Several good candidates stand out in the narrow road victory.
For the first time in over 300 days, the Falcons got a win on Sunday. They beat a Giants team that was well-rested and playing at home, even if they struggled to get to that outcome throughout the entire afternoon.
Thankfully, several players/groups did what they could to help secure this victory and we celebrate them below. Tell us who you think was the critical piece in this victory.
Cordarrelle Patterson
Watching Patterson succeed in Atlanta makes you wonder why other teams couldn’t utilize him in this way. His 7 carries for 20 yards didn’t light up the scoreboard, but he led the team with 6 receptions for 82 yards on 7 targets. For the second straight week, he’s looked like the most dominant weapon of this Falcons offense and his role looks to be expanding every week. He may not be RB1, but he’s clear offensive weapon #1 at this point.
Isaiah Oliver
This guy has been absolutely derided by fans over the last few years and today was the kind of performance to shut down criticism. Not only did Oliver have 2 key pass deflections on the day, he added a forced fumble and fumble recovery to that list as well. His move to the slot has been a mostly positive one and today was no exception.
The offensive line
This unit was mostly responsible for the offensive struggles in the first two weeks, but that blame should go elsewhere in this game. They managed to keep the run game going and did a good job of giving Matt Ryan a pocket to operate out of. It’s progress and with several new starters on the interior, we’ll take it.
Special teams
Atlanta brought in competition for Cameron Nizialek this week and he responded with his strongest punting game to date. He regularly pinned the Giants inside their 20 and he looked nothing like the shaky young player against the Bucs. On top of that, special teams coverage did a good job all afternoon and of course Younghoe Koo punched in the game winning field goal at the end.
Leave a Reply