On the schedule, it’s only the second exhibition.
For Falcons coach Dan Quinn it is a major coaching reunion.
He’ll get to take his defending NFC championship football team and play one of his closest and favorite coaches in the NFL in Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin. The Falcons are set to face the Steelers at 4 p.m. Sunday at Heinz Field.
Quinn and Tomlin go back to his first coaching job at William and Mary, where Tomlin was a senior playing for the Tribe in 1994.
“We hit it off right away,” Quinn said. “The next year we coached together at Virginia Military Institute in his first year coaching and my second.”
Tomlin made three more stops in the college ranks at Memphis, Arkansas State and Cincinnati before landing an NFL job with Tampa Bay. He was named Pittsburgh’s coach in 2007.
Quinn went on his own path through the college ranks, the pros, back to college and then back to the pros before he was hired as the Falcons’ head coach in 2015.
He wasn’t surprised that Tomlin was named a head coach much sooner.
“All the way back from 1994, you know when somebody has it,” Quinn said. “I knew then when he was a captain of the team that he had it.”
They’ve stay connected over time.
“We coached together and through the years just kept up from his time in Tampa to Minnesota to Pittsburgh and my various stops along the way,” Quinn said. “He’s always somebody that I’ve looked up to and always handled things in a way that I really admired. That’s the same thing on his coaching side.”
That explains how both approach the exhibition season. Those true coaches fine the smallest of things to get excited about.
With commissioner Roger Goodell contemplating cutting short the exhibition season, Tomlin professed his love for exhibition games and seeing the players work to improve their skills.
“I've had an appreciation for the preseason going all the way back to my position coach days,” Tomlin said to the Pittsburgh media recently. “I'm just a lover of football. I believe all of these (young players) here working have a legitimate chance, and I think the (exhibition) games give the guys an opportunity to put their skills on display — not only for (the Steelers) but for the other 31 teams.
“This process that is team development and division of labor and team building, I just have a lot of respect for it and appreciation for it. And I think the (exhibition) games are a big part of it.”
Quinn plans to pay close attention to the special-teams units at the Steelers. He noted that the Falcons don’t tackle in special-teams practice, so these games give the coverage units a chance to work.
The game will provide the rookie class with a second test.
While linebacker Duke Riley and free safety Damontae Kazee passed their first test against Miami. Offensive guard Sean Harlow, running back Brian Hill and tight end Eric Saubert can improve on their debut showings.
The Falcons received major contributions from the 2016 rookie class on their way to the Super Bowl last season.
The draft class had four starters on defense in strong safety Keanu Neal, nickel back Brian Poole, middle linebacker Deion Jones and weakside linebacker De’Vondre Campbell and a major contributor on offense in tight end Austin Hooper.
In limited practice repetitions, defensive end Takkarist McKinley has been simply dazzling. The Falcons are being careful not to rush him back too fast from reconstructive shoulder surgery.
While McKinley was held out of the exhibition opener against the Dolphins, Riley played well in the opening 23-20 loss.
“He looked really aware in the system,” Quinn said of Riley. “Some of the time, you are looking for those first-year player mistakes, and he didn’t have a lot of those. ... He looked real comfortable in the system.”
Harlow played 52 snaps against the Dolphins, which was second on the team behind backup center Cornelius Edison.
Kazee had a strong game against the Dolphins and came up strong in run sport on outside runs. He likes to hit.
Hill rushed for just 10 yards on nine carries and was dancing in the hole.
“For us, when we play running back here, we have a real style of how we do it,” Quinn said. “We call it ‘on our tracks.’ We are one cut and vertical. When we stutter on those or don’t aggressively hit it. ... That’s a real emphasis for Brian this week to make sure our tracks are correct.”
The Falcons like the authority that Hill ran with in college. Once he speeds things up, he should be fine.
“In training camp, the improvement I saw from him was with ball security,” Quinn said. “I saw him better as a pass catcher, and in blitz protection he has been on point. That part was the improvement I like to see. He’s excited to get out here for the next opportunity.”
Saubert has flashed his pass-catching hands throughout training camp.
He played 36 offensive snaps and 19 plays on special teams. He caught a pass for minus-1 yard and had a holding penalty that eliminated Reggie Davis’s dazzling punt return.
“After this past game there’s a lot of stuff on tape, and I have to get back to the drawing board and work on those things that I may have made a mistake on,” Saubert said. “There’s a lot of work to do this week and I’m excited to get back out here.”
Saubert is trying to make the jump for Drake to the NFL.
“Obviously, it’s way faster,” Saubert said “Everybody is really good. You really have to rely on your technique and your coaching.
“Sometimes when the speed of the game gets to you, you fall back to some bad tendencies. So, I’m trying to reinforce good coaching and good technique this week.”
Austin Hooper and Levine Toilolo were helping Saubert from the sideline against the Dolphins.
He received some coaching pointers on his open-field blocking, too.
“It’s a learning point,” Saubert said. “All you have to do is learn. The ref said he got outside of me. I just had to watch it on tape. I just have to know when to back off there. It was a learning moment.”
That’s what Quinn and Tomlin like best, the players attacking those teaching and learning moments.
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