After losing to New Orleans 23-17 in the season opener, Atlanta came out and made the necessary plays to grab its first win of the season and hold off an uprising St. Louis Rams team 31-24. Under head coach Mike Smith, Atlanta is now 21-3 in games following a loss and has not posted consecutive losses since 2009 (57 games).
The Falcons received the opening kickoff on Sunday and took the 80-yard drive into the endzone on an 8-yard Steven Jackson reception. Previously on the drive, starting fullback Bradie Ewing injured his shoulder, and on the scoring play starting running back Jackson injured his thigh. Both backs did not return to the game.
“When you lose your running back for the game, it does change how you have to proceed,” said Smith.
Without Ewing and Jackson in the backfield, the offensive production stemmed from incredible individual performances from Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. Jones tied a career high with 11 catches and scored an 81-yard touchdown to go with his 182 receiving yards. Jones has scored six touchdowns in his last six games dating back to the 2012 season.
Ryan completed 33 of 43 passes for 374 yards and two touchdowns and posted a 76.7 completion percentage, marking the 10th time of his career of completing more than 75 percent of his passes.
Harry Douglas was one of nine Falcons players to catch a Ryan pass Sunday and admitted that Atlanta knew heading into the game that St. Louis would be aggressive when defending the screen. Atlanta used quick passes to make up for the lack of running game, and found openings underneath as Jones and Douglas occupied defenders deep.
Atlanta rushed the ball for just 36 yards on 16 carries and Jason Snelling capped off Atlanta’s final scoring drive with an 11-yard touchdown run up the middle that was set up by Ryan previously completing all six of his passes on the drive.
The defense helped Atlanta take its 24-3 lead into halftime after Osi Umenyiora intercepted Sam Bradford’s pass and ran it 68-yards for the touchdown. The play marked the first career interception for the 2-time All-Pro defensive end.
“Crazy enough, that’s the first interception I’ve ever had in my life,” said the 11-year pro. “I was able to score with it. I’m just happy to help this team win.”
The special teams came up huge as well and in its two games has limited St. Louis’ Tavon Austin to just six yards on four punt returns and Saints return specialist Darren Sproles to a total of 13 yards on eight punt returns in week 1. Punter Matt Bosher had a 52.0 net average on Sunday, including a career long 63-yard punt out of the Falcons endzone on a very high snap.
“That was a big play,” said Smith about the 63-yarder. “It wasn’t quite the snap we wanted to have and he was able to get that out… he [Bosher] did a very good job punting the ball and I thought we did a very good job covering, we drew a number of penalties [also].
Having a special teams unit that can continue to give the defense good field possession was huge during the third quarter when the Falcons offense was stalling. Atlanta went 0-4 on third downs and gained just 27 yards in the quarter.
The Falcons will head on the road to take on the 2-0 Dolphins this Sunday. Smith admits the third quarter lull was defeninitely a concern heading into this next week, but both Smith and Ryan were pleased by the tempo and overall performance from start to finish.
“I thought our tempo all day was really good. There were a just a couple of drives we didn’t sustain as well as we would have liked,” said Ryan.
The injury report will be released Wednesday.
Loading ...
