QB A.J. McCarron out with knee injury

A.J. McCarron started this game for the Falcons and led them to an early field goal drive, but his night ended prematurely and in the worst way possible. The veteran quarterback is out for the rest of the night with a non-contact knee injury, which is a sequence of words that almost invariably seems to mean bad news.

He had become somewhat of a lightning rod for criticism in recent weeks, but McCarron was playing a solid game before he went down. We’re all hoping this turns out to be little more than a scare and we see him back out there next week against the Browns, because a major preseason injury is exactly the kind of devastating outcome absolutely nobody wants.

Unfortunately, after the game we did not get any encouraging updates.

Feleipe Franks entered the game and nearly led a scoring drive, and with Matt Ryan in street clothes, he’ll be the guy the rest of the night. We’ll share any updates we have about McCarron’s status as soon as we get them.