The Falcons emerged from their bye week a defeated team that looked like it made no use of the extra period of preparation. Atlanta suffered unacceptable defeat in New Orleans against Taysom Hill and the Saints.

The offense was putrid, not finding the end zone once and scoring just nine points total. It was a rough week for the majority of fantasy managers who utilized Atlanta’s fantasy relevant players in their potential playoff push this week.

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 9’s defeat against the New Orleans Saints.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2020 History:

Past Studs: Todd Gurley (4), Calvin Ridley (2), Julio Jones, Younghoe Koo, Matt Ryan

Past Duds: Calvin Ridley (2), Russell Gage (2), Hayden Hurst, Julio Jones, Matt Ryan, Brian Hill, Younghoe Koo

Fantasy Stud - Younghoe Koo

Stat Line - 1/1 20-29, 2/2 50+: 13.0 standard league/PPR points

Every single fantasy relevant Atlanta Falcon disappointed, except for Koo, who continued to be absolutely brilliant.

Koo was called on to deliver a field goal three separate times in the first half and he was perfect on all of his tries, including two of which were from beyond 50 yards. The Georgia Southern alum is now 24/25 on field goal attempts this season, including 5/5 from beyond 50 yards. His 24 field goal conversions are the most in the NFL.

I really don’t have a single negative word to say about Koo’s performance this season, he’s been overall sublime and has been a very worthy successor to Falcon great Matt Bryant.

Because of Atlanta’s struggles converting red zone looks into touchdowns this season, and because he’s been automatic when given the opportunity to kick, Koo is an absolute set and forget in your kicker position for the rest of the season.

Dud

Matt Ryan: 232 passing yards, 0 touchdowns, 2 interceptions: 5.28 standard league/PPR points

It was a rough afternoon for Matt Ryan. Following what looked like a very promising initial drive that stalled out in the red zone, Ryan and the Falcons offense got nothing going the rest of the day.

Ryan was sacked eight times in this one, as the offensive line collapsed all around him. In fairness, many of those sacks were the result of Ryan holding the ball for too long as his receivers couldn’t get much separation.

The Falcons never even sniffed the end zone, and the absolute dominance by the Saints’ front seven didn’t even allow Matt Ryan the opportunity to rack up some points in garbage time.

The New Orleans defense has been flexing its muscle the past few weeks and they did so in a brutal way against the Falcons in this one. Those who started Ryan were left hoping the rest of their fantasy roster could pick up the slack.