Head Coach Raheem Morris Week 6 Media Availability | Tuesday, October 7th | Press Conference

Head Coach Raheem Morris Week 6 Media Availability | Tuesday, October 7th | Press Conference

[Music] hit my device here. Oh man, you he logged himself out. Um, yeah, coach. Look how nice I am. All right. Yeah, how nice I am calling you. I didn’t even text you guys. I was going to wait for you. See that? I just got I won’t wait for you. I was running. Yeah, coach. Just uh you know for the by week uh want to check in on your injury guys and who might may or may not be getting back. All right. The only person the only status going to change is TQ. Obviously, we starting this three-week window ready to come back and then AJ probably to be the significant one that we look forward to getting back this game. You know, obviously he’ll be out there practicing with us all week and we’ll take it right to game time and feeling good about it. Uh and then that would leave Mooney and Haj still. Yeah. Well, Mooney, okay, so Mooney, we’ll get we’ll get more information as the week goes. Same thing was Hodgej letting those guys go. Obviously Mooney came out of that game, our last one, um had the buy week. Um, obviously we’ll get more information on him when we start practicing and some of those different things, but and the same with Hajj. Haj will be doing some things with us, you know, in practice, but we we’ll get a better feel for those guys as we move towards the week. And then I guess Storm is left on the design. Yeah, everybody else is still on the designated. That’s why I just said TQ is the only guy that’s starting the window. The rest of those guys are remain status quo on what they’ve been. What were some of the things y’all were able to get done over the week? Uh, from coaching staffs, the normal things that you do, right? Obviously, you know, it’s different now. Self scout is done every week with St. You know, he comes in and we do those things. But like obviously it’s done weekly and then now you can you can get a chance to sit back and put it all together and talk about it and see if anything that you don’t like or that you do like that you want to do more of um any rules that you don’t like, anything that that’s being attacked, you have a look at those type of different things. But other than that, man, from a stat standpoint, um you’re pretty excited about where you are in a lot of categories. And the categories you want to improve obviously are the the main ones for us on offense is scoring touchdowns. you know, if we can improve that, we’ll have a really good offense, right? We got all these yardage things and all the stuff that don’t matter. Um, we got a lot of things that you have from the field position standpoint that helps out the defensive stats, which all those things are working out really well. And then some of our coverage things on on obviously in special teams, you want to do better. Um, and I think those things are come, you know, having an ability to be able to get back and see some of the returns from Agnu and some of the guys that’s coming back. Rob, what’s your identity at this point? You play for sense of what you’re good at, what you’re not, and where you need to improve. What’s the team’s identity here? I think we’re um you know running football team that’s able to go out there and run it on you know just about anybody and when you want to run it with the two guys that we do have I think those guys doing a great job. I think our upfront is having the ability to be able to run the football. Um we got to find ways to score more touchdowns and do different things like that on offense. I think on defense we’re playing fast. We’re playing physical. We’re a good f we’re a good tackling football team. Um they’re competitive which I love. And I think on special teams I think we got some guys that go out there and just want to play. They got high character. They’re ready to go out there and make a play for us in any moment. So like you know our guys are still forming it. I think you don’t have to form any identity throughout the season. I think that thing just earned on tape and I think the guys are going out there and doing it and the last game was a great example of what it could look like consistently. You know, obviously the game before that was not it. You know, those other two highly competitive games you felt really good about and we got to get that one blemish off our record that’s really killing it. You know, obviously you want to win them all. That’s not the reality of our game, but we’re really competitive in three of them and one of them we were not. when you when you look at the way you guys are on offense, you run the second most plays out of shotgun/ pistol of any team in the league. Um, on one hand, I heard that like 19 times when I was watching broadcast, by the way, I was laughing every time I heard it. Go ahead. Sorry. Well, I I mean, there’s there’s a way to lean into it and say this is who we are. There’s also another way to try to balance it out. Yeah. I mean, I think I heard um I don’t know. I don’t know what it was. I was laughing when when it happened, but it said this team’s run 80% of pistol and they run. Like, yeah, it’s a run situation. We’re running. Stop us. You know, it’s like one of those type of things, right? So, it’s like the good teams do what they do consistently. That’s what they do. And the good teams are teams that can change up when they need to. And I think we’re the good teams. We’re going to be one of those good teams that be able to do whatever we need to do to go out there and win. Um, we’ve seen us in the past win it throwing the ball a million times. We’ve seen us in the past being able to run it a bunch of times. And we’ve seen us in the past on defense be able to stop the run. And we’ve seen us in the past on defense be able to stop the pass. And then on special teams, we had to win the game on special teams before. And we got to find ways to do those things. I think the most important things for us is scoring touchdowns, stopping touchdowns, and finding ways to get the ball back for our guys and really maintaining possession. What’s the key to that consistency, especially coming out of a by week where your momentum can kind of get I just think it’s your process, you know, I don’t I don’t, you know, I’m not the big momentum killer type guy. Um, you I think I think the guys are hungry, you know. I think I think the messaging is important, but I think the guys in their process and trusted it. Uh, being able to go through that process, being able to find ways to get better every single week. I think it was huge for us having the early buy because you can tie in some of the preseason stuff with some of the the first quarter stuff. Put it all together and really give those guys better and worse things they can do from an individual standpoint, not just scheme. You can tie it all into just their individual games and how they can help us moving forward. Um, even some of the guys that we haven’t seen. I think those are really important things how they get some role clarity or change from roles. So, like I I really look forward to all of those things and how you get better throughout the season. Why has your defense been successful through four games? Uh, you got to give a lot of credit to the defense, the guys, the attitude. You got to give a lot of credit to the coaching. You got to give a lot of credit to um the direction. You got to give a lot of credit to really some of our offense maintaining the possession as much as they have the ball with the field position. Um, as much as they maintain the ball with the time of possession. Um, all of those things come into play when it comes to those things. And like, um, if you can play, you know, the old cliche, you can play, you know, football together, you got a better chance. It is great. That’s what we’ve been doing. Has that meshed more quickly than maybe you wondered if it might just because you do have a lot of new pieces and it’s kind of fit together. It’s got to all work together. I wouldn’t say uh quickly more quickly. You know, we did go through a whole season last year. You know, obviously Brick and Rudy and a couple guys change, but there’s a lot of familiar faces both on defense. Um there’s a lot of familiar faces from last year. There’s some new rookies obviously with Pierce and Walker and Watt and Bowman be to add those pieces. they have meshed really well to what we want to do and who we want to be. Um, and they’ve actually leaded they’ve led us um to a certain extent and all of those guys when you talk about coaching or player. We talked some about Zack, you know, moving to the field for that game against Commanders, but how about TJ? Uh, what have you kind of seen from him kind of taking over that receivers’s room? You know, um, I just think it’s, you know, he gave great direction, you know, last week. He was able to go out there and be able to help as much as he possibly can. I think Zack being to be on the field having fun, the communication with those guys and the dialogue across the board from receivers to quarterbacks to O line to running backs to everybody all hands on deck. Tight ends play really well exceptional last week. Um all those guys being able to communicate that way I thought was a higher level. I thought we did a better job last week from a coaching standpoint being on the grass and I think the players responded the right way. So like I’m I’m really fired up what TJ brings every single day wherever he is. you know, we were fortunate enough to be able to name a pass game coordinator, you know, at the beginning of the season or sometime in the offseason for a reason. You know, he brings tremendous value um to everything that we do and um we’re very appreciative that we have. You mentioned last week that like a bye-week is a time for self-reflection. What did what did you learn about your team just from that time? Um it was it was it was really cool really going to watch the other people, you know, and you go watch other people and you just see what this game is, you know, like the outside world, I told the building today, we kind of make it a selfish game, so to speak, right? We always talk about individual stats or we talk about individual accolades. We got two individual accolades over the break, right? You get all these things, right? Fantasy football, all these things are really cool, but at the end of the day, it’s about who can be selfless and find ways to win. And I watched a bunch of teams go out there, including last night, just find ways to win and not worry about anything. When if you can do those things, that’s what’s going to make you special. And I think I got a bunch a bunch of selfish selfless guys in this locker room that can help us win. We know how how confident you are in Mike. Yes. I was just wondering was was there a moment maybe more than one moment over the last couple years that helped that confidence grow? Something that he did that made you say, “All right, we’re we’re good with we’re good with this guy.” I I I you know I’ve been really comfortable with Mike for a long time, you know, so I can I’ll just talk about the latest thing he did, you know, and it was it was last week and his response when he came back after a bad game, you know, that that is the telltale sign for quarterbacks, you know, how you respond at the it doesn’t go your way. It’s not absolutely what you wanted to look like in the game and you have to respond and play better and you obviously you got to play better around them, but like how do you respond? And I loved his practice response. I loved his verbal response to his team. I loved his response in the game. And I loved his response after of knowing it’s a process. And I love how he reacted to the criticism. I loved how he reacted to everything. Like we talked about it last week. I said, you know, he said, you know, the pistol thing and the stats and this and that. And it was like, you got to play. And we got the stones rightfully. And he handled it the right way. And I was proud of him. when you go into, you know, a prime time game with a young quarterback against a very good team, how do you how do you manage that and and having Mike as as your guy? Does that make you feel, you know, good about it? Feel great, Mark. You know, with with Mike in every game. I think they’re all big games, you know, like, you know, it does it is it is pretty sweet to be the only game on television. You know, we won’t be this week on Monday be two of us, but but it’s still that feel, right? And it’s like it it that’s the only different part is that everybody’s watching. But like you always feel like that when you’re out there and I just feel like you always want to go perform. I think these games are huge. I think these games are big. I think this is a highly competitive league. I think the parody in the league is absolutely outstanding. I think I think I think everybody’s having fun for a reason in this league. And it’s like it’s fun to watch. It’s fun to be a part of. It’s fun to watch these guys grow and develop and and I got the utmost confidence in Mike. Do you have to have any extra conversations with him about that or is it just business as usual? Mike’s kind of he’s kind of even kill. It’s like you’re almost forcing extra conversation if you’re doing that with Mike. I think Mike’s kind of one of those guys that has his process, you know, he’s he’s very inquisitive. He has a question, he’ll come ask. If he needs anything, he’ll ask. That’s very rare. Um, he trusts himself. He trust he trust in his his abilities. He trusts his coaches and he lets it go. How are you guys preparing for uh I know you faced the Eagles a bunch in the last years. tonight preparing for the tush push version that the Bills are running and uh trying to stop that whole deal with a big massive quarterback. We got the rest of the week to try to figure it out. But he is a big man and um he’s a problem not just in the tush push. He’s a problem everywhere, right? You got to worry about the quarterback run game just in general. Um he can absolutely run design quarterback runs, he can run scrambles, he can do do it all and he can throw everything. So he’s a he’s a challenge just in itself. But, you know, we got the whole week to sit back and try to figure out what we want to do there and how you want to play those plays. And when we get to the short yardage, we’ll figure some of those things out. On the flip side, you’re top 10 in in third down conversion rate on offense. Stats are for losers. I know. It’s okay. That’s why I keep giving them to you. Some that way. But, uh, I mean, for you guys, you know, it being that you run so much pistol, the short yardage game on offense is critical. You always try to get in third and short, right? Higher percentage play. Um, but do you just rely on the success of the run game and how good the offensive line has been or or do you need to focus more on short yardage stuff for you guys to be successful? I think you just kind of go as you go. Like you kind of play off things, you know, like you know, obviously if you got to stop our run, that makes it a lot easy to pass. So like you want to be able to establish that. You know, I think Saving said it, you know, want to be able to run the football even when they were running and get the first down, that’s great. But like, you know, there’ll be times where you open up the bag of tricks and do some different things and kind of utilize whatever you need to utilize in those moments and and and those times will come. They’ll present itself as the season goes. And like the better and better you are running the football, the more you got to do to try to stop it. Um it’s just like right now we’re seeing the tush push past and it’s like it’s the reason those things are happening, right? It’s like you got to stop those things. You got to dedicate a bunch of resources to stopping it and then it opens up to things. I mean, looking at the last two games, Drake went from against the Panthers having one of his lowest slot percentage usages uh in his in the last couple years and then against the Commanders, one of the highest slot usages. I think you could take the Carolina game and you could just throw it out the window and eliminate that from life. But here’s the reason, you know, like just like get him more involved in the slot. No, I mean, he’s he’s been in a slot for his when we’re in a normal moving process and like Panthers got us out of whack. We were not in a normal moving process. we were in tempo, get on the ball, line up into position, try to throw it and complete it, try to find a way to get back in his game. I think that game was just a anomaly. So, like, you know, when that game comes out and it says you’re in the gun and you’re 90% pass, yeah, no, you know, like I got it. What What makes him such an effective slot receiver? Um, I don’t know if he’s just an effective slot receive wide out. So, you want to move him around for different reasons, right? He’s able to go in there. is an intimidating force in the run game to be able to block for us, to be able to, you know, get body on body and get yards for Bejon. He’s able to go in there and absolutely do all of his um his his cuts that he can have with different areas on the field. Um he’s able to go on the outside and win one-on-one. Um he’s just a big dog receiver. Like we like to put him in there and do different things and like to put him on the outside to do different things and he’s one of those guys you want to move around and try to get as many places as you can. We’ve talked a lot about Bjan Robinson lately and how you think he’s so great. What about Xavier Watts and how he just earned that Leewad honor? Yeah, I was I was kind of messed with him. I told him if he’ had two more picks in the first game of the season, he might have been defensive player of the week, not just rookie or month. Um but um he’s doing well and we talked about how they’ve helped and how they’ve been able to uh you know quickly affect us and be able to play. But he’s doing a wonderful job. I think he’s taken to coaching. I think he’s the skill sets and everything that our scouting department and our coaches all help to go find and bringing that kind of talent to what we want to do is always something that you love and we’re fired up to watch him go out there and have a bunch of success. Coach, you mentioned the generating pressure and sacks and everything else was something that you’re going to be focusing on during the bye-week. Um what what kind of what can you bring this week this year that that you can elevate based off what you’ve done over the last couple, you know? Well, this week’s unique, right? You got a guy back there that we just mentioned that is uh unique in itself. So when you do pressure, you like to get him on the ground. You know, if you don’t, he can make you pay in the worst way. So like you just want to focus on making sure that we are in the right rush lanes and doing the right things in order not to allow him out the pocket to be able to crease you and run the football, right? We had Baker get us I think three times in the first game. Um you know, Mariota got out once or twice. Um and these guys are getting more and more athletic. So you just got to make sure you focus on how you use your rush lanes, how you utilize some of those things, whether you’re a blitzer or whether you’re just part of the fourman rush, whatever the case may be. feel like the the discipline, the the vision and violence that you need to rush with has to be sure we always keep that in the uptick. How has Allen changed since you saw him in 2022? Oh, he was pretty dangerous there, too. Right. Are you talking about the 20? I saw the 22 version in LA, right? That’s the one you’re talking about. He was scary then, too. Yeah. Um I don’t know. He’s How different is he? Is he has he evolved any? I mean, is he or does he look like the same? I’m sure he’s evolved, but like you talking about a guy who is a dog, you know, like he’s been a dog for a while. Like I don’t know what his stats were in 22, but I’m not sure if he was very far from being an MVP then either. You know, he was pretty kind of right as he was Yeah, he step the guy. We learned firsthand right right at the Super Bowl and man, who is this dude? But um he showed us pretty quickly. He’s he’s a really good football player, you know. What in the passing game makes him and obviously the run game stuff is pretty clear. wasn’t the passing game makes him a handful. He can throw the ball anywhere. You know, I remember he hit us with a post ball moving up in the pocket. They absolutely threw a dime on and and watch him. He caught us in a a defense and they had two verticals down and he’s able to manipulate the rush and be able to absolutely keep all his power and throw off balance and off platform throws um just about anywhere in the field. And um he can throw the ball in time, he can throw it off schedule, it it doesn’t matter. And he’s fearless. Um and and and that’s what you want in your quarterback. you know, he’s something that you look at and you look at Mike and go study some of the things that he’s able to do and and watch some of those things, how he’s able to get the ball down the field. But he’s um he’s amazing. He’s a good player. How do you handle the fact that he can extend plays like what do you tell the secondary? It’s hard to cover for four seconds, five, six, seven. It’s really really tough. Yeah. A lot of people including this building, they talk about playing the second play, you know, and you got to be able to play the second play. Like when it’s starts right away once he starts moving around, his head doesn’t go down and look to run right away. He’s he’s his head is always down the field ready to throw. He he put a great one on tape the other night. I know you guys were watching as he’s able to step up in the pocket and absolutely rip a dime. Um that’s what he does. So you got to cover longer than you normally would when you playing a guy like that. You know, he’s not the first person to present that challenge in his league. And I can remember what Cam Newton when he first got in the league and how dangerous he was. Um and now you’re seeing it at a even higher levels with all of these guys. So like they all present that challenge. Last night Patrick showed it. All these guys show it, you know, and um he’s one of the best doing it. Anything else? you haven’t hosted a Monday night game since 2017. What does it mean to the city to host these and what do you expect the environment to be? You know, um I think it’s I think it’s awesome for the city to get it just because um the city deserves it. Our fan base deserves it. You guys be able to get out there and be able to get those things. But like um I love it for the young team to be able to go out there and put those guys in those great spotlights to let them know, man, these games are all huge. They’re all big. They’re all unique. And like I love our response and how we’re able to go out. I love how we practice. I love what we play. Um, and I really love it for our organization, uh, more than anything, just to be able to get that that game that means a lot for the week and for everybody else when they’re watching. So, it’s pretty cool. All right, thanks y’all. See you guys. [Music] down. Hey [Music]

Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Raheem Morris speaks with the media as the Falcons are coming off their bye week and begin preparations to take on the Buffalo Bills on Monday Night Football in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

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