Raheem Morris owns up to Falcons-Commanders disaster, a rarity in coaching circles

2025 was always going to be the year for the Atlanta Falcons. While the team is one win away from achieving its first winning season in nearly a decade, it is not looking good when it comes to the Dirty Birds winning the NFC South this season. Atlanta fell to 8-8 on the season in the Falcons' 30-24 overtime loss to the Washington Commanders on Sunday Night Football. It all goes back to coaching.

Atlanta entered halftime with a 17-7 lead over Washington. Kliff Kingsbury implemented a perfect second-half game plan to take advantage of Atlanta's faulty, bend-but-don't break defense. Time of possession ruined Atlanta in the end. It was a bad look for Raheem Morris, Jimmy Lake, Zac Robinson and the rest of the Falcons staff. The biggest gaffe was Morris not calling timeout inside of a minute.

Atlanta wasted precious seconds after a big gain, resulting in Riley Patterson missing a potential game-winning, 56-yard field goal. It did not have the distance. Had the Falcons been four yards closer, it would have cleared the crossbar effortlessly. Once again, Morris showed us all that for as good of a coordinator he has been, he still has a steep learning curve to becoming a great NFL head coach.

Here is what he had to say after the fact about not calling a timeout when the Falcons needed to.

"In hindsight, it could have been a good decision or a better decision to take that timeout, but I wanted to have the opportunity to move up there. You always second-guess those things, you can always second-guess those motives. You can always go back and look at it and see if you can get it snapped a little bit quicker."

This was only Michael Penix Jr.'s second career start. He played quite well in this primetime affair. Penix may have had a bad interception early on, but his game-tying touchdown pass on fourth-and-11 to Kyle Pitts at the front of the end zone was a sign of more good things to come for this team. Atlanta blew a golden opportunity to be in the driver's seat to make the playoffs, but now it feels over.

If Atlanta wants to achieve all it can with this roster, then Morris must take it upon himself to be better.

Raheem Morris admits his big coaching mistake cost the Atlanta Falcons

Admittedly, there has been some growth across the entire coaching staff. The Falcons now finally have somewhat of a pass rush. They will force the occasional turnover defense. On offense, the ground game remains a focal point for the attack, but there are plenty of playmakers to be had in the receiving corps as well. This team is trending up, but is likely going to come up short of the playoffs.

These are not the same old sorry Falcons. I do not feel like they are destined to lose every game they play. However, I continue to wonder if Atlanta will remain at a coaching disadvantage again next year across the board. If the Dirty Birds want to make the playoffs, then they need to see Lake, Robinson and definitely Morris level up. They also need to have a far more impactful NFL Draft this offseason.

Ultimately, Atlanta is still technically in the playoff mix but needs the following two things to happen. In order to get past the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC South race, Atlanta must defeat the Carolina Panthers, as well as see the New Orleans Saints get the best of the Buccaneers. Atlanta owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with Tampa Bay, but could only match them with a 9-8 record.

Of the eight losses the Falcons have suffered this season, this was one of their most winnable games.