SANTA CLARA, Calif: -- Here’s what Falcons coach Arthur Smith had to say after the 31-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday:
Can you tell us about the red zone that we talked about a lot, the first drive and the two in the fourth quarter where you were inside the 10 and can’t punch it in there?
Smith: “Sure. I mean, that’s kind of stating the obvious there. It’s probably a difference in the game. We get the ball opening kickoff, didn’t punch it in. Thought you got in with [Atlanta Falcons RB Cordarrelle] Patterson. Credit to them. They stopped us. So, we still had our chances. We had another short field, only came away with three and again, we didn’t do a good enough job in situational football.”
On the first one, you had a play action and then a run and then another pass outside. Did y’all consider trying to pound that in those three times?
“You’re talking about the start of the game?”
Yes, sir.
“So, you’re not considering the run? I went run, yeah. The first play was run that scored that got overturned. Yep. And then went play action. Then went run, and then went pass again. So that’s pretty much, is that what you’re asking?”
Oh, no. I guess I’m more asking, did you consider running some power there instead of those pass plays?
“We consider everything. We go in there and game plan, you’re always looking for an advantage. What do you think of advantage? Obviously, it comes down to execution and the defense has a say as well. We’ll continue to look at everything.”
What do you think is reflective of the fact that you have short yard situations three times in the red zone and don’t score?
“Well, it’s a couple things. I mean the one early, when you’re in goal line offense, right? You try to punch it in, think you’re in, you’re not. So, you come back, try to get them, because there’s, to play over aggressive, something we saw. Obviously, they did a nice job covering it. Same thing, the guy up front made a play, moved us back and on third down, again, we didn’t have time to progress the back side. That was kind of, a couple times we had guys wide open and they got a really good rush from. And so, if you get the quarterback off the spot, it’s hard to get to the second read. So, that happened a few times. The one down there, you talk about the pitch, when they don’t work, it looks pretty not great, but there’s a lot of logistical things that go in there, things that we set up before. You can go in there and sneak, you get a certain look, you may package things, it all comes into play. Clearly, we didn’t do a good enough job executing though.”
And the overall inability to run the ball today, how much did that--?
“Yeah, they did a nice job. They made a commitment. We’d been running the ball pretty well. They bowed their neck, thought it was a difference in the game. They ran it, we didn’t. We found other ways to move the football. We were able to get some chunk plays in the second half, and that’s a credit to our guys that kept swinging. Obviously, the score. They bowed up down in the red zone. So, you come away with only 13 points.”
Did you have to change your plan at some point because of the rush?
“No, I mean, it’s more possessions when you’re down and again, it’s a fine line when you’re playing a front like that, where you just, you don’t want to sit back there and be a sitting duck. So, we hit some very deep shots, guys stepped up, [Atlanta Falcons QB] Matt [Ryan] hung in there, we made plays down the field, but we didn’t make the critical plays down in the red zone and that was the difference in the game.”
I know something that you talked about recently is being able to play smarter football, and I know early in the game there were a few false starts that I’m sure y’all would want back. Do you feel as though there was a step taken back in that regard?
“I mean, you regroup and refocus if it’s something that had been, you know I didn’t like the way we started it. I mean, you give an advantage right there, a couple logistical things that we got cleaned up, maybe the crowd affected us more than we anticipated and just, we’ve got to be a little bit cleaner there. Don’t like wasting the time outs, but we rallied on the sideline and that’s what coaching is, and the players, credit to the players. You calm down, you adjust. Obviously, the turnover was a big turning point in the third quarter and then, not getting it on three fourth downs in a red zone. I mean, that’s, you’d like to say you come up with 21 points, but you don’t and so, hat’s off to them.”
Defensively, what role do you feel like explosive plays played in this game?
“Well, we had explosive plays too. It was the way that they were able to run the football that kept them on balance, and they hit some quick hitters, they had a quick game for a big play. They hit some off the play pass as well, but they got in a pretty good rhythm running the football.”
You guys had seven plays today where you needed one yard for either a first down or a touchdown, and you guys converted one of those as a quarterback sneak. Does that tell you anything big picture about this team?
“I think it’s more of this game. I mean, the easy narrative is to write these dramatic stories about big picture, but every game’s their own story. It’s been like that some weeks. You know, it’s for multiple reasons, it’s never just one reason why something doesn’t work. Obviously, when you get blown up, if it’s a negative play, yeah obviously, you consider hindsight’s 20-20, but those are easy narratives. I mean, the truth is we, this team has continued to get better and continued to compete, and the credit to San Francisco. They had to say and they stopped us in the red zone.”
I know you’ve said that you learn about players in certain games, especially in games like this. In terms of Atlanta Falcons WR Russell Gage, have you learned anything about him in terms of the way he’s been playing?
“Absolutely. He goes in there and battles, all our guys do. As receivers they battle. I thought [Atlanta Falcons TE] Kyle [Pitts] stepped up, made some big plays, made some tough catches. He’s continued to improve. Like I said, you get down there, that’s why sometimes the explosive plays can be a misnomer, because at the end of the day, it came down to situational football and we didn’t punch it in there.”
Did you see the Patterson score that was overturned?
“Yeah. I mean, I’ve got an opinion but clearly if they saw something, they did. So, they overturned it.”
From a momentum standpoint, do you think things are different if you punch it in there?
“There’s so much football. It certainly helps. You feel good about it, you feel like you stole a possession. I mean, they lost the ball in a return to start the game. So yeah, obviously you’d like to be able to punch it in and we came away with nothing.”
Do you feel the need to address your guys about the end of the season? Your playoff chances have really shortened. Do you address that with them and say we want to close strong anyway or how do you approach that?
“We’re going to compete every game. You just keep swinging. A lot of crazy things have happened in the NFL, so we’ll try to win the next one. Win one at home and just keep chipping away and see what happens, because there’s a lot of things, what it looks like today, that’s not how it’s going to look like after Week 18. Guys that have covered this league a long time, you guys know that. Usually, the last week of the season, you just want to have a mathematical chance. Crazier things have happened.”
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