Bijan Robinson's "off night" was the real reason for the Falcons' Week 5 loss

You know Bijan Robinson is the best running back in football when he puts up a regular stat line and it gets deemed an off night. We're so used to him defying the laws of physics or making a play an RB shouldn't be able to every time he touches the football, that sometimes we forget he's human too.

Bijan is a demon on primetime, but on Sunday Night against the Ravens, the Falcons relied more on the passing game than normal--so his stat-line wasn't as dominant as it was against the Packers or Saints, so Derrick Henry out-played him just days after calling No. 7 the NFL's best running back.

In the loss to the Ravens, the All-Pro back still went over 100 scrimmage yards for the third consecutive game, but the performance itself was much quieter. Robinson logged just 17 carries for 86 yards (5.1 YPC) and added four receptions for 32 yards, so it's not like he was bad in Week 5.

He still broke off a couple of big runs, including this 37-yard run to set Atlanta up inside the five and led to a touchdown pass to Kyle Pitts. And while he had runs like this and a 20-yard gain early on, there were a lot of instances where he was either stopped for a minimal gain (or dropped for a loss.

So even in a supposed "off night" where the run game didn't exactly get going against a good Ravens' defense Bijan Robinson still put up a quality performance--which is a testament to just how elite he is because most other running backs would love to do what he did in Week 5. But it's also a good blueprint for teams who are searching for answers on how to slow down this high-octane offense.

Bijan Robinson's off night saw the entire Atlanta Falcons' offense sputter

You have to give the Ravens credit. They know the exact mantra this Falcons team wants to hang their hat on, and they were well-prepared to stop it. There's a reason Jesse Minter is one of the better young defensive minds in football, because his defense gave this run game a tougher time than they've faced all year after they ran free against the Saints and Packers.

They know this Atlanta offense wants to hang its hat on the run game and be physical at the line of scrimmage, yet Baltimore out-physical'd the Dirty Birds. They were better on both sides of the trenches, which made it tough for this run game to find any footing, which affected the whole offense--and it didn't help that the run blocking was non-existent.

The run game's struggles (specificially from Bijan) made it tough for Tommy Rees to stick to the usual gameplan. Compared to a regular game where the plan is to pound the rock and control possession time, the Falcons had to put the ball in Michael Penix Jr.'s hands and win this game through the air.

And for the most part, this went well other than his rib injury. Though Penix struggled when pressure came, he was consistently delivering dimes to move the chains on third down. It's unfortunate the run game didn't show up because it would've made his life easier since they were held to field goals on three different drives. If one of those drives ends in a Bijan touchdown this is a different game.

With the 24-year-old having an "off day" (if you even want to call it that), the Falcons' run game sputtered because the Ravens are one of the only teams in football with enough athleticism on their defense (Malaki Starks, Roquan Smith, etc) to successfully slow down Bijan Robinson.

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