Falcons coach Mike Smith believes his players have “resilience,” and we know this because he says it after every game and in several waking moments in between. This is how Webster’s defines resilience: “The ability to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens; the ability of something to return to its original shape after it has been pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc.”
The Falcons are 2-8. They have lost four consecutive games by scores of 27-13, 34-10, 33-10 and 41-28. This would be a good time for Smith to find a new buzzword because it’s clear the Falcons’ ability to become strong after a setback, or to return to their original shape after being pulled, stretched, pressed or bent is pure fantasy.
The sad reality that Smith won’t acknowledge publicly is that the players he has been so quick to defend have quit on him. They might show a pulse at kickoff. They might get into the occasional pushing match or throw a block or run out a route. But there’s a clear difference between watching players on auto pilot and seeing them go at their job with passion and effort — especially after being punched in the face.
The 2-8 teams get punched and collapse. They’re not resilient. The 2-8 teams have players with their minds on direct deposit. They say the right things and maybe for five minutes a game even do the right things. But pride doesn’t make it through four quarters. Teams don’t become 2-8 only because of injuries. They become 2-8 when the healthy players don’t care enough.
Which brings me back to Mike Smith.
He is a terrific person. He is a terrific coach. A guy doesn’t step into a historically losing organization such as the Falcons, win for five consecutive seasons and make the playoffs in four of them and not know how to coach.
But this is not about what happened yesterday, it’s about today. Today, players are not following their head coach.
This is not a “Fire Mike Smith” column. But Falcons owner Arthur Blank and general manager Thomas Dimitroff — who obviously is not immune to criticism also — have to wonder if this season is a warning sign. Because if this is not some aberration and Smith really has lost his ability to command players’ attention, then it won’t matter what personnel changes are made after this season.
Coaching has become a disposable profession for this reason. Players suddenly tune out their leader, fair or unfair. Smith didn’t suddenly become dumb. But if he is saying and doing the same things during a 2-8 season that was while going 56-24 in the first five, that’s a significant problem.
The Falcons have lacked focus, an edge and confidence. There were warning signs last season when they unraveled down the stretch of both home playoff games against Seattle and San Francisco. This season, they haven’t looked like a well-coached, cohesive group since they broke training camp.
They have looked sloppy and unprepared. Every week is another mutating blob of turnovers, penalties, missed assignments and mis-tackles. That’s either poor coaching, poor listening or both.
The Falcons were outworked and outplayed Sunday by a Tampa Bay team that was 1-8 and recently bordered on a mutiny against coach Greg Schiano. They have one more win than Jacksonville and half as many as Buffalo.
There’s your preseason Super Bowl contender: Half of Buffalo.
This season has been over from a playoff-chase perspective for a while. But it would be telling how this team would finish the season because it would indicate something about character and coaching, moving forward. The past four weeks: not comforting foreshadowing for 2014.
Even great coaches often have limited lifelines. John Fox is 9-1 in Denver. But he was fired in Carolina after three 11-win seasons, two division titles, two conference championships berths and a Super Bowl appearance. Andy Reid is 9-1 in Kansas City. But he was fired by Philadelphia, where he was honored three times as coach of the year, won six division titles and coached in five NFC Championship games and a Super Bowl.
Tom Coughlin? Canned by Jacksonville, where he coached his team to four playoffs in his five years, like Smith. Mike Shanahan? Let go in Denver, where he won two Super Bowls.
Blank has publicly supported Smith. But let’s be real here. He doesn’t handle failure very well. Self-made billionaires seldom do.
Dan Reeves led the Falcons to their only Super Bowl appearance and coached the Falcons to a major playoff upset in Green Bay in 2002. But the following season the team collapsed and Reeves was fired. The impetus for the fall? Michael Vick broke his leg. Blank also fired Jim Mora in 2006. Mora went 11-5 and reached the NFC Championship game in his first season, but followed that with records of 8-8 and 7-9. End of honeymoon.
There have been injuries. There have been personnel mistakes, especially on the offensive and defensive lines. There has been a step back by quarterback Matt Ryan. But the biggest concern about the Falcons’ this season is the manner in which they’ve completely collapsed from within. Resilience is a mindset. Right now, it’s also a fantasy.
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