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01-03-2009, 05:08 PM
Top rookie Ryan leads Falcons into wild-card matchup in Arizona
Associated Press
With his best season in several seasons, grizzled veteran Kurt Warner has led the Arizona Cardinals to their first playoff appearance in 10 years.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has accomplished something just as impressive as a rookie.
The 23-year-old Ryan looks to help the Falcons continue their remarkable turnaround as they visit the 37-year-old Warner and the NFC West champion Cardinals in a wild-card game Saturday.
Warner was named league MVP in 1999 and 2001 and earned Super Bowl MVP honors after leading the St. Louis Rams to the title following the 1999 season. After several inconsistent years, he regained his old form in 2008.
Warner has lost the starting quarterback job four times with three teams since earning his second MVP award. He's been benched twice in Arizona, only to persevere with a season that statistically matches his best with the Rams.
More impressively, he's guided the long-downtrodden Cardinals (9-7) to their second postseason berth since 1982 and first since 1998. It was the longest playoff drought in the NFL before Arizona clinched its first division title in 33 years with a 34-10 win over St. Louis on Dec. 7.
"It feels good. It makes me feel about five years younger," Warner said of the Cardinals' success. Then he hesitated, "Maybe two years younger."
Warner started 16 games for the first time since 2001, finishing second in the league in passing yards (4,583), completions (401) and completion percentage (67.1), and third with a franchise-record 30 touchdowns. He became the fourth quarterback in league history to pass for more than 4,500 yards in multiple seasons, and the first to have more than one season between his 4,500-yard campaigns.
"It's been a long time in waiting," Warner said after practice Tuesday. "So I definitely appreciate it and appreciate what we accomplished in St. Louis a lot more now, I'm sure, than I did when I was going through it."
Warner's counterpart Saturday may someday look back on this season the same way. The Associated Press named Ryan the league's Offensive Rookie of the Year on Tuesday after he and Baltimore's Joe Flacco became the first rookie quarterbacks to start every regular-season game and lead their teams to the playoffs.
Selected third overall in April's draft, Ryan completed 61.1 percent of his passes for 3,440 yards and 16 touchdowns, helping Atlanta (11-5) finish with seven more wins under first-year coach Mike Smith than it had last season, matching the biggest turnaround in franchise history.
"I'm certainly flattered," Ryan said. "There's a number of guys who had great rookie seasons this year, so to even be mentioned in that light is nice. It's certainly a great honor, and I think it speaks to what we did as a team this year."
As impressive as he's been, Ryan knows matching up with Warner will make it difficult for the Falcons to continue their surprising season.
"I hope when I'm 37 I'm playing at the level he is," Ryan said.
Luckily for Ryan, he'll likely get plenty of help from running back Michael Turner, who finished second in the league with 1,699 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns to earn his first Pro Bowl invitation in his first season as a starter. The 26-year-old spent his first four seasons backing up LaDainian Tomlinson with San Diego before signing with the Falcons in the spring.
While Atlanta boasted a balanced offense led by Ryan and Turner, Arizona made the playoffs despite finishing with the NFL's worst rush offense -- the first team to do so since the 1986 New England Patriots. The Cardinals averaged only 73.6 yards on the ground, less than half the Falcons' average of 152.7 -- second-most in the league.
The Cardinals made up for their lack of a running game with their dynamic passing attack. Receivers Larry Fitzgerald (1,431), Anquan Boldin (1,038) and Steve Breaston (1,006) became just the fifth trio of teammates to go over the 1,000-yard receiving mark in the same season.
After sitting out the last two games with a shoulder injury, Boldin went through a limited workout Wednesday and said he felt fine.
"If anybody thinks that I'm going to miss this game they're not too bright," he said earlier this week.
Boldin helped the Cardinals to a 6-0 record against the weak NFC West, in which Arizona finished as the only team with a winning record.
The Cardinals, though, went 3-7 against teams from outside the division and lost four straight games to clubs with winning records after beating Dallas 30-24 in Week 6. They also lost four of five games before capping the regular season with a 34-21 win over Seattle on Sunday.
That may not bode well, but the Cardinals can be encouraged by their success at home, where they were 6-2. This will be their first home playoff game since they won the NFL championship as the Chicago Cardinals in 1947.
The Falcons won seven of their last nine regular-season games, including their last three. But they're 1-5 all-time in Arizona, where these teams last met in Week 16 of 2007. Neil Rackers connected on a 31-yard field goal in overtime to give Arizona a 30-27 win and snap the team's four-game losing streak to Atlanta.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
Associated Press
With his best season in several seasons, grizzled veteran Kurt Warner has led the Arizona Cardinals to their first playoff appearance in 10 years.
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has accomplished something just as impressive as a rookie.
The 23-year-old Ryan looks to help the Falcons continue their remarkable turnaround as they visit the 37-year-old Warner and the NFC West champion Cardinals in a wild-card game Saturday.
Warner was named league MVP in 1999 and 2001 and earned Super Bowl MVP honors after leading the St. Louis Rams to the title following the 1999 season. After several inconsistent years, he regained his old form in 2008.
Warner has lost the starting quarterback job four times with three teams since earning his second MVP award. He's been benched twice in Arizona, only to persevere with a season that statistically matches his best with the Rams.
More impressively, he's guided the long-downtrodden Cardinals (9-7) to their second postseason berth since 1982 and first since 1998. It was the longest playoff drought in the NFL before Arizona clinched its first division title in 33 years with a 34-10 win over St. Louis on Dec. 7.
"It feels good. It makes me feel about five years younger," Warner said of the Cardinals' success. Then he hesitated, "Maybe two years younger."
Warner started 16 games for the first time since 2001, finishing second in the league in passing yards (4,583), completions (401) and completion percentage (67.1), and third with a franchise-record 30 touchdowns. He became the fourth quarterback in league history to pass for more than 4,500 yards in multiple seasons, and the first to have more than one season between his 4,500-yard campaigns.
"It's been a long time in waiting," Warner said after practice Tuesday. "So I definitely appreciate it and appreciate what we accomplished in St. Louis a lot more now, I'm sure, than I did when I was going through it."
Warner's counterpart Saturday may someday look back on this season the same way. The Associated Press named Ryan the league's Offensive Rookie of the Year on Tuesday after he and Baltimore's Joe Flacco became the first rookie quarterbacks to start every regular-season game and lead their teams to the playoffs.
Selected third overall in April's draft, Ryan completed 61.1 percent of his passes for 3,440 yards and 16 touchdowns, helping Atlanta (11-5) finish with seven more wins under first-year coach Mike Smith than it had last season, matching the biggest turnaround in franchise history.
"I'm certainly flattered," Ryan said. "There's a number of guys who had great rookie seasons this year, so to even be mentioned in that light is nice. It's certainly a great honor, and I think it speaks to what we did as a team this year."
As impressive as he's been, Ryan knows matching up with Warner will make it difficult for the Falcons to continue their surprising season.
"I hope when I'm 37 I'm playing at the level he is," Ryan said.
Luckily for Ryan, he'll likely get plenty of help from running back Michael Turner, who finished second in the league with 1,699 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns to earn his first Pro Bowl invitation in his first season as a starter. The 26-year-old spent his first four seasons backing up LaDainian Tomlinson with San Diego before signing with the Falcons in the spring.
While Atlanta boasted a balanced offense led by Ryan and Turner, Arizona made the playoffs despite finishing with the NFL's worst rush offense -- the first team to do so since the 1986 New England Patriots. The Cardinals averaged only 73.6 yards on the ground, less than half the Falcons' average of 152.7 -- second-most in the league.
The Cardinals made up for their lack of a running game with their dynamic passing attack. Receivers Larry Fitzgerald (1,431), Anquan Boldin (1,038) and Steve Breaston (1,006) became just the fifth trio of teammates to go over the 1,000-yard receiving mark in the same season.
After sitting out the last two games with a shoulder injury, Boldin went through a limited workout Wednesday and said he felt fine.
"If anybody thinks that I'm going to miss this game they're not too bright," he said earlier this week.
Boldin helped the Cardinals to a 6-0 record against the weak NFC West, in which Arizona finished as the only team with a winning record.
The Cardinals, though, went 3-7 against teams from outside the division and lost four straight games to clubs with winning records after beating Dallas 30-24 in Week 6. They also lost four of five games before capping the regular season with a 34-21 win over Seattle on Sunday.
That may not bode well, but the Cardinals can be encouraged by their success at home, where they were 6-2. This will be their first home playoff game since they won the NFL championship as the Chicago Cardinals in 1947.
The Falcons won seven of their last nine regular-season games, including their last three. But they're 1-5 all-time in Arizona, where these teams last met in Week 16 of 2007. Neil Rackers connected on a 31-yard field goal in overtime to give Arizona a 30-27 win and snap the team's four-game losing streak to Atlanta.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press