NFL Preseason: Falcons fall to Bengals 24-19 even as Matt Ryan continues to show dominance.
Written by Adrian Gregory Glover // August 17, 2012 // NFL // No comments
ATLANTA-Even in defeat the Falcons first team offense continues to look nice in pre-season action. QB Matt Ryan continued to hit a variety of targets including his apparent main man Julio Jones.
Ryan went 18-of-21 for 174 yards and a touchdown as he took the Falcons to a halftime lead of 13-10.
Overall, the Falcons hit a speed-bump in that the Cincinnati Bengals kept the game tight as their tandem of Andy Dalton and A.J. Green at times looked like they were playing pitch and catch.
In the off-season the Falcons acquired cornerback Asante Samuels to handle such matters but on Thursday he watched Green sail by him with relative ease.
After the game, Samuels talked about the play with the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“We were going at it,” Samuel said. “I relaxed on the deep ball a little bit, and he got over on top of me.”
Green worked with Detroit’s Calvin Johnson in the off-season and he looked absolutely sharp when he was on the field of the Georgia Dome.
Like their first pre-season game against the Baltimore Ravens, the Falcons depth squad failed to run with the lead that the primetimers provided them with.
The Bengals backup QB Bruce Gradkowski put a 12-yard scoring pass on Mohamed Sanu to give Cincinnati a third-quarter lead that lead their eventual winning total of 24-19.
With two preseason losses in their newfound past, the Falcons still have little to worry about. The sunshine is that their first team group is undefeated after four quarters of football.
In the fight for their third and final roster spot for QB, rookie Dominique Davis once again looks a lot more comfortable at the position than John Parker Wilson does.
Davis did something that Wilson has failed to do thus far and that is put the team in the end zone and Davis definitely has a much larger upside when it comes to making plays.
Wilson was 2-of-3 for five yards before handing the keys to Davis who ended u going 11-of-18 for 121 yards and a touchdown pass. Both saw all of their time in the fourth quarter.
The headline for the Bengals is that tight end Jermaine Gresham came off the field in the first quarter with a right knee injury. Afterwards, his coach Marvin Lewis said, “He’s going to be fine.”
