Flowery Branch — In hindsight, Falcons president and general manager Rich McKay said he and team owner Arthur Blank miscalculated in their decision to hire Bobby Petrino as head coach Jan. 8.

Blank, late Wednesday, said he wished he had paid more attention to Petrino's history of running instead of rarely losing. Blank may have also wished he paid more attention to signs that Petrino may have been a wrong fit well before he bolted for the University of Arkansas with three games remaining.

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Falcons players took a dim view of Bobby Petrino yanking Joey Harrington late in the Titans game.

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From rarely reaching out to the community when emotions were raw during the Michael Vick saga to calling plays in games the team hadn't practiced in weeks, Petrino never managed to earn complete respect, some players said.

Vick's problems and a string of injuries clearly have affected the way this season has played out, but there were a lot more things going on behind the scenes that contributed to a 3-10 record so far this season, players said.

The culmination

During Monday's 34-14, nationally televised loss to New Orleans, players said they knew they were doomed from the beginning — again.

They entered the game with an eight-play script on offense, backup quarterback Joey Harrington said. During preparations, there were three blocking protections Petrino said they would not use during those eight plays. On the fifth play, Petrino called for one of the protections he said the team would not use, Harrington said. Players, as they had before in other games, adjusted the best the could in the huddle.

Quarterback Chris Redman completed a four-yard pass to tight end Alge Crumpler on third-and-6. It was hardly the first time Petrino had crossed players up.

"He put us in position to fail," said Harrington, who started 10 games, but was pulled by Petrino from that role four times. "That's messing with our livelihoods. Not just ours but our families."

The game-planning/game-execution problems have gone on all season, several players said. Each time, players said they lost more respect for Petrino's ability to coach.

"We would spend hours practicing plays, a ton of plays, during the week," tailback Warrick Dunn said. "He'd add a bunch more during walk-through [practice, the day before the game]. We'd be in the game and he'd call plays we might have practiced once or talked about once since that Wednesday, if then."

Some players said that Petrino's play calls, especially after they came off the game-opening script, were so erratic at times, that they developed their own file of plays that he tended to revert to.

Dunn, Harrington and some other players didn't completely fault Petrino for their offensive failures. However, many are assessing their performances in a different light.

Petrino's high-flying offense and play calling were viewed as strengths coming into the NFL. The Falcons have not scored more than two offensive touchdowns in any game this season and rank 30th in the 32-team NFL in scoring (14 points per game).

Why it didn't work with the Falcons had a lot to do with personnel and execution but it also may have failed because college players have four or five years to master Petrino's scheme. Falcons' players had just more than eight months.

The Harrington factor

Petrino's tough, no-nonsense style was expected to be the perfect prescription to counter the more at-ease style players had grown accustomed to under previous coach Jim Mora.

Some friction was expected and plenty was delivered.

Petrino's public handling of Harrington spawned plenty of it. There were some players who did not agree with Petrino's pulling of Harrington in the fourth quarter of a tight game at Tennessee for Byron Leftwich, who had signed with the team less than three weeks earlier.

Leftwich struggled, in part because he had not practiced some of the plays Petrino called and was forced to improvise, some players said.

There was more second guessing later when, after posting the team's only winning streak of the season, Petrino replaced Harrington as the starter with Leftwich against Tampa Bay.

Harrington was notified of his demotion by the media, not Petrino.

Harrington only shook his head Thursday when recounting his treatment by Petrino.

Not the face of the franchise

Where things stood shortly before Petrino's resignation are a far cry from where they were when the Falcons lured him away from Louisville much in the same stealth manner he was successfully recruited away by Arkansas.

Petrino drew initial respect from players and management with the way he dealt with imprisoned quarterback Michael Vick's water bottle incident at Miami International Airport and Vick's dogfighting investigation. He was the face of the team since Blank and McKay strategically laid low.

However, Petrino did little to reach out to the community, where his visibility might have been a pacifying agent. There were few, if any public appearances off the football field. It just wasn't who he was.

A tell tale sign that Petrino was not going to be a public figure outside of coaching football came at the Falcons' annual summertime Midtown Touchdown festival at Piedmont Park.

On more than one occasion during media interviews and during a public practice at Grady Stadium, he referred to the Falcons' good-will gesture to fans as important to "Mr. Blank." Never, did he say it was important to him.

As much as Blank wants members of his team to connect with his "shareholders" it never happened with Petrino. Then again, it didn't happen with Petrino and his players, either.

College clearly is his calling, several players said. They could tell that by the way he carried himself at the news conference at Arkansas, when he was announced as head coach, less then 24 hours after Atlanta lost to New Orleans.

"That was the happiest I've ever seen him," wide receiver Roddy White said. "Ever since he signed his contract here he never smiled. I never saw him giggle or laugh about anything. He was always stone-faced."

White went on: "What a joke."