Matt Ryan maintained poise despite throwing 5 interceptions

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan struggled mightily at times on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. Ryan threw five interceptions, and failed to throw a touchdown pass. One would expect that a quarterback with that kind of statline would play for the losing team, but Ryan and the Falcons were able to pull out the win, 23-19.

Running back Michael Turner, who scored the Falcons' only offensive touchdown, said that Ryan shrugged off his struggles and calmly led the offense like nothing had happened, according to atlantafalcons.com's Jay Adams. Ryan threw for 296 yards, in spite of his troubles.

Ryan is the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for five interceptions and no touchdowns in a winning effort since Bart Starr did it for the Packers in 1967. When informed of that fact after the game, Ryan laughed:

"I’m in good company," Ryan said with a laugh after the game. "Bart’s one of the greats of all time. It doesn’t happen very often. It really doesn’t, but I’m surrounded by really good teammates that picked us up today and made the plays that we needed."

The Falcons travel to Tampa Bay next week to take on the division rival Buccaneers. Even though the Bucs are three games behind the Falcons, they've won four of their past five games and are playing at a high level.