By not fixing special teams flaws, Raheem Morris undermines game, Falcons’ season

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — In a matchup of also-rans on a raw afternoon in a near-empty stadium, the Falcons found a way.

They held the tumbling New York Jets to 269 yards of offense and 16 first downs. They profited from another performance worthy of All-Pro status from running back Bijan Robinson. They had the ball twice inside of the final two minutes needing only a field goal to take the lead. And — this can’t be overstated — they were playing the Jets.

But, like water finding its level, they carved out a path, this time with atrocious special teams play. This method of defeat might have been anticipated, given that it has already been a weak spot. Regardless, the Falcons kicking game excavated a new low Sunday, contributing directly to 10 points for the Jets and also missing a 50-yard field goal try in the 27-24 loss at MetLife Stadium.

In the second quarter, returner Jamal Agnew fielded a punt at the Falcons 7-yard line, already a bad decision. And then he muffed the punt, giving it to the Jets at the 2. The Jets punched it in on the next play for a 7-0 lead.

“You’ve got to let it go, let it touch the ground,” said Falcons coach Raheem Morris.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, with the Falcons having taken a 17-14 lead, Bradley Pinion kicked off to Jets return man Isaiah Williams.

Worth knowing:

First, the Jets’ Kene Nwangwu is among the most dangerous returners in the NFL, and teammate Isaiah Williams ran back four kickoffs for 122 yards in their most recent game.

Second, the Falcons have been horrible at covering kickoffs, particularly on their right side. They allowed a 75-yard return a week ago against the Saints and returns of 50 and 49 yards against the Colts in Berlin through gaps on that side.

Third, on his first three kickoffs Sunday, Pinion kicked the ball into the end zone for touchbacks as the Falcons opted to give the Jets the ball at their 35 rather than risk a long return.

But then came the fourth-quarter kickoff. Coming out of the Jets huddle, Williams — the Jets return man — said he saw Falcons coaches talking to the kickoff team for a while.

“I’m like, ‘We’re probably going to get one right here,’” Williams said.

He was correct. He took Pinion’s kickoff at the 2, shot through the right side of the Falcons’ coverage team and made it all the way to the Falcons 15-yard line.

“The guys blocked it perfectly,” Williams said. “All I had to do was run straight. I didn’t really have to do much.”

After the return, the Falcons held the Jets to a field goal, but in a game decided by three points, it was difference making.

I asked Williams if the Jets saw the right side of the Falcons’ unit as an area to exploit.

“Yep.”

I asked what he saw on game video.

“Oh, the biggest thing, you just see gaps,” Williams said. “You see (return-team) guys moving (coverage) guys.”

To repeat, the muffed punt and the kickoff-coverage bust led directly to 10 points and the game was decided by a field goal. The Falcons, a team that has billed itself as playoff-worthy and should be highly motivated to do everything in its power to address schematic flaws, are now 4-8. It’s not official, but you can count on the postseason proceeding without the Falcons for an eighth consecutive year.

“We played well on two phases, didn’t play well on another phase and we’ve got to play all three phases as a football team to win the football game, and we did not (Sunday),” Morris said.

The problem — or at least one of them — is that it wasn’t as simple as the special teams not playing well.

Players sometimes drop punts (and also miss 50-yard field goal tries, as kicker Zane Gonzalez did). The weather probably didn’t help. But Agnew had no business trying to catch it inside the 10. There would have been no risk of Agnew muffing the punt if he had done something — let it fall to the ground — that his head coach said was an imperative.

Whose fault is that?

And Falcons special-teams coordinator Marquice Williams knew about the vulnerability of the kickoff coverage team. In giving up a game-breaking return, the Falcons weren’t merely playing poorly; they had failed to fix an identified problem.

It has been the story of this wasted season. A most common Morris comment from postgame news conferences is a variation of “We’ve got to get that fixed.”

I asked Morris, who fired wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard in September for underperformance, if there were a possibility that he could make a change at special-teams coordinator.