Atlanta Falcons: Five things Matt Ryan needs to do in 2016

Matt Ryan is the Atlanta Falcons’ franchise quarterback heading into 2016, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to hold that spot forever. Ryan has had his ups and downs in the past couple of seasons, but heading in 2016, Ryan has a lot of great things going for him.

The Falcons have done a great job in the offseason of building around Ryan and giving him. Not only does Ryan have a better offensive line and better core of receivers around him, but he also has more confidence with his offensive playbook.

Ryan struggled in first-year offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan’s offense last season. There is no denying that, but he’s feeling as confident as ever heading into year two.

Here are five things Ryan needs to do in 2016 to lead this Falcons’ team into the playoffs.

Ryan was as confident as ever in the Falcons’ run to the 2013 NFC championship game but that fire hasn’t been there in the past three seasons. The Falcons are a much better team than they have been in these past three seasons and hopefully Ryan’s confidence will be right back up there like it needs to be. Ryan is the leader of this team and he needs to have more confidence in himself and in his team if they want to make it back into the postseason.

Ryan didn’t do a very good job of spreading the ball around in 2015. Sure, its pretty easy to get carried away when you have the best wide receiver in the NFL on your team, but in order to have a successful offense, Ryan needs to get his other receivers involved more.

Julio Jones was thrown to 204 times. The next best target was running back Devonta Freeman who was thrown to 97 times. The second leading receiver was Jacob Tamme with 82 targets and the fourth receiver came in at just 70 targets.

We need to see less targets for Jones and more for his supporting cast. Jones cannot keep up a heavy workload year after year and Ryan needs to understand that.

Ryan has never been a deep ball quarterback and that has never made sense to me. With Jones on the team, why not take more shots down the field to him? We saw what can happen when he does do it. Ryan connected with Jones for the best play of the year against the Carolina Panthers.

Ryan may not have any other receivers that are capable of making the deep pass other than Jones and maybe Mohamed Sanu, but that shouldn’t stop them from taking shots more often. Both Jones and Sanu are big, tall receivers and will out leap pretty much any corner or safety in the NFL.

Ryan was a beast at running the no-huddle offense under Dirk Koetter’s offense but didn’t do it very much last season under Shanahan. That needs to change in 2016 no matter what. I know that Shanahan doesn’t run a lot of no-huddle in his schemes, but that’s Ryan’s bread-and-butter.

Shanahan needs to let Ryan have more freedom in the play-calling and allow him to run more of a fast paced style of offense. If we get to see Ryan do that in 2016, he’s in for a big season.

Ryan was atrocious in the red zone last season. Anything and everything that is bad happened once the Falcons’ reached the red zone in 2015 and that ultimately shot down any chance they had of making it to the playoffs.

Ryan is too good not to succeed in the red zone. He had never had a major problem before and we cannot have him break down like that again. The players around him are much better than last season so Ryan will have no excuses.

UConn Holds On For 7-6 Win Over Georgia Tech In NCAA Opener

The UConn baseball team jumped to a seven-run lead in the second inning and then held on to beat Georgia Tech 7-6 Friday in the Huskies’ opening NCAA Tournament game in Gainesville, Fla.

Freshman Tim Cate, the AAC rookie pitcher of the year from Manchester, proved worthy of getting the call to start the opener. He retired the first nine and shut out the No. 2-seeded Yellow Jackets until Matt Gonzalez’s two-out double in the sixth.

“The defense was playing well behind me too, so it made it a lot easier for me to just go out and do what I did,” Cate said.

Cate (5-1) went six innings and allowed two runs on three hits. He came out to start the seventh but a leadoff single to Tristin English resulted in a quick hook by coach Jim Penders, who called on Randy Polonia. Tech scored its second run – charged to Cate – when English advanced to third and scored on a sacrifice fly.

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“I thought Tim Cate did an unbelievable job,” Penders said. “It’s unbelievable to some folks but not unbelievable to him, and that’s the whole key. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself for an 18-year-old. We believed in him today. His fastball location was excellent, and his breaking ball was very good. I told him earlier that I don’t want to take him out of that game. That’s where a lot of maturity comes in. He’s going to learn to get stronger and better and do the work in between starts to stay in that game next year so that I don’t have to take him out. I felt like a couple balls were up. He was sensational. The offense in the second inning really showed up. I thought our hitters did an excellent job — three guys in a row with two-out RBI. I would’ve liked to have seen some more of that during the rest of the game. It would’ve made it a little bit easier. We have a ton of respect for Georgia Tech and especially their offense. They’re one of the best offensive clubs we’ve faced. We expected them to make a run. I hope our players didn’t, but I knew they probably had a run in them where we needed to make sure we created some separation, and we had just enough separation. I’m proud to see Pat Ruotolo out there and finishing it up.”

UConn Opens NCAA Play Today Vs. Georgia Tech; Manchester Tim Cate Gets Start

The UConn bullpen struggled to bring the win home for the third-seeded Huskies as three relievers allowed four runs over the final three innings. Closer Pat Ruotolo got the final six outs for his 12th save.

The UConn offense got every run it needed in sending 11 men to plate in the second inning, knocking out starter Zac Ryan. Tyler Gnesda and Willy Yahn each had two-run singles and Bobby Melley, Joe DeRoche-Duffin and Aaron Hill added run-scoring doubles to back Cate’s strong start.

But the UConn offense took the rest of the game off as Georgia Tech relievers Ben Parr, Jake Lee and Matthew Gorst kept the Yellow Jackets in the game. Lee retired 12 straight at one point.

Tech got two back in the eighth and two in the ninth and had the tying run on base before Ruotolo got Kel Johnson to end the game.

UConn (38-23) faces the winner of the game between top-seeded host Florida and No. 4 Bethune-Cookman Saturday at 6 p.m. Tech (36-24) faces the loser. The win guarantees that the Huskies advance at least until Sunday.The UConn baseball team jumped to a seven-run lead in the second inning and then held on to beat Georgia Tech 7-6 Friday in the Huskies’ opening NCAA Tournament game in Gainesville, Fla.

Freshman Tim Cate, the AAC rookie pitcher of the year from Manchester, proved worthy of getting the call to start the opener. He retired the first nine and shut out the No. 2-seeded Yellow Jackets until Matt Gonzalez’s two-out double in the sixth.

“The defense was playing well behind me too, so it made it a lot easier for me to just go out and do what I did,” Cate said.

Cate (5-1) went six innings and allowed two runs on three hits. He came out to start the seventh but a leadoff single to Tristin English resulted in a quick hook by coach Jim Penders, who called on Randy Polonia. Tech scored its second run – charged to Cate – when English advanced to third and scored on a sacrifice fly.

“I thought Tim Cate did an unbelievable job,” Penders said. “It’s unbelievable to some folks but not unbelievable to him, and that’s the whole key. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself for an 18-year-old. We believed in him today. His fastball location was excellent, and his breaking ball was very good. I told him earlier that I don’t want to take him out of that game. That’s where a lot of maturity comes in. He’s going to learn to get stronger and better and do the work in between starts to stay in that game next year so that I don’t have to take him out. I felt like a couple balls were up. He was sensational. The offense in the second inning really showed up. I thought our hitters did an excellent job — three guys in a row with two-out RBI. I would’ve liked to have seen some more of that during the rest of the game. It would’ve made it a little bit easier. We have a ton of respect for Georgia Tech and especially their offense. They’re one of the best offensive clubs we’ve faced. We expected them to make a run. I hope our players didn’t, but I knew they probably had a run in them where we needed to make sure we created some separation, and we had just enough separation. I’m proud to see Pat Ruotolo out there and finishing it up.”

The UConn bullpen struggled to bring the win home for the third-seeded Huskies as three relievers allowed four runs over the final three innings. Closer Pat Ruotolo got the final six outs for his 12th save.

The UConn offense got every run it needed in sending 11 men to plate in the second inning, knocking out starter Zac Ryan. Tyler Gnesda and Willy Yahn each had two-run singles and Bobby Melley, Joe DeRoche-Duffin and Aaron Hill added run-scoring doubles to back Cate’s strong start.

But the UConn offense took the rest of the game off as Georgia Tech relievers Ben Parr, Jake Lee and Matthew Gorst kept the Yellow Jackets in the game. Lee retired 12 straight at one point.

Tech got two back in the eighth and two in the ninth and had the tying run on base before Ruotolo got Kel Johnson to end the game.

UConn (38-23) faces the winner of the game between top-seeded host Florida and No. 4 Bethune-Cookman Saturday at 6 p.m. Tech (36-24) faces the loser. The win guarantees that the Huskies advance at least until Sunday.