Halftime blog: Defense excels, offense squanders scoring chances

Thanks to a fantastic defensive performance, the Atlanta Falcons currently hold a 10- 7 halftime lead over divisional rivals Tampa Bay.            

Michael Turner scored the first touchdown of the game when he rumbled in from inside the 1-yard line. The touchdown was his 15th of the year, a new single-season Falcons record. Jason Elam opened up the scoring with a 25-yard field goal.              

Clearly, the rivalry between these two teams, which was so such a big part of the Michael Vick era, has returned. And these teams do not like each other. We saw an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Bucs after Atlanta’s first punt, and a squabble involving John Abraham after Tampa went three-and-out on the ensuing drive. That was only the beginning, as several more scuffles ensued over the rest of the half.

As for the Bucs’ play, they looked rattled for both quarters. Backup quarterback Brian Griese has been serviceable in place of injured Jeff Garcia, but the Tampa offense has never looked to be a true threat to score. Meanwhile, the Bucs didn’t help themselves with penalties; Jon Gruden’s team was flagged a whopping seven times, including four false starts.

Matt Ryan helped the opposing team for one of the few times this season. He finished the half with 9-of-14 passing for 139 yards, but two interceptions killed two potential scoring drives. He under-threw an open Roddy White for what would have been a touchdown in the middle of the second quarter. Then he missed an open White again in Tampa territory, instead hitting Ronde Barber square in the numbers with 1:15 to go in the half.

It was that second pick that led to points for Tampa. Starting from his own 33, Griese completed 5-of-7 passes after the pick, the final of those on a 20-yard strike to Antonio Bryant to close the gap to 10-7.

Michael Jenkins leads the receiving corps with three catches for 55 yards. Also, John Abraham sacked Brian Griese in the beginning of the second quarter for this 13th of the year, a new season-high for the nine-year pro.

Bagriansky can be reached at jbagriansky@scoreatl.com.