Falcons a game away from first NFL title after winning NFC
ATLANTA — Matt Ryan and Julio Jones teamed up for a dominant playoff performance, and the Atlanta Falcons ignored all those ghosts from the last half-century. Next up: Super Bowl 51. Ryan threw for 392 yards and four touchdowns in another MVP-worthy showing, while Jones shook off a toe injury to haul in nine catches for 180 yards and two scores, leading the (13-5) Falcons to a 44-21 blowout of the storied Green Bay Packers in the NFL’s NFC championship game Sunday.
It will be only the second Super Bowl appearance in the Falcons’ 51year history, the first coming 18 years ago with a team known as the “Dirty Birds.”
They have never won an NFL championship. The Falcons led 24-0 at halftime. Not bad, considering Jones took it easy much of the week because of his sore left foot.
“I didn’t practise that much throughout the week,” Jones said, “but today I came out and gave it all I had.”
In the final game at the Georgia Dome, Ryan sparked more chants of “MVP! MVP! MVP!” as he carved up an injury-plagued Packers secondary that had no way of stopping a team that averaged nearly 34 points a game during the regular season and romped to a 36-20 victory against Seattle’s Legion of Boom last week. For good measure, he ran for a TD.
The Packers, riding an eightgame winning streak and coming off a thrilling upset of the topseeded Dallas Cowboys, got a taste of what they’d be in for on Atlanta’s very first possession.
Driving 80 yards in 13 plays, the Falcons converted three third downs, the last when Ryan scrambled away from pressure and flipped a shovel pass to Mohamed Sanu for a two-yard score.
Aaron Rodgers and the Packers came right back, moving quickly down the field in what was expected to be a back-and-forth shootout. Top receiver Jordy Nelson hauled in a 27-yard pass after missing the victory at Dallas with a rib injury.
But, on third-and-four at the Atlanta 23, the Falcons hurried Rodgers into an incompletion. Mason Crosby, who hit two field goals longer that 50 yards in the closing minutes against the Cowboys, pushed a 41-yard attempt right of the upright to snap a playoff-record streak of 23 straight field goals.
The Falcons drove the other way, settling for Matt Bryant’s 28yard field goal and a 10-0 lead. Then, with Green Bay poised to make a game of it, Atlanta’s muchmaligned defence — one of the lowest ranked in the NFL — came through a momentum-swinging play. Fullback Aaron Ripkowski was breaking tackles and rumbling toward the end zone when Jalen Collins stripped the ball from behind and fell on it just across the goal-line for a touchback.
On the ensuing possession, Ryan hooked up with Jones three times for 56 yards. Ryan finished it off with some surprisingly nimble running skills, faking out one defender with a pump fake before diving into the end zone for a 14yard touchdown. It was Matty Ice’s first rushing touchdown since Week 1 of the 2012 season and sparked an uncharacteristic outburst from the normally eventempered quarterback.
Ryan gave the ball a thunderous spike and let out a scream that made it clear he wanted this game more than anything in his career. The guy who had a 1-4 record in the playoffs over his first eight seasons has finally earned his spot on the biggest stage of them all.
“We’ll be ready to go for sure,” Ryan said.