Matt Ryan, Matt Bryant lead Atlanta Falcons to season opening overtime win
The Atlanta Falcons opened their bounce-back 2014 campaign at home against the hated New Orleans Saints, and after a stellar second half led to overtime, a 52-yard field goal off the leg of Matt Bryant gave the Dirty Birds the win.
It was a career day for Falcons’ quarterback Matt Ryan, who threw for 448 yards, which set a new Falcons’ franchise record, on 31 completions and three touchdowns. It was the first time Ryan had thrown for over 400 yards and won the game in his career, and he broke the franchise record for career touchdown passes in the process.
The Saints put two field goals on the board early, and eventually, scored the first touchdown of the game early in the second quarter to go up 13-0. Roddy White caught a short pass from Ryan to score the first Atlanta points of the year, and the Falcons were within 10 (20-10) at the half.
The 10-point deficit in the opening half, truly, was just short of a blessing. The Falcons pass defense was, to put bluntly, not very good. Drew Brees (who threw for 29 completions and 333 yards with a touchdown and an interception) had a field day, especially across the middle and especially to Jimmy Graham (eight catches for 82 yards) and got hand fulls of yards at the time, but kept the ball moving for New Orleans.
The first possession of the third quarter set the tone for the rest of the game. A 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive by the Falcons, capped off by a Ryan to Levine Toilolo touchdown pass, brought Atlanta to within three, and a much improved defense held the Saints’ scoreless in the third. The Falcons took their first lead of the season on a 54 yard touchdown pass to Antone Smith.
The fourth quarter saw a combined 24 points with 17 of them coming in the final 2:50 of regulation, and the Falcons answered a Mark Ingram three-yard TD run with a 51 yard field goal by Bryant to send the game into overtime. And, if you read the intro sentence, watched the game or have been on twitter, you know how it ended.
The Falcons proved they’re already a different team from last year; they made the necessary adjustments at the half put themselves back into the game against an opponent they’ve heavily struggled against in recent years.
Julio Jones is healthy, and caught 116 yards on seven catches, while Devin Hester was incorporated into more than the return game, and caught five balls for 99 yards. The Falcons defense allowed 472 total yards, and the Saints ran 70 total plays against Atlanta.
The Birds will hit the road for the years’ first road game against Cincinnati next week (which will also be the Bengals’ home opener, and a game that yours truly will be attending). The Bengals blew a 15-0 halftime lead against Baltimore and scored their only touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter to snag the victory. With the way both teams played today, next week could be interesting.
Stay tuned to ATL All Day for all the latest, as the Atlanta Falcons look to build on the momentum created by the season-opening win.