Falcons running back Todd Gurley was “mad as hell” at himself for scoring a late touchdown on Sunday against the Lions, leading to Detroit’s comeback win at a point in the game when the Falcons could have just kneeled down and kicked a chip-shot game-winning field goal as time expired. But Falcons coach Raheem Morris said it wasn’t Gurley’s fault.
Morris said he feels that he put Gurley in a tough position by asking him to take a handoff and run to the 1-yard line but stop before crossing the goal line.
“I said this before and I’ll say it again, I feel like I made the mistake for putting Todd in that spot,” Morris said, via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s a little harder probably than me and you think to stop from going in. Obviously, it is. . . . I made a bad decision from the 10-yard line to give him the ball thinking he could stop before he got there. Probably should have put the ball in Matt Ryan’s hands and took the knee like I said before. That’s probably the biggest regret from the game. . . . I know I’ve said that clearly to [the media]. I’ve said it clearly to the team. Moving forward, we won’t make that mistake again.”
The Falcons have found some unique ways to lose this season, but that may have been the strangest yet. It’s believed to be the first time in NFL history that a team intentionally allowed its opponent to score a go-ahead touchdown and then came back and scored a touchdown of its own to win.