A miserable loss leaves even less reason to believe in Falcons, Morris

Let’s start with the positives for the Falcons.

They won’t have to deal with any “Kirk Cousins needs to keep playing” distractions.

They did a nice job of ensuring that Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, thought to be on the hot seat, will remain employed for at least another week.

On a gray and rainy afternoon, a pat on the back for whoever decided to have the Mercedes-Benz Stadium roof closed.

After that?

Oof.

The Dolphins, 1-6 and supposedly teetering on the brink of disaster, absolutely kicked in the teeth of a Falcons team that was sold to its fan base as playoff-worthy.

“Clearly, we weren’t (ready to play),” All-Pro right guard and team captain Chris Lindstrom said. “As an older guy on this team, I need to make sure that we come out better.”

Five weeks after suffering one of the worst losses in franchise history — which is saying a lot — coach Raheem Morris’s team contributed another performance to the debate with its 34-10 loss to the Dolphins.

Among Morris’ confessions:

“It was an all-around bad day.”

“We were not good in a lot of aspects of football (Sunday). We’ve got to do better.”

“This is the National Football League. If you don’t come ready to play — clearly, we were not (Sunday) — these things happen.”

With another failing effort to drop to 3-4, what reason is there to believe that the Falcons have it in them to reverse course over the final 10 games of the regular season and make the playoffs for the first time since 2017? And if they can’t do that, is there much reason to retain Morris, who was hired with the expectation that he could lift a capable roster into the postseason?

Sunday, the Falcons made mistakes, were outcoached, were the less physical team and put forth an embarrassing effort in front of their fans. Again, against a team that was 1-6.

“It was bad across the board,” Morris said. “It starts with us. That’s something that we’ve got to fix altogether, and we’ve got to go get those things done this week.”

For those keeping count, it was the second Sunday in a row that Morris acknowledged his team’s deficit in the rather important categories of playing and coaching and vowed to get it fixed. A laudable show of accountability, although the actual fixing aspect was lacking.

Sunday, the Falcons committed costly penalties, drawing eight penalties to four for Miami.

Miami, which came into the game fourth-to-last in the NFL in rushing offense and last in the NFL in rushing defense, outgained the Falcons on the ground 141-45.

The collection of welts that the defense absorbed was troubling enough on its own, as Miami hit a season high for rushing yards, often by bulling straight through the heart of the Falcons defense. But it was even worse given that San Francisco gashed the Falcons in similar fashion last Sunday — and, really, the Bills exposed the weakness two weeks ago — and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich’s unit was unable to prevent another mauling.

On the other side, the Falcons’ 45-yard output was the fewest rushing yards allowed by Miami since the 2023 season. Running back Bijan Robinson — touted by Morris as the best player in the NFL — ran for a season-low 25 yards on nine carries.

“It all started right from the beginning, not being able to run the football and control the game,” Morris said. “That’s our lifeline.”

They were outfoxed by Miami coach Mike McDaniel, who found a way to pick on linebacker JD Bertrand, subbing for the injured Divine Deablo. Late in the first half on back-to-back plays, the Dolphins were able to match up two of their most explosive playmakers against Bertrand. The mismatches enabled the Dolphins to convert a third-and-10 and then score a touchdown on a nine-yard pass play to take a 17-3 halftime lead.

On offense, the Falcons didn’t convert a third down until the fourth quarter, after the Dolphins put the game out of reach. They finished 2-for-11. Not counting a half-ending kneel down, the Falcons had six possessions while the game was plausibly in doubt. Of the six, they went three-and-out four times and fumbled the ball away on a fifth, scoring a field goal on the sixth.

Cousins, subbing for the injured Michael Penix Jr., was ineffective, often seen holding his hands against the sides of his helmet in frustration or disbelief. It is a posture Falcons fans know well.

Morris was asked if he felt as if Miami had a bead on what the Falcons offense was doing.

“You have to, yes,” Morris said. “I mean, they went out and smashed us (Sunday). They had a bead on what we were doing defensively, they had a bead on what we were doing on special teams. They did a nice job (Sunday).”

Morris’ accountability is, again, commendable. But, a) that’s a stunning admission about his coaching staff; b) it would be great if Morris were better than his peers at something other than being honest about his shortcomings.

Owner Arthur Blank, who before the season said that “I feel strongly that we’re in a different place than we’ve been the last few years,” politely declined a request for comment from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the game.

Lindstrom gave Morris his support.

“The connection between us as players and then player to staff couldn’t be better,” Lindstrom said. “I love playing for ‘Rah.’ We’re fully prepared and ready to go every week. We need to do a better job ourselves coming out from the jump and get going.”

They would do well to actually do so. To get to the playoffs, the Falcons likely need 10 wins. That’s 7-3 over their final 10 games. After the first seven games, it feels like the Falcons could sooner learn to speak Portuguese than play with the consistency necessary to do that.