The Falcons had another opportunity to win at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but it’s just not happening 13 weeks into the season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers completed a sweep of the Birds for the second consecutive year.

The Falcons were in the game in the fourth quarter, but they couldn’t muster enough scoring to keep pace with Tampa’s high powered offense, even though they were helped by an electrifying Marlon Davidson pick 6 before halftime.

Atlanta’s offense struggled, and that was not a good thing for fantasy managers in the middle of the playoff hunt. This Falcons offense as a whole is pretty difficult to trust at this point.

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 pure statistics). Here are Atlanta’s fantasy stud and fantasy dud from Week 13’s defeat against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2021 History:

Past Studs: Cordarrelle Patterson (5), Kyle Pitts (3), Younghoe Koo (1), Matt Ryan (1), Nobody (1)

Past Duds: Mike Davis (3), Matt Ryan (3), Kyle Pitts (3), Younghoe Koo (1), Olamide Zaccheaus (1)

Stud: Russell Gage

Stat Line: 11 catches, 130 receiving yards, 1 fumble: 11.0 standard league points; 22.0 PPR points

Welcome to your best performance of the season, Russell Gage. The former sixth round draft selection out of LSU exploded for a career high in both receptions and receiving yards, emerging as Matt Ryan’s favorite target in this one.

With the defense focusing on Cordarrelle Patterson and Kyle Pitts, Gage took advantage of the favorable coverage and made play after play as he was peppered with targets. He finished Week 13 as the overall WR8 in PPR, going into the Monday Night Football game. The one blemish on the evening was his lost fumble, which took away three points.

Gage should be rostered in all leagues as he is coming off of back to back impactful performances. It’s difficult to trust any of Atlanta’s wide receivers, but Gage could be a decent option to use if you’re in a pinch with Week 14 bye weeks, or injuries.

Dud

Matt Ryan: 297 passing yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 3 carries. 2 rushing yards: 12.08 standard league/PPR points

Ryan’s fantasy struggles continued in Week 13, as he has now thrown just one touchdown pass, against five interceptions, in the past four games. Atlanta’s only offensive touchdown of the afternoon came in the form of a Mike Davis rushing score, which didn’t help Ryan fantasy owners at all.

When a quarterback fails to find the end zone at all in a game, that generally makes for a very rough fantasy performance. Ryan was the overall QB19 in fantasy this week at the conclusion of Sunday’s games. He has failed to put together a QB1 performance since Week 9.

Ryan shouldn’t be trusted on fantasy teams moving forward. Next week’s matchup against the Carolina Panthers is a rematch from a Week 8 game where Ryan put up just 6.14 points, as he was terrorized by Carolina’s front seven all game.