Atlanta Falcons: Studs and duds from Week 9 vs. Broncos

Stud: Matt Ryan

Matt Ryan paced the Falcons offense to putting up 34 points in the win, every bit which was needed to come away with the victory and hold off a late-game comeback attempt on the side of the Broncos.

In the win, Ryan tallied 25 completions on 35 pass attempts, throwing for 284 yards and three touchdowns along the way. He did manage to throw one interception, but that didn’t ultimately weigh heavily on the outcome of the game by the end of the fourth quarters.

Without Ridley on the outside of the field and in the offense on Sunday, it was good to see the Falcons led by Ryan continue their dominance in the passing attack to pull out a victory at home.

Dud: Lack of a run game

There’s no doubting or hiding the fact that Atlanta’s run game hasn’t been that dominant to this point in the 2020 season, but with the type of passing game the Falcons have, sometimes it’s not as needed as many would like.

On Sunday against Denver in Week 9, the run game wasn’t that dominant, although Atlanta’s passing game and success in that area of the offense fed into that to some extend.

Overall as a unit, the Falcons ran for just 92 yards and one touchdown on 32 rush attempts, led by Todd Gurley once again with 19 carries for 53 yards and one touchdown. Brian Hill also pitched in with eight carries for 24 yards behind Gurley.

It would be nice to see the Falcons continue to establish a bit of a ground game to further open things up for the passing attack on offense.