The Sports Xchange

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Running back Tevin Coleman and Jacob Tamme returned to practice for the Atlanta Falcons on Wednesday after missing time with injuries.

Coleman has been out since suffering a fractured rib in the first half of the Week 2 game at the New York Giants.

“It was tough going through the injury,” Coleman said. “I just fought through it and kept getting treatment.”

Coleman started and played the bulk of the snaps before his injury but Devonta Freeman has emerged as the featured running back in his absence. Coach Dan Quinn said Freeman’s role would decrease with the return of Coleman but that both backs would get opportunities.

Tamme sat out the game against the Houston Texans last Sunday after he suffered a concussion the week before at the Cowboys. He has eight catches for 104 yards in three starts.

–While cornerback Desmond Trufant has drawn a lot of early season praise, Quinn said that right cornerback Robert Alford had a strong game against the Texans.

“Both corners really stepped up,” Quinn said. “Robert and Tru, I felt had really good games. There were more pass break ups in this game than we’ve had in a long time.

“There might have been close to eight, nine or 10. Somewhere in that neighborhood where there was a pass breakup. Not all by the corners, but for those two, in this game, I thought they were really on it.”

–Quinn saw some improvement in the defense’s tackling against the Texans.

“It was better for sure,” Quinn said. “It just felt firmer. We ended up having eight missed tackles in the game. It was down one or two from last week.”

The defensive coaches will continue to emphasize better tackling.

“Usually, you get what you emphasize and we’ve been emphasizing it hard,” Quinn said. “We improved in that way for sure and we’ll continue to.”

Safety Robensen Therezie and linebacker Allen Bradford led the Falcons with five tackles against the Texans.

“The tackling and the takeaways, for us, are fundamentals,” Quinn said. “That’s our heart beat. (Winning) both sides of the line of scrimmage and the way we tackle. We’ll continue to work as hard as we can.”

The Falcons have missed 36 or 37 tackles, according to Quinn’s count, and 32 according to profootballfocus.com.

Here’s the profootballfocus.com breakdown of the missed tackles: Linebacker Justin Durant (six), free safety Ricardo Allen (five), linebacker Paul Worrilow (four), linebacker O’Brien Schofield (three), cornerback Phillips Adams (three), strong safety William Moore (two), cornerback Jalen Collins (two), defensive end Kroy Biermann (one), linebacker Joplo Bartu (one), linebacker Nate Stupar (one), linebacker Allen Bradford (one), cornerback Robert Alford (one), free safety Robensen Therezie (one) and strong safety Kemal Ishmael (one).

Therezie, nicknamed “Cadillac,” tied for the team-lead in tackles with five against the Texans and didn’t look out of place in his first start at free safety.

“He did a terrific job,” Quinn said. “He had a really big hit on a pass breakup over the middle. Good tackler. We didn’t have any miss tackles for him and he had a pass breakup. I thought for his first time out it really looked like he fit in.”

Therezie, who made the team as an undrafted free agent from Auburn, started for Ricardo Allen, who was declared out with a knee injury.

“He made the checks, (got) the information out to the guys,” Quinn said. “He was right on point. I thought he did a really good job.”

Allen’s status for the game against Washington at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Georgia Dome is not known.

“We are really fired up for Cadillac,” Quinn said. “There wasn’t anything that he missed. It wasn’t too big for him. He was totally ready for the challenge and he performed the way we thought he would.”

–PRACTICE NOTES: LB Justin Durant (elbow) did not practice on Wednesday. … WR Roddy White had to attend to a medical emergency in his family and was not at practice on Wednesday. …