Desmond Ridder silences doubters with career performance against Texans

Coming into the Falcons Week 5 contest against the Texans, fans were calling for Desmond Ridder‘s job. Now, on Victory Monday, we are singing a much different tune.

The third-round pick was coming off the two worst performances of his career, turning the ball over three times with just 191 passing yards against the Jaguars last week.

With the outside noise growing, Ridder put together a stellar outing with no turnovers, 329 yards of passing and two total touchdowns, including a game-winning drive that set up the go-ahead Younghoe Koo field goal.

He completed a career-high 28 passes on 37 attempts for a career-best 75.7% to pair with 329 yards — another career-high. In the 9th straight of his career, No. 9 had the best game of his career.

“Just like any other week, put my head down, go to work,” Ridder said. “We talk about it all the time, a growth mindset. For us and a lot of players in this league, a lot of us try to block out what’s going on the outside and really only care about what’s going on inside of the building.”

That noise seemingly didn’t bother him when the lights were brightest. With the Falcons down one point and less than two minutes to go, Desmond Ridder went 5-for-5 with completions to Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Bijan Robinson to set up Koo with a chip shot.

“There was a lot of talk out there,” Taylor Heinicke said. “And he silenced it.”

There was undoubtedly pressure on Arthur Smith and Desmond Ridder this week; the pair proved the Falcons might have actually found their long term signal caller. Development in this league, especially at quarterback, is never linear. Ridder took a massive leap in his individual development on Sunday.