Falcons’ Ragone on Pitts: ‘It’s our goal to get our playmakers the ball’

With Pro Bowl defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, the Falcons should have been able to get one of the rookies Jalen Mayfield or Drew Dalman ready to play. After about 200 snaps against Jarrett, Philly’s Javon Hargrove should have been a walk in the park.

Here’s how Ragone answered questions from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

What was on the offense’s “To Do List” after the Philly game: “Again, when you get a chance to play an actual NFL game in the regular season, you get to see where we are at as a staff as well as the players. Obviously, there is room for improvement. It starts with the fundamentals, going back to what we were doing in training camp. Relying on your fundamentals. Relying on communications between the coaches and players and the players amongst themselves when they are out there. All of those things are correctable in terms of what we worked on from the past game. We have a great opportunity and a great challenge to go down to Tampa to see if we corrected those mistakes and get better at them.”

Coach Arthur Smith said that he had to get Russell Gage and Kyle Pitts involved earlier. How do you get do that?: “I’m sure he answered it the way that Coach Smith saw fit in terms of that question. For me, in general with these players, anybody especially in the skill positions, if you ask any of them, they probably want the ball early just to get involved, just to touch the ball. But the reality, is that sometimes coverage dictates where the ball goes at times. You might have good intentions to get someone the ball and the coverage might take it away. You are taught and we tell the quarterback to go where the coverage tells them to go. Again, everybody wants to touch the ball early and get involved but the reality is that sometimes your intentions are met by the reality of the defense’s intentions and the ball goes somewhere else. It’s our goal to get our playmakers the ball. There is no doubt about it and we feel like we’ve got a good assortment of those guys. Again, it’s our job as coaches to make sure that we do that.”

On how tough it is to develop and bring along young offensive linemen: “Everybody who comes into the NFL as a rookie, they all have different development arcs. Some guys come in and its as easy if they were playing back in college or high school. Some guys come in and takes a few games and some guys, like myself, never really got it. Right. So, again its all of the different trajectories in which a player comes into this league. Again, it all stems from the fact of going out there and trusting and relying on your fundamentals and your beliefs in what you do. Don’t waver. Do what you’re asked and coached to do, again, going out there and gaining experience. There is no other substitute than experience for these guys. Every time you go out there it’s a new game experience. Hopefully, you collect enough of those, build equity with the experiences and you can bank on that, rely on it and get better from it. That goes for all of the players regardless if you’re in Year One or Game One. Or, if you’re in Year 14 and game whatever like for Matt (Ryan). You’re out there trying to gain experience and use the experience that you had in the past to help you. Hopefully, with the younger guys, they’ve had a game under their belts and will continue to get better on that trajectory.”

The Bow Tie Chronicles

For more content about The Atlanta Falcons

Follow me on Twitter @DOrlandoAJC

On Facebook at Atlanta Falcons News Now

Atlanta Falcons coverage on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta Falcons Schedule

Eagles 32, Falcons 6

Sunday: Falcons at Tampa Bay

Falcons’ 2021 schedule features trip to London, January trip to Buffalo