FLOWERY BRANCH – Falcons running back Devonta Freeman, one of the breakout stars of the first half of the NFL season, is staying busy off the field, too.
Not only will the NFL’s second-leading rusher get some time to rest up his body over the bye week break, he will catch up on his class work.
Freeman is taking a couple online classes while finishing up classes toward his bachelor’s degree from Florida State.
“It’s going good,” Freeman said. “I just want to finish what I started. I just want to be a complete person, all around. Football, off the field, family issues, I want to be the best son that I can be to my Mom. Best big brother. Best football player. Best team mate.”
Freeman is taking two online classes this semester: Social Psychology of Groups an Intro to World Cities. He’s majoring in sports management and is about 18 credit hours away for his goal.
He gets in most of his work after home games and on Tuesdays, which is his off day. He has to post his assignments online.
“I just want to finish school to be able have a full story about myself,” Freeman said. “It wasn’t just football. School is everything to me.”
The workload is manageable.
“It’s not that tough,” Freeman said. “I’m online.”
Freeman’s studies certainly haven’t been a distraction as he’s taken over as the Falcons’ top running back. He’s rushed for 721 yards, which only trails Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson’s 758 yards.
Freeman leads the league in nine rushing touchdowns and has caught 48 passes for 420 yards and two touchdowns. His 11 touchdowns lead the league. Freeman also leads the league with 1,141 total scrimmage yards.
In addition to getting his class work completed, Freeman will try to figure out how San Francisco was able to hold him to 12 yards on 12 carries.
Also, he didn’t want to lobby the offensive coaches for any carries on their final drive, when they elected to kick a field goal.
“It was one of those things when coach thought we were going to get the ball back,” Freeman said. “We believe in him. I believe in him. It is just not happening like that. That time we learn from it, we don’t go for it or whatever the decision the coach makes, we are going to live with it.”
Despite the decision, Falcons coach Dan Quinn said he believes Freeman can get him the tough yardage when needed.
“I totally do, and it just happened to be for me, I believed in the defense that we were going to get the stops as well,” Quinn said. “So, it was really both sides it was just, ‘OK, which way do we want to go with this one?’ Looking back, of course, I’d love to give it to him and end it there.
“That’s not how it went. Thought we’d kick it, get the stop. Third down stop, first down play, second down play, use our timeouts, and make them punt, and then go attack again. If we had to kick a field goal to win it, we would do that. That’s where the thoughts were going.”
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan threw three passes, with the league’s rushing touchdown leader serving as a decoy.
“Obviously we had play calls designed to use Devonta,” Ryan said. “But the way they played us in those situations dictated the ball goes to another spot. That’s just part of the deal when you get into the red zone and they pressure. You have to use your pressure options and we did that. We just didn’t find a way to get it in the end zone.”
Like Freeman, who’s trying to have some balance in his life, the Falcons need to get their offense back in run-pass balance after attempting 45 passes and just 14 runs against the 49ers.
“As we look back through it, in the run game, that’s certainly a feature of what we do,” Quinn said. “For us, ….in so many games the run has been such a big factor and for a game not to have that, it was really off base.”
Freeman, who was drafted in the fourth-round out of Florida State in 2014, entered the draft after his junior season. He plans to have success in the class room and on the field over the rest of the season.
“I’ve had a lot of people that helped me,” Freeman said. “I just stuck with it. There are several people who had an impact in my life. They are still in my life.”
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