Here are the grades after reviewing the film from the Falcons’ 31-17 loss to the Saints last Thursday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

NBC analyst Rodney Harrison put this defeat at the feet of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.

“I’m surprised Matt Ryan didn’t play his best football,” Harrison said late in the broadcast. “Your season is on the line. This is when you expect your best players to deliver.”

On to the grades:

Run offense: Ryan was the leading rusher. Enough said. The Falcons were held to 26 rushing yards on 16 carries and were eliminated from the NFC South divisional title race. The rushing total was the lowest since a 17-yard effort in a 17-16 to the 49ers on Nov. 8, 2015. Devonta Freeman was held to 12 yards on 12 carries. Right guard Ben Garland and right tackle Ryan Schraeder had tough outings against the Saints. Grade: F 

Matt Ryan didn't recognize safety Marcus Williams in the A-Gap and Austin Hooper couldn't come over from tight end fast enough to block him. The failure led to a fumble.
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Pass offense: The ball handling was shoddy as Ryan, Julio Jones and Calvin Ridley had fumbles in the red zone. Ryan's happened when he was trying to pass off an RPO on the 2-yard line on third down. He didn't see the safety in the A-gap and didn't change his pass protection. Here again, the Falcons were trying to get cute in a short-yardage situation and it backfired. If they'd scored on the opening drive it would have changed the game. With the Falcons down 17-3 and on the move right before the half, Jones was hit low my Marshon Lattimore and high by linebacker Alex Anzalone and fumbled. "Sometimes you have to know when to get down," Harrison said. "You've got two timeouts, get down." If the Falcons had scored there and when they got the ball to open the second half, maybe it would have turned into a game. The Falcons were down 31-10 when Ridley fumbled. The Falcons did amass 377 yards mostly to nowhere as they moved the ball between the 20s, but kept turning it over. Grade: D-minus 

Falcons guard Ben Garland gets beat by Saints defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins' outside swim move. Ranks breaks free and tracks down Matt Ryan for the sack.
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Run defense: The Falcons were gashed again. It started on the opening play when Alvin Kamara blasted off tackle for an 18-yard gain. He wasn't touched until he was 15 yards down the field. Kamara and Mark Ingram combined to rush for 141 yards on 25 carries. The Falcons were getting knocked out of their gaps too often. Kamara and Ingram averaged 5.6 yards per game against the Falcons defense. Wondering if the team wish it would have came up with the money to keep defensive tackle Dontari Poe? Grade: F.

Free safety Damontae Kazee made a nice interception and was ruled down by contact.
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Pass defense: The Falcons were proud that they held Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas to four catches for 38 yards. But that was because the Saints didn't need to pass because the running game was working so well. While the Falcons can claim they held Thomas down, they still gave up four touchdown passes and two of them came on blown coverages by linebacker De'Vondre Campbell and cornerback Desmond Trufant. The pass rush produced two sacks and three quarterback hits. Defensive end Takk McKinley flushed the quarterback on Terrell McClain's sack. McKinley has one sack over the past seven games and played 32 snaps and didn't register a stat. Damontae Kazee had his sixth interception and returned it for an apparent touchdown. Replays showed that Kazee was down by contact on a play that a pass interference penalty could have been called on Brian Poole. "I looked at the cornerback and he was grabbing and holding the receiver," Harrison said. "I thought it should have been a flag, but great break on the ball by Damontae Kazee."  Grade: D

Special teams: Marvin Hall had three kickoff returns for 105 yards, including a 41-yard return. Punter Matt Bosher averaged 44.5 net yards on two punts. With the Falcons going for it on six fourth downs, the specials teams weren't much of a factor. Kicker Matt Bryant made his only field goal attempt, a 32-yarder. Grade B

Falcons guard Ben Garland lost Saints defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins on an inside spin move. Rankins collapsed the pocket, which led to a sack of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan by Saints defensive end Cam Jordan.
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Coaching: 

Things went downhill after the Falcons won the toss and elected to send the 32nd ranked defense, by Football Outsiders, out of the field against the top scoring offense in the league.

The Falcons were basically spotting the Saints a touchdown and declaring the game a shootout. The Saints promptly scored, but the Falcons got cute in the red zone from the 2-yard line and fumbled. The Falcons were chasing points the rest of the game and eventually fell behind 24-3 with 5:59 left in the third quarter. With the Falcons rushing attack shut down, the game was essentially over. It would have been better to send the offense out and let them try to score, set the tone and let the shaky defense play with a lead. You don’t mind the gambles on fourth downs with the state of the defense. Whatever you have to do to keep them off the field, do it. The defense hasn’t proved it can stop anyone this season except for Washington when the offense went out and got them a 21-3 lead. The Falcons probably weren’t capable of beating the Saints this season, but sending the defense out first was a big mistakes.

Grade D-plus.

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