the game, and I can't recall seeing him mentioned in any articles covering training camp from the team's web site or other sources. But up against real competition, he was solid. Put him in the running for a practice squad berth. The big surprise for me among the WRs was that Auden Tate didn't get on the field until the final drive (the two-minute drill) at the end of the first half, along with Frank Darby. With Darby, you'd probably expect that. But Tate was one of the free agent signings and has enough experience that he should be in the hunt for a starting role. Or to put it another way, the very first offensive series of the game featured Drake London, KhaDarel Hodge, Damiere Byrd, Geronimo Allison, and Olamide Zaccheaus. Every contender for a starting role (other than Bryan Edwards, who was held out of the game due to injury) was on the field with Mariota at some point in that one drive - EXCEPT for Tate. Take that as you will, but for me it has strong negative implications regarding Tate's position on the WR totem pole. Ridder's numbers were misleading in both directions. His final line was 10-22 with two touchdowns. He had two drops by WRs, three passes that were too difficult for backup tight ends to bring down (but would have been caught by Kyle Pitts or a starting caliber WR), and at least one intentional throwaway. But he also had two balls that should have been interceptions. One actually was picked, but the play was nullified by a penalty. The other would have sealed the game for Detroit, but the defender simply dropped the ball. So a more accurate desciption of his performance would be 15-23, 2 TDs, 2 INTs. I do have to laugh a bit about the Lions being the featured team on Hard Knocks this year. The first episode had their coach stressing "Grit" - claiming that the team's culture focuses on that sort of dogged determination. By all rights, Detroit SHOULD have won that game. They had it in hand and dropped it - literally - twice. Instead the rebuilding Falcons were the team that displayed True Grit, answering Detroit's opening touchdown with a touchdown of their own, executing the two-minute drill to get a game-tying field goal at the half, getting into the backfield to recover the dropped shotgun snap before the Lions quarterback could fall on it himself to give themselves one more chance late in the fourth quarter, and making the winning touchdown pass and catch on fourth down (in spite of blatant uncalled pass interference on that play). Falcons fans are used to seeing the scrubs roll over and play dead in the fourth quarter of preseason games. Not this time. It certainly helped that Desmond Ridder played the rest of the game after the very first drive (instead of Feleipe Franks, who played tight end). But that fourth quarter comeback was with undrafted rookies Tyshaun James (released after the game), Stanley Berryhill and Jared Bernhardt as his wide receivers and the last offensive linemen on the roster. They put up a fight that the Falcons haven't seen from their third units in recent years.
