The Falcons returned to the Georgia Dome on Sunday after going 0-2 on their two-game road stand against the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints. It looked as if they were happy to be back home, as they ran past the Washington Redskins 31-17.
The Falcons once again got off to a fast start when Matt Ryan threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez on the opening series of the contest. Later in the first quarter, after Matt Ryan threw a pass that was picked off by Rocky McIntosh, the Falcons scored again after Tye Hill intercepted a Jason Campbell pass and returned it 62 yards.
“I’ve been waiting on this for quite some time,” Hill said on scoring his first touchdown since 2003 when was a running back at Clemson. “It’s a long time to wait.”
The second quarter started with the Redskins putting their first points on the board as Shaun Suisham kicked a 48-yard field goal to cut the Falcons lead to 11. That did not last long, however as Michael Turner scored on a 30-yard touchdown run to give the Falcons the 21-3 lead. At the end of the quarter, Jason Elam kicked a 33-yard field goal to give the Falcons the 24-3 lead at halftime.
“I feel like I’m back to my normal self,” said Turner who scored again in the fourth quarter on a 58-yards touchdown run. “I got my confidence back up and got out there just fighting hard and playing good.”
The Redskins offense got their offense going in the second half when Ladell Betts scored on a 1-yard touchdown run in the third to cut the lead to 14. They were able to cut the lead to seven in the fourth quarter with Campbell throwing a 3-yard touchdown pass to Todd Yoder at the start of the fourth.
The Falcons were able to ice the game when Turner got his second touchdown of the game on the ensuing drive and the Falcons improved to 5-3 for the year.
“In the third quarter I thought they made a good run at us, but we were able to be resilient though the entire 60 minutes,” Smith said.
There is no question that Smith has the players back, and this game proved it. In the second quarter, Matt Ryan was hit out of bounds by LaRon Landry, which caused a major scuffle, and Smith was in the middle of the action. However, Smith downplayed the situation when talking about it after the game.
“Our quarterback was hit late, there was a skirmish over there and all I was trying to do was restore order to the sideline,” Smith said. “I did not want to get into a situation where any of our guys were injured and that was my view of it.”
Ryan ended the day with 135 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception. Turner had another strong game with 166 yards on 18 carries and two touchdowns which puts him at 10 rushing TDs for the year. But the player of the game had to be Jonathan Babineaux who led the team in tackles with 10 and led the team in sacks with 2.5.
The Falcons will be back on the road for the next two weeks as they face Carolina for the second time next Sunday. On November 22 the Birds will travel to New York to face the Giants. They will come back to the Georgia Dome on November 29 when they face the Tampa Bay Bucs.
Jones can be reached at bjones@scoreatl.com.
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