There are a lot of concerns looming around this Falcons team after their Week 4 loss to Washington. A game that should’ve gone Atlanta’s way was lost by a trio of questionable play calls and personnel decisions. Falcons head coach Arthur Smith was asked about this after the game.
“Well, you trust him. A lot of it is about ball security. [Cordarrelle Patterson] does a lot of things for us and then it was Mike or Gallman,” said Smith. “So, you go with guys you trust right there in four minutes.”
People criticized the team for having Mike Davis on the final drive instead of Cordarrelle Patterson, who was having perhaps the best offensive game of his career. Having trust in your running back is one thing, however, trusting in the running back averaging 1.1 yards per carry over a guy that’s been dominating all game is another. The Falcons had a slim two-point lead and considering the defense was not playing well, it was the wrong decision to get conservative instead of going for the jugular.
The Falcons penultimate drive consisted of a three-yard loss, a four-yard gain, and a five-yard screen pass to Davis again. The offense punted the ball at the two minute warning after taking over with 3:47 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“So, again, we didn’t get off the blocks, so they back us up and you got to evaluate whether or not, and obviously hindsight is 20/20,” continued Smith. “So yeah, I’ll go back and look at it, what should I have done differently. It’s all fair, but we trust Mike Davis. I mean, that’s why he’s in there. It’s about ball security. It’s about making the right decisions, making the right reads, that one’s pretty obvious.”
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