Matt Ryan tipped his cap to Sean McDermott.
He had no choice. There is a familiarity between the Falcons quarterback and Bills rookie head coach.
“He’s obviously a very good coach,” Ryan said after the Falcons’ 23-17 loss on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “We know that from having played against him in Carolina for a number of years.”
Indeed Ryan knows all about McDermott from his days as the Panthers defensive coordinator from 2011-16. McDermott may be out of the NFC South division with his new position but he still gives Ryan fits.
Ryan was out-foxed by a defensive call on a fourth-and-1 at Buffalo’s 10-yard line to end the Falcons’ comeback threat. The Bills appeared to load the box to stop the run in the final seconds. However, they were ready when the Falcons tried a play-action fake to pass the ball.
“They were always well prepared and they are always tough,” Ryan said of McDermott’s Carolina defenses. “I think back to all of our battles with Carolina from the six years that he was there. They were always difficult.
“We knew that coming in. We knew they were going to be very well prepared and play hard. They did. They played well and they played better than we did today.”
The final play was an incomplete pass intended for Taylor Gabriel.
Ryan completed 24 of 42 passes for 242 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. He had a passer rating of 61.8, which was his lowest in 30 games. He had a 55.1 passer rating in a 25-19 win over the Redskins on Oct. 11, 2015.
Ryan has thrown five interceptions over his past two games.
“It was just one of those things,” Ryan said. “Sometimes physical mistakes happen. That’s part of playing sports. We like to work as hard as we possibly can to try and make those things not happened, but we all make mistakes at certain points. I’ve certainly made a ton of mistakes throughout my career myself.”
Ryan knows the Falcons can’t continue to make turnovers.
“We’re better than that,” Ryan said. “I’m better than that. From an offensive stand point of taking care of the ball we have to make better decisions. I do too, in order to give ourselves a better chance to win games. It’s just difficult to overcome a three-turnover deficit. We did it last week (against the Lions), but it was a little too much to overcome today.”
Ryan wasn’t making any excuses as he had to finish the game without both starting wide receivers All-Pro Julio Jones (hip flexor) and Mohamed Sanu (hamstring).
“Obviously, those guys are big part of what we do,” Ryan said. “When you lose one, it’s tough. When you lose two, it’s difficult.”
Justin Hardy, Nick Williams and Gabriel finished the game as replacements for Jones and Sanu.
“I’m proud of the way our guys stepped up,” Ryan said. “I thought Nick came in did a really nice job for us. Justin Hardy did a really good job for us. (He played) a lot of snaps. He made some good plays, a nice catch on that touchdown.”
Losing the tall receivers may have helped to stall the Falcons last-ditch try to pull out the victory.
“It changes the way people defend us for sure,” Ryan said of the smaller receivers. “When you have Juilo out there and you have Mo out there, they are bigger guys and you’re certainly aware of where they are at. We might have saw a little bit different coverage and pressures in the second half.”
Gabriel was targeted five times, but didn’t have a catch. Hardy was targeted six times, but had just two catches for 12 yards and touchdown. Williams had four targets and three catches for 30 yards.
That’s five catches on 15 targets for 42 yards, well below the production levels of Jones and Sanu.
“For us, we trust all of our guys to go out there and make plays,” Ryan said. “We called the plays that we had in the plan and trusted them to go out there and do it. I thought our guys did a pretty good job of stepping up.”
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