The Vikings will not have safety Harrison Smith for Sunday night’s game against the Falcons.
Smith is one of Minnesota’s inactives as he continues to deal with a personal health issue.
Smith was a limited participant in practice for all three days this week and was listed as questionable. Linebacker Austin Keys (groin) was also listed as questionable and is inactive.
Offensive tackle Christian Darrisaw, outside linebacker Andrew Van GInkel, and cornerback Jeff Okudah were previously ruled out and are inactive. Guard Joe Huber and quarterback Max Brosmer are also inactive, with Brosmer serving as the emergency third QB.
For the Falcons, kicker Younghoe Koo, receiver Jamal Agnew, cornerback Clark Phillips III, offensive lineman Jack Nelson, receiver Casey Washington, and defensive lineman Sam Roberts are inactive.
Falcons receiver Darnell Mooney is active, as expected, after he’d been sidelined by a shoulder injury since early in training camp.
Joe Burrow had an MRI during Sunday’s game, and the Bengals surely know by now what it revealed about the star quarterback’s left toe injury. Coach Zac Taylor, though, provided no update after the 31-27 win over the Jaguars.
“Nothing right now to be truthful with you,” Taylor said. “We got such a tight game I didn’t get all the information yet, so no where to start for me right now.”
Reporters, though, saw Burrow leave the Bengals locker room with a boot on his left foot and on crutches.
The Bengals (2-0) play the Vikings next Sunday.
Burrow was hurt on a sack by Arik Armstead with 8:36 remaining in the second quarter. He went 7-of-13 for 76 yards and a touchdown, a 4-yard pass to Ja’Marr Chase.
It’s a tale as old as overtime.
There’s a dramatic difference between being a coordinator and being a head coach. Some coordinators thrive at the next rung on the ladder. Others become real-life examples of the satirical Peter Principle, which stands for the notion that many organizational employees keep being promoted until they land in a job that they can’t effectively perform.
The jury remains out on whether Bears coach Ben Johnson will step up, or step off, in his promotion from offensive coordinator to head coach. In only one game, however, he (along with the rest of us) have witnessed the stark differences between sitting in the football lab and cooking up unstoppable plays and game plans and standing exposed in the spotlight as the man in charge of the entire team.
Last year in Detroit, it wasn’t his job to decide how to handle a critical late-game kickoff. Last Monday, Johnson made the wrong decision with 2:02 on the clock, telling his kicker to try to bang the ball out of the end zone (surrendering the 35) in lieu of deliberately kicking it short of the landing zone or out of bounds (and giving up only five more yards of territory).
He needed the two-minute warning to hit after Minnesota’s first-down play far more than he needed the five yards. And he should have known that.
Last year in Detroit, it also wasn’t his job to face the music after a multi-score lead went sideways. To explain himself after making a tactical error. To refrain from pulling a “stop asking” like Brandon Staley in 2023 when someone brought up the fateful, and failed, kickoff strategy on Friday.
When a reporter pivoted back to the subject, Johnson mistakenly shared his quiet thoughts out loud: “I mean can we go on to the next game?”
That’s not how it works. And he needs to figure out how it works. Or he’s going to realize (along with the rest of us) that he no longer has the safety blanket of Dan Campbell. That he no longer can be regarded as the next big thing, while focusing solely on aspects of the game that he had thoroughly mastered.
He’s now front and center. And he’ll need to develop, and to hone, skills he never before had to use.
We’ve seen this movie before. Many times. It either has a very good ending, or it has a very bad ending.
So far, the opening act has been less than ideal. The second scene comes today, when he goes back to Detroit and matches wits directly with Dan Campbell.
Younghoe Koo is out, Parker Romo is in.
The Falcons have made their kicker switch for Week 2 official, as Koo was downgraded to out for the Week 2 matchup against the Vikings for non-injury related reasons — meaning he was benched. He did not travel to Minnesota with the club.
Romo has been elevated off the practice squad for Sunday night’s game.
Koo missed a game-tying, 44-yard attempt wide right at the end of last week’s loss to the Buccaneers. He was already coming off a career-low 73.5 percent success rate on his field goal attempts in 2024.
Romo, 28, hit 11-of-12 field goals and 7-of-8 extra points in four games for Minnesota last season.
Additionally, the Falcons placed safety Jordan Fuller on injured reserve and signed wide receiver David Sills to the 53-man roster.
Teams literally have months to prepare for Week 1. That wasn’t enough time for the Falcons.
They lost at home to the Buccaneers, thanks to a late touchdown pass from quarterback Baker Mayfield to rookie Emeka Egbuka and a missed field goal by Atlanta kicker Younghoe Koo, which would have sent the game to overtime.
The Falcons mustered only 69 yards rushing, with 48 coming from running backs Bijan Robinson (12 for 24) and Tyler Allgeier (10 for 24).
So what happened to the running game?
“They came out in a look that we haven’t seen,” Bijan Robinson said, via Josh Kendall of TheAthletic.com. “Our playbook got shorter, and we were trying to run other plays to outscheme them. We prepared for something completely different. It wasn’t about effort or anything like that. We were just outmatched in that game.”
“We all have shared accountability with what happened on Sunday,” offensive coordinator Zac Robinson said, per Kendall. “A lot to clean up. It was great to flush the tape out and move on to next week. Everybody knows our offensive line. We will all bounce back together.”
The next opportunity comes on Sunday night, against a Vikings defensive line that has been bolstered by the additions of veteran Javon Hargrave and Jonathan Allen. And they’ll need to outscheme Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores this time around.
The Falcons will have a problem if they can’t run the ball. Flores is particularly adept at confounding young quarterbacks like Michael Penix Jr., who will be starting only his fifth career game.
