fun gus wrote:
You dont think Ryan gets that ball in there looking at that picture?
Maybe, maybe he doesn't. Maybe the safety comes down and delivers a hit that sandwiches Tony and the ball comes loose. But regardless, Ryan did not make the wrong read. He had Roddy White against Navorro Bowman in single coverage over the middle. Tony is being covered by a CB, and has a safety sitting and waiting.
Ryan wanted to go to Roddy because he knew he had a favorable matchup vs. a LB at the snap. Did he really look Tony's way? Not really. But even if he did, he would have seen the safety waiting to drive on the football. So what does he do? He pumps to get Willis out of the throwing lane and then delivers a catchable pass to Roddy White.
Here are 2 screen captures from behind Ryan, just before he releases the ball (throw2) and just afterwards (throw3).
The issue isn't that Ryan threw it to the wrong receiver. The issue is that the LB got away with a hold on Roddy White.
Now you can certainly say that if Ryan had Tony as his first progression and thrown it earlier than he did to Roddy, it could have been completed. But that is based off his pre-snap read. And his pre-snap read told him Roddy would be matched up against a LB. And Tony would be matched up against their best CB (Tarell Brown) and would likely have safety help over the top. Again, I have no problem whatsoever of Ryan throwing the ball to his best receiver going up against the 49ers 4th or 5th best cover guy in single coverage as opposed to his 2nd best receiver going up against their best and drawing double coverage.
My issue is the back judge who is standing in front of the goalpost should see that hold by Bowman and throw the flag, but he didn't. I'm not blaming the refs by any means, because they miss calls from time to time. And I certainly get the "let them play" mentality. Unfortunate for the Falcons that it happened when it did.
And AtlGraff07, if we don't have those 2 turnovers while driving on other series, we probably have at least another 3 points on the board at that point (if not 14), and instead of needing to convert on 4th down, Matt Bryant just needs to kick a FG to win the game. We were already in FG range when Ryan fumbled and needed about 5-10 more yards to be so when Ryan threw the INT.