Falcons’ Raheem Morris sounds off on penalties, personnel loss to Titans

Falcons head coach Raheem Morris’ postgame comments focused on several points, including going for the win on the final drive instead of a potential tying field goal. The Tennessee Titans defeated the Falcons 23-20 Friday night at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Morris also spoke about passing game coordinator T.J. Yates working from the press box and calling the offensive plays, with offensive coordinator Zac Robinson switching roles and acting as the passing game coordinator.

Penalties also were an issue, along with trying to sort through the options on defense.

Here are Morris’ postgame remarks:

Opening Statement: “Really competitive day out there. It’s great to see those guys run around, came out pretty much injury free on the end other than ‘Em’ (Emory Jones), which we’ve got to check on, that big time fourth-and-two at the end of the game. But, other than that, felt pretty healthy, felt pretty good. I liked the bounce back from the first half to the second, eliminate some of those penalties that shot ourselves in the foot in the first half, and it was really good to see those guys bounce back and do some things really well.”

On whether QB Emory Jones had an option on fourth-and-two: “Yeah, he had an option to get the ball out. I’ve got to go take a look at it. From what we saw, it was going through their sideline but looked like he had the chance to throw that thing to his running back and get it to him, potentially. I don’t want to make that decision right now, got to look at some tape and see what he saw and all those things. Never want to second guess the young man who’s out there playing, but we didn’t get it. Made a valiant effort, had an opportunity to get it out there, and we’ve got to make that play so we can continue that drive and try to win the football game.”

On whether he was pleased with the pass rush: “Got to go back and look at it completely, but you’ve got two sacks. It looked like we had pretty good pressure. It looked like they developed and devoted a lot of time to protecting us with a bunch of chippers keeping people in, so that’s always a good sign when you’ve got some people going. Obviously, got a lot of four-man rush, obviously got a chance to spin those guys in late, got a chance to get James (Pearce Jr.) in later into the game in certain situations. ‘D-Lo’ (DeAngelo Malone) at the end, rushing off the passer. There was a couple series there which you’d like to look a little bit better, particularly that two minute in the half, but for the most part, I’d have to say yes and I’m going to go see the tape and see how it looked.”

On RB Nathan Carter’s play: “No doubt, man, he plays with a fierce running style. He’s hard to get down to the ground. He showed it a couple times tonight. He carries the ball, and we’re very fired up to have him. He runs really tough. He’s a hard tackle, there’s no doubt about that. To see him break out today versus another tough look, and he broke the line of scrimmage to be able to get out of there and show his speed, he’s one of those young players that’s just fighting for a spot on this roster and he shows up every single week and shows why he should be on it.”

On whether he spoke to RB Nathan Carter after last week’s game: “Yeah, I was right there with him, when he was on the knee. I think I had my hand on his shoulder. He was able to see that stuff, you know, obviously, you never want to see those things happen. When those kinds of things happen, you’ve got to be there to console your guys when those do happen to make sure that he’s OK and he wants to make sure that the guy that he hurt was also OK.”

On the absence of edge Jalon Walker: “Jalon Walker, obviously as you guys saw, he had a couple days of practice with those guys and had two practices. Kind of hurt himself a little, tweaked his groin a little bit on that last play that he was in during joint practices. So, we held him tonight, looking forward to getting him back out there next week.”

On how Xavier Watts has handled everything thrown at him so far: “I think ‘X-Man’ (Xavier Watts) has done a really good job. He’s going out there playing safety for us. Obviously, you pull those guys, always got to be emergency. (Henry) Black went down a couple snaps in the second half, so he had to go back out there for him. So, that’s always something you’ve got to pick up for and be able to go out there. X can handle anything you give him. He’s worked himself in excellent shape. He’s done a nice job picking up the defense, done a really nice job rotating the first group, second group with all those guys and playing, and I couldn’t be more pleased with where he is and his game.”

On the amount of reps James Pearce Jr. has taken: “It seems to happen like that at all times, even in practice, we go out there, and he works with the second group, sometimes he works with the first group. He moves all around. You get pass rush opportunities. You get him back out there to do some different things, and he just doesn’t seem to wear down or get as tired as you would think. He’s able to play and fight through it. Tonight, in the second half, he was the emergency rusher and had to go out there in a couple situations to make sure people can get through the game and do some different things. So, he goes out and plays a bunch of snaps for us, and he looks great, looks fine, looks healthy, and he loves playing football. He’s just one of those guys that can do it. He’s shown us that he’s in elite shape. He’s shown us that he’s getting in better shape as we go. He’s really dedicated himself to our performance team and what we’re asking him to do, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the efforts that he’s given us.”

On how difficult it will be to cut edge rushers to get to 53-man roster: “Terry (Fontenot)`s got some tough decisions, man. I hate to be him, but that’s a good problem, right? You’ve got a good problem when you’ve got a bunch of edge guys that you really love, and you’ve got a bunch of guys that go out there and play really hard. We’ll make those decisions together, obviously, like we always do, and we’ll always think about the team and what makes us better.”

On the team’s performance in the third quarter: “We didn’t kill ourselves. You know, we didn’t get the penalties that we got in the first half to stop some drives. That was the main thing on offense. Had a couple good runs in the first half, I think Nathan (Carter) had another big run that got called back on a holding. We had a couple things on the outside. We jumped offsides, set us back, put us in passing situations. So, we really did a nice job of coming out and limiting the penalties in the second half. I believe we had three in the second half. We had seven in the first. That’s unacceptable. So, if we can go out and find ways not to hurt ourselves and play our brand of football, it should look like that most of the time as opposed to not.”

On what he saw from Edge Bralen Trice: “It was great to watch him go set some edges. It was great to watch him go rush the passer. That’s part of it. Bralen, when you’re bringing him back, you want to get him some action with a certain snap count, and then he has to come out. James replaces that role for him. So, he gets a little bit more. But, I was really pleased to see Bralen getting back out there and getting active again, getting acclimated to playing live football, live tackle. We eased him into it. Got a couple good practices. He played in our scrimmage versus each other. He was able to go through our joint practices this week. Then to get him into a game is the next big step for him, crossing that hurdle. So, I’m really excited to see where he’s going as well.”

On Offensive Coordinator Zac Robinson being on the field instead of the booth: “We had T.J. Yates call him tonight. T.J. replaced him, so he was up in the box calling it. Zac was down, serving as the T.J. model. So today, Zac was the passing game coordinator, and T.J. was the offensive coordinator. T.J. went up in the box and called the game, and Zac was next to me being that supportive role and doing those different things. T.J. Yates called the game and coached the offense.”

On whether passing game coordinator T.J. Yates calling the game was to get him reps: “It’s just sort of like we’ve been talking about since we built the staff as developmental staff and getting ready for the next-man-up mentality, giving guys the opportunity to put themselves in those positions, like particularly around that quarterback room. We talked about it when I was hired about bringing guys in and having a developmental staff, having a little bit bigger staff to be able to do some of those things, to bring role change and role clarity and being able to get those things across. I thought it worked out great. He called with poise, did a great job. Got the call out to the quarterbacks, was able to show some real ownership of the offense. All those things are very helpful for us.”