The Falcons played some smash-mouth football en route to finding themselves completely out of the 0-2 hole with their second consecutive win, which also doubled down as their second victory against the Cleveland Browns since 1993.

Following some serious struggles in the passing game, Atlanta reverted their offense to something that looked like it was out of the 1980s, continually bullying and gashing Cleveland’s front seven in the run game. Basically, this is me saying I hope you had fantasy stock in Atlanta’s rushing offense and that you avoided their QB and pass catchers in your lineups.

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 4’s victory against the Cleveland Browns.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2022 History:

Past Studs: Cordarrelle Patterson (2), Drake London (1)

Past Duds: Kyle Pitts (2), Falcons D/ST (1)

Fantasy Stud - Tyler Allgeier

Stat Line: 10 carries, 84 rushing yards, 1 catch, 20 receiving yards: 10.4 standard league points; 11.4 PPR points

With reports of Cordarrelle Patterson missing practice and being a game time decision, Tyler Allgeier became an intriguing dart throw this week. Even with Patterson cleared to play, his snaps were clearly checked by the coaching staff this week and a committee seems to have been deployed.

In truth, you were in great shape had you started Patterson or Allgeier (or even Caleb Huntley). Following a string of incompletions and a Marcus Mariota interception in the third quarter, Arthur Smith dialed up the run 14 straight times. We will analyze that sequence every which way this week, but for the purposes of this article, it means that Atlanta’s running backs were the play in fantasy.

Patterson scored a touchdown, which salvaged his lower yardage total and fantasy day overall, but Allgeier led all Falcons with 104 yards from scrimmage. If you made this dart throw, you hit a bullseye.

With word coming that Cordarrelle Patterson is headed to IR, subsequently sidelining him for four weeks, Allgeier becomes a priority add if he is sitting on your waiver wire. Even with Damien Williams set to return from him IR stint soon, the rookie out of BYU has done enough to solidify a strong role moving forward.

Dud

Marcus Mariota: 139 passing yards, 1 interception, 5 carries, 3 rushing yards: 3.86 standard league/PPR points

The flip side of voluntarily shutting down the run game is that all Falcons relevant pass throwers and catchers were rendered completely ineffective. Mariota had played himself into streaming consideration this week, especially after it was announced that Myles Garrett, Jadaveon Clowney and Taven Bryan — three fourths of Cleveland’s starting defensive line — were ruled inactive.

Anyone who streamed Mariota, or started him in superflex/2 QB leagues, was left incredibly disappointed. A low passing yardage total, no real contribution rushing, no touchdowns and an interception which seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for Arthur Smith. Going into Monday Night Football, Mariota is the QB30 this week, which means that he was bad enough to single handedly tank your fantasy week if you started him.

Like an anchor, Mariota’s performance weighed down all fantasy relevant Falcons pass catchers as well. Kyle Pitts had just 25 receiving yards (on one catch) and Drake London just 17.

Mariota is not worth having on your fantasy roster. If he continues to struggle with the turnovers and mishandled snaps, he’s in danger of getting pulled for Desmond Ridder mid game, the same way the Steelers yanked Mitchell Trubisky for Kenny Pickett this week.