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Matt Ryan was limited in practice for the Falcons on Friday, and his status for Sunday is still up in the air. If Matt Schaub gets the start against the Seahawks, there’s always a chance he could pull off the win.
He’s done it before.
Schaub was the starter for the Houston Texans in 2009. In Week 14, he led the Texans to a decisive win over the Seahawks.
On Dec. 13, 2009, Matt Schaub threw for 365 yards and two TDs to lead the Texans to a 34-7 win over the Seahawks, his lone win over Seattle in two starts. On that same day in ’09, Matt Ryan was inactive vs. the Saints with turf toe — the last time Ryan has missed an NFL game.
— vaughn mcclure (@vxmcclure23) October 25, 2019
In case you’d forgotten, Schaub’s offensive coordinator was also an old friend. Kyle Shanahan was running the Texans offense at the time.
Matt Ryan has missed just two full games in his career thus far. One of those was Week 14 of the 2019 season. On the same day that Schaub was lighting up the Seahawks, Chris Redman led the Falcons to a 26-23 loss to the dreaded New Orleans Saints.
Schaub also led the league in passing yards that season with 4,770, and he was throwing to Andre Johnson, who also led the league in receiving yards with 1,569. Of course, Schaub also wasn’t playing alongside the 2019 Falcons defense in that matchup. The Texans defense wasn’t outstanding in 2009, but they were middling, ranked 17th in the league with an average of 20.8 points allowed per game. The 2019 Falcons rank No. 31 currently with 31.9 points allowed per game.
We’ll be watching the transaction wire today for clues as to Ryan’s status for Sunday. If Danny Etling is activated from the practice squad, it will be a good indication that Ryan isn’t ready to go. Vaughn McClure of ESPN noted that 4 p.m. Friday is the deadline for Etling to be elevated to the 53-man roster in order to be eligible to back up Schaub on Sunday.