“The play doesn’t care who makes it, you just play hard”.
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The Falcons haven’t been losing games due to their defense – it’s Matt Ryan and the offense that has come up short. They started the season 5-0, but the past month has presented a few issues.
The shame in yesterday’s loss is that the pass rush did a fine job of disrupting Matt Hasselbeck. Matt Ryan doesn’t jump offsides or have holding penalties.
But White was targeted five times in the opening quarter, more than he has in any game since he was the intended receiver eight times in the season opener against Philadelphia. The return game has gotten a kick in the trousers from Quan Bray, who was recently brought up from practice squad. We need them. Today, we needed them in the running game and we needed them in the passing game as well.
Adam Vinatieri, the oldest player in the league at 42, added another winning kick to his sterling resume, booting a 43-yarder with 52 seconds remaining. Just like that, after trailing by 14 points on two occasions, the Colts had tied it up.
Linebacker Paul Worrilow had an interception and recovered a fumble that was forced by O’Brien Schofield. Of course, he was supposed to knock it down. They will be hoping that their bye week was enough to allow their team to get back on track in this one.
Marc Mariani, return specialist, Chicago Bears: The Havre native caught one pass for 10 yards and returned one punt for 4 yards in the Bears’ 17-15 loss to the Broncos. He had just one in his first 44 National Football League games. Hasselbeck wouldn’t miss Bradshaw a second time. He made a really good play there. Hasselbeck completed 23 of 32 passes, for 213 yards, with a pair of touchdowns to go along with his two interceptions.
-QB Andrew Luck sat out Sunday. Julio Jones is on fire. The first was in the end zone after safety Clifton Geathers had an outstanding reaction to a Roddy White in-breaking route. A an illegal hands to the face call against Davis, well away from what would’ve been an incompletion on third-and-goal, kept Atlanta’s third touchdown drive alive. Overall, he’s thrown two or more picks in four games which is his most since 2013. The Falcons had gained a first down at the Colts’ 16-yard line. Instead, it backed them up to their own 10.
Can the Falcons get back on track inside the Georgia Dome? That play might have been topped by him mis-reading the middle linebacker against the Colts.
Colts quarterback Matt Hasselbeck continued his winning streak in place of the injured Andrew Luck with a 24-21 comeback win over the Falcons. After two turnovers on the first two offensive drives for the Colts the defense was able to keep the Falcons off the board.
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“The guy is wearing Depends and he’s just knocking down game-winners every week”, said Colts punter Pat McAfee, who is also Vinatieri’s holder. Robert Mathis’ playing time and effectiveness were limited by muscle cramps in his right arm. Brooks Reed had one tackle and a quarterback hit. Look out for RB Frank Gore, who will certainly have a bigger load to carry without Luck. In fact, Atlanta’s only two wins by more than six points this year came back in Weeks 3 & 4, when they beat the Cowboys with Brandon Weeden and the Texans in Ryan Mallett’s last game as the starter.
