The Atlanta Falcons are fresh off of their worst loss in years, and while there are many people to blame for such a lifeless performance, offensive coordinator Tommy Rees is rising up the hit list, as many Falcons fans want to see Rees be placed on the hot seat after the Week 8 loss to the Bucs.
In Sunday's 16-0 loss, the Falcons were playing in a literal monsoon, yet they only ran the ball 28 times and Bijan Robinson had 19 carries. Despite throwing four interceptions, Michael Penix Jr. logged 24 pass attempts, and fans everywhere were scratching their heads at this gameplan.
Meanwhile, the Bucs rode the conditions to run the ball 56 times for over 300 yards and became the first team to win without completing a pass since 1974. So Atlanta suffering the worst loss since Hank Aaron was still playing falls on the offensive play-caller when the offense got nothing going.
The loss and the performance was bad enough, yet he just made it look even worse. While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Rees was asked about the decision to throw the ball in such inclement weather, revealing that they thought they were okay to throw the football early on in the first half.
"When you do call a pass you're trying to keep them off balance a bit, they're in a loaded box and you're trying to set one guy free so let's see if we can get one down the field because to go 80 yards in that weather was hard when you're not throwing the ball," Rees said.
Atlanta Falcons OC Tommy Rees has no business calling plays in this league
How does one get to that conclusion? You're facing one of the best run defenses in the NFL, of course it's hard to run the football, but in these conditions, you don't have any other choice. The Bucs pounded the rock and were plenty successful, so the lack of usage for the NFL's best RB is baffling.
Here's what doesn't make sense though: the weather in the first half was much worse than in the second half, and they had no business throwing the football as much as they did regardless. It was clear that Penix was not having his best day, yet he wanted to fall on the sword with the pass game.
What's worse is that later on in the same response, Rees doubled down. The 34-year-old said the Dirty Birds thought the only way they could break off an explosive play was through the air, which doesn't make sense when the Buccaneers actively disproved that while solely running the ball.
"You're trying to find explosives or steal one, and there was a point where we felt we could throw it but then there was a point where it was really tough sledding to throw it, and then by the end of the game, whether its the score of the game, the situation, and then the weather lightening up, you felt like you could throw it again."
This reminds me of when Adam Gase had the New York Jets throw the football 48 times in the rain against the 0-11 Bengals back in 2019. His gameplan was to let Sam Darnold air it out despite the conditions, yet his "big-brained" play failed miserably as they lost 22-6. You'd think Rees would've learned from instances like this, but apparently not.
Falcons fans thought that Tommy Rees was an upgrade over Zac Robinson because he's done more for Penix's development, but that's an incredibly low bar. After such a brutal loss, it's easy to be a prisoner of the moment, but there's nothing that shows me that he can be a quality OC currently.
He struggles to scheme up the run, he struggles to scheme up the pass, and for an offense that's identity is designed on the run game, he sure finds a lot of reasons to divert from that the second something goes wrong--and that's making it hard for the offense to get in and stay in a rhythm.
Yes, Rees took over play-calling for the Browns midway through last season (in Week 10) there have been some real growing pains in his first real stint as a play-caller. The offense, while talented, has been too inconsistent, and while I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, it's getting hard to do so.
Tommy Rees could still prove to be a quality coordinator in this league, but right now, his stock has never been lower. Fans are understandably getting frustrated and he needs to right the ship--which starts with the Falcons' offense getting back on track in Week 9 against the Bengals in Madrid.
Add us as a preferred source on Google