Atlanta Falcons studs and duds from a tough-to-swallow loss to the Saints in Week 13.
Since starting the year off with a brutal record of 0-5 overall, the Atlanta Falcons have started to turn things around to some extent in the middle of the 2020 NFL season. Following that winless start, the Falcons had since won four of their last six games leading into a Week 13 contest against a familiar NFC South opposition they just faced a few weeks ago.
Atlanta remained at home following a dominant win in Week 12, this time hosting the New Orleans Saints for the second time in three weeks and for the second and final time of the regular season.
After falling to the Saints the first time around in Week 11, the Falcons aimed to even the two-game regular-season series against the divisional opponent on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for Atlanta, it fell once again to New Orleans for the second time in a matter of a few weeks.
To open up the game, the Saints jumped out to a lead in the first half while taking a 14-9 advantage into halftime in Atlanta.
In the second half, New Orleans got out to a strong start to begin the second half while Atlanta tried to battle back into things late. The teams both notched seven points in the final two quarters ending up in the Saints pulling away with a 21-16 victory.
With the win, New Orleans improves to 10-2 overall on the season and remains atop the NFC South division. In the loss, Atlanta falls to 4-8 on the year and has now dropped to 2-5 at home so far in 2020.
Atlanta will return to action in Week 14 when it faced yet another tough test to finish out the regular season schedule, hitting the road to play the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday evening in Los Angeles. New Orleans gets back to the field in Week 14 when it remains on the road while battling the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday evening in Philadelphia.
With the second and final game between the Falcons and Saints now behind us, here are some studs and duds from Atlanta in the NFC South showdown in Week 13.
Stud: Calvin Ridley
One thing that has been a common occurrence so far this season has been the play of Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley and consistently being a dominant force in the passing game in Atlanta. Especially with injury issues to Julio Jones thus far this season, Ridley has stepped up and has arguably been the top-performing receiver for the Falcons here in 2020.
On Sunday afternoon in Week 13, Ridley once again led that receiving group through the air, finishing with five catches for a team-best 108 yards. He also tallied 10 targets and a game-long reception of 31 yards.
Ridley has continued to step up week-in and week-out for Atlanta, and he did that once again this weekend.
Dud: Running game
The first dud that took place in the game was the lack of a run game that the Falcons displayed against a top-notch defense on the side of the Saints.
With Todd Gurley coming into the game with some injury concerns, although he ended up playing in the contest, the running group on the side of Atlanta didn’t do much to help out the passing attack and open up the field.
As a unit, the Falcons finished with 21 rush attempts for 70 yards, with Ito Smith, Brian Hill and Gurley recording all the rushing yards. Smith had eight carries for 36 yards, Hill had five catches for 18 yards and Gurley finished with eight carries for 16 yards.