Pierre-Louis, alas, was flagged for holding on the play when he became entangled with the Falcons’ LaRoy Reynolds at the line of scrimmage. With the Seahawks leading 10-7, and their defence forcing the Falcons’ first punt of the game, Devin Hester broke an 80-yard return to the Falcons’ seven-yard line. Ryan then stretched the lead with a pair of scoring drives in the third quarter as the chant of “MVP” echoed around the Georgia Dome.
The game’s defining moment came late in the second quarter when Ryan moved his team 99 yards for a touchdown in just over two minutes, culminating with a 14-yard touchdown pass to running back Tevin Coleman. They also held a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter when an 80-yard Devin Hester punt return was called back, leading to Russell’s ungainly trip in the Seahawks end zone for a safety and a go-ahead field goal by Bryant.īut the larger story was Ryan and the Falcons’ grimly efficient offence. Their first drive, which consumed almost nine minutes, couldn’t have been scripted better. “This is what they looked like the last four weeks and they carried it forward today.” Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks reacts against the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome on Saturday. It was catch-and-run but the design was good. “They just function at a high level,” Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said of the Falcons’ offence. The second, a third-and-10 completion to Justin Hardy when the Falcons were deep in their own end, snuffed out any of the remaining light in the ‘Hawks. The first, a 53-yarder to running back Devonta Freeman late in the third quarter while staring down the teeth of a Seahawks’ pass rush, set up a Matt Bryant field goal. He also had two killer conversions on third down in the second half that illustrated his mastery on this night. With a performance that was mindful of Tom Brady, both stylistically and in the bottom line, the Falcons’ 31-year-old quarterback completed 26 of 37 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns without an interception but even those numbers didn’t tell the whole story of his performance.Īfter the Seahawks’ opening drive, the Falcons had the ball for 33:19 of the game’s final 50 minutes as Ryan completed passes to 10 different receivers. The Seahawks marched the ball 89 yards on the game’s opening drive, opening a 7-0 lead on a Wilson-to-Jimmy Graham hookup but, from that point on, the Ryan express rolled over the visitors from the Pacific Northwest. “The way he’s managing the offence, he’s having as good a year as I’ve seen from a quarterback,” said Dwight Freeney, the Falcons veteran rush end. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
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