Randy Cross won three Super Bowl rings and played guard and center with the great NFL quarterback Joe Montana.
Cross, who has a local radio show on 92.9 the Game, is an authority on quarterback play. He doesn’t like what he sees from
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, whose shaky play over the past five games has led to a 1-4 mark.
Cross spoke about Ryan’s arm strength and questioned whether seeing ghosts in the pocket, perhaps from getting hit too much over the past three seasons. He went as far as to suggest that the Falcons need to start looking for Ryan’s heir-apparent in the sophomore and junior collegiate classes.
“From this point on, especially if you’re (offensive coordinator) Kyle Shanahan, you better start game-planning around his shortcomings because now, that’s what you have at quarterback, a guy with short-comings that you have to game-plan around,” Cross said on Monday.
Ryan, who maintains that he’s healthy and hasn’t been listed on the injury report all season, had has trouble throwing some routes to the outside. His accuracy fluctuates as he has wildly missed some open receivers. Also, his final pass traveled 54 yards in the air on a Hail Mary heave against the Colts.
Ryan’s decision-making was nearly immaculate over most of his first seven seasons. He had a bizarre interception against the Lions in London last season. That play might have been topped by him mis-reading the middle linebacker against the Colts.
Ryan should have recognized that Colts linebacker D’Qwell Jackson was dropping into coverage after faking a blitz and thrown the check-down pass to the flat.
“He’s feeling the rush and he’s rushing that (ball),” Cross said. “They were blitzing him. As soon as (cornerback Vontae) Davis went out at corner, they cranked that heat up. They said, ‘the heck with this, they are going to kill us if we don’t pressure him.’ Mission accomplished. The heat worked.”
Ryan, who’s committed 13 turnovers this season, was not available to the media on Monday. He was upbeat during the team’s quarterback meeting.
“He’s doing great,” backup quarterback Sean Renfree said. “I think every week he’s getting more comfortable in the offense. He’s verbalizing what he’s more comfortable with going forward and what works most effectively. I can see every week the confidence in the throws. He’s ripping throws in practice and in the game.”
Renfree seem to indicate that Ryan wasn’t beating himself up over the miscues.
“We just watched the film and sure there were a few things here and there, like any game at any position,” Renfree said. “My role is to help him emotionally prepare so that he’s feeling confident when he’s ready to go. This week he felt really confident in our plan. I have to help him with anything that he needs and he always let me know.”
Falcons coach Dan Quinn was stuck on how turnovers have contributed to the losses.
“Number one, I think there are things that Matt is not doing well,” Quinn said. “Probably, the biggest issue that came up (was) the pick that ended up resulting in a touchdown….It was a throw that he should not have made.”
Quinn said the team is counting on Ryan to make better decisions. He also indicated that the Falcons need to re-visit some of the route combinations that Ryan is not throwing very accurately.
“We’ll go back through and make sure if there are decisions to be made in terms of where to go, how to feature him,” Quinn said. “Is there a throw that we don’t like? Those are the ones that we want out of our arsenal of stuff. There are a lot of things that he’s doing well, too.
“It kind of gets overlooked sometimes when an interception of that magnitude takes place. I think it’s important to recognize that as well. The sky is not falling.”
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