The Falcons are now 4-4 after eight games this year and currently hold the final playoff spot in the NFC's playoff race after beating their division rival New Orleans on the road Sunday. Dukes & Bell talked about the play of veteran quarterback Matt Ryan and why he’s a big reason the team has exceeded expectations so far this season.
Dukes talked about how important having a veteran like Ryan is for a young team.
“The one thing we were hanging our hat on from a Falcons standpoint was that Matt Ryan was back. Everybody talks about the rebuild, you don’t change quarterbacks and don’t call it a rebuild, they didn’t do that,” said Dukes. “They felt like they had a guy that could come back and help us win, we got to put some things around him. We know all of the things around him have not been what we expected, but yesterday was an example of you know what with a veteran quarterback. Just look at Jordan Love, with a veteran quarterback these are the kind of things you can do, he saw the field yesterday.”
Dukes also pointed out how the Falcons' record overshadows how good Ryan has been.
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“If you look at Josh Allen for example, some people said 'Yeah he’s an MVP candidate,' well he’s only got two more touchdowns thrown this season than Matt, one less interception, the yards are almost identical. Matt is completing 70 percent of his passes (69.4%) so when you start saying how efficient he’s been it doesn’t show on the record. See that’s the problem, everybody’s on Matthew Stafford because the Rams have been winning. When you’re winning and you’re 6-1 or 7-2 or whatever you get caught up in that. But then you look at the numbers and start to break them down and you go 'Our guy has a better completion percentage than Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, then Herbert, he does.'”
