Raheem Morris raised some eyebrows when he accused the Patriots of simulating the Falcons’ snap count in the fourth quarter of Atlanta’s 24-23 loss to New England.
“I don’t wanna make it a ‘snapgate,’” the Falcons coach told reporters on Monday. “Which I probably already did.”
He did, though Patriots coach Mike Vrabel referred to it as “clapgate.” Regardless of what it’s being called, Morris admitted he was angry after the loss on Sunday, and he was just relaying what his players told him.
“This was our players telling us they simulated the snap out there. They heard something, obviously they did, that’s why he snapped it,” Morris said. “This was no intent that (the Patriots) did anything wrong. There was no intent that those guys did anything wrong.
“It was snapped early for our fault, it was on us,” he continued. “We gotta find a way if the ball gets snapped early to try to get the intentional grounding to the right guy. Obviously (it’s) hard with a free unblocked runner coming at you. We can’t snap the ball early no matter what anybody does. It’s gotta be more about us. That was just me being angry yesterday. Somebody asked me what happened. I was just being honest with what the guys told me coming off the grass."
The Falcons had a crucial mistimed snap with 2:09 left in the game and down by one when Ryan Neuzil snapped the ball early and hit quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in the chest.
After the game, Morris accused the Patriots defense of simulating Atlanta’s snap count, which led to the early snap and 10-yard intentional grounding penalty against the Falcons. An incomplete pass on third-and-20 led to the Patriots getting the ball back and securing the one-point victory.
The NFL rules state that defensive players are not allowed to simulate the offense’s snap count and “disconcerting signals” results in a 15-yard penalty.
“Quarterbacks when they want the ball, it’s like (loud clapping). I didn’t see anybody doing that,” Vrabel said Monday. “And then, we don’t do the clap, I can see when the quarterback, it’s the silent count, it’s like (soft claps). But I didn’t see anybody do that.”
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