Dan Quinn’s tenure with the Atlanta Falcons is on the verge of coming crashing down just as quick as we saw with Bill O’Brien in Houston earlier on Monday.
That’s the backdrop as Atlanta dropped its fourth consecutive game to open the 2020 NFL season. The team was in no way competitive against the undefeated Green Bay Packers on “Monday Night Football,” losing by the score of 30-16.
Aaron Rodgers tallied four more touchdowns compared to zero interceptions despite playing without both Davante Adams and breakout star Allen Lazard. The Falcons’ defense has no answer for his brilliance. These are among the winners and losers from Green Bay’s blowout 14-point victory over the hapless Falcons Monday night.
Winner: Aaron Rodgers continues to play at an MVP level
All of that talk about the Packers souring on Rodgers after selecting Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Well, that can now be thrown out the window. This future Hall of Famer is playing at an MVP level. Even without his top pass catchers in the mix Monday night, Rodgers tore apart a horrible Falcons defense.
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The 36-year-old signal caller completed 27-of-33 passes for 327 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions in the blowout win. He’s now allied 13 scores and zero picks through four weeks. In fact, Rodgers’ touchdown-to-interception ratio since the start of the 2018 campaign is 64-to-6. Think about that for a second.
Loser: Falcons can’t do anything right on defense
Atlanta entered Week 4 yielding 36 points per game, the highest total in the NFL until the Cowboys’ disastrous outing this past Sunday. This unit had blown multiple two-score leads late in games, including against the above-mentioned Cowboys back in Week 2. It really has been nothing short of a comedy of errors in Atlanta.
Related: Top NFL defenses heading into Week 5
In no way did this change Monday night against Green Bay. Atlanta allowed tight end Robert Tonyan to score three touchdowns. Yes, that Robert Tonyan. Those calling the game on ESPN spent the evening trolling this defense in every possible way. That’s how bad it has become for the Falcons’ defense. Now at 0-4 on the season, there’s no end in sight.
Winner: Robert Tonyan scores three touchdowns
Speaking of Tonyan, this former undrafted free agent from Indiana State entered Monday night having put up 21 catches in 30 career games. He’s seen more as a block-first tight end and a special teams performer. Just don’t tell that to Aaron Rodgers and Co. With Allen Lazard and Davante Adams out of action, Tonyan came to play big time.
The tight end hauled in all six of his targets for 98 yards, including a whopping three touchdowns. He was all over the field in Green Bay making plays. If Rodgers has indeed found another diamond in the rough here, his Packers are going to be extremely hard to beat moving forward.
Loser: Dan Quinn is roasted turkey in Atlanta
That should be all she wrote for Mr. Quinn in Atlanta. Now 0-4 on the season and lacking any type of competitiveness, there’s absolutely no reason for Falcons owner Arthur Blank to keep Quinn around any longer. That’s the unfortunate truth heading into Week 5.
A defensive-minded head coach dating back to his days with the Seahawks, Quinn is overseeing a unit that has allowed a whopping 138 points in four games. Regardless of the injuries and departures this past offseason, it just isn’t acceptable. If your claim to fame is on that side of the ball and you’re leading a potentially historically bad defense, you shouldn’t be long for your current job. Monday’s blowout loss to Green Bay adds another layer to this.
Winner: Za’Darius Smith is a mad man
Combined with Preston Smith, this veteran edge rusher has formed a dynamite duo in Green Bay. Throughout his first 19 games as a member of the Packers, Smith recorded 40 quarterback hits and 15.5 sacks. The Pro Bowler added to this in a big way during Monday’s blowout win over Atlanta.
Smith was consistently in the face of Matt Ryan throughout the evening, recording five quarterback hits and three more sacks in the process. It’s this type of performance that has been able to mask a questionable Packers secondary thus far in the 2020 season. And it could go a long way in terms of making this team a legit Super Bowl contender moving forward.