Atlanta Falcons fans continue to look into the disappearance of Matt Ryan. The team's trusty quarterback who has always been a reliable factor to the offense has been anything but this season. Interceptions and lost fumbles have now become a common occurrence and everyone is wondering what is going wrong. As teammates throw their support behind the leader, Ryan is making it clear he is healthy and ready to put his mistakes behind him.
According to ESPN's Vaughn McClure, Ryan has stressed he is healthy. The quarterback was seen wearing a knee brace during the game against the Indianapolis Colts. While Ryan has done this before early in his career, it was something new this season. That of course sounded the alarm that Ryan was injured, but the quarterback simply said he is just not playing well while his health is fine.
Ryan is accurate in saying he is just not playing well. The quarterback tossed three interceptions against the Colts including a pick-six which brought his total to 10 through 10 games played. He also has four fumbles up to this point. To put things in prospective, Ryan had just 14 interceptions and four fumbles in all of last year. Ryan is a weak link for the Falcons, but do not expect his teammates to begin throwing him under the bus.
"What do I say to him? Nothing because I know what type of player he is,'' Roddy White said, per ESPN.com. "He competes and works as hard as anybody in this league. We're all in a funk. It's not just Matt. We've got to help Matt out. We've got to catch some balls that we're able to catch. We've got to help him out, especially when he's not playing Matt Ryan football. We've got to go out there and make up for the things that he's not doing well right now. We all have to play better as a collective group and give a better collective effort."
Ryan's improvement is critical to the Falcons getting needed wins to stay in playoff contention. In the short-term, the team is hopeful to at least have some healthy bodies around to make that happen. Leonard Hankerson returned from a hamstring injury and made his presence felt. Devin Hester will be back shortly to help on special teams.
According to Quinn via ESPN.com, Devonta Freeman might not miss time after suffering a concussion in the first quarter against the Colts. Quinn noted that the running back was going through the NFL protocol and was progressing nicely. If Freeman was unable to play, Tevin Coleman would get the start while Terron Ward served in the backup role. That may or may not be enough to get through the strong defensive front of the Minnesota Vikings.