By Besting Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan Proves Falcons Are Legitimate Contenders
Last week, after the Atlanta Falcons dropped a second consecutive game thanks in part to another fourth-quarter interception from franchise quarterback Matt Ryan, you couldn't blame Falcons fans for panicking.
This, after all, is a team that had made a habit of spoiling close games with late miscues—a team that finished 3-8 after a 5-0 start in 2015.
That would have been an overreaction, but what are sports without overreactions?
And I wouldn't blame Falcons fans for having the opposite reaction to the team's 33-32 Week 8 victory over the Green Bay Packers because, on Sunday, Ryan did everything necessary in order to prove that Atlanta isn't fading from contention in 2016.
How so?
He outplayed the real Aaron Rodgers
This wasn't the Aaron Rodgers who, for much of the first two months of the season, was plagued by inconsistent mechanics and lackluster execution. It wasn't the Aaron Rodgers who entered Week 8 with the NFL's fourth-lowest qualified yards-per-attempt average, who had a lower passer rating than guys like Trevor Siemian, Cody Kessler and Brian Hoyer.
Rodgers was in a zone throughout the day in Atlanta, completing 28 of 38 passes for 246 yards and four touchdowns.
For the first time since Week 3, Rodgers and the Packers didn't commit a turnover. He had six completions for 10-plus yards on Green Bay's first two possessions, and the Packers scored touchdowns on three of their first four drives.
The two-time MVP also scrambled six times for 60 yards.
Any time you score 32 points, you've done your job. You've usually put your team in a position to win. That's what Rodgers and the Packers offense did on Sunday.
And yet they lost, primarily because Ryan was simply better.
The 31-year-old completed all but seven of his 35 passes for 288 yards and three touchdowns in what was also a turnover-free performance for the Atlanta offense. He hit six different receivers more than once and had nine completions for 10-plus yards in the first half alone.
With critics wondering if Ryan was beginning to fall off a cliff after a great start to the 2016 season, he won a duel with the highest-rated passer in NFL history.
That says a lot.
He led the Falcons back in a spot that hasn't been friendly to them in the past
In the last season-and-a-half, Ryan is tied for the NFL lead with eight interceptions in the fourth quarter of one-score games. Since the start of 2015, only the Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars have turned the ball over more frequently in those situations.
| Raiders | 13 |
| Jaguars | 11 |
| Falcons | 10 |
| Titans | 10 |
| Jets | 9 |
| Browns | 8 |
In a seven-point Week 1 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they settled for just a single field goal on three fourth-quarter possessions.
In a two-point Week 6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, their three fourth-quarter possessions ended in a punt, an interception and a turnover on downs.
And in a three-point Week 7 loss to the San Diego Chargers, they failed to score on their final three possessions in the fourth quarter and overtime.
Entering Sunday, Atlanta was the league's highest-scoring team in the first three quarters but ranked just 13th in fourth-quarter scoring.
It looked like deja vu when they punted early in the fourth quarter on Sunday before a Green Bay touchdown put them down 32-26, but that's when Ryan flipped the script by leading an 11-play touchdown drive to win the game. The Falcons didn't run the ball once on that drive, but Ryan was 9-for-11 for 75 yards.
It was Ryan's first fourth-quarter comeback victory in over a year and only Atlanta's fourth fourth-quarter comeback win in the last four seasons.
What better way to indicate you're the real deal?
He did it all without much support
Sure, it's not ideal that the Falcons got only 81 rushing yards from backs Devonta Freeman and Terron Ward, or that the defense surrendered 32 points to an offense that had only scored more than 30 once all season.
They'd prefer not to have been carved up by a quarterback who had been struggling, and nobody wants to allow their opponent to convert six of their 10 third-down opportunities.
This wasn't exactly a great team effort from the Falcons, but it's a hell of a good sign that they beat a quality opponent anyway.
| 1. Falcons | 32.8 |
| 2. Saints | 28.7 |
| 3. Chargers | 28.1 |
| 4. Panthers | 27.3 |
| 5. Patriots | 27.1 |
Atlanta ran about twice as many passing plays as running plays. That kind of imbalance usually hurts a quarterback, but Ryan completed 80 percent of his passes and was sacked just twice.
His favorite target, NFL receiving yardage leader Julio Jones, was held catchless in the second half and had just three receptions for 29 yards on the day, but Ryan instead looked elsewhere.
That's crucial because he sometimes falls into the habit of leaning too heavily on Jones. That's who he was trying to force the ball to on a killer fourth-quarter interception last week against the Chargers. That's who he was throwing to on another one the previous week in Seattle.
With Jones locked down, Mohamed Sanu, Taylor Gabriel and Austin Hooper were Ryan's most active and targeted pass-catchers. And his top pass-catching running back, Tevin Coleman, was out with a hamstring injury.
But he made it work, the Falcons scored on six of their eight drives (excluding a kneel-down to end the game) and 5-3 Atlanta remains securely in first place in the NFC South.
In very few sports can teams feel good about themselves based almost entirely on the performance of one player, but—and I'm sure you've heard this one before—this is a quarterback-driven league, and Ryan is the NFL's highest-rated quarterback with at least five starts.
Considering what happened to him and the Falcons after a hot start in 2015, the fact that he's bounced back from a pair of tough October losses is a very promising sign.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com.
Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.
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