Week 14 3 up and 3 down: Raheem Morris is going down with the ship

Morris’s defense of Kirk Cousins makes no sense, while Tyler Allgeier and Arnold Ebiketie shine.

Kirk Cousins continues to fall, dragging the team down with him. The Atlanta Falcons pass rush showed up for the second week in a row, and two players on offense took care of their jobs despite the loss. Raheem Morris is starting to sound delusional in his post-game pressers, and that should worry fans.

Here’s the Week 14 three up and three down.

Up

Tyler Allgeier

All gears were finally back! The Falcons number two man in the backfield helped get the offense going early and sustained his performance for the entire game. The new looks with him as a fullback proved great in short-yardage situations and should be utilized more moving forward.

Bijan was a more significant part of the pass protection plan, so the Falcons needed Allgeier to step up for the offense and make the most of his reps, and that’s what the back did. We could put Bijan in the up category every week, but Allgeier stepped up and earned his spot this week.

Darnell Mooney

Mooney was back to his big-play ways. The receiver has been nursing a leg injury, but he looked all the way back against the Minnesota Vikings’ defense. Mooney averaged 23.7 yards per catch for 142 yards. The Falcons were going to need Mooney operating at full capacity to have a chance at beating Brian Flores’ blitzes, and the receiver held up his end.

Mooney either flipped field positioning and got the Falcons into scoring territory on each of his receptions. The performance didn’t lead to a win, but Mooney still proves he’ll be a valuable weapon for the future (Michael Penix).

Arnold Ebiketie

Ebiketie has four sacks in the last five games. As he has every season, Ebiketie has come on hot as a pass rusher, and he looks better than he ever has at any point in his career. The outside linebacker is sound in the run game, can drop into coverage effectively, and gets the quarterback on the ground.

Ebiketie has been more consistent this season at causing pressures, but finishing reps is where he initially struggled. He’s changed that narrative, and the pass rusher would have a lot of ‘sack assists’ if the stat existed, as he’s collapsing the pocket and forcing the quarterback into the arms of his teammates.

Down

Dee Alford

The Falcons defensive back was burnt toast, and he became the apple of Sam Darnold’s eye, as the quarterback began seeking out #20. It’s never good to see the quick camera pan to a deep ball in Justin Jefferson’s direction; it’s even worse when you see your defensive back belly-flopping on the turf five yards from Justin Jefferson. It wasn’t just Jefferson who got the better of the slot corner; Jordan Addison also had his way with the once-reliable defensive back.

There were plenty of communication errors, and others in the back end played poorly. Still, Alfrod has been a liability consistently this year, and always seems to find himself involved in these breakdowns.

Kirk Cousins

This was Cousins’ fourth game in a row without throwing a touchdown while throwing at least one interception. Kirk Cousins has an interception in 10 of 13 games. He has two-plus interceptions in four of those 13 games. The quarterback looks lost far too often, and he’s struggling to operate the offense in the critical areas. The team doesn’t even seem to trust him throwing beyond 10 yards in the red zone after we witnessed them run the ball on third and long in scoring territory.

There are certainly imperfections with Zac Robinson’s offense, but this offense can’t overcome play caller growing pains against top defenses when Kirk is playing like the 20th-best quarterback in the league. Still, you’d never believe Cousins played a bad game at all in Atlanta if you just listened to Morris’ post-game presser and ignored everything on the field.

Raheem Morris

Morris is beginning to enter dangerous territory. While I understand not throwing your players under the bus, I do not understand using other players as fodder to defend what we’re seeing from Kirk Cousins. Cousins has failed to do his job, and insinuating he hasn’t during this four-game losing stretch is baffling.

Morris even went as far as to reference Kirk Cousins passing yards in the post-game presser; this is the same coach that said stats are for losers earlier this season. Morris has had no problem calling out the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, or pass rush this season, but Cousins is managed like a toddler. Beyond politics, Morris once again displayed questionable decision-making, passing on a field goal, presiding over the team accepting a penalty on fourth down, lining up to go for it and getting a delay of game, and causing fans to throw up their hands at what the team was doing multiple times in this game.

The Falcons had their worst performance of the year in the penalty department, and that’s saying something for a team that racks them up weekly. If Morris can’t rein this team in, he could be in jeopardy of losing more than just a shot at a winning record in his first year as head coach.

The Falcons last won a game on November 3rd, their quarterback is flailing, and their head coach is potentially (and at least publically) ignoring the reality of the situation. This is the narrative that will surround the team as they prepare to take on the Desmond Ridder-led Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football.