Atlanta Falcons: Despite win, Arthur Smith answers no questions

Another Atlanta Falcons game, another ugly game to watch, but the only thing that makes this week different — it was a win for the Falcons.

Say what you want about “a win being a win,” this was not a game where they answered any of the huge questions we had from the two weeks before — at least when it comes to the offense. The defense played relatively well, even though it was against a decimated New York Giants offense.

Arthur Smith answered no questions even though the Falcons won.

Arthur Smith has been anything but impressive for the Atlanta Falcons if we are being totally honest. In week one his team looked like they were entering week one of training camp,they were a mess.

Week two they came out looking like the worst team in the league. Not only that but Arthur Smith looked totally incapable of leading a team and making good decisions.

To his credit, they settled down later on and made a nice comeback, but then the team looked awful to close it out.

The biggest issues with Arthur Smith through the first two weeks have been his usage of rookie tight end, Kyle Pitts, his offensive personnel decisions overall, his constant play calls that consist of dink and dunks, and his lack of even attempting deep shots.

Which one of these questions were even answered in the win?

The offense barely scored 17 points despite having Matt Ryan, Calvin Ridley, Kyle Pitts, Hayden Hurst, Mike Davis, and Cordarrelle Patterson. Arthur continued to call three-yard routes giving the defense zero threat down the field.

Smith continued his trend of pulling Kyle Pitts at weird moments in the game, like in the red-zone. He did put him in for most red-zone plays, but he should be in there on every play as it gives the team its best chance to score.

This was not the only questionable thing that revolved around Kyle Pitts, Arthur Smith should have designed up at least a couple plays that got Pitts involved earlier in the game. Run a slant targeting him, run a tight end screen to him, anything that will get the ball in his hands.

On to the next issue, his non-existent deep shots for the offense.

If a defense continually sees three-yard routes, they are going to sit on them or at least tackle the receiver to keep the gain at a few yards. There is no threat to the defense on this Falcons offense.

There were a couple, at the very most, that were designed shots but they were so inconsistent throughout the game that the defense had nothing to worry about. These types of deep shots should be injected frequently throughout the game.

Call a hard play action, max protection, deep shot to Olamide Zaccheaus or Calvin Ridley. Run a seam play to Kyle Pitts or Hayden Hurst for a chunk of yards, there are so many different ways to do it.

There is absolutely no dynamic threat to this offense, and that does not lie on the shoulders of the players, it falls on the shoulders of the head coach. He needs to change this bland offense soon or they will be lucky to score 17-points every week.

The bad news for the Falcons? It will not get any easier this upcoming week as they take on a ferocious Washinton pass rush. 

In the event that Arthur Smith is able to figure this out, this offense should easily score more than they did against the Philadelphia Eagles or New York Giants. Just this one factor that is missing from the offense is costing them big time.