FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- With training camp being training camp, even the best performances by the Falcons young players in Friday’s 20-13 preseason victory over St. Louis came under scrutiny.
With the coaching staff’s having had the benefit of reviewing the game film, players were informed in meetings on Sunday before the morning practice session of what they could have improved upon. Head Coach Mike Smith referred to his team’s performance, as he did after the first game, as “the good, the bad and the ugly.”
One of the players who stood out was rookie defensive end Lawrence Sidbury, a fourth-round pick in the 2009 draft out of Richmond who tallied both of the defense’s sacks.
“Lawrence Sidbury, I think he had obviously an outstanding game,” Smith said. “Any time you have multiple sacks, that’s an impressive game for a defensive lineman. He’s still learning the system. John Abraham is doing a really good job in mentoring him and I think he’s just going to continue to get better and better.
“But there’s a lot of things that he hasn’t seen yet and that we hope over the next two weeks he will get an opportunity to see before the regular season.”
While mostly unqualified praise from the head coach in the media is a good thing, it sounds like the message Sidbury heard from defensive line coach Ray Hamilton and other defensive coaches might have been one to keep him humble and working hard.
“Sacks are -- I’m definitely pretty happy about that -- but to go along with some of the things I did good I also did some things that need to be corrected,” Sidbury said. “Just like everybody out here, that’s what preseason is for. That’s what training camp is for: To show improvement from week to week but also to work on your deficiencies out here on the field.”
As most rookies do during training camp, Sidbury mentioned that his shortcomings included a lack of consistency in employing the techniques that the coaching staff wants to see.
“Especially as a defensive lineman, you want your technique to be perfect almost every play and you have to continue to correct those things,” he said. “Just to be more consistent.”
Sidbury, a speed rusher, said he needs to make better use of his hands, something he is learning from Abraham, a three-time Pro-Bowler who ranked third in the NFL in sacks last season.
Sidbury is grateful for the mentor.
“I said plenty of times I used to watch him when I was in school and now I have an opportunity to play alongside from him and learn from him,” he said. “You can’t ask for anything else, especially for a player who’s similar to you.”
REDMAN TO PLAY IN NEXT TWO: Smith has said that after starting quarterback Matt Ryan, the competition is open for the No. 2 job.
Chris Redman, who backed up Ryan last season, sat on Friday while D.J. Shockley earned the bulk of playing time, completing 5-of-12 passes for 63 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions for a 19.1 rating.
Smith said Redman would play in the final two preseason games.
“That was by design, in terms of how we wanted to evaluate guys who haven’t had as much experience playing with the first unit,” Smith said of Redman’s break. “…The rotation this week will be different than it was last week and the rotation will probably have someone not participating because the first unit is going to take more snaps.”
For the first time during the preseason, the coaching staff will game plan for Saturday’s game at the Georgia Dome against San Diego to simulate for the starters what a typical regular season week will be like.
LEWIS GETTING THERE: Like Sidbury, defensive tackle Trey Lewis is another player who was receiving a lot of scrutiny in Friday’s game. Lewis, a 316-pounder who has not played in the regular season since injuring his knee against Tampa Bay on Nov. 18, 2007, played more than 30 plays on Friday, recording four tackles, third best on the team behind Jamaal Fudge and Kroy Biermann.
Lewis, who missed some time early in camp with an injury, is in a situation where he needs to play himself back into game shape. If he does, he could become an important part of the defense.
“We wanted to see him play an extended period since he’s basically been out for two seasons,” Smith said. “We thought he played well early on. I thought he did a good job throughout the game. I thought early in the game he was very effective.”
Lewis said his conditioning “was close to where it needs to be.”
“I’m definitely not game-ready yet for real games,” he said, “but I was happy with where I was out there.”
Like Sidbury, he said the film revealed “a lot of errors” that he made. He characterized them as “mental errors I need to work on from being out of the game for a while.”
“Preseason -- that’s what it’s for, getting some of those things taken care of,” he said.
EXTRA POINTS: Monday is the final day of training camp and the team’s last day of two-a-day practices.
Starting on Tuesday, the team will schedule only one practice per a day.
Asked to evaluate camp on the whole, Smith said one of the disappointments was an inability to evaluate second-round draft pick William Moore, a safety who injured his knee in the first few days of camp.
Thomas DeCoud has been working in that spot with the first-team.
“We’re hoping he gets back and gives us an opportunity to see what he can do because we really liked his skill set coming out,” Smith said.
Running back Thomas Brown also returned to practice on Sunday after injuring himself in the first preseason game against Detroit and missing all of last week. In the battle for the No. 3 running back, Jason Snelling had 12 carries for 61 yards against the Rams on Friday, including a long run of 23 yards.
Smith said the team came out of the game “relatively clean” in terms of injuries.
