On Friday evening, Atlanta Falcons played their NFL preseason against the Detroit Lions and secured a 27-23 win. Falcons’ rookie Desmond Ridder who plays as their quarterback tallied the late-game winning pass that led to a touchdown to Jared Bernhardt. The pass was driven to the 24-year-old wide receiver in the fourth quarter with time remaining on 1:30.
Before securing the win, the Falcons were two points behind against the Lions that took over the lead with a field goal by kicker Riley Patterson. The score was tied before Patterson’s 28-yard kick flew over the Falcons’ goalposts to take the lead to 23-20 with 5:57 remaining.
During the last two minutes left, a mistake came from Lions quarterback David Blough, who was fumbling at his 33, and the ball possession moved to the Falcons.
With the fourth down and nine feet from 21, Falcons coach Arthur Smith gave Ridder chance to play the passing game as an offense strategy and avoided a tie.
He asserted that Ridder would make the pass and he chose the opportunity to score six points rather than targeting three points from a field goal kick.
“We were going to try to make a play and try to win. I don’t think Joe Gibbs and Tony Dungy went to the Hall of Fame on their preseason records,” Smith said.
Ridder dodged two Lions rushers and pass the ball to Bernhardt that managed to evade Cedric Boswell’s coverage, and he catch the ball at the end zone to secure a touchdown for the Falcons.
“(Boswell) apologized after the play for not running a great route,” Smith said. “I told him not to worry about it — he won us the game.”
Playing as Marcus Mariota’s replacement, Ridder recorded 10 pass completions from 22 attempts with 103 yards passing received and two passes that led to touchdowns. He also recorded 59 rushing yards by rushing six times.
Lions’ response
The Lions coach, Dan Campbell said that his players could finish the game with better results. According to him, the Lions’ offense was doing fine at the start.
“We certainly wish we could have finished that off, but we did get a good look at our guys in different situations,” Campbell said. “I was pleased with the way our offense started the game.”
Campbell played two quarterbacks, namely Tim Boyle and Blough, who was playing as a substitution. Campbell said that two of them would compete for the first backup QB behind Jared Goff.
In this game against the Falcons, Boyle recorded nine passing completion from 16 passing attempts with 111 passing yards and a pass that led to a touchdown, and an interception.
On other hand, Blough was passing 28 times and completing 18 of it with 141 passing yards received and a fumble that led to Lions’ first preseason loss this year.
In total, the Lions have lost their past nine preseason games and their latest win came on August 24, 2018, in Tampa Bay.
For the next match, the Lions will be up against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, August 20. Meanwhile, the Falcons will try to extend their preseason win against the New York Jets on Monday, August 22.