Detroit, MI

A healthy Matt Ryan will make for a happy Atlanta Falcons football team.

Ryan was able to overcome a sore knee sustained against the Detroit Lions on Sunday and take his team to a 23-16 victory over the Lions at Ford Field.

Ryan was not only able to get the Falcons over the .500 mark at 4-3, but helped his team win its first back-to-back games this season.

"It was important for us," Ryan said. "We talk about all the time kind of stringing those wins together and we were able to do that for the first time this year, so 4-3 is, you know, not a bad place to be heading into the bye week. We've got an opportunity to get some rest, and you know, hopefully go on a stretch final."

Ryan threw a touchdown pass and ran for one in the win over Detroit. He was 20-of-34 for 218 yards. After seven games, he is 154-of-252 for 1,683 yards and a 61.1 percent completion with nine touchdowns and eight interceptions.

He was out briefly with a knee injury following a sack but quickly returned.

Chris Redman, who had not attempted a pass all season, tried one throw while filling in briefly for Ryan.

"It just shows you the resolve and the resiliency of this guy," said Falcons coach Mike Smith. "He got whacked pretty good, we have to take him into the locker room and really get a good examination. When I saw him coming out of the tunnel I was trying like crazy to see if we could get him back out there.

"He just kind of took a shot and said 'hey, I'm ready to go.' He goes out there and completes his first play back, he completes a third down conversion."

It was vintage Matt Ryan.

"I mean, obviously, it hurt on the field, but you know, once I was able to kind of shake that off and then go to the sidelines, have them examine it, come in, have them do a little bit more thorough of an examination in there, I felt good, good enough to go. I was happy that it wasn't worse that it was."

Ryan was confident he could return and he did right in the nick of time to pass to Harry Douglas for a 49-yard pass play to set up a key Falcon field goal for a 20-9 lead.

"I wanted to make sure the trainers had a chance to look at it. I wanted to be smart in those situations," he said. "Once I came back in, I was able to get it taped and move around on it. I knew I was going to be fine. So I came out and told Mike I was going to be good to go, then came in on third down."

"I was talking to him before he got off the field and I was like "hey man, we're going to need you back in there.' He was like, I'll be back in a minute'." So he got up off the ground and make a big third-down throw," said Atlanta wide receiver Roddy White. "It was an excellent throw, it hit him right in stride and gave Harry a chance to get up field and get some yards.

"We were excited, as an offense, to see him back in the huddle and we were on a roll after that."

Ryan is especially happy that his team, 13-3 for the regular season a year ago, is back to above the .500 mark.

"This was a good win for our football team today," he said. "It was a tough opponent, really good opponent and a tough place to play. A loud environment. I thought the guys did a great job, the effort was really good. We kind of grinded it out and it was a big win for our football team heading into the bye week."

Another key element was having the running game clicking for 129 yards with 122 of those coming from Michael Turner.

"We know (Detroit) was physical in the front four and their linebackers are good," Ryan said. "They spill things to linebackers and they make tackles. We knew that were was going to be some tough sledding, but we kind of kept at it and we were able to have a couple of those break throughs and have some big gains. I thought our offensive line played really well."

Ryan was picked as a first round (third pick overall) draft choice by the Falcons in 2008. In his first two seasons with Atlanta, Ryan led the team to a 13-1 home record as the starter. Ryan's two-year passing total of 6,356 yards (2008-09) ranked third in franchise history among any two combined seasons by a Falcons QB.

 

 

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