Here are five thoughts on the Falcons' 16-6 win over Miami in their third preseason game.
1. How 'bout that defense? The Falcons defense was the team's most maligned unit last season and the one facing the most question marks entering this one. In the first-team's most extensive test of the preseason, it earned an "A."
One thing I learned while covering the team on a daily basis last season is that while the individual pieces may not look great, the Falcons' coaching staff does an outstanding job coaching the players up, to use the cliche, and of game-planning. This was the first time in the preseason that they game-planned and here are some of the results: They held the powerful Miami rushing attack of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams to 10 rushing yards in the first half. The held the Dolphins offense as a whole to 110 yards total offense in the first two quarters and the they limited the Dolphins to 2-for-12 success rate on third down conversions (17 percent).
"Third down has been our Achilles' heel and has been talked about not only with only our staff and players but with everybody and we definitely did that in the game tonight," Falcons head coach Mike Smith said in an interview on the team's Web site. He said he was "proud" to see the defense "swarming to the ball and they played with bad intentions and that
