Credit: Mark Bradley
Credit: Mark Bradley
Mike Smith had to go . That was obvious. But what's also obvious – to me, if not to Arthur M. Blank – is that this should have been a package firing. The coaching was lacking, yes. But Vincent Thomas Lombardi at his best couldn't have turned this talent into a Super Bowl team.
We'll have more on this later – I'm in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, having just listened to Alabama's Blake Sims and Lane Kiffin brief us media types – but for morning purposes I want to return to the doings of Oct. 12. The Falcons were outclassed all ends up in the Georgia Dome by Chicago, which outgained them by 191 yards and won by two touchdowns. The Bears would win two more games. On Black Monday, they likewise fired their coach.
Forget being beaten by the Bengals and the Packers and the Steelers and the Ravens, playoff qualifiers all. What tells us – and should have told A.M. Blank – that the Falcons are lacking in in personnel were the losses to Minnesota and the making-his-first-NFL-start Teddy Bridgewater, to the Giants (who would win only three games after beating the Falcons on Oct. 5) and the Browns (who benched their quarterback shortly thereafter).
Even demonstrably bad teams beat these Falcons, which would seem to make the Falcons themselves demonstrably bad. A general manager who has had seven drafts and seven rounds of free agency to build a complete roster has failed to build anything but a throw-and-catch operation. Thomas Dimitroff should be gone, too.
From myajc: The Falcons need a blank slate; Blank didn't provide it.
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