The Atlanta Falcons suffered a heartbreaking defeat in a game where they just couldn’t get out of their own way. It was an incredibly frustrating afternoon which featured a missed kick, a costly red zone fumble, an even costlier fumble in the last minute of the game and an overthrown pass that should have been the game winning touchdown.

The result is another game that was right there for the Birds that they let slip through their grasp. They did not have last week’s luck for the Chargers kicker to miss, and the result is a 4-5 record. There was good news with a big return to the lineup, which is huge for fantasy managers as well.

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 is Atlanta’s fantasy stud and fantasy dud from Week 9’s defeat against the Los Angeles Rams.

Fantasy Stud/Dud 2022 History:

Past Studs: Cordarrelle Patterson (2), Marcus Mariota (2), Tyler Allgeier (2) Drake London (1), Kyle Pitts (1)

Past Duds: Kyle Pitts (3), Younghoe Koo (2) Falcons D/ST (1), Marcus Mariota (1), Drake London (1)

Fantasy Stud - Cordarrelle Patterson

Stat Line: 13 carries, 44 rushing yards, 2 rushing touchdowns, 1 catch, 9 receiving yards: 17.30 standard league points; 18.30 PPR points

Welcome back, Cordarrelle Patterson! After missing the last four games due to a knee procedure, Patterson was activated off of IR and immediately helped propel fantasy teams to victory. Despite missing four out of nine games, CP84 is still our leader in number of “fantasy stud” honors, showing that he is the most important fantasy asset on this Falcons team.

There were reports that Patterson would be eased back into his role, but he still led all running backs with 14 touches and was the primary goal line back. While Tyler Allgeier was the more efficient runner (123 yards from scrimmage on 11 touches), Patterson gobbled up more points by scoring both of Atlanta’s touchdowns. He nearly had another touchdown but it was called back due to multiple flags on the offensive line.

Resume plugging Patterson into your starting lineup no matter the matchup moving forward. He’s the best running back on the NFL’s most run heavy offense and his touches will likely ramp up even more moving forward.

Dud

Drake London: 3 catches, 23 receiving yards, 1 fumble: -1.3 standard league points; 2.3 PPR points

This easily could have been Kyle Pitts in this section this week (2 catches, 27 receiving yards), but I’m giving it to London due to his underwhelming receiving performance compounded with an egregious and unacceptable fumble which went a long way in losing Atlanta this football game.

London secured a first down catch just outside the five-yard-line to set Atlanta up for what should have been an eventual touchdown in the third quarter, but he allowed Khalil Mack to just take the ball away from him in the process of fighting for extra yards. The result was negative points for anyone unlucky enough to start him in a standard league.

London tied Pitts for the team lead in targets but he is not reliable in any format, and has not done anything of note for fantasy purposes since Week 3, which is when his last touchdown reception was. I would keep him on your bench until we see major change.