Tag: Ito Smith

Falcons head coach Raheem Morris spoke to the media from his home on Monday and gave his thoughts on an array of topics. Morris was asked specifically how the mandated facility closure would impact this team’s preparation for the Saints in Week 13.

Mondays are pretty much normal for us. You kind of go into your own labs and do your own work. So we are all just at our houses working in that form. It is still nice to be able to walk by and see guy in the training room or whatever the case may be. It’s just not the case right now. It’ll be fine, just something we got to deal with. 

After a brief update on Julio Jones and Todd Gurley, Morris was asked about the mindset of the team now compared to the first half of the season.

You just want to get the guys reset every week for this 1-0 mentality and not to ride the emotional roller coaster. To not allow these guys to be too high on themselves or too low on themselves, no matter what happens. You know, when you’re 0-5, it’s easy for everybody to turn on each other and to point fingers and see who the problem was, and that wasn’t the case. 

Jeff Schultz of The Athletic asked Morris what the first thing he must do in order to change the culture around this Falcons team. Morris responded in great detail, laying out what it was like replacing Dan Quinn as head coach.

Usually, you get an offseason and you get a bunch of team meetings and a whole preparation thing where you plan it out and you’re ready to go. ‘Here’s the spill, here’s the philosophy, here’s what we are going to do moving forward.’ And for me, I had about 2 hours. 

You get a chance for your friend, Dan Quinn, to say goodbye to the team and turnover the reigns to myself and then you get to talk to them. And you got to be flat out honest with them and tell them the truth. The truth was we had failed that man miserably through the first five games. And that’s the cost of what happens and the cost of doing business. And we are going to move forward and I asked them guys to let me lead them. 

Morris reinforced his philosophy of wanting the defense to force its will on the Falcons’ opponents. He was then asked if he feels he has an honest shot at being the Falcons head coach beyond 2020.

The only thing I can tell you about give anybody an honest shot just in life, is what they do for me on a daily basis; and all I am getting is the utmost support from the highest level of the organization to the lowest level of the organization and I don’t have to name those two. And somewhere in between, you got a bunch of people trying to do a bunch of things to get that 1-0 mentality and when you feel people trying to get the 1-0 that’s how you know how much support you have from everyone in the building.  

Morris is currently 4-2 with the Falcons. And while it’s important to see how he finishes out the season, it’s also important to see how he handles his first rematch with the Saints. The Falcons lost to New Orleans, 24-9, in Week 11 and will look to upset their NFC South rival on Sunday.

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