Chargers at Falcons: 3 things we learned
By John Buhler
The San Diego Chargers shock the Atlanta Falcons, 33-30 in overtime in Week 7. Here are the three biggest takeaways from this late Sunday afternoon game.
The San Diego Chargers are starting to win games, as they upset the Atlanta Falcons, 33-30 in overtime in Week 7. San Diego continues to play exciting games that go down to the wire. The Chargers improve to 3-4 on the season.
Atlanta doesn’t put teams away and is not quite the defensive team it needs to be to contend for anything serious in the NFC. The Falcons have lost two straight and enter Week 8 at 4-3. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the Chargers’ Week 7 win over the Falcons.
1. Penalties and Dan Quinn ruined the Falcons.
Atlanta blew a 17-point lead at home to the Chargers to lose in overtime 33-30 to fall to 4-3. These were two evenly matched teams, but the Falcons couldn’t help but get in their own way in the second half.
The Falcons had nine penalties, with most of them coming in the final two quarters. Two straight false starts bothered quarterback Falcons Matt Ryan enough to throw a bad interception in the middle of the field to Chargers linebacker Denzel Perryman.
It didn’t help that Falcons head coach Dan Quinn’s renegade coaching mentality in overtime clipped Atlanta. Having Ryan quarterback sneak on a third and short was painful. So was going for it on fourth down with a Devonta Freeman run on the Falcons’ side of the 50-yard line. Atlanta lost complete control of this game in the second half.
2. Denzel Perryman wanted it more than everybody else.
Perryman was doing pretty much two things on Sunday afternoon: lying on the ground in pain or making great plays for the Chargers defense. He had seven tackles (six solo), one tackle for a loss of yardage, and an interception on Ryan late in the fourth quarter.
Perryman’s pick of Ryan helped set up a game-tying Josh Lambo field goal. Atlanta would counter with a drive that set up a 58-yard game-winning field goal for the usually reliable Matt Bryant. Bryant would scrape the upright and the Chargers would win in overtime.
In what was really a battle of wills, Perryman just wanted it more than everybody else in the Georgia Dome. He fought through obvious pain to lift the Chargers to their third victory of the season. His team refuses to die.
3. These two teams are top-tier through the air.
We wanted a high-scoring thriller in Atlanta and we got one. That wasn’t hard to project, as Ryan and Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers are some of the very best at what they do. One could argue that these are two of the five best quarterbacks in football in 2016.
Both are often overshadowed by playing for middle of the pack teams that never seem to do anything in the NFL Playoffs. However, these 30-year-old signal callers are elite through the air. If you need to put up points through the air, Rivers and Ryan are about as good as it gets.
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Together, they combined for 644 passing yards. They both had a touchdown pass and a pick, but were the driving forces to keep this game tight throughout. In short, Rivers and Ryan are easily playing at a Pro Bowl level in 2016 and should be rewarded for their body of work this season.