Five plays can sum up what’s going wrong with the Atlanta Falcons right now.
After getting the ball at the Minnesota Vikings’ one-yard line in the second quarter of Monday morning (AEDT)’s game – so, a yard away from a touchdown – they went:
– False start penalty (-5 yards)
– Pass to their No.2 tight end Jonnu Smith (5 yards)
– A gimmick running play involving Smith, who again is a tight end, not a running back or speedy receiver (no gain)
– Run by No.2 running back Tyler Allgeier (-4 yards)
– Field goal.
We won’t even question the decision to kick the field goal – sure, they gave up four points in a game they lost by three, but it’s understandable if the Falcons don’t believe in their offence because, well, it stinks.
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It’s not meant to be this way. They have a remarkable amount of top-level talent on that side of the ball, with three top-10 picks – tight end Kyle Pitts, running back Bijan Robinson and wide receiver Drake London, though London is currently injured.
But you’ll note that none of those names were mentioned in the little run of plays we went through before. Pitts, one of the best receiving tight ends to come out of the draft in years, was actually blocking for Smith on the gimmick play.
Meanwhile Robinson ended up having fewer carries than his presumed back-up Allgeier against the Vikings. He was a shock top-10 selection in the most recent NFL Draft – not just because Allgeier was pretty good a season ago, but because taking a running back in the top 10 is just a horrendous allocation of resources.
We know you can easily get a useful, or even very good, running back much later in the draft – and use the top-10 pick on a player at a more valuable position who thus saves you money by being talented, yet cheap, on his rookie contract – but the Falcons thought Robinson was just too good to pass up. They simply had to take him to use his incredible skills in a promising young offence under head coach Arthur Smith.
Did anyone tell Smith that, though?
Arthur Smith, who came to the Falcons amid praise for his offensive play-calling, is proving to be one of the team’s biggest problems. (Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Instead Smith, the former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator, seems to be on a mission to frustrate not just fantasy football players (who want to see the starters featured more heavily after drafting them early) but experts, who are befuddled by his play-calling – and complete lack of care when questioned about it.
Asked about London having fewer catches than quarterback Desmond Ridder in week one, Smith quipped: “Let the fantasy guys worry about that. We’ve got to clean some things up … We don’t care. Drake London doesn’t care. All we care about is 1-0.” (The Falcons have lost five of their last seven games.)
Last month, when discussing why his side features three running backs so frequently, Smith went to the old cliche of “the hot hand” – which isn’t a thing, because the stats tell us players are only playing well until they aren’t – and jokingly worried about upsetting fantasy owners again.
In fact he continues to make fun of fantasy football players, even as his team’s offensive numbers decline. They have scored just 15 touchdowns in nine games, and after benching the aforementioned Ridder – who hasn’t been great, but is at least young and still trying to prove himself in the NFL – for Taylor Heinicke – who has never been great – are wasting a golden opportunity to win a completely wide-open NFC South division.
“Sunday’s 31-28 loss was squarely on coach Arthur Smith. He was hired because he had shown himself to be a skilled play caller with the Tennessee Titans, but he has not been that for most of this season,” The Athletic’s Jeff Schultz wrote.
“The Falcons have become painful to watch, and people in Atlanta and around the team aren’t the only ones noticing.
“‘That’s embarrassing’, an NFL source texted me immediately after the game.
“They had two field goal “drives” that went for minus-4 and minus-6 yards. (Is that a record?)”
The Falcons used a top-10 pick on Bijan Robinson, but aren’t featuring him in the way that selection requires. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
What exposed Smith’s flaws as an offensive mind even more was how the game played out on the other side of the field.
The Vikings came into the day with their starting QB Kirk Cousins and backup Nick Mullens both on injured reserve and unavailable; their third-string QB, unheralded rookie Jaren Hall, was then forced out of the game through concussion.
That left fourth-stringer Joshua Dobbs – who was traded to the team from Arizona just this week, didn’t take a single rep in practice, had to learn the cadence of when to take the ball from the center mid-game, and doesn’t even know his teammates’ names – to complete a game-winning, last-minute drive.
“It amuses me how when reporters ask Arthur Smith about his crappy offense he has this condescending attitude about how people who know football know how long it takes to build around your QB, and then Josh Dobbs shows up with zero time to prepare and beats Smith’s team,” Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith tweeted.
One of the most puzzling elements of the Falcons’ issues – spreading the ball around too much – is how it’s the exact opposite of how Smith made his name.
As the Titans’ offensive coordinator, Smith used superstar running back Derrick Henry to great effect, giving him a remarkable 397 touches during the 2020 season; then he ensured boom rookie AJ Brown was given a heavy dose of the ball from his 2019 debut, with 190 targets across Smith’s two seasons in the role.
To clarify: Smith had two superstar talents able to run and catch like few others at their position, used them an enormous amount, and got a head coaching job out of it. Then, once he got draftees at his new team who can fit that bill… he decided he wouldn’t use them the same way? Or much at all?
Smith embraces head coach Kevin O’Connell of the Minnesota Vikings after the visitors won using their fourth-string QB. (Photo by Alex Slitz / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)Source: AFP
“There’s a malady that’s common among successful offensive coordinators and play callers: Too often, they outthink themselves,” The Athletic’s Schultz wrote.
“It’s the smartest-guy-in-the-room syndrome. It’s like a chess player who’s trying to think seven moves ahead and ends up with a move so unexpected that it makes no sense.
“And in this scenario, the two best chess pieces are sitting in the corner. Or blocking.”
Nobody is saying play-calling is the Falcons’ only issue. Their offensive line is flawed, their receivers outside London aren’t talented enough, and the quarterback situation won’t be solved easily – Ridder probably isn’t the guy, but Heinicke definitely isn’t, and the Falcons probably aren’t going to be bad enough to land a top prospect like Drake Maye or Caleb Williams in the draft this year.
But there are times when NFL teams have complicated problems, and times when a 10-year-old kid playing Madden knows better than the coach.
This feels like the latter. Because “our offence stinks, let’s give our best players the ball more” sure makes a lot of sense!
2023-11-06 06:44:18
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