After watching the way the last month has played out for the Atlanta Falcons, it now seems painfully obvious where the problem lies. And that's with head coach Arthur Smith. The Falcons have lost three out of the last four and are now 4-5 on the year in a pivotal Year 3 for Smith. They lost all three games by one score, including the one against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
Watching a lead scamper away like the one against the Vikings last Sunday is not unfamiliar to Falcons' fans. They're quite used to that now, dating back to Dan Quinn and even Mike Smith. But it's been the way that the Falcons have continuously found different ways to embarrassingly lose late in games that's so unnerving.
Allowing the Vikings to win the game after Atlanta took the lead with 2:08 left in the game goes against the coaching staff. That's largely because you allowed a guy like Joshua Dobbs to beat you, who was more or less drawing up backyard football plays because he hadn't been in the Vikings' building for a whole week yet to learn the playbook.
Dobbs went 20-for-30 with 158 yards, two touchdowns, and ran seven times for 66 yards. One of those touchdowns, of course, was the game-winner to Brandon Powell with 22 seconds remaining. Dobbs was able to do this without Justin Jefferson and mostly without KJ Osborn and Cam Akers, who were hurt during the game.
The Falcons had their own injury issues and were without DT Grady Jarrett, who tore his ACL last week, and then lost CB Dee Alford in the game with an ankle injury.
But remember, this is now two weeks in a row that the Falcons have been beaten by less-experienced, new starting quarterbacks for a team. Two weeks ago, it was against Will Levis, a rookie in his first-ever start, who threw four touchdowns and no interceptions. This week, they put the Vikings in a precarious situation when rookie Jaren Hall left the game with a concussion, and they were forced to use Dobbs. Dobbs' lack of experience came from his tenure with his new team he knew for only five days, not his career playing time, which makes this situation even worse for Arthur Smith and the coaching staff.
The problem is with Arthur Smith
But let's not forget where the problems really lie with Smith, and that's with his offense. That is the reason he was brought in as the head coach in the first place. After seeing how he revitalized the careers of Ryan Tannehill and the way he was able to use Derrick Henry, Smith was heavily sought out by many teams at the time to be their next head coach. But so far, what has transpired in Atlanta has created nothing short of offensive, in the most negative sense of the word.
As an offense, the Falcons rank 25th in points per game (18.4), 27th in touchdowns per game (1.7), 21st in completion percentage (63.46%), and are 25th in quarterback sack percentage (8.23%). They're still a solid team rushing the ball (7th), but what's striking is how Smith continues to not use his best playmakers.
Arthur Smith hasn't utilized his best playmakers
With a little over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter against the Vikings, on the one-yard line, instead of using their eighth overall draft pick talented running back, they chose to pass the ball to Jonnu Smith, then had two rushing attempts by Smith and Tyler Allgeier. None were successful, and the Falcons were forced to kick a field goal.
Robinson would, however, still be the leading rusher for the day, running the ball 11 times for 51 yards. But Smith's use of Robinson has been puzzling, dating back to his disappearance in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. The former Texas Longhorn was dressed on the sideline but barely appeared in the game due to an illness that was never put on the injury report by Smith and the team. He had one carry for three yards.
There's also the ever-so-puzzling misusage of Kyle Pitts, the talented tight end out of Florida in the 2021 draft. In 36 games, Pitts has 128 receptions for 1,771 yards and only four touchdowns. Four! Even with Pitts missing seven games with an injury last year, there's no reason a player with his talent should only have four touchdowns to his name at this point in his career. How can Smith not figure out how to utilize this guy of all his players? Well, yes, some of that is due to quarterback play.
Arthur Smith greatest issue still boils down to finding his starting quarterback
Finally, the way in which Smith has handled the entire quarterback situation in Atlanta is baffling. That goes all the way back to last season with Marcus Mariota, and really, even before that when Atlanta entered the Deshaun Watson trade talks to replace Matt Ryan. That one, at least, may have been considered a win in retrospect.
Mariota was brought in to be nothing more than a stop-gap for Desmond Ridder or whoever else was to take the reins. But with four games remaining last season and a playoff spot out of reach by that point, Mariota was replaced by Ridder, with the former Titans quarterback suspiciously leaving the team for good.
Now we're not nine games into the season, and have seen Ridder replaced with Taylor Heinicke. Ridder, who had been named the starter back during the offseason, had become a turnover machine. In his last start against the Titans, he was sacked five times with a lost fumble, resulting in his tenth turnover in his last five games.
For at least one more week, it's Heinicke's job to lose, with the Falcons and Smith searching for answers that they seemingly have very few options for. I've been saying since early in the offseason how this was a pivotal year for Smith, who had to overcome another 7-10 season like the last two have been, but that it was going to be at a disadvantage because of his lack of a reliable quarterback.
The Falcons, from a personnel standpoint, have done all the right things. They dragged themselves out of cap purgatory, rebuilt the defense with veteran and young talent, and even put pieces around their offense to be successful. But they still don't have the most important piece: a starting quarterback. That's what costs any head coach his job, including Arthur Smith. And that's why this team falters the way it does so often, because you can tell Smith is coaching for his job. From his play-calling to the way he uses his personnel is downright past questionable at this point.
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