ATLANTA - September 18, 2011
This is Matt Ryan's city now, and he led the Falcons back with
their former quarterback sitting in the locker room.
Ryan threw a career-high four touchdown passes, shaking off all
the hoopla over Vick coming back to face his old team, and rallied
Atlanta from a 10-point deficit for a 35-31 victory over the
Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night.
Two of Ryan's TD throws went to ageless tight end Tony Gonzalez,
who went past Terrell Owens into the fifth spot on the NFL's career
receiving list. Then, Ryan hooked up with Ovie Mughelli on a 1-yard
score that brought Atlanta to 31-28 with just over 6 minutes
remaining.
The Falcons (1-1) completed the comeback with Michael Turner
breaking off a 61-yard run, then powering over from the 3 with 3:24
remaining. Turner finished with 114 yards on 21 carries.
"It was a wild one, for sure, but we hung in there," Ryan
said. "I think everybody hung in there and kept making plays, kept
battling. Credit to guys on both sides of the ball - we never gave
up."
Vick threw for a pair of touchdowns for the Eagles (1-1) but
left with what coach Andy Reid later described as a concussion
after getting spun by a Falcons rusher into Eagles lineman Todd
Herremans. No. 7 staggered to the sideline and Mike Kafka came in
for the first game of his two-year career.
Vince Young, normally the backup, was inactive because of a
hamstring injury.
Kafka did a good job in a tough situation, guiding the Eagles
down the field on a potentially winning drive in the closing
minutes. But on fourth down from Atlanta's 22, Jeremy Maclin
dropped a pass over the middle that would have kept it going.
The Falcons ran off all but the last 5 seconds, and Kafka's
desperation heave into the end zone was batted down to end the
game.
The buildup for the primetime contest was one of the biggest in
years for a regular-season game in Atlanta. The Georgia Dome was
packed and loud, many fans wearing Vick's old No. 7 jersey from his
Falcons days but plenty more adorned in Ryan's No. 2.
In some ways, it seemed like a head-to-head matchup - even
though they were never on the field at the same time. Vick was the
one-of-a-kind quarterback who put the Falcons on the NFL map before
he was caught running a dogfighting operation, leading to a prison
sentence of nearly two years.
Banished by the Falcons, he revitalized his career in
Philadelphia and earned another $100 million contract. He had
returned to Atlanta once before, as a backup in 2009, but this was
different. The Eagles are his team, and he wanted to impress in
front of his former city.
The results were mixed. Vick fumbled twice and threw an
interception, and the Falcons turned two of those mistakes into
touchdowns.
Still, he had seemingly done enough when he left the field.
Kafka came on and handed off to LeSean McCoy, who scored his second
touchdown on a 2-yard run with 1:59 left in the third quarter.
McCoy ended with 95 yards on 18 carries.
But Ryan and the Falcons hung in there, even though the
quarterback was sacked four more times after taking five in a 30-12
loss to Chicago opening the season.
"You just keep getting up," Ryan said. "There's a lot of
tough guys on this football team and I try and stay in line with
those guys and just keep bouncing up. I'm just glad we came away
with the win."
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