Second Look: Grading the Atlanta Falcons week 6 loss to the Cardinals

The Atlanta Falcons were supposed to use Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals as a catalyst to get back on track and work toward getting to .500 before the bye week and instead lose a heartbreaker 34-33.

As has been the case for all six of the Atlanta Falcons games this season, there was a lot of good and bad to take away from this game. There is a lot of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in the 2019 version of the Atlanta Falcons and we have no idea who we are going to get.

Most that cover this team do not going out of their way to be unfairly negative in regards to the Falcons, but are giving an honest assessment of where the team is and there is going to be a negative slant to the piece being written for that reason.

However, upon taking a second look at the game, there is a lot of good that came from Sunday’s matchup against the Cardinals as well.

Kendall Sheffield got his first start on Sunday thanks to both Desmond Trufant and Blidi Wreh-Wilson being out and he performed very well. Unlike his counterpart Isaiah Oliver, Sheffield never looked out of place and was able to make some big plays.

Tight end Austin Hooper has continued his ascension into the conversation for the best tight end in the NFL by having his second 100 plus receiving yards game this season.

Grady Jarrett is a one-man wrecking crew at defensive tackle and Matt Ryan is again among the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

That said, here is how we would rank the position groups after a second look at yesterday’s performance.