Falcon Offense Has Plenty in Reserve

Even without Jamal Anderson, Michael Vick and Tony Martin, the Atlanta Falcons were an offensive powerhouse against the mistake-prone Arizona Cardinals.

Chris Chandler threw for three touchdowns, two to Terance Mathis, and rookie Jay Feely kicked field goals of 34 and 55 yards as the Falcons routed the Cardinals, 34-14, on Sunday.

With his two scoring receptions, Mathis passed Andre Rison as the Falcon career leader with 57.

Maurice Smith, playing in place of the injured Anderson, rushed for 80 yards and a touchdown in 21 carries. Smith, who didn’t carry the ball in Atlanta’s first two games, also went 79 yards for a touchdown on a short pass from Chandler, who was 20 for 28 for 286 yards with no interceptions.

“You never know when you’re going to have somebody go down,” Atlanta Coach Dan Reeves said. “Today we lost a great player in Jamal, and Maurice stepped in and did a great job.”

The paid crowd was announced at 28,878 at 73,000-seat Sun Devil Stadium. Temperature at kickoff was 104 with a 20 mph east wind.

The Falcons (2-1) dominated early, held off a brief rally in the third quarter and took advantage of four second-half Arizona turnovers.

Vick was out with sore ribs and Martin with a cracked collarbone. Then Anderson left with an injured left knee early in the game. Reeves said he thought his star running back would be out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, but Anderson said this one didn’t feel as bad as the torn ACL he had two years ago.