Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan had his string of 18 consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass snapped last week.
If the Falcons are going to earn their first road victory this season, Ryan, who’ll be the X-factor in this game, will need to score points to go with his massive yardage outputs against the Houston Texans at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Falcons are second in the league in passing yardage (312.5 yards per game), but are only scoring 17.5 points per game, which is tied for 26th of 32 in the NFL.
“I want to score points,” Ryan said. “Whatever we have to do to score points … run the football, throw the football, find ways to get it done. It’s about being a points-scoring machine. We have not been that. We haven’t done a good enough job of that up until this point.”
The Falcons’ offense has contributed to the slow starts that have plagued the team in their three losses. They’ve scored on their opening drive just once this season as they’ve fallen behind 65-10 by halftime of their losses.
Ideally, the Falcons want to come and open with a touchdown drive to open the game.
“We’ve got to come out of the gate better, first drive of the game,” Ryan said. “Last week, we had a good run to start the game. We had a good run to start the game against (Indianapolis), but haven’t been able to sustain those drives.”
The Falcons opened two of their games (Minnesota and Tennessee) with three-and-outs.
“To me, it comes down to consistency,” Ryan said. “We have to be consistent from snap one through the end of the football game. We’ve been good at times, we’ve moved it really well at times, we’ve scored points at times, but we’ve not been consistent enough to play winning football. That’s what it’s going to take for us as we move forward.”
The Falcons have not been able to point their collective fingers on the problem.
“We’re leaving points out there,” Ryan said. “We’re leaving drives out there. With some of the stuff that we’ve done, whether it be penalties or turnovers, those are things that cut off points really quickly. “
Ryan, who has six interceptions, passed along his ideas to offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter to improve the scoring.
“We both work hard during the week to try and put together the best plan we can,” Koetter said. “I try and give my input as much as I can throughout the week.”
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