Falcons vs. Dolphins: Live Game Grades, Player Analysis for Atlanta

The Atlanta Falcons have defeated the Miami Dolphins for their first preseason win of the year. The defense led the team to their first win after a seven game losing streak in the preseason after Matt Ryan and Dominique Davis were able to create 23 points on a strong Miami defense.

Follow along for the grades and unit-by-unit analysis throughout each quarter.

QB Matt Ryan — B+

OVERALL GAME GRADE — B

Overall, Ryan looks ready for the season. His reads were good and he was able to make the right throws for the Falcons new offense. This was his worst game of the preseason and he still finished with a line of 18 for 26 (69%), 220 yards and a touchdown on the day.

Q3 — A

On the first drive, he made a bad throw on third down as it was too short for the first. Nothing great on the first drive of the half. On the second drive, he looked much more calm and collected and led the Falcons down field for a touchdown. There were a couple overthrows but for the most part, Ryan had an excellent quarter.

Redman is in on the third drive of the half, so Ryan is done for the day.

Q2 — B-

On the third drive, Ryaan was able to pick apart the defense with some solid throws. He was able to read the coverages and find soft spots in zones to hit his receivers in stride. He even caught a defender being too aggressive and threw it to the receiving causing the pass interference call. He was picked off on a play, but it was an obvious defensive holding call.

On the fourth and fifth drives, Ryan looked like a field general with his mobility to find open lanes to throw to. He also was able to make some smart reads while under pressure and even hit Julio Jones deep on a perfectly placed deep ball. The final drive of the half was him going down for a sack, though.

Q1 — B+

Ryan made some good reads on the first drive of the game. He also made some good audible calls to lead the team. His throws weren't perfect though and on one to Douglas he looked to take too much off of it.

On the second drive, Ryan was able to get some solid reads and had one play with great protection that he made a smart checkdown to Turner on. However, he had to scramble out of the pocket too much and the offense settle for a field goal.

Offense — B

OVERALL GAME GRADE — B

The offense was solid overall for the night. They were able to stay ahead of the curve and only really struggled on third downs. The offensive line is a real weakness for Atlanta, however, when looking at the backups, Lamar Holmes and Peter Konz look better than the starters in Sam Baker and Garrett Reynolds.

The receiving corps for Atlanta couldn't be deeper though. Julio Jones and Roddy White showed their title today against a pair of solid cornerbacks. Harry Douglas looks like the man who should be starting in the slot for years and Tim Toone even got in on the action with a nice long touchdown grab.

Q4 — B

Redman had trouble leading the offense down the field. So he had to rely on the screen game to Antone Smith. The Falcons have three solid cogs for their line of the future as center Joe Hawley, right guard Peter Konz and left tackle Lamar Holmes looked good on the first drive in pass protection. Hawley and Konz look great as a tandem breaking out for screens.

Dominique Davis is in on the second drive of the quarter. Dimitri Nance had two solid runs to gain 9 yards running behind Konz on both plays. Then Mike Cox came in and ran behind Mike Johnson and Peter Konz for a tough yard. Davis had a good roll out pass to Lee Meisner for a first down. Then after a short run by Nance, Davis hit Tim Toone for a 39 yard touchdown on a beautiful over shoulder pass.

Antone Smith had two short runs to start the third drive off in the pouring rain. The offensive line had it's third team in and they gave good pass protection on the third down play, but Davis had a pass dropped by Chase Coffman.

Richard Medlen started the final drive of the game with two straight running plays to set up a third-and-five at the two minute warning. After the two minute warning, Medlen got stopped for a loss and the Falcons took a delay of game to force as much time off the clock as possible.

Q3 — B-

The Falcons came out and had a solid two yard run play, but it could have been more with a solid block by Lousaka Polite. Polite caught a nice pass on the very next play for a three yard gain and then Tony Gonzalez caught a short pass from Ryan to come up short for the first down.

The second drive of the half was a well executed one for the Falcons. It was capped at the end with a Roddy White touchdown pass from Matt Ryan. Turner had some good runs to help move the chains throughout the drive and Peter Konz was in for the running plays to provide extra push. Ryan had a pair of overthrows to Julio Jones where Jones had his man beat, and one was tipped away by Nolan Carroll.

Redman led the third drive for the Falcons and made two bad passes. One was a bad fade to Jackson; the other was a bad screen attempt to Davis. Antone Smith got open but the pass was short of the first. The Falcons started their fourth drive off with a solid two yard run by Antone Smith, but then closed out with a penalty on rookie offensive tackle Lamar Holmes.

Q2 — B+

Sam Baker looked terrible on the third drive of the game allowing a pressure and getting a holding penalty. The receivers looked good on the shallow crossing routes and Jones had his man beat on a play but couldn't haul it in. Konz and Reynolds looked negligible in terms of differnce. Clabo allowed a sack on a good coverage play.

The fourth drive was just a bad one. the Falcons weren't able to move the ball and got a false start play early from Tony Gonzalez. Ryan had to scramble and dumped it off to Gonzalez. Turner had a good screen play with Konz and Clabo leading. The final play was a Roddy White dropped slant pass.

The fifth drive looked good early with a great pass deep to Julio Jones. Then Garrett Reynolds took the wind out with a false start penalty. Ryan was pressured into throwing a de facto screen pass to Turner. Then Julio Jones made a drop on a crucial third down after being jammed.

The sixth drive was one play long. It was Tyson Clabo allowing Matt Ryan to be sacked by Cameron Wake yet again. Clabo is one of the better protectors in the NFL, but Wake seems to have his number. The Falcons should start chipping the fearsome pass rusher.

Q1 — B

On the first drive, the offense was able to get good push up the middle in the running game with some solid gains throughout. In pass protection, Sam Baker was getting consistently abused and allowed three pressures to Cameron Wake as the blind side protector.

In the passing game, Ryan made some solid passes, and the receivers were able to get separation and catch in the open field. Jones made a couple of good gains, and White was able to find the soft spot in an underneath zone.

On the second drive, the offense was able to get some good push in the running game on a Turner run. Turner also looks really good as a receiver out of the backfield in the new offense and a checkdown option. Pass protection still has a lot of issues.

Defense — A

OVERALL GAME GRADE — A

If this is the defense that the Falcons will be putting out on the field this year, then Falcons fans should be ecstatic. They only allowed six points all game and forced multiple three-and-outs. Mike Nolan's defense was making plays on the ball all day.

They had two sacks, one interception, multiple passes tipped and tackles for loss and were able to show the potential that a Mike Nolan defense truly has. There were some small missteps early, but once the offense took the lead, the defense never relinquished it.

Q4 — A+

The first drive of the quarter was a three and out forced. Peyton Thompson knocked the ball out of a receivers hands on third down after the run defense stuffed a second down run for just one yard there. On the second drive, Cliff Matthews had a hit on Matt Moore, and then he also had a pressure and a tipped pass to force the punt.

The third drive started with Matt Moore fumbling the wet ball and then Lamar Miller getting a short run. Micanor Regis made a good chase down on third down to force a third straight three and out for the Falcons defense. The final drive of the game was more of the same. The Falcons allowed a total of four yards on three runs to close the game out.

Q3 — A+

First drive of the half led to a three and out. Robinson forced Clyde Gates to go too wide on a pass play for a catch out of bounds. Then, Nicholas had a pass deflection and on the final play of the drive the Falcons pressure flushed Tannehill out of the pocket for a five yard run on third and 10 forcing the fourth down.

The second drive had the second team come in and they performed much better in this game. They forced a few incomplete passes after being given bad field position to start off. They did allow a bad 17 yard pass to be completed, but held on to force a 53 yard field goal.

Hope dropped two interceptions in the quarter and looks like a solid coverage safety. Lawrence Sibury took two offsides penalties but also had a sack, a tackle for loss and a forced fumble in the quarter. The Falcons need to get better covering backs out of the backfield. Matthews recovered a fumble.

Q2 — A+

The third drive continued into the second and the Falcons defense locked down in the redzone. Dent plugged up the middle against the run, and both Edwards and Abraham have been getting good penetration. Led to a field goal in the end.

The fourth drive of the game the defense looked much better on run defense. However, they allowed a pass over the middle of the field right in front of Dent. Looks like Dent has the same strengths and weaknesses Curtis Lofton did in 2008. Biermann got a good rush and Abraham had a forced fumble sack.

On the fifth drive, it was a good three and out. Decoud had a good coverage play to allow a minimal gain on first down, the line got solid pressure and the interior stuffed a run on second down. On third down Weatherspoon had a good knockaway.

On the sixth drive, Moore made a great hit to dislodge the ball. Robinson was getting beat in coverage by Davone Bess though. He made up for it with a good tipped ball that Grimes almost caught but he got hit as he was catching it. Then on the final defensive play of the drive, Abraham got held by Jake Long on fourth-and-one.

Q1 — B+

On the first drive, the run defense looked like it has all preseason. There were too many lanes created by the opposing offensive lines. However, the pass defense looked very good as Samuel and Robinson both had great reads on passes leading to a good pass deflection and a smart tackle. Biermann also made a great stop on a draw play by beating All-Pro Tackle Jake Long.

On the second drive, Abraham got juked on a play by Reggie Bush but Moore and Decoud were able to gang tackle him down. The Falcons had some trouble containing Tannehill, but Dent came up with a solid tackle for loss. Then Sean Weatherspoon made a great tip to Thomas Decoud for the interception on the rookie.

On the third drive, the defense allowed too many yards through the air. Robinson had good coverage on two plays but has to wrap up better on the tackles and not fly around like he has been. The line got solid pressure but Tannehill kept getting the ball out quickly. Overall, a solid quarter for the team.

Special Teams — B+

OVERALL GAME GRADE — B+

The special teams unit looked solid as usual in this game. The Falcons won't win any games with a kick return or a punt return, but they will have the ability to maintain positive field position with their special teams units. 

Matt Bosher and Matt Bryant look like they are completely entrenched in their roles as the starting kicker and punter. Joe Zelenka's name wasn't heard all night, and that's a good thing for a long snapper. The competition at kick returner seems to be almost over as Jacquizz Rodgers seems to have the kick job locked up. 

Q4 — B+

Erik Folk started the quarter off with a terribly missed kick wide left. Folk redeemed himself a bit with the extra point attempt, driving it right down the middle. Bosher kicked it deep down the middle on the kickoff and forced a touchback.

Tim Toone made a smart decision in the rain to let the ball drop at the 28. Bosher boomed a punt after the third offensive drive 52 yards to have yet another punt land inside the opposing 20 yard line. Tim Toone had a solid punt return for nine yards on the last punt return of the game. Bosher fumbled the wet snap there, but still got the ball off for a 34 yard punt.

Q3 — B

Good return by Jacquizz Rodgers to start the half for 42 yards. Then Bosher had a high punt to force a fair catch at the 8-yard line. Franks made a bad decision to return the first punt of the half as he had no where to go with it and only got five yards. Matt Bryant kicked through an easy extra point. Matt Bosher kicked the ball out of bounds though and hurt the field position. 

James Rodgers downed the ball on his first return to give the Falcons the ball at the 20. Bosher had another deep punt and there was a hold on the play leading to the Dolphins having the ball at the 10 yard line to start.

Q2 — A

Bosher gets good high kickoffs which is nice to see. The kick team allowed too much though on the return. Bryant is steady with another field goal and Franks has been smart with a fair catch early. However, the second return wasn't a good idea as it was punted too high and Franks only got a three yard return. 

Bosher had a line drive punt for his first one of the game, but Kroy Biermann made a great tackle down the field to allow a minimal game. Bryant hit his third field goal of the night on a 51-yard kick right through the uprights. Bosher had another deep kick and a kick team member got held to give good field position for Atlanta.

Q1 — A-

The opening kickoff was skied well by Bosher, but two missed tackles need to be fixed. Franks hd a smart fair catch on his first return attempt. Matt Bryant is solid as a rock and knocked a kick through the uprights.The second kickoff was also up in the air deep and Chris Hope made a very solid tackle on the play.

Coaching — A

OVERALL GAME GRADE — A

Dirk Koetter was simple in his play calling on offense, but it wasn't conservative. Mike Nolan was aggressive with the blitzes. And for the third game in a row, the starting offense scored 13 or more points while the starting defense held the opposing starting offense to 10 or less points.

Q4 — A

Calling a deep pass from the backup quarterback to a backup wide receiver in order to see what they had in their third stringer was brilliant. Now the Falcons know they have a guy who can beat out their number two quarterback. On defense, they just kept the same scheme and forced the Dolphins to beat themselves.

Q3 — A

The offense came out and took the ball down field quickly for a touchdown. The starting defense was able to get off the field in just one drive and then pulling the starters after the touchdown drive was the right move for Mike Smith.

Q2 — B

Overall, the calls were solid, but the Falcons need to get the defense off the field quicker and Nolan should do this by dialing up blitzes. On offense, the calls are great, but there needs to be some improvement on the line.

Q1 — A-

Mike Smith has the team motivated and ready. Nolan's defensive gameplan is attacking the rookie quarterback and creating pressure while Dirk Koetter's offense has been well led down the field. The fourth-and-two call was somewhat questionable though.

Scott Carasik is a Featured Columnist and Trends and Traffic Writer for Bleacher Report. As a Featured Columnist, he covers the Atlanta Falcons, NFL and NFL draft. He is also the Falcons analyst at Drafttek, runs the NFL draft website ScarDraft.com and hosts Kvetching Draftniks Radio.

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