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Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer
FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson will “be fine,” coach Arthur Smith said Monday, after the rookie was severely limited during Sunday’s victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Robinson said after the game that he was suffering from headaches and began “feeling weird” Saturday night. He struggled to sleep and woke up Sunday “feeling completely out of it.” He took medicine to try and feel better, but his head continued to hurt.
Robinson said he never considered sitting out of Sunday’s 16-13 victory, but he ended up playing just 11 snaps with no targets and only one touch — a 3-yard run on the game’s last drive to set up Younghoe Koo‘s game-winning field goal.
Asked why Robinson was given a carry in that situation when he hadn’t played all game, Smith deferred to the play itself.
“He was in a two-minute situation,” Smith said. “Gave us three yards and it was situational football. He changes how people want to call it and that’s why. It’s pretty simple.”
On the other snaps in which Robinson was on the field, the Falcons either had another player run the ball or have him run a route where he was not looked at.
“Situation was good that he’d be available. How much, we’d just see how the game went,” Smith said. “The way the game went, [Cordarrelle Patterson] and Tyler [Allgeier] did a nice job, but he asked if he could go. I think he does a good job, especially in the two-minute stuff and he went out there and how it affected the game, maybe it affected some calls, we’ll never know.
“But we got the look we wanted with Kyle [Pitts]‘s play and he got us a couple of yards and finished the game and helped get the field goal closer. But things come up all the time. Thought it was communicated with the players and strange things have happened on game day before, but we would never put him out there if we thought it was something we thought would be detrimental long-term.”
Allgeier had 21 carries for 59 yards and three catches for 53 yards on Sunday while Patterson had 10 carries for 56 yards.
Robinson said after the game that his head still was bothering him, adding that he was neither tested for a concussion nor administered a COVID test. He was not spotted in the locker room during the open media session Monday.
The No. 8 overall pick in this year’s draft has 81 carries for 404 yards. He also has 26 catches for 189 yards and two touchdowns this season.
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