Calvin Ridley doesn’t much want to talk about it but he made a little move Sunday in Mercedes-Benz Stadium -- twisting around to catch 9-yard touchdown reception -- that was in a way bigger than his earlier more cinematic 75-yard TD catch.
It wasn’t a rookie play, so it probably should be talked about because everybody in the NFL is looking at him differently now.
Even Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who said, “When guys make plays like that, your trust level goes up and up and up.”
The Falcons’ wide receiver blew past a lot of Saints in his third pro game, catching a team-high seven passes for a game-high 146 yards and an Falcons rookie-record three touchdown catches.
His speed was often on ridiculous display.
That play in the third quarter, though, was a slow turn, yet so big in the mind of Ryan that he looks at Ridley more like a veteran.
With the Falcons trailing 16-14 early in the second half, the new guy on goal-to-go ran a stop/turn-in – experts would call it a curl or a short dig – in the end zone on the left side.
For a moment, he camped.
Before Ryan fled a flaming pocket, the Saints had subbed cornerback Ken Crawley for P.J. Williams to cover the 26th pick of the 2018 NFL draft. That had something to do with Ridley catching five passes for 129 yards and two scores with Williams covering him in the first half.
That was mostly about his speed.
Crawley had better coverage on Ridley than anything Williams had thrown up, yet as the play broke down, the cornerback looked forward to Ryan.
And Ridley beat him with his brain.
Behind Crawley, the rookie sensed his jailer looking the other way and broke hard left.
He snuck out the back door, and the quarterback found No. 18 for a score. That made Ryan more of a believer.
“He’s very natural when it comes to playing football,” the quarterback said. “You know, it’s second nature for him.”
Natural or not, it’s clear that Ridley’s on a rocket.
He did not have a catch in the season opener, grabbed four passes and scored in his second game, and went nuts in the third.
Yet the 6-foot-1, 190-pound former Alabama star isn’t so sure that offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian is calling more plays that would make him the first read for Ryan.
“I have no clue,” he said. “I just go out there and run.”
Truth be told, he has plenty of clues, and when the Falcons (1-2) play the Bengals (2-1) Sunday in Mercedes-Benz, Cincinnati head coach Marvin Lewis hopes to account not only for starting wide receivers Julio Jones and former Bengal Mohamed Sanu, but Ridley was well.
“We are going to have our hands full,” Lewis said. “Calvin was an outstanding prospect. I’ve watched him since he was a freshman at Alabama. The game he had is not surprising.”
When you couple the suggestion that Ridley has preternatural instincts with the more obvious fact that he’s fast, you have quite a combination.
His 40-yard dash time of 4.43 seconds at the NFL Combine in February was not overly impressive, ranking fifth among wide receivers. That paled in comparison, for sure, against the record of 4.22 set last year by Bengals wide receiver John Ross.
It may well have led to him lasting as long as he did on the draft board.
The Falcons will take that, and head coach Dan Quinn will have you know that the combine stuff was malarkey.
His dude can run.
“One of the things that jumps out and you've seen it at practice, is the speed that he practices with,” Quinn said. “He's constantly . . . one of the two fastest players at practice . . . Like he empties it out every day, and I really respect that about him.”
Ryan loves it. He doesn’t care about stopwatches. The quarterback will take what he sees. He said of Ridley, “He’s got the type of top-end speed where if he’s matched up one-on-one, he can beat anybody.”
You won’t get Ridley, who caught at least one pass in every game during his three seasons at Alabama, to brag. He’s more likely to credit his co-workers for any success he achieves.
“It helps a lot because the defense has to worry about a lot of players,” he said. “Obviously, you’ve got Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu over there. They’re probably going to take most of the attention.”
Ridley pays attention to detail, quizzing Jones, Sanu and Justin Hardy regularly, and then he applies remarkable athletic skill.
“He’s just getting a better understanding, honestly,” Sanu said. “He’s had all those talents before got here, and he’s been learned a couple things from me and Julio. He’s learned how to be a player and now he’s going out there and just showing.”
The scouting reports on him coming out of college said that he was an excellent route runner capable of making sharp breaks, and capable of body fakes to throw off defenders.
Ryan is a believer.
“He creates unbelievable separation. His acceleration out of cuts is really good,” the quarterback said. “His patience for a young receiver vs. man-to-man coverage, knowing . . . the timing of the play, all of that stuff usually takes a lot of time to learn, and he just does it very naturally.
“He’s been able to beat man-to-man coverage really well.”
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