Cover 9@9: Falcons’ pass-interference calls were a little sketchy

A couple of the bizarre calls in the game were offensive pass interference calls on tight end Hayden Hurst and wide receiver Calvin Ridley. Both calls wiped out positive gains.

Down 15-6 on their second possession of the third quarter, Ryan completed a pass to Kyle Pitts for an apparent 11-yard gain. Hurst was called for pass interference. Instead of being on the 30-yard line, the Falcons were backed up on the 9.

Three plays later, on third-and-5 from the 24, Ryan connected with running back Mike Davis for an apparent 21-yard gain which would have moved the ball to the 45-yard line. Ridley was called for offensive pass interference. The drive stalled after Ryan hit Hurst for a 5-yard gain on third-and-15.

“Those guys (referees) have a hard job as it is,” Smith said. “I’ll put it this way, here’s the best way I can answer that, whether I agree with or not, that was not our intent on those plays. I mean they’re sitting back playing zone coverage, and pretty much everybody in the stadium can see that.

“The optics of the transition is what hurt them. I understand why they called them. We’ve got to clean that up. It is what it is, but yeah, obviously those certainly didn’t help us in critical moments.”

You don’t expect to get offensive pass interference when the defense is playing zone coverage.

“Guys are flying out to cover the flat,” Smith said. “They’re not schemed up against man coverage. When people run pick plays when you scheme up and certainly if guys are playing press at the line of scrimmage, you may have a scheme pick play in and you know they give you a yard, and as long as you don’t look ridiculous and knock the guy over, you’re allowed to do that. Those are the rules.”

Hurst and Ridley did appear to make contact, but Smith contends they were just on their routes.

“So what happens, there’s collision, guys flying to the flat they’re playing quarters to that side he’s flying the backers coming from inside and going there,” Smith said. “Hayden’s going to turn around its bang-bang and that’s what they see. I’m not getting mad I’m not criticizing officials, I’m just saying schematically, those aren’t pick plays. That’s what happened.”

Ridley’s happened in similar fashion.

“So, the one on third down that Calvin, similar thing that guy’s coming inside, he transitioned, ball’s in the air and again, it’s optically what happened and the body language, sure, it’s what they called and that’s not a criticism to the officials, that’s what happened, but they’re not like designed,” Smith said. “We knew we we’re getting zone coverage. We can clean that up, it’s just, it’s unfortunate, I mean those are those were critical mistakes in a tight ballgame, in the third quarter with plenty of possessions left.”

If the Falcons would have score it would have been 15-13 with plenty of time left to play.

2. Coach of Week. Voting for Week 3 the Atlanta Falcons Coach of the Week award, presented by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is open.

Read more about the coaches and vote. Voting is allowed once per hour and closes midday Wednesdays.

3. Betting on the Falcons?: The Falcons are heavy underdogs against the Bucs. The line opened at 10.5 and quickly moved to 13.5.

Also, the Falcons were 80 to 1 to win the Super Bowl, but after losing to the Eagles they are now 97.5 to 1. The over-under on Falcons wins was 7.5, but it is now 5.5.

4. Series history: The Falcons lead the series (28-27), but the Bucs swept the two games last season. They won 31-27 on Dec. 20 in Atlanta and 44-27 on Jan. 3 on their way to the title.

5. Where’s Mike Evans? Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady is looking forward to the Bucs refining things before facing the Falcons. The beat the Cowboys 31-29 in their season opener.

Brady tossed four touchdowns passes including two to tight end Rob Gronkowski. Wide receiver Chris Godwin was targeted 14 times and caught nine passes for 105 yards and a touchdown. Antonio Brown had five catches for 121 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown.

The Bucs want to get three-time Pro Bowler Mike Evans more involved.

“Mike’s going to get his, I have no doubt,” Brady said on his podcast “Let’s Go! With Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray” which aired Monday on SiriusXM.. “He had an incredible camp. He’s one of the great all-time receivers and will be a Hall of Famer at some point. For me it’s just a matter of finding the open guy and putting the ball accurately to allow them to make the plays.”

6. Where’s the rushing attack?: The Cowboys kept the Bucs’ rushing attack under control. Leonard Fournette rushed nine times for 32 yards and Ronald Jones has four carries for 14 yards and was benched after a fumble.

“There’s a lot of things that we didn’t do very well the other night,” Brady said. “And we’ve got to improve those things and football season is about improvement. It’s not about, ‘Hey, we’re good. We’ll figure it out. You know, we got it.’ You got to put the work in.”

7. How to attack the Bucs’ defense: The Cowboys didn’t bother to run the ball much at Tampa Bay’s stout defensive front which featured defensive tackles Vita Vea (347 pounds) and five-time Pro Bowler Ndamukong Suh (313 pounds). They also have defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett and inside linebackers Devin White and Lavonte David.

“We’re going to have challenges every week,” Smith said. “There are growing pains. You have to see improvement.”

Dallas did a good job working the edges and attacking the perimeter of the Bucs’ defense as quarterback Dak Prescott passed for 403 yards and three touchdowns running the quick and rhythmic passing attack.

“You’ve got to put the fires out each week,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians told the Tampa media Friday. “They had a nice plan. But the game comes down to situational football and we won situational football. But we’ll see the same things. They had a nice plan defensively, too. But I think we’re a bit farther along offensively now. But yeah, we’re going to see screens, screens, screens. Throw it out there and see if you can make the tackle.”

8. Bucs injury report: The Bucs lost cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting to a dislocated elbow and signed journeyman cornerback Pierre Desir. They could also get safety Jordan Whitehead (hamstring) back.

9. Depth chart: The Falcons listed Josh Rosen as the backup quarterback in the official depth chart released by the team on Tuesday.

Also, Jalen Mayfield remained listed as the starter at left guard even though coach Arthur Smith said that “all options were on the table” on Monday. Drew Dalman is listed as the No. 2 left guard and Colby Gossett as the No. 3 left guard.

The Falcons continue to list fullback Keith Smith at tight end, so we amended the depth chart to reflect that he’s the fullback and listed Cordarrelle Patterson as the No. 2 fullback, since both lined up at the position in the game against the Eagles.

Here’s the Falcons official depth heading into the NFC South opener against the Bucs:

OFFENSE

WR - Calvin Ridley, Tajae Sharpe or Christian Blake

TE - Kyle Pitts, Lee Smith

LT - Jake Matthews, Jason Spriggs

LG - Jaylen Mayfield, Drew Dalman, Colby Gossett

C - Matt Hennessy, Drew Dalman

RG - Chris Lindstrom, Drew Dalman

RT - Kaleb McGary, Jason Spriggs

TE - Hayden Hurst, Keith Smith, Parker Hesse

WR - Russell Gage, Olamide Zaccheaus, Frank Darby

RB - Mike Davis, Cordarrelle Patterson, Wayne Gallman

*FB -- Keith Smith, Cordarrelle Patterson (Added to reflect that they played the position in the opener.)

QB - Matt Ryan, Josh Rosen, Feleipe Franks

DEFENSE

DL - Grady Jarrett, Marlon Davidson

NT - Tyeler Davison, Ta’Quon Graham

DL - Jonathan Bullard, John Cominsky

OLB - Steven Means, Jacob Tuioti-Mariner or Brandon Copeland

ILB - Deion Jones, Mykal Walker

ILB - Foyesade Oluokun, Dorian Etheridge

OLB – Dante Fowler, Adetokunbo Ogundeji

LCB - A.J. Terrell, T.J. Green, Avery Williams or Darren Hall

FS - Erik Harris, Jaylinn Hawkins

SS - Duron Harmon, Richie Grant

RCB - Fabian Moreau, Isaiah Oliver, Kendall Sheffield

SPECIAL TEAMS

K - Younghoe Koo

P - Cameron Nizialek

LS - Josh Harris

H - Cameron Nizialek

PR - Avery Williams

KOR - Cordarrelle Patterson

PR - Avery Williams

KOR - Cordarrelle Patterson

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