Five years ago, Matt Ryan walked into arguably the most historic venue in professional sports, turned to his head coach and said, “This is pretty cool.”
Then we witnessed what cool really was.
Ryan was a 23-year-old rookie quarterback in 2008. He was about to play in his fifth NFL game, against the Green Bay Packers, at Lambeau Field, for a Falcons franchise that was coming off a 4-12 dumpster fire of a season.
This is how he responded: A 37-yard completion to Roddy White on the first play of the game. A touchdown on the first drive. Three scores on the first four possessions. A first half in which he completed 13 of 18 attempts, and the incomplete passes were two drops, a throw-away, a spike to stop the clock and a pass breakup. No adrenalin-fueled misfires.
The Falcons won 27-24. They won nine of their next 12, finished 11-5 and made the playoffs. The season was like one big exorcism.
Ryan and the Falcons return to Green Bay on Sunday for the first time since that bell-ringing afternoon. The outlook isn’t so glorious this time. In this season’s first 12 games, Ryan has as many losses (nine) as he did the previous two seasons (23-9). He is assured of his first losing season in organized football. This has been such a bad season — for Green Bay, as well — that this scheduled prime-time matchup was “de-flexed” to 1 p.m., for only specks of the nation to witness.
It hasn’t been easy for anyone in the organization to deal with, least of all the franchise centerpiece. The Falcons have been out of contention and devoid of hope for weeks. This has been Ryan’s first experience of having to walk into a training facility or stadium daily, laboring to leave the mental baggage outside. The losing season, and lack of playoff success, also has led some to doubt whether the long-term investment in Ryan was wise, even if those skeptics largely exist in the fan base.
A quarterback’s performance can be affected by a poor offensive line, the lack of a running game or inexperienced and inferior receivers. Ryan has dealt with all of it. But he also acknowledges this hasn’t been a great season for him personally. He has taken a drop in almost every statistical category, most notably wins.
“The biggest challenge is not allowing yourself to lose confidence,” he said. “It’s hard when things continue to not go your way, to continue to believe that you’re going to go out there and get the job done. That’s difficult, to not lose confidence in yourself and not lose confidence in everybody around you.”
He thought about that first visit to Green Bay, trying to take it all in. Everything about that season was a blur.
“Your whole rookie year, you’re naive to so many things,” he said. “When you’re young, you don’t really think about anything. You just concentrate on playing. It’s a great mindset to have. The longer you play, different experiences change your opinion on things, positively and negatively. Different concepts in terms of things we do in the offense. Off the field, too. You don’t realize all of what goes into playing this position and all of the demands on your time, being pulled in different directions.”
When asked if being a rookie seemed easier at times, Ryan smiled and said: “There’s a lot to that. You want to learn from the experiences, but you also don’t want to let the experiences weigh you down. It’s easier said than done. You’re always trying to get back to that mindset: ‘Just forget it. Go out and play.’ I think I’ve done that pretty well.”
Ryan threw seven interceptions in consecutive losses to Arizona and Carolina. He threw two more in a loss at Tampa Bay. In a season largely submarined by injuries and deficiencies on the offensive and defensive lines, Ryan was the Falcons’ only player who could rescue them. Instead, at times, he buried them.
When asked to grade his season so far, Ryan initially declined, then said: “Could be better. Let’s say: ‘Needs to improve.’ Elementary school grading.
“There’s been some situations where I think I’m further along than I’ve ever been. Then there’s been some plays where I have to make better decisions.”
The Falcons’ offense hasn’t been nearly as productive as advertised. The line issues and injuries to Julio Jones, Steven Jackson and White are major reasons for that.
Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter didn’t blame Ryan for the team’s problems, but he didn’t completely absolve him either.
“Matt sets the bar very high for himself, (and) we have very high expectations of him,” Koetter said. “More times than not, he lives up to our expectations and exceeds them. There were a couple of games where we turned it over more than we should. There are no excuses for anything. The injury thing is not an excuse.”
Ryan understands that he is going to get the blame for an interception, whether he was at fault for a seeming overthrow or it was the receiver’s fault for cutting a route a yard short.
“You talk about how different things are from five years ago, here’s one: I’m probably more self-critical now because I know what I’m capable of and I know how productive I can be,” he said. “At certain times this year, and really every year, you have to take a hard look in the mirror and say, ‘I can do better.’ But you also can’t let that weigh you down. Personally, I think I’ve been better at coming in every week flat-lined, with the same approach regardless of what happened the week before.”
Attitude: fine. Performance: needs to improve. Future: still promising, even if it seems less certain five years later.
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