For Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan it’s been a tale of two football games thus far this season.
In the opener against the Saints, he sparkled while leading the Falcons to a 37-34 overtime win.
On Sunday, he threw three interceptions against the Bengals and had a sub-50 passer rating for only the fourth time in his career, over 96 regular-season games.
The stage is set for the Falcons (1-1) to face NFC South-foe Tampa Bay (0-2) at 8:25 p.m. Thursday, and the Falcons expect to see the return of the sparkling Ryan in the confines of the Georgia Dome.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that Matt is going to bounce back,” Falcons coach Mike Smith said. “The dynamics of a game can change a passer rating very quickly. … I know we’ve got to take care of the football.”
Ryan was under extreme duress Sunday. While he was sacked only twice, he was hurried on 10 pass plays and hit nine times. He was pressured on nearly 39 percent of his dropbacks and faced a blitz on 14 of 49 passing snaps, according to profootballfocus.com.
Ryan had a 61.9 passer rating when not blitzed and an 8.5 passer rating when blitzed. The interceptions all came after the Falcons fell behind 17-3.
“As a quarterback, you can’t make those mistakes, regardless of why they happen,” Ryan said. “In order to win football games against good teams, you can’t turn the football over.”
It was only the fifth time that Ryan threw three or more interceptions in a regular-season game. He threw a career-high five against Arizona in a 23-19 victory in 2012.
“You look at them, you look at the reasons why and you try and make the adjustments from that,” Ryan said. “Any way you slice it, you can’t do that and expect to win. I have to be better than that.”
Tampa Bay figures to be a good team for Ryan to turn it around against.
All-Pro defensive tackle Gerald McCoy figures to be out with a broken left hand. Middle linebacker Mason Foster (dislocated shoulder) is out, and defensive end Michael Johnson (ankle), a former Georgia Tech player, has been limited in practice.
Ryan believes the Falcons’ offense could lean more heavily on the rushing attack, which has averaged 110 yards per game (21st in the NFL), up from 77.9 last season (32nd). The Falcons have averaged 5 yards per carry, which ranks tied for sixth in league.
“We need to continue to be efficient in the run game,” Ryan said.
With much better protection, Ryan passed for a career-high 448 yards in the opener.
“Then in terms of the pass game, that’s an area where we need to be more consistent,” Ryan said. “One of the things that we’ve seen is that one week we were capable of making a bunch of explosives and the following week we are not. We’ve got to get to a point where week-in and week-out we show up and play the way that we are capable of.”
With prized-rookie left tackle Jake Matthews set to return to the lineup and Gabe Carimi possibly sliding over to right tackle, the protection should be much-improved.
“Jake is a talented player,” Ryan said. “If we get the opportunity to get him back, that would be huge.”
Smith also said the coaching staff must work on incorporating their rotation of four running backs better than they did in Cincinnati. Getting Antone Smith the ball is space is something that could add the unit.
“(Offensive coordinator) Dirk (Koetter) does a good job of finding ways to get all of our playmakers the ball,” Ryan said. “But yeah, he’s certainly an explosive guy. If we can get it to him in space, that’s a good thing for us.”
Ryan would like to end this tale of two offenses.
“In order to score points, you have to be successful on third downs,” Ryan said. “We were not last week.”
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