HOUSTON — Matt Ryan’s new football beginning started at the site of his worst football memory. This time, he tried to create his own comeback. He did, even if it wasn’t capped with his desired conclusion.
While the Falcons performed their usual trick in Atlanta, Ryan activated “Matty Ice” for his new team at his old house of horrors. His Colts debut came at NRG Stadium, where his Falcons infamously lost the 2017 Super Bowl to the Patriots. They blew a 28-3 lead thanks to a series of miscues and self-inflicted errors.
This time, Ryan’s Colts fell into a 20-3 fourth-quarter hole because of their own series of miscues and self-inflicted errors. Ryan engineered a near-flawless finish, guiding the Colts to a 17-point fourth to force overtime.
Neither team could capitalize in the extra period. Ryan guided the Colts into what should’ve been a winning drive, but Rodrigo Blankenship missed a 42-yard field goal. The Colts and Texans tied 20-20 Sunday, though that result is better than what the Colts deserved.
“That’s the first time I’ve tied in the NFL,” said Ryan, who’s in his 15th season. “So it’s strange. It was a weird game. A lot of mistakes in the first half, first three quarters, then we got going in the fourth. You’re disappointed to not come out of here with a win. At the same time, we didn’t lose. We have to find a way to tighten things up. But the effort across the board, to me, is encouraging. If we play with that kind of intensity, clean up some of these mistakes, just execute a little better, there’s a lot of things we can build on.”
The Colts played poorly for much of the game. They forced overtime because Ryan, even in his twilight years, is cool and collected in key moments. The Colts know the value of a Hall of Fame-level signal-caller – they had Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck in the last two decades – and it’s a luxury to have such a player. He went 17 for 26 for 207 yards and a score in the fourth quarter.
But the result was nonetheless an underwhelming one against the Texans, who are expected to be among the NFL’s worst teams.
The Colts, who entered 10-point favorites, were sloppy. Ryan threw an interception and had three fumbles (one lost). Two of them were botched snaps (”That’s on me, we have to get that cleaned up,” Ryan said). Ryan even had a few goofy plays that looked eerily like Carson Wentz, the man Indianapolis jettisoned before acquiring Ryan. Ultimately, the new Colts quarterback went 32-for-50 for 352 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
“He’s the leader we need,” Colts coach Frank Reich said. “He did a great job.”
The Colts are notoriously slow starters. They’d lost eight consecutive season-opening contests entering Sunday. They outscored the Texans 62-3 across two games a season ago, only to struggle mightily with the same foe Sunday.
Unlike his later Falcons years, Ryan shouldn’t need to wear a cape for this team. The Colts’ formula features a powerful rushing attack and stout defense. That was on full display in the first quarter, when All-Pro running back Jonathan Taylor touched the ball on 13 of 22 plays and the Texans’ offense had possession for just 2 minutes, 36 seconds.
But winning games with such strategy requires limiting mistakes. The Colts couldn’t go one drive earlier in the afternoon without hurting themselves, be it penalties, drops or putting the ball on the ground. That’s how they failed to win a game in which Taylor produced 175 total yards and top receiver Michael Pittman Jr. had 121 yards on nine catches.
Ryan would’ve had his first touchdown pass on the first play of the second quarter, but rookie Alec Pierce dropped the ball near the left corner of the end zone. The Colts wound up turning it over on downs after getting too tricky on fourth down (Indianapolis deployed a wildcat formation that didn’t use Taylor as the runner – it unsurprisingly resulted in a 2-yard loss).
The Texans tied it 3-3 after taking over. On the ensuing Colts drive, Ryan threw an interception to edge rusher Jerry Hughes on an attempted screen pass at the Texans’ 28. Hughes would later get a strip sack on Ryan that stalled another once-promising drive.
It was a maddening trend for Indianapolis: It had 208 total yards and entered Texans’ territory on four of five drives in the first half, yet that resulted in only three points.
The Texans opened the second half with a flea-flicker, quarterback Davis Mills finding receiver Brandin Cooks for 42 yards into Colts territory. The Colts quickly found themselves in a 10-point hole. Just after Indianapolis crossed midfield on its next drive, Ryan muffed a snap under center on the third down and the Texans recovered. Mills found tight end O.J. Howard for his second touchdown and a 20-3 lead.
The Colts’ best drive was early in the fourth, an 11-play, 76-yard march that resulted in a Blankenship field goal. The Colts then had a needed splash play with a strip sack of Mills at the Houston 20. Taylor scored to make it 20-13, suddenly putting the seemingly cooked Colts right back into contention.
With one final chance, Ryan led a seven-play, 80-yard touchdown drive – capped by a 15-yard touchdown throw to Pittman – that tied the game with 1:54 remaining.
“You saw the poise,” Reich said of Ryan. “Obviously, we had some mistakes. He had a couple mistakes early. But he’s so confident. He helped keep everybody in it. He made a ton of big plays.”
Ryan went 2-for-3 for 31 yards on the drive. Taylor had 49 yards on four touches, illustrating why he’s possibly the NFL’s best running back. Ryan’s played with some uber talents – Julio Jones, Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez, Michael Turner among them – and Taylor joins that list. Ryan’s Falcons were always their best with a good run game.
It’s no surprise Ryan, 37, has impressed the Colts. He oversaw the greatest era in Falcons history. He tops the franchise’s quarterback record books in nearly all categories. He’s first in touchdowns (367), completions (5,242), attempts (8,003), yards (59,735), passer rating (94.2), completion percentage (65.5) and career 300-yard passing performances (73).
He and Chris Chandler are the only Falcons quarterbacks to lead the franchise to a Super Bowl appearance. Ryan is the only MVP in Falcons history, winning the honor in 2016 after throwing for 4,944 yards and 38 touchdowns on a 69.9 completion percentage. Additionally, what he meant for the organization’s credibility, its professionalism and its revival as a respectable operation, along with his contributions to Atlanta and those who admire him, cannot be measured in statistics.
Ryan will always be a Falcon, even if he’s not continuing his career in the jersey. He’ll always be part of the Atlanta community – he and his wife Sarah had just finished building a house before the trade. But on Sunday, he started his new era. The coming seasons, however many he has left, are his final chances to secure his title.
His latest comeback didn’t end with a victory, but it showed he hasn’t lost his touch. He still has that knack for giving his team a chance. Maybe he gets his first Colts win next week in Jacksonville, a place the pre-Ryan Colts have fared poorly. It’s coming. And there will be plenty more wins to follow.
“If we stay the course ... we’re going to tighten things up,” Ryan said. “If we can tighten things up just a little bit, we’re going to be just fine. There needs to be a sense of urgency to get that done. This is a good example for us. It needs to be right from the start. Coming back at the end, that’s great. But all of the plays matter. We need to be sharp from the start.”
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