Why Falcons’ preseason means next to nothing

Thankfully, this preseason didn’t offer anything so distressing. Mike Johnson, penciled in as the new right tackle, broke his ankle in training camp, but that was the extent of the major injuries. Coach Mike Smith chose not to push his luck in the final exhibition against Jacksonville, staged at the Georgia Dome on Thursday night. (Had Smith been similarly savvy in the final regular-season game of 2012 and not seen John Abraham get hurt for no earthly reason, these Falcons might be reigning Super Bowl champs.)

Matt Ryan didn’t play against the Jaguars. Neither did Julio Jones or Tony Gonzalez or Sean Weatherspoon or Steven Jackson or Osi Umenyiora or Sam Baker or Justin Blalock or Peter Konz or Thomas DeCoud or William Moore or just about any Bird of whom you’ve heard. This rendered the game, such as it was, a royal snooze, but the only alternative was to take a risk of idiotic proportions. You can’t win a championship in August, but you can lose one.

The Jaguars aren’t apt to win the Super Bowl anytime soon, but they offer a case study in the perils of preseason. On the day coach Gus Bradley — crazy Uncle Gus, as we like to call him at family reunions — announced that Blaine Gabbert had won the quarterback job, it also was revealed that he suffered a hairline fracture of the thumb in his throwing hand. It’s unclear if Gabbert will be ready for Week 1.

(About Gus Bradley: I was kidding. Lucky for him, we’re not related.)

The worst thing the Falcons could have done was to try and put a smiley face atop a lackluster August by playing guys who should never play in a final exhibition. It matters not one whit if they finished these faux games unbeaten or winless. They were only 1-3 last summer, prompting some folks to insist they weren’t prepared for the regular season. Only they were. They won their first eight games and clinched the NFC South on Dec. 2.

This isn’t to suggest that this team seems as primed as last season’s. The offensive line has undergone an overhaul, and draftees Desmond Trufant and Robert Alford are playing their way into professional form. Both units looked suspect against Tennessee on Saturday, and the third exhibition is the only one teams take even slightly seriously. The Titans gained 361 yards and generated six sacks, which wasn’t particularly encouraging. Then again, the areas of a football team that rely most on cohesion are the O-line and the DB’s.

Meaning: This team is apt to take a while to sort itself out. (Luckily, the first half of the schedule is less testing than the second, which is utterly wicked.) These Falcons are much younger and no less talented than the 2012 assemblage, and by Thanksgiving they could be really good.

There were a couple of nice moments amid Thursday’s drudgery. Both Alford and Trufant had first-half interceptions, and defensive end Jonathan Massaquoi executed a deft sack/strip/score against Jacksonville quarterback Matt Scott late in the second quarter. (Until then, the Falcons had gone pointless.) But here we note that Scott is a third-stringer, which means he’s not to be confused with Drew Brees, of whom the Falcons will see very much very soon.

We won’t know until Sept. 8 in the Superdome whether this team is ready for the season. But after watching the Falcons muddle through four exhibitions, we certainly can’t accuse them of peaking too soon — not that peaking was ever an option. They made it through preseason with one major injury. In the grand scheme, they achieved their objective.