Dec. 30 (UPI) — Coach Raheem Morris lauded running back Bijan Robinson as the “best player in football” after he led the Atlanta Falcons past the Los Angeles Rams.<\/p>\n
“I mean, it’s just as simple as that,” Morris told reporters after the 27-24 victory Monday in Atlanta. “He’s unbelievable. Everything he does for our football team, from running the football, to catching the football, to protecting, to being a leader.<\/p>\n
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“He’s also our chaplain. He does it all.”<\/p>\n
Robinson galloped for 195 yards on 22 carries, including a franchise-record 93-yard touchdown. He also totaled 34 yards and a score on five catches.<\/p>\n
With Monday’s performance, Robinson pushed his season total to a league-high 2,255 yards from scrimmage and 11 scores. He totaled 1,445 yards and seven scores on the ground and a career-high 810 receiving yards and four scores off 76 catches.<\/p>\n
Robinson eclipsed 100 yards from scrimmage in six of his last seven games. He totaled at least 168 yards from scrimmage in each of his last three starts.<\/p>\n
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“He’s a special player…2,200 yards from scrimmage this year is outstanding,” Falcons coach Kirk Cousins said. “[Former Minnesota Vikings running back] Dalvin Cook had almost 2,000 one year. I didn’t know I’d ever get to see that again. What he can do in both the run game and pass game is very unique. He’s a great teammate and a great person. It bodes well for his future.<\/p>\n
“I think the key is, we’ve got to use him correctly and not overwork him. … But if you call his number, he’s going to answer.”<\/p>\n
The Rams held a 363-345 advantage in total yards, but were out-gained 219-115 on the ground. The Falcons blocked a field goal and logged three sacks and three interceptions, including two by rookie safety Xavier Watts.<\/p>\n
The Falcons scored the first 21 points of the game and didn’t look back. Robinson caught a 4-yard score for the first points of the night, midway through the first quarter. Safety Jesse Bates intercepted Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and scored on a 34-yard return 6:30 into the second.<\/p>\n
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Watts intercepted Stafford 1:41 before halftime. Robinson took the next snap and rumbled 93 yards to the end zone to hand the Falcons a three-score lead at the break.<\/p>\n
The Rams cut into the deficit by outscoring the Falcons 17-3 in the third quarter, including one touchdown from a 76-yard return of a blocked field goal by pass rusher Jared Verse.<\/p>\n
Stafford tied the score with an 11-yard touchdown toss to Puka Nacua with less than three minutes remaining in regulation. Kicker Zane Gonzalez gave the lead back to the Falcons with a 51-yard kick with 21 seconds remaining. The Falcons defense held up over the final seconds of the matchup, with Stafford throwing four consecutive incompletions to end the night.<\/p>\n
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Stafford completed 22 of 38 passes for 269 yards, two scores and three interceptions. Rams running back Kyren Williams totaled 130 yards from scrimmage on 16 touches.<\/p>\n
Cousins completed 13 of 20 passes for 126 yards and a score for the Falcons, who were already eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n
“We’re in the NFL,” Robinson said. “We can’t give up on anything in this league. That’s how injuries happen. That’s how bad things happen. You lose the identity of a team. We made it known as soon as we got that elimination that we are going to finish off the season the right way, finish it off strong.”<\/p>\n
The Falcons (7-9) will host the New Orleans Saints (6-10) in their season finale at 1 p.m. EST Sunday in Atlanta. The Rams (11-5) will host the Arizona Cardinals (3-13) at 4:25 p.m. Sunday in Inglewood, Calif.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec. 30 (UPI) — Coach Raheem Morris lauded running back Bijan Robinson as the “best player in football”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[1258,1276,64,63,5358,123037,38950,1280,23172,1263,6588,1239,1249,593,20795,24251,72838,85,91566,204892,163072],"class_list":["post-380583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-atlanta-falcons","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bijan-robinson","tag-dalvin-cook","tag-jared-verse","tag-kirk-cousins","tag-kyren-williams","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-nfl","tag-puka-nacua","tag-raheem-morris","tag-receiving-yards","tag-sports","tag-xavier-watts","tag-yards-from-scrimmage","tag-zane-gonzalez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}