Matt Bryant came through in the clutch again.
The 35-year-old veteran kicked a 43-yard field goal with two second left in the game to give the Falcons the 16-14 win over the San Francisco 49ers and improve their record to 3-1.
“It was a good win,” Bryant said. “I’m a small part of it and I try to do my best.”
Bryant almost did not have the opportunity to kick the game-winning kick as Matt Ryan threw an interception to 49er cornerback Nate Clements with a minute and a half left in the game as the Falcons were down by one. Clements returned the pick to the Falcons 7-yard line, but before he went down, Roddy White stripped the ball out and the ball was recovered by Harvey Dahl to give the Falcons new life.
“I was at the right place, right time,” Dahl said. “I just dove on it.”
Credit also has to go to White for streaking down to field to catch up with Clements and coming up with the huge strip.
“Once [Clements] started running towards the sidelines, I knew he was going to try to score,” White said. “I was just telling myself ‘just get there’. I got there and I got the ball out.”
Some may say the Falcons were lucky and the 49ers should have won the game based on the way the Falcons came out the gate. That’s not false because San Francisco got the scoring started on their opening drive of the game with a 10-play, 88-yard drive which ended with an Alex Smith 11-yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis. The drive was kept alive thanks to a pass interference call on Dunta Robinson, which gave the Niners 34 yards.
“That how it goes,” Robinson said. “I didn’t think it was interference but those calls are left up to the referees.”
After a Falcons three-and-out on the ensuing drive, punter Michael Koenen’s punt is blocked by Dominique Zeigler and recovered by Taylor Mays in the end zone to give the 49ers the 14-0 lead.
“It was a blocking error,” Falcons head coach Mike Smith said. “[Zeigler] came right down the middle. We saw very quickly what had happened. We made the correction and moved on.”
The Falcons were able to bounce back at the start of the second quarter with the offense producing a 12-play, 71-yard drive and that ended with a Ryan 8-yard touchdown pass to Harry Douglass to cut the Niners lead to seven. Later in the quarter, the Falcons were driving down the field and look they were going to take the lead going into the half with the Falcons deep in the San Francisco territory. But Ryan’s pass was picked off by Shawntae Spencer at the 49er 6-yard line to kill the drive.
The Falcons defense was able to hold for the reminder of the quarter and even came up with an interception late in the second. Curtis Lofton came up with an Alex Smith pick at the Falcons 31-yard line to set up a Bryant 37-yard field goal to end the half with the Falcons down by four.
The 49ers look to start the second half with bang, but it was the Falcons that came up with another big play, as William Moore picked off another Smith pass which set up another Bryant field goal (31 yards) to cut the lead to one for San Francisco.
“It was a great call and a great scheme that we had,” Moore said on the interception. “It’s just baiting the quarterback.”
After a great offensive showing against the Saints, the Falcons had trouble getting off the ground against the 49ers, who run a 3-4 scheme. Ryan ended the day 26-of-43 with 273 yards one touchdown and two interceptions. Michael Turner just had 16 carries for 50 yards and Jason Snelling carried the ball seven times for 31 yards. White did have another strong performance with a seven-reception 104-yard afternoon.
“We just need to continue to watch the tape,” Ryan said. “It’s tough to diagnose what we need to do. I think the biggest thing is getting back and looking at the film, seeing areas we feel like we can improve and working hard during the week and improve on that.”
The Falcons will be back on the road for the next two weeks as they face the Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles before they come back home to host the Bengals. With the win, the Falcons still remain atop the NFC South.
Loading ...
