It wasn't that long ago that the Atlanta Falcons were in first place in the NFC South this season. The Falcons began the season 2-0 and held a one-game lead over the New Orleans Saints and a half-game lead over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after their last-second win over the Bucs in Week 7 to move to 4-3 on the season. With a soft schedule in front of them, there was plenty of room for optimism that the Falcons could be the ones to snag this division and host a playoff game in Mercedez-Benz Stadium in January.

Fast forward three weeks later, and that optimism is not shining as bright. The Falcons have lost three straight games, with their most recent defeat coming at the hands of the now 2-8 Arizona Cardinals. Not only are the Falcons now two games below .500 at 4-6, but they are also a full game behind the Saints for the lead in the NFC South and now a half-game behind the Bucs.

The Falcons are now 1-4 on the road. There is plenty of time for them to make up ground and take control of the NFC South again; they have two games against the Saints coming up and another with Tampa Bay. But this loss was a disaster, no way around it. For a loss this disappointing, there is plenty of blame to go around. Who deserves it the most?

Falcons defense

Atlanta's defense is not the reason why they lost. But allowing 371 yards of offense to a team that ranked 29th in EPA per play on offense does not exactly excuse them from any exoneration either. The Falcons did a solid job of holding the Cardinals in check for most of this game. They only allowed one touchdown in the second half, and that touchdown came in large part because of a big punt return from Greg Dortch.

But the Falcons' defense had a chance to win the game. On 3rd and 10 from Arizona's 41-yard line, the Falcons got pressure on quarterback Kyler Murray, but Murray got away from Atlanta's pass rush and scooted his way to a first down.

One play later, Murray hit tight end Trey McBride for 33 yards to get the Cardinals inside the ten. The Cardinals then handed the ball to James Conner, who wisely slid down to prevent the Falcons, who were out of timeouts at the time, from stopping the clock before Arizona kicked the game-winning field goal The Falcons' defense could've won it but couldn't get the job done.

Arthur Smith

If Arthur Smith would like to step into the 21st century any day now, that would be great. The caveman head coach for the Falcons continued to coach as if it were the 1970s and coached not to lose instead of actively trying to win the game, and it cost him and his team big time. Falcons quarterbacks Taylor Heinicke and Desmond Ridder, who filled in for Heinicke in the second half after Heinicke suffered a hamstring injury, combined to throw the ball 21 times for 94 yards. 21 pass attempts! They also ran the ball seven times for 45 yards and a touchdown. A team is stacking the deck against itself calling for so few passing attempts.

Those drop backs didn't even yield that much, either. The Falcons had 94 passing yards in this game; the aforementioned Trey McBride had 131 yards *by himself* for the Cardinals. This strategy by Smith was not only archaic, but also nonsensical. The Cardinals entered this game ranking 29th in the NFL in EPA per drop back allowed. They also ranked last in the NFL in completion percentage on throws of 15+ air yards heading into this game. So, Arthur Smith promptly decided to take the ball out of his quarterback's hands entirely and turn him into a checkdown merchant. Heinicke's average depth of target in this game was just 4.1 yards according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Only Mac Jones had a lower ADOT on the week.

Atlanta's complete negligence at quarterback, as well as their continued failure to utilize the premier playmakers they used high draft capital on in Bijan Robinson, Drake London, and Kyle Pitts, bit them once again. Robinson had a strong game, but London and Pitts didn't and had the matchup to do so. That falls on Arthur Smith, as it has all season long. Maybe a bye week will remind Smith what year he's living in.