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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
ATLANTA (AP) -- Jamal Anderson passed the biggest test in his first game in almost a year.
|  | | Jamal Anderson had zero yards on five carries but didn't feel any pain in his knee afterward. |
He felt no pain in his surgically repaired right knee.
"It's not sore right now and that's a good sign, a really good
sign," Anderson said after appearing for one quarter Friday night
in the Atlanta Falcons' 31-16 exhibition victory over Cincinnati.
He caught three passes for 15 yards, but rushed for 0 yards on
five carries.
"I think I was a little anxious," said Anderson, who hadn't
played since Sept. 20 when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament
in his right knee against Dallas. One season earlier, he rushed for
1,846 yards on an NFL-record 410 carries in Atlanta's surprising
run to the Super Bowl.
"I sped up some of our things we were trying to do, trying to
make something happen, just trying to do something exciting,"
Anderson said.
"He'll gain confidence from this game," Falcons coach Dan
Reeves said. "You don't just go out all of a sudden and pick up
where you left off. He has a couple of more games to get his timing
down, but he did some good things catching the ball and being in
the right place."
The Bengals had their star running back in uniform for the first
time this preseason. Corey Dillon ended his holdout this week and
joined the team for the flight to Atlanta, but saw no action.
"Clearly we have a lot of work to do," coach Bruce Coslet
said. "I think they threw for almost 400 yards (actually 355) on
us. We had no pass rush and they kept hitting corner patterns on
us. That's what I saw."
Chris Chandler gave the Falcons (3-0) a 10-6 first-half lead
when he completed 12 of 18 passes for 177 yards, including a
38-yard scoring pass to Brian Finneran. The Bengals blew the
coverage on the play, leaving Finneran all alone inside the 5.
The Bengals (0-2) had rallied to take a 16-10 lead on Neil
Rackers' 41-yard field goal with 2:47 left in the third quarter and
on Scott Mitchell's 5-yard keeper with 11:00 remaining in the game.
Danny Kanell, who had been intercepted at the Bengals' 1 in the
third quarter, then moved the Falcons 74 yards in nine plays to
regain the lead on a 14-yard scoring pass to Eugene Baker with 6:41
to play.
The Kanell-Baker combo connected on passes of 13 and 15 yards
earlier in the drive, and Kanell also hit Ronnie Harris on a
31-yard pass in the drive.
The Falcons quickly put the game away.
Rookie Anthony Midget of Virginia Tech intercepted Scott
Covington's pass and returned it 48 yards for a touchdown with 5:46
remaining, and just over three minutes later Winslow Oliver turned
Kanell's screen pass into a 42-yard scoring scamper down the
sideline. Oliver's score was set up by Mark Simoneau's
interception.
Morten Andersen kicked a 34-yard field goal for the Falcons in
the opening quarter after Rackers gave the Bengals a 3-0 lead on a
47-yard field goal just over three minutes into the game.
Cincinnati's other score was a 20-yard field goal by Doug
Pelfrey.
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ALSO SEE
NFL Scoreboard
Cincinnati Clubhouse
Atlanta Clubhouse
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Jamal Anderson wanted to contribute in Atlanta's Friday exhibition game.
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