Atlanta Falcons beat Oakland Raiders 35-28
After a slow first half, the Atlanta Falcons offense came alive against the Raiders for the first time this season and got a big away win.
Matt Ryan threw three touchdowns in what was the Atlanta Falcons breakout offensive performance of the 2016 season before their defense held firm in the dying minutes to prevent the Raiders from their second last-minute comeback in two weeks.
Ryan threw touchdown passes to Julio Jones, Jacob Tamme and the go-ahead score to Justin Hardy midway through the 4th quarter. He also completed 26 out of 34 passes for 396 yards.
Devonta Freeman also rushed for 93 yards on 17 carries as the Falcons were able to pull together a complete offensive performance and rack up over 500 yards of offense against an Oakland defense that has now given up 35 points in each of its two games this season.
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The Falcons certainly rode their luck a little bit throughout the second half. Hardy’s touchdown was initially meant for Tevin Coleman before a big deflection led to it looping into Hardy’s hands while he was waiting in the end zone.
On the following possession, Raiders receiver Amari Cooper was ruled to have stepped out of bound before catching what would have been a 51 yard touchdown pass. The Raiders argued that Cooper had been forced out by Falcons corner Desmond Trufant but the call stood and the Raiders failed to convert a 4 and 2 shortly after.
Shortly after that, Tevin Coleman’s touchdown run, put the Raiders 2 touchdowns behind with less than 5 minutes to go and essentially ended the game despite a late Andre Homes touchdown.
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The victory takes the Falcons to a 1-1 record before a big away game next week against their division rival New Orleans Saints who dropped to 0-2 after a loss this week to the New York Giants.