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Mike Smith has taken us as far as he can. We have the talent to win the superbowl. We lack the heart of a champion. We scored 0 points in the 2nd half against the 49ers after our QB and Julio Jones set records for best games ever in our franchise. We got WAY too conservative on ALL of our drives in the 2nd half, especially the final drive, where we were trying to run out the clock with a 4 point deficit. Mike Smith is a good coach, but he's not a great coach. Mike Smith lost this game for us, and he nearly lost the game for us last week with his conservatism. Unless Arthur Blank bites the bullet and lets Smith go, the Falcons will never do any better than they did this year.

Beyond this, congrats to the Falcons on another great year. We are a team to be reckoned with, and we could be for a very long time with Matt Ryan under center.

No, but I hope it felt as good to write this as it did to vent about the refs =).

Our coaches didn't make the bad mistakes that ended our season. The fumbled snap was the deciding factor in this game.

I'll probably be away for a little while, licking my wounds. Don't know how I can bring myself to watch the Superbowl knowing how close we were.

It's been a damned good year. We'll have our core back next season, hopefully with a few upgrades. Would be nice to bring in a pass rushing threat and maybe a guard.

You can't change the refs.

The Falcons have scored a grand total of 10 points in the 2nd half of postseason games this year. I don't know how you judge coaching, but for a team that talked all year about how they were "waiting for the playoffs," they got there, then threw in the towel early. Both the 49ers and the Seahawks had to play from WAY DOWN to come back against us. In both cases, their teams held themselves together. The Falcons did not.

Mike Smith is a great regular season coach. It takes something different to win in the playoffs, and he doesn't have it.

Rob, this is the silliest thread ever we are fantastically coached. We were one bad no call from probably winning it all...

Averaging 2.5 points per quarter in the 2nd half during our playoff games this year. My post is silly. Really, I'm not going to argue. If you guys refuse to see it, that's on you. Homerism for Smith will buy us another decade of being what everyone else thinks we are.

Everyone else came out of the last two weeks with more respect for Smith and our team, not delusional grass is always greener on the other side thinking....

Well, I was correct in thinking that Mularkey and BVG were holding us back. Now I'm telling you that Smith is what's keeping us from getting to the Superbowl. Smith is not the game-day coach that we need in the playoffs. He's a mental boob. His fire and excitement can only carry the team so far. When it's time to make tough/strategic decisions, he's not your guy. There a plethora of evidence supporting this. If need be, I'll start digging some of it up and refreshing your memory.

That was the logic of the Smith's when they fired Leeman Bennett back in the 'early '80s. "He'd taken the team as far as he could and it was time to move up". Well we all know how that turned out. You don't get rid off a winner, you upgrade the weak links and do bettet next year. My pick for immediate upgrade is the OL.
There is absolutly no running game and it's not Turner's fault. Just my opinion.

Rob every season you take the last game and just come unglued.....

People said Mike Smith couldn't win a playoff game but we did. I believe it was Matt Ryan who as usual cost us points on one fumble where no one touched him, and another terrible interception....; and the time out when he should have just taken a delay of game. Our defense was not going to stop them again; it was the right decision to play to win with not much time left.... Matt threw the ball behind Roddy and we lost to the team going to the Super Bowl because of our two turnovers in the second half by 4 points.

We have no pass rush, Coach Smith did a beautiful job with us all season and I'm not mad at Ryan or anyone.The facts can get in the way but Ryan also had a beautiful season. Interceptions happen and fumbles happen. Usually the team who wins that battle wins the game. Really can the coach control turnovers?? Why do you come unglued every season in the end?


Rob, the reason things get tougher in the playoffs is the teams get better. Coach Smith and Ryan have proven they went further than 28 other cities, just except only one City wins the Super Bowl!! Since we haven't won a Super Bowl in our Franchise history; or about 50 years, I find it a little immature to want our winningest Coach fired.

The coaching staff was not Atlanta's problem today... A couple bad turnovers and no depth on the defense plus lack on a real running attack is what did in this Falcon team today. If we had someone like Gore running behind this offense and we had better pass rushers not an aging Abraham and no other real option this team would be in the Super Bowl.

Mike Smith and this tandem of coordinators is a great combination. We need to burn our top pick on a pass rush specialist and find Turner's replacement in the 2nd-4th rounds.

I'd be curious to see how this game played out with Grimes in there.

Cyril, this isn't simply coming unglued from the last game. Mike Smith is a boob of a game day coach. He makes horribly bone-headed decisions. For instance, take our 2nd half offense today... We were all about dinking and dunking down the field. We should have been scoring points. Even in our last drive, when we were down by 4 points, we were more concerned about killing clock than scoring points. That's the mark of a boob of a decision maker. You can't tell me that our tendency to blow huge leads isn't part of that stupid game day decision making process.

Again, I appreciate that Mike Smith took our team and turned it around. However, I don't think that he can do any better than he did this year. Do you honestly think that he can? He's had plenty of opportunity to prove that he's better than this.

How about getting an actual cover linebacker and pass rusher? Stupid thread.

Very few coaches get here..... We need better players on defense.

Emmitt's right, I'll get out of this thread too!!

Pats should probably fire Belichick as well. He's choking in the post season too much.

Sorry I disagree with Cyril (nothing new) and Emmitt. Robert is pissed and venting and has a legit beef with Smith. He played this game not to lose after we got the lead just like last week. I don't think he should be fired, but I am not sure we will ever win a SB with Smith and/or Ryan.

Yes, I said Ryan. Matty Nice is just as culpable as Smith. Two turnovers and a lot of misplaced balls. I am afraid that Matt is a younger version of Peyton. Great in the regular season, but mediocre when it counts. I think Matt will be very lucky to get to a SB much less win one. It was reported that Blank is going to break the bank for Ryan. IMO that is wrong. Matt is somewhere around the seventh to tenth best QB in the league and should be paid accordingly.

I am afraid that there might be a letdown next year. With NO coming back, Car and TB getting better along with a tougher schedule, the Falcons may end up 8-8. Oh lets not forget TG retiring and maybe Abe as well.

This is indeed a joke of a thread. Criticize Mike Smith? Fine. That's your right and he certainly has opened himself to criticism with some of his late season decisions. But fire him?

Joke. Same thing we've been thru before with Ryan. Has a bad game, "he stinks and WILL NEVER get better" people said. Wrong.

Nobody is considered a Super Bowl caliber coach or QB until they are actually in the big game. Look at Kaepernick. He might be at most the 14th best QB in the league, and he's in the big game. Flacco isn't much better.

Not pay Ryan? I pose the exact same question I did a year ago...Who are you gonna get that is better? Alex Smith? Tyler Bray? Mike Glennon? Jason Campbell?

7th to 10th best? Going rate for that is $18-19 million a year.

Can I address this? Look, none other then Dan Patrick came out last week and said If we lose last week, after giving up a huge lead, Smith is Fired, Fired SO FIRED. Now, Im willing to give Smith the benefit of the doubt, but would anyone on this board have a legitimate beef with wanting Smith gone if it turned out that way last week? I would have wanted him gone, I think Blank would have wanted him gone, and maybe Pudge or BnB and posiibly Cyril would have defended him, possibly Emmit, but thats about it. Robert and I and most of the city would be running him out on a rail. And we would have been right to do so, because that would have been 4 playoff losses.

But the reason everyone isn't doing that is two-fold. One, he got the monkey off our back, and two 'who are you gonna get'?

BUt honestly, it's onlya little luck and 31 seconds that saved that mans job.

I wrote earlier I would only be pissed if we played a competetive game, and lost due to stupid sh*t. Mike Smith is still making stupid decisions. Im sorry, but there is no way anyone is going to tell me that playing the starters late in a meaningless game didnt cost us big time. It cost us a trip to the Superbowl.

BTW, had Harry Dumbass kept his feet we would have been going into New Orleans with Luke McCown. How freekin scary would THAT have been vs the Ravens D?


Glad I didn't take this guy to the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVvkbqAu ... e=youtu.be

I think an interception and a fumbled snap have more to do with this team losing than poor coaching. Add to that a defense that didn't have the personnel to stop the Niners running attack which opened up passing lanes while the Falcons failed to bunch up and stop the running game.

Then there is that problem with tight ends roaming around 15-20 yards down field and lighting us up with wide open pass receptions.

Once again lack of depth and overall defensive personnel spelled doom for the Falcons. The first half this team was lights out for the most part but by the second half you could see the defense was gassed. On top of that Turner, while he hasn't be great, was out. This team had no where to turn to as the defense wore down and Turner got knocked out.

I love Quizz but he definitely showed that he isn't an every down back. He is a change of pace back that has unnatural strength (seriously... Hauling a massive defensive player and ripping through multiple defenders as a sheer will of force!) but I don't see how he is a full time starter.

Abraham was a shell of himself and looked like he had arrived at the end of his career.

Turner also a shell of himself and knocked out with an ankle injury.

Grimes was done before the season got rolling.

If anything you can point the finger at coaching for not controlling the players and their odd rash of stupid penalties in the post season. But even then Atlanta during the regular season was the least penalized team in the league.

But see, my point was, without that 'miracle' .31 second come from behind win from last week, this week instead of convincing ourselves that we had a chance, we are discussing Mike Smith's decision to keep Abe in late in a meaningless game and it's results. The guy was already a little dinged up and aging, for chrissakes you dont keep that guy in that stupid meaningless BUcs game. We knew we were going to be facing a mobile QB ( Rg3,Wilson or Clapperdick). Its sad that Abe is all we had in terms of a passrusher, but I cant put that on Smitty. That's on TD.One of the primary reasons for our loss was the lack of an edge rushing DB. We lost that when he went down , and I cant blame Abraham. Players are always going to 'want to play'. It is the job of the coach to judiciously decide when to keep guys in or pull them.

Lets not forget some thing here: what happens if by keeping Jones in late in that meaningless game HE sustains an injury? Jones was dinged up, too. Or, Roddy? Without those pieces we definitely lose to Wilson.. Im saying it was only one miracle play last week that saved this mans job. Period.

Because here's what we would have been discussing this week. Roddy saying the players got complacent. Jones saying they got 'bored'.0-5 in the playoffs. Twice defeated AT HOME in the playoffs..Blank's new stadium: is it worth it now? He would have been fired, and rightly so.

But see: one miracle play and ALL that is overlooked.

Our offense had almost 500 yards of offense against the best defenses in the NFL - and we lost. And I'm saying a healthy motivated Abraham helps us, and Mike Smith did not learn from his mistakes. He should have known his players better. They quit on him in the Tampa game. I know the defense of Mike Smith is if he had rested the starters and we came out flat due to a loss of 'momentum' and lost to the Seachickens, then he gets blamed. It's a 'lose-lose'. My point, one made waaay before that situation occured, is that if this coach has to rely on gambling starters to keep them 'focused', when these same players readily admitted they weren't, then we had BIGGER problems.

But since we had the Seahawks Miracle(tm) we forget about things like the Giant Fiasco(tm).

What will the excuse be next year? This year it was 'the problem' was our coordinators. Not so anymore. I cant blame Ryan, he didn't quit. It's on Mike Smith.

Since we won a playoff game, I consider that progress. BUt had we lost in the first round, I would have started this thread last monday.


"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Well said

No, that is what you'd be discussing this week. The rest of Falcons land would be talking about Matt Ryan's late INT that gave them the momentum and how that cost us the game. And then the "Ryan defenders" like myself would be coming up with something to defend Ryan.

Dirty is pretty spot on from what I can tell. We lost this game because SF is a better team than us. We all knew this, and as others have said we needed to play a darn near perfect game to pull off the win. We didn't. Because we had 2 TOs on potential scoring drives in SF territory, because Vernon Davis was open by 10 yards practically every time, and we got little to no pressure on Kaepernick. Does this have anything to do with Mike Smith? No, it has to do with miscues by offensive players, Mike Nolan's scheming, and TD's bad decision of signing Ray Edwards, among others.

I'm not trying to absolve Mike Smith of blame. He's very much open to criticism. But as I've said over the years, there's a difference between "I think this guy's poor performance cost us this game" to "I think this guy's poor performance should cost him his job." To me you have to do a lot to justify that leap, especially when it's a player/coach that has done more good than bad.

Look, again has Mike Smith made his fair share of bad decisions and mistakes particularly over the last month? Absolutely. But does that mean he will always make those same bad decisions? No. Because the fact that these issues are so glaring to people indicates that they aren't common mistakes over the 80+ games he's coached here.

To me this is the exact same issue/discussion we've had in the past with Matt Ryan at QB. Because Ryan didn't get the job done against the Giants, the response was HE WILL NEVER GET IT DONE! So let's get rid of him!!! And the only way he was able to get the monkey off his back is by having a season where he was one of the 5-7 best players in the league. Again, nobdoy EVER thinks a guy is Super Bowl caliber until he's actually in the game. Eli, Flacco, Dilfer, Kaepernick, Brees, etc.

Because Mike Smith made this mistakes that in the minds of some cost us the season, he will always make those mistakes and NEVER GET IT DONE! It's a joke. Give him a Super Bowl-caliber squad, and I believe he can get the job done.

BnB opened my eyes to this little factoid. You know all those teams that axed Marty Schottenheimer, because he wasn't able to get the job done in CLE, KC, WAS, and SD. Did any of them get better? Nope.

WTF? Why wont anyone address the elephant in the room, here? My situation was not 'fanciful', it is 'logical'.

Im sorry, but I am telling you, and you KNOW this to be true: Mike Smith was .31 seconds from going elsewhere ONE WEEK AGO . Blank would NOT allow 4 playoff losses, two at home, and with the recent history involved. And his new deals. No way. NO WAY!

But: the Seahawks Miracle(tm) happens, and we all forget this. Madden-ing. My thing I am more worried about is his not getting his guys 'in' on that Bucs game. They gave up. They never 'gave up' in the playoffs but they did in the last game.

That IS a little disheartening

BTW, as far as noise goes, I dont think we got close to the week before. Interesting to think about...

here, I think is Pudge's rebuttal:

http://www.footballnation.com/content/n ... dia/21013/

What do you want me to say fun gus? Yes, I'm aware of the possibility that Mike Smith could have been fired last week. He wasn't, thankfully. If Blank had pulled that trigger, then I would have been against it. Because Blank wouldn't be making that decision for football reasons, he'd be making it for financial reasons (a stadium to sell). And all of the positive praise we've given Blank over the years from how much he's changed and learned since Mora/Petrino, the reality would be clear, he hasn't changed. He's the same as Woody Johnson, who is more concerned about his bottom line than the Jets winning. Basically every negative thing Cyril has siad about Blank over the years (and I think most have disagreed with) would be spot-on pinpoint accurate.

So for me, the bigger issue that Smitty was 31 seconds away from being fired isn't really a reflection on him, it's a reflection on ownership.

Next year, the Falcons will have a much tougher schedule and probably won't be in a position where they are 11-1 going into the final month of the season. Instead, we'll probably be 7-5 and scrapping our way to a playoff spot, and thus won't have a chance to get complacent. It's the Giants syndrome. When they don't win the Super Bowl, they are perennial choke artists.

I just think people want to make definitive career-defining statements at the end of each season, because for whatever reason we're wired to want to end stories, even though the reality is that we're only in Chapter 5 of what might be an 11-chapter book. Look I think Colin Kaepernick is overrated. Just like I thought Tom Brady was overrated early in his career. Tom Brady didn't become Tom Brady until 2004. But my thinking Kaepernick is overrated right now, isn't meant to say he'll never be a high quality QB.

Is Mike Smith a great coach? No. But I believe he's like a QB. You find a good guy and you grow and develop with him.

Ok, I ask you this question Pudge... Is Smith, "developing," or is he making the same mistakes? I think that he's making the same mistakes that he was making 5 years ago.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/200901030 ... #tab=recap

So has Smith, "developed," or are we seeing the exact same problems over and over?