The Falcons have won two of their last three games and are in a fight for the final playoff spot. As Dukes & Bell talked about the team’s recent success one thing has stood out and that’s how well the team is running the ball as they ran for over 120 yards for the third game in a row.
Mike brought up the fact that Matt Ryan didn’t break 30 pass attempts yesterday.
“For a while we had some real good success running the ball to the left, so as they get the running game you’re not asking Matt Ryan to do as much, 28 attempts yesterday,” Bell said.
Carl talked about how running the ball is a winning formula for the Falcons.
“To me that’s the formula, I don’t need or want Matt to be throwing it 50 times, we don’t have that kind of receiving core,” Dukes said. “I don’t need him to throw 48 or 50 times a game, if he is we’re behind and it’s out of necessity. Yesterday you’re in the game all day, they didn’t dictate how you could run your offense, because one we had a lead and two they’re playing from behind, you gotta be able to run the ball. Then late in the game again, run the ball, the little throwback play to get the first down in the fourth quarter that was just a huge play. And that to me, you go into that bag of plays Arthur Smith has and you say we need one, and he might have said ‘this one’.”