Rams QB Matthew Stafford was off his game in this stat during Week 17

Matthew Stafford is known as a gunslinger. He can toss the rock like the best to ever do it, and his numbers back that up.

Part of that skillset revolves around getting the ball out quickly so defenders have less time to put pressure on him or lock up his receivers. But in Week 17, Stafford wasn't getting the ball out nearly as quickly as usual.

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According to NFL Pro, it took Stafford an average of 3.24 seconds to throw the ball against the Atlanta Falcons in the 27-24 loss on Monday night. That was his second-longest time to throw in any game since at least 2016.

It was a particularly awful night for Stafford overall: He finished with just a 57.9% completion rate for 269 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. But the issue with getting the ball out quickly in Week 17 played into his poor performance. In the first half, he completed just 4-of-11 passes for 44 yards on throws that took longer than 2.5 seconds to attempt. Two of those incompletions led to interceptions.

Stafford rebounded in the second half, though, completing 11-of-17 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown on passes that took more than 2.5 seconds to throw.

Overall, the Falcons gave the rest of the NFL a clear blueprint for beating Stafford. Some of that is on their ability to coverage, while the Rams were also without their star left tackle Alaric Jackson.

We'll see how this loss translates over the next week and in the playoffs.

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams QB Matthew Stafford was off his game in this stat during Week 17