Matt Ryan, Falcons have pieces to do something special
ATLANTA — Matt Ryan can’t remember off-hand the last time he won a championship.
There was a four-way tie for the Big East title when Ryan was a redshirt freshman backup at Boston College, but “that doesn’t really count.” He played prep football at a charter school in Philadelphia that didn’t compete in state playoffs and “probably wouldn’t have won” anyway.
There were some league titles as a kid, Ryan said after throwing for 338 yards and three touchdowns in the Atlanta Falcons’ 36-20 divisional playoff win over the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday. But nothing quite like the glory Ryan has in front of him now — one win away from Super Bowl LI, two from winning it all — as he shrugs off questions about how these types of games can impact his legacy.
“You want to be in the mix, that’s for sure. It’s much better than being one of the other 28 teams,” Ryan told a small group of reporters at his locker. “Honestly, I don’t think about it too much. It’s about trying to get a win next week, whoever we’re playing against.”
That’s a logical way to approach things, even if the outcome of this next game or two figure to yield a somewhat illogical reassessment of Ryan’s right to be regarded among one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks.
Voting is over for the league MVP award, but that didn’t stop Falcons fans from chanting their endorsement of Ryan after another magnificent performance Saturday. There’s a decent chance he wins the award, too — quite a turn for a 31-year-old who after eight seasons seemed to have settled into his status as an above-average starting QB, nothing more.
Part of that was Ryan had never played anywhere near this level. (His 38 TD passes, 9.3-yard average per pass and 117.1 passer rating this season all obliterated career highs.) But part of it also was Atlanta’s lack of playoff success: one win in five postseason games prior to Saturday. Take away the Super Bowl runs, and Ryan’s resume compares favorably to Eli Manning’s.
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That’s the nature of the hardest and most important position in sports. You can elevate the level of everyone around you. And it’s fair to expect the best players to play their best at the biggest moments. Yet if anything, Ryan’s rise in Year 9 may serve as a case study for the importance of scheme and supporting cast for unleashing a good QB’s potential.
Not everything Ryan is doing is unbelievable — he has just become automatic in his second season with offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, whose knack for creating mismatches is as good as anybody’s. The Falcons have loaded up on speed and unique skill sets through the draft (Devonta Freeman, Tevin Coleman), free agency (Mohamed Sanu) and waivers (Taylor Gabriel) to complement all-pro Julio Jones, allowing Ryan to exploit wherever the defense’s weakness shows up. They set an NFL record this season with 13 players catching a TD pass.
“We’ve been explosive as an offense, both in the run game and the pass game,” Ryan said. “I think that’s why you see numbers like (9.3 yards per pass). When we’ve taken our chances, we’ve hit them.”
On Saturday, the Falcons put 422 yards and 36 points on a talented Seahawks defense without Ryan completing a pass that traveled 20 yards in the air. Their two longest gains were catch-and-run gems — a floater to Freeman on an angle route against Seattle end Cliff Avril that went for 53 yards and a slant for 37 to Gabriel, who had a clean release off the line.
Those are plays made by Ryan’s recognition skills, not his arm talent or other physical traits, which have always been there. And they don’t happen without the scheme providing answers and athletes capable of turning a short pass into a big play.
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None of which is to diminish what Ryan is doing. He’s the trigger man for the NFL’s highest-scoring offense — one that has bailed out the 27th-ranked scoring defense all season. Seahawks end Michael Bennett gave an unsolicited nod after Saturday’s game to Ryan as the clear MVP.
“Matt was Matt. He’s a great player, man,” Sanu said. “His (nick)name is ‘Ice’ for a reason. I love that dude.”
Ryan has to love what he has around him on offense now, too. He’s better set up to make a championship run and has shown what he can be with the right pieces around him, regardless of how these next few weeks shake out — and how the results will shape the perception of Ryan going forward.
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Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero
PHOTOS: Best of divisional round
