Flowery Branch —- Everybody else saw Roddy White streaking under a deep ball from quarterback Matt Ryan for a 70-yard touchdown Sunday.

Falcons quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave saw a bucket.

“It looked like Matt threw it to a spot —- an imaginary bucket was there,” said Musgrave, who is normally the one holding the bucket downfield during the preseason passing drill. “Roddy did a great job of sprinting to that spot to catch it.”

The deep threat portion of the Falcons’ passing game is going according to plan. Ryan has connected for a pair of long touchdowns in three games —- one on his first NFL pass for a 62-yard touchdown to Michael Jenkins against Detroit and one Sunday to White against Kansas City.

That’s half as many touchdown passes of 40 or more yards than the Falcons completed in all 16 games last season (four). Joey Harrington connected with White for a 69-yard touchdown last year against Carolina, the team the Falcons face Sunday.

Live action is actually going better than the deep throwing drills did, if you ask Ryan. A 36-gallon trash can painted red can get pretty puny from some 50 yards away. Ryan figures he put the ball in the bucket —- and kept it there —- only once or twice in the handful of times the quarterbacks did that drill, which included a handful of throws each time.

That’s actually not bad, considering the degree of difficulty, but Ryan prefers soft hands and a receiver in motion.

“Thank God they don’t have a bucket out there during the games,” Ryan said. “We’ve got some really good receivers in terms of getting down the field and stretching the field and adjusting to the ball in the air. Roddy got behind the defense and made a great adjustment on the deep ball. When you have guys who can do that, it makes it pretty easy as a quarterback.”

As much as it is the speed of the receivers that is helping the Falcons stretch the field, it’s also the strength of the run game.

Michael Turner’s 12 yards on the Falcons’ first two carries against Detroit helped Jenkins get open on the skinny post route for his long touchdown. The safety first had to honor the run.

“We’ve run the ball so well that it draws safeties down into the box and keeps guys honest and low in the secondary,” Ryan said. “That, I think, is the biggest part of being able to get the ball down the field. Our running backs have done a really good job of breaking tackles and getting into the secondary, which forces those guys to honor the run.”

Drawing the safeties up against the run means much more man-to-man coverage for Falcons receivers.

“When they commit an eighth or even a ninth guy into the run front, you’ve got a good chance of throwing the ball over their head,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. And it doesn’t hurt that the Falcons have a quarterback who might not have the rifle arm of Michael Vick but can drop a perfectly timed pass 57 yards in the air like he did Sunday.

“Hitting a person in stride means you’re doing OK,” said White, who finished with 119 yards on five catches Sunday, his eighth career 100-yard game. “He’s doing a good job, and he can only get better. He’s made three starts in the NFL.”

Ryan got style points from both Turner, who said “that ball was in the air forever,” and offensive tackle Todd Weiner.

“He throws as pretty a long ball as I’ve ever seen,” Weiner said. “He puts it in the right spot. The receiver doesn’t have to break stride. It’s like shooting a basket for him. That’s not easy to do. Anybody can throw it deep and hope the receiver runs under it. He puts it right where it’s supposed to be.”

PASS BREAKDOWN

Matt Ryan is 34-for-64 for 511 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions through three games. Here’s a breakdown of his completions:

> 0-10 yds: 17

> 11-20 yds: 11

> 21-30 yds: 2

> 31-40 yds: 1

> 41-50 yds: 1

> 51-60 yds: 0

> 61-70 yds: 2*

* Both TDs

NEXT FOR FALCONS

> Who: at Panthers

> When: 1 p.m. Sunday

> TV; radio: Fox; 92.9 FM