Yesterday the Atlanta Falcons earned their first road win since week three of last season when they defeated the Seattle Seahawks in Lumen Field. However, getting that 16-13 road win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers yesterday and getting to the top spot in the NFC South didn’t come easy, but it probably should have been.
Three red zone fumbles by the Falcons kept the game way closer than it should’ve been, and even though it’s easy to point the finger of blame at Falcons quarterback, Desmond Ridder, earlier today The Morning Shift explained why two of those three fumbles actually weren’t Ridder’s fault.
Going in order, the first fumble was a strip sack by Buccaneers linebacker, Shaquille Barrett, that was recovered by Calijah Kancey and Beau Morgan believes there’s nothing Ridder could’ve done to avoid the turnover. “As an offensive lineman, there is no way in hell you can blame that on your quarterback.” Beau said.
Mike Johnson responds by saying “The fact that Desmond [Ridder] is not an established quarterback though and is prone to turnovers you look at it and go well Desmond fumbled the ball, which he did fumble the ball, but you are 10 times out of 10 gonna blame that on the offensive line in an established situation.”
Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback and now Atlanta Falcons Radio Network Analyst, Dave Archer, joined The Morning Shift later on in the show and said isn’t sure what Ridder is supposed to do in that situation.
“I’m not sure what Ridder is supposed to do in that situation as he trying to load it up and hit a guy that he thought was open in the endzone, and [Shaquille] Barrett hits his arm right at kind of the apex of him starting to come forward with it, just before he starts to come forward with it, not really much he could with that.
When it comes to the fumbled snap exchanged between Falcons Center, Drew Dalman, and Ridder. Beau and Mike agree that it’s hard to tell exactly if that botched snap is more on Dalman or Ridder, but they are leaning towards putting the fault on Desmond.
“I tend to say it was Desmond because on the replay on the TV copy you’re looking back from a 45 degree angle. The camera is basically where the referee’s vision is, and the ball was plenty high enough. Now that’s not to say it’s left or right that’s hard to determine, but usually the height is a problem when you’re in a goal line situation.”
Mike also talks about how Ridder has to realize and be aware that Dalman is about to have to block the Buccaneers big 350 pound defensive tackle, Vita Vea, so he has to know that Dalman is going to try to put everything he can into his first step to get Vea blocked.
Dave Archer echoed the same sentiment when he joined the show and talked about how in a short yardage situation like that when there’s a big sense of urgency like that to get guys blocked Ridder might have to “ride the center further and longer to get the snap”.
The former Falcons quarterback also says “In that situation I'm the quarterback I got to get the snap, and so Des has got to make sure he gets the snap there, and so that’s a major mistake down there deep.”
Lastly, there’s no excuse for Desmond getting the ball punched out before he crosses the goal line. He can’t ease up like he did and he has to protect the football, so there’s no debate there, but still at the end of the day Ridder may only be at fault for 1 ½ maybe two of the fumbles, and he’s still got to clean it up but they aren’t all him.
