"Nothing like a little drama, right? The Falcons turned a 24-3 lead into a 25-24 deficit and suddenly nobody at the Georgia Dome knew whether they were a Super Bowl contender or a genetic mutation from the Marion Campbell era, returning for a haunting.

But they won, and it's important to remember how they won. They were aggressive. They attacked. They didn't run an offense like you would throw a dart. They ran an offense like you would fire a bazooka.

Remember this game. Because if the Falcons go on to make something special of this season, it will be partly because of the lessons learned in Sunday's frenetic 39-32 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Matt Ryan threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns. He even passed on third and short. Roddy White had the kind of game Jerry Rice used to have: 11 catches covering 201 yards, two touchdowns and a two-point conversion - those last eight points giving the Falcons the lead back immediately following a third-quarter, 22-point meltdown. He couldn't be stopped.

"We've been doing some good things with the offense but today we took a lot of shots down field," White said. "We were more aggressive with the play-calling and it paid off."

Behold, the offense.

Falcons coach Mike Smith is old school. He's all about physical play on defense and running the ball on offense. That's fine to a point. The problem here is that the Falcons have weapons that at times haven't been fully utilized.

It also has seemed that Ryan has been kept under wraps more in season three than he was in season one. Whether that has been the decision of Smith or offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, or just perception, can't be certain. But there's little question what we saw Sunday is not what we've been seeing lately. In the last three weeks, there were unimpressive victories over San Francisco and Cleveland and an ugly loss at Philadelphia.

Criticism of the offensive philosophy and play-calling grew as loud as it ever had been since the latest regime took over. And, yes, some of it was internal."