The Atlanta Falcons bounced back in week two with 35-28 victory over the Oakland Raiders. The team headed into this game with a lot to prove on both sides of the ball after getting beat by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in week one. And while it wasn’t always pretty, the Falcons escaped Oakland with a big road win and now hold a share of the NFC South division lead.
Matt Ryan‘s 396 yards passing was his most in a game since week eight of 2015 in which he threw for 397 yards against the Buccaneers. The Falcons as a team now rank second in the league in total yards of offense through two weeks of play with 902 and are averaging the sixth-most points in the league at 29.5
All-in-all, it was a terrific way to bounce back after a very disappointing loss at home to start the season. With a tough four-game stretch coming up in which the Falcons play the Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, knocking off the Raiders was exactly what they needed.
Here are three takeaways from yesterday’s win.
Atlanta Falcons Week Two Takeaways
No-Huddle Offense Provided a Spark
The Falcons’ offense hasn’t been the same ever since they got away from running an uptempo, no-huddle offensive scheme. And with the hatred growing by the day for offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, Atlanta decided to reimplement the no-huddle scheme.
Atlanta ran 24 of their 64 total plays in the no-huddle scheme and had a ton of success. Ryan completed 12 of 14 and threw two touchdowns. Six different receivers caught as pass as well. They also ran the ball ten times for an average of 5.6 yards per attempt.
With the immediate success of the no-huddle offense, the Falcons would be crazy not to run at least 20-30 no-huddle plays in every game for the rest of the season. Ryan is at his strength when he’s in control of the play calling and we saw him pick apart the Raiders because of it.
Falcons Tight Ends Had Themselves a Day
The Falcons made it known during training camp that they wanted to get their tight ends involved early and often throughout the season. And they didn’t disappoint on Sunday, combining for ten receptions against the Raiders for 180 yards and a touchdown.
Rookie Austin Hooper led the way in the tight end group with three catches for 84 yards. Veteran Jacob Tamme caught five passes for 75 yards and a touchdown and Levine Toilolo caught two passes for 21 yards.
Atlanta also used all three of their tight ends in certain offensive situations, including Tamme’s 14-yard touchdown grab in the third quarter.
Along with the no-huddle, getting the tight ends more and more involved is something that you can expect to see moving forward. They have proven to be matchup nightmares for apposing defenses and that’s something that Ryan and Shanahan want to exploit.
Matt Ryan Torched the Raiders Defense
Matt Ryan has started off the 2016 season about as good as he possibly could have. Ryan eclipsed the 300-yard passing mark for the second consecutive game and threw three more touchdowns to go with his 396 yards passing.
Ryan has the NFL’s second-most passing yards with 730, the second-most touchdown passes with five, the most yards per pass attempt at 10 yards and has a league-best 121.4 quarterback rating.
After throwing a third quarter interception, Ryan finished the game going 12 of 12 with two touchdowns.
Its safe to say that Ryan had his way with the Raiders’ defense. Atlanta put up 510 yards of total offense, good enough for the most in their last 33 games.
Ryan is the heart-and-soul of the Falcons and they will only go as far as he goes. And if he continues his terrific play to start the season, this is an offense that will feast all year long.
