As the seconds ticked off the clock late in the fourth quarter, you could feel a palpable frustration emanating from Georgia as Falcons fans surely screamed at their television sets for Raheem Morris to call a timeout.
He did not.
Instead, 16 seconds ticked off the clock, neutering a chance for the Atlanta Falcons to earn a road win over the Washington Commanders in regulation. Ultimately, Morris' crew fell, 30-24 in overtime, with the offense never touching the ball.
Rookie Michael Penix Jr. took a first-down snap from the 19-yard-line with 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter of a 24-24 game, hitting Darnell Mooney for a 25-yard gain with 32 seconds left. With two timeouts, Morris elected not to call one, letting those precious 16 seconds run off. Instead of having roughly 30 seconds to get into field goal range, they had 17 ticks. They ran three more plays and, aided by a defensive pass interference, set up a 56-yard field goal attempt from Riley Patterson that came up well short.
The Falcons used a timeout on a stopped clock and never used their third stoppage.
After the contest, Morris explained his game management, saying he believed they could get a snap off quicker.
"I thought we could get to the line of scrimmage with our operation there, could be a little bit faster there," Morris said. "Trying to save that timeout. In hindsight, could have been a good decision, or better decision to take that timeout to have the opportunity to move up there."
For some reason this season, head coaches continue to brain-fart with rookie quarterbacks at the helm. We saw former Bears coach Matt Eberflus make a similar miscalculation that cost his team on Thanksgiving.
Morris should have known his operation wouldn't be warp speed. Nearly the exact same thing happened ahead of halftime.
With all three timeouts in the second quarter available, Penix hit Mooney for a 12-yard gain to the Washington 36-yard line with 40 seconds left. Despite his full complement of timeouts, the Falcons let the clock dwindle to 20 seconds before their next snap. Ultimately, Atlanta settled for a field goal instead of getting additional shots at the end zone.
"Had an opportunity to score right there at the end of half, no time, took the field goal, got out of dodge," Morris said. "There are always a lot of things you can always clean up. A lot of things you can always do better. Those are always things you can get better at, particularly with a young quarterback. Particularly with all of us. We will find ways to get better than that."
For as much as coaches harp on players' attention to detail, there have been far too many clock mismanagement situations this season. It's been particularly prevalent with rookie quarterbacks at the helm. Using his timeouts differently could have given Morris' club additional shots at putting up more points. Maybe the result remains the same. Maybe not. One thing is for certain: Those unused timeouts went for nothing.
The loss dropped Atlanta to second in the NFC South and out of control for the division title. The Falcons now need a win versus Carolina and a Tampa Bay loss to New Orleans in Week 18 to take the division title.
