Looking ahead
It’s the Steven Jackson Reunion Bowl on Sunday when the Falcons (1-0) face the St. Louis Rams (1-0) in the home opener at the Georgia Come.
After nine seasons with the Rams, Jackson opted out of his contract to chase a Super Bowl title with the Falcons, who don’t want to drop to 0-2 against the upstart Rams.
Since 1990, only 22 NFL teams (11.5 percent) have made the playoffs after starting 0-2.
Only three teams that opened 0-2 have won the Super Bowl. The 1993 Dallas Cowboys, the 2001 New England Patriots and 2007 New York Giants all rebounded their way to the title.
There are three subplots:
1. Falcons’ offensive line: The Falcons gave up three sacks, five hits and 16 hurries against the Saints, according to profootballfocus.com. Ryan was under duress on 24 of 38 pass drop-backs (63.1 percent). The Rams, in their 27-24 victory over Arizona, had four sacks and five quarterback hits. Defensive end Robert Quinn led the way with three sacks, three quarterback hits and two forced fumbles. The Rams were tied with the Broncos for the most sacks (52) in the league last season.
2. Receivers have to step up: With Roddy White saying he’ll be slowed by a high ankle sprain for another three weeks, Harry Douglas and Julio Jones will have to carry the load. White has made 129 starts and his injury situation will be closely monitored.
3. Improving on third downs: The Falcons didn’t convert on third downs in the preseason and that carried over into the opener. The Falcons were 3 of 11 on third downs (27 percent) against New Orleans.
Sound bites
“We all know about Tony Gonzalez and the arrangement they had and not being at OTAs and not being at training camp. And that’s great for running your routes and catching the football. But if you are going to ask him to block a pass-rusher like Junior Gallette one-on-one, then you are going to have to live with some of these growing pains. He is going to have to knock some of that rust off because he hasn’t had a lot of opportunity.” — Daryl Johnston, Fox color commentator on Gonzalez’ blocking performance Sunday after skipping most of training camp.
“That’s a vertical ‘jerk’ route. The defense always talks about, ‘Aw, that’s the jerk route,’ to try to get a wide receiver on a linebacker. They made those (Falcons) linebackers (cover) a lot of mismatches. Usually it was the tight end, (Jimmy) Graham. This time it was (Marques) Colston.” — Merril Hoge of ESPN breaking down the Saints’ 25-yard touchdown pass to Colston in the second quarter.
By the numbers
23
QB Matt Ryan’s bid for a 23rd fourth-quarter comeback came up short. He drove the Falcons down to the 3-yard in the final minute, but couldn’t convert on two pass plays.
304
Ryan passed for 304 yards, his 18th 300-yard game.
196
Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez has caught at least one pass in 196 straight games, the longest active streak in the NFL.
14,304
Gonzalez leads all active receivers with 14,304 yards.
The mystery of the sprained ankle
Falcons coach Mike Smith stood behind his handling of Roddy White’s ankle sprain, the severity of which was not fully disclosed in recent weeks.
Smith was careful to meet the league medical reporting rules, while not revealing that White had a high ankle sprain. White said he’s three weeks away from being 100 percent and that he suffered the sprain on Aug. 15 against Baltimore.
“In terms of injuries with players during the season, we have a policy that’s been in place since I got here: We don’t discuss injuries,” Smith said. “We have injury reports on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday per league initiative and rules.
“I will say this. Everybody knows that there are different types of ankle sprains. (High ankle sprains are typically more serious.) We have to list it as an ankle sprain. That’s how we listed it and I stand by that statement from the very beginning. We said he was going to play about 23 days ago and he played in the football game.”
Twitterati
Harry Douglas
@HDouglas83
Falcons wide receiver
Tough loss but we are going to be alright … Going work harder & focus on the fundamentals … I love my team & have 100% FAITH in everyone
Josh Harris
@aujharris
Falcons long snapper
Not the way we had hoped to start the season, but looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow. Have to keep getting better.
Levine Toilolo
@Levine Toilolo
Falcons rookie tight end
Hard fought loss … We’ll learn from it and move on. #riseup
Bradie Ewing
@bewing34
Falcons fullback
Tough loss, but we will continue to work hard and improve moving forward! Boarded up and headed back to GA #StreakStopsAt1 #RiseUp
Quotable
“Obviously, I don’t like when my quarterback is getting hit. … When I see something like that, it makes you want to play even harder.” — Center Peter Konz on quarterback Matt Ryan taking too many shots against the Saints.
“When we look at it, we still think that we can do better. It’s was definitely our effort on defense. I don’t think we had a (slow runner) on defense. That’s something that you can take as a positive. Guys were trying to get to the ball.” — Falcons linebacker Sean Weatherspoon on the team’s run defense against the Saints.
“I think we did a great job in the red zone. It was a bend-but-don’t-break kind of thing. We don’t really worry about yards here. We worry about points and I think we did an OK job. We didn’t reach our goal.” — Falcons defensive tackle Corey Peters on the team’s approach to defense.
Falcons notes
Playing time: Running back Stephen Jackson played 36 snaps (64 percent) while Jacquizz Rodgers played 16 snaps (29 percent).
Linebacker Stephen Nicholas, who has a thigh injury, was in for only six plays on special teams. He led the Falcons in tackles last season with 116.
Guard/Center Joe Hawley beat out Ryan Schraeder for the “jumbo” extra tight end role. He played five snaps (9 percent).
Ewing’s debut: Fullback Bradie Ewing, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, made his NFL debut against the Saints, finishing one catch for 15 yards.
“We got a first down on it and it kind of put us in better field position,” Ewing said. “It was good to get my first catch, but it was all about winning that game.”
Up next
The St. Louis Rams (1-0) at 1 p.m. at the Georgia Dome.
“Steven (Jackson) has some familiarity with this football team,” Smith said. “I know that (Falcons defensive coordinator) Coach (Mike) Nolan has talked to Steven in terms of the different (signals) that they use.”
