FLOWERY BRANCH — Maybe there would have been no penalty for pass interference if Falcons rookie linebacker De’Vondre Campbell had turned his head and looked for the ball. At least Campbell was in position when Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston lofted it down the right sideline to tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins.
The Falcons have a recent history of big games by opposing tight ends in part because they’ve lacked linebackers with the speed and athleticism to cover them. Campbell, a fourth-round pick out of Minnesota, is a raw linebacker but he can run and cover—maybe too fast sometimes, as it turned out during his NFL debut.