Watch: Richard Sherman, Kirk Herbstreit blast Falcons’ Marcus Mariota
Both Richard Sherman and Kirk Herbstreit blasted Atlanta Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota on Thursday night.
“At this point, you’ve gotta bring somebody else in,” Sherman said about Mariota while serving as an Amazon Prime Video “Thursday Night Football” analyst for the prime-time game between the Falcons and Carolina Panthers that the Panthers won 25-15. “He’s making rookie mistakes, and as a veteran, you can’t have it. You have a good game plan… you run the ball… you don’t turn the ball over. This is carelessness.”
Herbstreit, calling the action alongside broadcasting legend Al Michaels, was then left downright baffled by a choice Mariota made in the contest’s fourth quarter:
“I still can’t figure out what Mariota is doing tonight with some of these decisions,” Herbstreit remarked after the quarterback’s lowlight of the game and possibly the season.
In total, Mariota completed 19-of-30 passes for 186 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in the Falcons’ second straight loss that dropped them to 4-6 on the campaign. After the defeat, Atlanta head coach Arthur Smith neither confirmed nor denied he was at least thinking about starting rookie and third-round draft pick Desmond Ridder against the Chicago Bears on Nov. 20.
“I know that’s a popular narrative, those are the easy questions to ask,” Smith said about the topic, according to Grant Gordon of the NFL’s website. “But as a whole team, we’ve got to do a better job, starting with myself. So, we look every week to make sure we’ve got the right guys in the right spots.”
It would be understandable if Smith doesn’t yet go to an unproven commodity, as he wouldn’t want to send a message to veterans in the locker room that he’s potentially punting on the second half of the season with the future in mind. Despite their record, the Falcons remain tied with the first-place Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the win column of the division standings. Tampa Bay faces the 6-3 Seattle Seahawks in Germany this Sunday and realistically could join the Falcons at 4-6 before Monday.
“You can make it about the quarterback, how ’bout about the team?” Smith added during his comments. “We had an opportunity at the end of the fourth quarter the last two weeks, and a lot of different ways, and a lot of different phases where we’ve got to get better. And we’ve got an opportunity to do that with seven games left.”
Per league rules, some club must win the NFC South title by the end of Week 18. For better or for worse, logic suggests Mariota and not Ridder gives the Falcons the best chance to play at least one playoff game this coming January.
