Despite the Falcons four straight losses, quarterback Matt Ryan said as a professional, he must stay focused even though the past few weeks haven’t yielded the results he wants.
“You have to keep rolling, you have to keep grinding and making sure that you’re putting in all the work that you possibly can during the week to give yourself a chance to be great on Sunday,” Ryan said. “That’s one of the tougher things of being a professional, is to keep believing that you’re going to do it even if you haven’t had the production that you want, maybe, in the last three or four weeks.”
While Ryan is fourth in the NFL in passing yards (3,212), he is tied for 15th in touchdown passes (16). Just a year removed from his third Pro Bowl season, his 12 interceptions are tied for third-most in the league and his quarterback rating (88.6) is the lowest since his first two professional seasons.
“I think there are ups and downs all the time, whether it’s in life, whether it’s in your career,” Ryan said. “I feel like you just have to keep hammering away at it and you have to keep working as hard as you possibly can, doing everything that I know to be successful. That’s what I put my mind to when it comes to this kind of stuff and I trust in my ability and that I’m going to play well as we move forward.”
Tampa Bay Coach Lovie Smith, who Buccaneers face the Falcons on Sunday, said that when he looks at Ryan, he doesn’t see a quarterback going through a rough patch in game situations. He sees one of the best players in the league.
“I see a quarterback who can make every throw you would want a franchise quarterback to make,” Smith said. “He’s had a lot of success in the league. You don’t always (have success). From time to time, you might have a bad game here or there, but Matt Ryan’s one of the best in the league.”
Smith said as the Bucs prepare to face the Falcons for the second time — the Bucs prevailed 23-20 on Nov. 1 — the defense will have “our work cut out for us” in containing Ryan and the Falcons’ offensive weapons like Julio Jones, who caught 12 passes for 162 yards in their first meeting.
“Part of what we work on all week is trying to find ways to go out there and attack their defense, if they want to change some things about how they played us last time or if it’ll be similar,” Ryan said. “You don’t see them change a lot week to week. They do what they do well. We’ll have all our guys ready to go and we’ll see how the ball finds different guys throughout the game on Sunday.”
Ryan said the Falcons’ offense is focused on making possessions productive, with the goal of maintaining the offense’s momentum alive into the end zone. The Falcons’ touchdown conversion rate in the red zone is 60 percent, which is 12th in the league, even though only four NFL teams have gained more total yards.
“I think that’s got to be a point of emphasis for us moving forward,” Ryan said. “When we get those opportunities and we’re driving the ball, we have to come away with points. It’s that simple.”
Foremost to turning the season around: eliminating mistakes.
“We’ve made mistakes. I’ve made a number of mistakes this year. There’s no doubt about that,” Ryan said. “I feel very comfortable with what we’re doing and very good about where we’re at. I need to clean up about one or two things a game and eliminate those things and I think if we can do that, we’re going to play at a very high (level).”
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