On a chilly, rainy Sunday afternoon, the Atlanta Falcons faced off against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Mercedes-Benz Stadiumand defeated them by a score of 24-14. With this win, the Falcons have now won three straight and since the bye week, they have gone 5-2, bringing their season record to 6-9 so far.Falcons head coach Dan Quinn spoke after the game about the teams’ performance.
“We talked about our identity, how we wanted to play. I thought today really illustrated that right off the bat, having a touchdown drive on the opening drive, and then coming out and Keith Smith forcing a fumble, being able to convert that to go up 14-0. We wanted to close out our home season for our fans and represent certainly in a way that we could. We were able to do that today.”
In the first half, the Falcons came out firing. After winning the coin toss, Atlanta elected to receive the ball and immediately got to work. On the second play of the game, quarterback Matt Ryan completed an 11-yard pass to wide receiver Julio Jones and two plays later after a neutral zone infraction penalty on Jacksonville, running back Devonta Freeman caught a short pass and took it 16 yards. After another Jacksonville penalty, Ryan and tight end Austin Hooper connected on a 25-yard completion down to the Jacksonville 17-yard line. On the next play, Freeman took the handoff and ran off the left end for a 17-yard score. On that drive, Freeman showed the quickness and burst that had made him a deadly player in years past.
Quinn mentioned that being able to successfully attack the Jaguars in multiple ways was a big part of the Falcons’ hot start.
“I thought, number one, we were going to make sure [using the] run game, play pass, screens, we were going to try to attack them in a number of different ways,” said Quinn. “It just kept flowing. When you kept earning first downs to get moving, it was a good opening drive. Matt started off, I thought, hot as well.”
Atlanta’s good fortunes continued on the ensuing kickoff. Atlanta kicker Younghoe Koo kicked the ball off and Jacksonville returner Michael Walker returned to the Jacksonville 25-yard line but Atlanta fullback Keith Smith stripped him of the ball and it was recovered by Falcons running back Brian Hill. This turnover gave Atlanta great field position and they capitalized on it. Three plays later, Freeman caught a short eight-yard pass from Ryan and ran over a defender on his way into the end zone. The Falcons added a 23-yard field goal right before the half to take a 17-3 lead.
For most of the third quarter, both teams really couldn’t get anything going offensively. They traded punts and Ryan was intercepted at one point by Jaguars safety Jarrod Wilson. However, Jacksonville was unable to take advantage of the turnover. Late in the third quarter though, the Jaguars were able to go on a nine-play, 62-yard drive that ended with a 27-yard field goal from kicker Josh Lambo. The drive was highlighted by a 17-yard run by quarterback Gardner Minshew.
The Falcons responded with a scoring drive of their own. They went seven plays, for 87-yards capped off by a three-yard touchdown run by running Qadree Ollison. The highlight play of the drive was a beautiful 32-yard pass from Ryan to Jones deep down the left sideline in between two defenders.
In the fourth quarter, the Jaguars were able to go on a four–play, 75-yard drive that ended with a 42-yard touchdown pass from Minshew to wide receiver Chris Conley. The Jaguars went for two but they were unable to convert the attempt so that brought the score to 24-12. Jacksonville was unable to get much of anything going later on so that, combined with the Falcons running the clock out, led to the Atlanta victory.
Ryan led the team offensively, completing 32-45 passes for 384 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Running back Brian Hill led the team in rushing with seven carries for 66 yards. Freeman added 53 yards rushing, had nine catches for 74 yards and the two touchdowns. Jones led the team in receiving with 10 catches for 166 yards. In this game, he became the fastest player in NFL history to reach 12,000 career receiving yards.
Ryan spoke about the accomplishment and stated that it was awesome to be a part of that special moment in Jones’s career.
“It’s pretty amazing for Julio [Jones], to be the fastest to ever get to 12,000 yards,” said Ryan. “I think it speaks to what kind of player he’s been for his career. He’s been unbelievable. There’s no better teammate, honestly. There’s nobody that works harder day in and day out. He’s loyal. He’s a good leader for us, and I’m happy for him. He’s one of the best to ever do it in this sport and his production shows that. It was special to be a part of that and to be part of his career. I’m happy for him.”
This was the last home game of the season for the Falcons so it was great for the Atlanta fans in attendance to see the team win their last home game, in an up-and-down season. The Falcons will travel to Tampa next week to face off the Buccaneers in the last game of the season. If the Falcons win that game, they will finish the year on a four-game win streak and have a record of 6-2 since the bye week. Pretty impressive considering how they had a record of 1-7 before the bye week and were left for dead by many in the NFL media.
Quinn was thought to be on the hot seat with how the team has performed this season but this winning streak and seven-game stretch, so far, may have saved his job. Freeman spoke after the game about the influence that Quinn has on the team.
“As an athlete, you have to let athletes be them, and he does a tremendous job at doing that; let us be us, being able to come in, come to work and just be you,” said Freeman. “All he wants us to do is be us and get one percent better, and having a coach like that, we gone go out there and fight for him and do whatever it takes to get wins and keep going.”
The Falcons will travel to Raymond James Stadium to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 1 PM EST on December 29th.
Written by Erik Slaby
