When thinking back on the game immediately following its end, Ridder broke down the game through his vantage point. When asked what grade he would give himself, Ridder said a C-minus or a D.
Ridder – like most rookie quarterbacks in their first starts – came out a little too hot and amped. He tried to connect on a few deep passes early, only to miss the mark. That was the first thing Ridder said he hopes to improve upon. It’s what immediately stuck out to him as something he will go back to.
He tried to be too perfect early, he said, and Smith added he could feel Ridder pressing. The quarterback said it wasn’t until after the Falcons first drives that he settled in.
“In that first drive you have the emotions, you have everything going,” Ridder said. “You get out there and you want to be perfect and go down on the first drive, 75 yards and score a touchdown. Obviously, that’s not how it went.”
Instead the Falcons went three-and-out, and they didn’t find much offensive success in the first half at all, not scoring their first touchdown until the start of the second half. By that point, the Falcons had gotten the run game going, which Ridder and Smith said took the pressure off the pass game at times.
“(Tyler Allgeier) is not a speed guy but when you hand the ball off you expect that he’s going to make that one guys miss. It’s going to take more than one guy to tackle him and bring him down,” Ridder said. “That’s almost a security for (me) to kind of hand the ball off and just know that he’s going to get positive yards.”
That security blanket – along with some key defensive stops – did allow the Falcons to stay in the game, but ultimately not pull it out.
It’s important to note, though, that this start for Ridder was as much about evaluating where he’s at as well as what he can do as it was anything else. So, what did the Falcons learn about Ridder?
For starters, Smith said he learned that Ridder is “not afraid of the moment.”
“He came out amped up but as he settled in he corrected that,” Smith said. “That’s a step in the right direction.”
Something Smith really stuck on postgame was Ridder’s command of the huddle. The Falcons – as a team – were only penalized three times through all four quarters. Not a single one of those three penalties were procedural on the part of the offense, nor were they pre-snap penalties. That’s a testament to Ridder according to Smith, and players in the locker room, too.
“He came into the huddle confident and clear in his…
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