BALTIMORE — Having already lost four players to injury, Falcons coach Raheem Morris took a cautious approach in the second exhibition game and held out nearly 40 players.
The backups, led by quarterback Taylor Heinicke, lost to the Ravens 13-12 on Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium.
“Really fired up about the guys that played on the back end of our roster today,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. “Getting a chance to see them guys go play. They played physical. They played tough. They’ll make those later decisions for (general manager) Terry (Fontenot), myself and our organization very tough on us.”
Quarterback John Paddock led the backups on a potential game-winning drive. Running back Jase McClellan scored on a 3-yard touchdown run with 36 seconds to play. He was stuffed for a loss on the two-point conversion run.
The Falcons elected not to use the onside kick rule, and the Ravens received the kickoff and ran out the clock.
“You can kick it at the end, but I didn’t think it was worth it at the end,” Morris said. “That would be the situation to do the onsides kick.”
The Ravens improved to 1-1 in exhibition games, while the Falcons dropped to 0-2. The back end of the Falcons’ 90-man roster will close the exhibition season at 7 p.m. Friday against Jacksonville at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
During the joint practices and game against the Dolphins last week, wide receiver Rondale Moore (knee), defensive end Bralen Trice (knee), defensive back Harrison Hand (knee) and safety DeMarcco Hellams (ankle) were injured. Moore, Trice and Harrison was placed on injured reserve. Hellams is expected to miss significant time.
“We had that tough week of practice,” Morris said. “Those ramped up, high-energy deals. That’s kind of how we go about our business. Where we can mitigate the injuries and do the things we have to do.”
With most of the projected starters in street clothes, here are the five things we learned from the game:
1. Rookie linemen make impact: Rookie defensive linemen Ruke Orhorhoro and Brandon Dorlus came up with big plays in the first half.
Orhorhoro, who was drafted in the second round out of Clemson, had a sack on the first series of the game. He used his quickness to get by Baltimore guard Andrew Vorhees, who listed as a starter on the Ravens’ depth chart. He dropped Ravens quarterback Josh Johnson for a loss of 12 yards to force a punt.
Dorlus, who was drafted in the fourth round out of Oregon, recovered a fumble on a ill-timed snap that went over Johnson’s head. Dorlus showed good hustle getting to the ball for a 21-yard recovery.
“It was a bad snap,” Dorlus said. “I saw my teammate running, Demone Harris. He was running to the ball. You always need a lot of guys at the ball. The biggest thing was to make sure he was recovering the ball. It just slipped out, and I just slid on the ball. We practice that every day on the turnover circuit.”
2. Procedural penalties, missed field goals: The Falcons had two procedural penalties in the first quarter to help stall drives and a false start that wipe away a made field goal.
On their first offensive play of the game, guard Kyle Hinton was called for illegally going down field on a pass play. The drive then started at the 7-yard line. The penalty helped to lead to a three-and-out and a punt.
On the second drive, the Falcons were on the move after Heinicke opened things with a 21-yard pass play to wide receiver Chris Blair.
After a couple of nice runs by running back Carlos Washington Jr., the Falcons were down to the Ravens’ 33.
A 7-yard run by running back Jase McClellan was nullified when tight end John FitzPatrick lined up incorrectly. The promising drive stalled, and Younghoe Koo came on to make a 54-yard field goal to put the Falcons up 3-0 with 2:21 left in the first quarter.
Koo missed three field-goal attempts, from 40, 45 and 49 yards. All were wide left.
He’s missed two field-goal attempts in a game three times with the Falcons, but never three until Saturday. He missed two last season against Chicago on Dec. 31 and against Tampa Bay on Dec. 10. He also missed two against Miami on Sept. 17, 2017.
Koo wore a sleeve on his right leg in a practice last week, but he made a field-goal attempt from 51 yards.
He made a 44-yard field goal Saturday, but long snapper Liam McCullough was called for a snap infraction to erase the field goal. He then missed the 49-yarder.
3. Blair-witch project: Wide receiver Chris Blair continued to make big plays for the offense. He had receptions of 21, 32, 27 and 11 yards. He worked with Heinicke as the backup last season while on the practice squad.
“I feel very comfortable with him,” Heinicke said.
Blair also had a big 41-yard catch against the Dolphins. His catches led to field-goal attempts. Koo made a 54-yarder, missed a 40-yard attempt (wide left) and made a 24-yarder after the 27-yard grab.
Blair had four catches for 91 yards.
“We were able to come out there and get some things established in the air today,” Blair said. “I felt like Taylor did a good job of spreading the ball around.”
4. Ravens QBs were tough: Johnson was too much for the Falcons’ backups.
He completed 11 of 11 passes for 120 yards and tossed a 6-yard pass to running back Owen Wright. Johnson, who’s headed into his 10th season in the league, finished with a passer rating of 142.5.
In the third quarter, Ravens quarterback Emory Jones came on and tossed a 56-yard bomb to wide receiver Dayton Wade. He got behind cornerback Anthony Johnson, and safety Tre Tarpley was late making his way over the top.
The Ravens’ two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful.
Heinicke completed 8 of 16 passes for 114 yards and finished with a passer rating of 73.4 before giving way to Paddock in the third quarter.
“That looked like Taylor Heinicke today,” Morris said. “That was Heinicke. A tough player. A lot more so than last week.”
5. Paddock was shaky: Paddock’s first NFL pass looked like a ground ball to second base.
It skipped out and was way behind the receiver.
Paddock has been with the Falcons for most of the offseason. He was cut and then re-signed last week. He likely will see more action in the exhibition finale.
He almost threw an interception in the fourth quarter, but the play was reversed by replay.
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