Inside Falcons Coach Raheem Morris's Mind During Questionable Clock Management

From protection preferences to coverage looks, what drove Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris away from calling a late timeout at the Washington Commanders.

Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris drew criticism for clock management in Sunday's loss to the Washington Commanders. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris raised eyebrows with his clock management at the end of the first half in Sunday night's 30-24 overtime loss to the Washington Commanders. He raised national scrutiny with his decisions at the end of regulation.

With 46 seconds remaining in the first half, Falcons receiver Darnell Mooney gained 12 yards on a pass from rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr., pushing Atlanta to Washington's 24-yard line. Mooney was tackled in bounds. The Falcons had three timeouts. They didn't use one.

Atlanta's next snap came at the 20 second mark. It gained three yards on a pass to tight end Kyle Pitts, who went out of bounds, and Penix's next two attempts fell incomplete -- one nearly intercepted and the other overthrown to receiver Drake London.

The Falcons settled for a 39-yard field goal from kicker Riley Patterson and carried a 17-7 lead into the halftime locker room. But with roughly 40 seconds and three timeouts at their disposal, it's fair to wonder whether the Falcons could've picked up 24 yards and scored an end-of-half touchdown.

But Morris, speaking during his virtual press conference Monday, had no complaints about the process -- and liked the efficient timing of the Penix-led offense.

"Halftime was really easy," Morris said. "You always want to end the half with the ball. ... You're going to kick it on fourth down anyway to take the points, to ensure the points. But we could have probably saved about six seconds at the end of the half, but wanted to end the half with the ball, and we were able to do that.

"We had to kick the field goal right there in six seconds, leaves two seconds on the clock. They come out, take a knee, and you get accomplished what you want to get accomplished other than completing that pass at the end."

The pass Morris referred to was Penix's deep shot to London in the left corner of the endzone. London beat his defender, but the pass went beyond his reach.

"You'd love to hit that play, walk in with the touchdown. Everybody's throwing a pool party, but unfortunately, we're not," Morris said.

And nothing that happened thereafter warranted a party of any form.

The Falcons, who trailed 24-17 with 100 seconds remaining but tied it after a touchdown pass from Penix to Pitts on fourth-and-13, suddenly had the ball back in their possession with 40 seconds remaining and a chance to go win.

Atlanta, which had two timeouts, started the drive on its own 19-yard line. Penix hit Mooney for 25 yards down the right sideline, and Mooney was tackled in bounds with 34 seconds remaining.

Morris didn't call a timeout. The Falcons lost 17 seconds running to the line.

It's since become one of the biggest questions in the league: why?

"You get that big-time play to Mooney, and you really, in our opinion right there, want to jump the ball," Morris said. "You want to jump the ball with the reason being behind it is to keep the regulated rush. If we call time out right there, if we clock it, we do any other situations like that, we stop the clock.

"That allows them in their fringe area to bring out some of their unregulated rushes, their designer blitzes, their zeroes, all those type of things."

In essence, Morris wanted the Falcons, with their rookie quarterback playing in a pressurized situation, to avoid the Commanders' exotic blitz packages -- which Morris knew well considering his past work experience with Commanders head coach Dan Quinn and defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr.

"And this is not throwing my guy under the bus by any means. I will ride with this guy anywhere and all the time. And I hate when that even comes out that I'm trying to do that."

"What we're able to do is get a four-man rush, regulated rush with the guys that we know coming, get those guys blocked up, catch a two-man (coverage) on the back end, and get us a really good look on the sideline to Mooney that we just missed," Morris said. "And it took a little too long."

After an incomplete pass over the middle to London, the Falcons had seven seconds remaining and hadn't advanced the ball since Mooney's 25-yard gain. Atlanta then used one of its timeouts in a dead-ball spot to avoid a delay of game.

An offsides penalty on Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne pushed Atlanta just shy of midfield, and Mooney drew a defensive pass interference penalty on cornerback Michael Davis, giving the Falcons the ball at Washington's 36-yard line with two seconds remaining.

Falcons kicker Riley Patterson, playing in his second game with the team after usual staple Younghoe Koo landed on injured reserve with a hip injury, had a 56-yard field goal attempt to win the game.

But Patterson's career long was 53, and he came up short from the mid-to-high 50s in pre-game warmups. The same happened on his potential game-winner, which would've given the Falcons a high-80% chance at making the playoffs.

Morris said the field goal was out of range, but the Falcons were in desperation mode. Perhaps they wouldn't have been if they'd called the timeout and had an additional 17 seconds -- plus one timeout -- to get closer.

On Monday, Morris said he regretted the decision.

"I'd like to have that back, obviously, because it didn't work," Morris said. "And possibly call a time out and go against a harder-looking defense or take a chance that I'm going to get the harder-looking defense."

Morris also thinks the approach he took could've worked had the Falcons' offense executed at a high level.

"But, man, in hindsight, if we can just hit that one route and we get a chance to have the time outs to utilize the whole field on the next throws, then we get a chance to get in better position, to make it an easier field goal to end the day in regulation," Morris said. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way for me.

"And I know it was always going to be questioned, and fairly so, and fairly granted to you guys, but you got to make those decisions at the heat of the moment."

Morris said calling timeouts isn't solely his decision. The Falcons have a process, one that's shaped in large part by their film study throughout the week. Atlanta had a detailed idea, Morris noted, of what Washington's defense would do if the clock stopped, and also if it kept ticking.

The Falcons wanted regulated looks -- two-man coverages with a traditional four-man pass rush -- because they hoped to dictate the terms of the play. Morris liked the look the Falcons received with an out-breaking route from Mooney, a similar concept to the one London ran several times to great success Sunday night.

Atlanta merely didn't execute -- but Morris, given time to reflect, had no issues with the process behind the decision, and he accepted any criticism that may (and has) come. He also said in retrospect he'd take a different approach with the benefit of knowing how his ended.

"There are football intelligences that go behind that," Morris said. "When you're talking about coaching staff, you're talking about numbers, about everything being piled together, and then you've got to make decisions. So, you can certainly blame me for making a decision to not call a timeout.

"You want to make those decisions, and you've got to be efficient, you've got to be effective, and you've got to be upfront and definitely take the fall. Like, looking back, man, hey, let's take a timeout, get the hard look, see if we can complete it, right? I get it."

Morris thought he played the right hand for the coverage Washington threw. The Falcons needed chunk yardage plays, and Morris felt his offense had a better chance of getting them against four-man rushes than zero coverage, which entails one-on-ones across the board, but significant pressure thrown at the quarterback.

"When you got zero plays, you do have chunk yardage options," Morris said. "But those chunk yardage options are not as good as the regulated four-man rush with coverage behind it with your quarterback stepping into it and having a clean pocket throwing this ball down the field."

Morris is particularly adamant in the root of his process being to help Penix. This, Morris clarified, isn't criticizing Penix. Instead, it's a deeper explanation to his thought process "because I really believed in it at the time."

"Knowing the people, knowing the personnel, Joe Whitt and Quinn, on what's going to happen if that clock gets stopped and how it's going to go down for my young quarterback when it comes to protection purposes," Morris said, "I wanted to get him a regulated four-man rush with my guy standing in the pocket, being able to deliver a throw, and being able to get it done.

"And this is not throwing my guy under the bus by any means. I will ride with this guy anywhere and all the time. And I hate when that even comes out that I'm trying to do that."

Acknowledging the need to question and second-guess the decision, specifically with his status as a first-year head coach in Atlanta, Morris said it's a 50-50 decision on whether or not to call the timeout in those situation.

He wanted a faster operation from the offense and is left wondering what the results could've been had the situation unfolded as he planned.

The natural qualm, however, is that it's Week 17 -- and a poorly-run no-huddle offense shouldn't happen for a team fighting for its playoff lives. That, of course, doesn't do justice to Penix's inexperience.

The 24-year-old ran a hyphenated two-minute drill in his first start Dec. 22 against the New York Giants. He inherited the ball with 1:26 remaining in Giants territory after Atlanta's defense forced a turnover, and the Falcons called three runs and three passes, the last of which was intercepted after bouncing out of the hands of Pitts.

So, this task -- leading a game-winning, season-saving drive -- was much tougher, as was the opponent. Morris noted the Falcons ran quality, faster drives in similar situations with 36-year-old, 13-year veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins a few weeks ago.

To Morris, the Falcons' slow and/or miscalculated operation didn't show kinks to work out. Instead, it underscored the challenges of playing a new, inexperienced quarterback.

"It's going to be new people involved. It's going to be new things involved. It's going to be new defenses every single week, new situations you get," Morris said. "It's just not a regulated thing on a piece of paper that says call a timeout. That definitely is a suggestion.

"A lot of those situations, in that situation particularly, it says 50-50 whether you call a timeout, and we chose not to. And like I'm telling you is, we've got to have a faster operation there in order to get the things that want to get worked."

Morris again said he's not blaming anybody, especially not Penix, who went 19-for-35 passing for 223 yards, one touchdown and an interception. Hastening operation time is an area of improvement moving forward, Morris said.

The Falcons have been pleased with Penix's early returns, but his inexperience -- to no fault of his own -- made the challenge different for Morris on Sunday night.

"Something I've got to take into account is I do have a young quarterback," Morris said "I do have a guy playing the second (start) of his season. I do have a guy, in one of his two two-minute situations in the National Football League, so I've got to take those things into account.

"So as simple as you make it seem, it's not. You've got to go through the whole process of being able to do that with your guys, with your players, and put them in those positions all the time."

Thus, the timeout decision -- or lack thereof -- was more complicated underneath the surface than made to believe, at least in Morris's eyes. Even his answer as to whether he'd do it the same way again feels complicated.

But this much isn't complicated: the Falcons' playoff hopes took a significant hit as a result of Sunday night's loss, which can be pinned on much more than just clock mismanagement. Atlanta was significantly outplayed in the second half, as Washington gained 296 net yards and 21 first downs while the Falcons tallied 138 yards and seven first downs.

The Commanders ran 53 plays to Atlanta's 24 in the second half plus overtime, and Washington possessed the ball for 28:17 to the Falcons' 9:01.

Still, Atlanta had a chance at the end. It needed a few more yards to give Patterson a realistic opportunity. Now, the Falcons are left pondering "what if?"

Though Morris isn't shying away from it.

"Sometimes you're going to have failure, but the guys who fear failure never have success, and I'm not going to be considered that guy," Morris said. "When it doesn't go right, I'm not going to run away from it or point the blame at anybody else. I'm going to take it head-on. I've got big shoulders.

"I'm going to take it on my shoulders, and I'll take that today -- fair criticism, rightful criticism. I apologize to our fans for not being able to get it done, but I promise you we'll get it done soon."

And Morris intends on doing so with a similar approach to the one he took Sunday.

"I love the process," Morris said. "We've just got to get better results."