Giants stifle sneaks; Falcons fall short
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Of the many reasons for the Atlanta Falcons’ latest one-anddone playoff exit, the most obvious was their failure to gain the longest yard against the New York Giants.
Not that the Falcons succeeded on much else in Sunday’s 24-2 wild-card loss, where a second-quarter safety accounted for their points. Atlanta mustered 247 offensive yards, whiffed on its only red-zone opportunity and converted four of 14 third-down chances. But this loss will be remembered more for two fourth-and-1 failures that were a matter of inches.
Both misses ended with quarterback Matt Ryan stuffed on sneak attempts, the second and costliest coming in the third quarter with Atlanta trailing 10-2 and needing inches at the New York 21-yard line. Rather than kick a field goal or use bullish running back Michael Turner — who was on the sideline as the Falcons went with an empty backfield — Atlanta stuck with Ryan, who didn’t even hit the line of scrimmage as he was tackled by Jason Pierre-paul and Chase Blackburn.
“They (the Giants) made a good play,” said Ryan, who was also stopped in the first quarter and sacked for an 8-yard loss with 1:01 left. “I’ve got to do a better job of finding the crease.”
Said Falcons coach Mike Smith: “We go through and sequence those things all through the week and felt like that was the play we had up, and we just didn’t execute it. We felt like at any point and time we ought to be able to move less than a half-yard with the quarterback sneak.”
While the Giants defense deserves credit for closing the gap along with sacking Ryan twice, Sunday’s loss said more about the Falcons’ inability to seize opportunities in this particular game, if not the season in general.
Consider that until New York’s momentumshifting touchdown, Atlanta seemed to be a drive away from turning things around by moving past midfield and positioning itself to score.
Each time, drives stalled because the league’s 10th-ranked offense either didn’t take chances downfield when they had them or were denied other times by the Giants.
And when left with fourth-down gut checks that could have made a difference, they ended in disappointment.
“Usually, we convert those (situations),” left tackle Will Svitek said. “That obviously was the difference-maker, and we just didn’t convert. When you have fourth-and-1 or short-yardage situations ... if you want to win a playoff game, you’ve got to convert those.”