The improving defense of the Falcons left the offense of the Bills in a rut that was familiar.
Matt Ryan had three passes for touchdowns, including one of 42 yards over to Roddy White on the first play of the game for Atlanta. The Bills never did challenge the Falcons in Atlanta’s 31-3 win on Sunday over the Bills and Terrell Owens.
Terrell Owens became only the sixth man in the history of the NFL to have 1,000 career receptions. During the second Owens was able to reach that milestone on a pass of 8 yards from Brian Brohm.
It was one of the Bills (5-10) rare highlights. Buffalo only managed 178 total yards. That included 40 yards rushing, their season low.
Mike Smith, Falcons coach said, for the second week in a row I think our defense was very solid.
Atlanta came into the game off of their 10-7 victory over the Jets. They had two sacks and two interceptions. Buffalo only converted 2 out of 10 on their third down conversion attempts. They have lost three games out of their last four and on their third down conversions are just 7 for 45 during that stretch.
Brohm went 17 for 29 for a total of 146 yards and threw two interceptions during his debut in the NFL. The second year player started in place of Bills quarterbacks Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick who were both out with injured ankles.
Perry Fewell, interim head coach for Buffalo said, our guys did fight hard. We just don’t have the firepower we need. We didn’t have enough in order to make this game into what we wanted it to be.
With the win Atlanta (8-7) has the opportunity for posting winning records in back to back seasons for the very first time in the history of their 44 year franchise. Last week Atlanta was eliminated from the playoffs. They close out their season next week in Tampa Bay.
Mike Peterson, linebacker said, as far as making the playoffs things didn’t really go they way we wanted them to. However we still can finish by having a winning record. I am sure the organization and fans will be happy about that.
Atlanta led 10-0 in the game and then added two touchdowns in the third quarter. Ryan threw a touchdown pass of 12 yards to Marty Booker. Lawrence Sidbury, defensive end, recovered a fumble and returned the ball 11 yards to give the Falcons a lead of 24-0.
During the fourth quarter, Ryan added another score with a touchdown pass of 5 yards to White.
Ryan went 18 for 35 for a a total of 250 yards passing. During his two seasons as the starting quarterback in the Georgia Dome Ryan’s record is 13-1.
Brohm got signed on November 19 off of the practice squad of Green Bay.
Brohm said, I thought that I handled myself out there fine. The outcome wasn’t that good, but I still played with confidence.
Fewell said that he thought that Brohm had handled himself ok, especially since he had only been with the team a month.
Fewell said, he got put into a very tough position. He tried answering the challenge. I do do think with some more work and more works he has a future. He shows promise.
From the outset, the defense of Atlanta applied pressure to Brohm and the rest of the Bills. On the first play for Buffalo, Fred Jackson lost two yards after being tackled by Jonathan Babineaux. Then he sacked Brohm on third down for an 8 yard loss. That forced the first of Buffalo’s seven punts.
The punt of Brian Moorman was returned 18 yards by Eric Weems down to the 42 yard line of Buffalo. White beat Reggie Corner, Bills cornerback, on first down and scored a touchdown of 42 yards.
White who caught 8 pases for a total of 139 yards and scored two touchdowns said, I just wanted to get out there to make a play to help our team get going early. Matt threw the ball well. All I had to do was go up and get it.
Corner was filling in for the injured Terrence McGee. This week McGee was put on injured reserve due to an injured rotator cuff. Jarius Byrd, defensive back, was also put on injured reserve by the Bills this week. Bryan Scott, starting linebacker, did not play due to a head injury.
Buffalo’s depleted defense was unable to follow their plan to protect Brohm.
Paul Posluszny, linebacker said, we wanted the game to be on our shoulders instead of his. We weren’t able to do that. They were able to jump on us right away. We were kind of shocked. It was still early though. We anticipated that we would get back into the game.
The defense of Atlanta was able to shut the Bills running game down. Jackson had 39 yards rushing in 13 carries.
Atlanta had a 24-0 lead when late third quarter Rian Lindell finally kicked a field goal of 42 yards to score the only points for Buffalo.
Owens caught four passes for a total of 39 yards receiving. He came into the game only needing two catches in order to get to 1,000.
Brent Grimes and Christopher Owens had interceptions for the Falcons.
Tony Gonzalez of Atlanta started the day just six catches away from 1,000, but had to leave after injuring his right calf. Before leaving he caught two passes for a total of 17 yards.
Atlanta lost Michael Koenen, punter, during the third quarter with a head injury, while Matt Bryant, kicker, was limited due to an injured hamstring. Kroy Biermann, defensive end, kicked off twice during the third quarter to fill in for Bryant.
