The Atlanta Falcons pulled off an incredible win against the Eagles on Sunday night. They jumped out to double-digit lead in the second half, blew that lead (as they so often do) and then came through to win at the end.
Atlanta’s go-ahead touchdown came on an excellent fourth-down audible by Matt Ryan, which resulted in Julio Jones going 54 yards for the score. While Ryan and Jones both deserve tons of credit for the play, we must — and I mean MUST — give props to offensive lineman Jake Matthews.
He delivered the crushing block on Avonte Maddox that broke Jones loose for the touchdown.
As far as blocks go, it doesn’t get much better than that from Matthews.
The Pro Bowler used all 304 pounds of his weight to completely take Maddox out of the play.
I can’t imagine what Maddox thought when he saw Matthews barreling towards him, but he had to know it wasn’t going to end well.
The end result was a 24-20 Falcons win, and an early candidate of block of the year.
