'Falcons are in Great Hands': Chiefs Coach Andy Reid Touts Raheem Morris

Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid believes the Atlanta Falcons have a strong future under head coach Raheem Morris.

Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris drew praise from Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid after Sunday night's game. / Dale Zanine-Imagn Images

Just 14 words into his postgame press conference Sunday night, Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid turned from his team's 22-17 win and pivoted to the opposition -- the Atlanta Falcons and head coach Raheem Morris, who fell just short against the twice-defending Super Bowl champions.

Reid, who has over 400 wins and three Super Bowl titles as a head coach, believes the Falcons have a strong future under the leadership of Morris.

"My hat goes off to Raheem, being a new coach here -- the Atlanta Falcons are in great hands," Reid said. "They played hard, aggressive, good football on both sides of the ball."

Perhaps nothing better represents this identity than Atlanta's decision to go for it on 4th and 5 from the Chiefs' 6-yard line with four minutes to play. Trailing 22-17, Morris kept his offense on the field.

"I was in four-down territory for a while there," Morris said postgame. "We were going out there to win this football game. We didn't come here to tie. We didn't come here to lose. We didn't come here to hope we win. We didn't come here to allow Patrick Mahomes to work his magic.

"We came here to win the football game on our terms, and I lost it, so I'll take that medicine all day.”

The Falcons failed to convert, but Reid saw the decision in a different light.

"He stayed aggressive," Reid said of Morris. "He's got a team that he's training with an aggressive attitude. So that's what they did."

Reid's Falcons-centric praise was echoed throughout the Chiefs' locker room Sunday night.

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a two-time MVP, noted the quality of Atlanta's secondary and overall defense. The Falcons held the Chiefs to just three net yards in the second half, and Mahomes thinks Atlanta will be much improved as the year progresses.

"That's a good football team," Mahomes said postgame. "I expect them to get better and better because whenever you bring a lot of different pieces in, it takes a little bit to get it going throughout the season.

"But, yeah, that's going to be a team that's going to make a lot of noise as the season goes on."

Kansas City's defense was similarly complimentary of Atlanta's offense. Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis, who had a pair of tackles, spoke highly of Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and the rest of the unit.

"He’s a great player," Karlaftis said about Robinson. "We had a lot of respect for him. Not just him, their O-line, their receivers, their quarterback. They're a great team. They were tough to beat."

Robinson had a difficult day on the ground, taking 16 carries for 31 yards, though he added a one-yard rushing score. He was dropped for a three-yard loss on the Falcons' final offensive play, a sweep to the left on 4th and inches.

Atlanta's ground game struggled as a whole, as Robinson and Tyler Allgeier combined for 63 yards on 23 attempts, an average of 2.7 yards per carry.

The Falcons had more success through the air, as quarterback Kirk Cousins went 20-of-29 for 230 yards, one touchdown and an interception. However, Cousins was sacked twice and hit 10 times -- which Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal said was important to Kansas City's game plan.

"It's huge," Chenal said postgame. "He's a great quarterback. He's been a very consistent quarterback, and we want to pressure more. We feel like we haven't pressured enough the first couple of games and get him off the spot a little bit.

"Any quarterback is going to struggle if you get him off his spot and make him uncomfortable."

The Chiefs did that, though Cousins and the Falcons still had a chance at the end -- and perhaps that, not the aggressive fourth down decision, best shows the tenacity and quality Reid sees in the Morris-led Dirty Birds.

Morris, however, wants wins to back it up.

"We're 1-2," Morris said when asked how he evaluates the team through three weeks. "It's pretty easy. The record assesses it for you."