With the way the Atlanta Falcons have played in the second half, you wouldn't even know they were tied with the Seattle Seahawks at halftime. In fact, officiating wiped a Falcons' touchdown off the board, so they could have led, but instead that 6-3 lead late in the first half feels like a distant memory.
Raheem Morris' future in Atlanta has been in jeopardy for quite some time, but we were finally given answers on Sunday afternoon. The 37-9 loss saw the Dirty Birds get outscored 31-3 in the second half, which should all but confirm that Arthur Blank needs to pursue a change in leadership this winter.
Despite entering the season with playoff expectations, the Falcons are sitting at 4-9 and have lost seven of their last eight games. For a talented roster that should be contending in the NFC, it makes no sense how things have fallen off the rails this fast after Year 1 of the Morris era was so promising
Falcons' Week 14 collapse is forcing Arthur Blank to fire Raheem Morris
Kirk Cousins threw two interceptions and was held to just 162 passing yards in the loss, as it was a straight up dismal effort. The only bright spots were Bijan Robinson, who still managed to lose a fumble, and Kyle Pitts, whose 90 receiving yards in the blowout loss marked a season-high.
James Pearce Jr. impressed again for the defense, but the silver linings end there. Both Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Rashid Shaheed went wild against Jeff Ulbrich's defense, as Sam Darnold's MVP campaign was given an unexpected boost against one of the most dysfunctional teams in the NFL.
However, Blank's obvious offseason decision should see more than just Morris be fired. The Falcons need to clean house completely with a new regime. Terry Fontenot needs to go along with him, while it's perplexing that Zac Robinson and Marquice Williams have yet to be fired amid this dismal season.
It would be surprising to see any change go down before the offseason, but there's no more defending Morris. Blank doesn't typically make knee-jerk reactions when prematurely firing his coaches, but Morris has lost the locker room to the point where he doesn't have much of a choice.
For a team that has pretty much their entire young nucleus still amid their rookie deals, they can't let the ineptitude go on any longer. This team looks defeated and look like they have quit on the season, which means that the 83-year-old owner has to cut ties with the second-year head coach.