The Falcons, who have lost two games in a row, have never lost three consecutive under coach Mike Smith, the winningest coach in team history.
The last time the Falcons, who have matched last season’s loss total, lost two in a row were Games 12 and 13 of the 2009 season.
Against the Patriots last week Smith showed that he’s ready to roll the dice and play the Riverboat Gambler role if needed.
With the Patriots up 7-3, Smith went for it on a fourth-and-2 with 6:22 left in the second quarter. The Falcons didn’t convert as the game slipped away. The Falcons fell behind by 17 points, but a rally fizzled.
Smith plans to pull out all of the stops to get a victory over the Jets.
“We’re disappointed in terms the outcome of three of the four ballgames,” Smith said. “We’ve got to get it fixed. We all know that, and we’re all responsible for the 1-3 (record).
“You get what you earn in this league, and we’ve earned it.”
Under Smith, the Falcons have played nearly perfect, penalty-free football, been injury-free and have had a penchant for someone stepping up at crunch time.
This season the Falcons have committed penalties at a high rate, are ravaged by injury and are not coming through in the clutch.
“We’re not making plays,” Smith said. “We’ve had plays that have been presented to us where we had the opportunity to make them and they would have been game-changing plays, and we didn’t make them. That’s what the NFL is about most weeks. It’s about five or six snaps that determine the outcome of a football game.”
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