Sometimes the spectacle doesn’t match-up with the hype. That was not the case in battle of Atlanta featuring former Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick and their current star, Matt Ryan on Sunday night. The victory goes to Ryan and the Falcons who rallied late to beat Vick’s Philadelphia Eagles. For his part, Vick was the victim of a technical knockout (actually a concussion) with just under three minutes left in the third quarter.
Both quarterbacks had moments of brilliance, and both quarterbacks battled turnovers all night. Before banging helmets with a teammate and struggling off the turf at the Georgia Dome, Vick was 19-28 for 242 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Before his interception on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Vick turned the ball over twice in the second quarter via fumbles while trying to make things happen with his legs. In a span of five offensive snaps for the Eagles, Vick bundled his turnovers. After the interception though, Vick recovered to throw for another 102 yards, completing five of seven passes, all in the third quarter. When he headed to the locker room his night complete, he had the Eagles leading 31-21. The Flacons defense did do a respectable job of containing Vick’s running game all night, limiting him to only 25 yards rushing with a long run of just 10 yards.
Just as Vick went through a rough stretch, Ryan’s night was up and down and up again. He threw for two first half touchdowns before going cold, throwing an interception late in the first half. After halftime, he continued to struggle in the third quarter, watching the score go from a 21-10 Falcons lead to an Eagles 31-21 lead. Then Ryan made the comeback Atlanta fans needed to see. Ryan led the Falcons on two consecutive long touchdown drives late. He pulled the Falcons within a touchdown when he floated a 1-yard pass to Ovie Mughelli with10:45 left in the game. On the next drive, he completed two passes after Michael Turner broke off a long run on a trap play. Then Ryan handed the ball to Turner from three yards out to give the Falcons the lead for good.
On the night Ryan threw for 195 yards and four touchdowns, two went to Tony Gonzalez and Roddy White caught the other score.
After the game, Falcons head coach Mike Smith was proud of his star quarterback that was under duress from the Eagles defense all night, “Our quarterback really showed his toughness. I don’t know if there’s a tougher guy than Matt Ryan. He took a number of shots, and he kept going. When you’ve got guys like that, you’re going to be successful.”
Leading up to the prime time match-up on national television, Mike Vick was classy and low key about the homecoming match-up. Afterwards the Falcons first win of the 2011 season secured, Ryan was the one taking the “high road.” He said of the drama leading up to the duel, “Having not played here [When Vick was playing here] and understanding how difficult it is to play regardless of the circumstances in this league, I don’t allow myself to get caught up in those things.”
Mike Vick arrived in Atlanta a decade ago and was the main man whenever the Falcons played. With tonight’s comeback victory against Vick’s perennial playoff Eagles, Ryan has officially given the Falcons fans reason to move past the Vick era and look forward to the rest of the Ryan era.
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