In order for the Falcons to remain in the playoff picture, they had to bounce back quickly from the loss against the New Orleans Saints and take down the Tennessee Titans who were coming off a dominating win against the Carolina Panthers last week.
With the help of hard running by Michael Turner and a defense that allowed 41 rushing yards, the Falcons defeated the Titans 23-17.
The Falcons were up 23-3 in the third quarter, but Titans backup quarterback Jake Locker threw a touchdown pass to Nate Washington towards the end of the third and again late in the fourth quarter.
“We probably made it harder than it needed to be,” Falcons head coach Mike Smith said. “Whether you won by a large amount or win by one, you always have things that you have to get fixed. It’s a learning curve for our team.”
The Titans did make things interesting in the end, but the game was never in doubt. The Falcons wanted to get off to a fast start and they did that as the offense opened the game with a 5-play 44 -yard drive, which ended with a Matt Ryan 17-yard touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez.
Ryan ended his day with 316 yards and one touchdown. His passer rating was 110.9.
“Today, Tennessee mixed it up, did some different things,” Ryan said. “Early on we had some looks to throw the football in that first drive and went down the field.”
On the next drive, which carried over in the second quarter, the offense went on a 7-play 64-yard drive which ended with a Matt Bryant 19-yard field goal to put the Falcons up by 10. Bryant kicked another field goal on the Falcons next drive to put them up by 13 later in the quarter.
“It’s very important to score touchdowns and not kick field goals,” Smith said talking about the Falcons offense in the red zone.
“We were not very efficient down there in the red zone. You can’t turn the ball over in red zone either.”
Smith was referring to what happened in the fourth quarter when Turner fumbled at the Titans 7 yard line which led to seven points for the Titans.
But Turner did more good things than bad as he tallied 100 yards on 21 carries and scored on a 4-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter to give the Falcons a 20-3 lead.
“I was having fun out there,” Turner said who now has 888 yards and eight touchdowns on the year. “Everybody says I had a little more pep to my step. I didn’t feel different than any other week. I was just out there having fun.”
Roddy White also had a big day for the Falcons as he caught seven passes for 147 yards including a 43-yard reception in the third quarter which led to the Turner touchdown run.
“I feel like I get faster into the game when they get me the ball early in the game,” White said who had three of his seven receptions in the first half. “We got out there, got a good tempo early and just kept working.”
While the offense was on point for the most part, the defense was making plays throughout the game. The Falcons held Titans running back Chris Johnson to 13 yards on 12 carries and limited Starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck to a 49.4 quarterback rating. He did not finish the game due to a elbow injury.
Dunta Robinson got his first interception of the season in the first quarter and John Abraham notched a sack. Jonathan Babineaux was vital in the run defense for the Falcons as he tallied two tackle for losses.
“One of the ‘musts’ that we had going into this ballgame was that we must stop Chris Johnson,” Smith said. I thought Jonathan Babineaux was a very good tempo setter for us today inside playing at defensive tackle. There were a couple of tackle for losses and when in the backfield you don’t allow the running back to get going north and south.”
What this game came down to was bouncing back after an emotional loss to the Saints last week and the Falcons were able to do that in convincing fashion.
“Obviously, we came into this ball game looking to get back on track,” Smith said. That was our number one objective and we got that accomplished.”
Falcons improve to 6-4 on the year and will face the Minnesota Vikings next Sunday at the Georgia Dome.
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