Here’s a question: What’s the best thing that can happen to an NFL rookie quarterback starting the opening game of the NFL season in his first series? If you answered “throw a touchdown pass,” you’d be right. Matt Ryan did just that when he threw a 62-yard scoring strike to Michael Jenkins en route to a 34-21 win over the Detroit Lions.
“It was great play call,” said Ryan after the game. “It was something we talked about during the week. Michael Jenkins did a great job. He caught the ball and outran everybody.”
That play wasn’t a fluke. It set the tone for the rest of the game as the fans were loud throughout the contest and the Lions could never recover. Ryan was able to stay calm and remain focused because of the play of Michael Turner, who ran for a career-high 220 yards and two touchdowns. However, Turner himself was impressed and not surprised at all by the way that Ryan played.
“He didn’t seem like a rookie out there today,” Turner said. “He took control of the huddle, he made all the right calls and he was being a real drill sergeant out there and just letting everybody out there know that he was in control.”
STARTING OFF FAST
What every NFL team wants to do is get off to a fast start and never step on the brakes. After Ryan threw his first touchdown pass, the Falcons kept the pedal to the medal when the offense scored two more touchdowns in the first quarter. It was the first time the Falcons had scored 21 points in a quarter since 2003, when they did it against the Tennessee Titans. Ryan’s totals in the first quarter were 4-for-4 with 66 yards passing and one touchdown. He ended the game with just 161 passing yards and no more touchdown passes, but he did not throw an interception and had a quarterback rating of 137. He was pleased with the way the offense played but he knows that things can change drastically over the course of the long NFL season.
“We wanted to start off fast and we did that,” Ryan said. “Everybody’s really pumped up about the win, but we know we’ve got a lot of work ahead.”
Ryan not only impressed Turner, the fans and himself. Head coach Mike Smith was pleased with the way that Ryan was poised and calm throughout the contest.
“I thought [Ryan] operated extremely well within the system,” Smith said. “We knew he had the skill set as far as throwing the football and running and operating an offense.”
Next up for Ryan is the always tough and aggressive defense of Tampa Bay. Despite putting up 34 points in their debut, Ryan knows the players have to keep working to get better.
“It’s a long season,” Ryan said. “Were going to play against some tough defenses week in and week out. So we have to continue to get better. There are certainly plenty of areas to improve and that’s what we are going to get back to this week.”
Jones can be reached at bjones@scoreatl.com.
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