Atlanta came into this game fresh off a blow-out loss at New England last Sunday night, making that three straight losses. The Jets lost back-to-back games against the Patriots and Dolphins. The heavy rain affected both teams with dropped passes, botched snaps, fumbles, and missed kicks. It was a sloppy game but The Falcons played good defense and came away with the win.
How the Falcons looked
The big takeaway from this game was Atlanta recovering from two early botched snaps by quarterback Matt Ryan that led to turnovers. The Jets only capitalized on one of them with a field goal.
After the second snap was fumbled Ryan put a towel under his jersey to keep his throwing hand as dry as possible before each snap. Ryan looked good outside of the fumbles. He threw 18/29 for 254 yards and 2 touchdowns with 0 interceptions.
The Jets handled the run game pretty well outside of one big run by Tevin Coleman for 52 yards. The team ran for 140 yards with Matt Ryan being responsible for 17 of those. Devonta Freeman only ran for 41 yards on 12 carries. He was injured in the fourth quarter and favored his shoulder, he did not return.
Passing and kicking is how the Falcons scored most of their points today. Matt Bryant was 4/4 kicking field goals and remains the most reliable kicker in the NFL.
Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu had a combined 9 receptions for 148 yards and 1 touchdown for Sanu. Austin Hooper had the other touchdown for the day.
How the Jets looked
Josh McCown looked really good today, throwing 26/33 for 257 yards and 2 touchdowns with 0 picks. He played well enough for New York to win this game but the running game and missed field goals were the reason they lost.
He was calm even though the ball was wet the entire game and had some good looking throws to Robby Anderson. Anderson was targeted 6 times and had 6 receptions for 104 yards and 1 touchdown.
The run game was completely shut down today by the Falcons. The team rushed for 43 yards on 22 carries between 3 different running backs.
It was a mess. Chandler Catanzaro was 2/4 kicking field goals against the weather and that was the difference in the game.
The defense did a good job containing Julio Jones and putting pressure on Matt Ryan. Ryan had another botched snap going for 2 after a touchdown and the pressure stopped that conversion. Atlanta had to kick field goals to win, and that was because of the defense.
Games next week
The Falcons play the Carolina Panthers at Carolina next week and that's a big game considering the Panthers beat Tampa Bay today, and that it's an NFC South divisional game. The Jets host the Bills for "Thursday Night Football" so they have a short week to recover from this loss because that's an AFC East divisional match.
