Matt Ryan had the cool “Matty Ice” nickname long before the Falcons made him the No. 3 overall pick in the NFL draft in 2008.
“When the game is on the line, you want a guy like him in charge,” Tampa Bay coach Lovie Smith said.
The league started to take notice during his rookie season after pulled the Falcons from the fire in the final 11 seconds in the sixth game of his career, against the Chicago Bears, who the Falcons face at 4:25 p.m. Sunday at the Georgia Dome.
The Bears took a 20-19 lead with 11 seconds to play.
Harry Douglas returned the squibbed kickoff to the Falcons’ 44-yard line, and six seconds remained.
Ryan then hooked up with wide receiver Michael Jenkins for a 26-yard gain with 1 second left. Jason Elam made a 48-yard kick as time expired, and a star was born.
“Just personally, he’s caused me a lot of long nights,” Smith said. “Probably one of the toughest losses that I have had as a head coach, of course, was orchestrated by Matt.”
The win over the Bears was Ryan’s second game that he won on a fourth-quarter game-winning drive.
In the previous game in Week 5 of 2008, he won a 27-24 shootout against Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He led the offense on a game-winning drive after the score was tied 17-17 with a little over 10 minutes to play. The Falcons opened a 27-17 lead and held on for the victory.
Scott Kacsmar of Football Outsiders has researched fourth-quarter comebacks and game-winning drives.
There is a difference between a fourth-quarter comeback and a game-winning drive in the football-analytics world.
The definition for each:
Fourth-quarter comebacks occur when a team has the ball in the fourth quarter (or overtime now with new rules), trailing by 1-8 points.
Game-winning drives occur when a team has the ball in the fourth quarter or overtime with the score tied or the team trails by 1-8 points.
The win over the Bears was a fourth-quarter comeback. The win over Green Bay, because the Falcons never trailed in the fourth quarter was a game-winning drive.
All together, Ryan has 18 fourth-quarter comebacks and has led the Falcons on 25 game-winning drives over his seven-plus years in the league.
“He’s been on a record-setting pace in terms of how many years he’s been in the league,” Kacsmar said. “He had the most game-winning drives through the first three years of his career and also four, five and six. He’s tied for the most for seven years with Ben Roethlisberger with 25 apiece. So, he only needs one more to have the most ever for seven seasons.”
Kacsmar became interested in the quirky stat when John Elway and Dan Marino popularized the fourth-quarter comebacks. He’s noticed a common thread through Ryan’s heroics.
“He has a really good control of the offense in the huddle,” Kacsmar said. “We’ve seen him do it in the final minute. Having less than a minute to get the game-winning drive, he’s done that five times, more than anyone that I’ve ever tracked.”
Ryan is seventh on the active list of fourth-quarter comebacks with 18. He trails Peyton Manning (40), Tom Brady (31), Eli Manning (26), Drew Brees (24), Ben Roethlisberger (23) and Dallas’ Tony Romo (21), according to Football Outsiders.
Ryan is sixth on the active list of quarterbacks who’ve taken their teams on game-winning drives with 25. He’s behind Peyton Manning (52), Brady (43), Brees (35), Roethlisberger (34), Eli Manning (31).
Ryan’s last big comeback was in the season opener when he carried the Falcons to a 37-34 overtime victory over the Saints. He had two opportunities in the past two weeks, but injuries along the offensive line thwarted his efforts in Minnesota and New York.
“You’ve got to believe,” Ryan said. “You have to believe that you’re going to make a play.”
When the Falcons are backed against a wall, Ryan delivers a football sermon in the huddle.
“I kind of tell our guys the same thing before we go out in those situations and that is ‘we don’t need to do any more or less than our jobs,’” Ryan said. “‘Just do you job and believe that we’re going to get it done.’ We have the guys to get it done. I think guys have brought into that. I think that’s one of the reasons throughout the years that we’ve been successful in those situations.”
Against Minnesota, the Falcons took at 28-27 lead to the fourth quarter. Minnesota scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion to take a 35-27 lead.
With center Joe Hawley (knee), left guard Justin Blalock (back) and right tackle Lamar Holmes (foot) knocked out of the game and tight end Levine Toilolo playing tackle, Ryan couldn’t cobble together a drive. The unit was setback by a Jake Matthews’ holding penalty and a sack by Minnesota linebacker Anthony Barr on third-and-12 from the 50.
Ryan tossed interceptions on the two subsequent possessions for the Falcons.
Against the Giants on Sunday, the Falcons took a 20-17 lead into the fourth quarter. The Giants scored a touchdown to take a 24-20 lead and added a field goal to make the score 27-20.
In full scramble mode with 4:34 to play and the defense leaking yards and points, the Falcons went for it on a fourth-and-1 from their own 29. Ryan was sacked when backup left guard Harland Gunn was beaten badly by Johnathan Hankins.
“You can’t get gun-shy,” Ryan said. “You have to continue to go out there and stay aggressive in the same way that we have. You have to believe that moving forward that we are going to make those plays.”
The Falcons believe that can get back to their clutch play.
“We are going to be all right,” wide receiver Julio Jones said. “We’ve adjusted to the new line. We have the players in this room to get it going.”
Ryan contends that there is a special component involved when trying to win in late-game situations.
“We trust all of the guys on our offense, in any situation to make a play to win a game,” Ryan said. “I tell them all the time that I’m going to read it out and try and find the open guy, whoever that is and trust that in those situations that we’re going to get it done. I think I’m lucky because I’m surrounded by a lot of talented guys.”
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