Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan wins our Air It Out Award for his 503 yard, 4 touchdown Week 4 performance against the Panthers.
Pick our Week 4 #AirItOutAward winner! Which quarterback had the most dominant performance last week? #RiseUp #Chargers #WeAre12 #HereWeGo
— Best NFL Polls (@Best_NFL_Polls) October 4, 2016
Matt Ryan’s 503 yards passing set a new Falcons’ franchise record. Ryan’s big day helped propel Julio Jones (our Week 4 Bring It Down Award Winner) to a franchise record of his own with 300 yards receiving. Here’s the play that broke the records for Matt Ryan and Julio Jones:
Here is @M_Ryan02 and @juliojones_11 both setting franchise records.#JetJones – 300 yds rec#MattyIce – 503 passhttps://t.co/tHNYzU09OA
— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) October 2, 2016
The stat line for Ryan and Jones looked a lot more like something out of Madden than the stat line for a game against last year’s Super Bowl runner-up. Credit offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan for knowing how to create and exploit mismatches with his playmakers. And credit Matt Ryan for executing. Ryan completed an incredible 75.7% (28 of 37) of his passes to nine different players, and had a 142.0 QB rating for the day.
Matty Ice is playing well enough to put his name right in the thick of the MVP conversation. He leads the league in passing yards and is tied for the lead in passing touchdowns. Ryan has the Falcons at 4-1 with the number one ranked offense and the number one ranked passing attack. With what is arguably one of the league’s top running back tandems in DeVonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman, Matt Ryan has the luxury of picking apart defenses that are forced to respect the run. And he has definitely taken advantage of it. Ryan has been incredibly efficient this season, and is currently boasting a 11:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Matt Ryan’s stellar play has the Falcons looking like one of the top teams in the NFC (only the undefeated Vikings and Eagles have a better record). If he can continue to play similarly to how he did in his monster day against the Carolina Panthers, I would not be surprised to see Matt Ryan and the Falcons making a run deep into the playoffs.
UPDATE: As of the end of Week 5, Ryan leads the league with 1,740 yards and is on pace for 5,568 yards and 38 touchdowns.
(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/ Getty Images)
(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/ Getty Images)