Falcons’ Raheem Morris: ‘A lot of things to clean up’ after exhibition opener

A: “I felt really good about Michael. He wants one of those throws back, that out that he threw (to) the sideline. He was able to go through some progressions (efficiently). ... We get a little pass-happy with him, obviously being your first-round quarterback. It was fun to see him go out there and execute some of the pass plays ... get them in and out of the huddle. (It was) a pretty good night for him. I was pretty pleased (with) what he was able to do.”

Q. What does it say about him to go back to WR Chris Blair after the fumble?

A: “Yeah, I don’t think he’s ever going to lose confidence in his guys. These are the guys that’s been playing with him, they’ve been having a chance to get major reps with them. Blair caught the stick route, he’s able to turn up field and got it punched out for a fumble. Really good flow and really good placement by Mike, and he comes right back to him later on the fade ball, hit him up the sideline in stride. I don’t think Mike is the kind of guy to lose confidence. He plays with a lot of confidence, plays with a lot of poise. He’s always been that way. He was that way in college. He’s pretty even-keeled, even-demeanor. I don’t think he rides the emotional roller coaster at all.

Q. How do you kind of reconcile, obviously the work that y’all put in over two joint practices and the evaluations of the exhibition season game and the injuries?

A: “These (exhibition) games are tough. We talk about them every year. This is the reason why you try to play as least amount of people as you can. Obviously, DeMarcco being a second-year player, you wanted to give him a little bit of action. He gets hurt really early and then now having Trice as a rookie, you want to give him some action as an NFL professional player. Those things come back to bite you at times. It almost makes you not want to, but (it’s) the cost of doing business. You’ve got to make those decisions and those are heavy on you, all the time, those type of injuries. Obviously, (Rondale Moore’s) happened in practice. (It’s) tough when you have a non-contact injury like that to a player that you’re going to be counting on within the season.”

Q. QB Taylor Heinicke (was 4-of-11 passing), what did you kind of make of his night?

A: “Tough night (for) Heinicke. (We were) going out there trying to run the football. He actually hit – (we had an) issue at the end when he got sacked. You want to get him settled down, get him a couple reps and get him a chance to go back out there next week and see what he can do.”

Q. This is the first time your staff has completely gone through a game day together. How did you feel like the communication was from your staff to the guys?

A: “That’s key. The biggest thing with that is the communication from the defense and getting the right defenses out there, being able to do that stuff as far as the procedural things is what you want to do with staff. Your offense, being able to get the plays out, the personnel groupings, all of those type of things. … I was really happy with the communication, the on-field communication going back and forth, the substitutions, all those things really felt tight. They felt good. We’ve just got to clean up some of (the) penalties that you can control with a lack of discipline and a lack of control.”

Q. What were the most important things you were looking for from Penix Jr. tonight?

A. “Just as an operator, getting him out there, operating, which we have seen a bunch of throughout the practices. Get him out there in a situation where you are playing tackle football. It’s always nice to get him in the pocket, watch him go through progressions and do it in a professional way which we know (he could do) from college. (It’s) just always nice to see it again where you can reaffirm those things. You want to give him as much action as possible obviously behind that line because you had a lot confidence in him to protect them. They went out and did a nice job of doing that. He did a nice job of delivering some football. (He threw) some strikes. Put the balls in the right spot. (He threw) the stick route (to Blair), it ends up a fumble. That’s a good play on the quarterback. He went to the right spot … just unfortunate (fumble) there. (He was) able to hit a couple plays down the field. ... The only throw I can think off the top of my head that he really wants bad is that one out route that we see him complete a bunch of times in practice. Other than that, it was a pretty good night.”

Q. What were your immediate thoughts of the new kickoff format now that you got to see it in a game?

A: “It looks exciting. I think it’s exactly what we wanted from the fans standpoint. Brought the play back to life. (We were) able to get a couple returns out there, get a couple coverages (and had) a chance to evaluate some people in space and tackling. Was fired up how that stuff looked, and I think we’ll get better and better as we go with some of the scheme things. You’re keeping it simple in the (exhibition games), but we’ll have another couple good looks at that to see those plays and be able to get some of that stuff done.”

Q. Does the change have anything to do with the reason you elected to receive the opening kickoff?

A: “Really, I was excited to see Michael (Penix), just being honest. Let’s get Michael out there, get him a couple snaps and then get him in and out of the game, which we were able to do. We got him out there and he got those things done. (Younghoe) Koo was the captain tonight, and he went out and took the ball. He was excited to see Michael as well.”

Q. This was the first game with the virtual measurement. What did you see? How did that go?

A: “It was great, when you get a chance to watch it live, you see the quarterback slide, you feel like it stopped them before the position goes down so you get a chance to do it. Might have got a little lucky there because they could have counted that as a cut back, but you know, when you are talking about that quarterback and those slide positions, you’ve got to think those slide positions first because you can’t hit them as a defender. We got the spot late. I was ready to challenge. … Mike (McDaniel) had to end up challenging (and it) ended up being short. He was actually shorter than the line they marked it. So, really excited about the league making advancements and doing different things in order to make the game better. That’s what they’ve done with the kickoff rule and the measurements of the line.”

Q. I saw in the challenge, you and coach Mike McDaniel must like chirping at each other across the sidelines.

A: “Friendly banter. Mike thought it was a bad challenge because he thought his guy clearly had it. He was ready to celebrate, do some of those things. But old sharp eye watching it upstairs for us got a chance to see a good look at it, and we challenged the call and got it right.”

Q. I’m curious, seven of QB Michael Penix Jr.’s 16 total passes went to WR Casey Washington. He was targeting Casey. Curious, is that a by-product of how things shook out on the field or maybe even a little bit of their own connection?

A: “You always want to get a good evaluation of the guys you draft. When you get a chance to get it on your first-round (pick) in Michael and you get a chance to evaluate Casey a little bit, you want to give him some opportunities and get the ball out that way. He had a lot of good receivers out there he was playing with. Chris Blair, he was playing with (Rondale Moore) out. You want to get those guys some opportunities. We were able to do that and spread it around a little bit. It’s always fun.”

Q. Is there a gut reaction that surprised you tonight?

A: “I can’t say surprised because we got a chance to get really good looks at all these guys. We got a chance to see those guys go out there and actually make some plays and do some positive things. I will say those linebackers, inside linebackers, (Donavan) Mutin and those guys did a nice job of going out and really playing physical. (They made) some nice plays on defense.”

Q. More depth in that room?

A: “You never know. You’ve got those three guys (Kaden Elliss, Troy Andersen and Nate Landman) that you are really counting on. You’ve got JD (Bertrand) ,who you have really high hopes for. Mutin went out and played really well for us. Those guys played well all across the board at the inside linebacker position. That’s fun to watch, and that’s good to see.”

Q. How do you grade missed tackles when this was their first live tackle?

A: “The same way you grade them any other time – you can’t make excuses for missed tackles because you don’t tackle in a (training camp) or you don’t tackle in your practices. You’ve got to train angles. You’ve got to train awareness. Those are things that (we’ve) been training, and that’s why I believe we tackled a little bit better, probably than you think. I’d like to go see all of it when I get a chance to look at it, but it felt pretty good on the field. Obviously, (Saturday) when (we) look at the tape, (we’ll) look at it a little bit closer. ... But on the field, in live action, that felt good. The thing that felt sloppy was the penalties. Some of the offside penalties. Some of the lack of control, the discipline from the receiver (Josh Ali) jumping offsides. The false start that was called the fumble early in the game, those are the things you want to clean up and make sure those things don’t happen. But that’s what happens with practice and playing the games and being poised.”

Q. How fun was it to go out there and coach a live game?

A: “I enjoy work so much from a practice standpoint and from the work that the games are going to be the real games when they come. These are extensions of practice that you like to get a chance to see guys go out there and play. Real games are the exciting things in this league. Those practices that we have that we call games, our exhibition games, whatever you want to call them, they are still practice.”

Q. What’s your assessment of your (offensive) line and your (defensive) line performance tonight?

A: “The (offensive) line, like I said, (we) challenged them to be able to run the ball better coming out the chute. We challenged them in the second half. We were able to get off some runs. Get a couple good runs out there with Jase (McClellan) and Carlos (Washington Jr.). That was nice to see, but you have to respond that way right from the beginning. What you (saw) from those guys was good protectors for Michael. He had a pretty clean pocket in protection when it came to the pass game. You have to be fired up about that. I don’t know if he got hit at all. If he did, he probably held on to it or went to his fourth progression. … So, you’re excited about those guys from a pass protection standpoint. We’ve got to come out ready to go in the run game the way they challenged them at halftime and the way they came out and ran the ball with a little more physicality….(From) the (defensive) line standpoint, you’re really excited about what some of those early guys did when it comes to (Kentavius) Street and ‘TQ’ (Ta’Quon Graham) and Zach Harrison. You’re able to get those guys in there and get those guys out. Then you get some of your young guys in the game. They had some extensive playing time like (Brandon) Dorlus and Ruke (Orhorhoro). That was a lot of fun to see those guys do those things, be able to rush the passers and do different things. Really excited about that when you talk about the (offensive) line and (defensive) line standpoint.”

Q. How did CB Kevin King, who’s trying to make it back a couple years out of the game, play?

A: “Pretty positive showing for him. Went out and made a couple nice plays on the ball, got a nice pick. Pretty excited to see him go play. We had two guys like that, (defensive tackle) Eddie Goldman was another guy out of the league a little bit and he showed up in a big way. Got a chance to go see Kevin King really show some things and do some things really well for us. ‘Ham’ (Antonio Hamilton Sr.) had a nice night too also for us. .. Pretty fired up about those guys. Those are guys who have played a lot of football and have a chance to get back out there and play for us.”

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