Falcons fans might have been thrilled to get Asante Samuel from the Eagles for nothing more than a seventh-round pick. They also might have been a little bit disappointed to see the Bengals' A.J. Green work the veteran cornerback for a 50-yard touchdown in the team's preseason loss to Cincinnati. His response to the touchdown is a little bit surprising:
"It was third-and-long, so it was time to put the ball up," Samuel said
"We were going at it," Samuel said. "I relaxed on the deep ball a little bit, and he got over on top of me."
That's comforting from the perspective that he didn't get beaten on his best effort, but a little bit worrisome that he wasn't on top of his game in an obvious passing situation. Head Coach Mike Smith didn't seem too concerned, though.
"Listen, Asante has played very effective football for a long, long time," Smith said. "It was a well executed play by the offense."
Smith wasn't terribly disappointed by the loss, during which the majority of his first-stringers played well.
"Every time that we go out, we want to win football games," Smith said. "There is no doubt about that. But our number one goal in the [exhibition] season is to get to the first game [of the regular season] as healthy as possible. We’re going to out there and play our tails off to try to win the ball game, but first and foremost we are looking at trying to install our scheme and keep players healthy."
Matt Ryan, who completed his first 11 passes of the game and finished 18 for 21, thought he performed his job well.
"I'm just trying to make good decisions and be accurate with the football," Ryan said. "We have really talented wide receivers and tight ends. My job is to try to get them the ball in a good spot to make a play with.
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