The Falcons have dropped three of their last five games and everybody is wondering what happened to Matt "Matty Ice" Ryan.
He made a very un-ice like play against Carolina, throwing an interception with under 4:00 to play. Ice was supposed to remain cool, and take the Falcons down at least for a field goal in the 21-19 game.
But he threw his 10th interception over the last five games and his 12th of the season. He only threw 11 in 434 attempts last season. He's thrown the 12 this season while making 298 attempts.
"We evaluate Matt and all of our players' play," Falcons coach Mike Smith said. "We are always trying to give our guys nuggets that can help them play more efficiently. That's what the coaching staff is supposed to do.
"The numbers are what they are right now. We are working with Matt and all of our players so that we'll play more efficiently."
Smith is not ready to hang all of the blame for the interceptions on Ryan.
"I saw a little bit of both in terms of decision making and route running," Smith said. "It's a team game. You have to be very precise in everything that you do. You have to be precise in your route running and decision making. It was not an interception in one area. They (are) team interceptions."
The Falcons got Ryan a new toy in tight end Tony Gonzalez this offseason. One theory is that he's locking in on Gonzalez and not finding the other receivers.
Under the microscope, that one doesn't hold up. Only one of the picks has come on passes to Gonzalez, and Roddy White remains the team's most targeted receiver.
"I don't think that's the case," White said. "Tony is a great attribute to our team. He catches a lot of balls in traffic and things like that. Matt Ryan has a lot of confidence in him. Usually, every time he throws it to him he catches it. He's been doing a good job of that.
"You have to keep feeding the big guy. He's doing a heck of a job. He's had some fourth down conversions. Some key third down, move the chains type of things. He's doing a good job."
Ryan is still a cool customer who is working through his issues.
"You just have to keep plugging away," Ryan said. "As a quarterback, you have to learn from your mistakes and make your adjustments during the course of the week. The beauty of the NFL is that it's a long season and you have the opportunity to get back out there this week, play again, make adjustments and hopefully make the play when they present themselves."
Ryan hasn't been able to put his finger on one thing that's causing the proliferation in interceptions.
"You know what? It's just some different things," Ryan said. "Just some decisions you'd like to make differently at different times. I feel like I haven't been making the same mistake twice. I've just been making mistakes in situations throughout games. You have to learn from that and get better from that. I think I've been doing that and I'll continue to do that. Work hard at it to make sure that we play better."
SERIES HISTORY: 20th regular-season meeting. Falcons lead series, 10-9. The teams have not played since the 2007 season. The road team has won the last 12 meetings. The Falcons bring a five-game New York road winning streak into Giants Stadium this Sunday and look to improve their season record to 6-4. The winning streak against the Giants includes three victories in consecutive years from 2002-04. New York has won the last two contests, however, in 2006 and '07 by a combined 58-24 margin. A road win for the Falcons would be their second this
season along with a Week 5 victory at San Francisco (45-10).
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