The Falcons sat their starters and gave reserves and roster hopefuls (I should trademark that, I’ve typed it a lot) their big, final shot to make the team. From an evaluation standpoint, the Falcons surely have plenty to look at and consider. From a gameplay perspective, it was a bloodbath.
Pittsburgh went up immediately and never looked back, running the score up to 24-0 at halftime. The Falcons barely managed to stop anything until late in the second quarter and barely moved the ball until around the same timeframe, even after Pittsburgh’s reserves came in. By that point the frustration in the fanbase about starters sitting was at a rolling boil, and the fact that things settled into a scoreless slugfest from there did nothing to cure that.