At the start of the season, the Falcons have talked about putting together the complete game, which is playing good football for 60 minutes. On Thursday night against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Falcons finally put together the complete game they were looking for as they dominated the Jaguars 41-14.
Even though it was a dominating performance on offense, defense and special teams, Falcons head coach Mike Smith is quick to point out that there were some mistakes that have to be corrected.
“We’re getting closer,” Smith said talking about playing a complete game. “We wanted to come out and play a solid second half. “Probably didn’t play as efficient as we would have liked to in the fourth quarter, but it was as very good effort from our team.”
The most important thing the Falcons did was jump on the Jaguars early, as they opened the game with a 7-play, 75-yard drive with Matt Ryan throwing a 29-yard touchdown strike to Julio Jones.
Ryan ended his day with 224 yards, three touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 137.3. Jones had five catches for 85 yards and one touchdown.
“Julio has such a great skill set,” Smith said. “He’s a big, strong wide receiver. He’s got very good speed. He’s got range. He’s playing like we anticipated”
Matt Bryant would kick a 43-yard field goal later in the quarter to make the score 10-0.
The second quarter is when the Falcons really picked up the tempo. Jaguars punt returner Jarett Dillard muffed the punt by Matt Bosher which was recovered by Sean Weatherspoon at the Falcons 5 yard line. On the next play, Michael Turner ran for a 5-yard score to put the Falcons up 17-0. Later in the quarter, Ryan threw his second touchdown pass in the game to Roddy White to give the Falcons the 24-0 lead.
White would score another touchdown late in the third quarter and end his day with 10 catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns. White now has over 1,000 yards receiving for the fifth consecutive year and he is the first Falcons wide receiver to set that milestone. Also, he’s the eighth player in NFL history to have 80 receptions and 1,000 receiving yards the last five seasons.
“We’re starting to play a little more consistent, Ryan said who now has 92 career touchdown passes. “That’s something we have struggled with early in the year. I think one of the things we’ve done well the past couple of weeks is not turning the ball over.”
Ryan’s right about that. In fact in his last six games, Ryan has thrown for 17 touchdowns and only four interceptions. For the year, Ryan has thrown for 26 touchdowns and 12 interceptions to go along with his 3,698 passing yards.
But as good as the offense played, the defense was just as strong. John Abraham was on fire, ending his night with 3.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.His second forced fumble, which occurred in the third quarter, was the difference maker because Corey Peters recovered the fumble by Jaguars quarterback Blaine Gabbert and returned it 13 yards for a touchdown to put the Falcons up 34-0.
“I was very happy for John because he had a whale of a game,” Smith said. “He said some things he was going to and he went out there and did them.”
The Falcons defense surrendered only 207 total yards to the Jaguars and running back Maurice Jones-Drew did rush for 112 yards on 17 carries. But Gabbert only had a quarterback rating of 70.5, was sacked five times and threw one interception.
He did throw a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, but it was in garbage time when the game was out of reach.
With the win, the Falcons (9-5) are inching closer to clinching a playoff spot and will now have the weekend off before they go back to work on Monday. They do not play again until Dec. 26 when they face the New Orleans Saints in the final Monday night game of the year.
Smith, who was recently suffering chest pains, is glad that he has some time off, but he assured everyone that his health is fine.
“I hope you guys don’t take it the wrong way, but I’m fine and I really don’t want to talk about anymore,” Smith said. “But when you get a win like that, you feel real good.”
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