MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Falcons coach Arthur Smith was pleased with the joint practices with the Dolphins this week.
“We got a lot of situation work against a different team which is always helpful,” Smith said on Wednesday. “A lot of stuff to coach off of. I appreciate the Dolphins for having us.”
The first practice was clean. There were a couple of scuffles on Wednesday.
Falcons defensive tackle David Onyemata and Dolphins linemen Austin Jackson and Ronald Hunt got into a shoving match and the teams circled up to pull the combatants away.
Later, after the practice was moved indoors because of the weather, Falcons safety Micah Abernathy and Dolphins wide receiver Robbie Chosen got into a face-off before order was restored.
“Guys got a little heated, but there was nothing major that you see sometimes in these things, they look ridiculous,” Smith said. “We got in a lot of good work.”
Run game
The Falcons were working on their rushing attack, but tackling wasn’t allowed.
“You want to see if the tracks are right and if it’s blocked correctly,” Smith said. “Then sometimes its subjective. If you are tackling Tyler Allgeier, some of those arm tackles may be good or not.”
End-of-game situation
The Falcons’ first-team offense had a penalty and Smith elected to abort the drive.
“Yeah, we were playing end-of-game, we didn’t have a timeout,” Smith said. “I didn’t want to get into the officiating. It was really not a tripping call. It was really not. I was going to be a third-and-(long). ... I didn’t want to show some of our situational plays that you have to use as end of game plays. Not that I don’t trust Miami.”
Smith didn’t want to complain about a penalty called in practice.
“But when you are working the operation like we had a catch and I wanted to work the clock, he blew it dead,” Smith said. “If you’re going to enforce a penalty, the game is pretty much over at that point. I didn’t want to show a situational play, there. That’s why I did that.”
Harrison update
Falcons rookie defensive end Zach Harrison had a good showing against the Dolphins.
“He had a good day yesterday,” Smith said. “We are real excited about Zach. He’s in a really good situation with who’s coaching him in that room and the veterans who are around him. ... Zach is a young guy. We’re excited about him.”
Pitts held back
Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts didn’t participate in any of the team portion of practice on Wednesday.
“We’re brought him along,” Smith said. “Next week, we’ll put a little more on him as we ramp him up. There are some more things you need to see. We’ve kept him out of certain things. Just done a lot more in the passing game as you should ... you have to ramp up everything. We’ll push him a little more next week.”
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