The Falcons’ No. 1-ranked offense was just too powerful for the Tampa Bay Bucs.
Matt Ryan unleashed too many weapons as the Falcons rolled to a 43-28 rout of the Bucs and took control of the NFC South on Thursday night at Raymond James Stadium.
“In the second half, I thought Julio (Jones) got us going and kind of sparked us,” Ryan said.
The Falcons improved to 6-3 and took a 2 1/2-game lead over the Bucs, who dropped to 3-5. The New Orleans Saints are 3-4 and the Carolina Panthers are 2-5.
The Falcons suffered a major injury. Pro Bowl cornerback Desmond Trufant, who hasn’t missed a game over his NFL career, injured his shoulder and pectoral area. He left the game and spent the second half in street clothes on the sideline.
Ryan completed 25 of 34 passes for 344 yards and four touchdowns. Ryan moved his passes around to seven different receivers.
Ryan got off to a slow start and was only 7 of 14 for 134 yards late in in the second quarter. He got hot and completed 18 of his next 20 passes for 210 yards.
“Matt had a real locked in look about him,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “He had the correct read. The correct progression. He’s really been on point.”
After taking a 20-14 halftime lead, the Falcons scored touchdowns on their first threes possession of the second half to a 40-14 lead.
They coasted on home from there.
“That’s awesome when the offense, defense and special teams are just rolling,” wide receiver Mohamed Sanu said. “When we are playing like that, it’s pretty hard to stop us.”
Jones led the receivers with eight catches for 111 yards and one touchdown. “It felt great to takeover,” Jones said. “But with the talent that we have, any guy can take over at any moment. I feel like we have the play makers out there to feed us the rock.”
Ryan also tossed touchdown passes to tight end Levine Toilolo, fullback Pat DiMarco and tight end Austin Hooper.
Here are the five things we learned from the Falcons’ victory:
1. Trufant goes down. Trufant, who is in his fourth season, left the game in the second quarter and did not return. He's scheduled to have a MRI on Friday. Players believe he may miss the next game against Philadelphia and possibly return after the bye week.
“We don’t know the extend of it yet,” Quinn said. “We are hopeful that it’s not serious….We’ll get a MRI (on Friday) and then we’ll have more information.”
He was battling Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans early in the game.
With Trufant out, second-year cornerback Jalen Collins entered the game and played well.
Also, cornerback Robert Alford had a rough first half. He was called for his fifth defensive pass interference call of the season and gave up a touchdown catch to Evans.
Alford contended that Evans pushed off on the play.
Collins, who has been working his way back into the lineup after missing the first four games of the season because of a suspension for using performance enhancement drugs, had a nice break-up of a pass intended for Bucs wide receiver Cecil Shorts on third-and-2 on their first possession of the third quarter.
After the breakup, the Falcons received the ball and scored a touchdown to go up a 26-14 on a touchdown pass to DiMarco.
After the defense got another three-and-out, the offense went on a 10-play, 82-yard touchdown drive to make it 33-14 with 3:02 left in the third quarter. Ryan tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Jones for the score.
In the fourth quarter, Collins put a big hit on Bucs quarterback Jameis Winiston, who was trying to score on a two-point conversion run.
“I thought Jalen did a good job,” Quinn said. “He looked fast and played with real good length outside.”
2. Gabriel stepping up. Wide receiver Taylor Gabriel turned in another solid showing for the Falcons.
In addition to catching five passes for 52 yards, he ran the ball twice on jet sweeps and scored on a 9-yard run to give the Falcons a 20-14 lead with 3:56 left in the second quarter.
“I’m just happy to be here,” Gabriel said.
Gabriel, who caught a 47-yard touchdown pass on Sunday against the Packers, is developing into a potent third wide receiver for the Falcons.
Gabriel took some of the pressure off of Jones and Sanu.
“It was great to see Gabe get involved,” Quinn said.
3. Fast starts: Both Tampa Bay and Atlanta opened the game with touchdown drives.
Winston directed the Bucs on a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. Winston tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Evans, who was covered by Trufant.
The Bucs converted on three third-down situations of 2, 3 and 5 yards to keep their drive moving.
The Falcons answered with a five-play, 75-yard drive with Ryan tossing a 32-yard pass to Levine Toilolo for touchdown.
On the Bucs’ ensuing drive, Antone Smith was stuffed by linebacker De’Vondre Campbell and fumbled. Falcons cornerback Brian Poole recovered at Tampa Bay’s 14.
The Falcons couldn’t move the ball and had to settle for a Matt Bryant 29-yard field goal to put the Falcons up 10-7.
4. Points off turnovers. The Falcons had two forced fumbles, but the offense was not able to convert them into touchdowns.
Each time the defense set the offense up with fumble recoveries by Poole and Paul Worrilow, they ended up settling for field goals.
“We’ve got to be better than that offensively, but I thought we responded in the second half,” Ryan said. “We got going and made some plays.”
5. Sack exchange. The defense played through the Trufant injury.
After a slow start, they settled down and came up with a enough plays led by defensive tackle Grady Jarrett, who had two sacks. Adrian Clayborn also added a sack.
The Bucs started out running the ball well with Smith and Peyton Barber, who played at Milton High and Auburn.
But eventually, the Bucs’ were slowed.
The three sacks gave the Falcons 21 on the season, surpassing their total of 19 from last season.
“We just have to keep hunting,” Jarrett said.
