In the raucous visiting locker room at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field late Monday night, Falcons coach Raheem Morris had a question for his players circled around him.
“I know we’re happy about this moment, but who the (expletive) is next?” the first-year coach asked before raising a clenched fist to bring his team in for a boisterous huddle.
(To be clear, Morris actually was not unaware of the identity of the team’s next opponent, but was trying to keep his team looking forward.)
With their 22-21 last-minute win over the Philadelphia Eagles, the Falcons created joy and satisfaction for themselves and their fans that was most real, as was the hope and promise it offered. To recover from a disappointing loss in the season opener by pulling off a stunning comeback on the road could turn out to be a galvanizing moment for a team trying to break a six-year playoff drought.
But it will be so only if they can build off the result by continuing to win. And that is why the answer to Morris’ question – captured on video and shared through the team’s social media channels – is particularly pertinent.
Who’s next? The two-time defending Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“We’ve got a pretty good quarterback coming into town, and we can’t wait to see him,” Morris said after the game of three-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes.
It’s not a must win; the win over Philadelphia relieved the Falcons of the possibility of starting the season 0-3 and practically disqualifying themselves from the postseason race. But it’s certainly a game they should believe they can win. And for a team that has a stated aim of competing at the highest levels this season, this is a game that the Falcons need to at least be competitive in. (Bookmakers established the Chiefs as 4.5-point favorites, a smaller spread than they’d given the Eagles.)
And the problem – or maybe an opportunity? – that the Falcons have as they prepare for Kansas City is that they didn’t actually play all that well against the Eagles. They were 2-for-9 on third downs where Philadelphia was 6-for-13. They had a needless fumble that they were lucky to recover. They scored one touchdown (albeit the one that mattered most) in three red-zone trips.
“We were better (than in the season-opening loss to Pittsburgh),” quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “There’s still a long ways to go.”
And the Falcons had some fortune on their side (for once), most notably the dropped pass by Eagles running back Saquon Barkley on the crucial third-and-3 from the Falcons’ 10-yard line, the one that stopped the fourth-quarter clock at 1:42 and gave the Falcons more time for their game-winning touchdown drive. Had Barkley caught it, he almost certainly would have picked up the first down, and the Eagles could have run out the clock to secure the game.
And this was after the season opener when the Falcons were defeated at home by a backup quarterback (Justin Fields). The Falcons were outgained 270-226, and as was the case Monday, the opponent benefited from a decisive advantage in third-down efficiency.
And it may not be need to be explained, but the Chiefs figure to be significantly more capable than either the Eagles or Steelers. Kansas City has not shown dominant form in its first two games, getting outgained in wins over Baltimore and Cincinnati. Still, with Mahomes, coach Andy Reid and a slew of playmakers, the Chiefs are quite capable of administering a humbling or even embarrassing defeat Sunday on another national stage.
If the Chiefs come to MBS and lay waste to the Falcons, the win over the Eagles will feel distant with its importance diminished.
This easily will be the biggest test of Morris’ young tenure as Falcons coach. As happy as he was for the win over the Eagles (he was awarded the game ball and brought it to the postgame news conference), Morris was well aware of the need to put the win over the Eagles in the past, just as his team had done with the loss to the Steelers.
“You can’t let this get in the way of what you’re trying to do for the following week,” he said. “We’ve got a short week coming up, and we’ve got to go right back at it.”
Similarly, Cousins did not buy into grandiose ideas about the meaning of the win. He dismissed, for instance, the idea that the offense had found an answer in flawlessly executing the final two-minute drive.
“I think it’s always play-to-play, week-to-week,” he said. “You can never say, ‘Oh, we unlocked things, and now it’s going to be this way or that way.’ You just keep fighting every play. You never know what the next snap’s going to bring.”
Moreover, Kansas City hardly is the end of the Falcons’ coming turbulence. After the Chiefs, NFC South-rivals New Orleans (Sept. 29) and Tampa Bay (Oct. 3 for a Thursday night game) will visit MBS next. The Saints have won their first two games by a combined 62 points.
As for the fans? Their focus level on the Chiefs is another matter. Upon my return from Philadelphia, my Uber driver and a neighbor both shared with me their excitement over the result. A fellow passenger on my flight back from Philadelphia took the opportunity to deliver good-natured, if salty, trash talk to the Eagles fans on the plane after it touched down in Atlanta.
“Rise the (expletive) up,” she shouted for all the cabin to hear, employing the same expletive as her team’s coach when he asked who was next.
The best part was when an Eagles fan talked back and apparently made some mention of his wealth. The Falcons fan challenged the claim, shouting him down with unassailable logic.
Came the reply that will remain happily entrenched in my memory: “You on Spirit, (four-syllable synonym for dastardly person).”
It’s indeed a great time to be a Falcons fan. Whether it remains so is up to Morris and his team.
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