Turner gives Falcons yards, attitude

Michael Turner has 1,088 yards to his name on the season — he blew past 1,000 yards in his third carry Sunday against Carolina. One of them will probably stand out once this season is over.

On fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, with the game against the Carolina in the balance, an extra timeout to think about it, and everybody in the building full aware who would get the call, Turner bulled his way into the end zone.

He doesn’t remember whose tackle he broke to get there around the left end, and if it was dominant defensive end Julius Peppers — “I don’t know numbers, I just see different colors.”

But he wound up in the end zone, with Matt Ryan jumping into his arms, and the Falcons holding a 10-point cushion and all the momentum from that point on in the 45-28 win.

“It was just an attitude thing,” Turner said. “We had to get it in there.”

The end zone was familiar ground for Turner Sunday. He got there a career-high four times — on runs of 1, 4, 1 and 16 yards. The last time he had four touchdowns in a game, he was a junior at Northern Illinois and roughing up Miami of Ohio for five touchdowns.

Now he’s heading back to San Diego next Sunday to play the team where he backed up LaDainian Tomlinson for four years. The Chargers will be see videotape of one of Turner’s finest days as a pro in a season full of them with the Falcons.

“You always want to look good on tape no matter who you’re playing, but those guys know my capabilities already,” Turner said. “It’s going to be a fun game. I’m sure there will be a lot of trash talking.”

Turner rushed for 117 yards against a Carolina defense that held him to 56 yards on Sept. 28. He had 56 yards in the first half Sunday.

He knew after a 7-yard rush on the game’s first play from scrimmage, it was going to be a different day.

“It was still early,” Turner said of the last meeting with Carolina. “We were still trying to gel as a team offensively. They’d been together for a while. They knew what they were doing. We didn’t play our style of football against a great defense. Today we wanted to bounce back and make sure we did everything right.”

Left guard Justin Blalock said it wasn’t as much a change in strategy as state of mind.

“There weren’t a whole lot of glaring changes,” Blalock said. “Just getting after it, getting off to a good start was huge for us. A couple wrinkles here and there, but the biggest thing was attitude.”

Coach Mike Smith felt that from the sideline.

“We ran with more desire and passion,” he said. “I really think that was the difference.”

For his part in it, Turner reached 13 touchdowns on the season to tie Gerald Riggs for second most touchdowns in a season by a Falcon. Two more in the last five games and he’ll pass Jamal Anderson’s record of 14 in 1998 for the NFC conference championship team.

“It’s good to see a consistent back come in here,” said Riggs, now a TV analyst for WXIA. “He’s done it in a very short amount of time.”