Short takes: Resiliency, Ryan and turnovers carry Falcons
Thomas DeCoud, here tackling Ryan Mathews, had two interceptions and one fumble recovery.
(I’ll be posting the column soon on today’s Falcons’ win over San Diego, which will focus on quarterback Matt Ryan. Until then, here are my three “short takes” on the game.)
• 1. This was an impressive win on many levels, but no moreso than in the resiliency they showed. They were playing on the road in a short week after a physically punishing win over the Denver Broncos on Monday night, yet they flew to the West Coast and dominated San Diego from the opening drive. It’s only three games into the season but this might have been the strongest sign yet of how good the Falcons can be.
• 2. The Falcons will need to be able to run the ball effectively at some point. But it hasn’t been an issue yet, primarily because of quarterback Matt Ryan. Michael Turner was not a factor when the team built a 20-0 halftime lead — he had only eight carries for 15 yards for a 1.9-yard average through two quarters — but by then Ryan already had thrown for 208 yards and three touchdowns. In Turner’s defense, the offensive line didn’t create many holes. The Falcons can only hope that when Turner’s fourth-quarter touchdown run in mop-up time will signal some sort of break-thru for both he and the line.
• 3. The Falcons are winning in part because they are not beating themselves. The defense forced four San Diego turnovers (including two interceptions and a fumble recovery by safety Thomas DeCoud) and now has 11 takeaways in three games. The team’s only turnover this season was a fourth-quarter interception thrown by Ryan, which leaves the team with a net of plus-10 in turnover differential. DeCoud’s three interceptions already this season are only one short of his career high (four last year).
– Jeff Schultz
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124 comments Add your comment
phil
September 23rd, 2012
9:29 pm
I lol because the obsession with JSS is so silly….
Eric
September 23rd, 2012
9:31 pm
Amazing how much JSS can run his mouth even after being pwned by this Falcons team! Face it loser, this team is for real and as far as I can tell, the best team in the league thus far. Just because you fancy yourself some kind of internet sensation doesn’t give you license to spew idiocy like a Dan Quayle bobble head doll! Just shut up and allow us long suffering Falcons fans a chance to wallow in the limelight of a great Falcons team for once. We had it all today especially on defense. Moore and Decoud may become the best safety tandem in the league…
JSS is a Troll
September 23rd, 2012
9:31 pm
LOL. Wow.
JSS just went Mein Kampf on a bunch of bloggers.
This guy… is really not a good guy. What a failure. What a silly, silly little, petty man.
What a drama queen.
The frustration of his miserable life oozes off the page like so much flotsam and jetsam flowing into a storm drain during a particularly bad storm. Meaning it’s all GARBAGE.
Secretariat? More like bound for the glue factory.
The stink of failure is all over you, JSS the Troll. And the more screeds you write like this, the more you stick your nose in the air, the more you talk down to everyone, the more you act like you know ANYTHING more than the very small amount of nothing you actually know, the more you expose yourself for what you really are.
You laugh at us?
We PITY you. We pity you for your waste of a life. We pity you for your small, petty true self that is constantly at war with your outsized ego that can’t comprehend why you are such a miserable failure.
Let me guess, you got “downsized” from your last job, and blamed it on the economy, right? Couldn’t be that no one could stand you, couldn’t stand to work with you, and couldn’t even stand to be around you, right?
Keep laughing, JSS the Troll. We’ll keep pitying. And yeah, that does, in fact, make us better than YOU.
phil
September 23rd, 2012
9:32 pm
Eric….
Calm thyself.
We look pretty good, but let’s don’t get carried away.
We’re still the Falcons.
LOL at the Aints
September 23rd, 2012
9:33 pm
Who has the obsession? LOL
phil
September 23rd, 2012
9:34 pm
Some scary obsessed folks here….
Bizarre.
Eric
September 23rd, 2012
9:34 pm
Look, the birds were number 3 in the Power Rankings this week. SF lost and Houston looked feeble at the end against a Denver team we humiliated. How can we not be number one in next week’s power rankings?
LOL at the Aints
September 23rd, 2012
9:35 pm
I’m with ya Phil,, just having a little fun,,
San Diego
September 23rd, 2012
9:36 pm
Falcons 3-0
sAints 0-3 and reeling
LOL at the Aints
September 23rd, 2012
9:37 pm
thanks ,, I’ll be here all season,, LOL
Magic City
September 23rd, 2012
9:38 pm
Pam Oliver is soft.
WHERE OH WHERE DID LITTLE SEEN GO
September 23rd, 2012
9:38 pm
Mularkey and Van Gorder must’ve been killing this team.
WHERE OH WHERE DID LITTLE SEEN GO
September 23rd, 2012
9:41 pm
How is Peria Jerry doing so far?
Answer this
September 23rd, 2012
9:42 pm
JsS take your meda and call it a night! And no more Colt 45 with your meds….they don’t mix look at the label it says no alcohol with your meds….and that does not mean rubbing alcohol in your self-inflicted wounds, they are referring to drinking alcoho…..and yet you still wont admit you were wrong, that is why people dont like you….simple not because of your twisted views but because you dont have the guts to admit when you are wrong….bed time angry little man.
TrishaDishaWarEagle
September 23rd, 2012
9:42 pm
Can the falcons win both the NFC south and AFC West? I wonder…
Ivan
September 23rd, 2012
9:43 pm
Has anyone seen choke? Oh hes gone missing again??
Boo Brees
September 23rd, 2012
9:45 pm
HOORAY BIG WORD USAGE!!!!!
ijonathan
September 23rd, 2012
9:48 pm
Did I just read correctly? Someone on this blog comparing the treatment he is receiving here to the civil rights era dogs and water hoses “in utero”?
Schultz, I’m not sure whether that deserves banishment or a blogging pulitzer.
Jeff Schultz
September 23rd, 2012
9:53 pm
Column is posted:
http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/2012/09/23/falcons-are-looking-special-and-it-starts-with-matt-ryan/
Yo Vince
September 23rd, 2012
9:54 pm
JSS is superior to all… repeat in the mirror 100 times. Bicep, you know Matty is the best thing to ever happen to the Coons. Right? 4 yrs, 3 games, the talk of the NFL. Winningest QB during that time. Post season will come soon for him. He took over 1 of the worst teams that had NEVER won back to back seasons, remember… I do. You re a good dude though. Not like idiot JSS
SeenThisB4
September 23rd, 2012
10:01 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8E_zMLCRNg
Answer this
September 23rd, 2012
10:06 pm
@SEEN
VERY FUNNY! ROFLMAO!
Falcon 228
September 24th, 2012
7:32 am
Defenses in the past year have adjusted to teams with one or two good receivers. But when you have 3 GREAT receivers and 3 more good receivers it gives a team a huge advantage. Watch the Sunday Ticket Short Cut. Teams are determined to stop our running game. The past 4 years it stopped us down the stretch and in the playoffs.. Now it doesn’t matter. Wear the defense down the first 3 quarters with the passing, Build a lead and watch em start grabbing their pants, getting up real slow, raising their hands to come out and then the holes open. Great game.
JSS
September 24th, 2012
11:12 am
ijonathan
September 23rd, 2012
9:48 pm
“Did I just read correctly? Someone on this blog comparing the treatment he is receiving here to the civil rights era dogs and water hoses “in utero”?”
Nope, it means I have the mental conditioning to stand above the silly pseudo faux psychologists of the AJC blogging set from having been brought up by a person with that amount of gravitas and more…