Falcons Improve To 4-2 In Amazing Game

If anyone out there had the Falcons at 4-2 after six weeks of football, you should be betting a lot more money on them.  Realistically, this was supposed to be a hard, long season for fans of the team, but the emergence of rookie quarterback Matt Ryan has changed the profile of this team.

Today, against the favoured Chicago Bears, the Falcons showed that they are more than just a one-trick pony who relies on the run.  In fact, the ground game was rather ineffective against a tight Bears’ defence.  However, Matt Ryan came out throwing, and was extremely impressive.

The former Boston College pivot put up exceptional numbers, completing 22 of 30 passes for 301 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions.

As grounds for comparison, the running game yielded a measley 75 yards in total.

In reality, however, there was much to be concerned about from the Falcons, as they spent a great deal of time in the Chicago red zone without putting up the big score, settling instead for Jason Elam field goals on their first four trips to the scoring area.  Instead of leading 21-3 going into halftime, they were only up 9-3.  Failure to convert on scoring drives was looking like an albatross hanging heavily around their necks.

But the defence was solid enough to limit the Bears, at least in the first half.

Coming out of halftime, the Bears looked impressive, despite a first drive that went three and out.  After another field goal from Elam, Kyle Orton engineered the game’s first touchdown, taking his offence 82 yards down the field for the major score.  Things looked bleak for Atlanta at this stage.

Enter the rookie sensation, Matt Ryan.

In 10 plays after the Bears had crawled within 2 points, Ryan had his team in the end zone, capping off a 76 yard drive with a pass to Roddy White, who put the Falcons back into a two-score lead.

But, the Bears weren’t finished yet.  They moved the ball effectively, and tightened up their defence.  Chicago had the ball at the Atlanta 2 yard line, but was unable to convert a fourth-down gamble as Atlanta’s defence stuffed a run by Matt Forte to turn the ball over on downs.  However, the Falcons were unable to move the ball forward, and thus were forced into a three-and-out situation.

Chicago made good on their next possession, gaining 40 yards to set up a Robbie Gould fieldgoal, bringing the Bears within six points (19-13) of the hometown Falcons.

Atlanta came back with a huge kickoff return by Jerious Norwood, but again were forced to attempt a fieldgoal from the Chicago 15 to re-establish their two possession lead.  To the doubtless panic of the home crowd faithful, Jason Elam picked that very moment to shank his first attempt of the season wide.

To make matters worse, time was becoming a factor.

Kyle Orton took over on the following drive, leading his team down the field on a 77-yard drive which was capped off by a touchdown throw to the corner of the end-zone, which was reeled in by Rashied Davis, putting the Bears up 20-19 after the conversion.

There were only 11 seconds left on the clock, and it seemed an impossible mountain to climb for the Dirty Birds.  But again, Matt Ryan came out showing the poise of a 10-year veteran, completing a sideline out-route deep for 26 yards to Michael Jenkins, who got out of bounds.

You could almost feel the collective heart-rate of the Atlanta faithful increasing as Jason Elam came out to attempt a game-winning fieldgoal from 48 yards out, no doubt his previous miss still fresh on his mind…

It took forever, as the previous play had to be reviewed to ensure Jenkins in fact had possession when he went out of bounds, but finally they lined up.

The snap was good, the hold looked good…

Elam wound up, kicked the ball, and watched as it slowly started sailing to the right…

IT’S GOOD!!!  FALCONS GO TO 4-2!!!

Ah - the life of a football fan…  This game showed why it’s never a good idea to leave a game while there is still time left on the clock.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our Canadian readers!  Join me tomorrow for QB1!!  All you need to do is register at www.buzztime.com and then follow the links!  I’ll try to set up a private room for all Sportstalkbuzz.com users, where the password will be “sportstalkbuzz”.  Hope to see you there!  I play as “czechmate”…

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