Commanders @ Falcons
Final Score: Washington 24, Atlanta 16
Writer: Michael James (@MikeoftheFF on Twitter)
Washington rides into Atlanta trying to shake off their previous performance last week, but Desmond Ridder comes into this week undefeated as a starter at home. If you include his starts in college at the University of Cincinnati, he’s 31-0 as a starting QB at home. Two milestones would be reached today, Ridder’s first home loss and Calais Campbell achieving his 100th career sack, becoming the sixth active player with triple-digit sacks. The first half went smoothly for both offenses but the Falcons offense would veer into the rough when coming out for the second half; they would never recover. A few goal-line stands later, the Commanders came away victorious.
Now, let’s get into the game that featured B. Robinson vs B. Robinson.
Three Up
- Drake London – Achieved his highest targets, receptions, and yards totals for the season today bringing in 21 fantasy points in PPR leagues.
- Falcons Tight Ends – Both came away with 4 receptions and a touchdown each. Now if we could just find a way to fuse them into one super tight end for fantasy…
- Terry McLaurin – Started the game on fire and ended the day with 14 points in PPR
Three Down
- Logan Thomas – If you’re in PPR, he got you *a* point. Quite a difference when compared to last week’s blistering performance.
- Desmond Ridder – Higher than usual passing volume helped smooth out the day overall, but whatever fourth-quarter juice he had last week was left behind.
- Commanders’ Pass Protection – Washington gives up the most sacks to date on the season and Howell took another 10 QB hits to go along with five more sacks on the day
Look at the reaction by #Falcons coach Arthur Smith to that INT by Ridder 😆pic.twitter.com/d4Th4Nxnudhttps://t.co/xVUIt4S1AW
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 15, 2023
Washington Commanders
I contemplated putting “Commanders First Half Offense” in the Three Up and “Commanders Second Half Offense” in the Three Down.
Quarterback
Sam Howell: 14/23, 151 Yards, 3 TD | 4 carries, 3 yards
“The problem of Sam Howell holding onto the ball for too long continues” was mentioned on the broadcast today by Matt Ryan. I was already jotting a note down on that play about how strange it was to hear “plenty of time” and “sacked for a loss” mentioned in the same play. It just felt like his timer in the pocket, something that is mentioned a lot with quarterbacks, needs some tuning. The Falcons entered the day at the bottom of the league in sacks for the season and doubled their season total in one game after today’s match ended. In the second half, the Commanders would accumulate a whopping 32 combined yards over their last four drives spanning 15 plays; all of them ending in a punt.
Notes
- 3-for-7 on the deep ball
- 9 of the 10 3rd-downs today were 3rd-and-longs
- 109 of his 151 passing yards came in the first half
- 12-for-18 in the first half
Missed Opportunities
- Two of his three first-half sacks came on back-to-back plays to end the half. Talk about momentum-killing
- 2-for-10 on third-down conversions
Running Back
The Falcons seemed to throw up a brick wall today as Washington was only able to total 22 carries for 72 yards for a pedestrian 3.3 yards per carry.
Brian Robinson Jr: 10 carries, 31 yards | 2 targets, 2 receptions, 25 yards, TD
Notes
- Robinson logged only 4 carries for 6 yards in the second half.
- His two long runs of 9 yards each came on getting around outside to the edge. He did not find space running up the middle.
- On the second play of the third quarter, he caught a dump-off pass with blockers in front and found his way into the end zone.
Missed Opportunities
- He took a counter-blitz dump screen pass 15 yards downfield but it was called back for holding.
Antonio Gibson: 3 carries, 15 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, 1 yard, TD
Notes
- Really impressive run between the tackles where he was contacted around the line of scrimmage and then just hulked his way to another eight yards straight up the field, carrying bodies with him.
- There was a neat formation at the 1-yard line where Gibson was the halfback and Robinson was the fullback. Howell faked the run, rolled out, and connected with Gibson for the 1-yard touchdown.
Chris Rodriguez Jr: 4 carries, 23 yards
The rookie’s first carry of the game came around the 7:45 mark in the third quarter, where he rattled off three carries in a row for 21 of his 23 total yards on that drive.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Terry McLaurin: 11 targets, 6 receptions, 81 yards
There was a clear effort to get McLaurin involved early; he ended the first quarter with 4 catches for 45 yards. He was gaining separation right off the line early but this tightened up as the game went on. There were a couple of replays where you could see him open but Howell was scrambling away or getting sacked.
Notes
- Three receptions came over the middle. He also grabbed one on each side of the field and another on a flat route.
- His biggest catch came on a free play on which Howell dropped a dime down the sideline for 22 yards.
- McLaurin went 2-for-3 on deep balls.
- He totaled 35 total yards after the catch.
Missed Opportunities
- “Scary Terry” was targeted on five third downs but only converted one of them.
- McLaurin recorded only 1 reception on 3 targets in the second half; he was double-covered often.
Curtis Samuel: 4 targets, 4 receptions, 42 yards, TD | 1 carry, 0 yards
Samuel once again out-touched Jahan Dotson, burying any notion of the latter becoming fantasy-relevant anytime soon. His 7-yard touchdown came on a crossing route in the red zone; it was encouraging to see Howell look his way so close to paydirt.
Notes
- Samuel saw all of his receiving work in the first half.
- One play was a jet sweep down to the 2-yard line but the ball was “tossed” one foot to him at the snap so it counted as a pass (woo PPR!)
Missed Opportunities
- Took a direct snap but went nowhere with it. It was nice to see Samuel continuing to get a carry here and there for additional opportunities to gain yards for his fantasy managers.
Logan Thomas: 1 target, 1 reception, 2 yards
:(
Honestly, I’m just as confused as anyone as to why Logan Thomas went from seeing 11 targets last week to just one this week. He never left the game due to injury and seemed to be out there in his typical capacity. They just didn’t throw him the ball this week; I wish I knew why. Hopefully, we’ll get some explanation this week from the coaches as to why they chose not to feature Logan Thomas as much as they did last week in what appeared to be a favorable matchup for him.
Atlanta Falcons
Quarterback
Desmond Ridder: 28/47, 307 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT | 2 carries, 18 yards
It was a tale of two halves for Ridder, who looked to build on his performance from last week. Unfortunately, the wheels came off in the second half with three interceptions and a turnover on downs. The Falcons’ front line seemed to run out of gas in the second half and Ridder found himself flushed out of the pocket or taking a hit as he threw. I must say, I was impressed by his pocket sense. He seemed to escape right on time on a lot of pressures, including scrambling to evade Chase Young and running out to convert the third down with his feet. There were a lot of ups and downs in this game: one moment he stepped up under pressure to complete an accurate pass with a hand in his face, but others he threw way off the mark with plenty of time in the pocket to throw. The broadcast mentioned multiple times where Ridder and his receiver were not on the same page with routes run and passes thrown into empty space (or the opposing team).
Notes
- He was very effective on play-action in the second half.
- He was bailed out of a sack-fumble with a roughing the passer penalty (hands to the face)
- Showed impressive poise in the 2-minute drill, going 60 yards in 90 seconds on 5/5 passing
- Was only 2-for-8 on deep balls
Missed Opportunities
- On his first interception, the Commanders rushed five and Bijan Robinson ran a different route than what Ridder had anticipated.
- Had a trick play hand-off to Robinson to the left, who then threw it backward to Ridder on the right. The quarterback delivered a pass downfield but it went right through the hands of his receiver.
- Toward the end of the first half, he was flagged for intentional grounding when he failed to get the pass to the line of scrimmage. This might have been in his head in the second half when he was run down for an 11-yard sack as he had time to throw it away at the sideline, but just didn’t.
- Ridder rolled out on a play in the red zone and sailed a corner fade over the head of his receiver in the end zone.
- He incurred a delay of game penalty inside the 2-yard line and almost took another on the next play.
- He hurried out of the pocket on that next play and attempted a fadeaway jump pass to the back of the end zone, but it was several yards short and picked off.
- More play clock mismanagement: the Falcons were forced to take a time out to avoid another delay of game penalty immediately after spiking the ball to stop the clock right before that.
Running Back
One positive to note is they did not seem to abandon the run in the fourth quarter until the two-minute drill. However, I am left scratching my head at watching the Falcons blow opportunities on both 2nd and 3rd and goal inside the 2-yard line with one of the more talented backfields in the NFL: they opted to pass both times. I am wondering if perhaps Allgeier getting stuffed on the 1-yard, 2-point conversion attempt earlier lingered in the heads of the coaching staff.
Tyler Allgeier: 13 carries, 51 yards | 1 target
Allgeier had a power run in the red zone for 11 yards; six of them were after contact, evidence of hard running that continues to encourage the coaching staff to give him the football. However, as mentioned above, he was stuffed on a 1-yard, 2-point conversion attempt. His stat line would look a lot more impressive if he wasn’t tripped up by a shoe tackle at the line of scrimmage on one rushing attempt with nothing but open field in front of him.
Bijan Robinson: 13 carries for 37 yards, 5 receptions on 8 targets for 43 yards
It was very encouraging to see 8 targets for the rookie today. He was on point today with his cuts, evading the first tackler for extra yards multiple times. He was inexplicably uncovered on a swing route to the sideline and recorded a catch-and-run for 22 yards to convert a 3rd and 7. He even had a deep target halfway through the second quarter. His day would’ve been much better had a long pass on a wheel route down the sidelines not gone just out of reach. Defenses were clearly keying on him underneath: he was the target of the first and third interceptions, and he was also the target of a key 4th-and-3 attempt that was well-defended.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Drake London: 12 targets, 9 receptions, 125 yards
It seemed Washington prioritized the rush defense stacking the box and the primary beneficiary of that was Drake London. In fact, “London over the middle” was a phrase repeated several times today with five of his nine receptions coming in that area. On eight of his 12 targets, he was lined up on the left side of the field.
Notes
- His longest catch of the day was a 32-yard bomb go-route on a free play down the right sideline on which he was awarded the reception on a dual possession catch.
- 32 of his 125 yards were after the catch.
Missed Opportunities
- London was the target of an unsuccessful 2-point conversion attempt, but he drew a pass interference penalty.
- After catching the first two passes of the two-minute drill he went to the sidelines seemingly in pain after blocking for the Robinson reception and would miss a few plays but would return for the final play of the game (at the time of writing, I found no further information online about a potential injury to London).
Kyle Pitts: 6 targets, 4 receptions, 43 yards, TD
FINALLY! It was refreshing to see Kyle Pitts finally score a touchdown. Arthur Smith and company figured out that a speedy, 6-foot-6-inch athletic specimen with great hands makes a great red zone weapon. Unfortunately for Pitts’ fantasy managers, the coaching staff’s infatuation with Jonnu Smith continued, capping Pitts’ ceiling yet again.
Notes
- His first touchdown of the season was in the back of the end zone over double coverage.
- Had a deep ball target.
- If your league counts IDP scoring, he had a solo tackle.
- Pitts converted three 3rd downs, including one pass interference draw. Encouraging for his fantasy managers to see him being used in clutch situations.
- Had a huge catch-and-run over the middle for 19 yards.
Mack Hollins: 4 targets, 3 receptions, 41 yards
The team’s only fourth down conversion came on a reception to Hollins on 4th-and-4 over the middle. He was wide open on a crossing route, but Ridder missed him.
Jonnu Smith: 5 targets, 4 receptions, 36 yards, TD
Smith’s 2-yard touchdown came on a flat route on the goal line, where he was open thanks to play-action. He, not Pitts, recorded three catches for 32 yards and a touchdown on their last scoring drive.
Van Jefferson: 2 targets
One of Jefferson’s targets was around a 50-yard bomb that was overthrown by a couple of yards. He had no chance on the other, either: it was intercepted before it ever reached him.