3 Atlanta Falcons who must step against the New England Patriots

1. Matt Ryan deserves a lot of criticism after terrible games against the Cowboys and the Panthers

Two things can be true Matt Ryan can be a great quarterback and he can be playing terribly. This doesn’t mean Atlanta needs to be looking elsewhere at the position or Ryan is over the hill we have seen this isn’t the case in other games this season.

However, he deserves a lot of heat for how he played against the Cowboys and the Panthers. He seemingly just tossed the ball up at times and threw into triple and double coverage even when it wasn’t the best answer. It was as if he had pre-determined where the ball was going and forced the throw even if it wasn’t there.

If you put on the tape and watch Ryan’s picks and bad decisions they weren’t forced because of the lack of a better option. There are more makeable throws on the field each time Ryan chooses to force the ball where it shouldn’t go.

This Matt Ryan cannot show up on Thursday, if he does Atlanta is getting blown out yet again and their season will be over.  This is the biggest game of Ryan’s season, he has played very poorly in two of the last three games.

His team’s hopes of chasing a wildcard seem to be over and with a young roster that may be tempted to go into full rebuild mode, Ryan needs to remind the team what he is capable of.

Atlanta needs the MVP version of Matt Ryan that showed up against the Saints. That is the player Atlanta must have on Thursday to have a prayer of competing. If he doesn’t the noise around Ryan’s future may grow a bit louder yet again.