Atlanta Falcons’ Arthur Smith Putting Himself on Notice

The Atlanta Falcons’ head coach Arthur Smith took a beating after being embarrassed by the Dallas Cowboys 43-3. But, it wasn’t reporters hammering him; it was the rookie head coach being hard on himself. As he approached the microphone, Smith took a deep breath and then took all the blame for a humiliating defeat.

Smith started by talking about his team before taking the blame on himself. Stating he didn’t have his team ready to play. The sentiment was a bit empty when you consider just how badly Atlanta was beaten. What else was the head coach going to say?

Smith taking all the blame right away certainly disarmed the media. But we’ve heard it before, not to this level, but Smith must be feeling the heat now. The last time he sounded this defeated was after the Week 1 debacle against the Philadelphia Eagles. Not to make excuses, but there were far more excuses that could be made after the Eagles games than this most recent contest.

Is Arthur Smith already playing for his job?

Smith spoke for just over five minutes, not because he left the microphone in a huff or ignored questions. Reporters had nothing left to ask. They had just listened to the rookie head coach beat himself up. It is hard for reporters to ask the tough questions or hold Smith responsible when he does it preemptively.

Arthur Smith Playing for his Job

Smith taking all the blame right away certainly disarmed the media. But we’ve heard it before, not to this level, but Smith must be feeling the heat now. The last time he sounded this defeated was after the Week 1 debacle against the Philadelphia Eagles. Not to make excuses, but there were far more excuses that could be made after the Eagles games than this most recent contest.

Not as downtrodden was Matt Ryan. He tripled the amount of time the coach spent with the media.  Ryan was focused on the fact the game only counted as one loss and they had a lot of chances ahead of them to improve.  Ryan, who threw two interceptions and 117 yards.

That may be the difference between having job security and not. Smith knows he is being graded by his performance every game. His team has to be competitive week in and week out. Although it’s hard to recover from a thrashing like that, luckily, Smith and the Falcons have a short week. They play the New England Patriots on Thursday.