Falcons offensive line turns in solid performance against Giants

The Atlanta Falcons got a strong showing from their offensive line on Sunday, holding the vaunted New York Giants' defensive line in check in a 34-0 win.

The Falcons did an excellent job keeping quarterback Matt Ryan upright, as Ryan was sacked just once and hit only three times. The quarterback commended the play of the big guys up front (via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution):

"I thought our offensive line play fantastic," quarterback Matt Ryan said. "Our guys really stepped up to the challenge."

A big reason the Falcons were able to slow down the Giants' pass rush was because they stayed committed to the run game, although that was certainly easy to do after grabbing an early lead. Atlanta rushed the ball 35 times for 125 yards when discounting three kneel-downs at the end of the game. The 3.5 yards-per-carry average is not all that great, but the number of carries forced New York to respect the ground attack.

This game marked just the second time this season that the Falcons finished with more rushing attempts than passing attempts. Atlanta did the same in a win over the Philadelphia Eagles back on Oct. 28