FLOWERY BRANCH -- A day after coach Mike Smith’s controversial fourth-down call, the Falcons returned to their practice facility determined to bounce back from their 26-23 overtime loss to the Saints.
With time to reflect, Smith still believes he made the correct decision to go for a half yard on fourth down from the Falcons’ 29-yard line, a play New Orleans stopped cold.
“I don’t really want to rehash it,” Smith said on Monday. “I think I did a pretty good job last night talking about the reasoning behind it. ... They stopped the play that we called. Unfortunately, we didn’t execute it the way we wanted to and we didn’t get the job done.”
With a lot at stake, the Saints opened a 1 1/2-game lead by winning, with seven games to play. The rematch is set for Dec. 26 at the Superdome, but for that game to be meaningful, the Falcons must rebound quickly.
“We just have to handle our business and make sure that we don’t get into a funk,” running back Michael Turner said. “We still only have four losses.”
The Falcons will face the Tennessee Titans (5-4) at 4:15 p.m. Sunday at the Georgia Dome.
“Everybody seemed to be in decent spirits,” guard Justin Blalock said. “Obviously, you want to go out and get a win. Guys weren’t as crushed as you might typically see from a loss. There is a lot of hope that can be taken [from the game]. We’re not into moral victories here or anything like that, but there were obviously some good things that happened in that game.”
The Falcons and the Saints were in a chess match before the fourth-down play. Atlanta came out with an unbalanced line, with four players to one side of the center and two players to the other side. The Saints called a timeout.
The Falcons changed their play to an I-formation power play to their left side. Fullback Mike Cox was the lead blocker with right guard Joe Hawley pulling to help plow open a hole.
The Saints overpowered the Falcons at the point of attack and dropped Turner for no gain. The Falcons were left to ponder if the Saints simply guessed right on the play.
“At a time like that in the game, people are going to be more apt to take chances,” Blalock said. “They had their jumbo package in the game at the time to answer ours. All of those big guys were up front.”
Turner had succeeded on a fourth-and-1 in the third quarter on an I-formation run.
“Everything happened so fast,” Turner said. “I just got the ball and it was like a regular power play. I had my choices between the holes I could hit if they were there, but they just came with the all-out blitz, guys shot the gap and things like that.
“There really wasn’t anywhere to go. I just tried to try harder and give that great effort to get those couple of inches that we needed.”
Turner thought the Saints jumped the snap count.
“One guy came in there so fast that it seemed like he knew the snap count or he was anticipating the snap count,” Turner said. “It was just one of those things. We took a gamble, and maybe they took a gamble too by jumping the snap count, and they ended up winning.”
The fourth-down play almost never happened. On third-and-1 from the 29, quarterback Matt Ryan threw a pass to Cox, who appeared to stretch the ball out to get the first down. The replay showed that the ball slipped out of his hand and the play was reversed.
“I just did the best that I could to reach out there and make the first down,” Cox said. “I knew when it went up there to replay, it was taking a while. I was thinking maybe they didn’t have enough evidence to overturn it or something.
“I was a little shocked that they did overturn it. All I could do was go out there and do my best and try to reach out and make the first down.”
Because of the nature of the defeat, the Falcons may have trouble moving on.
“Everyone on this team is so passionate about winning and playing the game of football, to the point of where it hurts when you lose games like that,” wide receiver Harry Douglas said. “One thing that we do around here is forget about it and move on to our next opponent.”
That was the repeated message by the players.
“You have to move on,” tight end Reggie Kelly said. “Regardless of the score and the outcome, you have to move on because that game is behind us. I liked the way that the guys fought. They never gave up. I think those are the ingredients of a championship football team, a team that has heart and character.”
