Falcons Crush Giants

Defense was the name of the game for the Falcons on Sunday. The defense made several stands and the offense powered the Falcons to a 34-0 victory over the New York Giants.
New York falls to 8-6 on the year and they are now tied with the Washington Redskins for first place in their division, after the Redskins defeated the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. The Giants turned the ball over three times, including two interceptions by Eli Manning. Manning finished the day with only 161 yards passing and had a horrible quarterback rating of 38.9. Lawrence Tynes also missed a field goal attempt, as the Giants were shutout for the first time since 1996. The Giants will most likely have to win their last two games to even make the playoffs.
The Falcons had a terrific game, it was a great way to bounce back from their humbling loss to the Carolina Panthers last Sunday. The defense stepped up big with the three turnovers and producing three stops on fourth down attempts by the Giants. The Giants could have easily kicked field goals on the three fourth down tries, but they wanted more and the Falcons denied them. Matt Ryan had a fantastic day and broke his own records for completions and passing yards in a season by a Falcons quarterback, and he has two games left to add to the totals. He finished the day completing 23 of his 28 pass attempts for 270 yards and three touchdowns.
Michael Turner added a one-yard touchdown run and Matt Bryant kicked two field goals. Julio Jones caught two of Ryan's touchdown passes, including a 40-yard bomb. Tony Gonzalez caught the other touchdown, an acrobatic grab on a pass that Ryan placed perfectly. Sean Weatherspoon led the Falcons' defense with six tackles. Asante Samuel picked off Manning's first pass of the day to help set up Turner's touchdown run. Thomas DeCoud picked off a Manning pass in the second quarter, it was his sixth interception of the year, which leads the team.
The Falcons are now 12-2 on the season, one more win should help them clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They hope it will come next week, when they travel to play the Detroit Lions. The game will be played on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. and will be highlighted on ESPN. Next Monday is Christmas Eve, which is the reason the game will be played on Saturday and covered by ESPN as if it was a Monday Night Football game.

The Falcons' Tony Gonzalez hauls in a touchdown pass from Matt Ryan to help the Falcons beat the New York Giants, 34-0.
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