Matt Ryan out for Sunday. Seahawks will get a different Matt in Atlanta
The Seahawks are getting a different Matt in Atlanta.
It should be a more welcomed one.
The Falcons (1-6) announced Saturday Matt Ryan is out for Sunday’s game here against Seattle (5-2) because of a sprained ankle. That ends his streak of consecutive games played at 163.
So instead it’s Matt Schaub starting for Atlanta.
Seattle goes from having to defend the 2016 NFL MVP and Super Bowl quarterback Matt to a 38-year-old one. This will be Schaub’s first start in almost four full years, since Dec. 6, 2015, for Baltimore in a loss at Miami.
He’s been with the Falcons for 2 1./2 seasons since then. He’s appeared in 10 games behind Ryan, the last being last weekend. Schaub completed all six of his passes at the end of Atlanta’s 37-10 home loss to the previously slumping Los Angeles Rams, after Ryan got what is believed to be a high-ankle sprain while getting sacked.
This will be the first game Ryan has missed since 2009.
It’ll be a shock if he doesn’t play, because he always is out there,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Friday before the team flew here. “He’s a great, great warrior. That’s what we expect.”
Carroll said had been preparing all week for Ryan to start, but that the Seahawks don’t expect Atlanta’s scheme to change with Schaub leading it.
“if Matt Schaub plays, we don’t expect him to change their offense, either,” Carroll said. “It’s not going to change the preparation, at all.”
That would indicate the Seahawks are expecting Schaub to throw a bunch to Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and Austin Hooper. Ryan is second in the NFL in pass attempts through seven weeks. His 285 is one behind Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton. Atlanta’s offense is second in the league passing and 29th in rushing.
It’s not that Schaub is terrible. He is a two-time Pro Bowl quarterback (for the 2009 and ‘12 seasons). He has a career record of 47-45 while playing for Atlanta (2004-06), Houston (2007-13), Oakland (‘14), Baltimore (‘15) and the Falcons again (2016, ‘18-19).
But he’s not Ryan.
Ryan, four years younger, has four Pro Bowl selections and was the 2016 NFL MVP for the season he led the Falcons to the Super Bowl. He has 103 career wins in the regular season.
This season he co-leads the NFL with 15 touchdowns passes through seven games, tied with Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. Ryan is second in the league in yards passing, 10 behind Mahomes.
Ryan is 3-2 in five career starts against Seattle, with 10 touchdowns, two interceptions and a gaudy passer rating of 96.1 in those five games. He also beat the Seahawks in the NFC divisional playoffs in Atlanta in January 2017. He shredded Seattle that day with 25 completions in 36 attempts for 336 yards and three touchdowns.
Schaub is 1-4 in his career against the Seahawks, with five touchdown throws and four interceptions.
His last start against Seattle? It was Sept. 29, 2013, soon after his 32nd birthday. He completed 31 of 49 passes for 355 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions for Houston. Seattle trailed 20-3 at halftime of that game but Richard Sherman’s returned his interception of Schaub for a touchdown with just under 3 minutes left to force overtime, in which the Seahawks won 23-20.
A huge photograph of Sherman returning that interception, with his shoe half off, is on the wall of the hallway leading from the locker room to the main meeting auditorium inside Seahawks headquarters.
This story was originally published October 26, 2019 at 2:07 PM.
