QB corner: Matt Ryan discusses Seahawks
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is 0-3 in the playoffs and has not passed for more than 200 yards in any of those games.
Clearly, there is pressure on the fifth-year starter and two-time Pro Bowler to have a postseason breakthrough against the Seattle Seahawks.
Here’s a brief Q&A with Ryan and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s D. Orlando Ledbetter.
Q: What’s your evaluation of their safeties Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas?
A: I think their safeties are really good. Earl Thomas covers a ton of ground. He's an extremely fast player and flies when the ball is in the air. He covers a lot of ground. Kam Chancellor is a big guy. They bring him down in the box quite a bit.
Q: Did Seattle linebacker Bobby Wagner flash at you during your film review?
A: He's very fast. Their front four does a great job of funneling things to him. Obviously, he's their team leader in tackles this year. He's an athletic guy. He really is. He's an athletic guy that is a sure tackler.
Q: How does losing defensive end Chris Clemons change things for Seattle?
A: I think so a little bit. Obviously, he's a great player. You never want to see somebody get injured in those kinds of situations. It probably changes a little bit of what they do, but they've still got a stout front four. They're very good against the run. They've got some big guys that create matchup problems for you that we've got to address.
The X-factor: Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch
Marshawn Lynch, Seattle’s hard-charging running back, is the X-factor for this NFC divisional playoff game. If he runs all over the Falcons’ defense, another playoff heartbreak will be in store for the No. 1 seed.
He has played his best in the playoffs. Lynch’s 67-yard run in the wild-card round after the 2010 season is a classic in which he bowled over eight New Orleans Saints on his way to the end zone.
Last week, he scooped up a fumble against Washington on Sunday that kept a key drive alive.
The Falcons will try to keep him from turning on his “Beast Mode” button.
“He’s a great back after contact,” Falcons safety William Moore said. “It’s hard to get him down. If you look at him on film, most of his big plays are made after contact. One guy is not going to bring him down. It’s important this week to gang tackle him.”
The Falcons plan to take the fight to Lynch.
“It’s going to be important to come out in the dome and start swinging first,” Moore said.
Lynch rushed for 1,590 yards on 315 carries and scored 11 touchdowns during the regular season. He ran for 132 yards on 20 carries and scored a touchdown in the 24-14 win over Washington in the wild-card round.
“He wants to play football,” Falcons linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. “He’s not trying to go out of bounds. He wants to be physical, so you have to be physical with him.”
Safety Thomas DeCoud, who played with Lynch at California, shared some insight to the bruising back.
“He told us about a few of the jukes that Marshawn likes to go to, but he’s not much of a juker, as you know,” Weatherspoon said.
The Falcons’ run defense was shaky for most of the season. They had their moments as they held Philadelphia’s LeSean McCoy, Tampa Bay’s Doug Martin and Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles to less than 100 yards rushing apiece.
But they also had some major breakdowns that led to long runs. The unit finished ranked 21st against the run, giving up 123.2 yards per game.
On the hot seat: Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has flourished in the vertical passing scheme installed by first-year coordinator Dirk Koetter.
Now, it’s time for him to step onto the playoff stage, where he has been shaky in three previous appearances. He has not passed for more than 200 yards in losses to the Cardinals, Packers and Giants. He’ll be on the hot seat against Seattle on Sunday.
Shortly after the loss to the Giants, Ryan anticipated that his playoff day of reckoning would come soon, and he began to prepare for it. He worked on his conditioning in order to be stronger down the stretch and in the postseason. He worked with Koetter in converting the coordinator’s concepts into the Falcons’ terminology, and he drew closer to his receivers as the offense moved from a power running game under Mike Mularkey.
Ryan completed 422 of 614 passes (68.9 percent) for 4,719 yards and 32 touchdowns. He set franchise marks for attempts, completions, completion percentage, yards and touchdowns as the Falcons finished 13-3, won the NFC South and earned the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
Now, they must avoid another playoff flameout.
The fiery Ryan publicly brushes off the notion that he’s under pressure.
“I don’t worry about it,” Ryan said. “I don’t think about it.”
Ryan does acknowledge learning from his previous playoff defeats.
“You learn you have to be on top of opportunities that present themselves during the game,” Ryan said. “Each game comes down to four or five different plays, and it comes down to who makes those plays.”
Playoffs History
The Falcons started play in 1966 and didn’t make their first playoff appearance until 1978.
The Seahawks took their first steps on a NFL field in 1976 and reached the playoffs for the first time in 1983, when they advanced to the AFC Championship game.
Both franchises are on the list of teams that have never won the Vince Lombardi trophy, and each has made just one trip to the Super Bowl.
Dan Reeves guided the Falcons to the league’s title game after the 1998 season. Mike Holmgren took the Seahawks there after the 2005 season.
Overall, the Falcons have a 6-11 playoff record and currently are on a four-game losing streak that dates to the 2004 season. The Seahawks have a 9-11 playoff record.
This will be the first playoff meeting between the teams.
The Falcons’ last playoff win was a 47-17 rout of the St. Louis Rams after the 2004 season.
“That was a great game,” Falcons center Todd McClure said. “I know that we put over 200 yards rushing. It felt like everything that we did, they didn’t have a great answer for it. It was a great feeling, one I hope to have again pretty soon.”
Seattle coach Pete Carroll coached in the NFL for 16 years before heading off to coach in college. He’s on his second tour of duty in the NFL and would like to take Seattle to the Super Bowl.
“We are just trying to do what we do,” Carroll said. “We just have to take care of our business. To me, it doesn’t have anything to do with years past, storylines and stuff like that. We are playing a great football team at (its) home. It’s a monstrous task.”
Stat corner: Russell Wilson against the Blitz
Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson, a rookie playing in his second playoff game, expects to see an assortment of exotic looks and blitzes from the Falcons, who’ve made it a habit of trying to confuse quarterbacks under first-year coordinator Mike Nolan.
The Falcons were able to make 10 interceptions in games against Denver’s Peyton Manning (three), New Orleans’ Drew Brees (five) and the New York Giants’ Eli Manning (two) during the regular season.
They will attempt to make the rookie uncomfortable.
“They do a lot of great things,” Wilson said. “They’ve played well against some really good quarterbacks. We just have to stay in the now and trust what we see.”
Wilson has developed as a passer as the season has progressed.
“The biggest thing is trusting my reads and knowing where I’m going with the ball,” Wilson said.
Blitzes have affected Wilson this season.
While being blitzed, he has completed 67 of 116 passes (57.8 percent) for 803 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions, according to Stats LLC. He was sacked 15 times off blitzes and had a passer rating of 87.7.
Wilson’s numbers are much better when he’s not being blitzed. He completed 185 of 277 passes (66.7 percent) for 2,315 yards, 18 touchdowns and six interceptions.
“We’ll have some eyes on Russell Wilson,” Falcons linebacker Sean Weatherspoon said. “Eyes, legs, feet, bodies. That’s the plan, get bodies to him. He likes to extend the play, so you have to leverage the guy.”
