What’s wrong with taking a peek at the scoreboard?
Matt Ryan admitted that in fourth quarter against the Rams on Sunday, he took advantage of rare opportunity to do a little bit of scoreboard watching to monitor the state of the NFC South.
It’s that time of the year.
The Falcons (8-5) remain tied for first place in the division with Tampa Bay (8-5). Three games to go.
Ryan will not have the opportunity to check on the Buccaneers this week. The Falcons face San Francisco (1-12) at 4:05 p.m. Sunday at the Georgia Dome while Tampa Bay plays at Dallas (11-2) at 8:30 p.m. on the Sunday night game.
“Again, it’s about us,” Ryan said. “We have to be prepared. We have to play up to our standard and the way we are capable of playing. That’s got to be the focus the entire week.”
Ryan, who guided the Falcons to 28-point victory over the Rams without his top two wide receivers, continues with his strong campaign. He has completed 302 of 442 passes for 4,050 yards for 30 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He has a league-leading passer rating of 113.2.
Ryan is two touchdown passes away from tying his career high and his streak of 200-plus yards passing has reached 52 games. He has eclipsed the 4,000 yard passing mark for the sixth straight season, a streak that ties Peyton Manning (1999-2004) for the second-longest in NFL history.
“I’ve been lucky throughout my career to play with a lot of really good teammates, guys that make plays,” Ryan said. “That’s probably the biggest thing that I think of when you talk about a number of seasons of doing x, y and z. I’ve been fortunate enough to play with a lot of really good players.”
With Jones and Sanu out against the Rams, the Falcons had to make some minor adjustments involving receivers from down the depth chart.
“He had trust in the process and knew that we weren’t going to make up a whole new scheme,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said of Ryan. “Some of the plays featuring different players may come up, but I thought that was a real sign for him. We are going to run our offense and do what we do. … there wasn’t going to be any wholesale changes.”
Ryan may get one of his top weapons back against the 49ers. Sanu, the team’s second-leading receiver, returned to practice on Wednesday from a groin injury in a limited role. Jones remained out, but had his injury reclassified from turf toe to a less-serious sprained toe.
Ryan noted that his backup receivers, who excelled against the Rams, will against be expected to answer the bell against a woeful 49ers’ defense.
“It’s always hard anytime that you have your top two wide receivers down,” Ryan said. “Our guys stepped up and played extremely competitive. But most of those guys have been contributing all year.
“Nick Williams, who was active for the first time all year, did a great job for us, coming up with, I think, four third-down conversions. The rest of those guys have been active all year and we trust them to make plays at all times.”
Ryan may not need his receivers so much against the 49ers, who give up 170.8 yards rushing per game, which ranks last (32nd) in the league.
“There have been plays made against them for sure, but there has also been some good stuff that you see and that’s usually the case,” Ryan said. “I think anytime you watch the film, it’s never as good or it’s never as bad (as the stats suggest).”
San Francisco coach Chip Kelly marvels at Ryan and the Falcons’ offense, which leads the league in scoring at 32.9 points per game.
“Just the diversity,” Kelly said. “They can do it all where some teams rely on one phase. This team — and (offensive coordinator) Kyle (Shanahan) does such a good job with Matt directing it — they can hurt you running the football with both (Devonta) Freeman and (Tevin) Coleman.”
Kelly noted that the Falcons will then use play-action passes off the run to befuddle defenses.
“They arguably have the best receiver in the game in Julio,” Kelly said. “The other starters, Mohamed Sanu and Taylor Gabriel, have really done a nice job because they give Matt different options. … You can’t gang up on just one phase because they can hurt you in multiple ways.”
With a strong final three games, Ryan will likely finish with his best statistical season.
“Hopefully, we’ll close out the regular season with some wins,” Ryan said. “That’s the only thing that matters. Anytime that you are putting up statistics and things like that, it means that the guys around you are playing really well.”
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