FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder has to eradicate the rash of interceptions from the passing attack, and coach Arthur Smith must smooth out the clock-management operation down the stretch after last week’s miscues.
Ridder and Smith will be on the hot seat when the Falcons (3-3) face the Bucs (3-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Ridder has thrown five interceptions over the past three games.
“When I stay within the system, I feel like I’m seeing things very clearly, getting the ball out of my hand quickly,” Ridder said. “In the past couple of weeks, I haven’t taken very many sacks.
“I’ve been about to get outside of the pocket. I’ve been able to use my feet to kind of make the defense think whether I’m going to run it, whether I’m going to pass it. I think that’s where we are constantly improving.”
The Falcons got caught trying to substitute a player in and one player didn’t know his assignment, which lead to a timeout being called after the ball was spiked to stop the clock. With the team needing a touchdown and a two-point conversion, the offense became unglued.
Smith pointed to the smooth operation to get into field-goal range against Houston on Oct. 8 and even went back to his first win, in New York against the Giants on Sept. 26, 2021.
“You go back to Houston,” Smith said. “Those guys executed pretty damn good. In the other games we won close, we’ve managed the clock and walked off, not put our kickoff team back out there and done things like that.
“We haven’t been perfect, but I will say this, our guys have operated pretty damn good in some (clutch) situations. You can always be a lot better. Last week, got to fix it.”
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