Matt Ryan and Falcons storm into Super Bowl

ATLANTA - The chants came for Matt Ryan in the first quarter Sunday. They came in the fourth quarter. They even followed Ryan through the corridor of the Georgia Dome after a 44-21 win over the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game, when confetti littered the field and a legion of fans outfitted in No. 2 Atlanta Falcons jerseys started planning trips to the Super Bowl.

M-V-P . . . M-V-P . . .

The serenade was for Ryan, an Exton native and Penn Charter graduate, who spent the first eight seasons of his career with the Falcons knocking on the door of the NFL's elite quarterback designation. He has reached the postseason, made Pro Bowls, been the face of the Falcons. But he never reached the Super Bowl.

In his ninth season, that changed.

"It's hard to get to this point," Ryan said. "I know that from experience."

Ryan made the playoffs in four of his eight seasons before this year. He won only one playoff game in that span, twice losing on his home field. Ryan consistently accumulated impressive statistics, but he trailed the best of his contemporaries when it came to Super Bowl appearances.

Ryan was the unquestioned star Sunday, throwing for four touchdowns and rushing for one in the final game at the Georgia Dome. He completed 27 of 38 passes for 392 yards, while also rushing for 29 yards. It was the first time in Ryan's career he had five combined touchdowns.

The best season of the 31-year-old's career will extend two more weeks. He will be one of the faces of Super Bowl LI against the New England Patriots on Feb. 5. On the night before, the NFL will announce whether Ryan won the MVP. He's considered a front-runner and has already joined rare company with the way he has performed during the season and postseason. Ryan outplayed Seattle's Russell Wilson and Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers on successive Sundays. Both Wilson and Rodgers already own Super Bowl rings. Ryan could be next.

"I don't think it's time to talk about legacy stuff," Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. "I hope we're battling for a long time together. For me, I think those are conversations for the end of your career, and for Matt and I, we're right in the middle of that."

Ryan will become the first quarterback from the Philadelphia region to start in the Super Bowl since Audubon, N.J.'s Joe Flacco with Baltimore in 2013. Rich Gannon, a Philadelphia native who went to St. Joseph's Prep, started for Oakland in the 2003 Super Bowl.

Ryan said he has learned just how difficult it is to win in the NFL, and all that must go into a quarterback playing in the final game of the season.

"Honestly, it's tough," Ryan said. "And to string together, get guys healthy, and playing your best at the right time, there's a lot of things that have to go into it. I feel like this team that we've had this year is the right mix."

It looked like Ryan's day from the opening drive, when he completed 6 of 8 pass attempts for 64 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown to Mohamad Sanu. After the Packers missed a field goal, Ryan drove the Falcons into field-goal range for a 10-0 lead.

The Falcons forced a fumble while Green Bay neared the end zone, with Jalen Collins recovering it and rolling into the end zone for a touchback. It could have potentially been ruled a safety, but the officials did not change the ruling on the field.

The Falcons capitalized on the turnover by going on an 80-yard touchdown drive. Ryan, who played in a triple-option offense at Penn Charter, showed the athleticism his high school teammates touted when he kept the ball for a 14-yard score.

When Ryan scanned the field, he saw the backs of Green Bay uniforms and open space. He pumped once to keep a deep safety honest, and then sprinted in a way seldom seen by the 6-foot-4, 217-pound quarterback.

"It was the longest run I've had in awhile, so it was a good one," Ryan said. "Came at a good time."

Quinn joked on the sideline, "Man, you look fast today."

Teammates hit him in celebration. Asked if he's ever seen Ryan run that fast, Sanu said, "All the time" with a smile.

"Don't be sleeping on him!" Sanu said.

Ryan's top target - and perhaps the NFL's best - is Julio Jones, who finished with nine catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns. The first score came with three seconds remaining in the first half. The second came on the Falcons' second offensive play of the second half when Jones took a short pass across the middle and sprinted through and past the Packers secondary for a 73-yard touchdown.

"Matt gave me a great ball," said Jones, who called Ryan the MVP. "He gave me a floater and let me run through the ball. After that, those guys weren't going to tackle me once I got going."

That gave the Falcons a 31-0 lead, and there was little that could be done to change the outcome during the next 29 minutes other than intrigue for those who gambled on the total points.

The Falcons have been an offensive juggernaut all season. Sunday marked the 13th time this season they topped 30 points and sixth time eclipsing 40 points. Their worst offensive output actually came in a visit to Philadelphia, when the Eagles limited them to 15 points in a loss on Nov. 13.

"At the beginning [of the season] when we got into OTAs and we were in training camp, I felt like we could be really good," Ryan said. "You talk about the number of different pieces that we had, the way we were working, all those things, I felt like we could be solid. . . . As a player, you stick to such a week-to-week routine. You're not really looking down the road all that much."

But there was no denying this moment. Ryan's supporters made the trip from the Northeast, including friends from high school. They've seen him grow from Penn Charter to Boston College to the Falcons, seen the early-career highlights and the playoff disappointments, and now the MVP-caliber season and a Super Bowl bid.

The Falcons will need another big game from Ryan in two weeks - meaning Ryan will need to beat another Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Tom Brady, to join an even more exclusive fraternity.

"I feel exactly the same," Ryan said with a laugh. "I'm happy for everyone in our organization. We've worked hard to get to this point. The challenge is still in front of us. What we want to accomplish is still in front of us."

zberman@phillynews.com

@ZBerm