The Falcons took their run of misery to the west coast and handed the Los Angeles Chargers their fourth victory of the season. I say handed because neither team looked like they wanted any part in winning this game, combining for three interceptions in the final 5:08 of the game.

Atlanta’s offense continued sputtering this week, and that’s a really bad sign for fantasy managers in the playoffs who are reliant on Falcon players. Some good always blossoms in the middle of the bad, however.

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 14’s defeat against the Los Angeles Chargers

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2020 History:

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

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

Fantasy Stud - Calvin Ridley

Stat Line - 8 catches, 124 receiving yards, 1 receiving touchdown: 18.4 standard league points; 26.4 PPR points

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Calvin Ridley in this part of the column; actually, it’s been a while since we’ve seen anybody other than Younghoe Koo. Ridley, who helped many fantasy owners get to their fantasy playoffs, helped carry them into the next round with an explosive game.

With Julio Jones unavailable, Ryan locked on to his other first round wide receiver out of the University of Alabama to the tune of 12 targets. Ridley took those targets and turned them into his third-highest fantasy output of the season. Through all of Sunday’s games, Ridley was the overall WR3 in Week 14 in PPR, behind only Allen Robinson and Stefon Diggs

Ridley has now had four consecutive games with at least 14.0 PPR points since the bye and this is the third time this season where he has finished in the top 3 in scoring among WRs in PPR, exhibiting a strong floor and robust ceiling.

Ridley was a top 12 scoring wide receiver in PPR coming into this week, which is good for WR1 production. Quite the payoff for someone who was only a 3rd-4th round ADP investment in most leagues. Continue firing him up as a top option.

Dud

Matt Ryan: 224 passing yards, 1 passing touchdown, 3 interceptions, 1 carry, 3 rushing yards: 7.26 standard league/PPR points

This was arguably the worst game of Matt Ryan’s season as far as real life is concerned, and it reflected with his lack of production in fantasy as well. Ryan clearly missed Julio Jones, as he put up his second-worst yardage total of the season.

The late game meltdown was also squarely on his shoulders as well. Ryan’s three interceptions were a season high, with two of them coming on the final two drives to really kill his already low scoring output. What’s worse is that all three pics came in Charger territory, indirectly taking points away from both himself and other Atlanta fantasy contributors.

QB needy teams who decided stream Ryan in what looked to be a potential shootout were left disappointed, as he ended the day as the overall QB26 (and he’ll most likely end Week 14 as the overall QB28 unless either Baker Mayfield or Lamar Jackson completely melt down on Monday night).

This is the third time in the past four weeks since the bye where Ryan has failed to throw more than one touchdown pass. He hasn’t scored more than 14 points in any of those games and has broken the 20-point barrier just four times this year. With games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs remaining on the schedule, Ryan should be avoided for the rest of the fantasy playoffs.