In Raheem Morris’ first home win as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, the good outweighed the bad — but just barely.
Despite not scoring an offensive touchdown, Atlanta improved to 2-2 Sunday thanks to a special teams touchdown, a pick-six and four field goals from Younghoe Koo — including a career-long 58-yarder with two seconds left to beat the New Orleans Saints, 26-24.
“It’s a three-phase game, the way I look at it at all times,” Morris told reporters Monday. “But you get a chance to go out and score on defense, you score on special teams, you’re throwing a pool party in your head.”
In the pivotal NFC South victory, Atlanta possessed the ball for 11:24 less than the Saints, and mustered just 315 total yards.
Entering Sunday, the Falcons had struggled mightily on third-down conversions, holding a 6-for-27 (22.2 percent) success rate. Morris’ offense was slightly better in the Week 4 victory, as Atlanta converted on 4 of its 11 tries.
“There are always things you want to improve on,” Morris added. “You talk about time of possession, we got a little bit better on third downs (Sunday), just a tick better. I think you have to take it one step at a time when you’re trying to get better in all of those areas, but third downs is one of those stats that is directly related to time of possession. Those are the things you focus on from a coaching standpoint.”
Atlanta will have little time to correct any offensive shortcomings, as it hosts its second straight NFC South foe on Thursday in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The meeting between the top two teams in the division will mark multiple reunions for the first-year Falcons coach. After serving as a defensive assistant for the Buccaneers from 2002-05 and 2007-08, Morris was Tampa Bay’s head coach from 2009-11, compiling a 17-31 record.
Morris will also reunite with current Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield, who revived his career with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022, when Morris was Los Angeles’ defensive coordinator.
“I’ve got so much respect for Baker from when we got him in L.A., and he had a chance to come out there and revitalize what he lost, a little bit,” Morris said. “I think Baker is going to do whatever he can to win that football game.”
Tampa Bay leads the all-time series with Atlanta 31-30, and has won six of the last eight over the Falcons.
–Morris said Andersen, who was responsible for Atlanta’s pick-six with a 47-yard return in the second quarter, is day-to-day with a knee injury.
The Falcons did not practice Monday but released an estimated injury report. Starting running back Bijan Robinson (hamstring), wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud III (ankle) and right tackle Kaleb McGary (knee) would have been limited participants.
–The Falcons will sign linebacker and former first-round draft pick Rashaan Evans to their practice squad, ESPN reported Monday.
Evans, 28, started all 17 games for the Falcons in 2022 and recorded a career-high 159 tackles with two sacks and two fumble recoveries.
He was drafted 22nd overall by Tennessee in 2018 and has 485 tackles, five sacks, five fumble recoveries and two interceptions in 85 games (68 starts) with the Titans (2018-21), Falcons and Dallas Cowboys (2023).
–Field Level Media
