After the Falcons 24-10 loss to the Bengals, wide receiver Roddy White said he wanted to see the Falcons run more up-tempo offense.
Falcons coach Mike Smith said the plan was to attack more out of the no-huddle and go uptempo, but the referees slowed things down.
He pointed out that both teams were in the no-huddle and the Falcons ran 65 plays to the Bengals’ 69. He said the Falcons were in the no-huddle for 45 plays (69 percent).
“Each game has a completely different dynamic in terms of the tempo,” Smith said. “That was a game where both teams hardly ever huddled. When you watch the game, you could see that they had their no-huddle offense going as well. I think sometimes the officials can slow a tempo game down.”
Smith there were several times both units were at the line of scrimmage and ready to play, but the officials – perhaps for a television timeout to sell more advertising – were standing over the ball.
“I think if you look, there were plays were both teams wanted to get out there and play but there was a stoppage by the officials,” Smith said. “They stood over the ball a lot more in this game than they had in other games.”
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