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Sometimes, an early fourth-down gamble comes, and the announcers calling the game, or the fans in the stands, might jump all over the assumption that the coaches are trying to make some sort of statement. And Sunday, Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris was trying to do just that—it wasn’t the clichéd one most people would take from it.
This wasn’t some chest-pounding, message in a big NFC South road game being played in the place Morris himself cut his coaching teeth.
Instead, it was a cold, coherent message of belief from Morris to all of his guys.
Falcons star Jessie Bates III had stripped Tampa Bay Buccaneers tailback Rachaad White on the game’s second play from scrimmage and recovered the fumble at the Tampa 43-yard line. Two snaps after that, Atlanta faced third-and-3. As the offense huddled, pass-game specialist Tim Berbenich, who helps lead game management, had pushed Morris to play it as a two-down situation. Morris then told coordinator Zac Robinson he had two plays to get the three yards.
Robinson, as a result, held back a staple concept to strike downfield, and on third down ran a tunnel screen to Drake London, who dropped the ball. But the call got an aggressive Bucs defense to play closer to the line of scrimmage on fourth down. Kirk Cousins saw defenders creep closer, Kyle Pitts got behind the defense on a corner route, and 36 yards later the Falcons had a 7–0 lead on the road.
“We planned that during the week,” Morris told me by phone a few hours later, on the team bus headed for the airport. “Z-Rob [Zac Robinson] is one of the better people in the world to know how aggressive we’re going to be, when we want to be aggressive, the times we want to be aggressive. He’s always ready for those situations so when they come up throughout the process of the game, it’s very easy to communicate with one of the best offensive coordinators in the world.
“I know he’s only been calling it for a short amount of time, but he’s going to be aggressive. He always wants to be aggressive. I’ve got nothing but belief in our team and our guys.”
In other words, while Berbenich and Morris prepared for the situation, Robinson was ready for it—as were, clearly, Cousins and Pitts.
It’s a small microcosm of what’s happening right now with the Falcons. Atlanta won the game 31–26 to complete a sweep of the three-time defending NFC South champion Buccaneers, and take sole possession of first place in the division. And, of course, that’s nice and was the goal of the trip and all that.
But beyond just the result of the game, there’s something else that’s pretty cool going on in Morris’s second go-round as a head coach. He’s getting the most out of seemingly everyone around him. Mostly, the people in Atlanta would tell you, because he believes in them.
