Atlanta Falcons loss to Tampa falls squarely on poor offensive execution
The Atlanta Falcons offense looked as bad as it has looked in years Sunday against the Bucs and none of it is the fault of quarterback Matt Ryan.
We all know that Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan will take the blame for today’s loss because that is what leaders do. He would rather you crap on him than his teammates, which makes it easier for Falcons fans to do.
While Matt has had a couple bad quarters in 2019, by and large, he is the reason that the Atlanta Falcons have the third-best passing attack in 2019.
However, today falls on the shoulders of Jake Matthews, Brian Hill, and Calvin Ridley and those three alone.
Today was the worst game Jake Matthews has played in an Atlanta Falcons uniform. Bucs defensive end Shaq Barrett used and abused Matthews all day long. There was nothing that Jake could do to stop him. Nothing.
Barrett ended the day with one sack, one tackle for loss and FIVE quarterback hits. FIVE. Jake Matthews should be embarrassed by his performance today. Overall today, the Bucs had six sacks and 13 quarterback hits.
Due to attrition, Brian Hill is the Falcons starting running back and if they just needed him to run and catch out of the backfield, he would be great. The problem is, they also need him to block in the passing game and he isn’t good. At all.
Several times today Matt Ryan took big hits and got chased from the pocket because Hill is terrible in pass protection. If he can’t block, he should not be allowed to play. It is that damn simple.
Calvin Ridley ended the day with six catches for 85 yards and a touchdown. Good day at the office. The problem is that it wasn’t.
Ridley was directly responsible for Matt Ryan’s lone interception and had some big-time drops today that ended Falcons drives. His drops were all perfect passes that only Ridley could catch and should have. Almost 30 games into his career, Ridley has to play like a first-round receiver on a consistent basis and he simply does not.
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The Atlanta Falcons are too damn talented to have these types of offensive miscues in a game against a team that they should have beaten.