Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Atlanta Falcons: Keep Your Enemies Close – 5 Questions with Blogging Dirty

Dec 13, 2015; Charlotte, NC, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) can

3. Matt Ryan has had a less than stellar season by his standards. Has he been hindered by his supporting cast?

"They certainly haven’t helped, but Ryan deserves his fair share of the blame too. We all know how talented Julio Jones is, but a No. 2 receiver hasn’t emerged all season. Roddy White used to be the guy, but he’s regressed a lot this year. Leonard Hankerson did some good things while healthy, but he was plagued with injuries all year and wound up on IR. But Ryan hasn’t played well. When he’s been unable to go to his first read he’s tended to struggle and force throws which aren’t there. Too often, rather than throwing it away and living to fight another day, he’s forced a pass and been picked off."

My take:

The Jaguars are probably going to keep the same strategy every team has had this season – cover Julio Jones and see if anyone else on that offense can step up. No one has in the last 7 weeks and Ryan has consequently been pretty bad. His 14 interceptions are the most in the NFL if you don’t count Peyton Manning‘s corpse, and as Freddie said some of those have just been bad decisions on Ryan’s part. The Jaguars’ might be just what the doctor ordered however, as they’ve helped guys like Philip Rivers look good in off years.