ATLANTA — The Atlanta Falcons head into a bye week feeling a whole lot better about their season.
Sure, they haven’t lived up to expectations in an injury plagued campaign.
But two straight wins give them a reason to be hopeful.
Matt Ryan threw for 379 yards while completing his final 18 passes and the Falcons added another chapter to New York’s miserable season, beating the Giants 23-20 on Monday night.
“You’d rather go into a bye week on a win than a loss, that’s for sure,” Ryan said. “We need some rest. We’ve got different guys banged up. All of us need to rest and refresh for the second half of the season.”
The Falcons (3-4) have five starters on injured reserve, which helped send a team with Super Bowl aspirations spiraling to a three-game losing streak. They snapped that skid with a victory over Tampa Bay, and then kept the winning going against the struggling Giants.
Ryan threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Hall, Tevin Coleman broke loose on a 30-yard scoring run and the Falcons sent New York (1-6) to its fourth straight loss.
“I don’t feel like we’re a 1-6 team,” said Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. “That’s what our record is, but that’s not the feeling in the locker room.”
It was another dynamic performance by Ryan, who was the league’s MVP in 2016 when he led Atlanta to the Super Bowl.
While these Falcons haven’t played to that level, their quarterback is putting up numbers that measure up to what he did two years ago: a 71.1 percent completion rate, 2,335 yards passing, 15 touchdowns and just two interceptions.
Ryan is only focused on the team’s performance.
“To inch our way closer to .500 is a positive for us,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Giants’ offense fell short again, against one of the NFL’s worst defenses.
New York was held to two field goals through three quarters and squandered another scoring chance when Eli Manning’s pass on fourth-and-goal from the 1 was swatted away. Two fourth-quarter touchdowns were surely not enough to persuade anyone in the locker room that they’ve figured out their scoring woes.
“We know we have talent,” tight end Evan Engram said. “We’re doing things. We’re just not putting the big picture together. That is what’s frustrating.”
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