April 25, 2024
ATLANTA (AP) — Desmond Ridder may not be the Falcons’ starting quarterback for 2023, but the rookie from Cincinnati at least will head into the offseason with a win to his credit.
Ridder led Atlanta past Arizona 20-19 on Sunday, directing the winning drive in the closing seconds. Younghoe Koo kicked a 21-yard field goal as time expired.
Neither Ridder, a third-round draft pick last year, nor the Falcons know who will start at quarterback next season. If the season ended today, Atlanta (6-10) would have the No. 7 draft pick, so it’s possible the team could select a franchise cornerstone in April.
Ridder wasn’t thinking about the future as he set about trying to drive the Falcons from their 25 into scoring position with 4:57 left in the game. He says he didn’t feel rattled.
“Just going out there, not necessarily saying you’ve been in those moments before, but just go out there, see that you’re calm, composed, and can execute things,” Ridder said. “That’s going to kind of filter off to the other guys and they’re going to want to execute more, execute better. Sometimes it’s just being calm, being poised and everyone else sees that, feels that, and goes out there and executes.”
Though the Falcons were already in Koo’s range at the 27, Ridder completed his most important pass of the day on third down — a 14-yarder to MyCole Pruitt that forced Arizona to call timeout.
“It’s just playing within the play,” Ridder said. “It was a play we ran multiple times in the game. We just went back to it and executed it in a different way.”
Coach Arthur Smith loved what he saw from Ridder, who is 1-2 as a starter since taking over for Marcus Mariota, who had played through a knee injury all season.
“We’ve been in some of these close games with a young football team in some critical spots,” Smith said. “These opportunities to grow and to execute in those moments, it was cool to see. Desmond, the third-down pass to Pruitt, the situation there, big-time play by him.”
