Bucs' Rival Coach Aiming to 'Outrun the South' After Week 5 Win

Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris shared some thoughts on his team's important win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Oct 3, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Falcons wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge (12) runs for the game winning touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in overtime at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

There used to be a day when Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans celebrated if head coach Raheem Morris won a crucial divisional game.

Now, however, the tables have turned and Morris is patrolling the sidelines for the Atlanta Falcons instead of the Buccaneers.

Counting his time as the interim head coach of the Falcons, this is Morris' second stint as the top coach for a Tampa Bay rival. On Friday, following his team's big win over his former the coach spoke about the importance of the Week 5 win over the Bucs.

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Oct 3, 2024; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Falcons wide receiver KhaDarel Hodge (12) runs for the game winning touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in overtime at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

“The importance of the division games are always of high magnitude," Morris said. "That's always something that you think about. We talked about it in the beginning. We talked about outrunning the South and winning the South. The only way you can win the South is if you beat South opponents. That's always a bigger deal, especially getting two back-to-back like that in dramatic fashion. Then, being able to get a couple days off and go set up and get ready to play the next one.”

Atlanta defeated the New Orleans Saints in Week 4 on a walk-off field goal by kicker Younghoe Koo. The win over the Buccaneers was even more dramatic, and now the Falcons hold a 2-0 record against NFC South Division opponents with another matchup coming in Week 6 on the road against the Carolina Panthers.

Losing to Atlanta in its first divisional game makes a win over the New Orleans Saints in Week 6 about as much of a must-win as you can get at this stage of the season for Tampa Bay.

Falling to 0-2 in the division with the current leaders in the group advancing potentially to 3-0 would make it highly likely the Bucs would not end up holding a critical tie-breaker with Atlanta at the end of the season.

“We have fight. We knew we have fight and we think we’re a very good football team. We’re capable of being a good football team if we eliminate mistakes," Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said of his team following the loss. "We had plenty of chances at the end, either side of the ball, to win the ball game, to put it away on the 28, to get the fourth down stop, not let them get the ball off at the end of the game and get to 0:01. We had plenty of chances to win that [and] we understand that. We’ll go back to work, we’ll get better at that as a team and we’ll move forward, so that’s positive."

Tampa Bay has no choice but to find the positives, because matchups against the Saints are always tough and neither team will be coming into Week 6 satisfied with their current standing in the division no matter what happens in the rest of Week 5.

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