Falcons interim head coach Raheem Morris spoke to the media from his home after the team’s 21-16 loss to the Saints in Week 13. Morris answered questions on Atlanta’s lack of offensive production, running back Todd Gurley‘s injury status and the team’s reliance on kicker Younghoe Koo.
Gurley was listed as questionable prior to the game, but suited up on Sunday to play just 33 percent of the offensive snaps, a season low. Morris was asked if Gurley was on a pitch count, or minutes restriction.
“I wouldn’t call it a pitch count and I don’t want to give you a percentage on how far he was because I don’t want to disrespect the athlete and tell you how far he was. I’ll give him the ability to tell you what he thinks he was. He let me know that he was capable of playing in the role we had him playing yesterday.”
Later, Morris was asked about how the offense has fared in the red zone, where Atlanta has been one of the NFL’s least efficient teams.
“Scoring is your job on offense and getting the ball back is your job on defense. We made some really good plays and they made some better ones. In order to build a winning culture, you got to be able to get into the end zone, there’s no doubt about that and how you do that is you’ve got to go out there an execute better.”
The Falcons are the fourth-worst team in the league in terms of red zone efficiency over the last three games. Morris was asked if he felt the team made the proper adjustments from Atlanta’s first outing against the Saints two weeks ago.
“When you come out and have a slow start in the first half, you’re certainly disappointed in what you did on offense and you’re certainly disappointed in those things and we kicked too many field goals. Koo has been money, but I’d like to see less of him. We like to score touchdowns.”
Morris has four games left against some pretty tough competition to make his case to be the head coach of the Falcons beyond 2020.
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