After two joint training sessions earlier this week, the Falcons and Jets faced each other on Monday evening. The Falcons lost 24-16.
Arthur Smith said earlier this week to take everything this week of joint exercises with a grain of salt. And that’s how the second game of the Falcons preseason should be understood as well. The Jets barely played any of their starters on Monday night. The Falcons did that during the first quarter. But the last fifteen minutes of the game? That time was mainly used for all reserves of both teams.
So, with all this in mind, who stood out for the Falcons and what does their limited evaluations mean for the overall scope of where this team is in preseason?
Marcus Mariota
Against Detroit last week we saw Mariota for a single ride. Monday night against the Jets, we saw a lot more of the Falcons starter. He finished the first quarter with 6 of 10 passes for 132 yards. He appeared to have the offense well under control, making contact with Kyle Pitts for a 52-yard catch and later Olamide Zacceaus for a 13-meter touchdown reception with Zacceaus executing a superb draft of a route.
If we were to nit-pick Mariota’s performance, it would be that a few of his passes were thrown under. His 53-yard pass to Pitts caused the tight end to slow on his route to time his catch. In the second stage, Mariota did something similar with a pass to Anthony Firkser who went for a 39 meter pick-up. If these pitches are for Pitts and Firkser, we might be talking touchdowns. Mariota’s last ride of the first quarter was not as productive as the first two. He threw a ball that was intended for Qadree Ollison at second deficit, then followed it up by missing Zacceaus also at third deficit.
It’s preseason, so the timing will come, and it’s not something to worry too much about, just something to note. Anyway, 132 yards for Mariota in a quarter isn’t such a bad night. There are only a few things in terms of timing to clear up for the veteran quarterback moving forward.
Desmond Ridder
Now let’s talk about the rookie.
Something Arthur Smith has talked about extensively during training camp and preseason is wanting to see how players react to failures. He wants players to bounce back when things go wrong, and in the second quarter of Monday night’s game things went wrong.
In the second quarter it rained penalties on the Falcons attack. Jalen Mayfield was called up for a false start when the Falcons looked into a fourth down situation from the Jets one yard line. It was a moment when Smith enthusiastically went after Ridder and the offensive line as they moved to the sidelines afterwards.
However, the Falcons defense came to a halt and the second team offense got the ball back with two minutes to go. Ridder came back well from the previous ride. Looking fresh with his passing, he saw success finding Jared Bernhardt for three passes for 67 yards. But again, the fines piled up. Offensive holdings and an illegal shift kept the Falcons out of the end zone, and they settled on a short field goal from Younghoe Koo to close out the half.
Despite the mistakes, it should be noted that Ridder continued to react with the penalties by making something happen to move the ball to the field. Feleipe Franks came in as quarterback midway through the third quarter, so Ridder’s night ended with the rookie quarterback going 10-for-13 through the air with 143 yards. Overall not a bad stat line.
Ade Ogundeji
One of the biggest compliments I can give anyone is noticing when they’re not on the pitch. I had that feeling at Ogundeji on Monday evening. He only had two tackles, one for a loss, in his performance, but he made things happen when he was in it. Ogundeji was always near the ball throughout the three series he was on.
He got some solid penetration and put a little pressure on the Jet tacks. Ogundeji was called up to knock down the passer call when he fell forward into Mike White’s legs in third. He – and Smith – didn’t really like the call, but the defense held up after that and Ogundeji ended his night reinforcing – in my mind at least – that he is an important part of not only this current defense, but what the position of the outer linebacker. tries to grow actively.
Tyler Allgeier
Monday we saw Allgeier against the Jets early on. He played late against Detroit, with Ollison getting the majority of first-team reps. However, Allgeier got a lot more work with Mariota and the rest of the first team offense. He also stayed in the second quarter during the reruns of Ridder.
Allgeier ran hard and gained noticeable yards after first contact on a few of his six runs. He only had 17 up-and-coming yards, but they seemed to be well-deserved and well-timed yards. Smith also let him catch a few paces out of the backfield. He had three catches on four targets for 12 yards. All in all, it was a nice performance from the declining rookie.
Not one person, but the entire defensive interior
Grady Jarrett was held back Monday night after two productive days of work during the Falcons and Jets joint training sessions earlier this week. This was good for two reasons: 1) no one needed to see Jarrett. He’s Jarrett. Keep him healthy and ready for week 1. And 2) we need as many assessments of the depth of the defensive interior as we can get.
Injuries significantly shrunk this position group during training camp and preseason. The Falcons are therefore looking for players who want to play a more prominent role. On Monday, we saw a plethora of defensive linemen take to the field. Ta’Quon Graham and Anthony Rush still feel like the ones best suited to play alongside Jarrett in Week 1 of the season, but the Falcons first-team defense also saw players like Jalen Dalton, Abdullah Anderson and Timothy Horne rotate over time during the first half. In the second half they stayed in the game constantly. There were a lot of reps to these guys on Monday.
A selection of 53 men will be arriving soon. Do the Falcons in this position have the depth they need to lead them into the regular season? Or should they enter the free agency market to bring in more reinforcements? It looks like the Falcons coaching staff is trying their hardest to find out during these first two preseason games.