SEATTLE – Falcons wide receiver Roddy White was in a downcast mood after the Falcons victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
It wasn't the gray skies or the rainy weekend spent in the Pacific Northwest, either.
For the second game in a row, White, the Falcons All-Pro wide receiver, had two dropped passes in the fourth quarter. One of his drops against Tampa Bay could have given the Falcons a lead and perhaps avoided a 16-13 defeat.
Against Seattle, his drops were not as crucial, but could have helped the offense run out the clock.
“Right now, I’m not playing at a high level,” White said. “I’m not really helping my team. I have to fix myself so that we can perform better. We’ll get better.”
White was targeted on 11 passes. He made six catches for 78 yards, including a 26-yarder that set up Michael Turner’s 1-yard touchdown run to give the Falcons a 21-7 lead in the second quarter.
White overcame a problem with drops earlier in his career.
“Yeah, those are plays that I usually make,” White said. “I’ve just got to make them. I can’t keep putting my team in bad situations.”
White has been bothered by a deep thigh bruise he suffered in the preseason. He was listed on the Friday injury report as being questionable for the game. He doesn’t want to use the injury as an excuse, even though he hasn’t fully practice for the last two weeks.
“As long as I’m out there, I expect to play at a high level," White said. "Hurt or not hurt, it really doesn’t matter. I just have to go out there and help my team win. I just have to get better.”
Rookie Julio Jones helped to carry the passing attack. He finished with 11 catches for 127 yards, his second consecutive 100-yard game. He was targeted 17 times.
“Julio is doing a good job,” White said. “He’s going out there and making plays. He made some big plays today. We needed every last one of them. So, he just has to continue to be Julio, stretch the field and make big catches for us.”
Quarterback Matt Ryan, who completed 28 of 42 passes for 291 yards and one touchdown, plans to stick with White through this little rough patch.
“My thinking is, Roddy is going to make those plays," Ryan said. "He has done it for such a long time and he’s going to continue to do it for us. It’s a long season. There are still a lot of plays for him to make and he’s going to make them. My confidence never wavers with him.”
White believes the offense needs to put two halves together.
“We can’t go out there and just play well and then be up and down, up and down,” White said.
Jones concurs.
“We are up and down every week,” Jones said. “We have to be steady. We just have to keep working on that as an offense.”
Jones was happy with his 11 catches.
“It went OK,” Jones said. “There is still a lot of room for improvement."
Offensive line bounces back
The offensive line did not allow a sack after giving up 13 in the first three games of the season.
"Right now, I'm pretty happy," Right tackle Tyson Clabo said. "Somehow we hung on. We persevered."
Clabo wanted to point out few things after the game and wasn't sure if the criticism of the unit was well-placed.
“It’s just important to us,” Clabo said. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret, football is hard. The strain that it takes, the time that it takes and just . . . if you don’t win, it’s not worth it.
“You want to win because it’s a pain in the [butt] if you don’t win. . . We are just happy that we won.”
Left guard Justin Blalock spoke for the unit, too.
“We were able to come out and stay ahead of the chains,” Blalock said. “We put ourselves in position where we were able to stay two dimensional.”
The Falcons had 22 runs and 21 pass attempt in the first half.
“We tried to impose our will in the run game,” Blalock said. “Michael did a great job finding holes. For the most part, we were making holes. We were able to stay within our philosophy offensively.”
Sack attack missing
The Falcons, who entered the game with five sacks, were not able to drop Seattle quarterback Tarvaris Jackson for a sack.
The Seahawks had given up 14 sacks, which was tied for tops in the league with Chicago.
Inactive players
Running back Jason Snelling (concussion), linebacker Stephen Nicholas (calf) and defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux (knee) were declared out for the game on Friday.
They were officially named inactive along with cornerback Darrin Walls, center Brett Romberg, guard Mike Johnson and defensive end Cliff Matthews on Sunday.
Third down magic
Seattle’s defense was limiting opponents to only a 29.3 percent conversion rate (12 of 41) to rank second in the NFC and (third in the league), with limiting opponents to 4.58 yards per play on first down (2nd in NFC, 3rd in NFL).
The Falcons converted on 9 of 16 (56 percent) third-down opportunities.
Injury report
Center Todd McClure left the game with a knee injury and was replaced by Joe Hawley.
Defensive end Ray Edwards and defensive tackle Peria Jerry went down with injuries in the third quarter.
Edwards was pointing to his neck when the training staff was looking at him on the sidelines, but he returned to the game.
Jerry walked off the field on his own and returned to the action.
Etc.
Tight end Tony Gonzalez moved into 9th place on the all-time touchdown list with 92 with his 1-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter. . . With Curtis Lofton's interception on a pass tipped by Mike Peterson, the Falcons have forced a turnover in 23 straight games, the longest active streak in the league. . . This season the Falcons have scored 27 points off of their seven turnovers.
