The Falcons did something you can’t do on Sunday. They gave the ball back to Lions quarterback Matt Stafford with too much time on the clock.
Atlanta scored with a minute left in the fourth quarter on a run from RB Todd Gurley, taking a 22-16 lead. It was Gurley’s second score of the game, but not one that he wanted.
Gurley attempted to fall down on the one-yard line, but couldn’t stop his forward momentum and ended up barely crossing the goal line. Stafford, one of the NFL’s best late-game performers, made quick work of the Falcons’ secondary. Just like that, another great team effort by Atlanta was wasted by an inability to close out its opponent.
Following the game, interim head coach Raheem Morris said he had instructed Gurley to fall down, per ESPN’s Michael Rothstein.
“It was talked about right at that moment,” Morris told reporters after the game “We knew that was kind of going to be their ideal choice for us to get in the end zone so they could have a chance to go down there and score.
“So we wanted to take the knee on the 1, and he obviously tried and he fell into the end zone at the last second there, getting tripped up a little bit.”
Some have made the case that the Falcons should have chosen to kneel the ball, run the clock down a bit more and give kicker Younghoe Koo a chance at a short field goal.
However, Gurley has previously been good at getting down in situations like this. Plus, some would prefer to have a six-point lead that late in the game rather than risking a loss on a missed kick.
Atlanta had every chance to end this one and ultimately, couldn’t hold up against Detroit’s two-minute offense.
