{"id":7304,"date":"2023-11-06T17:09:46","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T14:09:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/7304\/will-the-atlanta-falcons-stick\/"},"modified":"2023-11-06T17:09:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T14:09:46","slug":"will-the-atlanta-falcons-stick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=7304","title":{"rendered":"Will the Atlanta Falcons stick with Taylor Heinicke at quarterback?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Will the Atlanta Falcons stick with Taylor Heinicke at quarterback?\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Michael Rothstein, ESPN editor<span class=\"timestamp \">November 6, 2023, 11:00 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Close<\/p>\n<ul>Michael Rothstein is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN.  Rothstein covers the Atlanta Falcons.  You can follow him via Twitter @MikeRothstein.<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>ATLANTA \u2014 There are a little more than two hours until kickoff and Mercedes-Benz Stadium is relatively quiet except for typical game day chatter among players, coaches, staff and insiders before until the music begins to sound.<\/p>\n<p>Sitting alone on the Atlanta Falcons bench, Taylor Heinicke wears a camouflage Falcons hat and a <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/football\/\"   title=\"football\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">football<\/a> in his hands.<\/p>\n<p>The other quarterbacks, Desmond Ridder and Logan Woodside, began their warmups on the field, but Heinicke was on the bench, seemingly pensive.  Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings was his first NFL <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/start\/\"   title=\"start\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">start<\/a> with the Falcons in the metro area where he grew up, where he returned this offseason as Ridder&#8217;s backup.<\/p>\n<p>He asked a staff member for the time.  Informed that it was around 11 a.m., he got up and walked to the middle of the field and started getting ready.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the week, Falcons head coach Arthur Smith insisted Heinicke was the starter &#8220;this week&#8221; because the Falcons needed to <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a> &#8220;this game&#8221; against the Vikings.  There were no long-term plans \u2013 at least not publicly.  This week would be Heinicke\u2019s week.  What happened from there was largely unknown.<\/p>\n<p>After the match, that\u2019s still the case.  Smith declined to say who would start against Arizona in Week 10. Heinicke said after the game that he wasn&#8217;t thinking about that either.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline float-r inline-track\">\n<h2 class=\"img-title\">The best of NFL Nation<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-lazyload=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Chiefs-or-Dolphins-Picking-the-better-Tyreek-Hill.jpg\" class=\"round lazyload\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 CHOOSE the best Tyreek Hill<br \/>\u2022 Can Hill or Brown catch Megatron?<br \/>\u2022 5 questions ahead of Eagles-Cowboys<br \/>\u2022 Vikings focus on preparing Hall<br \/>\u2022 Did Seattle hit HR with Williams?<br \/>\u2022 OBJ still looking for Ravens&#8217; first TD<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cNot right now,\u201d Smith said after his team lost to Minnesota, 31-28.  &#8220;We&#8217;ll just have to come back and evaluate it. I&#8217;m not going to tell you that we haven&#8217;t sat down and looked at everything.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Heinicke, however, made a reasonable case to start against the Arizona Cardinals before the team entered its bye week.  He handled the offense pretty well with only a few questionable throws, including an interception in the third quarter where he threw it well behind his intended receiver and a few others that could have been intercepted.<\/p>\n<p>He completed 21 of 38 passes for 260 yards and a touchdown.  His completion percentage (55.3) is tied with Atlanta&#8217;s loss to the Detroit Lions as the lowest of the season.  His 9.2 air yards per attempt was the highest average in a Falcons game this year.  Atlanta scored a season-high 28 points.  And with Heinicke in the second half against the Titans last week, the Falcons scored 20 points, more than they had scored in four games started by Ridder.<\/p>\n<p>Smith liked the way Heinicke handled third downs \u2013 10 of 18 (56%) \u2013 and that \u201che gave us some chances.\u201d  As in the last three games with Ridder as starter, the same problems remain: turnovers.  Atlanta had two that helped turn the game around: Heinicke&#8217;s interception and a Bijan Robinson fumble.  Atlanta has recorded at least one turnover in its last eight games and two or more turnovers in five of its last six games.<\/p>\n<p>Heinicke faced 16 blitzes \u2013 tied for the Falcons&#8217; season high \u2013 and took just one sack.  Although almost all of the distance was carried by tight end Jonnu Smith and the offensive line, he completed Atlanta&#8217;s longest pass of the year with a 60-yard touchdown to Smith that began as a pass. &#8216;screen.<\/p>\n<p>It was, in many ways, a very average performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPretty clean,\u201d Heinicke said.  \u201cThere are a few pieces here and there that I really wish I could find.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Notably the interception and some passes in the fourth quarter where he said his feet were &#8220;getting a little excited&#8221; so he started throwing passes behind guys.<\/p>\n<p>Atlanta has some big questions to answer now at 4-5.  How can the defense stop allowing explosive plays?  That allowed six plays of 20 yards or more to Minnesota, a team that had a quarterback in Josh Dobbs arriving this week who was essentially learning the run-and-run offense.  How can his offense stop making critical mistakes at critical times?<\/p>\n<p>Much of this will depend on who the quarterback is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Will the Atlanta Falcons stick with Taylor Heinicke at quarterback?\u060c Michael Rothstein, ESPN editorNovember 6, 2023, 11:00 a.m. Close Michael Rothstein is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN. Rothstein covers the Atlanta Falcons. You can follow him via Twitter @MikeRothstein. ATLANTA \u2014 There are a little more than two hours until kickoff and Mercedes-Benz [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4783,4784,4786,2040,4785,3080],"class_list":["post-7304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-atlanta","tag-falcons","tag-heinicke","tag-quarterback","tag-stick","tag-taylor"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7306,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7304\/revisions\/7306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}