Something seems to have gotten into the Falcons following the bye week. After blowing out the Saints in New Orleans last week, they absolutely annihilated the Panthers in Charlotte for an encore.

The Falcons have moved to 3-7, and while a playoff run is still incredibly improbable, they certainly don’t look like a team you want to face right now. The fantasy pickings were plentiful this week, even with starters Devonta Freeman and Austin Hooper inactive.

There is a lot of great content available here at the Falcoholic, and I encourage you to check it out if you want some in-depth analysis. This article will look at things strictly from a fantasy football perspective (that means looking at nothing other than purely statistics). Here are Atlanta’s fantasy stud and fantasy dud from Week 11’s victory against the Carolina Panthers.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2019 History:

Past Studs: Austin Hooper (3), Julio Jones (2), Matt Ryan (2), Calvin Ridley (1), Younhoe Koo (1)

Past Duds: Calvin Ridley (3), Devonta Freeman (1), Mohamed Sanu (1), Julio Jones (1), Mohamed Sanu (1), Matt Ryan (1), Matt Bryant (1)

Fantasy Stud - Atlanta Falcons D/ST

Stat Line - 5 sacks, 4 interceptions, 1 return touchdown, 3 points allowed, 347 yards allowed: 26.00 standard league/PPR points

I never thought I would list the Falcons defense in this part of the column (this season at least), but this unit completely earned it with the way they performed this week.

The Falcons defense put themselves on the streaming radar with a strong showing against the Saints, however it was a showing in which they didn’t force a single turnover and thus only tallied 10 points. The Atlanta defense had actually only forced four turnovers all season coming into this game, and they matched that figure in Week 11.

The Falcons’ defensive unit had a combined 19 fantasy points before this game — last in all of fantasy football — and they eclipsed that entire total behind the strength of five sacks, four interceptions, and a Kenjon Barner punt return touchdown. They were the highest scoring defense in fantasy this week.

Atlanta has earned streaming consideration moving forward, especially with another juicy matchup against Kyle Allen and two games against turnover prone Jameis Winston and his Bucs on the horizon.

Dud

Brian Hill - 15 carries, 30 rushing yards, 1 catch, 8 receiving yards: 3.8 standard league points, 4.8 PPR points

Hill looked like a very good flex play coming into this game, given the number of touches he would receive with Freeman injured, but he didn’t put up the stat line fantasy players were hoping for when they rushed to pick him up off the waiver wire.

Carolina completely shut down Atlanta’s run game, and held Hill to a meager 2.0 yards per carry. The Wyoming alum almost salvaged his fantasy day with a late rushing touchdown, but it was called back due to a holding penalty. The rushing touchdown Atlanta did score came in the hands of Qadree Ollison, who certified himself as a fantasy scavenger for this week.

Hill still retains value as long as Freeman is out, and he should be able to put up bigger numbers if he continues receiving 15+ carries in the coming games.