Close wins are becoming routine for the Falcons.
Trailing by seven with 5:59 left in the fourth quarter, Green Bay drove 90 yards on 16 plays which led to an Aaron Rodgers 10-yard touchdown pass to Jordy Nelson to tie the game at 17 with 56 seconds left in the game.
But thanks to a personal foul penalty on Green Bay’s Matt Wilhelm for pulling the face mask of Eric Weems, Matt Ryan led the offense down to the Green Bay 29-yard line and Matt Bryant was able to nail a 47-yard field goal for the 20-17 win over the Packers.
“Even if you’re down by 20 with 10 seconds left, you can never give up hope,” Bryant said who has kicked three game-winning field goals this season. “You got to expect the positive. There’s never a doubt that I was not going to get a chance to win the ball game.”
The Falcons were able to get the scoring started on their first series of the game, driving the ball 55 yards on 10 plays which led to a Bryant 38-yard field goal to open the scoring.
“I’ve had some pretty good seasons,” Bryant said who is one of the league leaders in field goal percentage. “This is been probably more eventful season, but it’s still early. We’ve got five more games.”
Later in the first quarter, the Packers were able to respond with field goal of their own as Mason Crosby notched a 22 yarder to tie the game at three. Green Bay got the ball back early in the second quarter after forcing the Falcons offense to go three-and-out, and the Packers were able to drive the ball down to the Falcons 1-yard line. But Falcons got a huge break when Rodgers fumbled at the 1-yard line which was forced by Cutis Lofton and recovered by Mike Peterson.
“When you come up with a turnover, that’s big,” Peterson said. “It’s a momentum swing. Lofton was able to make the hit and I was able to come up with the ball, which is big for the defense.”
That led to a 14-play, 80 yard drive for the Falcons and it ended with a Ryan 4-yard touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez to take the 10-3 lead going into the half.
“[Gonzalez] sold the route really well,” Ryan said who ended the day with 24-of-28 passing with 198 yards and one touchdown. “It was a double move. He broke to the outside then brought it back inside. He was pretty open when I threw it.”
Green Bay was able to tie the game at 10 early in the third quarter when Rodgers scored on a 1-yard touchdown run. The play of the drive was when Rodgers threw a deep pass to Greg Jennings on a flea flicker for 34 yards. Rodgers also threw a 28-yard pass to Nelson which put the Packers at the Falcons 1-yard line.
But the Falcons took the lead back when Michael Turner scored a 1-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-one play. Turner ended the day with 110 yards on 23 carries.
“You’ve got to score points in the fourth quarter of the ball game either to seal the game or to be able to come back and we’ve been able to do that.” Falcons head coach Mike Smith said. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in our offensive team. “You’ve got to be able to move the ball inside the 1-yard line on fourth-and-1.”
Despite Green Bay having 418 yards of total offense and having 22 first downs, the Falcons were more efficient in red zone scoring (2-for-2) and they were able win the time of possession battle (31:40-28:20). But the most important stat for the Falcons is 9-2 because that is their current record and still have an one game lead over the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the NFC South title. And with the win, the Falcons have clinched another winning season for the third consecutive year. But the team has bigger goals in mind.
“It’s great to get a winning season, but our expectations and our goals are a lot higher than that,” Smith said. “We want to keep them eternally, but we’re progressing on our journey on where we want to be as a football team. In December, that where the games become real important.”
And they will have their first December test when they face the Tampa Bay Bucs for the second time this season at Tampa Bay next Sunday.
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