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| Matt Ryan was nearly perfect. Photo Credit:Daniel Shirey/US Presswire |
The Atlanta Falcons turned this game into a scrimmages mere minutes into the matchup vs. the Buccaneers. Tampa was helpless as they were defeated on Thursday night 56-14 at the hands of the Atlanta Falcons.
By: Michael Hanley
Atlanta had all three phases of their game going from the start and seemed to knockout the Buccaneers after the very sharp and efficient opening drive TD Matt Ryan engineered for the Falcons. They were able to also run it with ease as the Tampa Bay defense were incapable of slowing the running game down at all. It made for a very balanced effort for the Falcons who bounced back big time from last week's loss and improved to 2-1 on the early season.
Matt Ryan was sharp as can be as he went 21/24 for 286 yards and three touchdown passes. He was able to make every throw he had in his arsenal with ease as he had a clean pocket to stay n and survey from all game long. He used his favorite target, Julio Jones almost exclusively it felt like at times. Jones showed off his blazing speed, great ball skills and great ability to catch any sort of pass as he wound up with 161 yards receiving, a career high, on nine catches.
Devin Hester took over the first half with plays that reminded people of his days back with the Bears. He showed off all of his skills as he rushed for a touchdown and made some history for himself. He returned a punt for a touchdown for the 20th time in his career.
That made him stand alone on the all time list of players with the most punt returns for touchdowns in NFL History. He broke the tie he had been in with Deion Sander on that list. In tribute to his idol, Hester did Sander's high stepped it into the end zone, just like Sanders had done so many years before.
Any notion that Hester had lost a step or his high level overall skills, was completely and totally wrong. If anything, Hester is now being used even better than he was with the Bears in terms of finding roles to put his skills to work in.
The Falcons defense attacked the Buccaneers offensive line and QB Josh McCown relentlessly in the first half. They sniffed out every screen, every underneath throw Tampa Bay attempted and left the Bucs searching for answers.
The pass rush was impressive as they got right to McCown on many occasions, forcing him to either dump the ball or make a risky throw. Unfortunately he wound up not returning in the second half as he suffered a thumb injury and was replaced by Mike Glennon.
Glennon to his credit was able to help steer the Bucs offense to some positive drives, including throwing a touchdown pass of his own to help the team avoid its worst loss in franchise history. He finished up 17/24 for 121 yards and one touchdown pass.
Though the Buccaneers were playing without three key players, it still looked like a team that was completely shell shocked after the opening touchdown their defense gave up. Tampa Bay could not get anything positive going until the second half when the Falcons had long put in backup players at key skill positions. It would be 35-0 Atlanta before the Bucs even got their first first down of the game.
This is a performance that will stick with this young team for a while and will no question fuel them to regroup and deliver a much more solid showing in their next game. Coach Lovie Smith had to use this game as one to see what not only his starters could do n this game situation but also his backups and what they could showcase in game time.
A game for Tampa Bay to go back to the drawing board on awhile the falcons can look forward to building off this win moving forward.
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