Falcons taking a step back

The Falcons suffered their 5 th loss of the season this past Sunday to the Houston Texans. A team at the beginning of the season that had aspirations of going to the Super Bowl can’t beat the Texans. This is not to insult the Texans, but they had their third string quarterback in T.J. Yates, and the only good thing they had going for them was the running game which the Falcons rank second in run defense. Yet the Texans were able to throw the ball early and that was the balance that they needed to confuse the Falcons. Yates completed long passes to Andre Johnson in the first half, and then the Texans mixed in the run nicely with Arian Foster and Ben Tate. Then the Falcons could not score more than 10 points against the Texans defense. Thomas Dimitroff wanted explosiveness of the offensive side of the ball and so far it hasn’t worked out.

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I understand that the Texans are the first ranked defense in the NFL, but the Falcons with as many weapons as they have with Roddy White, Julio Jones, Tony Gonzalez and Michael Turner only being able to score 10 points is just plain ridiculous. Now the Falcons most certainly have to win their remaining four games if they want to make the playoffs in my opinion. The Falcons still have to go to New Orleans and play a red hot Saints team. The Falcons have just not been able to play consistently this season, I don’t know if it’s the limited time they’ve had together in the offseason, but this team is not ready for a Super Bowl run.

In all starts with the quarterback play in the NFL and for the Falcons their quarterback play has been inconsistent. Matt Ryan has had games to where he has been brilliant and then he has had games where he has just not made the right decisions with the ball. The Falcons need Matt Ryan to play really well in these final four games. This is the final quarter of the regular season for the Falcons and they will need Matt Ryan to step up big for them if they want to make the playoffs and most importantly make it to the Super Bowl.

By: Steven Virden
ProFootball-fans.com Atlanta Falcons Correspondent