Atlanta Falcons - Fantasy News

Who to Start: Matt Ryan or Jared Goff?

by Mike Rose

1/5/18

NFL

Atlanta Falcons

Matt Ryan

The first of two NFC Wild Card playoff matchups will occur at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night when the Rams welcome the Atlanta Falcons for an opening-round clash between the defending Super Bowl champions and a team that hasn’t experienced a playoff atmosphere since 2003.

Both quarterbacks will be on display in this one as Matt Ryan outplayed Cam Newton in Week 17 to get the Falcons back into the postseason while Jared Goff took the final week of the campaign off to rest.

This matchup on paper should be great, but will the youth of Goff prevail over the veteran Ryan?

Fantasy Matchup: Matt Ryan (15.5 PFP) vs. Jared Goff (18.0 PFP)

Ryan has averaged 14.51 Dober Fantasy Points per game, a figure that is a little below Goff’s weekly mark, and he enters this tilt as a 3.5-point underdog on the road. This comes as a bit of a surprise as he has at his disposal two of the more productive and biggest targets in wideouts Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu.

For the season, Ryan has thrown for 4,095 yards with 20 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. He’s managed to play to a quarterback rating above 100 six times including three straight efforts (Weeks 10-12). In this Wild Card matchup, he’ll run up against a No. 13 ranked Rams pass defense that surrendered just over 217.0 yards per game during the regular season. The Falcons will march the No. 8 passing attack (249.4 yards per contest) onto the gridiron, and they also rank eighth in total yards gained per game (364.8).

The Falcons went 5-3 on the road in 2017 and will enter this postseason with a chip on their shoulder after being just over a quarter away from a Super Bowl title before letting go of a surefire win to Tom Brady and the Patriots in the Big Game. Ryan finished this season as the No. 15 fantasy quarterback and will hope that his and the team’s experience can help propel them to another run to the Super Bowl as the No. 6 seed.

Meanwhile, after an awful rookie season, Goff put forth a stellar sophomore campaign under first-year head coach Sean McVay. He threw for 3,807 yards with an outstanding 28-to-7 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He also played to a quarterback rating of 100 or better six times and finished with an average mark of 100.5. While finishing as the No. 8 fantasy quarterback, Goff led the Rams to a 7-1 road record but only a .500 mark at home.

In the team’s triumphs, he was remarkable throwing for 2,873 yards with an outstanding 25-to-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio. In his losses, of which four occurred in front of the hometown faithful, he only threw for 931 yards with a 3-to-3 score-to-pick ratio.

The fact that the Goff-led Rams finished .500 at home concerns me a bit. Having only one season of successful ball under their collective belt as the No. 10 passing attack in the league could be their downfall. Yes, running back Todd Gurley is going to do his thing, but will it be enough to take down the defending NFC champs? I’m not sure.

This is about the quarterbacks, though. I’m going out on a limb and trusting the veteran and the champs until they’re dethroned. Go with Ryan for your Dober Play Card in this matchup.

Wild Card Playoff Fantasy Projection: Matt Ryan (+2.5) vs. Jared Goff