Todd Gurley shouldn’t get the blame for Atlanta Falcons loss
By Joe Beasley
Atlanta Falcons running back Todd Gurley had a chance to take a knee to secure a win over the Lions.
The Atlanta Falcons were hoping to build off the momentum of their big win against the Vikings. They were well on their way, then tragedy struck. They came up short against the Lions and people are pointing the finger at Todd Gurley. Gurley is not the reason why the Falcons lost this game.
The Falcons made their fair share of mistakes during the game such as ging for it on fourth and five which cost them three points and Dirk Koetter’s play-calling on offense wasn’t the best neither.
As well as the defense played last week, some would think that would have carried over to this week. Instead, Kenny Golladay looked like the best receiver in the league and couldn’t be stopped while the Falcons allowed Matt Stafford to march down the field to score the winning touchdown.
Gurley did what any running back would have done – he powered through the defense and tried to get as close to the goal line to make the potential winning kick as easy as possible.
It’s not easy for a 230-pound man to stumble, regain his balance, and stop on the dime in such a small distance. The Lions wanted the Falcons to score quickly in order to save them as much clock as possible because they were able to move the ball through the air at will. That is ultimately what cost the Falcons the game.
There people saying the Falcons should have had Matt Ryan take a knee at the 10 and then simply kick the field goal. If the Falcons would have taken that approach and missed the field goal, fans would have blamed Younghoe Koo and questioned the coaching and playcalling.
The flipside of that argument, Koo is six for six on field goals under 39 yards in 2020 and is 23/24 on field goals under 39 yards for his career.
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It’s fair to judge the playcalling and the coaching because of decisions that were made throughout this game. However, to place the blame on Gurley is ridiculous. There were a lot of miscues and Gurley’s touchdown was not one of them.