Falcons’ coach Raheem Morris: ‘We got outcoached, we got outplayed’

Opening Statement: “Clearly not the results you wanted today. Obviously, hats off to Carolina. They outplayed us in every phase. They went out, they dominated the game right from the beginning. We couldn’t get things going, we couldn’t turn it around, we couldn’t survive the moment. That’s what happened in the game. Very humbling game. Ride the emotional roller coaster in this league. This week, we rode the emotional roller coaster, and we were down.”

On the offensive issues: “Everything. They came out right from the beginning and got after us, obviously early with the headset going out and things of that nature, not being able to get things going in a rhythm. But we won’t make those excuses. We had plenty of time to come back. We were not able to get those things going. That game got away from us fairly quickly, and we were not able to capture the moment.”

On the kicker’s opportunities and the plan moving forward: “He had two misses. Gotta go obviously evaluate those things when you move on and figure out what we have got going out there. Obviously, he came out last week, went 5-for-5. This week came out and went 0-for-2. We can’t have those moments.”

On QB Michael Penix Jr. possibly having mechanical issues: “No, I just think he missed his throws today. We won’t make excuses, won’t have any excuses about mechanical or anything of that nature. We did not play well on any phase. And he did not play well as well. We didn’t play well around him. We’ve got to play better across the board.”

On the decision to put QB Kirk Cousins in: “The game was out of hand. You move on, keep him out of harm’s way. Keep our guys out of harm’s way. Take a couple guys out. We had to take some of those wideouts out. We had to get a young back in, get all those things going. The game’s out of hand; they got us.”

On QB Kirk Cousins having the chance to compete for the job this week: “No.”

On the kickoff return, teams squibbing: “Great job by those guys. That knuckleball kick, we knew about it, we talked about it, we trained for it. And we didn’t handle the situation well at all. What a great job by their kicker. What a great weapon that is by those guys. They took advantage of it all day. Something that we knew about. Something that we talked about. Something that we brought to the forefront, and we were not able to capitalize with our returners back there today, collecting those balls at the 10, getting those funny style kicks, being able to utilize those things on the field. And that’s very disappointing.”

On what happened with the headset: “It went out early. It went out and (quarterback) Mike (Penix Jr.) couldn’t get the calls. We were not able to get the calls in there, obviously. We told the referees. They were able to get it fixed at some point, whether it was the third series or fourth series, whatever the case may be. We were able to get those things fixed. But we make no excuses. That thing didn’t work, that thing was not the reason what the game was, the outcome. We take all the credit. We got outcoached, we got outplayed. We got beat as a team. A lot of credit to the Panthers.”

On keeping QB Michael Penix Jr.’s confidence up after the performance like this: “I don’t worry about (quarterback) Mike’s (Penix Jr.) confidence. Gotta go back and practice, go back to the drawing board, go back and do the things you’re capable of doing, which we’ve seen him be able to do throughout the last two years, and let him go out there and do it. We’ll go to practice this week. It will be a critical week for us ahead with another really tough opponent coming in.”

On being prepared to play today: “We were. I felt like we had two great days of practice. Obviously, the results didn’t show that. You’d have to say no, when you look at the overall aspects of the game. That emotional win we had, you ride that emotional roller coaster. Today we hit an all-time low. We tried to prepare them as best we could for the environment and it was not good enough.”

On being worried about a young team handling a defeat like this: “No, you’ve got to go out there and coach your guys. Got to go out there, put it in the forefront of their minds, got to talk about it, got to be very clear in your messaging. You have to let these guys know that those can’t be the things that we do. We have to go out and execute the way that we are capable of executing. We did not do that today.

On the calls coming in quickly enough: “You can’t get them quickly enough when you don’t have the information. Just didn’t get the information, weren’t able to get the calls out. We got to get a better system to be able to get those things in if something like that happens again. We have to be ready for those things at all costs. We won’t make that an issue. That was early in the game. I think the score was 10-0. That score ended way past 10-0. That’s not the issue in the game. We won’t make those excuses.”