The Atlanta Falcons need to show something on offense. In the past few games the team has been marred by mistakes and inconsistencies. Matt Ryan is struggling with turnovers for the first time in his career. The offensive line continues to get hit with false starts. Set to play the struggling 49ers on Sunday, the Falcons need a bounce-back game, but it will come without certain players on the field.
Ryan needs Leonard Hankerson back and healthy. However, that might not happen this week as the receiver continues to miss practice with a hamstring injury. According to ESPN's Vaughn McClure, Hankerson was not at practice on Wednesday and is not expected to play in Week 9 leaving Ryan without one of his favorite targets. In his place, Justin Hardy will start again. He got his first nod last week, but did very little in the game. The same can be said for Nick Williams who was also quiet. The Falcons need their receivers to play like they were at the start of the year if they are going to string together wins.
Ryan is coming under fire for his performance lately. The quarterback has simply not looked himself in the past few games. The quarterback was off to a roaring start to begin the season, thriving under new offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, but lately that has not been the case. Ryan was very quick to say the offensive struggles are not because of Shanahan, but because he is simply not protecting the ball.
"The only thing that we need to change is the four turnovers (against Tampa Bay)," Ryan said, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "In this past game, three of them were on the plus-side of the 50. You are directly taking points off of the scoreboard when you do that. I don't think we need to go changing who we are or what we are doing. There are a lot of really good things that we are doing. We just need to, when we get those chances and we are moving the ball down into that red area, the plus-side of the 50, we need to have that killer's instinct of putting the ball in the end zone, taking full advantage of the opportunities that we have."
Everyone from Roddy White to Julio Jones has made sure to defend their quarterback. The entire offense is simply struggling. The defense has done a good job of keeping to low-scoring games, but if the offense cannot match the success then the Falcons will be in trouble. The team sits in second in the NFC South right now as the Carolina Panthers are undefeated. The two teams are set to meet for the first time soon as costly turnovers from Ryan will not win the Falcons the game.
