FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. -- Bijan Robinson has maintained a close relationship with Raheem Morris. It makes sense. Morris was the Atlanta Falcons' head coach for two of the first three seasons of Robinson's career.
On Sunday, the two men will meet again under different circumstances.
Robinson will be helping to lead the Falcons' offense as one of the top running backs in the league. Morris, who has called Robinson the best player in the NFL multiple times, will be back in Atlanta as the San Francisco 49ers' defensive coordinator. Morris was fired as Atlanta's coach in January after back-to-back eight-win campaigns.
Robinson said he spoke to Morris just a few weeks ago, and he's relishing the chance to face off against a man he calls a "father figure" to him.
"He's always going to be family to me no matter if we compete or not," Robinson said. "But yeah, man, he still talks to all of his players, because that's just who he is."
Morris is glad Penix has recovered from the torn left ACL that ended his season last year on Nov. 16.
"He's back healthy and he's probably everything that you thought and hoped for as far as being a play-action passer, a guy that can push the ball down the field, can make all the throws, go through the whole process," Morris said. "Just one of those guys that I have a lot of appreciation for and love for."
The Falcons players on offense who have been here the past several years will be going up against a defense run by a man who knows them all too well. And that 49ers defense has been potent regardless of opponent familiarity. San Francisco is allowing the fourth-fewest points per game (18.3) and the fifth-fewest yards per game (300).
Atlanta (2-4) must perform against Morris and the undefeated Niners or risk losing three straight games and moving to 0-4 at home. A fifth loss in the first seven games is not how the Falcons wanted to start off under new head coach Kevin Stefanski.
The Falcons' biggest issue on offense is one the Chicago Bears exploited last week in a 31-23 Falcons loss. The Bears pressured quarterback Michael Penix Jr. 46.2% of the time, the highest rate Penix has faced this season. Chicago sacked Penix five times and blitzed on more than half of his dropbacks.
The results were not good. For the season, Penix has the worst EPA per dropback under quick pressure in the NFL (-1.17). He is 3-of-15 for 17 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions in those scenarios.
With no pressure at all, Penix has the fourth-best EPA per dropback in the league (0.40). So, it is imperative that the Falcons figure out how to better protect him.
"Any game you go into, you want to protect your quarterback," Stefanski said. "And I think you protect your quarterback literally with the protection, but also you protect the quarterback with how guys get open, how we get the ball out of our hands, how we run the ball, all those type of things."
No defensive coordinator knows Penix better than Morris. He was part of the regime that drafted Penix and was a major proponent of the QB for two years. How much does that come into play during the week? A little bit.
Falcons defense coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, who has a long history with Morris, said he will speak with offensive coordinator Tommy Rees about Morris and his scheme. Stefanski calls situations like this "overblown."
"Of course, Raheem has great insight into our personnel, and our coaches have great insight into Raheem and he knows that," Stefanski said. "So, I think you can get into, 'Well, he knows that we know that they know,' and I don't think it's as useful as it may seem. Now having said that, of course, anytime we're playing against a coach or a player that someone has knowledge on, you sit and you talk to your players, and you talk to your coaches and you try to get as much insight on people as possible."
Penix, for his part, said he is looking forward to the chess match with his former head coach.
"It's going to be exciting," Penix said. "It's going to be good to be able to see him again, but we got to find a way to obviously put points on the board against the defense."
Contributing: Nick Wagoner
