Atlanta Falcons Rookie Report: Nothing To Flaunt About In Week 4
The Atlanta Falcons took another hard loss, this time to the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.
Even though the score was just 30-16, the Falcons were never really in the game to begin with. The defense continued to be a disappointment, and the offense couldn’t get much going.
There’s usually a bright spot that you can look at in every game, but in this one there was nothing to be happy about, especially for the rookies.
A.J. Terrell was once again inactive for his second straight game after being placed on the COVID-19/Reserve list last week. He will be back next week, but you can tell that his absence has hurt the secondary tremendously.
The Packers didn’t have their two best receivers and Aaron Rodgers was still able to dissect the Falcons defense however he wanted. With Keanu Neal and Ricardo Allen out, it didn’t make things better. Add on that Damontae Kazee suffered a torn Achilles during the game, and you have a team that was looking for answers on the fly.
With all the injuries in the secondary, that meant that it was time for Jaylinn Hawkins to get more playing time, and he delivered when needed.
He was key piece into stopping the Packers on fourth down that would’ve put them up 14-0 early. He was flying around everywhere on the field, until he suffered a head injury that knocked him out the game.
With Hawkins and Kazee both down for the Falcons, it was up to Sharrod Neasman and Jamal Carter to finish the game at safety.
After a solid week of playing time against the Chicago Bears, Mykal Walker saw a reduction in snaps with the return of Foye Oluokun.
According to PFF, Walker is ranked second defensive grading for rookie linebackers that have played at least 20% of their team’s snaps.
Matt Hennessy nearly split playing time with James Carpenter at left guard. He was beat on a third down play by Za’Darius Smith which allowed Matt Ryan to get sacked.
They’ll probably continue splitting snaps, but by the end of the season, Hennessy might have the job locked up if they decide to give younger players more minutes.
Marlon Davidson didn’t see much playing time in this game, as he was only involved in 24% of the snaps on defense.
Sterling Hofrichter continues to be the primary punter for the Falcons, and has done a good job for the most part at fielding the kicks.
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