The third quarter has been a weakness for the Falcons all season. Before their game against the Detroit Lions, the Falcons had been outscored in the third quarter 68-13. It was no different in their game on Sunday, as the Lions outscored the Falcons 10-3, and Matt Ryan went down with an injury.
But Ryan came back and the Falcons defense kept the Lions offense in check for the remainder of the game and held on to win 23-16.
This was probably the best the Falcons looked all game long. They played well against the Carolina last week, but the Falcons started slow and had to rally in the fourth quarter. This time, the Falcons got off to a great start and never looked back.
The Lions scored first with a Jason Hanson field goal in the first quarter, but the Falcons scored 10 unanswered points in the first thanks to a Matt Bryant 23-yard field goal and Ryan 1-yard touchdown run.
In the second quarter, Hanson nailed another field goal of 38 yards the cut the Falcons lead to four, but the Falcons increased their lead late in the second quarter, as Ryan threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Roddy White to increase the Falcons lead to 11.
As mentioned earlier, the Lions outscored the Falcons 10-3 because Hanson knocked in another field goal midway through the third, and Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford found Calvin Johnson for a 57-yard touchdown pass to cut the Falcons lead to four.
The Falcons increased their lead early in fourth quarter with a Bryant 40-yard field goal. The Lions had a chance to tie the game, as they had possession with 3:20 left in the game and had all three timeouts to their disposal. However, Stafford missed Brandon Pettigrew on a fourth-and-10 play on the Falcons 41-yard line, and the Falcons ran out the clock to win their fourth game of the year.
Ryan played well, considering he suffered a knee injury in the third. He only missed two offensive plays and did not show any signs of limping when he returned. Ryan completed 20 of his 34 pass attempts with 218 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Michael Turner had another 100-yard rushing game, tallying 122 yards on 27 carries. Tony Gonzalez made history with his five receptions in the game. He is now No. 2 on the all-time receptions list, only trailing Jerry Rice.
As solid as the offense looked, credit has to go to the defense. Not only did the Falcons held the Lions to their lowest point total of the season, the Lions only converted 1-of-12 third downs, and that was huge for the Falcons because they came into the game allowing opponents to convert 49 percent on third downs this season. Curtis Lofton led the Falcons with 10 tackles and Sean Weatherspoon added six tackles and one sack. Corey Peters and John Abraham each had a sack and Ray Edwards constantly put pressure on Stafford.
With the win, the Falcons improved to 4-3 and they are now tied with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for second place in the NFC South. The Falcons will now take some time off because they don’t have a game next week. After that, the Falcons will travel to Indianapolis to face a struggling Colts team.
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