Matt Ryan quietly had a fantastic year throwing for almost 4,700 yards and 28 touchdowns. In this breakdown we will take a look at his 28 touchdowns and see what conclusions we can draw from them. Following this article, I will take a look at Matt Ryan’s 14 interceptions and see where he needs to improve.
Stats
Matt Ryan - 415/618 (66.1%), 4,694 yards, 7.5 ypa, 28 TDs, 14 INTs, 29 rushes for 145 yards
First let’s take a look at the recipients of Ryan’s 28 thrown touchdowns during the 2014 season:
Receiver Breakdown
| Roddy White | 7 |
| Julio Jones | 6 |
| Antone Smith | 3 |
| Harry Douglas | 2 |
| Devin Hester | 2 |
| Eric Weems | 2 |
| Levine Toilolo | 2 |
| Devonta Freeman | 1 |
| Bear Pascoe | 1 |
| Jacquizz Rodgers | 1 |
| Patrick DiMarco | 1 |
What I find interesting about the targets of the touchdowns is how distributed they are amongst the Falcons’ players. Even their top receiving talent White and Jones collectively had less than half of the receiving touchdowns. Here is a quarter and down breakdown of the touchdowns:
Quarter Breakdown
| 1st Quarter | 8 |
| 2nd Quarter | 5 |
| 3rd Quarter | 8 |
| 4th Quarter | 7 |
Down Breakdown
| 1st Down | 9 |
| 2nd Down | 9 |
| 3rd Down | 7 |
| 4th Down | 3 |
While here is a breakdown of Ryan’s passes by distance and location. Reminder: Distance is broken down by how long the touchdown score actually was, while location is the position on the field where Ryan placed the ball.
Distance Breakdown
| Fewer than 6 Yards | 14 |
| Between 6 and 15 yards | 4 |
| More than 15 yards | 10 |
Location Breakdown
| Deep Left | Deep Middle | Deep Right |
| 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Intermediate Left | Intermediate Middle | Intermediate Right |
| 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Short Left | Short Middle | Short Right |
| 7 | 6 | 7 |
The disparity between deep attempts versus short attempt touchdowns is very interesting when compared with how many were actually scored for a long touchdown. For example, only 5 of Ryan’s attempts were greater than 15 yards, but 10 of them went for a long touchdown. Even including the three intermediate route throws there was a disproportionate number of long touchdowns on checkdowns and screens as you can see in the route breakdown of TD passes below.
Route Breakdown
| Slant/Drag/Drive | 6 |
| Screen | 4 |
| Seam | 3 |
| Fade | 3 |
| Out/Quick-Out | 2 |
| Corner | 2 |
| Go | 2 |
| Flat | 2 |
| Shovel Pass | 1 |
| Hitch | 1 |
| Spot | 1 |
| Angle | 1 |
With that in mind let’s take a look at some of his plays:
Play 1
Situation: 2nd and 9 at ATL 46
Description: Q3 - (:34) (Shotgun) M.Ryan pass short left to A.Smith for 54 yards, TOUCHDOWN. M.Bryant extra point is GOOD, Center-J.Harris, Holder-M.Bosher.
Opponent: 1. NO
Offensive Formation: Shotgun Double Slot
Offensive Personnel: 10
Defensive Formation: Cover 4
RB35 Antone Smith is one of the bigger surprises from the Atlanta Falcons during the 2014 season. Three of his receptions from within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage went for long distance scores including this play where Smith took a checkdown pass in the left flat for 54 yards.
In this play, Matt Ryan took the snap and read the safeties. His first and second reads were on the right side of the field. Both reads are covered. Ryan steps up into the pocket feeling the pressure collapse around him and then he delivers the ball accurately to Smith in the left flat as his checkdown pass. Smith takes the ball, makes a few Saints miss, and scores the long touchdown.
Many will give all the credit to Smith here for the incredible play, and he definitely deserves the vast majority of it, but Ryan deserves credit for going through his reads, pocket awareness to step up, and for finding his checkdown on 2nd and 9. Unfortunately for the Falcons Antone Smith broke his leg during Week 11 covering a kick and couldn’t be used in their runningback rotation anymore, but he re-signed with the team to a 1 year contract and will be back next year.
Play 2
Situation: 1st and 10 at CIN 14
Description: Q4 - (8:41) (Shotgun) M.Ryan pass short left to J.Jones for 14 yards, TOUCHDOWN. M.Bryant extra point is GOOD, Center-J.Harris, Holder-M.Bosher.
Opponent: 2. CIN
Offensive Formation: Empty-set Shotgun Trips Right Slot Left - “Moon Right”
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 1
Since being drafted in the 2010 NFL Draft, Julio Jones while healthy has been a top wide receiver in the game and here is an example of that.
From empty-set shotgun, Ryan takes the snap and has RB32 Rodgers running a quick-in route underneath WR11 Jones’ corner route. The point of this route combination is to attack zone coverage underneath by having Jones attack the outside left spot of the deep Cover 2 formation and give Ryan an outlet underneath if it’s man-to-man coverage for the in-route to work over the middle on 1st down.
After the snap, Ryan targets his first read RB32 Rodgers and almost throws the ball to him, but the cornerback jumps to the route so Ryan pump-fakes instead. Seeing as Jones is running a corner route with a deep safety over top, Jones flattens his route to the left front endzone corner to give his QB more space for the throw. This is great route-running by Jones to recognize the underneath hole is an easier throwing lane for his quarterback and make the adjustment for the touchdown. Ryan delivers the ball accurately for the TD.
On the other side of the field, an astute film watcher will see TE80 Toilolo in the left slot running a corner route as well and he’s wide open for an easy touchdown strike. By the simple numbers game, this should have been the read. The Falcons have three routes flooding the right side of the field and the deep single high safety stays over the middle of the field pre- and post-snap. In summation, give credit to Jones for the route running more than anything.
Play 3
Situation: 1st and 10 at TB 40
Description: Q3 - (8:31) M.Ryan pass deep right to J.Jones for 40 yards, TOUCHDOWN. M.Bryant extra point is GOOD, Center-J.Harris, Holder-M.Bosher.
Opponent: 3. TAM
Offensive Formation: Singleback Ace
Offensive Personnel: 12
Defensive Formation: Cover 1
Like Play 2, here is another example of WR11 Julio Jones showing his deep threat ability. Jones is covered in bump-and-run coverage by CB21 Verner underneath the pre-snap Cover 2 shell of the safeties. Jones takes an inside path and sprints hard downfield. Verner attempts to slow him down, legally within 5 yards, but Jones muscles him off with his right arm and then continues past him. The deep cover 1 safety post-snap is too late and Jones has a clear path to the endzone for the long touchdown strike by Ryan.
From Ryan’s perspective, Jones cuts from the inside looking like he is aiming towards to the front right endzone post, so Ryan places the ball over his right shoulder. Jones straightens his line to get more space from Verner and realizes that he has to adjust to the pass. He sees it over his outside shoulder and tumbles into the endzone for the score. Just beautiful.
Play 4
Situation: 2nd and 10 at CLE 24
Description: Q1 - (5:59) M.Ryan pass deep middle to J.Jones for 24 yards, TOUCHDOWN. M.Bryant extra point is GOOD, Center-J.Harris, Holder-M.Bosher.
Opponent: 12. CLE
Offensive Formation: Singleback Trips Bunch Left - “Lou”
Offensive Personnel: 11
Defensive Formation: Cover 1
Another touchdown with Julio Jones in this next play… HOWEVER, this play is not actually about him. It’s the play design we want to look closer at.
The Falcons are in Singleback Bunch Left and run play-action bootleg to the right with their offensive line zone blocking to the left. This is a base packaged play many NFL teams use (Redskins, Seahawks, even the Steelers during the 2015 Hall of Fame game this past weekend), that features misdirection and designed routes to get target receivers open. WR13 Douglas in the right flat is typically the main recipient of the play, but Jones escapes up the middle of the field on a drive route into the endzone for the easy TD strike.
So how did this breakdown happen? CB23 Joe Haden is the answer. He is playing outside left on your screen and is in man-to-man coverage on Jones, or depending on the team he might just have the outside assignment. Due to the misdirection and play-action fake, Haden gets sucked into the line of scrimmage. He realizes his mistake too late and gets burned deep for the long touchdown.
