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The Atlanta Falcons have made it a habit to break franchise and NFL records as they roll along to unprecedented regular season success in the Mike Smith era. The last game of the season will bring more of that.
Many of you likely missed this in the comments on Saturday, but if you see typos and/or mistakes in my posts over the next couple of months, it's mostly because I've just had a baby boy who is keeping me up all night. I'm totally blaming him for both my spelling errors and not realizing Matt Ryan had only tied the single season passing touchdowns record for the Falcons, and he's totally cool with that. I'll definitely be suiting him up a Falcons onesie for next Sunday's game, though.
Back to the record. Ryan threw four touchdown passes against the Lions, marking seven in his last two games and tying him with Bartkowski for the franchise lead. Against a middling Buccaneers secondary in Week 17, he could easily break the record, even if the Falcons elect to only trot him out for a half.
It would be a momentous honor for Ryan, who has put together by far his best NFL season while leading the team to a 13-2 record. Tying it is impressive enough, especially when you consider that Ryan's exceedingly likely to break or tie several of Bart's career marks within the next season or two.
Will he get there? I believe so, because I believe the team will give its starters a little run.
Stay tuned Thursday when I break down a couple of other records we'll be putting under the microscope come Sunday's game, and discuss Ryan's season here!