Another game against an AFC opponent, another loss for Dan Quinn as head coach. That’s now 1-8 against the AFC since 2017 if you’re keeping count.

The defense regressed, giving up 30 points, and more importantly losing Keanu Neal to what looked like a very bad injury. The offense was stuck in quicksand until the second half, and then just ran out of time.

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 is Atlanta’s fantasy stud and fantasy dud from Week 3’s defeat against the Indianapolis Colts.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2019 History:

Past Studs: Calvin Ridley (1), Julio Jones (1)

Past Duds: Devonta Freeman (1), Mohamed Sanu (1)

Fantasy Stud - Austin Hooper

Stat Line - 6 catches, 66 receiving yards, 2 receiving touchdowns: 18.6 standard league points, 24.6 PPR points

There were three very deserving candidates of the “stud” honor this week — in addition to Hooper, Julio Jones went for 128 yards and a score, and Matt Ryan racked up over 300 passing yards and three touchdowns.

However, Hooper gets the nod here because he put up almost the same amount of points as Jones (more than Ryan), but he did it at a more scarce position.

Hooper was the team’s second leading receiver with 66 yards, but it was his prolific performance in the red zone which solidified a monster fantasy total. The fourth-year man out of Stanford caught two touchdowns and rewarded fantasy players who rolled the dice with him in the tight end slot this week.

Hooper isn’t a very consistent fantasy performer, but with how shallow the TE position is he should be on a team in every single fantasy league. Hooper has the potential to have a big fantasy day in any given week with how prolific Atlanta’s passing offense is.

Dud

Calvin Ridley - 1 catch, 6 receiving yards: 0.6 standard league points, 1.6 PPR points

Naming Ridley as this week’s fantasy dud was an easy call. The second-year receiver out of Alabama was nowhere to be found on the stat sheet this week, making just one catch all afternoon.

After back to back PPR performances of 16.4 points and 24.5 points to start the season, Ridley was trusted in most fantasy lineups just to put up a goose egg of a performance.

Ridley is a solid WR2 in most weeks because of his talent and presence within Atlanta’s offense. However, this game was a painful reminder that he’s susceptible to putting up an awful performance in a given week.