This was a game the Falcons needed to win. It was also an opportunity for the Falcons to show a national audience how they have won six games so far this year. But this was also a chance to show the world why Matt Ryan is the talk of the NFL and a favorite to win Offensive Rookie of the Year. The Falcons achieved all of these as they defeated the Carolina Panthers 45-28.
“Guys were fired up in the locker room,” Ryan said after the big win over the divisional opponent. “We’re just really happy with the effort that we put forward today. At this point we will enjoy it tonight and get back to work tomorrow.”
It was a typical battle between two NFC South opponents where it came down to the final quarter. After jumping out to a 17-3 lead in the first half, the Panthers were able to claw their way back into the game and were trailing by three early in the fourth quarter. But in Matt Ryan fashion he found Harry Douglas for a 69-yard strike on third-and-long and which led to a Michael Tuner 1-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-short.
“That was huge,” Ryan said on going for it on fourth-and-1 when they were up by three. “As a quarterback it’s a great thing to see your offensive line’s face when you’re getting ready to go to the line of scrimmage because those guys were fired up.”
On the play before the Turner run, Matt Ryan had a chance to score his first NFL rushing touchdown, but he ran into Ken Lucas at the 1-yard line. If he would have scored, a touchdown celebration would not have been out of the question.
“I think there would have been something, maybe,” Ryan said as he was laughing. “I’veI got to get a little bit faster. So maybe my time should be spent in the weight room with the strength staff getting a little bit faster.”
Maybe that’s true, but one thing he doesn’t need to spend more time on is spreading the ball around. Ryan didn’t have a stellar game as he did not have any touchdown passes, but he did not throw for any picks and ended the evening with 259 yards with a QB rating of 94.5. He was able to find his favorite target Roddy White four times for 70 yards, but it was Douglas and Michel Jenkins who had big days and kept drives alive for the birds.
“Mike Jenkins did a great job on the drive where we had a no-huddle situation,” Ryan added. “I was excited for him to kind of make some big plays today.”
The Falcons will be back on the road for the next two weeks as they travel to San Diego and New Orleans before coming back home to take on Tampa Bay. They now stand at 7-4 and trail the Panthers by one game in the division. If they want to grab hold of the NFC South lead, they will have to win their next two of three games. So this win for the Falcons was big, however Ryan says that this is no way a statement game to the rest of the league.
“We can’t worry about sending messages to other people or anything like that,” Ryan said. “Our focus is just week-to-week and trying to win games and doing everything we can to put in a good effort on Sunday and get a win. If you have that narrow focus and that your mindset week in and week out, all of the other stuff will take care of itself.”
Jones can be reached at bjones@scoreatl.com.
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