NEW ORLEANS – Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has been down this road before.
He has gotten off to an undefeated start to the season , come to New Orleans and has taking a whipping.
That was case in 2012 when the Falcons got off to an 8-0 start. They faced the Saints and were defeated 31-27 in the Superdome.
The Saints, who were 1-4, took advantage of the Falcons sloppy play and defeated them, 31-21, on Thursday night. The Falcons dropped to 5-1 in the process.
“It was a tough night,” Ryan said. “I don’t think there’s a loss of identity or anything like that. We just didn’t play as well as we are capable of.”
The Falcons were downright awful. They had untimely fumbles, a blocked punt and a host of penalties.
Ryan was 30 of 44 for 295 yards and two touchdowns. The Falcons had five fumbles and they recovered two of them. Ryan was credit with three of the fumbles.
There was a botched snap and Ryan bumped in to fullback Pat DiMarco to force another fumble that was a drive-killer.
There was no precision to the offense against the Saints.
Ryan didn’t want to buy that the Falcons are haunted in the Superdome.
“What we’ve done in the past really has no bearing on what we did tonight,” he said. “We just didn’t play very well.”
Despite all of the mistakes, the Falcons trailed 14-7 at halftime and had the ball to start the third quarter.
But the drive stalled after right guard Chris Chester was called for holding penalty.
“We had an opportunity to convert on a pretty good third down situation when a ball got tipped down,” Ryan said. “It’s one of those things in order to kind of get the momentum, you have to be good on third down. Turnovers and third downs, we were not very good on that tonight. That’s an area where we need to be better.”
Running back Devonta Freeman was the lone bright spot, as he rushed for 100 yards on 13 carries. He caught eight passes for 56 yards. He had a 25-yard touchdown run and 13-yard touchdown reception.
Running back Tevin Coleman had a fumble in the red zone.
“We just didn’t play the way that we are capable of in terms of ball security,” Ryan said. “We knew it was going to be tough coming down here. You can throw records out when you’re in-division. They are always tough and physical games. When you don’t protect the football and you have a number of turnovers, it’s difficult to win.”
One of Quinn’s football tenets is to take care of the football and take it away from the opposition. The Falcons did neither against the Saints.
“I would argue that every meeting that I’ve been in that Dan has been there that there have been references to ball security and taking the ball away on defense,” Ryan said. “That’s who we have been the last couple of weeks early in the season, but tonight we turned the football over too much. We’ve got to be better than that.”
The Falcons have the mini-bye before they play at Tennessee on Oct. 25.
“It’s a good opportunity to get some rest,” Ryan said. “This season is a long haul. That’s one of the things we try and tell the young guys as you are going through it.
“We have a lot of football in front of us. We are six games into it. It’s a chance to get some rest. Recover a little bit and then make sure when we get back to work on Monday.”
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