LANDOVER, Md. -- Here’s what Falcons coach Raheem Morris had to say after the 30-24 loss to the Commanders on Sunday:
On assessing the performance: “Tough one. I just really thank that football team for the effort they put out there and laying it out on the line trying to get that win right there. Tough loss to really good football team. Really good player. Tough tackle down the stretch. That guy’s an absolute beast and he showed it today. He’s shown the clutch gene all year. He showed it again today. He’s been that way. But I can say, I’m so proud of this football team for what they went out there and put out there. We got one more game to handle our business and see what happens after that.”
On if he had any thoughts of going for two when they scored at the end of the game: “No, the thought was to get the ball back, like we did. Try to get the ball back and go down with the ball pretty quickly down the field. Set us up for a game winning field goal. We set up for a game winning field goal, probably a little bit out of our range. Was desperation range and went out there and took a shot at it. The young man struck it good, hit it good. Just came up short. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. That’s how it goes.”
On if he felt like the defense was a little winded at the end of the game: “It’s the game of football, right? The job is to get the ball back. That’s what we did. In order to get that thing going with a big time drive coming out of halftime. You know, actually kept it going by a penalty. The next drive was a really good drive for those guys. That last drive, we got the stop like we talked about. We got a stop going out there to give ourselves a chance to win. We just couldn’t get it done.”
On why there was no timeout called after Darnell Mooney’s catch for the first down: “Probably could have, you know. I thought we’d get to the line of scrimmage with an operation a little bit faster there. ... In hindsight, could have been a good decision or a better decision to take that timeout. But I wanted to have the opportunity to move up there. So you know, you can obviously second guess those things. You can always second guess those motives. You can always go back and look at it, see if you get it snapped a little bit quicker. But I really believe we can get our operation time a little bit faster to be able to save that timeout, still get the play off. Potentially get the pass interference. Have a couple more snaps there. Save the timeouts and use them there to get that field goal a little closer.”
On if the operation going into halftime went the way he wanted it to: “Absolutely, man. Got a nice shot to Drake (London) in the back of the end zone for a touchdown there. Had an opportunity to score right there at the end of half. Leave those guys no time, took the field goal, got out of dodge. A lot of things you can always clean up. A lot of things you can always do better. Those always things you can get better at, particularly the young quarterback, particularly all of us. So, we’ll find ways to get better at that next week.”
On what he felt changed defensively for the team in the second half: “Less about defenses. It was more about those guys. Got to give those guys credit. You know, the whole idea was to stop the run. We’re able to do that in the first half. The second half, those guys got going. Particularly (Commanders quarterback) Jayden (Daniels). Started to use his legs, made a bunch of people miss. He’s a tough tackle. He’s hell on wheels.”
On if Bijan Robinson not getting a lot of snaps in the second half was a game flow situation: “No, you know, it wasn’t. It’s the time possession and it was also they came up, did a nice job stopping the run, got that first possession. I believe they got a three-and-out. Stopped that run pretty good. Forced us to throw it twice. They were ready to get off the grass and then after you get to the game flow, you know, it kind of took us out of our package, having to throw the ball a little bit more than you like. Having to play a little bit of catch up. Having to get some chunk yard plays. Trying to move the ball down the field in order to be ready to deal.”
On his assessment of Michael Penix Jr.’s overall performance: “I mean, I love the kid. I love the kid’s fight. I love the kid’s desire. I mean anybody can go out there and stand in the face of adversity and throw that strike like he threw to Kyle Pitts to give us an opportunity to win that football game. I mean, that’s what it’s about. He represents us. He represents Atlanta. He represents everything that’s good about us.”
On having more receiver rotation early in the game and on what was the idea behind that change: “Started Ray-Ray (McCloud) today. Got a chance to get him out there. Was able to play Ray-Ray a little bit. You know, obviously it was a team decision. Something that we did in order to get our guys some more reps, to get Ray-Ray on the grass, and to get those guys out there. But we did it just that way. That’s how we that’s how we planned to go out there.”
On Chris Blair being in on the first third down: “Mooney came off. Mooney came off tired. Something happened there. Injury related, I’m not sure. Came right back in the game, didn’t even get a chance to talk to the trainers about that.”
On the interception being a miscommunication: “That was a busted route.”
On the playoff situation and on his message to the team: “Control what the controllables are, right? Go out there and win our football game. That’s all we can do. Everything else is out of our control and those things don’t matter. I think all we’ve got to do is prepare for this football game and prepare for the finish.”
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