Drive home safely, Atlanta wins!!!!!!

From the voice of the Falcon's radio booth, Wes Durham summed up this game perfectly when he stated "Drive home safely, Atlanta wins"! All the credit goes to both teams and coaches for a well fought game. Quarter back Matt Ryan put up his best yards thrown as an NFL starter with 301 yards. The game started out very well for Atlanta with the birds moving the ball with ease on the 4th ranked rush defense in the league. It was difficult for running back Michael Turner to get his legs moving with the Bears stout front line. So, Ryan had to take matters into his own hands and go by air. Throwing the ball worked perfectly in between the 20's, but once the Falcons got to the redzone, the drives seemed to stall. That is where the foot of kicker Jason Elam came into play. Elam was 5 for 6 kicking, with the lone miss which was crucial that let the Bears back into the ballgame with quarter back Kyle Orton throwing the go ahead touchdown to wide receiver Rashied Davis with 11 seconds on the clock. Right about this time I threw my recliner pillow on the floor and said, "Not again, this always happens to Atlanta." Boy was I wrong.

Instead of kicking to kick returner Jerious Norwood, the Bears kicked short to Harry Douglas, who ran for a modest gain. Guess the Bears thought Norwood was Altanta's version of Devin Hester. My compliments for the Bears good guess. With six seconds left Ryan threw a perfect pass to wide receiver Michael Jenkins who smartly went out of bounds after planting both feet in bounds. With one second left on the clock, Elam, who was the goat just five minutes earlier turned hero after launching a 48-yard field through the uprights for the 22-20 victory.

The Falcons were 3-2 before this game. With all the media saying the Falcons have only beat horrible teams and the Packers were all beat up. Yes, if the Falcons do not win another game this year, they made a statement by beating a good Bears team by coming back from behind and winning. If this was the team from the Jim Mora, Jr. years or last year under Bobby Petrino, the team probably would have quit after going down 20-19. Also, Morten Andersen probably would not have been able to kick the game winning field goal.

All the credit goes to coach Mike Smith for keeping his team calm after the late TD from the Bears. The only thing left to say after the Bears' win is, Welcome home Smith and Ryan!!!