The Falcons didn’t have to wait long to see what the Ravens already figured out.
Atlanta turned to Cooper Rush after its top two quarterbacks went down, hoping for the kind of steady hand that once made him a trusted backup in Dallas. Instead, his first start for the Falcons looked a lot like the version Baltimore got last season: a quarterback who can keep things afloat for a while, then starts giving the game away.
Rush opened the afternoon by doing exactly what the Falcons needed. He got the ball to Bijan Robinson on a screen, and Robinson turned it into a touchdown. For a stretch, Atlanta hung with the Steelers and even spent a good chunk of the first half in front.
Then the wheels came off.
Rush floated one throw over the middle for an easy interception, then later served up a pick-six to Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt.
The mistakes piled up from there. He struggled to see the field cleanly, held the ball too long and took four sacks.
His accuracy never really settled in, and he finished just over 50% completions.
By the end, the Falcons had fallen 20-13, and Rush’s passer rating sat at 51.9.
That’s a rough outing for any quarterback, but especially for one who arrived in the middle of training camp and has had limited time to learn head coach Kevin Stefanski’s scheme. Still, the inaccuracy was impossible to ignore. Rush no longer looks like the dependable backup he was two years ago, and after this first showing in Atlanta, Baltimore’s decision to move on from him looks a lot better in hindsight.
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Rashod Bateman, Devontez Walker and Chris Moore are the names now positioned to absorb more of the workload, and the shift comes with some pressure attached. Baltimore was already trying to sort out how its receiver group would function around a young, unproven piece like Lane, and his absence forces those plans to move faster than expected. The next stretch will say plenty about whether the Ravens can keep the passing game on schedule while Lane is out, or whether the early uncertainty at receiver becomes a real issue. [Read more 🡒]
Trey Hendricksons Ravens Debut Showed What This Defense Might Become
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Baltimore leaned into a mix of nickel and dime looks to make sure Hendrickson could attack in different ways, and that flexibility may end up being just as important as the individual numbers. The production was there even without the sack column filling up, and it raised the kind of question defensive coaches love to have: what does this pass rush look like once the pieces around him are fully in place? [Read more 🡒]