Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, formerly signed as a free agent, had been on a dry spell of 17 quarters without a touchdown pass, but finally broke the drought on Monday night with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Drake London. However, his play remained inconsistent, throwing a league-leading 16th interception of the season.
Despite his struggles, coach Raheem Morris had continued to support Ryan throughout the four-game skid with zero touchdowns and eight interceptions, but his tone changed after the win. “He’s got to play better,” Morris said. “And you know obviously you’ve got to go back and look at everything, but he wants to play better, he’s got to play better, we’ve got to find a way to get him to play better.”
Ryan acknowledged the need to improve, saying, “I think I do need to play better, I don’t think that’s a mystery. I think the last few weeks I would say I need to play better. Raheem says it, but it’s stating the obvious, and every week you kind of go through your process and you plan to go out there and play the very best you can, and so this week will be no different.”
Ryan identified decision-making and protecting the football as the key areas he needed to improve, saying, “I think it’s always just decision-making so that you’re not putting the ball in harm’s way. And not trying to be too aggressive, and I think that’s really the key, protecting the football.”
Despite the win, the Falcons still have work to do, with only three games left in the season and an uphill climb to make the playoffs. “I think the interception at the start of the second half was poor, that’s the part you don’t want to have at all,” Ryan said. “Defense did a great job standing up there, and then the special teams showed up such that it didn’t end up hurting us, but you know it still happened. I think there were just those third downs where we’d love to be able to convert, stay on the field and that’s really where the body of work would have been in the pass game, and just weren’t able to do tonight.”