What Matt Ryan had to say about the 25-20 win over the Jets

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan discusses the 25-20 victory over the New York Jets that stopped a three-game losing streak. Video by D. Orlando Ledbetter

Here’s what Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan had to say after the 25-20 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday:

On today’s game…

That was a tough game against a good team. It was a tough game in some tough conditions. I was proud of the way our guys battled for four quarters. Nothing is going to go perfect, especially when you’re playing in those type of situations, but nobody flinched the entire day. We continued to play aggressively and it was a good win for our team.

On the two big offensive plays in the second half

It was just a great call by Sark (Offensive Coordinator Steve Sarkisian) in that time understanding that we were getting some lower coverage from their safeties. To have Julio (Jones) with that coverage with that opportunity, you’re excited when you get those chances. I just try to give him the ball where he can make a play. He ran a great route and made a great catch. That was huge for us. And then the run came at a critical time. To start (a drive) like that and have a (52)-yard run to get us going was huge.

On his handling of the ball…

That was some of the hardest conditions I’ve played in for the length of the game. I’ve played in situations where we’ve had some heavy rain or tough wind for a little bit, but really from kickoff until the end of the game, it was coming down pretty hard. You just have to find a way and you have to do the best you can. I thought our guys did a great job.

On bouncing back from last week’s loss to the Patriots…

It was important for us to come out and play well this week. Obviously, that’s important every week. To find a way to get the job done after not doing that the last couple of weeks was huge for us.

On being better on third down…

That’s been a point of emphasis for us to be better in those situations. While we weren’t perfect by any stretch, we made some really good plays in those situations when we needed them. At the end of the game that third-and-five route where we hit Mohamed (Sanu) to pick it up to be able to run it to 2:16 and have them call a timeout was huge. In the red zone, we were opportunistic. When we were down there, we had some really good chances to come away with touchdowns and we came away with two in the pass game. We just have to continue working on it and continue to get better, but we were opportunistic in those situations today.

On breaking their losing streaks as they go into their division games…

The division games are huge, always. In those game, we know them (and) they know us really well. They’re always tough and physical and I expect that against Carolina next week. Today was about today. It was about finding a way to get it done and I’m proud of that.

On how disappointed he was about not scoring a touchdown after the fumble recovery on special teams…

You’d like to come away with a touchdown in that situation for sure in a short field opportunity. (With) the conditions in a game like that and the way our defense was playing in the second half, any kind of points there was huge. A credit really to our special teams and to our specialists. For Josh (Harris), Matt Bosher, Matt Bryant to handle the elements the way they did and play as well as they did was huge for us.

On his conversations with Alex Mack after the two fumbled handoffs…

It was just one of those things. Sometimes it happens and the ball doesn’t bounce up to you. Those are tough. I know the Jets had one. In a day like today, you hope in that situation you have an opportunity to fall on it. We didn’t, but the conversation is, ‘Hey man, don’t change a thing. Let’s go back out. Let’s get a couple on the sidelines, but let’s trust what we’re doing.’

On if they went to the shotgun later in the game…

We did. That was an adjustment that we made. We felt that was probably better for us from a ball security standpoint.

On if the adjustment came about after a conversations with Sarkisian..

I think everybody was on the same page. It was about taking care of the ball. We all felt the same way there.

On if he’s happy to be leaving the Northeast after two weeks of bad weather…

Yeah, I guess so. We’ve had some interesting conditions the past two weeks. You never know in Carolina either. It could get weird down there next week, so we’ll see. We just play wherever they tell us to.