EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Before Sunday's game between the Atlanta Falcons and New York Jets, the official weather conditions were announced as "misty." When the game ended, the official outlook for the Falcons was "murky."
Needing a win to stabilize their sinking season, the Falcons took and then squandered three leads on the way to a 27-24 loss to the lowly Jets in a rainy and half-empty MetLife Stadium. The loss dropped the Falcons to 4-8, and while it didn't mathematically eliminate them from the playoffs, it did hurt the odds that second-year head coach Raheem Morris will make it to a third season.
Team owner Arthur Blank was in Morris' postgame news conference, as he is each week, and the two shared an embrace before Morris returned to the locker room. When he was approached by a reporter following the news conference, a spokesman for Blank said the owner "won't be doing media today."
The contrast of what happened on the field Sunday couldn't be lost on Blank, though. The Jets, who won on a 56-yard field goal by Nick Folk as time expired, essentially gave up on the 2025 season weeks ago and started trading away key pieces. In doing so, they have accumulated five first-round picks in the next two seasons.
Meanwhile, the Falcons were all in on this season, dealing away next year's first-round pick last offseason to improve their pass rush by selecting James Pearce Jr. The addition of Pearce, who notched his fifth sack Sunday, has been a success.
Not much else has worked, though.
Two of Atlanta's perpetual problems cropped up again against the Jets. The special teams were the biggest issue. Thanks to a fumbled punt by Jamal Agnew inside the Falcons' 10-yard line and an 83-yard kickoff return allowed to New York's Isaiah Williams, the Jets got 10 points off a 2-yard touchdown drive and a 1-yard field goal drive.
"We gave ourselves a chance to win in two phases, didn't play well in the other phase," Morris said. "You have to play well in all three phases to win football games, so we did not today."
Atlanta has allowed an NFL-worst 29.8 yards per kickoff return and is 29th in the league in expected points added through special teams (minus-27.56). That comes one season after finishing 30th in special teams EPA (minus-33.35). Still, Morris declined Sunday to say if he was considering replacing special teams coordinator Marquice Williams.
"We don't make emotional decisions," he said. "We won't talk about that today. We will never do that. It's not our code. It's not our ethics. It's not what we are or who we are."
Offensively, the Falcons outgained the Jets 389 yards to 269 but converted only four of 12 third-down attempts. Atlanta is 29th in the league in third-down conversions (33.1 percent) and has only converted 14 of its 64 chances in the last six games. The offense had two possessions inside the final two minutes with a chance to take the lead but went three-and-out each time.
"When there is consistency to (a problem), then it's clearly something that has to get addressed," said quarterback Kirk Cousins, who was 21-of-33 for 234 yards and a touchdown on the day. "Today, down the stretch, we didn't make enough plays to be walking away with a win. It hurts a lot."
With the loss, Morris fell to 12-17 in the last two seasons with the Falcons. He is 33-55 overall as a head coach, and his .375 winning percentage ranks last among active head coaches with at least three years of experience.
Morris was hired in 2024 to team with general manager Terry Fontenot in the hope of ending what is soon to be an eight-year postseason drought. But the Falcons now have to win all five remaining games to avoid their eighth consecutive losing season. Fontenot, who is in his fifth season overseeing personnel, is also facing an uncertain future. While Blank ponders all of that, Atlanta's players were left trying to figure out how to make the best out of their final five games.
"I don't know if there is any one key to it," Cousins said. "It's being a pro, your habits every day as you come to work, how you treat one another and obviously looking at the places we need to be better."
"It just is what it is," Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss said. "Anybody who has played sports has had a season that didn't go the way you wanted. You just have to go play for pride. (Maybe) rattle off five in a row -- crazier things have happened. You just have to go, man, keep playing."
Even the perpetually positive Bijan Robinson, who was spectacular Sunday, left the locker room downtrodden.
"It's tough," said Robinson, who had 142 rushing yards and a touchdown to go with 51 receiving yards. "You want to win. That's why we're here. That's why we practice so hard. We fell short today. We have to go back to the drawing board."
Robinson is second in the NFL in yards from scrimmage (1,589) and has accounted for a league-high 38.3 percent of the Falcons' yardage this season.
"There were times when it really felt like we were running the ball well, and we have to do a better job of turning that into points," Falcons offensive lineman Jake Matthews said. "We had opportunities to win it at the end and just couldn't do it."
The key to finishing the season the right way will be "taking pride in doing a good job," Matthews said.
"We don't know what's going to happen. (We've) just got to keep working and being a professional and getting your job done," he said. "Definitely frustrating."
Elliss does not believe the Falcons overlooked the Jets or were undermined by Sunday's dreary atmosphere.
"I felt like the energy was really great," he said. "What today came down to was execution, moments where a guy got beat or messed up, myself included. That's what it came down to. The energy was right. Rah had us ready to go. That's a team that took Baltimore to the wire last week. They know how to fight."
The Falcons will have to keep fighting as they close out the season.