FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons coach Raheem Morris has joined the wave of coaches who are going for it on fourth downs.
The Falcons (3-2), who are set to play the Panthers (1-4) at 4:25 p.m. Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, are 5-of 9 (55.6%) on fourth-down conversions this season, which ranks tied for 12th in the NFL.
“It’s just changes from week to week,” Morris said Wednesday. “Some of it is analytics. Some of it is a feel for within the game. Some of it is a feel for just the structure of how things are going.”
A fourth-down gamble may have cost the Falcons the game against Kansas City, while converting on two of three fourth downs allowed them to pull off a 36-30 overtime victory over the Bucs.
“It’s an aggressive mindset,” Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said.
There clearly has been an expansion of the definition of “four-down territory.”
“Four-down territory now is a little bit different than it used to be,” Morris said. “In particular, how these kickers are knocking 60-yarders (field goals) like it’s not a problem.
The Bills (7-of-7), Chiefs (4-of-4) and Commanders (8-of-8) are leading the league with a 100% conversion rate on fourth downs.
The Browns lead the league with 15 fourth-down attempts, and they converted on nine of them.
The Giants (6-of-11), Panthers (4-of-12), Dolphins (2-of-14) and Jaguars (5-of-12) have gone for it more than the Falcons.
In their opening-game loss to the Steelers, the Falcons were 1-of-1 on fourth downs. On fourth-and-1 from Pittsburgh’s 42, running back Bijan Robinson went around left end for a 10-yard gain. The gamble didn’t payoff, as the snap on the next play hit tight end Ross Dwelley and was recovered by Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt.
In the thrilling win over the Eagles in Week 2, the Falcons were 1-of-2 of fourth downs. On fourth-and-4 from Atlanta’s 47, quarterback Kirk Cousins tossed a 12-yard pass over the middle to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud. The next play was a 41-yard TD pass to wide receiver Darnell Mooney.
With the Falcons trying to drive in and take the lead, on fourth-and-1, Eagles safety Chauncey Gardner-Johnson dropped Robinson for no gain.
The Falcons were 1-of-3 against the Chiefs, a 22-17 loss. If they’d kicked two field goals instead of gambling on fourth downs, they could have won 23-22.
On fourth-and-1 from the Kansas City 13, linebacker Nick Bolton dropped Robinson for a 3-yard loss with 56 seconds to play.
Morris considered it to be four-down territory and said he was going for a win, not a tie.
“We came here to win the football game on our terms, and I lost it, so I’ll take that medicine all day,” Morris said postgame.
The Falcons did not have any fourth-down attempts against the Saints.
The Falcons were 2-of-3 against the Bucs. The second conversion was a 12-yard touchdown pass to Mooney. The final attempt was a desperation fourth-and-15 with 1:52 to play. Cousins was intercepted by linebacker Lavonte David, and the Falcons’ win probability dipped to 4.7%.
The defense forced a punt, and later Cousins tossed a touchdown pass to KhaDarel Hodge for the victory.
The players are fine with going for it on fourth downs.
“On fourth-and-5 and under, the type of team that we’ve got, the identity we are building, the characteristics that we have for this team,” McCloud said. “Let’s go for everything that’s fourth-and-5 and under.”
The Falcons believe they can stress some defenses by extending their drives.
“Every play can be a big play for us,” McCloud said. “It starts with the little things. Executing. Everybody doing their job. I feel like we have that in our locker room.”
The Falcons had no choice on the fourth-and-15 near the end of the Bucs’ game.
“You’ve got the ‘you need its’ and you’ve got the ‘you’ve got to have its,’” McCloud said. “The fourth downs are ‘you got to have its.’ When we are in that mode of ‘got to have it.’ With our quarterback, when ‘we got to have it,’ he’s right there to show up, and we’re a reflection of him.”
Mooney likes going for it on fourth downs.
“That’s our mindset,” Mooney said. “We trust our defense. They pull us out of a lot of the situations. If we can go out there, we don’t get it. We trust that they can stop them.”
The kicking game also is a factor in more teams going for it on fourth downs.
“And, where you get the ball at, when you do kick it out of bounds on a touchback, you get one first down, and you’re almost in fourth-down territory right off the bat,” Morris said. “All of those things change within the framework of the game based on the simple kickoff play, just being moved up 5 yards.”
Morris plans to keep going for fourth downs if he thinks it gives the Falcons a chance to win.
“Those decisions have to be made in the game,” Morris said. “We made a couple of good ones, and I had a couple of bad ones. We’ll continue to go (for it on fourth downs).”
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