Falcons vs. Panthers: Who was the offensive player of the game?

Unlike last week’s debacle, the Falcons offense gave us a highly encouraging performance with several quality names to list as our offensive player of the game. Here are those names and why you may consider voting for each.

Matt Ryan

Red zone issues? What red zone issues?

A week after looking pretty awful, the Falcons QB bounced back in impressive fashion, finishing 23/28 for 272 yards, 2 TDs and 2 rushing TDs while improving their red zone performance in dramatic fashion. He was on target on nearly every pass - minus a couple of deep shots - and looked far more comfortable spreading the ball around to multiple targets.

Tevin Coleman

Tevin was the first running back to rush for over 100 yards on the Panthers defense in 22 games. Any concerns about a fall-off by having Devonta Freeman out should be calmed a little, as Coleman showed he’s more than capable of carrying the load while his backfield partner recovers. His 16 carries for 107 yards averaged out to a very impressive 6.7 yards per carry. More of that, please.

Calvin Ridley

The rookie first round pick finally showed up and in a big way. He reeled in 4 catches for 64 yards and his first ever NFL touchdown. His speed and route running were on display, as he absolutely embarrassed the Carolina DB on his slant route for his TD pass. If he continues to play like this, it won’t be long before he cracks the 100 yard barrier in a game.

Steve Sarkisian

Let’s give him credit for one of the best games he’s called in his brief NFL career. The Panthers defense looked off-balance for most of the game and his game plan gave Ryan a relatively clean pocket all day long. The run/pass mix was excellent and quite a few plays were well designed and executed to perfection. Let’s hope he continues to build on this performance.

Wes Schweitzer

One last name that many probably didn’t think about, but for good reason. Schweitzer had to step in early for an injured Andy Levitre and he was mostly ... invisible. That’s to say, Wes took over for most of the game and did not stand out. This was going against an impressive interior duo of Kawaan Short and Dontari Poe, so it wasn’t like he had a cupcake assignment out there. Kudos to Schweitzer for stepping in and doing his job.

Let us know who you think was the offensive player of the game below.