The Falcons' most impressive wins and highlights this season
There's just one more game to go for the Atlanta Falcons, who thus far have won 13 of their 18 games this season. Following an 11-5 regular season, they defeated the Seattle Seahawks in the Divisional Round, followed by trouncing the previously red-hot Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship Game. It's clearly been a banner season in the ATL.
Welcome back to the Yardbarker roundtable, Super Bowl edition. Given the impressive season for the Falcons, what with Julio Jones' dominance, Matt Ryan's probably MVP campaign, Vic Beasley's emergence and more, there was no shortage of excitement in Atlanta. So we asked our panelists:
What was the most impressive Falcons' win this season and why? What do you think was their most impressive highlight-reel clip, even if from a loss?
Mike Tunison: Their victory over the Broncos on the road was the one that made people take notice of them, even if they followed it up with their only back-to-back losses of the season. It was also a coming-out party for Vic Beasley, who had three and a half sacks and two forced fumbles.
Sam Greszes: Perhaps this is recency bias talking, but the way in which they demolished the Packers in the NFC Championship Game was really something to behold. They completely shut down Aaron Rodgers until it was too late, and they were able to pass at will against their defense.
In terms of clips, I'd be willing to bet we all picked the same one. Julio Jones' 73-yard touchdown run against the Packers was something out of a video game. He hits the turbo button to turn the corner and beat one defender, breaks through another tackle, then mashes the X button to stiff-arm Damarious Randall into oblivion. It should scare Patriots fans that Jones did all that while he was still recovering from a foot injury. He'll be at 100 percent for the Super Bowl.
David Matthews: I nominate their Week 4 demolition of the Panthers as their most impressive win of the season. Matt Ryan threw for over 500 yards, 300 of which were collected by Julio Jones. The team put up 48 points and showed that the Panthers were last year's news and the NFC South was their division.
I think the most impressive highlight from the Falcons' season was in the NFC Championship: Julio Jones' stiff-arm and tip-toe down the sideline for the touchdown against Green Bay was some serious alpha stuff. This Falcons' season has been about Julio Jones bending defenses to his will, and no play exemplified that as much as that play.
Demetrius Bell: The NFC Title Game was probably best performance that the Falcons had all year when you consider the situation (a trip to the Super Bowl on the line after coming so close five years ago) and the opposition (Aaron Rodgers and the Packers on an eight-game win streak). The first half was basically the Falcons at their very best — the fearsome offense was doing whatever it wanted, and the defense was opportunistic and getting turnovers at the right time. The Packers as a whole may have been banged-up, but Atlanta played brilliant football for the most part and it was the team's most complete performance of the season from top to bottom.
The most impressive highlight from the Falcons' season would have to come from Week 4, which is when Matt Ryan and Julio Jones spent a lovely fall afternoon playing pitch-and-catch with each other to the tune of 503 passing yards for the QB and 300 receiving yards for the WR.
Shiloh Carder: Week 8's 33-32 win over Green Bay. Atlanta had started the season 4-1 before losing close games against Seattle and San Diego. Last season, the Falcons squandered a 6-1 record to an 8-8 mark, and it was starting to look like it was about to happen again. But Matty Ice led Atlanta 75 yards with less than four minutes to play and hit Mohamed Sanu for an 11-yd touchdown and the win.
Jamie Neal: Beating the Packers in the NFC Championship Game was an amazing win for a franchise that has struggled to close out big games.The Falcons held Aaron Rodgers and Co. to 21 points, and this is a Packers team that had won eight straight games going into the NFC Championship Game.
Getting that team to the Super Bowl after they blew the NFC Championship Game back in 2012 is amazing.
The best highlight reel is probably the clinic that Julio Jones and Matt Ryan put on when Julio had 12 catches for 300 yards. I mean, that's just ridiculous. He averaged 25 yards per catch?! Those are video game numbers.
Daniel Tran: The Falcons' most impressive win came against the Green Bay Packers at home. Not only did the win send Atlanta to its second Super Bowl in team history, but the Falcons stopped a red-hot Packers team on an eight-game winning streak and lots of momentum. They held Aaron Rodgers to under 300 yards for the first time in his last five games and completely picked apart the helpless Green Bay defense with nearly 500 yards of total offense.
There were a lot of impressive plays from the Falcons this year, and a lot of people will point to the first Green Bay game in the beginning of the season when Matt Ryan threw a bullet to Mohamed Sanu to win the game with 31 seconds left. However, there was a far more impressive throw he made to Taylor Gabriel for Atlanta’s first score. The Falcons were 47 yards away from the end zone when Ryan threaded a bomb in double coverage to Gabriel, who took it in for the score. Picture perfect example of how incredible Matt Ryan has been all year.
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